PINKS vs Class Racing

[Gary Smith]

If everyone here were smart, you'd lobby class racing to Rich Christensen of PINKS All Out instead of continually wasting time and money with NHRA. After attending my first PAO this guy knows how to treat, promote, and market our style of racing. He also knows how to work the spectators unlike NHRA who is taking everyone's money and bending us over and giving it to us in a painful way. Rich not only gives a ***** and honestly cares, but really enjoys what he does!!!! He connects with EVERYONE, not just the cash cows who come to play (aka the John Forces and Don Schumachers). Something to be said about the success of PINKS All Out format when NHRA creates their half-assed, half-hearted attempt "Unleashed" program to re-gain what they've lost to PAO. Because NHRA it's all about the money THEY make, not HOW they make it. Where Rich it's all about the racers and connecting with the fans, understanding the financial success comes as a result. Because he knows without racers, he has no fans, and with no fans, he has no show, and with no show, there's no marketability. Wally Parks was the creative thinker and had the passion behind the creation of NHRA. But he's long gone and nothing like the bottom line driven bean counters who run it today. Everyone must understand the logic of corporate bean counters...it's all about the numbers, the 80-20 rule, and financial bottom line. We're in the minority column, a liability that "brings nothing to the table" according to what's on paper. I cannot stress enough, that, as long as the majority here continue to thumb their noses at these suggestions and at the few of us who have been willing to turn our backs on the true enemy of our destiny, we will continue to get hurt, much like the path of Modified Eliminator. In hard economic times greed becomes increasingly obvious. Just like an employee receiving his/her termination letter, we are facing the same circumstances. The top brass do not care about the personal hardship it causes, only that it bought the white elephant more time until the fat cats can safely cut and run.

[Wade Mahaffey]

I like them both, but there are parts of each that I don't like. POA is really neat if your the fastest guy of the top 16 that they pick for whatever reason (something with a girl, a wagon, a minority driver, a truck, a mopar with a chevy engine, father-son etc). If your not lucky that day, you might get two time runs and watch the rest. Take away the chance to be on TV and see what happens. Same for the NHRA, everybody wants to be where the big deal is going on, myself included. I respectfully really feel bad for the diehard class racers, who have spent a life time perfecting their combinations. And today nobody cares, the fans just want to see FAST...(turbos, blowers, nitrous). Then if that don't get ya, at the Nationals the #83 quailifier puts you (#3 quailifer) on the trailer with just a good reaction time. He bought his car last month for $10,000. You bought yours in 1971 and have 25K in the engine. To me something ain't right ! There must be something that I'm not seeing. I should be seeing it soon though, with this 60 Corvette for Super/Stock. My plan is larger than Pinks and/or NHRA. Build a car that is multi-faceted and can do many things. NHRA, IHRA, IMCA, NMCA, Nostalgia, Pinks, Local Brackets, Street driver, 10.5, Show, then do whatever you feel like with it! I like all of it, oh did I mention the fun of building that car yourself !!!

Wade Mahaffey

[63corvette]

The only reason NHRA keeps the Sportsman racing at the National Events is to pay the bill for putting on the event.
Case in point:
Only Sportsman pay entry fees: Our fees cover the operation for NHRA's part of the show. The track covers the rest.
Only Sportsman pay Insurance fees Professional Teams must post a Bond at the beginning of the year: Our fees cover the entire insurance coverage for the weekend show for everyone inside the track. The track turns the operation of their track and in turn is the umbrella coverage for the show only. It will be interesting how the accident at Chandler turns out and who pays for that.
I would bet today the Sportsman Insurance coverages for 2011 will be going up due to the Chandler accident.

If the Sportsman racers did not pay the bills we would not be included now at the National Events as was discussed the last couple of years.

I watch Pinks sometimes but when a guy is berated for having an engine failure on camera for oiling the track I am no longer a watcher. The guy feels bad enough without being laid into for oiling the track.
I also have friends who attended the Pinks all out to try and get in and they will never try again. They told me it was like the NHRA show hurry up and wait. I have not tried to get in as I figured I could never get in with an 8 second car. They always pick 10 second or slower groupings.

My take is Its All About The Money and what Pinks can sell!

My 2 Cents and not worth more than that.

[hemidup]

I heard that Pinks 400 plus spots sell out in about 5 minutes.

