IHRA tournament of Champions

[Alex Denysenko]

With Skooter's permission I am posting a copy of the letter so that all concerned parties can read it.
I urge all racers who actually qualified for the TOC and showed up to race the TOC at Rockingham to contact Skooter and share your thoughts on a resolution.

To: All IHRA Tournament Of Champions Qualifiers



As we announced at the World Finals, we are contacting all TOC qualifiers via e-mail (or letter) and asking for your feedback and opinions on what you would like to see happen to conclude the World Championship.



Everyone gets a voice in determining the outcome. I would like you to respond to this e-mail ASAP so that we may go through the responses and give you an answer next week. Please send your response directly to me at speaco@feldinc.com. We may need some additional time from the competitors who had to be mailed a letter, but we will go through your requests as soon as they come in.



As you are giving thought to all of this, I want to address some additional items that have come up in various competitor e-mails so that we are all on the same page:





WORLD FINALS WEEKEND IN REVIEW

We are as disappointed as you are to have gone through that weekend and not produce champions and not host the awards ceremony. We have never had the kind of emotional letdown we experienced. We had a great weekend planned and a great awards ceremony and we came back from the event feeling like we just got the news that Christmas had been cancelled. We tried everything in our power to keep pushing and drying and adjusting that weekend. Just the week prior we had run three complete eliminators with just as many cars in the same amount of time during the Summit Team Finals at Rockingham, so honestly we were completely ready for this event and felt like the schedule was very busy, but compared to what we do during Team Finals weekends, this would not be as much of a challenge given the limited field of TOC participants we had to work with. As it turned out, it continued to rain Monday after we cancelled the event, it rained Tuesday and Wednesday and I’m not sure about Thursday but the forecast was bad. We may not have been able to complete the event in 7 days with the weather we had.



Anytime things go wrong someone has to bear the blame. That is part of the business and we accept that aspect. Of the competitors that have contacted us, the vast majority realize we did everything we could, including $6K worth of gas to dry and countless man hours from our crew to try and get the track ready ASAP. Some competitors are mad at us, some are just disappointed. The common theme through the e-mails so far has been to review the options carefully and make the best decision possible realizing that whatever happens, it won’t be to everyone’s liking. That’s why we are asking for your thoughts. We always want to get feedback from those involved in the program before we decide what happens next so please take some time to put some thought into what you would like to see happen.





WHAT WE KNOW FOR SURE AT THIS TIME:

We do know a few things right now. First, whatever we do, we will not be running this race in 2009. Many racers have already expressed concerns about money, time off work and maintenance issues with trying to do anything else in 2009. We realize that the weather issue in Rockingham throws everyone into a bad situation for the remainder of this year. We also realize that a world champion needs to be determined ASAP.





ABOUT THE EVENT

The dynamic of the TOC is that competitors came from all over the map. In fact we had competitors from 28 different states and two provinces in Canada on hand to race for the championship. Never before have there been such a diverse representation racing for the world championship. This is mainly the reason we tried to pack as much racing into one weekend as possible. We have continually done our best to provide value for your tow money on all levels of IHRA competition, because that is what our racers have asked us to do.



Having this many racers from that many different places, it was important for us to have a big weekend of racing on the schedule. Additionally, we knew early on that many of you would have never been to Rockingham before, let alone that elevation, so we wanted to have enough events scheduled to get you used to the track and the conditions to try and eliminate as many disadvantages as possible for those who never raced there before. We were trying to determine the world championship and felt this was an important variable. We also had a huge push from the sportsman competitors who wanted to be able to participate in the World Finals weekend who normally would race the World Finals. We wanted to try and accommodate as many racers as possible, because that is what we always try to do.





TRACK CONDITIONS

We are at a loss as to what changed. Our normal supplies and people were on hand. Our normal routines were followed. We have prepared tracks in much colder conditions, with as much humidity (at times) and low track temps with no issues. Track temp, dew point and humidity were bouncing all over, but we are completely baffled at how a pro mod car could run within .01 of a world record, a pro stock car can reset the ET and MPH world record on Sunday, top sportsman and top dragster can run straight and true and then see a good number of super rod and quick rod cars have problems right after the other 4 second cars get done. Contrary to popular rumors, the track was sprayed less than any other national event because we had just completed the team finals the week prior and were cautious of over spraying. The last 1/8th mile was completely hand scraped prior to the start of the sportsman nationals to be sure the top end of the track was in good condition. Of course, when the troubles began, we tried additional spray and prep methods to try and cure the situation. We altered the run order to try and get a groove, we tried dragging, then no dragging, jet, no jet, etc. When the track temp came around it seemed to help, but the majority of the time there was no sun and we tried a variety of conventional and unconventional ways to get the rod cars to not blow the tires off coming off the stop. There is no logical reason a quick rod car has to abort a run right after Pro cars or Top Sportsman/Top Dragster make 4 second runs right down the groove. The starting line was very good and the track temp was maintained, but when the rod cars came off the stop most of the high hp rod cars were unhappy the entire run as the cars never got planted. Yes all cars were making way more power because of the conditions, but that means the pro cars and TS/TD were making more power as well and running over the same places that the rod cars were struggling with.



We are currently reviewing all our supplies and suppliers to look for any manufacturer that may have changed their manufacturing methods or product ingredients. Our people and procedures were followed, as that was the first thing we looked at. Our suspicion is that something was changed in one of the products we use and we’re going to find out what it was. It still makes no sense as to why certain cars had no issues and others did regardless of the findings. If the track is bad for any reason, common sense dictates that it would be bad for all cars and if a quick rod car had to abort a top sportsman car would certainly have to abort. That was not the case and we need to know why. No one here is burying their head in the sand on this issue, but no one that we’ve talked to so far has any explanation for why rod cars struggled down track while other much faster cars did not.





SUMMIT ALL STARS

After consulting with Summit, the remaining events will be run to conclusion and winners will be crowned. We have been given flexibility as to where these events take place so that the burden of travel is put at a minimum. We are currently calling the remaining competitors to see where would make the most sense from each category. Some classes have not been started, while others are in the finals. We will take it on a class by class basis and come up with a location where each category will complete the competition. We may be finishing these in a variety of different locations based on who is left in competition and where they live. If you are a Summit All Star competitor, expect a phone call from Sherrie Barbour this week.





We believe in sportsman racing on all levels and we believe that with your input we can make the best out of a bad situation. Please give thought to the entire dynamic of the event and your fellow competitors and not just how it effects you in particular when you send in your thoughts.



Thank you for your support of IHRA and the TOC!



Skooter Peaco