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

[Arnold Greene]

This is something that always amazed me. The seats for spectators are at the starting line instead of where the race is won or lost. But the most amazing thing is to park cars that have to drive to the starting line, the fartherest away. If you are allowed to tow to the starting line, it shouldn't make any difference where you are parked. If spectators want to see your car, they will find you, where ever you are. I guess I look at this as a common sense issue, but apparently others do not.

[FlyingW]

But most NHRA sportsman classes are not allowed to be pulled or pushed to the lanes..... But for your sponsor's it's great you have to drive right by all the spectator's and they look at your car............THATS RACING.....

Jeremy Waibel
B/SA 2231
Battery tender '69 camaro

[RocketBlock]

I was at a race and the Richardsons arrived. Late. Not a problem as the track had a spot waiting for them. Nobody else seemed to get that consideration. My friend was pitted next to them. The Richardsons wanted him to "move over just a little bit" because they had two cars. My friend told them they could leave if they didn't like their accomodations. They all butted heads all weekend.
Racer's & track operators, don't reserve spots for your friends. Your friends want to park next to you, tell them to arrive when you do. Telling somebody the spot is reserved is akin to telling somebody they aren't good enough to park there as you shove them off to the back forty. If you have to park with your late arriving friends, go to the back forty with them. It's that simple.
Sean, if you arrive at a track and the parking is not to your liking, leave.

[Jason Oldfield]

Originally Posted by John H186

Hello Jason.

I have a question about your E-Town parking experience. As a weekly racer and employee there, I can only assume that you are talking about the area by the lake, known as the 400 lot, as this is the only spot with even the slightest amount of rock towards the rear of the lot. If so, I know for a fact that, due to no Stock at the event, there was a ton of room in that lot to have been able to park your car on blacktop. I know that the NHRA puts you in a certain spot and that is usually it but there was more than enough blacktop in that lot to not have parked on the rocks as you are stating. Why not just simply move?

John,

That's the place! But, the particular experience I was speaking of was not this year, but 2005. I'm not sure what classes they were running at that year, but there was about 15 to 20 of us parked out there. The only other person I can specifically remember was "Lucky" Luciano.

Anyway, I unloaded the car, made one pass, and on the way back parked the car in the S/S pits next to Bucky Hess, as there was no way I was driving my car back through that mess. I looked around a bit, found a couple of spots, and convinced one of the officials to let me move. He actually moved me into the T/AD pits in a spot that was definitely not big enough for another full-size rig (I only have a 32' motorhome with a 24' tag). At first the T/AD guy next to me didn't like it, but once I repositioned a bit to keep my generator exhaust out of his working area, he was cool with it.

Good thing I moved too because I thrashed on the car all weekend, which would not have been pleasant in the rocks. Of course, thrashing for sportsman racers usually equals losing early (which I did), so I could have just as easily loaded up and gone home. But, my uncle loves to watch the pros, so I hung out mostly for him.

All that said, I've learned my lesson about moving without permission. You can get away with that at IHRA races where there's typically plenty of space. But, the NHRA guys don't seem to take to that too well, and it's not that difficult to spot a trailer moving around before the first round of eliminations has begun!

Hope that clarifies things a bit...

[JRyan]

WELL, It wasn't ALWAYS that way. Back before many of you were born (1979), Uncle Charlie Koppien and I went to INDY. In fact we took a weeks tour by going to Cordova, Kil-Kare, Muncie and INDY. The story involves Cordova.

Since Chuck and I were on tour, we started a week early at Cordova. The race was their World Series of Drag Racing and they had some "booked-in" people for the weekend, one of which was Don Prudomme. For those of you familiar with Cordova at that time, there was a cement pad straight off of the staging area that was rather small, but had a water spicket. We were the first ones there (Wednesday) and decided it would be a great place to park my ramp truck and car, and Chuck's trailer and car.

All was well until Don P. and his group arrived on (I believe) Friday. His driver drove to the cement pad, and Don P. got out and told us to move. If you know Chuck, you know his immediate answer was "F--K YOU!!!!!" So Prudomme said it again and received the same response, and then said, "We'll see about this", and headed to the tower.

A few minutes later he was back with the track manager who asked us what the problem was. Now we've been talking with this guy for three day and we weren't strangers anymore, so when we explained that we were there first and we wanted that spot, he simply turned to Prudomme and said, "Looks like you'll have to find another spot". Don started arguing about being the booked in show and all that crap, and that he deserved the space, and the manager just told him that if he didn't like it, he could just GO HOME, but he wasn't GETTING PAID. They moved just far enough away in the GRAVEL to sneer at us all week, and we returned the favor by pointing at them and telling the story to anyone who would come by and listen. So it's little guys 1, Pros 10,000, unless some of you can come up with similar stories.

And to think that some people don't long for the "Good ole days". Well, maybe Don Prudomme doesn't.

Jerry