8 car field IHRA funny car..

Trivia question:
Who won the last 16 car IHRA funny car event?

 

Ken- I think the waiting list at Drazy's was an inferance that a lot of IHRA racers would be lining up to get a screw blower and go NHRA racing.

 

Bob , relax , I asked why you got a letter because you were the first to divulge the news not because you are a "yucapuk" (whatever that is ??) I asked also because you don't run in the class with any regularity, and I don't think they give a Rats Azz how many licences you have or if you ever ran an 00 or not . They wanted your money for entry fees and they wanted you to get to the other end with everything attached to the car that you left the starting line with! These People are not doing this for the love of the sport anymore, they are answering to a board room of Money Men.

I am disappointed for all Alcohol Funny Car racers and the fans that do enjoy the show they put on. I am extremely disappointed that this decision was made and I whole heartedly disagree with Scooter Peaco . The writing was on the wall though when he bashed the class at Rockingham in the Spring. At this meeting when he threatened to change the visibility of the class he said he would do what it takes to stop the oil down problems of AFC if we did not take control ourselves. At season end I think we were the least penalized for clean ups related to fluid on the track! This is possibly his reward for those efforts . I wonder what Bill Bader is Thinking right now or if he knew this was coming ?? THIS WILL HURT ALL OF US !!

 

so if there was an 8 car field at rockingham that would make the bump a 5.859. Well I would bet alot of people wont even show now.

 

Food for thought. Now that the PS\Truck deal seems to be done in court. Will NHRA make Pro- Mod a pro class? How will this affect IHRA car counts? NHRA has 2 Pro-Mod races when IHRA runs. Will Pro_Mod go to a 8 car show.I remember Bill saying something in Bills Bull about a 4 hour show.

 

Sorry for so many posts but I got burned on the PS\Truck deal also. It is hard to sell a $65,000 truck for 1/4 the cost to build to some body to run Super Comp with.

 

IM sure NHRA'S not to far behind(8 car fields)i guess will see.

 

Can someone email me the letter. Just another hit by the sanctioning bodies to the alcohol classes.

speedzone@telus.net

The three Canadian races for your information had 17, 15, and 21 cars. Milan had 15 cars and Sanantonio was the ugly duckling with an unbelievable 7 cars. In 2003 it was 13 cars at that event.

That is the only race that deserve to have a smaller field. And I see no reason not to have an 8 car field at that one race.

That is not progression for the class.
For sanctioning bodies to increase the payout of the class by deleting cars in it or taking away races is the most assinine decision either could make.

Dean

 

this just proves my theroy about the brains over there. i ran a few races with ihra years ago and was treated like s%$#. i would get parked out in the boonies when there were spaces open up front. i sat through bill baders "you guys are the backbone" speach at va. when he took us off the t.v. coverage . and remember bader swearing he WOULD NOT SELL IHRA.,and to add to the pot ,ihra think they can go to texas or the west coast and pack a full field, HELLO, texas and the west coast is nothing but kick ass screw cars. whats next 8 car fields, oops to late. i decided years ago i would rather loose 1st round at a nhra race than go and compete in ihra. o lets not forget about trying to qualify at 1:00 in the morning when things are running late.

 

LOL BRUCE.

 

LOL

 

Though I only ran one race with my Crown Vic in '03 (San Antonio) I received my letter today also. What I don't understand is Skooter admits that some teams will be forced out, more down time is a distinct possibility since cars will be pushed harder and since there were 1/3rd of the races with short fields "we have to take action on this issue before the problem gets worse." What exactly is the problem? If the field is short then it actually takes LESS time to run the class rather than more dosn't it? It also helps encourage others to think "hey, I might be able to qualify at a National event. Maybe I'll put together a funny car" How does shrinking the field help grow the field?

I agree with what Gene said about making the class distinct. Different body styles and/or theme paint jobs (like Pro Mod) could go a long way. I love my Crown Vic body because of that exact reason. Last year I seriously considered setting up a truely competitive combination with that body style for IHRA. After having a lengthy conversation with Boggs about this, he convinced me that I would be nuts - the body style alone would hinder me by at least a tenth. So much for distinct body styles. If you really crunch the numbers, you will find that the best Superman blower and injector is only about $2k less than a new PSI and injector. It isn't worth it. NHRA is still the best place to be.

