Cost of Nitro... (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Raconteur
- Start date
Don-mon
Nitro Member
No they dont, but they paid NHRA to be the official fuel of NHRA, and all pro catagories as well as some designated sportsman catagoies have to run VP at National events and divisionals. No other brand of race fuel can be sold at an NHRA National event, but can at a divisional at the tracks descretion.
In my opinion the price of over road diesel to push these haulers from coast to coast adds more to a teams budget than an increase in Nitro. I say NHRA should plan out the season in a big loop, so the teams dont have to criss cross the country.
Written by CompetitionPlus
Tuesday, 11 March 2008
Racers will be paying more at the pump in more than one location - on the way to the track and once they get there. Multiple teams have confirmed they received a letter from the official nitro distributor of the NHRA informing them that not only has the quantity been limited to 395 pounds (roughly 42 gallons), they will also face a $300 per barrel increase bringing the total to $1250. Reportedly, this increase is attributed to Homeland Security restrictions.
Just to give you an idea of how this shakes out, last year at this time the cost of a 55-gallon barrel of nitro pre-mixed with methanol sold for $850. The price was increased to $950 during the NHRA U.S. Nationals.
How does this affect the teams? For a team to warm up, make four qualifying runs and go out first round it will now cost them an additional $600 to $700 per race. If the nitro cars use 2500 barrels per year it is an additional $750K and if they go thru 3000 drums it is $900K.
Our question is this. How can the non-official suppliers of nitro afford to sell their same size barrels of pure nitromethane for under $800 while adhering to the same Homeland Security regulations?
WONDER WHO'S GETTING WELL ON THIS DEAL?
Tuesday, 11 March 2008
Racers will be paying more at the pump in more than one location - on the way to the track and once they get there. Multiple teams have confirmed they received a letter from the official nitro distributor of the NHRA informing them that not only has the quantity been limited to 395 pounds (roughly 42 gallons), they will also face a $300 per barrel increase bringing the total to $1250. Reportedly, this increase is attributed to Homeland Security restrictions.
Just to give you an idea of how this shakes out, last year at this time the cost of a 55-gallon barrel of nitro pre-mixed with methanol sold for $850. The price was increased to $950 during the NHRA U.S. Nationals.
How does this affect the teams? For a team to warm up, make four qualifying runs and go out first round it will now cost them an additional $600 to $700 per race. If the nitro cars use 2500 barrels per year it is an additional $750K and if they go thru 3000 drums it is $900K.
Our question is this. How can the non-official suppliers of nitro afford to sell their same size barrels of pure nitromethane for under $800 while adhering to the same Homeland Security regulations?
WONDER WHO'S GETTING WELL ON THIS DEAL?
I may be wrong, but I think the math is incorrect in that example. I believe fuel cars use about 12 gallons per run (close?). If you made 4 qualifying runs, and won, that's 8 runs, or 96 gallons per event. If you won all 24 events, let's call it 2400 gallons/yr., w/o testing. 2400/42 equals roughly 57 barrels, multiplied by $300 equals a bit over $17,000 in price increase for the season. Did I screw up my math?
I noticed that and figured it was wrong but didn't think I should change something that was written by someone else...especially something written by someone who gets paid for it. Using their calculations they would be consumming about 4200 gals per race. We all know that not correct but whatever the figure is it still does not make sense that nito is being sold for much less by all other vendors except the official NHRA dealer.
After reading it again I think they may be lumping all nitro cars together for their calculations
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What about the warm up? Those cars can go through 3-5 gallons on the warmup in the pits.
mike cummings
Nitro Member
Bad, bad, bad idea. This is the same as the government increasing a tax on all of us to subsidize a private entity.I think NHRA should raise the ticket price half a buck per person and give the money to the nitro racers to cover the adl. cost. I will pay gladly, Screw the warmups and burnout on Alky, real dragrace fans want NITRO and lots of it!!!!!
Nobody is offering me money to cover the additional fuel costs I incur when I drive to the track to watch an event. Why should we pay to subsidize the fuel teams?
Bobby Bennett
Nitro Member
Stay tuned. There's more to this story. It will be out soon.
