Latest Column...switching the national championship to 8 of 12 nats, 2 of 4 divs

Will, very good points, Just when the alky classes are getting more competitive, thanks in fact to this web site and all the info being shared. But I think you went into RAPID EYE MOVEMENT! You will be lucky if they keep letting the alky cars in for free. Think about it ,thats more races they have to let you in for free, or lower fee.

 

Will, for the alcohol classes to become the vision that we see it becoming your plan (or something very similar) would have to be implemented. But if that were to happen you would have to take away grade points and/or add a lot of cars to the fields. If you keep the grade point requirements then new racers would have a much more difficult time their first year.

Alcohol's are too expensive to ask a sponsor to pay the $$$ for a 20 man crowd... What about having a pro-alcohol class and a sportman-alcohol class? One would just work in their division and the other would only count national points... If you want to create a feeder program for the pro classes I think that would be one of the best ways...

Alcohol classes keep most of the crowd in the stands at nationals, and the cost is just a fraction of what nitro cars cost... Alcohol classes do give sponsors more bang for their buck for spectators...

You have my support (if we are voting )

CJ Curtsinger

 

Maybe this is a needed evolution. From the mid 60s to 1973, the contested Pro classes (w/ enough divisional points) raced for the title at the World Finals. From 1974-81 it was decided by a combonation of Divisional (Regionals in 81) and National Events. Since 1982 its National Events only. The Alky cars have already followed the first two patterns.

I think which racers support which system may depend on where they are RE their $ and or level. In 1978 when we competed at Divisional races for the first time (Pro Comp), we were just happy to be there (and qualify). Competing at a NHRA National event was not a realistic goal yet. By 1980, IHRA dropped Pro Comp, so we focused on the NHRA Division 2 series and won three of five events (and the title). We still did not have the $ to get after NHRA National Events (my driver competed in two w/ a better car). When NHRA split the class in 1981 (TAD and TAFC), they introduced the 3 National, 2 regional, 3 Divisional (if memory serves right) format for the World Title. We raced TAFC for an RO (rich owner) and competed for the Championship. He had nice stuff and travel $, and we finished 5th (Manzo won his first of many). It was fun at first, but racing for someone else has its downside too (thats another story for a different thread).

Not being an active racer, I am not sure its fair to endorse Will's idea......but I do. The next step in Alky evolution.

 

national events for points sure but they should run alky classes at all of them or at least add denver

 

Hey Will:

I guess I've been around a while and have an opinion which may or may not interest anyone...but here goes:

Just noticing 50+ TA/FC's that ran the division events last weekend. If every TA/FC was inclined to run all over the country to run just national events you'd see 30-50-80 or more cars looking to enter selected national events. Just like 10 years ago when they eliminated 16 car fields from division 7, the number of cars diminished as people got tired of being number 17-31. Yes, we had 31 cars in division 7 in the early 1990's. Now we have 1/2 of that and I think it's because we cut the division fields to 8 cars. That's another discussion, though.

16 car fields work for the pro's because there are only 21+/- of them in the country. With almost 100 licensed TA/FC drivers how can you ask them all to compete mainly at national events? Nobody is going to division races if it takes a larger number of national events to score a top 10 when all is said and done.

Also, for the west coast TA/FC racers 8 national events would mean a lot of travel for a "sportsman" class because most of the races are east of the Rockies. In 2005 I spent $2,100 in fuel alone to drive to Chicago and back. Now I'm spending $425 each (if I'm lucky) to fly crew members all over the place just on the west coast. Maybe there should be a Western US Champ and an Eastern US Champ.

I agree we should be properly promoted, for sure. That would help the track operators, But I also think there is a lot of fun to be had running divisional event tracks. These events also help groom newer drivers in an atmosphere with a lot less stress. Plus, part of the challenge is manipulating various venues.

If you want to run strickly National Events there is always the IHRA. Even during it's hayday IHRA AFC never had the car counts the NHRA has. There's a perfect model of what running the traveling circus will do to the numbers.

I don't know what the answer is. I'm not even sure I heard anyone ask the question, for that matter.

I like the current format. It ain't perfect, but I like it.

RG

 

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well, speaking strictly as a fan, I'd love it if NHRA would allow some national event somewhere to drop the super classes and run 32 car top alcohol fields (maybe allow up to 50 entries).

A show with tf, fc, ps, psb, comp, tad, tafc, top sportsman, top dragster (qualified 64 car fields), Stock and SS would be cool to see.


Off topic ?- why don't they qualify the SG and SC cars like they do in IHRA (ie closes to 8.90 is top qualifier, etc)? Maybe they could have 64 car qualified fields (128 at Indy); while I'm not a fan of throttle stops, at least that would put more interest in those classes.

Although it would be neat if they were replaced on a national level by TS and top dragster.