How competitive are you?

[chris3racing]

Okay, this thread came up at just the right time. I just recently watched the re-run of Pinks All Out 2009. In the words of Roy Hill "this is the way we remember drag racing." The pits were full of cars and spectators and all of the seats were full. Working on your car was a challenge due to all of the spectators that wanted to watch and take photos. Especially after the first round of quailfying on the pro tree. Old and new race cars and street cars heads up. The wheels were up in the air almost every run. A white chevrolet station wagon kept the crowd on their feet everytime he came to the starting line. He carried the front wheel almost to the 1/8th mile marker.

The classes were A thru K, if I remember correctly. A being the quicker cars, K being like 12.5 to 13.00 in a quarter mile. Our class was 11.50 and we had 68 cars in our class. You checked in and tech inspection on Friday, after you met tech then time runs began on Friday. And yes you could fail tech inspection, several did, you could fix it and then go back through again. Tech officials were there from Zmax, Bristol and Atlanta to get all of the cars teched. If you ran quicker than your class you either slowed the car down or at 5:00 on Friday you changed your class. Breakout and your out. We ran several of the Pinks All Out races with street cars and full out race cars competing together. To register to race the track used computers for early registration. Zmax Dragway in 2009 filled up in 9.5 minutes, 540 race cars. Virginia Motorsports filled in a little over 10 minutes if I remember correctly. Friday morning at 11:00 am Zmax sold out spectator seats with standing room only available. Saturday morning at 8:30 am the spectators were lined up to the round track waiting to get in.

Also, tracks have to go back to advertising races. I have pointed this out before, some people don't even know that there are still drag strips racing in North Carolina now. We have had our car at some car shows and people have made that comment. If they don't know that drag strips are open, their not going on the internet to see what is going on.

A track operator who wants to be brave and set up a race like this and advertise, other than waiting for someone to see it on the internet, he may be in for a big surprise. Heads up, races ending in inches not feet, without cars on and off of the throttle. Some body in North Carolina try this and lets see what happens.

[art leong]

Originally Posted by chris3racing

Okay, this thread came up at just the right time. I just recently watched the re-run of Pinks All Out 2009. In the words of Roy Hill "this is the way we remember drag racing." The pits were full of cars and spectators and all of the seats were full. Working on your car was a challenge due to all of the spectators that wanted to watch and take photos. Especially after the first round of quailfying on the pro tree. Old and new race cars and street cars heads up. The wheels were up in the air almost every run. A white chevrolet station wagon kept the crowd on their feet everytime he came to the starting line. He carried the front wheel almost to the 1/8th mile marker.

The classes were A thru K, if I remember correctly. A being the quicker cars, K being like 12.5 to 13.00 in a quarter mile. Our class was 11.50 and we had 68 cars in our class. You checked in and tech inspection on Friday, after you met tech then time runs began on Friday. And yes you could fail tech inspection, several did, you could fix it and then go back through again. Tech officials were there from Zmax, Bristol and Atlanta to get all of the cars teched. If you ran quicker than your class you either slowed the car down or at 5:00 on Friday you changed your class. Breakout and your out. We ran several of the Pinks All Out races with street cars and full out race cars competing together. To register to race the track used computers for early registration. Zmax Dragway in 2009 filled up in 9.5 minutes, 540 race cars. Virginia Motorsports filled in a little over 10 minutes if I remember correctly. Friday morning at 11:00 am Zmax sold out spectator seats with standing room only available. Saturday morning at 8:30 am the spectators were lined up to the round track waiting to get in.

Also, tracks have to go back to advertising races. I have pointed this out before, some people don't even know that there are still drag strips racing in North Carolina now. We have had our car at some car shows and people have made that comment. If they don't know that drag strips are open, their not going on the internet to see what is going on.

A track operator who wants to be brave and set up a race like this and advertise, other than waiting for someone to see it on the internet, he may be in for a big surprise. Heads up, races ending in inches not feet, without cars on and off of the throttle. Some body in North Carolina try this and lets see what happens.

What is the difference between this and Stock/Superstock? Go to fast and lose.

[chris3racing]

Art, it is similar to Stock/Superstock racing except I forgot the most important rule. There is no lifting. Track personell were station along the track with radios, if you lift before the finish line you are also disqualified. The name of the game was run all out everytime down the track. If your times changed then you were "sandbagging" and disqualified. In other words no playing games. Two cars down the track both running "all out" and consistently running the same et there was no reason to get on a fender and think you might run him out and you win. If you race Stock/Superstock or are a spectator you know that at about 1000ft it sounds like both cars are about to run out of gas.

