Ok Div. 5, 6, & 7 Sportsman racers.....

[GarysZ24]

Thanks Paul,

I just had a good chat with Ron Craft of Rocky Mountain Raceway, and he too is hoping (as I am), that Southwestern International Raceway's racers will embrace the IHRA into their fold....the oil down penalty that Glendora is placing upon us sportsman racers is the latest reason to hope for this addition, to them! If they don't then I'll be working towards joining you there Paul, and I have a couple of friends who'll likely go there too...

[GarysZ24]

Two more key reasons to give IHRA a try out west in our lower 48's:

1. Membership in IHRA, plus your competition number is only $70 vs the $119 for NHRA!

2. No physical is required for those of you stocker racers who had to get them, with NHRA.

Sounds great to me!!! Now how about the rest of you???

If you have any other membership questions, Donna Harper is a phone call away, and waiting to hear from you @ (419) 660-4219.

[Paul Plummer]

I am not seeing a lot of posts regarding interest in contesting stock eliminator at the Salt Lake IHRA Nitrojam event - I think the last count was about 7 people. Are there any Salt Lake locals besides superstock racer Tom Albritton that come to this forum? We need to hear from you or your buddies on this issue.

Put quite simply, if the local racers in a city of $1M+ people can't find at least 12 of the 24 cars locally to compete, there should be no complaining by anyone on why IHRA is not automatically willing to cough up $2K-$3K in prize money plus contingency for three cars to show up only one of which was local (he actually won the event).

I keep hearing the cry baby stories about NHRA has this event scheduled and that event scheduled at the same time - boo hoo! IHRA has many different stock classes in which you can compete. Let me list these for you -- STOCK - just like NHRA except you get 10.5" and roller rockers, STOCK FUEL INJECTION, STOCK TRUCKS, STOCK GT, PURE STOCK and CRATE MOTOR STOCK.

So here is some outside the box thinking - go to a local car show, talk to a few wheel polisher types and ask them to take there cars to the track to enter the PURE STOCK class. We then approach IHRA about letting these guys run, even if they don't quite fit the rules to the letter. There has to be at 5 or 10 people with restored vintage iron in Salt Lake. We do the same for some of the other classes - I keep stressing the crate motor class because a lot of no box cars are pretty close.

The 24 who show up that are 100% legal to run the class, get to make the decision on whether to allow the almost legal guys to run. I would venture a guess that there won't be many heads-up matches anyway at which point were talking about foot brake bracket racing.

Why is this different than the no-box class?

Once these guys get a chance to see what stock eliminator is all about and learn from some of the seasoned vets, you will start getting converts. One of the coolest things about stock is the ability to innovate - it is like a drug. Next to the money, most people shy away from class racing because it is very complicated to understand for new people who would like to try the sport.

Let's do something new and different, get off the couch and help us get this class to salt lake in 2011.

I will volunteer to talk to IHRA about a fresh idea.

[X-TECH MAN]

Lots of luck and I mean that. I tried for years in an area that was over run with class legal cars without any luck.

[Michael Beard]

Thanks for your work in trying to get something going out west.

That being said...

We then approach IHRA about letting these guys run, even if they don't quite fit the rules to the letter.

NO. There are plenty of LEGAL S/SS cars out there. Get THEM to come to the race.

[GarysZ24]

Paul, X-TECH MAN, & Michael,

I think NHRA (per the thread "IRS & the NHRA".....), may end up helping those of us who want IHRA out west here succeed in that happening...their credibility of being a "Not-for-profit-organization", is in serious jeopardy based on the incomes of the top people from Glendora, as opposed to the cost's we racers have incurred in recent years! Tucson's track and their efforts to attract IHRA, may have just rec'd a big shot in the arm from this new development???

[Paul Plummer]

NO. There are plenty of LEGAL S/SS cars out there. Get THEM to come to the race.[/QUOTE]

I mean no disrespect to you, IHRA, NHRA or any other racer, but, here is my opinion on the uphill battle with teaching old dogs new tricks and why we need to attract fresh blood to IHRA stock eliminator.

When I go to NHRA division and national event races out west, the same racers and racers families have been going to these events since the day the class was started. Not only are many of these folks long in the tooth, they are also dyed in the wool NHRA competitors. The other issue is the family reunion nature of such long standing traditions. Most of these racers and their families have known each other for 40 or 50 years.

When you tell them to stop patronizing NHRA, no matter how dysfunctional that organization may or may not be, you will not overcome the family reunion nature of NHRA drag racing out west. Every event out here is like family gathering.

