2025 Payout / Pay Structure

[Mike Pearson]

Originally Posted by JeremyDuncan

You are lucky in D2. D3 has regionals at 4 out of 7 divisional races. Another 2 regionals at stand alone events at divisional tracks. So they are using sportsman entry fees to use alcohol cars as a booked
in show.

NHRA and tracks have embraced the double race model. If that is your plan then you have to know that your spectators are not coming out on a Wednesday. It's high time we realize that we(sportsman racers)are the main customers and we deserve better payouts and convenience for our entry fee costs. Paying spectators are merely a bonus at a vast majority of non national event races.

Also when Alcohol cars are contested at a double they receive "test passes" why? At Bella Rose they received 2 test hits before their 2 qualifiers when it was known that weather was going to impact the races. Then they
ran Alcohol eliminations on Friday. They made zero passes on the weekend.

Here in D2 this year we have 2 doubles. One at SGMP and one at the "Rock". I am not real fond of the doubles. Have to be away from work for a much longer time. I did not realize D3 had so many regionals. I totally agree with both of your posts.

[Dan Bennett]

There is no doubt that sportsman payouts are insulting and ludicrous. And yes, there is a total difference between the ways that they and alcohol cars are treated. But I think the real problem is that the track operators are backed into a corner and have no real way to improve things.

I've had many operators tell me that it makes all the difference in the world if alcohol is on the program. Casual fans who know nothing and care little about class cars will come out to see something fast, loud, and sadly that occasionally catch on fire. They've told me that those customers make a big difference in whether the race is a success for them or not.

I agree they should pay their own way, and even that it makes so much sense and is the right thing to do I don't think any of the track owners would like removing them from the show. So to me, just like so many other things, this falls back onto the NHRA. They need to come up with a system where a track owner running any sort of their events has a decent chance to make money. I don't see that as something they care about at all. They've made so many cuts which hurt the racers' experience but none that have affected themselves. I'm pretty sure they could rebalance the costs to tracks to make it fair for everybody.

[jmcarter]

Understand giving alcohol cars the advantage of free crew and entry, they need to develop new talent but seeing guys like Tony Stewart and Coughlin given that while sportsman racers get the short straw seems a bit unfair. Given we all want the tracks to be successful we have little choice but to attend if we want access to Division races and grade points. South Georgia and Florida racers simply don?t have easy access to Association events so hopefully IHRA will get something rolling for us. Just sad to see NHRA have such little regard for class racers.

[GUMP]

Don't we all do this because we hate money?

[MoJo Risen]

Originally Posted by GUMP

Don't we all do this because we hate money?

Meanwhile Junior Dragsters had a huge bump on there purse from gift cards to larger payouts than Sportsman.

Maybe we all outta make and race Junior Dragsters

[Tabitha Draughon]

Carolina Class Racers Association starts paying with 3rd round loss, pay in cash at the track.

[JP1738]

Update: My check from Gainesville came yesterday.

$250 for getting to 4 cars in a 107 man, 7 round race.

If they start paying $100 for a 3rd round loss, $125 for 4th, $150 for fifth, $250 for 6th (semis), $500 R-up and $1500 to win, that's approximately $8600 for 107 cars. They would have taken in $19,795 at $185 entry per participant.

Now, to be fair, this race had class eliminations. Lets make a generous estimate and say it costs $200 to make a wally. They would have handed out about 20 or so class trophies in STK alone. That's another $4000. Plus "tech" and officials which the cost would be spread out between the other 12 classes contested. Say they take another couple grand towards paying for that stuff. That comes out to $14,600.

I don't really know where I am going with this, but I thought I would break down some of the math for the sake of a talking point. I feel like it's ridiculous to know that the only way to break even for one of these events is to get to the final. I feel like the break even point should come in the semis and you should actually be able to make a touch if you make the finals. Obviously you can make a lot more in the finals if you have lots of contingency as well, which of course I was not eligible for getting beat in the semis.

[BKSG1198]

Back in 2010 at the MG LODRS we made it down to the semi-final in SG, this was one of those rare races where we got like 80 cars in SG that weekend and it was a 7-round race, my dad lost to Bernie Weaver that day and as we're loading up, he says go get my check from the tower, so I head up and Kathy Phillips was doing checks at the time, I tell her SG semi's 1194, she hands over the check to me and I say "You must be mistaken, I said Semi's for SG, this is only $250" Kathy was normally always on point with her numbers, she goes, nope $1800 to win, $600 RUP, $250 semi's....I get back to the trailer and give my dad the check and he goes we'll I was going to go for steak for dinner, guess it's Burger King or McDonalds....lol.

Once again, we do it for the fun and memories rather than trying to become millionaires, I know we can make the argument that bracket racing is the way to go but, when you add up those entry fees you better hope you win or get to the split to hopefully make some cash back, I used to work for a team that did the big $$$ bracket races and the end of the weekend tabs with entries and buybacks could make someone run into traffic if you didn't go some rounds.

[Bobby Fazio]

Stock gets a little less to win a national than the other LODRS categories because it was considered an entry level class 100 years ago.