Another low car count?

[THE LEGEND]

Charlie
I reread your posts.
Things were very different 18 years ago. I think you r bucket of water has holes in it. You got guys out here going to Saturday night bracket races with 50k dragsters

[Rollins_2241]

The Super classes fill up because they attract a wide variety of cars, a lot like Stock used to 30 years ago. Today, Stock and Super Stock are very narrow classes focused on a few high dollar purpose built cars which mostly can't cross over from other types of racing. And I'm not even talking about the new "checkbook #1 qualifier" classes from Ford and Dodge.

Interestingly, about 20% of the 10-11-12 Index cars at the new Division 2 format are crossover Stockers, and the word I've heard in the pits is that the Stock diehards find it surprisingly fun with a lot less hassle. Here's my latest idea you probably don't want to hear to get more crossover racers at Lucas Oil Div. 2 events:

Outlaw Super Comp: 7.50 heads up, .4 pro tree, dragsters OK, nitrous OK. Allows S/C dragsters to race index and equalizes slow/fast combinations.

Outlaw Super Gas: 8.50 heads up, .4 pro tree, left steer, nitrous OK. Same thing for S/G cars looking for something new as well as the true "outlaw 8.50" racers from Unleashed.

Outlaw Super Street: 10.00 heads up, .4 pro tree, no boxes/stops, exactly the same rules as the current 10.0 class (just give it a name for marketing).

Keep the 11-12 classes the way they are now and give them cool names.

[pentastarrail]

They hear Biondo's are coming.
;-)

[aspen7709]

The fact is there are not near as many class cars out west. Out west we can and do race ALL year long.Our off season is 2 weeks around christmas with the Hangover Nationals starting the season on New years day. With that schedule it is a little time to maintain the up keep or like myself you have a bracket car too. Now you have 2 cars to feed. At a summit series bracket race @ speed world this weekend there were 4 stock eliminator cars racing to get some practice. The sportsman final was Angelo Phillips L/SA vs Rick Unterseh O/SA.With the other cars going to the quarter finals in pro. Yeah we bracket race too for a race that paid $125.00 to win! So is it about the money??? REALLY???No one understands these cars much less want to race one. All i got in the lines was a bunch of bracket racers looking @ me like I had 3 heads.Asking questions like " A thermo quad?? Why dont you use a carb that works?? or I have only heard about these cars..Or You guys are crazy why dont you want to go faster for the money? All that effort in an ASPEN???? WTF? I try to explain the addiction, the fun and our purpose and history...but... it truly depresses me to the point where I just keep to myself and let them ask me what the letters on my window mean.

[Michael Beard]

Actually, I had a number of people admiring the Turismo this weekend (yeah, I said it!), particularly when they find out it's not a turbo car. They understand that it's very fast *for what it is*. It's all relative. This car probably gets more attention than the Volare! I'm sorry that you live in a region where you can't race for decent money and there aren't a lot of people that understand or appreciate S/SS cars. It is not that way everywhere.

You could probably increase participation in S/SS if Super classes weren't allowed in national events.

How are S/SS and .90 classes even remotely tied together? Why would you tell 150+ cars to stay home to pick up 10?

[Bobby Zlatkin]

Greg Hill, you know that old expression "cut off your nose to spite your face"? Your strategy may just play right into their hands.

'Staying home in protest' might actually backfire on you. When you do decide to go back, you may find that there is no place to go.

At that point, we may all be converting our cars into 10, 11, & 12 sec. cars.

Not saying this in disrespect, but just trying to look at the big picture.

[B Aceves]

Exempt the guys with Cards, A few years ago you would have never been able to
enter Vegas this late with one Grade point, Soooo something has changed !!!!
And I dont think its for the positive

[art leong]

Originally Posted by B Aceves

Exempt the guys with Cards, A few years ago you would have never been able to
enter Vegas this late with one Grade point, Soooo something has changed !!!!
And I dont think its for the positive

This is what I was getting to.
You can blame the economy, but the .90 guys have filled the fields.

[Jeff Lee]

Originally Posted by Michael Beard

Actually, I had a number of people admiring the Turismo this weekend (yeah, I said it!), particularly when they find out it's not a turbo car. They understand that it's very fast *for what it is*. It's all relative. This car probably gets more attention than the Volare! I'm sorry that you live in a region where you can't race for decent money and there aren't a lot of people that understand or appreciate S/SS cars. It is not that way everywhere.



How are S/SS and .90 classes even remotely tied together? Why would you tell 150+ cars to stay home to pick up 10?

I'm saying there is a desire for racers to participate on the national event level. Prestige, ego, money. If there were no other way to race such a venue without having a pro class car, you would see more entry level stockers.
However, I know NHRA would never drop the super classes so it's a moot point.

Question: Did IHRA find that crate motor stock brought new blood into S/SS? I'm wondering if the statistics show an increase in car counts for Stock. Do the participants generally favor it?

[Marvin Robinson]

Originally Posted by THE LEGEND

You can take a $10,000 bracket car and run SST with it maybe even SG.
You can also build a stocker for less than 10k also.
Both cars can be raced but are they competitive probly not.

A used S/C dragster will go for 20k plus
A new one 50K plus

How many of you have that much in building a stocker not counting CJ,DP, not many.

My 10.90 camaro in it's condition would go for $20,000plus(other similar cars have sold for more in the off season)
To build that car new would cost much more.

My dragster I won it oh well I guess it would fall in the under 10k argument.LOL
After initial investment some ss cars are costly to maintain, but I would think rebuilds are comparable.

The comment about brackets and .90 another clueless statement. You can use buttons and boxes in both. In the East double entries, 2 rounds of buybacks, and having to go 5 rds to get paid are why people are migrating to the .90,td,ts events.

I guess things are different out west.
Chip Johnson

The cost is not an absolute... or course you can build a 10K stocker... it will either be slow, or uncompetitive. I know there is much science & sophistication in the .90 cars, but getting what you need to do what you want to do is accessible and relatively cheap compared to a lot of what you need to do with S/SS stuff, especially if you are not racing a SM/BB Chevy (or one of the other 3 or 4 mainstream combos). I'm not knocking Chevys, I'm actually a diehard Chevy fan, always had them, owned/raced at least 11 of them. (If I had my ideal Stocker, it would be a 69 396/375 Chevelle) But having built/raced bracket cars for 30 years, the cost for finding performance/consistency compared to S/SS is startling.... I know a 10K ST/SG car is not going to be state of the art, but at least you could be competitive if you're smart about your combo. No dice in Stock. (SG/SC is expensive, period, just due to how fast you have to go... we all know speed costs money, just the same speed costs a lot more in S/SS.