And so it starts
 

With around 6 weeks before the Gatornationals officially starts,
I see we have our first withdraw in the stock eliminator category.

Can anyone guess who got the lucky spot today?
Was it spot saving or was this racer just that lucky? You be the judge.

And for those of you that though the GPA deal a few weeks ago was a real thing you are truly special. It was just a funny way of bring up a ON GOING problem that NHRA has yet to ADDRESS and or FIX. Good luck to all you racers with less then 8 grade points this season.

Re: And so it starts
 

For those that don’t monitor “live timing”, please expound.

Re: And so it starts
 

Hate the system for sure. I can see its a "Hey I'm getting out my good ole buddy" Could use at the least a waiting list of some sort.. Must be what down to 4 grade points now. Sorry to all the 8 or more grade point racers that wanted a chance.

Paul Haszlauer

Re: And so it starts
 

I took a screen shot on my phone when it filled up so I have easily identified the first change.

Re: And so it starts
 

Found it.....

1656 FS/AA Kenneth Miele '08 Cobra FORD 330 MICRO STRATEGIES INC.

Now I know why Ken was so against Charleys new business on here.....



(just kidding!) just post the switch guys. Nail biter watching this unfold!!

Re: And so it starts
 

Good Catch Charlie! Lets out that guy and string him up! It's probably one of those sandbaggers running one of them store bought late model race cars.

I bet he doesn't use blinders either.

I will tell you this is funny ****. Poor Ken,

Oh wait, scratch that.......it was ME! Or should i talk in the third person, it was that EFI guy from Holley Robin Lawrence!! There ya go.

Let me deflect a little pressure from Ken as there was no pre conceived plan. As events have changed in my life I need to make scheduling changes.

I have decided to take an early retirement from Holley. It was a voluntary move on my part. I was scheduled to be in Florida and Georgia for 4 weeks. Lights Out, Baby Gators, Gators and the points meet at SGMP.
With my exit from Holley I cancelled my plan. Holley was very good to me with my program. I t was less expensive than flying in and renting cars and hotels. Plus I was able to race.

I had talked with Ken shortly after he missed the entry for the Gators. He was the very first person to say he needed an entry. I was talking about our banner ad ad the Gators was mentioned. At that point I was still going south.

After I made the decision to withdraw I called Ken. Done deal.

Looking back I should have put it up for offers LOL. No that's not how I roll.

Flame away boys!!

You will see once I am no longer with Holley my posts might look more like Billy Nees posts.

I got work to do, gonna kick some 302 COPO ***


Robin

Re: And so it starts
 

Ken and Robin It's not your fault. The most popular class in NHRA racing and they only allow 50 cars. It fills up in 3 minutes. I put the blame on the person in charge of the car quotas for each class. After seeing how fast it filled up you would hope they would have announced and reopened it the next day same deal adding more spots. If you have a grade point of eight you sponsored NHRA on the local level and should have a reasonable chance to enter a National race. If it's a 50 or 63 car field it doesn't change the number of rounds.

Having said that after all the years watching racers swapping out their spot to let another one in. You would think by now they would have had at least the next 10 racers in each class in order they entered but didn't get in on a back up list. Once someone backs out they would go down that list until the spot was filled.

What you and Ken did has been the norm for the last several years. Even if you didn't let Ken know and just dropped out it would not have guaranteed the next one inline would have received your vacant spot. It's long overdue for the person in charge of quotas to have a bystanders list. Lets hope this gets done so we don't have issues like this. BP

Re: And so it starts
 

Out of the four racers that withdrew representing all three brands, the three racers that replaced them also represent the same three brands. So no harm no foul.

The sad part of NHRA’s direction is it is alienating customers to the point of I don’t care anymore

Re: And so it starts
 

You start to feel like your standing in the cold and the last person holding the extra coffee gets in. I was noticing another spot change. 2 grade points in 2022 plus 6 in 2021 equals 4 average. All is well, systems are a go. Never mind the possible person (s) that accumilated maybe 12-16 grade points in the same time frame that wanted to go but can't get in because they don't play the game.
i can never go to National races that are 20 minutes from my house because I don't think I need 8 races to win a division championship. My math says there are only 7 anyway in division 7. Why is a division championship not only divisional races that you claim your in?

Paul Haszlauer
79 C/SA

Re: And so it starts
 

Charley,
You for sure are special, in a truly dichotomous way. It's not a bad thing, just in a devious way of being.
Frank

Re: And so it starts
 

So far,

Stock

Out:
Terry Taylor
Brina S.
Robin Lawrence

In:
Thomas Baker
Ken Miele
Missy Phillips

Super Stock

No change.

Re: And so it starts
 

This would be the fairest way to do it, Keep going down the list as people drop out.

Re: And so it starts
 

They can't afford the manpower. They have a skeleton crew out there now.

Re: And so it starts
 

(I cant resist, sorry)

Why not just eliminate Sewer Gas and that should free up all the space needed for real race cars? :)

Re: And so it starts
 

No, drop top sportsman, we are only a couple weeks from the race and they only have 12 entries, plus those guys take way too long in between pairs anyway, but they got their entourage all on the starting line…

Re: And so it starts
 

because sewer gas and super chump deserve to be there just as much as a bunch of glorified bracket racers. couldnt resist, lynn engels a/s 507, ss/h 507 and i/a comp:)

Re: And so it starts
 

Re: And so it starts
 

Need a "love" button for that Jim!!

Those pointers could be applied right down the line to ALL classes! Save some time....
Amen Tim!!

Re: And so it starts
 

One other waste of time and also not fair to racer "B" behind you who is in the water waiting to do his burnout. Racer "A" redlights and then takes 29 seconds to clear the track because he is unhappy.

Re: And so it starts
 

Is nhraeventreg.com updated immediately when someone withdraws?

If so, monitoring this should be as simple as browser plugin like distill web monitor which you can have monitor a website for changes as often as every 5 seconds and notify you via sound, email, and/or SMS when a change is seen.

If this is actually possible, enough people monitoring like that would certainly make it more difficult to do a coordinated withdrawal/entry.

Re: And so it starts
 

Patrick Downing ,yes Charlie's brother is an IT guy. He told me that he has this setup when he is looking for a spot.



Robin

Re: And so it starts
 

Seems like a really good idea to put GPA out of business.
The only issue I see is that if the spot opens up at 3am and you are sleeping, is there another app that will enter your credit card info automatically while you sleep and take the spot?

Re: And so it starts
 

I have referred to this as the "pout lap" for years.

Even suggested to NHRA last year, lets have a $250 fine for being absolutely disrespectful to the other racers behind you rather than a $250 fine for an oil down that the racer is not in control of.

Re: And so it starts
 

My pet peeve also. The racer who redlights, spins, loses control of the two step etc. and then takes it out on the pair behind them sitting with their tires getting cooler by the second. There are repeat offenders I witness doing this every year. NHRA notes how much time it takes to run a certain amount of each category down the track at each race. Maybe this has something to do with the quotas going down to 50 at some races?

Re: And so it starts
 

Why put the GPA out of business ? This mess was created by NHRA. GPA is a viable alternative . I had 1 grade point last year. GPA has answered my prayers.

Re: And so it starts
 

The spot holding then dropping out has been going
on for the Brainerd Natl event for years same offenders
every yr!

Re: And so it starts
 

One way for short term fix, loose your entry fee if you back out! Or have a wait list with random drawing as spots open.