Making Stock and Super / Stock Sellable
 

Adj. 1. sellable - fit to be offered for sale; "marketable produce" merchantable, vendable, vendible, marketable. salable, saleable - capable of being sold; fit for sale; "saleable at a low price"

Here's your thread for this subject.

Okay. I'll go first.
Make Ed F. marketing director..j/k

Seriously now , folks

I've noticed that whenever a slower FWD car gets a huge head start, half the fans (however many are there) will root for the tortoise, and the other half, for the hare.

However, watching them time trial at the same time is b-o-o-o-ring!
This is not a new idea.I wish I could give credit to however thought it up and posted it years ago, but anyway, why not use the indexes and stagger the tree accordingly?
Both drivers would get more practice this way. It doesn't take any longer to get both cars down the track and onto the return road, plus, it would much more watchable.
What is the down side , cuz I sure don't see it?

Re: Making Stock and Super / Stock Sellable
 

Great Idea Mark. Wish it would happen.

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Brilliant ... Used to love watching A/SA or B/SA chasing down a PQRSTU/S etc ...

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Count me in. It would make qualifying much more watchable for spectators (friends and family, mostly) and fun for us participants. As a side benefit, it would make the class / index system easier to explain to folks.

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What Paul said. J.R.

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Our Div 4 points races used to qualify that way. Not sure why they quit.

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I love the idea!!! I wish Midwest Class Racer would do it that way!

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The only down side I see is that currently in time trials, if the fast car loses it at the stripe the slow car just sits back and watches, instead of being up to his eyeballs in it.

Of course, there's less motivation to stomp on the brakes I presume, so the chances aren't as high.

Despite that, the more I think about it, the more I like it.

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This needs to happen!!!! Makes total sense. Does anyone know why Div 4 stopped this? Comp would benefit from this also.

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We used to do it in the CCRA using dial-ins and it was great. I always thought using the indexes / handicap start in qualifying would really be great for the drivers and fans. Any thoughts on allowing dial-ins during qualifying? NHRA and IHRA u listening?

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Great idea!

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if you allow dial ins, then should be index or quicker, same as elims.

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No need for dial-ins.. Needs to be an automated process.
Tower just enters the number, as they do now . Simple software change, I would think.
Trying to do it for combos, etc., not a good idea .Most of those folks aren't used to how we run S/SS. Hard enough to get a Q sheet sometimes.

Re: Making Stock and Super / Stock Sellable
 

Mark, I accept your kind offer, and you won't have to pay me $770,000 per year.

Re: Making Stock and Super / Stock Sellable
 

I like it. Much more fun for everyone. But "selling" Stock and Super Stock to fans is easy. Getting those fans to the track and through the gate is the hard part.

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Watch a natl event on TV, often times when they are going to break, they show a stocker or s/stocker in slo mo pulling the wheels at the starting line. (Because it's so cool ) I don't think I have ever seen them go to break showing a s/gas car going on the stop. Now I'm not knocking the super class cars but they are purely a participants class. So...they should always bring out stock and s/stk just ahead of the pro's when fans are working their way to their seats, and super classes should follow right after the pro's when fan's are headed for the pits.

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The OP has a great idea, and after that, the class S/SS should be run off national records..no more dial ins....I know this has been beat to death before but its my 2 cents on the subject.

You would not believe how many people see my junk going together and scratching there heads wonder and ask why I spend so much time, effort and money to bracket race?....they have a valid point

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This Idea will probably not go over well with front drive or slow car people. But my idea for selling Stock and super/stock we need to have a rule limiting wheelie bars to be a minimum 8 inches or more off the ground basically they should be a safety devise to keep cars from going over. All cars must leave with the front tires a minimum of 12 inches off the ground (more the better) for stock and 24 inches (or more) for Super/Stock. The wheel stands are what I always have loved about these classes it gives them spectator appeal. Nothing like an old station wagon pulling up and launching with the bumper dang near dragging the ground. I loved having a new spectator around and the look on their face when a wagon would do that.

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Great Idea! Another great idea would be to combine sticks and autos and use 1lb classes so theres more heads up which is what fans and racers both WANT!!!

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It would be good practice for the tower workers. Then maybe they wont get dial ins wrong during eliminations. Great idea

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As a S/SS fan I like the idea. Maybe it would help the novice understand handicapped racing.

Jeff :)

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Car Shows the friday night or morning of every race with some type of car warm up session in some type of public forum(ie bars, restaurants, movie theatres, car dealerships, walmarts, mall, etc).

No one likes racing at night but pushing the schedule further back on a Friday allows more people to get out to the track. Tulsa Raceway Park does this with their bigger races to help get fans in the gate.

Lets get into peoples homes, more on track and pit videos posted in one place on facebook, twitter, instagram, etc. These videos give people access to the personalities of sportsman racers. Vlog, Vlog, and Vlog more. Then everyone that is not doing video, can share the heck out of these things on those social media platforms.

