IHRA Ends Stock & Super Stock Racing

[Nmbr1GMfan]

Originally Posted by Mike Jones

http://dragcoverage.com/ihra-ends-sp...ormat-in-2018/
Couldn`t find the rumor mill, either
Article stated low turn out of class cars didn`t work for them
and they signed a multi-year deal with this new program.

Mike A114

The rumor mill statement was only in the heading for the Facebook post, I couldn't find it in the article so it was probably added for "click bait".

[Michael Beard]

IHRA racers are welcome to join us in November at Piedmont Dragway to race for $20,000 to win plus TWO $5,000 to win races. We have two events back-to-back. One is a doorcar Box race, and the other is Footbrake only.

Last year, Peter Biondo won the $20K Main Event at the doorcar race, and former crate motor Stock racer Ernie Humes won the Sunday $5K at the Footbrake race. Many Class Racers already compete at Loose Rocker events. Come join them! We'll bring the cookies.

Dates, details, and rules are in the Bracket Racing section here on ClassRacer at:
http://classracer.com/classforum/sho...517#post547517


$20K winner, Peter Biondo (Anthony Bertozzi car)


Dan Fletcher


Travis Womble


Jeff Longhany


Tim Sloan


Tom Cable (Anthony Bertozzi car)


Jeff Longhany


Kevin Locklear


Ronnie Leonard

[Ron E]

Originally Posted by Tracy Robbins

Mike has raced a few of the CCRA races too...as a matter of fact he put a whoopin' on me in the final about a month ago! He's still got it for sure!!!

Tracy, if you've gotta take a whuppin' that's the best place to take it!!!!

[Tim Kish]

Everybody going back and forth with ideas in hindsight and pointing blame all the way back to Billy Meyer 30 years ago for where IHRA is today - No one in this forum is accepting the blame themselves! I started campaigning my own Super Stocker in 2005-2006, back then there were over 900 cars entered at Indy each year (full fields with people waiting) and the IHRA Northern Nationals at 131 had over 620 race cars on the property for the event (Box/No Box bracket was part of the event that year but their field was limited to I believe it was 50 cars each). In 10 years where are all the cars and those racers, where did they go? There are still plenty of S/SS racers out there, in NHRA Div 3 you'll still today draw over 200 S/SS cars to a divisional event. So the cars are still there - in the same region if an NMCA or IHRA event only draws 20-40 total S/SS cars where were the other 150+ cars? Plenty of excuses get thrown around - Having a $100k car but can only afford to race 1 weekend a month probably isn't a valid one.... If we the racers didn't participate in IHRA or NMCA events and they go away (not saying NMCA is but 16 car fields aren't worth their effort either) it's our own damn fault.

The other key problem is the affordability of go fast technology. Back in it's prime Stock/Super Stock racing wasn't easy nor cheap in relative tearms but it was attainable and the smiles per dollar was realistic. Fast forward to today. Based on the rules having to limit their evolution so the legacy participants aren't chased away the rate at which the performance of the cars increased didn't keep up with available technology. The performance most certainly did increase and rules changes we've all beat to death have been made but not proportionate to the investment. We've seen the dime rockets but the majority of the speed junkies don't want to race a 1980 Chevy pickup or Cadillac Deville they want Mustangs, Camaros and Challengers (old or new) so now you have a $100k+ investment. Given current technology that same $100k can get you as much as a couple seconds faster than any Stocker or even most Super Stockers are capable. We know in general our sport is filled with hot rodders with penis envy - what attraction is there to build a Stock / Super Stock car today? Ricky Bobby said it - "I just wanna go fast". For me, my dad raced Super Stock and it's what I grew up wanting to do. Sadly someone who didn't grow up with that predisposition to the grandeur of what class racing used to be and what a class win meant can't appreciate the same investment and way more work to build a car that goes slower than a twin turbo combo is whatever chassis you strap it to. The travel expenses to run just the NHRA races in your division (7-8 races) plus the entry fees far exceed what most local bracket racers spend in a year to race every weekend April to Sept) and the annual maintenance of their car.. It's pretty simple economics if you don't have the specific passion to field a class car that your a fool to do it!

[CMcAllister]

Originally Posted by Rod Greene

Billy Meyer killed IHRA it never fully recovered after his reign

I'm not sure about that. I remember going to some events when Bill Bader had it and the places were out of control they had so many cars show up.

