Pistol Pete,
At events where they have class, I do not think they should throw in another special class like the Factory Shoot out. The stock guys will have to make decisions wether they want to run class or support the factory shoot out. I thought most of the NHRA officials are Racers or Ex-Racers, No Racer wants to turn his car around in anywhere from 5-14 minutes for 6 rounds in a Row. That is what they did on Thursday. Just like a clutch car when the clutches get to extreme temperatures because they are designed to slip, a loose Torque converter can also generate a massive amount of heat. This will lead to hurting the transmission or over heating the fluid and pushing it out onto the track. It was an extremely unsafe decision on NHRA's part to have two rounds of qualifying then 4 rounds of class and four rounds of factory shoot out.
442 Olds,
That is uncalled for too. Races should have at least 45 minute cool down time to prepare, in most cases a car will make it down the track fine back to back passes. But it will struggle to make 6 back to back runs in a row.
1320 Racer,
I agree with you the track prep should have started a day before the race was scheduled. as far as racing in the NHRA series they are the only ball game in town. If you dont play by their rules in their ball park they will punish you. The problem here is that stock eliminator is their largest class, that means there are thousands of stocker racers that want to race. So they are willing to accept the schedule and track prep. This time was the NHRA's choice to leave the schedule as is and the track as is. Like I said before alot of the new stockers that come from Ford, GM, and Dodge have as much torque as a prostock car does. I know they know this. You dont see them calling a Pro Stock back to the lanes in under 5 minutes. They allow these new cars in NHRA so they should make it fair for them too.
Larry Hill,
In every series that I have sponsored Track prep fell under the starters responsibilities. Maybe NHRA should take some of the sportsman entry money and higher a starter just for the Sportsman classes. That Starter works directly with the Sportsman racers.
Bruce Nolan,
Our company has worked with many of the NHRA advertisers and sponsors already in other series. Advertisers are very important to the series as they are to the Racer. Most Racers want to perform as well for their sponsors as they do for themselves. It is important to keep everyone happy, this is a very ego driven sport and its not good to bruise egos. Because bruised ego's typically walk away. We had a class in Fun Ford weekend where we gave away a brand new Truck to the class champion and a free two year lease to the runner up. This was because we worked with the advertising company and the Ford Virginia Truck Plant. We brought them to an event and got them involved going to the event a day early, sitting them in our vehicles, let them start the race vehicles and gave them all team shirts. I know alot of racers this weekend spent extra time with their sponsors and people that helped them out and get to the event. So you want to perform well for these sponsors/people. The NHRA just made it impossible with the schedule and track prep.
I wonder if it is possible If Bob Lang would jump in on here and explain the Division 1 side of the story. Maybe Bob has no say at national events. It would be nice to interact with one of NHRA's top guys on this matter. I know I spoke to an official that was mixing the traction compound he said sometimes it takes a while to get the mix right. Then he said the only thing they need to do is take more clutch out of the cars. Which 90% of the cars there were probably Automatics! I spoke to him long before the Pros ran and infact it was a day before they ran. I hope Bob will help all the racers in this situation after all this is Division 1 and we dont want other divisions making fun of us do we?
