Eliminate night qualifying!!!!! (1 Viewer)

[Marchboom]

As I have said before, when eliminations are run during the day, night qualifying is not the best way to set the field. I know, the fans love the flames. Well, so do I. BUT, look at the results during this year's Indy qualifying. Force, J.R., Whit, and W.J. all DNQ'd. This is not what the fans want to see. And this Countdown to the whatever crap makes it even worse.

Nearly every car makes at least one bad run during it's 4 (or 5) qualifying runs at each race. But if your bad run is during the night session, you're screwed. There was no way a car can run the same times during the day as they do at night. Those crew chiefs were having to put a VERY aggressive tune up in the car during the day qualifying and that caused many of them to just blow off the tires. This can also be dangerous as the chance for engine explosions is greater as they are putting everything they have into the car just to get the 16th spot.

And what does a team gain by qualifying at night? Data that will never be used because eliminations are not run at night.

Unless eliminations are run at night, the NHRA should get rid of night qualifying. I just wonder if some of the big teams might just demand that they eliminate night qualifying after what happened today.

 

[Just Paul]

Night qualifying is part of the SHOW and must stay. What they need to do is take a look at the qualifying format, which is being discussed in another thread.

 

[.]

Force, J.R., Whit, and W.J. all DNQ'd. This is not what the fans want to see.

Not all fans want to "see" the same thing.

I trust fans understand and accept that all teams have the same shot at getting qualified (Q2 at Sonoma could have been handled better).

 

[Sully]

The current fuel tire does not perform well on hot tracks and the definition of "hot tracks" now seems to start just over 100 degrees. Some crew chiefs have figured out how to get a car down a hot track, giving up ET to do so, others are still looking for the recipe. It's a delicate balance of timing, fuel flow, and clutch.

And the long cars definitely have an advantage - the Funny Cars don't generate enough down force in the early part of the run because they build speed slower and their downforce doesn't have the leverage that the wings on the dragsters do.

It's Catch-22 - you've got to run the good numbers at night to get into the show, but you've got to be able to back it off during the day to get down the track during eliminations, which is one reason why the #1 qualifiers have so much trouble winning races.

 

[afx421]

so john what you are trying to say is you love to see nitro cars smoke the itres and go 5.20s. not me i want more night time sessions!

 

[PJ]

I've learned going to any day but the final elims is wasted. After the chicago smoke fest and watching very few teams make a full pass in the heat here its bad. I was shokced how empty the stands were during the last nitro session. So much for the countdown brining in people. I'll post pics whne I get back.

What I fear is that along with this countdown is that next year they'll start using provisionals.

 

[PJ]

I've learned going to any day but the final elims is wasted. After the chicago smoke fest and watching very few teams make a full pass in the heat here its bad. I was shokced how empty the stands were during the last nitro session. So much for the countdown brining in people. I'll post pics whne I get back.

What I fear is that along with this countdown is that next year they'll start using provisionals.

 

[Johnny Mopar]

so john what you are trying to say is you love to see nitro cars smoke the itres and go 5.20s. not me i want more night time sessions!

I agree Jeff...the 'solution' is to move the last session on Saturday to the evening hours. This way each team will have two day and two night sessions...and the crowd gets an even better 'show' with the Saturday evening session.

That said, I believe that if Glendora doesn't make this move then they should move the Friday night session to earlier in the day. It makes no sense to have one session in conditions they'll never race in. It does make sense to have two sessions (Friday & Saturday evening) that the crowd and TV will enjoy. With a Saturday evening show we might accidently get a little LIVE TV coverage...

 

[BlueStangGT]

I still think a better solution would be to move the whole show up by one day during the summer months. One session on Thursday evening, two sessions on Friday, one on Saturday morning, then eliminations on Saturday evening thus leaving Sunday for a potential rain day and / or special events, testing, etc.

 

[d'kid]

Tom, I like your thinking....

Personally, I'd like to see everything run after 4 in the afternoon.... I grew up on night time Nitro shows...

They can even run Gas Classes during the Day only.... Gas is for washing parts, alky is for drinking, Nitro is for speed...

 

[sparky]

I agree with the above statement. Run all the pro stuff at night where possible. Its just too hot at most of the summer races for maximum fan turnout. Even if eliminations are spread out over two days. Run the sportsman during the day. As usual, the sportsmen get jacked around with schedule around the pros anyway. Give them the whole day.

The flip side to that is in places like Seattle, where there is curfews.

I can't stand sitting around in extreme heat. Last year in Seattle was about all I could handle. Its gotta be tough on the racers but I'm sure they get (sorta) used to it.

 

[Eracer]

I like Snake's idea the top 10 in points are seeded in the show.

 

[Wes]

I agree with Tom...the whole schedule needs to be refined. If we are stuck with the mandated tire that doesn't work well for ALL teams when the track temp tops 100 then a shift in scheduling is in order.

Two dusk/evening sessions Friday night (using the 75 minute turn around).

One early session Sautrday morning.

Elimintations to start at 5:00 Saturday and continue into the night.

Reduce the number of passes (i.e., costs), reduce the duration of the events (i.e., costs), open Sundays for rain delays or testing (logistics and costs), and provide the best possible racing environment for the teams to produce the best possible show for the fans.

 

[Chi-Town Brown]

2 Passes on Thursday in daylite 2 passes Friday in daylite and Elims of the Pro catagories start at 4 PM on Saturday. Stands will fill 3 fold (SRO) on final day. Teams are home or off on Sunday.

 

[Spike]

I think they should take an average of the 4 or 5 qualifing passes. I have been in the stand under the hot sun and most all the fans are disappointed when the cars do not make a full pass.

 

[Marchboom]

so john what you are trying to say is you love to see nitro cars smoke the itres and go 5.20s. not me i want more night time sessions!

That's not what I'm saying. Most of the tire smoke you saw on those last qualifying runs was from teams who put more into the tune up than the car could take. They were hoping to get somewhere close to those night time E.T.s. I would love night eliminations. But then have ALL the qualifying sessions at night. Qualifying with the conditions that you will be racing in, that's all I'm suggesting.