[Jim Wahl]

[quote=tim kish;547573]everybody going back and forth with ideas in hindsight and pointing blame all the way back to billy meyer 30 years ago for where ihra is today - no one in this forum is accepting the blame themselves! I started campaigning my own super stocker in 2005-2006, back then there were over 900 cars entered at indy each year (full fields with people waiting) and the ihra northern nationals at 131 had over 620 race cars on the property for the event (box/no box bracket was part of the event that year but their field was limited to i believe it was 50 cars each). In 10 years where are all the cars and those racers, where did they go? There are still plenty of s/ss racers out there, in nhra div 3 you'll still today draw over 200 s/ss cars to a divisional event. So the cars are still there - in the same region if an nmca or ihra event only draws 20-40 total s/ss cars where were the other 150+ cars? Plenty of excuses get thrown around - having a $100k car but can only afford to race 1 weekend a month probably isn't a valid one.... If we the racers didn't participate in ihra or nmca events and they go away (not saying nmca is but 16 car fields aren't worth their effort either) it's our own damn fault.

The other key problem is the affordability of go fast technology. Back in it's prime stock/super stock racing wasn't easy nor cheap in relative tearms but it was attainable and the smiles per dollar was realistic. Fast forward to today. Based on the rules having to limit their evolution so the legacy participants aren't chased away the rate at which the performance of the cars increased didn't keep up with available technology. The performance most certainly did increase and rules changes we've all beat to death have been made but not proportionate to the investment. We've seen the dime rockets but the majority of the speed junkies don't want to race a 1980 chevy pickup or cadillac deville they want mustangs, camaros and challengers (old or new) so now you have a $100k+ investment. Given current technology that same $100k can get you as much as a couple seconds faster than any stocker or even most super stockers are capable. We know in general our sport is filled with hot rodders with penis envy - what attraction is there to build a stock / super stock car today? Ricky bobby said it - "i just wanna go fast". For me, my dad raced super stock and it's what i grew up wanting to do. Sadly someone who didn't grow up with that predisposition to the grandeur of what class racing used to be and what a class win meant can't appreciate the same investment and way more work to build a car that goes slower than a twin turbo combo is whatever chassis you strap it to. The travel expenses to run just the nhra races in your division (7-8 races) plus the entry fees far exceed what most local bracket racers spend in a year to race every weekend april to sept) and the annual maintenance of their car.. It's pretty simple economics if you don't have the specific passion to field a class car that your a fool to do it![/quote


LIKE!

.
.

[Tracy Robbins]

Originally Posted by Ron E

Tracy, if you've gotta take a whuppin' that's the best place to take it!!!!

Absolutely Ron!

[Mike Schwartz]

Originally Posted by Michael Beard

IHRA racers are welcome to join us in November at Piedmont Dragway to race for $20,000 to win plus TWO $5,000 to win races. We have two events back-to-back. One is a doorcar Box race, and the other is Footbrake only.

Last year, Peter Biondo won the $20K Main Event at the doorcar race, and former crate motor Stock racer Ernie Humes won the Sunday $5K at the Footbrake race. Many Class Racers already compete at Loose Rocker events. Come join them! We'll bring the cookies.

Dates, details, and rules are in the Bracket Racing section here on ClassRacer at: http://classracer.com/classforum/sho...517#post547517

Even if you haven't entered a big footbrake bracket event before, its easy to wrap your head around it, Think of it as an 'Indy'; only with Stock and SS combined into one eliminator, a higher potential payout for the same entry fee, a weekend's worth of runs compressed into a single day, minimum tech worries and all heads up runs have breakout rules enforced.Though there is the possibility of racing the same driver multiple times depending on the event setup.

[Larry Hill]

Why would want a breakout rule in a headsup race? It's racing!

[Todd Hoven]

Originally Posted by Mike Schwartz

Even if you haven't entered a big footbrake bracket event before, its easy to wrap your head around it, Think of it as an 'Indy'; only with Stock and SS combined into one eliminator, a higher potential payout for the same entry fee, a weekend's worth of runs compressed into a single day, minimum tech worries and all heads up runs have breakout rules enforced.Though there is the possibility of racing the same driver multiple times depending on the event setup.

I'm not even sure the point of this or where you are going with it. 🙄


Look at the bright side of all of this. Now it's not a hard decision on whether to build an NHRA or IHRA class car.