The state of NHRA
 

I just read on a friend's Facebook page that the facility/operations manager (not Don Robertson) at Gainesville Raceway is now out of a job. This person responded himself and confirmed this. Another person stated (so don't take this as fact) that NHRA needs to cut around $4 million off of the budget for next year and all full time employees left are taking a cut. No mention was made concerning the board of directors.

Maybe NHRA is now feeling the real economic conditions the rest of us have been feeling.




Hey Dan Moore, you're #1. :D

RIP Mark Graham

Re: The state of NHRA
 

Maybe they have enhanced some of they're employees right out of jobs.

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Why are they cutting anything? "Most economists" know that they need to spend more money, and raise entry fees and ticket prices.

:rolleyes:

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Giving up the lavish life in California and moving the whole operation to Indy would save a bundle.

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Great Idea!

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Non Profit.....get rid of all them and appoint a non paying board of Gov. and opperate like a real non profit. They are all blood suckers

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I live in Kalifornia and I can say for sure it is not a lavish life style.

Re: The state of NHRA
 

Tony: I think he's referring to the lavish lifestyle that Compton, Gardner, etc are enjoying due to their over-inflated paychecks, not necessarily where they live at. From what I understand, the cost of living is much more expensive in California, so naturally it would be more cost effective for them to move the head office to someplace like Indy.

Re: The state of NHRA
 

Just for kicks I did a search for the most affordable places to live so they would know where to move. Not sure how old the list are but here it is anyway.

Top 5 Most AffordableCities
Minot, N.D. (I am sure this has changed they are next to a oil boom and lost 4000 homes to flooding about 1/4 of the city)
Killen, Texas
Arlington, Texas
Grayling, Mich.
Topeka, Kan. (probably best for NHRA pretty centrally located)

The Least Affordable Cities
New York, NY
San Francisco,CA
San Diego,CA
Los Angeles,CA
Boston,MA

Re: The state of NHRA
 

The slide continues.
http://www.dragracingonline.com/anal...returns-1.html

:rolleyes:

Re: The state of NHRA
 

NEWS FLASH: Anyone still having a full time job at NHRA the first of the year will be taking a 10% pay cut. This is not hearsay...it came from an NHRA employee who hopes they are not on the hatchet list.

Re: The state of NHRA
 

So Compton takes a $71K cut in pay.He's still getting 10 times what he should be paid for running NHRA.Put people on the board who will do the job for way less than the current bunch of prima donas and lawyer types.

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Glad I make minimum wage.....they cant cut my pay!!

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This is from Jeff Burks article in Drag racing on line. One NHRA executive asked me privately why my readers and the racers were interested in their tax return and did I think it was any of their business? I replied, “When you force competitors and team members to join the NHRA and they send the sanctioning body around $4,000,000 at year with no control over what is done with that money, I think they have a right to know where their dues are being spent.” CR

Re: The state of NHRA
 

Makes perfect sense to me given their biggest race of the year is in Indy!

Given (per the post by novassdude), that Los Angeles is No. 4 on the most expensive to live in Cities list (Glendora is a suburb of L.A. as well), that compounds the reason. The (now former) Governator (Awnold S.), allowed me to realize something else interesting to this ideal of yours Crew Chief; when California doubled it's licensing and registration costs a few years back, that was followed by Glendora raising our competition member, licensing, and comp. number costs by doubling them too! Moreover, not only did divisional entry fees go up about $10 bucks (here in D7), but even worse, National Open entry fees went up so much that we pay $65 bucks more for such races than D5 pays for theirs (not to overlook D1 paying about the same for theirs as well...all that for only a grade point...really?)! Interesting, don't you think???

Re: The state of NHRA
 

x2 Ed!

Re: The state of NHRA
 

NHRA isn’t alone w/ its issues. As I was scanning through the 10/17/2011 of Autoweek there was a well written 2 page article delving into the issues facing SCCA. There are a number of direct comparisons that can be drawn between NHRA and SCCA – both were created to foster amateur level racing. Take away the NHRA PROs and the two sanctioning bodies and racers have a number of similarities. Both have regional and national “points” events and lots of classes.