Also, the other thing that the group of Sportsman racers may want to do is have an occasional fan appreciation/experience BBQ or even a bar meet up to hang with fans as well. Just my .02

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I liked running off the record, but car counts dropped big time when bracket racing came along. Slow guys went bracket racing, instead working on their stuff. Now, we all just mostly bracket race. Yawn.

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The running all time trials and qualifying on the index or handicap start is something I've preached for a long time, is a no brainer, doesn't cost a dime, help people understand the sport, give drivers more seat time judging closing ratios etc. If I ever win the lottery (need to start playing lol) there are a ton of ways to promote our sport. It all comes down to getting fans/spectators interested. If the average person knew all the different back ground stories going on with even some of the racers, their cars, their weekend, etc Lots of David vs Goliath stories etc. Every race has lots of human interest stuff going on from racers helping racers, thrashing going on , etc Some good natured drama some not. But the average person doesn't know any of this...

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I like your idea Dwight re qualifying off the index.....I can't think of a single issue with it, drivers would like it, and it would likely make the AHFS work better.

I can here the announcer......T/SA Gremlin versus FS/C Copo......Merryfield gets a huge head start of 4 plus seconds..Merryfield's off in the straight six, is he eating a sandwinch while driving?.He's at the 1/8 mile..here comes Matyas...ooh nice wheelstand...Gremlin's way out ahead.....don't think Matyas can catch him.....at the stripe....the copo by .003 142 mph to 96 for the gremlin.....

Here is what it is now, and example of a LODRS race at epping:

Merryfield in the T/SA Gremlin versus Johny Gray's beautiful 69 A/SA Camaro. There off, huge wheelstand by Gray.........dead air......Gray runs a 10.05............3.75 seconds later I get to the stripe.....

Eric

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Eric,
I'm still watching! Tried to suggest qualifying in Div 3 using the indexes rather than heads up. Never went anywhere. Clearly WAY more interesting from a spectator point of view versus the current method.

The super classes are mentioned earlier, with them the first 1000' is probably not at all interesting to the spectators, the finish line is where the Super class action is but sadly there are no stands at the 1320 mark anywhere IIRC.

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Great idea on the qualifying runs to use the index to stagger start.

As a racer, that gives us more practice during time runs because how often do you run someone during eliminations with almost the same dial as yourself ?

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This should.happen. Ihra did it at a race I attended several years ago and it was great.

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Sounds very interesting. Handicapped qualifying would give more seat time in a race situation. What would it take to get it going? How many racers would like it?

Maybe Dwight or Mark (or someone else) should start a pole to see if it would fly or not.

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Great Idea!
can we petition for it?
I am putting together some pics and videos of my wagon from the last few years, to show a friend. After looking at some videos from qualifying, I have decided to use 1st round footage. It looks bad from a slow car perspective during qualifying, because the "race" is over before it starts.
This really seems like a "no- brainer". Can`t think of any reason not to do it.100% more spectator appeal.

Mike A114
P/SA

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I love the idea, I remember when I was young going to the races watching the crowd bet and cheer for one or other of the 2 cars. Now, the crowds are less and confusion is more. I'd like to see class index qualifying. And on another note, lets bring back the "Bill Bater" payout days. 4 or 8 cars getting all the $$ out of 30+ entries should be looked at. Any round $$ I won turned into an incentive to stay in the hunt for the next event and a great conversation piece with friends. Non racers always wants to know how much did you win at the races! Each round win should have a reward, $ of some amount.

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Agree 100%. Not only would it be more appealing to the spectator but also to potential competitors who might be considering getting their feet wet with a lower class car. Add in a 20% or so reduction in horsepower and there could be new cars/competitors coming out of the woodwork.

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No need for a poll on this one, I don't think.
Somewhere here in the archives, is a list of the Sportsman Racing reps.
I looked for it on the Lucas site but couldn't find it. Maybe someone knows the NHRA code to get inside there.
Write your rep.
Post the response.
Looks like one thing we might be able to accomplish.

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Mark, go to www.nhraracer.com and look at the column on the left. It has a link to the SRAC Advisors.

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I see a horsepower request form. ??

****

Sorry, I need a new mouse in the house.
Thanks

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Under Competition it is the 5th one down

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Dave, Yes there's that possibility in every round of eliminations too.

I still don't see the down side here.
Qualifying is done of the index anyway, which is automatically entered from the tech cards. It seems like a simple software change to stagger the start.
The pair takes the same amount of time to run and then clear the track..that being the ET of the slower car.
Am I missing something?
Has anyone asked a DD why they haven't tried it?

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I like it !!!!!!

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IHRA is DEAD and was dying in 2017 when you posted this.

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Completely forgot about this thread, shocked to see my own post!! (CRS)
I looked at NHRA.com today, before I saw this thread.
All I found was a generic contact page to leave a message.
Does Kevin McDonaugh (spelling) still work for them?
He used to come on here. Might be able to give guidance.
I`ll see If I still have or can find it.
MJ