[Ed Fernandez]

I respectfully really feel bad for the diehard class racers, who have spent a life time perfecting their combinations. And today nobody cares, the fans just want to see FAST...(turbos, blowers, nitrous). Then if that don't get ya, at the Nationals the #83 quailifier puts you (#3 quailifer) on the trailer with just a good reaction time. He bought his car last month for $10,000.

Wade,thats why there's Comp eliminator,for the diehards that want to go fast.The CIC is a bit of a hinderance but not as confining as the AHFS.
The Pinks minded set have no interest in working on a a restricted combination like S/SS.All
they do is throw money at big inch motors with they're so called "power adders".Does
the work slackers come to mind?

[Gary Smith]

Originally Posted by Ed Fernandez

I respectfully really feel bad for the diehard class racers, who have spent a life time perfecting their combinations. And today nobody cares, the fans just want to see FAST...(turbos, blowers, nitrous). Then if that don't get ya, at the Nationals the #83 quailifier puts you (#3 quailifer) on the trailer with just a good reaction time. He bought his car last month for $10,000.

Wade,thats why there's Comp eliminator,for the diehards that want to go fast.The CIC is a bit of a hinderance but not as confining as the AHFS.
The Pinks minded set have no interest in working on a a restricted combination like S/SS.All
they do is throw money at big inch motors with they're so called "power adders".Does
the work slackers come to mind?

Actually Ed quite the contrary...this would be the best thing for the sport. What the fans want are closely matched cars with character, brand rivalries, and be included in the hype. Instead of shoe polish racing like they do on Sunday, it would be class match ups just like the old days, and trust me, it would grow beyond anyone's imagination. Those who've worked the hardest could finally be rewarded. Fans could follow that format easy..all heads up, no breakout, no handicap starts. The PINKS promoters add in some exhibition stuff as a bonus, but the main show are the close matched cars in an all or nothing death thrash. NHRA has had ample opportunity to work it like this, but prefer to suck up to the nitro bombs, while they milk every last dollar from our wallets instead.

[Robert Swartz]

Originally Posted by 63corvette

I watch Pinks sometimes but when a guy is berated for having an engine failure on camera for oiling the track I am no longer a watcher. The guy feels bad enough without being laid into for oiling the track.
I also have friends who attended the Pinks all out to try and get in and they will never try again. They told me it was like the NHRA show hurry up and wait. I have not tried to get in as I figured I could never get in with an 8 second car. They always pick 10 second or slower groupings.

My take is Its All About The Money and what Pinks can sell!

My 2 Cents and not worth more than that.

I went to the Pinks at Indy this past year as a "tater". After watching it on TV, it looked really neat. The reality of what I saw. A lot of time sitting and waiting. It is a TV show, they're looking for that spectacular thing, a nitrous explosion, a blown engine/tranny, hugh wheelstand, car going out of control, to augment their highlight reel. That and I can only take so much of the drunks yelling and screaming, I guess I'm just not a good spectater.

Then when you get to the promotion part of it, $40 hats, $60+ shirts, you can have it. Nah, I'll pass. Went to work Monday, told all the guys what a bust it was and how it was the most boring thing I could have subjected myself to. They all thought I was nuts, "you got to go to such a cool thing and you hated it"?

Originally Posted by Wade Mahaffey

My plan is larger than Pinks and/or NHRA. Build a car that is multi-faceted and can do many things. NHRA, IHRA, IMCA, NMCA, Nostalgia, Pinks, Local Brackets, Street driver, 10.5, Show, then do whatever you feel like with it! I like all of it, oh did I mention the fun of building that car yourself !!!

Wade Mahaffey

I agree with your thinking completely on this Wade.

I grew up going around the country with NHRA Stock racers and enjoyed it very much. When I was old enough and could afford to class race I did for a brief time until my divorce when I sold the car. I love everything about class racing and still follow it very closely. I don't think the average "fan" understands all that goes into getting a S/SS car to run to it's potential. However, I just purchased a new car now that I'm back on my feet but have no plans to class race it. High entry fees, cost of traveling, how NHRA treats the class racer, etc. are all huge deterents. I have a '95 Impala SS that I can drive on the street, take to car shows, bracket race (runs low 12s NA and high 10s on nitrous), go to POA and hope they pick my time, attend Super Chevy events, ... Yes, it could pretty easily be a good class car (ok, not easily but if I write a big enough check) but why do that? I can have a versatile car, still attend S/SS racers as an "above average informed spectator", and not have to deal with all the BS that goes with running a class car. I still do really, really respect those of you that continue to keep these cars going.

