To: Austin Ford From: Bill Hawk

[Ryan Horensky]

Mr. Tree Savoy,

Being you have been around since 1964 I'm very glad you have been able to experience heads up type racing. I myself enjoy class eliminations and heads up races. I'm a big fan of Pro Stock and other heads-up classes.If you actually knew me and my family like some others do on this site you would realize that we do race our cars hard. I myself have never dumped at a race to avoid getting a penalty. My father managed to get the steel head cobra jets 5 horsepower back in 2003 because of infractions during extreme conditions at Englishtown during the National Event. I wish we had that 5 horsepower back right now, being we got horsepower with weather conditions so good that we haven't seen them since that race. I would love to know what type of stock/super stock car you have raced? If you were a true stock/super stock racer I don't think you would be calling our form of racing total BS. Our horsepower system isn't perfect, that's for sure. But combinations also cannot be factored out of existence like they once were by the swipe of a pen.I do not recall the class every being a first one to the finish line wins type of class with the execption of class eliminations and heads-up races. I think that's why top stock was invented......so the upper class cars could go after each other heads up? Even when guys were racing off the records if they went under the record it was considered a breakout like today's dial in system to the best of my knowledge. If you don't like the fact that stock/super stock is basically a bracket race aside from heads-up runs and qualifying.....there's nothing written in stone that says you have to watch these classes race at all. If you wanna talk about this just send me an email at ryanhorensky@yahoo.com or send me a personal message on here and I'd be glad to talk to you about what's pissing you off about our class and form of racing.

Ryan Horensky
1273 C/SA

[Evan Smith]

Well stated Ryan. I love those who bash S/SS racing and say the "old days" was so much better. I'm sure it was great when there was only a handful of combinations and the cars were near-stock. But we didn't get a chance to experience it and for us younger crowd, racing is different. Times were simpler in the '60s, but you can't turn back the clock. Today's Stockers are heavily modified and cost a great deal of money and time to prepare and no one in there right mind would ruin a combination for no apparent reason (OK, there are a few exceptions). Nevertheless, many take great pride in having a fast car. You just have to be smart about when you cut it loose.

Drag racing, like all things, has evolved over time and the current format allows for heads-up action and bracket racing. If Stock were all heads-up there would be 10-50 cars out there and it would be nothing but a rich-man's game (as if it's not already one). I'd be willing to bet that all the guys who are against technology (and by that I mean all he advancements over the years in the cam department, valvesprings, EFI, transmissions, brakes, tires, etc.), don't watch a black & white TV, have a daily driver with a carburetor and points, have no microwave oven, Internet, cable TV, etc. In other words, it's OK to enjoy modern technology, as long as it's not on the racetrack, right?

An all-heads-up format would be fine if we raced cars that were 99-percent Stock and had loads of teardowns to ensure legality. Under those circumstances winning or losing came down (and would still) come down to driver skill and minor tuning.

Evan

[Bob Pagano]

Ryan, You were allowed to run 1/10 under back in the day. Jim has been around and dose have a 64 Max Wedge car.

[j gardiner]

If you are not smart enough to protect your combination, you were probably not smart enough to make it run fast to begin with.

[Ryan Horensky]

Hey Evan. Hope all is well in sunny Florida. We miss you up here. I know the Brew Crew def misses you. Sorry for the confusion bob. I thought it was set up like today's dial in system. You were allowed to go within a full tenth under? All I know about those days is what I have seen in news clippings from when my dad started racing in the early 70's. Thanks for correcting

Ryan

[Mike Carr]

Originally Posted by treessavoy

Ryan,

Since I'm new to this sport, started in 1964, I'm glad you explained this style of non-racing to me.

All of this is bull s**t!

Drag racing is: run all out, get to the stripe first and it's always been that way. You "new wave" racers think it's all about protecting your HP. NO, it's about running as quick as you can and winning or losing.

When I first started racing it was off National records, you ran as hard as you could in order to re-set that record and you were proud to see your name in the magazine and paint "NHRA Record Holder" on your car.

How proud are you to say that you dumped a race because you were afraid of getting hp?

Real Drag Racers run hard to the finish line, the rest of you are just playing some game.

JimR

In addition to what Evan stated, I'll add this. Flat out racing is great, but sometimes you have to dump to protect. I'll use the following example, Jim. Say early in the year, you and I have a heads-up run in, say, A/SA. You have a fairly common car (I'll use a '64 Fury Max Wedge as an example). I have a car that is pretty rare (say a '64 or '65 Nascar single 4 Hemi). You and I run Class somewhere early in the year. We both run flat out, both running 10.0's., and you get the win. You have plenty of other cars in your Class to bring the average for your combination down. I don't So, for running flat out, I get hit with HP, you don't, and now I'm further behind. Which can hurt later in the year, especially when it comes time for Indy, trying to win Class or even qualifying. It's this scenario, why racers, when at 1000' they realize they aren't going to win, will dump to protect their HP. It's not just Stock and S/S. David Rampy has done the same thing in Comp with his A/EA Bantam over the years. If he knows he won't get there (or even if he think he will but knows he'll kill the Index if he does), he'll dump, save the Index, to give himself a better chance down the road at winning. After 70+ National Event wins, I'd say Rampy's idea is a pretty smart one. By the way, I've stated twice on here why running off Indexes or National Records will not work with the current system. Hope this helps explain the "games" us "younger generation" has to play.