Stock/Superstock Association Spokane, WA

[Paul Plummer]

In an effort to support our local track and bring new blood into stock and superstock class racing I am wondering if there is any interest in starting a local association with more liberal rules than the sanctioning bodies impose so that we can start building an affordable local/regional series. The local track management seems open to new ideas so either reply to this post or send me an email.

[Dion Hildebrandt]

Put me down for support of this assoc. although I am up in Calgary I have no problem towing down to Spokane , going to be there for the divisional next weekend!

[Paul Plummer]

Looks like we now have three (my friend John Langdon doesn;t know it yet-lol) - we now have a start! I look forward to meeting you at the division race in Spokane next week-end. Please email me your contact information, if it looks like we can generate enough interest I will keep everyone up to date on the progress of getting this project off the ground.

If you know of any other racers in your area who may have ET cars that are pretty close to meeting the stock/superstock rules please encourage them to send me their info as well.

One association in the Midwest is allowing cars that look feel and smell like a stocker or superstocker although they may not have a $20K-$50K class legal mill under the hood.

Loosening up the rules a bit to include cars that are close will hopefully get some of these people hooked on stock and superstock class racing without them having to sell the farm to build a car.

[Larry Fulton]

Originally Posted by Paul Plummer

Looks like we now have three (my friend John Langdon doesn;t know it yet-lol) - we now have a start! I look forward to meeting you at the division race in Spokane next week-end. Please email me your contact information, if it looks like we can generate enough interest I will keep everyone up to date on the progress of getting this project off the ground.

If you know of any other racers in your area who may have ET cars that are pretty close to meeting the stock/superstock rules please encourage them to send me their info as well.

One association in the Midwest is allowing cars that look feel and smell like a stocker or superstocker although they may not have a $20K-$50K class legal mill under the hood.

Loosening up the rules a bit to include cars that are close will hopefully get some of these people hooked on stock and superstock class racing without them having to sell the farm to build a car.

This sounds like IHRA Stock / Super Stock doesn't it??

[Sean Kennedy]

The problem seems to be up here it's hard to get any class guys to show up for anything less than a divisonal race. Most of them won't even run national opens it seems like. The other issue is that if you loosen up the rules, most stock racers don't like racing 'bracket' guys, even though is just a glorified bracket race.

The only way to make it work is to have a really good payout. Something like 100$ to win, and hopefully pays at least 1000 to win. If you can get 20 - 30 cars you can do that and actually pay out some round money too.

I don't have a stock legal motor in my car at the moment, but if the rules are more lax I would be interested.

[Paul Plummer]

Originally Posted by Sean Kennedy

The problem seems to be up here it's hard to get any class guys to show up for anything less than a divisonal race. Most of them won't even run national opens it seems like. The other issue is that if you loosen up the rules, most stock racers don't like racing 'bracket' guys, even though is just a glorified bracket race.

The only way to make it work is to have a really good payout. Something like 100$ to win, and hopefully pays at least 1000 to win. If you can get 20 - 30 cars you can do that and actually pay out some round money too.

I don't have a stock legal motor in my car at the moment, but if the rules are more lax I would be interested.

Great input......actually it would be great to get some of the existing stock & superstock guys interested in the association but for many great reasons, cost, travel, payouts, etc. likely an exercise in futility.

I think the main focus of the local/regional association would be attracting "new blood", people who have always wanted to class race or people who class raced in the past but were eliminated based on the high cost to compete. People like you who may not have a legal class motor but who's car is for all intents a stocker.

As far as format goes the collective association would need to agree on the format, classifications,rules etc. As far as format, here is something some of the other groups are doing.

The eliminator would be just like stock eliminator is today without the mandatory heads-up if two cars in the same class happen to get paired up. Yes, just foot brake bracket racing - the only difference is no one will have to play the shut-off at 1000' game to avoid the heads-up race. This would get a lot of newbies into the association and everyone would have a fair shot at winning an event.

More importantly, each event would also have a class race. This would offer something for the go fast guys to run every round heads-up, plus offer the fans something they can actually understand (no shoe polish and the first one to the end wins).

In its infancy, the association would probably not have a large enough draw to have many cars in each class. So until we could get this association built up maybe the class event starts out as some class/heads-up racing and some grudge racing - still heads-up and still fun for fans and racers.

At the end of the day, if we could organize a group of 20-30 racers who would be willing to attend 1-3 events per summer I think we could put together a great association and some fun drag racing.

If we can get this off the ground, I will gladly donate all of the time and effort to get this organized as well as put up some $$ to sponsor the class/association events.

[Michael Beard]

Originally Posted by Larry Fulton

This sounds like IHRA Stock / Super Stock doesn't it??

No, it doesn't really.

[Paul Plummer]

Originally Posted by Dion Hildebrandt

Put me down for support of this assoc. although I am up in Calgary I have no problem towing down to Spokane , going to be there for the divisional next weekend!

I got to thinking after the divisional race this week-end, I recall a couple of IHRA Crate Motor stockers up in your neck of the woods racing at Edmonton. If we are to get this Stock/SS association put together, we would want to make sure the IHRA Stockers are welcome as well.

I also got some good feedback at the division race that if we actually put on our event between some of the divisional, national event or national open races when some of the traveling division 6 guys are on their way to or from a venue, we would definitely have interest.

Bottom line is that if we could attract the "traveling regulars" from a schedule and payout perspective we could run the event identical to a division race with the option of running class depending on interest level/car count.

This would also give the local/regional people interested in getting started in class racing a chance to race against some of the best guys in the country as well as learn more about what class racing is all about.

A lot of new people who would like to run class have a hard time understanding all of the rules, indexing, weight factors, blue print specs., etc, and do not even know how to get started.

Just some ideas,

[Harry 6674]

You have to realize that stock is a performance based class. With relaxed rules and no chance of heads up races what makes it any different then a typical bracket race. If you want to call it a stock/superstock asso. and want to attract the class cars you probably should stick with the class format. Just my opinion. Class racing is not for everyone,thats what makes it special.

[X-TECH MAN]

Originally Posted by Harry 6674

You have to realize that stock is a performance based class. With relaxed rules and no chance of heads up races what makes it any different then a typical bracket race. If you want to call it a stock/superstock asso. and want to attract the class cars you probably should stick with the class format. Just my opinion. Class racing is not for everyone,thats what makes it special.

The problem with that is the cost of having knowlegeable people to weigh, fuel check, and inspect cars. I doubt a "Circuit" could support that kind of expense (increased entry to cover expenses) and a lot of tracks dont even have a set of scales anymore. The circuits run here on the east coast by Dave Ley in Div 1 and Jim Wahl in Florida and others work pretty good. The fun factor is back with fair car counts, you get to visit and swap lies and rumors with your friends and a chance to win some fair money is good with a resonable entry fee even if is a bracket race which is about 98% of class racing anyway. Just my 2 1/2 cents.