IHRA tournament of Champions

[Michael Beard]

Originally Posted by Jason Oldfield

I'll stand by my prior comments that trying to run the Sportsman National event PRIOR to the TOC was just plain stupid. I agree with you...they did it to try to entice racers to come down, and make the weekend financially viable. But, the race should NOT have been used to give somebody one last shot to qualify for the TOC in 2009. It should have been run AFTER the 2009 TOC, with the winner of that race and the TOC automatically gaining a berth in the 2010 TOC.

I disagree. In hindsight, should the schedule have been modified? Sure. But accomplishing the event should not have been a problem. We do multiple-race weekends all the time. Again, worst case scenario that was out of anyone's hands for the most part.

Cut your losses, split the purse, and move on in life with a clean slate in 2010.

I wholeheartedly disagree with that! Don't you dare take away an opportunity for someone to become a World Champion. NOT crowning a World Champion would make the whole thing a joke. Many, many events have been rescheduled in the past, some of them multiple times. Even if it's "just" a Pro-Am race, ANY race that has championship implications (and that's ALL of them) need to be run to completion. I recall a VMP Pro-Am being rescheduled TWICE, and the outcome DID determine a World Champion. (Which, oh BTW, was finally completed Nov 1-3 at Virginia!) Did it suck for those involved having to go back twice? Sure. But it was the right thing to do.

If you run the race in early 2010 (like it looks like they will, IF they run it), you'll eliminate a good portion of the racers simply because they can't return,

Yes, that may be the case for some, but that's the same thing you deal with in any event, whether it be staying til Wednesday to finish an event (Maple Grove, Pomona), rescheduling (Toronto), staying til Wednesday then moving the rest of eliminations to the next national event (Norwalk -> MIR), multiple rescheduling (VMP), etc. I'm sorry, if you can't or won't return for a free-entry, $10K to win race, there's nothing that can be done.

and this race will favor those racers down south who have been able to race prior to the TOC. Those up in the Northeast will be going down there cold, and will be at a distinct disadvantage (rather than running at the end of the season where EVERYBODY has a large number of runs to draw off of).

What? 1) No offense, but when you're racing at this level, two time shots had better be enough to "knock the rust off". You'd think no one could ever win a season opener. 2) How are last year's runs invalidated?


FWIW, I didn't get an e-mail either.

My opinion only,