Unmitigated Greed

[Casey Miles]

I for one drew a line in the sand when they raised the entry for points races by $10. It is the principle of the matter and not the $10. I feel as though I'm not going to pay for almost a quarter of the winners purse to enter a stock eliminator bracket race. In the past at Moroso, there used to be an entry fee of $100 to win $5000., where is the equalization between the entry fees of Moroso and NHRA? I've been racing NHRA stock eliminator since 1974 and this is the worst that I have seen the greed in the organization. Don't they read the news about the economic down turn? I'm angry at NHRA for making me make a decision not to race at races that I truly enjoy participating in. I have my own agenda and don't expect anyone to follow, but if no one goes to bring the show, maybe, just maybe NHRA will get the message and hopefully there will be a revolt in the management of the organization.

Casey Miles
248H E/S ("f" the 4 HP)

[Michael Beard]

Meanwhile, George Howard puts on TWO $10K races for a single $95 entry, and draws 400 cars. Maybe if he doubled the entry fee, he'd get twice as many cars... er, right? I know one track doubled the cost to join Points, and membership dropped by more than half. I used to call it Carolina Math, but maybe it should be NHRA Math.

Boy, am I proud that I rejoined NHRA last year.

"Hey guys, it looks like somebody wants to start their own Sportsman racing association. What can we do to speed things along?"

As car counts dwindle due to the "How to make friends and influence people" decisions, how long before they decide that instituting buybacks will be 'regrettably the only financially viable solution for NHRA. However, we remain committed to the Sportsman racer as the backbone of our organization.'

[Rick Bailey]

I just looked on the nat. event reg. site........they haven't changed entry there as of yet!.

Dan, I'm all for the ban, and "Indy" would be the biggest insult to NHRA however I'd hate to waste most of the season before trying to make a stand...................that is if you were refering to the US Nats. Maybe it needs to start at home...........with the div. races.


Rick

[Bob Pagano]

I said it in another post......What ever they are smoking I want some!!!

[Rick Bailey]

Oh, I found it................they increased the insurance portion of the entries

Rick

[Jack Matyas]

Ed -- The very last thing I'd want to do today is to defend the NHRA's latest price hike but the part I'm really surprised about is that they didn't do it last Summer when everyone was paying $5.05 for diesel fuel.As many of the readers here are self-employed they know that all business costs have risen during the last year-- recently I was notified by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Revenue thay my dealers license and my salesmans licenses are going up almost double -- is that going to make me close -- probably not .I guess the point is "they" feel raising the fees is OK and we have a choice -- pay the extra or sell our stuff and sit in front of the TV weekends .We could boycott and yes , I'll join in but you'll never get everyone to stay home -- besides they don't need us -- just the pros .

[Don Eckel 111]

Originally Posted by Dan Fletcher

I don't think I've ever been so offended by anything in my life. Obviously, the fee increases won't stop anyone from racing, but it's the principle of the matter. We're all struggling to just hang in there and they raise the price to participate. And then offer some BS excuse that doesn't even come close to making sense. And then tell us how they're really still doing us a favor. Thank God we aren't all drinking in a bar together. It could get rather ugly.

It's amazing. Their business, like most any other business, isn't doing as well as they'd like in this economy. But why isn't it doing as well? Because people, both racers and fans, don't have money to spend. But it's like the friggin' government. They raise the costs for those that are still there. How much more can the "taxpayers" bear?

Believe me, Fletchburger understands fiscal responsibility. They have us print our own tickets, we no longer get medals when we win, they cut their payroll by 10%, they cut the amount of staff at events and fuel prices are currently surpressed (bonus) But then to raise the entry fee by 8% and DOUBLE other associated fees?

Our "payout" was already cut severely with the tremendous drop off in contingency postings. Our cost was already raised when crew member tickets went to $85 per event. If they want to have totally pissed off customers, they certainly are off to a good start

I don't have any choice in the matter. They've got me over a barrel. This is how I pay the bills and there aren't enough IHRA events for me to make ends meet. Most all of you have a choice. But let me say this...if everyone wants to collectively skip one event in protest (allow me to suggest Indy), I'm in.

I don't know to whom I'll be writing a seething email to, but someone will be getting one today.

And they don't even sell us a tangible product for Christ's sake! OMG!!!!!!!!!!

This says it all. Dan, if you can, please copy this to the Comp board here and at http://www.insidecompracing.com/forumdisplay.php?f=2. I'm glad I just renenewed last month, but they will
get me on the chassis cert though.

What's even worse is that the payouts from NHRA have not increased nationally in 20+ years and contingencies continue to shrink. My feeling is that you will se alot of other people, especially younger, finding new hobbies. How are they going to attract them when they keep getting hit harder in the pocket?

How about this for comparison? Go to your local dirt track on just about any given weekend. Usually a packed house for about a $20-30 admission, sometimes less. Generally a full compliment of 3 or 4 classes of cars and if you make the feature, most get at least their entry fee back. Winner in the sportsman(mid level) class can get 1,000+. And this is all done in 1 Day!

[Ken Miele]

Ed, I have no problem paying the extra fee's. And yes I am still upbeat about racing with NHRA.

[buzzinhalfdozen]

Seems like I see who's paying for the new grandstands @ indy and the new office building. Joe

[Bruce Noland]

Dan,

Impressive post! Not many racers have the potential to earn as much money as you do at a National event. I may be out of the sport by Indy. But, I will not enter Indy if the racers decide to boycott the race; providing I still have a race car.

The really bad thing about this organization is that it is totally tone deaf. They are paying the pros an additional million dollars this year and raising our fees. They just don't get it.