Class Nationals event planning

[Alex Denysenko]

Originally Posted by Charley Downing

I agree Bowling Green is a great track and has a good STK/SS combo turn outs, but Columbus makes more sence.
The problem with Bowling Green is its a longer way to travel for D1,D5 and parts of D3. I think most of the people that live near Bowling Green or Louisville would travel the extra 200-300 miles to Columbus for this race.
Also if Mike is putting this on, it needs to be somewhere near to him. Just like Alex was near Byron.
If you look a the 2001 class nationals the car count was made up of mostly D1,D3 and D5 cars. I feel if the race is located more in middle of those three then the car count could be bigger then in 2001. I see no reason you can't get 250-300 STK/SS cars in columbus for a class nationals type of race.

Columbus is only
185 miles from Pittsburgh PA
500 miles from Madison WI
250 miles from Lansing MI
175 miles from Indianapolis IN
330 miles from Bowling Green KY
225 miles from Louisville KY
350 miles from Knoxville TN
750 miles from Minneapolis MN
560 miles from Atlanta GA

Bowling Green is
500 miles from Pittsburgh PA
550 miles from Madison WI
475 miles from Lansing MI
225 miles from Indianapolis IN
330 miles from Columbus OH
115 miles from Louisville KY
225 miles from Knoxville TN
825 miles from Minneapolis MN
315 miles from Atlanta GA


I think BG could get 200 total STK/SS cars but not much more then that. Remember fuel is $3.85-4.10 a gallon.

BG is A BAD CHOICE NOW FOR THE SAME REASON I passed on it in 2001 the congenial sweetheart of an owner

[Alan Roehrich]

Originally Posted by Alex Denysenko

BG is A BAD CHOICE NOW FOR THE SAME REASON I passed on it in 2001 the congenial sweetheart of an owner

Alex, Dallas and Clay are not the least bit hard to get along with. I guess maybe you have some sort of personal beef with one or both of them. I neither know nor care, but you seem to be one of a very few. I haven't had a problem with either of them in around 20 years or so. Not to mention the fact that a couple of $5K combo races, plus 3-4 years of regular combo racing has gone off pretty much without a hitch.

Michael seems to have made his choice, we can live with it, although it is not great for many Division 2 racers.

[jmcarter]

Originally Posted by Alan Roehrich

Michael seems to have made his choice, we can live with it, although it is not great for many Division 2 racers.

With the tentative date on the same weekend as Atlanta's customary National event weekend I guess D2 racers will have an easier choice although Atlanta has never been my favorite track. Price of diesel vs. dropping gas prices stinks and fuel costs to race is a definite factor.

[Michael Beard]

Sorry, Won't be there. I'm not traveling 2000 miles round trip just so you Yankee boys won't have to travel more that 200 miles away from home.

Physically, Bristol is a pretty much even distance from everyone but we would travel to Bowling Green.

If the NHRA schedule is the same in 2014 as it is in 2013, then it would be on top of the Atlanta national event, in which case I expect the FL, GA, AL, SC racers would go to Atlanta. Again, it is impossible to make an event that is perfect for everyone. Even the US Class Nationals had an NHRA National Event on top of it.

Bristol is one of the top facilities in the country, and as such, has a commiserate rental fee, which makes it a non-starter. It would require a much higher entry fee and/or lower payout, which would in turn yield a lower car count, plus it is geographically in competition with a possible Atlanta event, which Columbus is not.

Columbus is not my favorite track, but this past Sports National race the track was the best I've ever seen it. With VHT and Redman it should be fine. I will be there also and if you need some help let me know.

The changes that the facility has made and having raced on it several times myself has given me that confidence. I believe they'll have two more solid NHRA events in the coming year that will establish that 'new Columbus'.

Kinda like herding cats isn't it?