The other issue we have out here vs. where you are located in the southeast is that in division 6 my closest 5 IHRA tracks are 5 hours, 7 hours, 8 hours, 10 hours and 11 hours away. I recall in your article - 13 tracks within a 100 miles. Trust me I am envious and tried to convince my wife to move to your town - she said I could but would have to sell the car to cover the alimony and child support!! Basically, on my budget I can afford to attend two IHRA national events and one NHRA division race a year , which is in my home town.

On Salt Lake's Nitrojam week-end I will be making the choice to travel 11 hours to an IHRA class race vs. 45 minutes to our only local NHRA division race as they are both on the same week-end. Normally, this would fly in the face of reason, however, it is worth it to me to promote IHRA and help build something new for those who are outsiders to the NHRA click.

Demographically, this sport is in trouble and too expensive for most people to afford. Due to high cost of traveling out west, I am hoping you can see where I am coming from on ways to attract " new local blood" to the sport.

Remember back in the day, you bought these cars at the dealership on Monday and Drag Raced them on Saturday and Sunday - no aluminum transmissions, acid ported heads, $50K-$100K purpose built stockers, etc. This is where it all started and I think we need to find a way to bring fresh blood in through the same door, today, if this form of racing is to thrive.

At the end of the day I am hoping that we get enough interest out here to get division 6 off the ground and build an alternative and fun class racing series through IHRA! It would be great if we could do it keeping everything the same as it has been for 40 years without changing rules or making concessions and just convince the NHRA guys to come over to IHRA. This, I fear is a dead-end road.

Hopefully the discussion on this topic will prompt a few more people to commit and we can actually race stock at Salt Lake in June.

[speedfreak2]

I've been coming to this site for several years now but have never posted anything until now. I really only come here to learn from most of you guys. I race at Rocky Mountain Raceway and last year when I heard we were going to have the Stock and Super Stock classes running I couldn't wait to get to the race track. As it turns out, I was pitted across from Paul Plummer. I went over to see if I could ask him some questions about how to get involved in class racing and I really expected to get the brush off or a quick half hearted answer but to my surprise he was actually genuinely interested in telling me what I needed to know and was extremely helpful in explaining some things I still don't really understand lol but since that day, I have emailed him some questions and he has always been awesome to respond with more than I expected. Thanks Paul.

Anyways, I have been bracket racing for over twenty years and have always had an interest in Stock and Super Stock but have never really had too much input from anyone. I am trying to get a car ready for this year but unfortunately the funds have been really slow coming in and I don't think it will be ready but I have a couple of friends in mind that don't race anymore but have complete cars (Full interior and most of the stuff my car doesn't have) that should fit most of the rules that I might ask if I can race for the weekend. It's a long shot and I'm not really very excited about using someone else's car but if I do get my hands on one then I guarantee I'll pay whatever the price even just to make the car count. I've also put the word out to some of the guys I know around here and so hopefully we'll get a handfull of locals to sign up. I want to see some Stock Eliminator racing out here really bad this year so I'm going to keep spreading the word.

[Michael Beard]

Welcome, Bruce!

Paul - that's the kind of 'new blood' I'm talking about. Someone that's interested in S/SS racing, and has the desire to learn the rules and play by the rules. If it's not legal, then it ceases to be S/SS. Guys like Bruce want to do it the right way. While there are $100K+ cars out there, there's also a lot of relatively inexpensive ways to get involved. I've got a great starter car for sale, and there's many more out there, or people can build cars to suit their needs and budget.

You expand the S/SS ranks, you're already doing one of the key components, and that is to be open and talk to people, just like the story Bruce related. But to get people into S/SS racing, it's very likely that you have to get people into the simpler levels of the sport first. You need a foundation. I've written extensively about building that foundation, including this old article entitled "The Farm System": http://www.competitionplus.com/2006_02/farm_system.html Also kind of interesting to look back on this feature on S/SS racing... http://www.competitionplus.com/2006_...ss_racing.html

Build the foundation, and from the foundation bring up new S/SS racers. And if the long-time NHRA racers won't cross over, then they will get what they have always gotten: "enhanced."

Races are like family reunions out here in the more densely populated areas, too. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy, though. If everybody goes to the same race, then everybody is at the same race... regardless of who's running the event.

[GarysZ24]

I couldn't agree with you more Paul, and well said to you too Michael...you two are the reason I'm looking forward to this evenings meeting in Tucson, because per another thread started by Aspen 7709, there are several Az. Div 7 racers who're trying to also launch the Tucson Nitro Jam race for this coming March....thus the words spreading!

As for you Bruce, let me be the first from Az. to welcome you into our realm of drag racing, and I hope I get a chance to travel up there to be able to meet and race with you & Paul, and if you like bratwurst, and burgers, so much the better!!!