So, Indy 2020...

[Mike Pearson]

Originally Posted by Frank Castros

Average cost to compete at the Big Go, including entry, accommodations, food, race car and support equipment costs. $3,000?

For me to go to Indy from Tampa Fl would cost me about $2000 not figuring for food or hotels. I have a toterhome and stay at the track. You cant really figure food because you would be eating at home anyway. 1200 mile tow. @.50/mile $200 generator fuel, $450 for entry,$150 for race gas. That would be the bare minimum. 2 weeks away from work if you do the Bowling Green points race. I have vacation time to offset that. so you can see if you don't win the whole thing you cant break even. I have made the trip 2 times so far but I am not fast enough to make the field. Maybe this year I could have with the amount of alternates that they had in the final field after tech and racers that dropped out.

[Billy Nees]

Originally Posted by Billy Nees

Class winners in and fill the field with fastest qualifiers?

Back to the original question.

(awful lot of "likes" on that first post!)

[Dallas Kelly]

Originally Posted by Andys dad

Back to back 128 car classes at the scales to start your morning off right - maybe they will only weigh heads up races

Today - I would Eliminate these non-standard classes -

Street Car Showdown
Gassers
Pro Mod T


Ron

Agree wholeheartedly! First, any class, elim, or trained dog show whose designation has "PRO" in its name should be pitted on the East side of the track; not in a prime, reserved, protected area, cut out of the center of the Sportsman pit area. The same should apply to the lame "Exhibitions" that NHRA has decided to embrace at the detriment of Sportsman racing. Put these four-wheel jokes (i.e. Car Show) in the spectator parking lot; at least it would guarantee that their target market would be forced to look at them as they walk into the track proper.

Admittedly, I was one of the 20, or so, SuperStockers (stack #472, arrived Tuesday @ 1:00pm) who sat in line 26 hours AFTER parking began Tuesday and wound up on the East side Wednesday afternoon, within a stone's throw of the East side Main Gate. I'm not a happy camper and for the first time in my NHRA experience I'm seriously questioning ever inflicting that much grief on myself again.

Fiasco, falls far short of describing what I witnessed during the stacking/parking debacle Tuesday/Wednesday. They actually parked only 350 rigs (by observed stack numbers) in 10 hours on Tuesday; 35 per hour is ridiculous. They had two yellow shirts in the Sportsman Pits escorting rigs to a parking location, then those two would return to the stack line and escort two more; no exceptions, unless you had someone, already parked, holding a parking space for your rig. NHRA had instructed all stacked rigs to be at their rig, ready to go at 0700 Wednesday morning. After not turning a wheel, at about 10:00 they announced the third re-schedule of Q1 for Stock as 2:00pm...BE READY. The only route into the Sportsman Pits was through the Comp Pit staging lanes, across the Ready Lanes, into the Sportsman staging lanes (wrong way) and out the back whenever your escort arrived. Determined to keep to the now third revision to Stock run schedule at 1:30, a yellow shirt on a pit bike came into the staging lanes and announced "Sportsman Pit is full...no more parking available but we have a place for you. Turn your rig around and follow me to the East side of the track". Following him parking us just inside the East side Main Gate, we went to the Sportsman Pits at 3:00pm to evaluate the "full" conditions. Reality was that there were some moderately undesirable pit spaces left but there were huge chunks of very desirable real estate cordoned-off with crime-scene tape and reserved for ProMod, the Car Show and Gasser time wasters.

IMHO, this entire mess was orchestrated by NHRA and they had NO fall-back plan to solve the mess THEY created.

[X-TECH MAN]

Originally Posted by Dallas Kelly

Agree wholeheartedly! First, any class, elim, or trained dog show whose designation has "PRO" in its name should be pitted on the East side of the track; not in a prime, reserved, protected area, cut out of the center of the Sportsman pit area. The same should apply to the lame "Exhibitions" that NHRA has decided to embrace at the detriment of Sportsman racing. Put these four-wheel jokes (i.e. Car Show) in the spectator parking lot; at least it would guarantee that their target market would be forced to look at them as they walk into the track proper.

Admittedly, I was one of the 20, or so, SuperStockers (stack #472, arrived Tuesday @ 1:00pm) who sat in line 26 hours AFTER parking began Tuesday and wound up on the East side Wednesday afternoon, within a stone's throw of the East side Main Gate. I'm not a happy camper and for the first time in my NHRA experience I'm seriously questioning ever inflicting that much grief on myself again.