But what caught my attention was the commentary of declining participation and an aging competitor base. Car counts are way down at SCCA. Sounds familiar – huh! But SCCA is doing something about it. It has created a 6 member committee to take a deep dive and examine everything SCCA does. One of the goals is to get the SCCA members that still have race cars in their garages to get them back to the track. The committee is looking at every requirement placed on participants and “seeing if there is a valid reason for it”. Also on the top of the SCCA list is improving its appeal to younger racers. SCCA member average is 45 – and the average age of its racers at the Runoffs (the big end of season race where champions are crowned) is 49. SCCA realizes that the cost of racing is a factor that makes it tough for young racers to participate. SCCA is looking at ways to shorten the Runoffs – which run for a week now. Sounds like Indy. And to get the younger racer involved, SCCA is turning to “Spec” racing with new small cars like the Mazda2, Chevy Sonic, Nissan Versa and Honda Fit. Not sure this will work at NHRA – but there is always the JR. Dragster feeder series to get the young people involved. But I’m not sure any of this helps w/ what we care about – Stock and S/S.

No answers here – just some observations. At least it would be good to see NHRA recognize the issues and proactively look for solutions – like SCCA.

Re: The state of NHRA
 

Mike, what I'd like to see that I bet would help NHRA's attendance, is to see them reduce the cost of sportsman racing back to 2006 levels...I mean everything:

1. Entry fees for national events go back to $240 (especially until our economy improves).

2. Reduce the cost of competition numbers, licenses, and even the NHRA membership to their former levels ($25 bucks for the first number, and $5 for additional classes, or at least drop $15 bucks off of the new competition costs, and $10 bucks off of the membership renewal fee)?

3. Add the .3 tenths that were taken away last year back to all Stock/Super Stock classes (especially if the former altitude correction factors don't come back for our cars)?

I think that just these three measures would increase racer involvement a bunch, over this years levels, but I have a fourth ideal that I doubt will be taken seriously, because it was frowned upon when I last made it:

4. Do for our divisional layout what the NFL did, and if need be, create a Div. 8 to help the cause (as the NFL did by creating not just one, but two new divisions), of divisions where racers have to travel over 500 miles to attend divisional races (this applies mainly to div.'s 5,6,& 7, however the other divisions have at least one race where some racers have to travel 500 + miles for at least one divisional? I'm not holding my breath on this one, but I know it would help those of us with more meager budgets, and/or time restraints due to work/businesses, etc.

I hope Glendora will at least look at the first three seriously, and also reduce the entry fees for national open races (especially since there's no points, or contingency monies involved in this series...we shouldn't have to pay over $140 bucks for just a grade point)! Now I ask you, would you pay a new truck price for a truck that's been used for awhile, thus not giving you the dependability that you'd expect from a new truck? I doubt it, so why should we have to pay divisional entry fees for an event that doesn't give us the benefits that a divisional would offer?

My .02 worth, but I think I speak for many with budgets/time restraints similar to mine. SCCA is exploring these things, how about you NHRA???

Re: The state of NHRA
 

JR Dragster is not ever going to get enough young people involved. When NHRA finally gets serious (desperate?) enough to want to get large numbers of young people involved they will have to humble themselves and go to www.beaversprings.com and look up Beaver Bobs TCR series. One of NHRAs biggest problems has always been it's mindset that if a good idea isn't thought up "in house" it isn't a good idea. Always seemed to me that it's more about how their "old buddies" can make some money.

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[QUOTE= members that still have race cars in their garages to get them back to the track.[/QUOTE]

In an economy where fewer people are investing big bucks in NEW race car projects, this is the key. What is sitting in the garage now because it's "uncompetitive" and how do we get it back on the track in an economical, fair way?

I've always said NHRA shouldn't be listening to the current racers - they should be soliciting opinions from those who raced five years ago and no longer do.

Re: The state of NHRA
 

This is the best post How do we return these racers?

Re: The state of NHRA
 

Until the management and the board at NHRA quit using the organization as a vehicle to enrich themselves nothing will change. They are similar to a lot of non profits that have been in business for a long time, in that all the profit flows to the management and board in the form of high salaries and benefits. If you look at their tax returns it's easy to see. It's not just Compton whose salary is out of whack but there are a bunch of people making over 200k.

NHRA could be run with less than half the people with a third of the payroll. First thing I would do is move it to Indy. They own that property and it would be easy to put up a modest office building to house the staff. All other expenses need to be looked at including all the contracts that are given to various vendors during the year and benefits to management and board members that are out of line. The bottom line is that there is no incentive to control costs. If you look at past tax returns as revenue goes up so do expenses . They make the numbers fit instead of trying to spend less so they can invest in making the organization stronger. As long as the present structure is in place nothing will change. Do we really need a board of directors with every member making 6 figures for one meeting a month? Why do we need a president and ceo making 750k that knows nothing about racing?

It all comes down to my basic premise and that is the company is run for the benefit of the management and board and not for the good of the organization and it's members.

