Dear Len Imbrongo, NHRA, and all the other people who dont care about sportsman cars

[SSDiv6]

Sean...since you are the owner of Stan's old car...you should wear one of Stan's old shirts with the logo of:

Stan Hawes Institute (of) Technology...

[Mike Hedger]

I heard the super racers did not even get one TT they went into R1 last night, did the SS guys get any or did they get hosed also.

PS one more resion I went to the IHRA in 99 and never looked back. They even thank you for comming at the pay window. I have kept my S/C # so I can bracket race localy but as far as attending an NHRA nat it will be a cold day when that happens.

[Len Imbrogno]

Sean,

I am very sorry to hear about your bad experience at your first national event. When mother nature decides to "enhance" everyone's "experience", it effects all racer; pro and sportsman, as well as the fans, sponsors and NHRA.....basically everyone that had a vested interest in hoping for a successful event.

[FlyingW]

I want to take time out to say WOW... the director of Sportsman racing actually took the time to take notice of one guys "enhanced experience"

Weather you could fix it or not, or weather you had the right answers or not at least this shows that someone actually stops and listens to the "peons" once in a while.

That is a way to keep guys like Sean that have a problem coming back to events. That is AWESOME!!!!

Jeremy Waibel
Waibel Competittion B/SA 2231
K&N Camaro

[Tand E racing]

I would have to believe Sean is speaking more about the fact that the S/SS pits on the north side of the track were filled with the PRO's motorhomes and golf carts? which is controlled by the N.H.R.A,this is not about the weather.
They parked the S/SS guys past the
finish line apposite the return road and the scales, to get back to they're pits it is about a 1 mile drive or more.
Whether the parking assignments were done by the N.H.R.A or
Pacific Raceways staff it does'nt matter because they both fumbled this one big time.

[RULER]

With the weather the way it was what was NHRA going to do, They did what they had to to get the pro show in,and thats what the poeple pay to see and thats what pays the bills. Parking at pacific raceways has always been a problem, but if you can win round 1 you can move to the upper pits if you ask pit control nicely. Remember verybody was in the same boat, it was just a bad deal.

[Bill Edgeworth]

Sean,

Our parking really was horrible. And the fact that golf cart guy got to set up or I should say use up a huge area down in the north east corner is a real slap in the face. They were more worried about the golf carts than us. They could have gone right where we were pitted. I guess someone decided that would be too inconvenient for everyone else to drive to the top end to pick up and return their golf cart.
HOWEVER I will give credit where credit is due; they did bend over backwards to try and prep the track every time it stopped raining. I can?t begin to imagine how much fuel they pumped through that jet dryer this weekend. This morning they were working on the track at 7 AM. And when we started the track was in great shape. Were lucky we got one qualifying run in, it?s all the pros got. And Comp didn?t even get one.
I feel sorry for you and others for whom this was their first national event. Usually they are a lot more fun than this one was.

[Sean Kennedy]

Originally Posted by Len Imbrogno

Sean,

I am very sorry to hear about your bad experience at your first national event. When mother nature decides to "enhance" everyone's "experience", it effects all racer; pro and sportsman, as well as the fans, sponsors and NHRA.....basically everyone that had a vested interest in hoping for a successful event.

I wasnt going to say anymore. I wasnt goint to ramble. But Len actualy responded.

Since he opened up the can of worms, here we go.......

First, thanks for responding. If someone is willing to get into this, it means maybe there is some hope. (yeah right, did i say that?)

Sure, the terrible weather had an effect on everyones weekend. But did top fuel, funny car or pro stock get told "we dont have enough time to give you a time run". The fact that there was no time run from SG, SC, Super Stock and especialy comp is absurd. Thankfully i am not one of those classes, but only becasue stock is first out usually. Did mother nature come down and say 'no time runs' or was it graham light?

Not only that, but a lot of people came a long way for this race, and the truth is even if the fans are in the stands for hte pros, it has a much smaller effect on the pros to stay until monday. That is their job and their life, and one more day at the track is not nearly as big of a deal to them. Hell, they are going to just head to Sonoma and stay there so whats the difference. First round of stock was run directly after the final round of funny cars, the last pro final to run.

I had to park my car in the field and pay for parking. Yet lots of those toterhome guys, the ones that you saved spots for up in the good parking lot, by the golf carts everyone was complainging about, they had all kinds of people parked with them, there was like 8 cars parked over there. So you saved them better parking, even though i got in line a week before the god damn event, and you let all their buddies into the pits to park.

If you tell me this has nothing to do with you, all i can say is well if you arent complaining about it too, and working to make things better for us, even if it gets you in trouble, than you really dont care.

So ... specificaly.....

Why did you save a ****load of room for Justin Lamb, Biondo, Fletcher, Turner, etc. ???

I'm supposed to show up early to ensure a good spot, and i did, and i was still down in Egypt.

How can you justify no time run?

If it takes until monday or tuesday (like it did) because of thetime run, i think most would be fine with that.

I wasn't going to rable on, or say anything else but well... Len... you waving it off as just blaming the weather really pissed me off.

[racing fan]

I never knew there were so many cry babies in the racing world, all your mommas should be proud. It rained, and you can't race in the rain, duh.Len, I'm sorry but don't take these guys word that everbody got screwed, i'll bet you would pay them $1000.00 cash per hour if they could make it not rain. Maybe you guys should take up figure skating, you bunch of wusies.

[Ron Middleton]

Wow, another brilliant post from another no name. were you there? do you even race? unless you walked in someone elses shoes, you have no idea if that person has reason to complain or not. Doesn't necessarily mean they are crybabies.JMT.