[randy wilson]

Still bracket racing. If they turned the clocks on, people would figure out in a hurry, and quit watching. The crowd actually believes it's heads-up. They haven't quite figured out what is going on when they disquailfy a racer for sandbagging.

[Michael Beard]

Some body in North Carolina try this and lets see what happens.

You can rent a track and put on whatever kind of race you want. That was my point to Butler. If you're going to do something, DO it. If it's a great idea, maybe people will come. As it turns out, there's an enormous amount of time, energy, money, and risk that goes into promoting an event. At some point, in the "Somebody ought to do xyz...", that somebody has to be you. (That's a global 'you', not directed at the original poster, per se)

Based on what we see from the outside, one would think that the PINKS All Out should make crazy money... so why is it gone? It may be worth noting that they also did some non-televised events called Armdrop Live, which did not fare as well. There's always a lot more to it than what we see at a glance.

[Dick Butler]

Micheal, I did that for two years and without complete program of ads, time schedule during event and more cars it was hard. Now a track ASKS for help bringing it to their schedule. I hope we can pull a few of the same racers for a start up trial event.

Any cars that can run SS/B or BA cars interested let me know so as we plan I can include you in information.

[chris3racing]

Michael, I understand what you are saying. That is what happened at Pullin Entertainment and Speed Channel. The individual who came up with the idea and got it all started was also smart enough to have a contract. When he decided to leave to go to another type of event, by contract the event was finished. They have been discussing bring that event back in another type of format but just have not come up with something they feel everyone would support.

It would take someone with a large amount of capital to be able to put an event like that on. Hiring all of the personnel and coordination of those events had to take a lot of effort and finances. As you know NHRA tried something similar in "Unleashed" but the costs to enter their event left out a lot of racers. The fact that some of the racers who participated at Pinks All Out were some of the same racers that raced in Class at NHRA events, limited who participated at Unleashed. When we wanted to do one of the first Unleashed events the cost to enter, crew prices and all of the other costs per NHRA put us out. The Pinks All Out entry was only $60 for the week-end and $25 per crew member which for us totaled up to around $200. Unleashed with NHRA was $1000+ as I recall.

Racers will race in some format somewhere and hopefully not cost the the price of a mortgage payment. The key is to get the spectators back to help the track owners to be able to pay the expenses without having the racers paying all of the bills. Two or three hundred spectators at $10 is alot better than only 20 spectators at $25.

I, like everyone else is just brainstorming suggestions of how to keep this sport alive and thriving without going to the track each week-end and only have maybe 30 cars in the pits and the five or ten people in the grandstands being family members of the racers who came to race. You, like everyone else on this board know that this is what it is like every week-end at local tracks. Once a track has to close there is a developer standing at the gate with a bulldozer and building materials for new condos.

[randy wilson]

I don't even pretend to know all the answers. I doubt anyone does. But I know one thing for sure, you'll never put butts in the bleachers, unless drag racing figures a way to get Bubba, and Jim Bob, who bring their family, and friends, interested in local drag racing. And that will never happen with brackets. Like I said, I don't know the answer, but the drag racing establishment damn sure missed it to.

[Ed Wright]

Your right. People will not sit there and watch people lose for going too fast. Even fewer will sit there and watch throttle stop cars.
Before I lost what was left of my mind and put together another car, I started going to national events to watch long time friend Mike Edwards run Pro Stock. Sitting in the stands, after the fuel cars run about half seats go empty for Pro Stock. More leave when the alky cars come up. When the throttle stop cars come up nearly everybody leaves. I'm surprised how few watch Comp. I love Comp, but more money than I'm willing to spend here at the end. Some come back for Comp, Stk & SS, but not many. I've seen guys post about how excited spectators get when a nine second car is chasing down a fifteen second car, but that's only in their minds. Almost nobody watches us do anything.

[Ed Carpenter]

Originally Posted by Ed Wright

Your right. People will not sit there and watch people lose for going too fast. Even fewer will sit there and watch throttle stop cars.
Before I lost what was left of my mind and put together another car, I started going to national events to watch long time friend Mike Edwards run Pro Stock. Sitting in the stands, after the fuel cars run about half seats go empty for Pro Stock. More leave when the alky cars come up. When the throttle stop cars come up nearly everybody leaves. I'm surprised how few watch Comp. I love Comp, but more money than I'm willing to spend here at the end. Some come back for Comp, Stk & SS, but not many. I've seen guys post about how excited spectators get when a nine second car is chasing down a fifteen second car, but that's only in their minds. Almost nobody watches us do anything.

Ed everytime I pull up to the starting line the stands are empty. The only people watching us are the stocker guys. LOL