That's a "push" vs "pull" mentality. Rather, you put the warm milk out there -- if the interest is there and you've done your job properly, you have success. If the interest is not there, we'd all find something else to do on that weekend, like we've done every year since the US Class Nationals. My goal is not to be a race promoter for a living. I got into race promotion when an extremely popular, long-running annual event was deleted from the schedule. Racers wanted it back, and no one else would do it, so Anthony Walton and I partnered up to bring it back. The following year, the same thing happened with another popular event, so we picked that one up. We now have 3 big money bracket race weekends on the schedule for 2013. Adding a class nationals event in 2014 would bring the total to 4, and that's *plenty*. Having done three major events now, I'm fully aware of just how much time, effort, and money goes into these things behind the scenes. Even after working numerous Bracket Finals events for IHRA over the years, in any number of positions, I discovered that it falls under "You think you know, but you have no idea." The reward comes at the end of the weekend when your customers leave with a smile on their face and a "Thanks, we had a great time." You deserve to have that experience.

Mike...before you put the stamp on Ohio...why not consider Earlville?

I've definitely heard good things, no doubt. For an inaugural event, in addition to staffing logistics, I'm looking at being able to draw heavily from Div. 1 and Div. 3, while being within fair reach of Div. 5. Quite simply, that's where the bulk of the cars lie. Starting out in Div. 5 would likely gain far fewer cars from the west than the event would stand to lose from Div. 1. If the first attempt doesn't live, there won't be another one. Remember too that unless you get 128+ car fields in both Stock and SS, the event is unlikely to stand on its own. There is an existing base of No-Box cars that are asking for the return of a $5K event in this area, and that's what's going to make it possible to have the event. At this point, I have no working knowledge of possible "support classes" that we can successfully run in conjuction with S/SS in Iowa. You need something strong enough to pay a large portion of the track rental, but not something that's going to overburden track time for the S/SS customers. If we exceed expectations in 2014, then you may have something to work with in the future. I will try to get to Earlville myself in the coming year and check it out. But again, unless the track rental quote gets adjusted out of the realm of feasability, that is where I would like to start.

Many promoters probably wouldn't get into this kind of detail and discussion, but something that was instilled in me by Bill Bader is that as a promoter, I will always give you not only "what" a decision is, but most importantly "why" it was made.

With the tentative date on the same weekend as Atlanta's customary National event weekend I guess D2 racers will have an easier choice although Atlanta has never been my favorite track.

I made my first trip to Atlanta last year, and I liked the place, quite a lot, actually. I believe that they recently put Jim Mcelvey in charge there: he's a racer and a good guy. I may hit the double-header there this year. When I was looking at scheduling, I saw this, but after researching their attendance, I don't see a conflict. The attendance was low in both classes (38 Stock, 33 Super Stock), and only a handful were northern teams. Both Atlanta and Columbus are NHRA-owned facilities, so if there is an issue, we will figure that out very soon. The NTR staff is already checking into it.

[Alex Denysenko]

Originally Posted by Alan Roehrich

Alex, Dallas and Clay are not the least bit hard to get along with. I guess maybe you have some sort of personal beef with one or both of them. I neither know nor care, but you seem to be one of a very few. I haven't had a problem with either of them in around 20 years or so. Not to mention the fact that a couple of $5K combo races, plus 3-4 years of regular combo racing has gone off pretty much without a hitch.

Michael seems to have made his choice, we can live with it, although it is not great for many Division 2 racers.

Nothing personal the guy is just a JERK on the phone and in person no matter how nice we tried to talk to him

[MEXJOE]

This sounds like a winner to me.
Now; I am the Rep. for B.I.R. It's location is not as good for getting the car count we need.

Tri-State Raceway IN Earlville Iowa Is "a winner" with all the racers in the area.
It is also very well received by any visiting from far away.

An excellent track with well respected owners who are responsive to "our type"
of drag racing.

To put it in a nut shell....
"They get it!"
Please consider this fine facility for this race.
As always I'll help with it any way I can!
It is up to us to keep our sport alive!

Originally Posted by 5343stk

Tri-State Raceway, Earlville Iowa

Tough to beat a track run by people who participate and support our class.

[ron mattson]

Another vote for Earlville, the place just rocks and is in a good central location!!

[Jeff Lee]

Speedworld is too far west. Keep it somewhat central.