Class win

[Ed Fernandez]

Originally Posted by Bill Koski

Maybe the stock and superstock racers should jump out of their cars on the starting line and scream at each other and stomp around like they do on pinks with a bald headed doofus as the referee?
Pinks makes drag racers look like a bunch of retards, fits right in with the video games these young people are addicted to!
I won't watch it!

That was a gem Bill.

[art leong]

Originally Posted by Mark Yacavone

^^^^^^^^ Very true, Bill , but as Michael was saying, a great , knowledgeable announcer can make a big difference.

Some of you may remember Leo Samuel at the Patch ,and Div I .

He knew everything about everybody and let you know it . Past wins, records, combinations and so on. He called everybody MR. (so and so) and would give a great racer the respect he deserved.

Again, look at the one and only USCN. Spectators came from all over the country to watch our kind of cars run.

Mentioning Leo brings back a lot of old memorys. Does anyone know if he still around?
Another announcer that did his job was Louis Bloom Now he's NHRA statistics guy.

[Rich Biebel]

[QUOTE=Mark Yacavone;159457]^^^^^^^^ Very true, Bill , but as Michael was saying, a great , knowledgeable announcer can make a big difference.

Some of you may remember Leo Samuel at the Patch ,and Div I .

He knew everything about everybody and let you know it . Past wins, records, combinations and so on. He called everybody MR. (so and so) and would give a great racer the respect he deserved.

QUOTE]

I knew him as Leo John Samuels and Yes he was a good announcer and really loved us Stockers. He would refer to everyone as "guy" and wore white coveralls usually..... He would tour the pits and ask questions so he would have more info for when he was announcing......Hank Dinger is still the regular weekly announcer and does the same thing. The announcer before them both was Don Hamson (spelling?)

Jon Lundberg was a great announcer form the old days as I recall.......at York....

[Michael Beard]

Bill, *big* difference between Pinks and Pinks All Out... Except for the bald-headed guy. Yac got the point.

Re: announcers, I got to do a little bit of announcing at the USCN, and got to meet Leo Taugher -- a real professional. Got to meet Louie Bloom at Maple Grove one year, and got to announce a round of Super Comp while he ran to grab some pizza. Had a dozen people say its the first time they ever listened to S/C -- quite a compliment. Easy: explain class, then hit personalities, "Here's Doug Doll, Jr., just 19 years old and fresh off a win at Indy, blahblahblah...."

Got to meet Lundberg at the York Nostalgia Nat'ls at Beaver Springs this summer - pretty cool and quite an honor.

Mike Bassin is probably my fave, although there are tons of greats out there -- Lohnes, Taugher, Unk, Paz, etc.

[Adger Smith]

I think one of the things about the US Class Nationals that makes a point to me is Ron did little, if any, advertisement aimed at spectators until he realized what he had going on. What I was told is he rushed out some ads after he saw the magnitude of what was happening. Who says you can't hit a Home Run with a spotsman race.

[Billy Nees]

[QUOTE=Michael Beard; Got to meet Louie Bloom at Maple Grove one year

Michael, just FYI, his name is Lewis and he prefers to be called by that. I've learned over the years that he'll tolerate Lew but don't call him "Louie"!

[Mike Bassin]

A big thanks to Michael Beard for putting me in with such top shelf announcers. I have been doing this announcing thing long before bracket racing emerged and even before Super Stock had its own eliminator. Going back to the class win situation, knowing what I know about the expense, effort, time and knowledge it takes to build any class stocker or super stocker it seems we don't reward these racers as well as we could. Regardless of the class size, one car or ten, the expense to enter a divisional or a national event is more than costly enough to cover the expense of a trophy for class winners. It isn't the racers fault the he may be the only car in his class. You put the effort into one of these class cars and you win class, lets reward you with a trophy. As far as announcing drag racing in general, there not much better stuff than sending class cars, heads up, down the track to see who's best that day. Once eliminations start, its a bit different, now everyone is into getting the cars to run the number and the driving to be sharp at both ends of the track. The variety of cars, classes, performance levels gives me plenty to talk about. It seems like round one is over in no time at all! By the way, nobody appreciates your efforts in stock and super stock more than I do.