Re: The state of NHRA
 

You all know what Im going to say here.......X's 1,000,000. I could see the hand writing on the wall back in the mid to late 70's before Wally Parks passed away. The lowly sportsman racer is basicly screwed over and over since about the mid 80's from a financial stand point.

Re: The state of NHRA
 

Great Post!

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It appears the alchohol classes are possibly going regional. A post from another board:

Regional races coming?
I have just heard this is the new format for 2012. There was a committee that decided that we will only have "regional" races in 2012 for the Alcohol classes. No divisionals. This was not discussed or decided by the your divisional advisory council. This meeting was invitation only, and held without my knowing it was taking place. I am the Div. 1 advisory rep. and no one asked for my imput. I am curious as to who made up this committee. How many racers were involved, or was this all NHRA's decision?
Mike Kosky, Division 1 Alcohol advisory committee


The thread:
http://www.insidetopalcohol.com/show...l-races-coming

Change is in the air...

Re: The state of NHRA
 

Take a minute to cross over to the Alcohol Fourm at this link. Some interesting reading.

The thread:
http://www.insidetopalcohol.com/show...l-races-coming

Re: The state of NHRA
 

Rumor has it that there will be 6.00, 6.50, 7.00 classes added to Stock. Anyone else hearing that?

Re: The state of NHRA
 

...or giving up those who live the lavish life here would save a bundle.

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The idea of the alcohol cars going to be at regional and not divisional races will be a catch 22 for the other sportsman classes. NHRA will use the lack of alcohol cars as an excuse to raise the entry fees due to the fact that there will be less spectators coming to just see the normal program. A divisional race will be just like a Saturday night at a bracket race, with no spectators, the alcohol cars are what draw the crowds at divisionals whether you believe it or not. I personally like the idea of no alcohol cars, but I don't go to divisionals lately either. $180 to race for a $1000 doesn't make sense to me, when I can race for the same $1000 with an entry fee of $50 at my local track. That's is what is killing the NHRA program, I love stock, but I have to stay logical when I decide to go where to race.

Casey Miles
248H Stock?

Re: The state of NHRA
 

I was told that when I went thru tech at Charlotte by Bruce. If anyone should know, I would think that it would be him. I had posted that info after I had gotten back home.
Chuck

Re: The state of NHRA
 

I'm just curious. What kind of ET and MPH would a stocker in a 6.00 lb class be capable of running?

Re: The state of NHRA
 

A combination rated at 500HP would weigh 3170 with the driver.

Not that long ago, what was considered a fast traditional 425 rated combination ran around 9.50 @ 136 in AA, which is a 7.5 class, at 3360.

Figure that a 6.0 class stocker would probably be faster than SS/B cars that win class at Indy, with ease. Probably as fast as SS/A cars, with a little effort.

Traction will be the limiting factor. Of course, they may allow the fast classes a 10.5" tire, too.

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If it's got a blower about 8.80's at 160 plus.

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I first got into drag racing in the early 70s. Running the stock class when it was stock. I known run local points in brackets. So I don't even care about the NHRA!

Re: The state of NHRA
 

then why are you reading this forum, let alone posting here

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How is this relative to the question? Jim


.

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It is not relative.

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Just what the eliminator needs, stockers with parachutes.

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Yeah, Stockers that are not stockers...

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Guys, I fully understand where your coming with this but think of it this way.
Say it's 1950, hp is what average 150-200? Times are...18 sec for stockers?
1960 things pick up and you got 400+ hp and 13 sec
1970 450hp and 11's
1980 450 and technology for 10's
1990 etc
2000 etc
2011 you have 500+hp from the factory and street cars that will run way below what was even imagined. Yes, you CAN walk into a dealership and buy a 750hp supersnake mustang! Add the technology and you do have 8's at 160mph.
They are still "stock". Heck you could take a street driven shelby and with stocker suspension mods run 10's.

So, what do you do?
Well, you make classes to fit the new cars. Yes they are still "stock". Did the guy running a 15 sec V/SA complain when the A/SA went from 12sec to 11, to 10's? No.

All I'm saying is, the factory equipment and technology available today is lightyears beyond what was available only a short time ago. Can you imagine in 1970 having a blown, cnc ported, 4 valve, ohc engine with rods that would spin to 8000? That's top fuel technology at that time. Today it goes for groceries.

Another 20 years and we'll have 3L engines with 600hp@8500 in econo boxes. What then? Sorry, you go faster than the vaunted 68 hemi so your not a real car or not allowed or whatever?

Time moves on.......