Fiasco, falls far short of describing what I witnessed during the stacking/parking debacle Tuesday/Wednesday. They actually parked only 350 rigs (by observed stack numbers) in 10 hours on Tuesday; 35 per hour is ridiculous. They had two yellow shirts in the Sportsman Pits escorting rigs to a parking location, then those two would return to the stack line and escort two more; no exceptions, unless you had someone, already parked, holding a parking space for your rig. NHRA had instructed all stacked rigs to be at their rig, ready to go at 0700 Wednesday morning. After not turning a wheel, at about 10:00 they announced the third re-schedule of Q1 for Stock as 2:00pm...BE READY. The only route into the Sportsman Pits was through the Comp Pit staging lanes, across the Ready Lanes, into the Sportsman staging lanes (wrong way) and out the back whenever your escort arrived. Determined to keep to the now third revision to Stock run schedule at 1:30, a yellow shirt on a pit bike came into the staging lanes and announced "Sportsman Pit is full...no more parking available but we have a place for you. Turn your rig around and follow me to the East side of the track". Following him parking us just inside the East side Main Gate, we went to the Sportsman Pits at 3:00pm to evaluate the "full" conditions. Reality was that there were some moderately undesirable pit spaces left but there were huge chunks of very desirable real estate cordoned-off with crime-scene tape and reserved for ProMod, the Car Show and Gasser time wasters.

IMHO, this entire mess was orchestrated by NHRA and they had NO fall-back plan to solve the mess THEY created.

You "NAILED IT" Dallas.....Great post !

[Mart Jeltema]

I usually don't post very often because I don't like to ruffle feathers. We haven't raced Indy in 9 years. I wasn't a fan of the fastest cars being the qualified field when it began because the wealthy guy's pushed for it because of the money they spent and large # of cars in the class many would go home. Now we further insulted the problem by not having the AHFS in play at Indy, thus it doesn't ever get the playing field leveled so every year the same guy's get in the field. Look at the # under it takes to get in the field, it doesn't change much from year to year because factoring doesn't take place.Class winners should be in the eliminator. Off my soap box for now.

[Frank Castros]

Originally Posted by Mart Jeltema

I usually don't post very often because I don't like to ruffle feathers. We haven't raced Indy in 9 years. I wasn't a fan of the fastest cars being the qualified field when it began because the wealthy guy's pushed for it because of the money they spent and large # of cars in the class many would go home. Now we further insulted the problem by not having the AHFS in play at Indy, thus it doesn't ever get the playing field leveled so every year the same guy's get in the field. Look at the # under it takes to get in the field, it doesn't change much from year to year because factoring doesn't take place.Class winners should be in the eliminator. Off my soap box for now.

When the class winners automatically got in it seemed almost every class had at least one contestant which was very cool.

[Bob Mulry]

Originally Posted by Mike Pearson

For me to go to Indy from Tampa Fl would cost me about $2000 not figuring for food or hotels. I have a toterhome and stay at the track. You cant really figure food because you would be eating at home anyway. 1200 mile tow. @.50/mile $200 generator fuel, $450 for entry,$150 for race gas. That would be the bare minimum. 2 weeks away from work if you do the Bowling Green points race. I have vacation time to offset that. so you can see if you don't win the whole thing you cant break even. I have made the trip 2 times so far but I am not fast enough to make the field. Maybe this year I could have with the amount of alternates that they had in the final field after tech and racers that dropped out.

And you plan on selling everything at INDY and not take I home????

[Frank Castros]

18 alternates in Super Stock and 5 in Stock if I counted them correctly.

[Mike Pearson]

Originally Posted by Bob Mulry

And you plan on selling everything at INDY and not take I home????

No I would be towing my stuff back to Florida if I did decide to go some day. $600 for fuel each direction at today’s fuel price . About a 1200 mile tow each way

[Hacksaw]

Originally Posted by Mart Jeltema

I usually don't post very often because I don't like to ruffle feathers. We haven't raced Indy in 9 years. I wasn't a fan of the fastest cars being the qualified field when it began because the wealthy guy's pushed for it because of the money they spent and large # of cars in the class many would go home. Now we further insulted the problem by not having the AHFS in play at Indy, thus it doesn't ever get the playing field leveled so every year the same guy's get in the field. Look at the # under it takes to get in the field, it doesn't change much from year to year because factoring doesn't take place.Class winners should be in the eliminator. Off my soap box for now.

Disagree. The class winners were set in the field and the rest were made up from the lowest qualifiers to make 128 entries. So the " money " guys still got in because they ran way under their index. The problem ? Too many singles for class wins and not many spots available. I say class winners in, and with the combo stick / auto deal there would be no single runs for class. Lots of spots left for the quick guys. Makes sense to me.