Mike Bassin

[treessavoy]

Originally Posted by Mike Carr

Herbie, I'm not sure I follow your thinking, so help me out here.

A racer goes all over to gain the necisary six grade points to be able to compete at Indy. They pay their $300 entry, take their vacation time, show up, race, make their Class Run, win their class, run quick enough, meet all the requirements (ET, weight, fuel, teardown, etc) and are declared Class Winner. Now, just because no one else could/would bother to do the same, that person should be denied their Class Win, even though they met all of NHRA's requrements to do so? because no one else showed up?

Am I missing something here? Should I have paid the entry for the other dozen or so HF/SA's to come race? Should I have talked to their bosses to give them the time off? Should I have tried to raise money to have a shootout to attract more participation? Paid their expenses? Should I have told Billy to build me another car to drive? Should I have borrowed a car for Indy, one that ran in a Class with three or more cars in it? I did all that I could do, and that NHRA required me to do, for me to be a Class Winner. I shouldn't be penalized for circumstances beyone my control (no one else showing up). If you went to Indy, and all the GT/BA racers had entered into the GT/AA Shootout and you were all alone in GT/BA, should NHRA take your Class money and Class Wally away and say "Sorry Herbie, you were a bye run, no Class Win for you. So long, and thanks for coming". I'f I'm missing something, please fill me in.

What he said!

Why should I be punished because no one else wants to run in P/S or V/S? or just wasn't able to get to that particular race?

JimR

[treessavoy]

Originally Posted by Rich Biebel

No Ed...I didn't say anything like what you responded.........I simply said awarding people money and a trophy for making a by run makes NO sense. I didn't say a word about what car gets to run eliminations.

The Old days was always class winners and low qualifiers.....and the field was nowhere near the number of cars as today. I don't know what would make a good formula fro seeding cars into eliminations. The present system is why so many show up. ALL run or all run up to 128 cars at most events....


Having so many classes has diluted the categorie and the bye runs for class awards is rediculous.....Bitching that you paid $280 to race an event is not relavent to this....It already is a rich mans sport or didn't you notice! Thats why I'm not there......The return on investment has become ludicrously poor.....and it was never great to begin with!

I entered a number of national events in my old days in Jr. Stock and Stock and Super Stock......I never got a single chance to run a National event eliminator for various reasons in those old days........I paid my money, took my chances and realized I was usually not fast enough and in over my head and went home.....I moved into categories I could win at........and did.....

Rich,

Don't know where you raced in the '60's but I raced class at Atco NJ and ran a 6 cyl Valiant 225 4 speed and sometimes there would be 10 cars in the class and at others only one.

You're saying that it's my fault that the others did not show up to race that night I should not be allowed to win my class and get my $5.00 trophy.....ridiculous! Atco thought it was also...I would get my class trophy and was allowed to race ( by being a class winner) in Jr Stock Eliminator....why....because I entered, paid my money and made my single pass for a class win. It is not my fault the other guys didn't show up that night.

JimR

[art leong]

Originally Posted by treessavoy

Rich,

Don't know where you raced in the '60's but I raced class at Atco NJ and ran a 6 cyl Valiant 225 4 speed and sometimes there would be 10 cars in the class and at others only one.

You're saying that it's my fault that the others did not show up to race that night I should not be allowed to win my class and get my $5.00 trophy.....ridiculous! Atco thought it was also...I would get my class trophy and was allowed to race ( by being a class winner) in Jr Stock Eliminator....why....because I entered, paid my money and made my single pass for a class win. It is not my fault the other guys didn't show up that night.

JimR

The underlying meaning here plain and simple is to get rid of the lower class cars.
But they don't realize the gun is pointed at their feet. Because there are always a few singles in the higher classes too.