Scott

[chris3racing]

Pinks All Out can be a slow process depending on the cooperation between the racers and the production crew. They make announcements at the drivers meeting and over the PA system all during the day about antifreeze and leakage on to the track.

There are 450 to 520 cars, most of them the cars you would see at a stock/superstock race. The cars are divided into classes based on your, "all out" et. Each class is called to the staging lanes one at a time. Some of the classes at Z-Max had as many as 60 cars in them.

At Z-max they had over 300 tv production crew members. These folks were spread out on the track, in the staging lane, in the pit area and in the stands with the spectators. Remember the spectators section is typically sold out and in the case of Z-max, the standing room section was sold out. That was 30,000+ at $25 per person, except children under 12 years of age were free, they just had to pick-up a ticket for their seat. The production crew is doing interviews. As an example, Hemiparts, my son, was in his suit, helmet everything in place in the staging lanes. The camera crew came up and requested that we unbuckle the harness, get out of the car, remove coat and helmet. Then put everything back on, get in the car and re-buckle the harness. We had a camera guy outside and a camera guy with the passenger door open filming from inside the car. The young lady, driving a car pitted beside us, broke a connecting rod on her run and dumped oil on the track. The camera crew came to her pits and interviewed her and her family. All laughing and joking around during the interview. It would be good if a lot more of the film footage these guys do could be show; however, time on tv is short. You know like an show of nothing except the taping that was cut to make the two show segments.

Most everyone stayed overnight in the pit area. The staff was so cooperative. The staff members without their cameras were finished work for the day and were out going around though the pits talking with racers and their families. The grills were fired up once racing was stopped on Friday night and the feed was on. If you went to bed hungry that night it was your own fault. There was more food than could be eat. Just walking around through the pit area, not using the 4-wheeler, you got a chance to talk with people from all over the country. The car pitted on one side of us was a family from Ohio, the car across from us was from, I believe, Mississippi and the car on the opposite side was from New Jersey. There were some transmissions changed, universal joints change and rear gears changed and general mechanical work. Guys around a particular car all pitched in to help out the guy which you might have to race the next night for $10,000.

And one last comment. As someone mentioned the entry for one of these events is $60.00. Registration is done over the internet. Registration at Z-Max this year was scheduled to begin at 10:00 am. Within a matter of seconds the whole computer system was jammed. We had three separate computers working and all three locked up. The same thing happened at Virginia entry which was schedule for 7:00 pm. Both of these event were filled within 15 to 20 minutes. 460 entries.

[69ss/rs]

Originally Posted by Wade Mahaffey

I like them both, but there are parts of each that I don't like. POA is really neat if your the fastest guy of the top 16 that they pick for whatever reason (something with a girl, a wagon, a minority driver, a truck, a mopar with a chevy engine, father-son etc). If your not lucky that day, you might get two time runs and watch the rest. Take away the chance to be on TV and see what happens. Same for the NHRA, everybody wants to be where the big deal is going on, myself included. I respectfully really feel bad for the diehard class racers, who have spent a life time perfecting their combinations. And today nobody cares, the fans just want to see FAST...(turbos, blowers, nitrous). Then if that don't get ya, at the Nationals the #83 quailifier puts you (#3 quailifer) on the trailer with just a good reaction time. He bought his car last month for $10,000. You bought yours in 1971 and have 25K in the engine. To me something ain't right ! There must be something that I'm not seeing. I should be seeing it soon though, with this 60 Corvette for Super/Stock. My plan is larger than Pinks and/or NHRA. Build a car that is multi-faceted and can do many things. NHRA, IHRA, IMCA, NMCA, Nostalgia, Pinks, Local Brackets, Street driver, 10.5, Show, then do whatever you feel like with it! I like all of it, oh did I mention the fun of building that car yourself !!!

Wade Mahaffey

In that case Wade you shouldn't be complaining, because you are always trying to go for the oddball attention getter, so you should fit right in. Wade, you had better be careful; your Super Comp, Super Gas colors are showing. If you are planning on building a serious Super Stocker, than it just can't be flip/flopped from one type of racing class to another; unless it is a direct crossover. From what you have been saying your car is going to be a lower class car, which will further limit your chooses. Anybody that has a serious car uses most of their time working on making the car faster and more consistent. Maybe you need to take a closer look at Super Stock and see that you have two types of racers; the serious ones and the also rans, then you can figure out which one you are. You can't worship two gods, either you are serious or you aren't.