S/SS alternatives

[Ed Fernandez]

There's a lot of talk on here about NHRA dumping us from nationals,or all together.Some
want S/SS associations to expand.That's all well and fine.Now that Pat Joffrion has left
No Problem for a consultants role (Good luck in his endeavor) the question is,where will all the association races be held?I don't believe for a minute that if these races get too
big and successful (ala Alex's Class Nationals) that NHRA would want a piece of the pie at their sanctioned tracks.
The ideal scenario would be a completely new organization,sportsman orientated to spring up.The fly in the ointment is that NHRA would probably threaten their sanctioned tracks with lawsuits.
Sadly IHRA doesn't have enough tracks to support an undertaking this grand.And I'm sure that the Circus King would want to stick his fingers in the pie.IHRA really hasn't had much leadership under the Feld banner.
Any thoughts,without turning this into a free for all?

[danny waters sr]

Revive the SCRA (sportsman class racers association.? I am sure a lot of the IHRA racers remember this. I did not have a stocker back then ,but raced a bracket race in conjunction with the assoc. I used to haul Kenny Koonce Sr to a lot of these races when he was running his A/SA 69 Camaro.They usually had a good turn out.

[skills]

Hey Ed who would pay for the pros if there was no sportsman entered? People are going to travel to just watch them besides how would they fill in the time in between rounds? How is the entry for S/SS in numidia so far? What about comp what would we do with them?

[John Kelley]

Originally Posted by Ed Fernandez

Pat Goffrion has left

WHO ???
Do you perhaps mean Pat Joffrion ?
:-)

[Harry 6674]

I would think NHRA would consider turning the sportsman over to a separate organization for a fee. Compton claimed we are loseing NHRA money so it seems like good business sense.

[Ed Fernandez]

The national events could be filled up with the unleashed classes. 9.0-10.0-11.0-12.0.
T/S-T/D and any other circus act they want who'll pay to enter.Someone with the means
($$$$) could step up and organize a nationwide sportsman association.The problem would be wrestling tracks away from exclusive sanctioning by mostly NHRA.IHRA wouldn't
be that difficult.Feld would dump the sportsman show in a heart beat.
And yeah I did goof up Pat's last name.It's fixed now.

[Ed Fernandez]

Originally Posted by danny waters sr

Revive the SCRA (sportsman class racers association.? I am sure a lot of the IHRA racers remember this. I did not have a stocker back then ,but raced a bracket race in conjunction with the assoc. I used to haul Kenny Koonce Sr to a lot of these races when he was running his A/SA 69 Camaro.They usually had a good turn out.

Danny,you'd need nationwide track participation to bring in a new association.NHRA's
stranglehold on the major tracks would have to be broken.You would need to guarantee
track owners a sellable product.Don't know if that's possible.

[Gary Smith]

As an observation, what I saw this last weekend at the March Meet shows the writing on the wall. One eliminator (Hot Rod...which I ran) is the only dial-in group. The others are indexed 10.60 thru (I believe) 6.60 and easy for the spectator to follow. No electronics, throttle stopping crap...just old fashion drag racing. Watching them was like watching Comp cars staying within CIC limits by clicking off early, nothing complicated.

Because Stock & Super Stock have become so complicated in the eyes of the average spectator could explain the reason we may have been swept under the carpet over time. Add the costs of technical control and it starts to look like a liability. Enter fee increases....this way NHRA figures it can recoup some of those expenses to justify the categories existence, even though they may view it as the least profitable. Because NHRA has been run like a business the last few decades is probably whey they're holding out until they can find a viable replacement that garners better return.

Yes, this is a good time to take control of our categories and break off as a stand alone series. Now in terms of runnning like a business I wonder how much muscle NHRA would have now that they're being investigated by the IRS? Essentially we would be doing the same thing NHRA was established for in the first place. And because they're being run like a business instead of a non profit promoter for a safe environment for us to do what we do, could they be backed into a corner so much as not having the ability to file suit? Just a common sense thought.....

[Mark Yacavone]

Ed, As I said in a previous post, there are some people that are just addicted to Wallys.

Nothing else works for them....That is, maybe until they become completely unavailable. Maybe then...

A couple months ago , I put out a feeler for a western class nationals type event later this year. ( I still have the date available ,right before the Nats here)
>>> Result : NO calls. NO responses .None

I'm not giving up on S/SS combos , but if I had to depend on them to eat, I'd starve.

Like Billy says, It's like trying to herd cats.

[tj310]

Only one properly teched race a year, heads up races , records set, horse power adjusted. When they threw out half the class winners at Indy a couple of years ago it became obvious to me rules interpretation was a joke....... Thanx Trevor