Dave Densmore Speaks... (1 Viewer)

[Jeff]

I think he has a great idea.
Time for a change...
Give a real fan vote a chance to get in to the Traxxis shootouts.

http://competitionplus.com/drag-rac...ntary-is-it-still-socially-acceptable-to-give

 

[none]

I hate to bust his chops with facts, but the last two Lotto winners in Top Fuel were Terry McMillen Clay Millican.

Alan

 

[SundayNiagara]

I hate to bust his chops with facts, but the last two Lotto winners in Top Fuel were Terry McMillen Clay Millican.

Alan

Glendora doesn't like Odd Job. He makes them think.

 

[JB3]

I hate to bust his chops with facts, but the last two Lotto winners in Top Fuel were Terry McMillen Clay Millican.

Alan

Sounds like he's reporting "fake news". Hard to believe someone with his media background would publish such a dramatic piece void of any fact. As always, Alan is on top of things with straight facts.

 

[Sean D, shondoo]

I hate to bust his chops with facts, but the last two Lotto winners in Top Fuel were Terry McMillen Clay Millican.

Alan

Ditto. But I will say, despite that fact, I kinda like his idea.......

Sean D

 

[mick]

i would be more concerned with just making sure there ARE nitro shootouts (traxxas or other).....and be happy with whatever scenario
determines the participants.

 

[MidnightbluS10]

I don't agree at all. In fact, I'd say that suggestion is just about as useful as all of David Hance's insane ideas about pro mod...and he comes up with something every week, it seems.

Give the fans a vote, but that person might not even make it due to a random pick and another race to determine the winner? Maybe if the cars weren't known for makin shitty runs half the time. But now, it's just a game of chance, hoping the DSR or JFR car that you're racing against(because they won the hat pull lotto, and probably always will since they have more cars representing their team) breaks or smokes the tires so your guy can get in, even though he won the fan vote. Nah. No thanks.

Thinking about it, and without doing any math, it almost seems like the little guys would have less of a chance at making it into the shootout with it set up his way. Considering that the multi-car teams have more drivers representing their team in the "hat", they're more likely to be pulled over the single entry from the other little guy. Now, the fan vote has to race someone from JFR or Schumacher to determine who gets in. And 95/100 times, the little guy loses that match up. So how does this benefit the little guy? How does this equal a better chance at getting in? It doesn't. It represents another opportunity, but not a better chance. I'd say it's worse. Much worse.

 

[Gordon]

Just spit ballin' here, but what if the entire concept were changed to something a little more performance/consistency based than it is? Why should a fan vote decide any of it - fan votes don't win championships. Heck, they don't even win races. Performance does. Please bear with me, I'm not claiming my idea is perfect - it's just a concept I've been tossing around in my feeble mind.

If I did my math right, there are a maximum of 135 (134 when the spring Vegas race goes four wide) rounds of qualifying/racing from Pomona 1 through the last race before the Big Go, Brainerd. What if the eight qualifiers for the Top Fuel & Funny Car shootouts were determined by averaging every ET, qualifying & eliminations, beginning in Pomona (minimum of 100 runs, or roughly 75% of the maximum possible runs) and ending in Brainerd? This puts a premium on not only making every run count, but it also promotes attendance to a lesser degree because racers will have to make every attempt to get their minimum number of shootout qualifying runs (100). If a team makes every qualifying attempt at all 17 races, that's 68 runs, which means if they qualify for all 17 and make a first round run, they'll need to win at least 15 rounds to reach their 100. Like I said, it's a work in progress. Top eight average ET's over those 100 (or more) runs is the qualifying factor.

I get the focus on winning in the current setup, and maybe that can be worked into my formula somehow as a balance, but the focus for qualifying for the shootout should be generally the same as the focus for qualifying for a race - performance. You don't qualify for Indy because you won Brainerd, or Pomona, or Topeka, right? You have to be one of the 16 quickest cars making a qualifying attempt. No provisional either. But if winning is part of the formula, then maybe the first four qualifiers for the shootout are the first four different winners in each category (TF & FC) and the bottom four qualify based on the performance formula I outline above?

Am I off my rocker?

Quick edit: There's virtually no way to "even" the playing field with the Force's, Schumacher's, etc. so it's almost pointless to even try. My attempt here is to go back towards the way it used to be (qualifying numbers only) and enhance it a little bit by adding a race day element to the equation.

 

[Bobby Bennett]

Just for the record, here are the other lottery/fan vote winners Alan failed to mention that a Force car made it in every year in his attempt to bust Dave's chops. Courtney made it twice, and the odds are she will make it a third time.

Brandon Bernstein Courtney Force
Brittany Force Tim Wilkerson
Clay Millican Courtney Force
Terry McMillen John Force

Of course there will be some of the teams with lesser budgets get in there from time to time. It's the law of averages.

Not once did Dave ever say the lesser funded teams didn't get in just to respond to Jim's fake news comment. It was a commentary, not a news article. Big difference.

And to quote Dave, "Despite NHRA declarations that those final positions are determined by lottery drawing, the truth is that the process is so heavily-weighted toward the big teams and their use of the various social media platforms that it is ludicrous to think that someone like Scott Palmer or Terry McMillen has a legitimate shot at making the Top Fuel field."

The original idea I posed in discussing alternative ideas with Densmore, was a four car shootout for the top four points earners without wins to run during Friday qualifying and do away with the whole fan vote deal. However, since there's only one run on Friday, it would have necessitated an extra run which the NHRA would never have approved. There was also no way NHRA would give up the social media windfall it stood to experience.

By, in essence doing a second lottery drawing, it gives a second fair and equal chance to the others. How is that so bad?

How is giving one more car a chance of getting in outside of the fan vote such a bad thing?

Alan knows what he is doing, he is toeing the company line, and I don't blame him for doing so. He's supposed to defend his team right or wrong. No one was bashing the NHRA. All we were saying was, "Hey, here's another idea."

 

[none]

Bobby,
I agree that the teams with the bigger social media following have an advantage. I was merely responding to exactly what you quoted.

"Despite NHRA declarations that those final positions are determined by lottery drawing, the truth is that the process is so heavily-weighted toward the big teams and their use of the various social media platforms that it is ludicrous to think that someone like Scott Palmer or Terry McMillen has a legitimate shot at making the Top Fuel field."

By pointing out that Terry McMillen did indeed make the field one year, as did Clay Millican who is certainly not part of one of the super teams. For Dave to claim that it is "Ludicrous to think" something could happen, he should point out that it did indeed happen. Is it still ludicrous?

And just for the record, I think that Alexis should certainly be part of the fan vote, but because of the races she missed she's not even eligible for that. And when I brought it up I was told that Traxxas had final approval of the process, and that was their rule. Just as K&N has ultimate power over the Horse Power Challenge, Traxxas does over the Shootouts.

Alan

 

[Muddy]

Not a criticism but we all realize Traxxas has "ultimate power" based on the advice and consent of NHRA. NHRA allows nothing to happen without their approval and that's a typical business practice of all organizations.