How would you SAVE CLASS RACING ???

[Bobby Fazio]

Hmm let me take a shot at this..

1. NHRA stop ***ing the sponsors who want to help the racers and promote their products. Give them an enticing "recession" offer to bring them back and keep the class and eliminator contingency money alive.

2. How about not letting competitors change classes anymore during the year? We all know people do that to get single passes and avoid heads up races or in some cases if they know they can be the fastest car in a given class they will enter that class (you know the case of the ant-eater hoodscoop at indy who was gifted 3 heads-up runs during eliminations). Pick one at the beginning of the year and must stay with it unless you have a second car handy.

3. Maybe make class eliminations a calcutta, if you want to participate you pay $305 entry fee, if you choose not to participate then its only $270 and watch from the sidelines? If you paid and you are the only car in your class on the monday registration closes, NHRA gives you a $35 refund/rebate.

4. If you don't like #3, let the single cars make their passes (together to save time) and instead of giving them the coveted wally, give them the cash. I saw on here they were valued at 200 bucks? Give us $150 and NHRA saves $50. Contingency sponsors can abstain from paying the singles that way but at least the singles can get some financial relief for their efforts. Again let that be racer choice, I know some people love to put Wally's in their trophy room.

[Ed Fernandez]

4. If you don't like #3, let the single cars make their passes (together to save time) and instead of giving them the coveted wally, give them the cash. I saw on here they were valued at 200 bucks? Give us $150 and NHRA saves $50. Contingency sponsors can abstain from paying the singles that way but at least the singles can get some financial relief for their efforts. Again let that be racer choice, I know some people love to put Wally's in their trophy room.


Bob,they charge us $190 for an extra one.I'm sure their wholesale price is less than half that.

[Michael Beard]

Schaechter is dead-on.

All sides should be trying to figure out how they increase the value of the contingency sponsor. You'd think they could at least list the contingency claims along with the Class winners, so people would actually know who's using what products. At least in IHRA, you can look that stuff up on the website. Yes, cars have the requisite decals on them, but realistically, most Class winners in NHRA don't get photos in the magazine. (All of them do in IHRA, albeit small) A sponsor should get that recognition without having to take out a "congrats" ad in the magazine. It is in the sanctioning body's interest to do whatever it can for the sponsor, since the sponsor is paying for one of the biggest carrots for Nat'l/Div'l level racing. If no sponsors posted contingency, car counts would drop off a cliff.

That being said, I'm afraid Terry's right, too -- there are too many classes to make Class financial viable (particularly with the lack of coverage the sponsors get for it). But, we're back to the majority of racers not wanting to consolidate classes in any way shape or form ('course they just did it anyway for the FWD cars)... so instead of getting something you didn't want that might make sense (even if we don't like it), you're going to get blindsided by something that you also don't like.

While I understand they had to do something, one of my issues with the new Class system is that you have half the field running Comp-style, and half the field running "regular" Class Eliminations against people in their own class, which should theoretically be more apples to apples. In my opinion, either run everybody in their regular Class, or run all class Comp-style. One thing's for sure: we're likely to see disparities in ratings and indexes a lot easier than with just Qualifying. Don't want to become Comp? Then perhaps some more consideration needs to be given to combining of classes in a thoughtful and reasonable manner.

[Ed Fernandez]

Less classes?Go to 1lb breaks?

[tim worner]

To many classes for sure. That figures out to a lot of single runs which the manufactures don't like, and I can't blame them. Why not pay the top 32 qualifiers? That will help the contingency payers with use of product, the horsepower situation and eliminate single runs. May be the manufactures will return to the midway. The way things are now you have a hard time finding racing parts at the track. Someone related to the 90's class winnings. We used to see who is paying go buy what we needed so that we could claim for the year. I was getting $2000 a class win in the 90"s. Certainly made racing a lot better money wise. One of those years I was lucky enough to win class 10 times. Those days are long gone probably not to return. My concern now would be why can't we have better round money? $300 3rd round loser is terrible! 2nd round loser should get his entrance money back and payout per round increased. It is done for Indy. Why not all? Some will say we are not racing for the money. Well with that outlook maybe soon we will be racing for nothing but a trophy.

[Michael Beard]

Originally Posted by Ed Fernandez

Less classes?Go to 1lb breaks?

Various ideas were discussed at length earlier this winter, and summarily rejected. So instead, we're discussing bandaid fixes for a brand new issue.

[Ed Fernandez]

Originally Posted by Michael Beard

Various ideas were discussed at length earlier this winter, and summarily rejected. So instead, we're discussing bandaid fixes for a brand new issue.

So what's wrong with 1lb breaks to cut down the classes?Those cheap ba$tards can pay out less and give out fewer Wallys.
Speakingof Wallys,notice how in the last few years they're giving them out like they're going out of style.First round losers will wind out getting them if they keep up giving them out for any reason.I believe they were giving them out to fans who won contests at Nats.
WTF.