SRAC Meeting in Gainsville

[afbarrett]

I am mostly a bracket racer but I have raced in Super Comp. I have a crazy suggestion that I think might work. What if we do away with the super classes and have a bracket race at national events instead?

• Only open it to racers from within the division. This would accomplish several things. It would cut down on travel. It would allow fans to see locals. This would be a great promotion for the local tracks’ weekly programs. Local racers could offer a local sponsor some excellent exposure.
• Fans like seeing staggered starts and seeing different body styles race each other.
• Limit the ET to some thing like 7.50 and let the fast cars (TS, TD) have their own class. Ban throttle stops in the class.
• Most super class cars can bracket race so this would not be a big deal.
• Combine the purse money from the 3 classes and offer a bigger pay out.

I know this is out there but I think it would work.

[DOS VETTES]

Hey afbarret! Nice first post. The .90 Heads up guys in this section are going to love you! LOL

[Bob Verwold]

Originally Posted by DOS VETTES

Hey afbarret! Nice first post. The .90 Heads up guys in this section are going to love you! LOL

Sounds like he'll always be a mostly bracket racer................

[afbarrett]

Please understand that I was just thinking outside the box. I love all kinds of drag racing and I have been a racer for over 20 years. I race in brackets, SG and SC and like all of them. I enjoy the challenges of working with my throttle stop very much. I was just looking at a way to balance fan intrest with sportsman racing. I wish I had the money and time to travel to divisionals and national events but I don't so that is why I bracket race. Also my thoughts are influenced because I race in NJ and to get into a national event in SC locally you wind up needing 6+ grading points. Again I was just throwing this out there to see peoples opinions and in no way did I mean to disrespect any racer.

P.S. This is not my first post but it has been a while. I am not sure why the system shows that.

Tony Barrett
SP/SC 166H

[Bob Verwold]

Rock's probably reading all this thinking "oh hell here we go AGAIN"...

[kmyers]

I agree w/ Tony. As a racer, why do we care if the stands are filled. Sure it's nice to feel like part of the show. It's not like NHRA will decrease entry or increase the payout for the class racers. We pay to race whether there are people in the stands or not. We don't get paid to just show up. We are the filler to entertain while the "real show" is preparing. It is up to NHRA to get the butts in the seats. Don't they promote the meet and greet w/ the "pro" drivers. When are the spectators able to do so if they are watching us class racers. My 2 cents

[Bob Verwold]

Well kmyers , don't hold back tell them what ya think.

[mannymen]

Kmyers, "We are the filler to entertain while the "real show" is preparing." That is incorrect!

We are the purse payers for the "real show" and that is all. When payouts increase for the PROs then our entry fees will also increase ceteris paribus

[Jason Oldfield]

Having the stands full is not about stroking my ego while I'm racing. When I'm on the track, I couldn't tell you whether there was 2 or 200,000 people in the stands. I'm just not paying attention to that.

But, with 2 people in the stands, our chances of EVER getting ANY additional money, respect, attention, etc. from NHRA is Z-E-R-O, ZERO! OTOH, if there are 200,000 people in the stands while we are racing, we have a lot more bargaining power. Remember, something like 75% of the revenue generated by NHRA was due to the paying SPECTATOR gate.

I will race regardless of how many people are there, as will almost all of you because we all love to race (and that is part of the problem - NHRA knows this and is using our passion against us). But, it would be a LOT nicer to have to fund less of my racing operation myself and have the paying spectator help defray those costs.

If the NHRA charged an extra $1/day per .90 class and passed that long to us, we'd have about an extra $30,000 in our purse on a given weekend. Why don't they do this? Because they perceive (most likely correctly) that the spectator would not see this as providing value to them. The sad truth is that if you gave the option to reduce the cost of the current spectator's entry fee by $10 for the weekend, but in exchange they could not watch the .90 classes from the stands when we were racing, my guess is that the overwhelming majority would take the discount.

So, all that said, we are NEVER going to see any beneficial changes with regard to our payout with the current format / rules of the .90 classes. The spectators have spoken, and they find our style of racing boring to watch (hence, the empty stands), and IMHO the downfall of these classes is due to the electronics and/or throttle stops. People don't want to watch cool, fast looking cars pull up to the line and drive away like my wife's minivan.

And you can't tell me that rules changes can't make this work. Have any of you seen the number of people sitting in the stands at a Pinks All-Out race? The quality of cars at these events isn't even close to what we have at the typical NHRA National Event in S/G & S/C, and as a whole the drivers couldn't hold a candle to the skill of the average driver in S/C or S/G at an NHRA National Event. Yet, fans still FLOCK to these events to watch these cars make passes down the track, even though the vast majority of the action they see in any one day is nothing but time trials.

What's the difference? These cars are running ALL-OUT. They even have breakouts, though they don't call them that, they say the car went "TOOOOO FAST" (said in my best Rich Christensen voice). Granted, it's more of a carnival atmosphere with the car show, swap meet, Joie Chitwoodesque stunt performers, but I don't think people are sitting in the stands waiting to see the next motorcycle stunt.

In the end, I love racing my car, and will whether you pay me anything or not at the end of the day. But, I can't say that I'm happy with the current state of racing with NHRA taking all of our money, and neither should any of you. But, the ONLY way that will change is if our classes change. I'm always looking for ways to make improvements whether it be in my personal life, profession, or racing operation, and doing the same thing over and over again is going to provide the same results. So, unless you're willing to make some type of change to put more butts in the seats, don't complain about entry fees, replacing seat belts, 3 year chassis tag certification expirations, mufflers, diapers, class quotas, grade points, HazMat rules, or anything of the sort because NHRA is holding all the cards, and they know it.

As an alternative, I would recommend running your local S/C, S/G, S/St series as they probably don't give a crap about your seat belts, chassis certification expiration, mufflers, diaper, grade points, or have any quotas or HazMat rules. Plus they cost a hell of a lot less to run, and they don't have all those pesky spectators in the stands to possibly distract us.

Soapbox mode off - I'm going back to lurking.

Let the flames begin...

[S/G 386N]

Maybe more of the tracks need to take lessons from the Bader's. I went to my first race at Norwalk last year for the divisional. I was absolutely amazed on the number of spectators there. Even though it was raining, and with a forcast of rain for the remainder of the evening, there was a line of cars trying to get into the track, just to watch. Hundreds of them. The Bader's know how to put on a show.

And eliminating the super classes, and throttle stops. That'll make a lot of Don Davis roadsters worth nothing. It's way too hard to keep the front end down on one of them running flat out, unless you are running a low hp motor. Had a 937hp 632 in it, had to move the instant center in the rear forward, drop the wheelie bars way down, plus launch at only 3200 rpms when running flat out to keep the car under control. Any higher launch rpm and it would carry the wheels 100ft, and by that time, who knows which direction you were pointed. On the stop though, I could launch off the converter if I needed to. Personally, I like the super classes, probably because I know how difficult it is to run them and be competitive. At US Nationals, I might watch the pros once the whole weekend, but watch 10 times the amount of sportsman rounds.