2025 Payout / Pay Structure

[JeremyDuncan]

At least on the divisional side most of the money goes to Alcohol cars. They pay no entry and get 10 crew passes for free. Pays 10 spots back. So yes the even the first two alternates get paid!

At most divisional races the crowds are very small. The Alcohol cars don't pay for there selves in attendance. The other sportsman racers pay for there purse. It's time for Alcohol cars to be a national event only level categories.

Top Fuel, Funny Car, and Pro Stock use to be contested at Division races before becoming National event only categories. It's time to do the same with Alcohol cars. Save track owners money and direct some of it to other sportsman categories purses.

[Mike Pearson]

Originally Posted by JeremyDuncan

At least on the divisional side most of the money goes to Alcohol cars. They pay no entry and get 10 crew passes for free. Pays 10 spots back. So yes the even the first two alternates get paid!

At most divisional races the crowds are very small. The Alcohol cars don't pay for there selves in attendance. The other sportsman racers pay for there purse. It's time for Alcohol cars to be a national event only level categories.

Top Fuel, Funny Car, and Pro Stock use to be contested at Division races before becoming National event only categories. It's time to do the same with Alcohol cars. Save track owners money and direct some of it to other sportsman categories purses.

Actually the Alcohol classes only compete at the regional races. Here in D2 that is the baby gators. I think other divisions hold one regional event along with the divisional schedule. I agree. The alcohol classes should be national event only. At the baby gators and Gators neither of the classes filled to make a full field. Track owners and promoters need to do a better job of promoting the events and attracting spectators into the stands. This has been discussed on many threads here on the forum in the past. We should not be funding the purse for the TAD and TAFC classes. They need to stand on their own 2 feet.

[JeremyDuncan]

Originally Posted by Mike Pearson

Actually the Alcohol classes only compete at the regional races. Here in D2 that is the baby gators. I think other divisions hold one regional event along with the divisional schedule. I agree. The alcohol classes should be national event only. At the baby gators and Gators neither of the classes filled to make a full field. Track owners and promoters need to do a better job of promoting the events and attracting spectators into the stands. This has been discussed on many threads here on the forum in the past. We should not be funding the purse for the TAD and TAFC classes. They need to stand on their own 2 feet.

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.

[BZenzen]

Looking at this thread I thought I would try to track down a posted payout for Divisional/Regional as well as National events. It is almost impossible to find, with the few exceptions of flyers from some Division races.

NHRA did increase the divisional payout last year to $2k to win most sportsman classes, but didn't increase the round money down the line.

While my Dad will filling in for me this year, he lost 4th round at a double and didn't even get his entry back. NHRA has, and will continue to subsidize the Alcohol/Pro classes. Do the math on a 64 car field at $185 - $215 entry fee!

I can say it until I'm blue in the face, racing for the gold man is fun from time to time, but supporting local association and track events where the racer comes first is a lot better in my book

[JP1738]

Originally Posted by BZenzen

I can say it until I'm blue in the face, racing for the gold man is fun from time to time, but supporting local association and track events where the racer comes first is a lot better in my book

Agreed. I like racing for the wally every chance I get, but I'll go to 3x as many local bracket and index races here in the Carolinas supporting the little guys

[FLEMING]

I will run more S/SS combos than N/Ihra stuff i think because of this kind of stuff... None of us get rich at racing for sure.. but its crazy to me you go to a race pay the crazy entry fee and have no idea what they are paying.. its been like this for a while too.. I guess as long as people keep coming and paying it... nothing will change

[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?