[Joe Pinkston]

I'm sorry for the delay in getting the word out to you all, but the Southern Super Series Racing Association (SSSRA) will be having our first event for 2009 at Lakeland Motorsports Park on May 23 & 24.

We originally started this series last November with a 2 day event at Lakeland with help from the great people of the Southern Stock/Super Stock Association. Our plans are to have a series for the S/ST and H/R racers to run along with the Southern Stock/Super Stock Association. They have their schedule listed on their section of this forum and that is the same schedule we plan to follow.

What we plan to have is a series of 2 races at each event (1 race Saturday-1 race Sunday) so everyone can still work on Friday and be back home at a decent time Sunday evening to get back to work on Monday. The racers will pay the spectator admission fee at the gate to the track, then the entry fee of $50 each race will be paid to the association. The pay out will be 100% of the entry fee money taken in. Also we hope to add additional prizes for the racers to make this a fun race. At our first race my company (North Fla. Monument Co.) paid $25 each race to the best loosing package in first round, and we will continue this for this season. If we can get some other businesses involved we can offer more fun prizes at our events in addition to the normal payout. Ofcourse the amount of prize money will vary from race to race depending on the car count, but it will always be 100% payback. Membership for SSSRA is $20 per year and this year that money will go to a points fund to be awarded at the end of the season. What the SSSSA has done is taken their membership fees and used the money to have T-shirts made and the proceeds of the T-shirt sales goes into their points fund. Maybe that is something we can consider for next year.

We will plan to have a meeting at Lakeland during this event (preferably on Saturday) with all the racers (and any other interested) in attendance to set our plans for this year and the next. Four issues that come to mind right now that we will need to address are:
1. What index do we want to run (6.90 NHRA or 7.00 IHRA). Ofcourse we will run 10.90 on 1/4 mile when it is available.
2. How will cars be paired each round (draw of cards, random pairing, random pairing first round then laddered....etc.).
3. How everyone would like to see the points system work (example; best 8 of 10 races, best 6 of 10 etc.). We realize racers have families and other obligations that might prohibit them from being at every race, so we want to make this as racer friendly as possible.
4. How points will be awarded (example: 10 pts. for buying tech card-10 pts. for running 1st. Rd.-10 pts. for each round win, or 105 pts. for win-94 pts. for R/U-83 pts. for semi final and on back. This example can be found in the NHRA and IHRA rule book).


I hope all you S/ST-H/R racers in the Fla and South Ga. area will give consideration to joining us and having a fun time in this series. This will be an association run by racers for racers and your input is needed and will be greatly appreciated.

Please feel free to contact me at my office (888)-254-2572, or on my cell phone (352)-843-8841. If you dont get an answer just leave me a message and I'll get right back to you.

Thanks