I have never been to an NHRA race where the car and equipment were not checked out completely by the tech inspectors. In San Antonio when I asked the "tech inspector" if he needed to see my fire suit he said "naw, if you're crazy enough to drive this thing I don't care if you drive in your underware!!" All righty, then. Hope there's more than a 2lb fire extinguisher at the other end!

Regarding IHRA's "Nothin' but Attitude" slogan - I gotta say, right now I'm not to crazy about their attitude!

 

sort of like 03/Vegas 21 cars trying for 8 spots ?? Why not make the field cut float, if there are say 17 or 18 cars minimum, expand the field to 16 cars (NHRA or IHRA).If there are less than that, then 8 cars. The class is self supporting prize money wise??? Half the cars are gone after first round anyway and don't get tv time.Are they trying to cover another class as well in the TV time alotted.

 

Truely a sad day for the ihra funny car racers . I honestly doubt if one of these racers actually does this for a living . Some do have sponsors to help out but most are self employed business types . Now if the smaller budget guys do show up to qualify you can look for a lot of broken engines and oil downs from people trying to run harder than they ever have before . I look for the whole ihra ( show ) to be made smaller and the event to be much shorter in the future . Drag racing is not about the racers anymore it is about making $$$ for the business men that run and own it . Look for more jet cars , motorcycle stunt teams , bigger fireworks shows , more wheelstanders and maybe in the future even a ferris wheel or some pony rides ( for a nominal fee of course ).

 

Its all becoming a big circus and guess who the clowns are.

 

scooters reply to my email today

John:

If this was really an oil down issue, we would have cancelled the class completely. An 8 car program may actually increase the oil down situation as teams try harder to get in. That's not why it went to 8 cars.

This decision was made on a 5 year trend in decreased car counts. It came roughly 30 days after the conclusion of our season. All things considered, that's about as fast as a decision could have possibly been made given the options we had to discuss and consider before a decision was made.

This decision had to be made now to try and ensure we even have a funny car class in the future. At the current rate of decrease, the average car count for the 2005 year would be short of a full field and I predict at least half of our events would be short fields in 2005. I was not in a position to wait and see if the car count would fix itself. It has a 5 year history of going down and I don't see anything that would change that trend.

You can see how this decision effects you and your team, but realize that I had to decide how to ensure Funny Car would stay around for the other teams that did support the majority of the events the last several years.

I wrote a letter to the Funny Car competitors, which you would not have seen, because it only went to people that competed in 2003 and 2004. I'm attaching the letter in hopes that this may help explain what we are faced with and why the decision had to be made.

Best Regards,

Skooter Peaco
Director Of Racing Operations
IHRA / Clear Channel Motorsports
419-660-4217 phone
419-668-6601 fax

 

Was IHRA having trouble filling 16 car fields? I always thought they had 20+ cars at every race?

 

I have the actual letter posted at speedzone . The amazing point in all this was three of the four short fields actually had eight pairings for round one. (three races had 15 cars). San Antonio should be the only track that pays the price. They only had 7 cars tlast year, mabye they should of made the fields 4 cars.

And why not have the 9-12 guys get at least 500 dollars for trying to make the field.
At the 11 events the #12 qualifier ran 6.035 230.88, 6.028 232.71, 6.058 228.48, 6.684 203.98 (short 15 car field), 6.158 226.05 (short 15 car field), 6.028 229.82, 6.132 227.54 (short 15 car field), 6.119 232.75, 6.080 230.21, 6.050 233.64 and 5.988 237.63. Only one back #12 car out of thise 11 races, and Edmonton was only allotted two session on a miserable weekend.

PAy back at least two cars and probably four. Then you would not have the teams quite as pissed off.
I just don't get either sanctioning body. I guess they must have some kind of..............
(I can't say anymore).
Dean

 

HALJALIKAKICK.

 

Do you guys think if IHRA paid 9-12 Qual. $500 would that be fair?