Amazing the difference a month makes...

[willy]

Lets not be to hard on Topeka, back when the track opened and was raced in the fall it was the best track on the circuit and it sold out every year. I think it should be brought back to the fall and it would fit well for teams travel.

Right on Jesse..there were lots of records set/broken at that fall race.

 

[Toejam]

So why is it that "part timers" like Haddock, McMillen, Hartley, Cox, etc. can make every race so far, but big names like Herbert, Fuller, Vandergriff, et. al. can't even make one (except BV in Atlanta)? Who's in it for the love of racing, no matter what, and who's in it just for the money?

Pretty easy actually, Haddock, Lagana, and others run on a Skeleton budget compared to what Vandergriff and Herbert ran on. You may see 4-5 guys working on Haddock's or Lagana's team (Guess?) whereas on Herbert's or Vandergriff's team they had 8 or more. Paul Smith used to do that quite a bit in the 90's, show up with both his FC and Dragster, make one or two squirts to get in. Collect his $9,000 first round money! Not profitable per say, but they aren't losing $30-40,000 per race either!

 

[JIMBO]

You know I just saw that only ten teams have made it to all the first six races ?? seems like it's been more than that.


Driver Name No. of Races Total Pts
Tony Schumacher 6 491
Antron Brown 6 456
Brandon Bernstein 6 430
Cory McClenathan 6 402
Morgan Lucas 6 380
Larry Dixon, Jr. 6 368
Shawn Langdon 6 302
Spencer Massey 6 291
Doug Kalitta 6 290
Joe Hartley 6 257
Clay Millican 5 161
Terry Haddock 5 135
David Baca 4 130
Urs Erbacher 4 128
Del Cox Jr. 4 126
Troy Buff 4 125
Bobby Lagana Jr. 2 122
Mike Strasburg 3 114
Steven Chrisman 3 93
Terry McMillen 2 63
Bob Vandergriff 1 54
Steve Faria 3 51
Andy Carter 1 31
Michael Gunderson 1 31
Todd Simpson 1 31
Rob Passey 2 20
Arley Langlo 1 10
Chris Karamesines 1 10
Luigi Novelli 1 10
Tim Boychuk 1 10
Todd Paton 1 10

 

[Nunz]

Wow, did I count 31 different drivers? Let's get 1 more, get them all to Indy for an all-run, 32 car TF show! Yeah it's a pipedream, but how cool would that be?

 

[my friends call me Zappy]

Get nhra to quit limiting the class to only 16, and we would see more cars show up. This season proves it.

 

[my friends call me Zappy]

7 out of 7 Joe, keep it up.

 

[my friends call me Zappy]

Well Joe I just checked Bristol Qual. and guess what?? 17 TF and 17 FC.
Yer 8 for 8 dude. a full 1/3 thru the season.

Keep it up or we'll both have to eat crow.............

 

[James]

Does anyone else get the feeling this is the "Greeks" last tour? He has'nt run since g-ville 2007 and is runnin quite a few this year.... If so go "Greek"! That's just me thinkin out loud. But if so (and i hope not) once again go "Greek"! =)

 

[Nunz]

I just read in the new ND that 35 different drivers have earned points in TF this year. I think that is really cool. I know this a whole different topic, but if NHRA indeed comes up with a new spec that is designed for a bit slower, much less expensive return to quarter-mile racing, I believe the amount of new blood stepping into the fuel classes will only increase.

 

[my friends call me Zappy]

Nunzio, you may have a good point there...... To re-invent the TF class would kinda put everyone on the same page.
But I'm still against a major change JUST to go back to 1320ft.

 

["Dr. Dirt"]

Well, we're down to 15 this past weekend. Is this the writing on the wall?

 

[Toejam]

Well Joe I just checked Bristol Qual. and guess what?? 17 TF and 17 FC.
Yer 8 for 8 dude. a full 1/3 thru the season.

Keep it up or we'll both have to eat crow.............

Considering Topeka was the first short field at 15 cars, I'd say TF's demise is greatly exaggerated!

 

[MM]

Topeka's car counts are always kind of low so i'm not sure it's a good barometer for the rest of the season

 

[Kevin]

The argument for this rule is that if you allow big budget teams all the testing they want, they'll out-test the small budget teams and have a major advantage. From what they say, all the teams, big and small, are on board. I guess I understand that, and although I think making people test in qualifying at national events is pretty brutal, it can be argued that it evens the field....

And leads to boring Saturday qualifying shows; endless slow motion shots of fuel cars going up in smoke. I don't bother watching on TV or attending for that matter, anymore. If something wild does happen on Saturday I'll see the replay on Sundays show or the big screen at the track.

 

[Terry]

I read a comment the other day (maybe here, don't remember) that I thought was worthy of merit. How bout building the qual show around Friday evening qualifying with highlights from Sat and Sunday if there were any runs that changed the ladders from Fri qualifying? With all the stuff going on Friday (esp Friday night) like establishing the bump and watching the low for the race get lowered with each succeeding pass, not to mention the visual impact of night running with the fuel cars, I do believe it would attract more attention of the casual viewer than as mentioned, a string of smokers or one car passes.

Usually not much changes after Friday qualifying. Why not focus on it, with highlights from Sat and Sunday as the satellite material? Might boost ratings after some positive word of mouth got around.

John Kernan, if you're out there, what do you think? I'm sure there are production issues, etc that I have no idea about that would enter into this idea. If you see this, feel free to hop in and let us know your thoughts also.

 

[Nunz]

I would say overall, the fields in ALL the classes are pretty good given the economic climate. For as bad as it is out there, there are still plenty of teams racing, and decent crowds watching.

 

[mastertone]

I would say overall, the fields in ALL the classes are pretty good given the economic climate. For as bad as it is out there, there are still plenty of teams racing, and decent crowds watching.

Did anyone notice all the empty seats at the nascar race at Dover? Looked way more by percentage than NHRA racing.

 

[Just Paul]

I'd bet Topkea would have had a full field if not for the IHRA race in Texas the same weekend.

 

[my friends call me Zappy]

I'd bet Topkea would have had a full field if not for the IHRA race in Texas the same weekend.

A very good point sir.

 

[clwill]

I dunno, given the doom and gloom that started this thread back five months ago, I think having the first bye run be 1/3 of the way through the season and at the notoriously slim Topeka is a pretty good sign...