Quote:
Originally Posted by Ed Fernandez
Gary;
If chasing points are that important then including opens in the points series will cut down some travel,but I bet it wont change things for the guys who are low budget.(0% of us race with the reaqlization that we wont make it to the top 10 in national points.Top 10 in the division usually requires 7 to 8 divisionals.I got lucky and made it to #5 and #7 in div.1.the other 6 years I was cannon fodder for the regulars.(I sat out 2004,lack of funds).And it's getting harder every year to place with the quality of racers out there.Like I've said 100 times before,life never was,isn't now and never will be fair.Some will always have the upper hand.Cant make it any plainer than that.
Ed
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Well Said Ed, but I'll give you two examples of Div V racers that (based on what we all can see just by checking out the points standings), would be helped if NHRA would decide to allow national open races to count as divisionals:
1. Randy Hyman...He earned 40 pts and finished 105th out of 146 Div. V stock racers. If Bandimere Speedways "Night of Fire & Thunder" race which is a national open counted for points, and he repeated that 2nd rnd finish, he would've leap frogged up to 64th place. His tow would be 24 to 34 miles (round trip! It would be like he was in your Division???)! and if he could tow the approx. 120 miles from his Lakewood, Co. home to Pueblo, Co (125 miles, maybe), then he'd have 3 divisional points counting races w/o having to leave Colorado...kind of sounds like Nj., Oh, or Tx. to me??? On top of that he would've vaulted past Bob Gipson to finish 39th in Div. V with less than 300 miles covering those three races (round trip). A better finish at any of those races and he would've been a player in his divisions points chase.
2. Steve Hagberg...He earned 330 points, and finished 4th officially (but is tied for 2nd also in Div. V). With those same races in mind he would've saved nearly 2000 miles worth of driving, the fuel expense, and the extra time involved could he have replaced his Earlville, Ia. with the Kearney, Ne. open, plus his Noble, Ok race with either Pueblo, Co., or Pierre, Sd.'s opens. Finally he could've replaced his Las Vegas divisional with the Bandimere national open (that would've been a 675 mile one-way alone savings!!!).
Thus my initial purpose for this thread...there are solutions out there (and every little bit would help), question is will NHRA hear to any of them? I remember reading last season that some facet of the NHRA was going to be the supporter of us the sportsman racers "THE BACK BONE OF THE NHRA"...well I was born in Missouri (THE SHOW ME STATE), so ok NHRA, don't just show me, SHOW US!!!
HAVE A GREAT AND SAFE THANKSGIVING, CHRISTMAS, & A SUCCESSFUL 2009 ED!