I was hoping for bigger fields. (2 Viewers)

[Jimbo]

Looking at the Gatornationals entry list is surprising for one the the best shows of the year.

Where are all the heavy hitters in Alcohol Funny car?

Pro Classes with 15 or 16 entries?

Sure hope this is not a trend.

Jim Hill
http://www.nostalgicracingdecals.com

 

[JB3]

2 weeks out yet for entries ...

• TAFC will be over full in time. Especially with a Regional event the weekend before at Gainesville.
• Will be curious to see which other (if any) of the part time East / Midwest pro stock teams have an EFI program yet. As they typically have filled out this event in the past.
• Comp ... have to wait and see. Been way off so far this year at the 1 National and 1 LODRS race held to this point.

 

[Greggo]

I believe registration is open until the Monday prior to the event starting - 12 Noon Pacific Time.

 

[my friends call me Zappy]

TWO short fields out of three Pro classes......whats up with THAT ??

 

[Nunz]

Paul, you know what's up with that. It's no mystery, it's just money. Same thing that's killing Comp. NHRA is making some positive moves on the media side, they need to somehow improve the business model for the racers. These are related topics, but they need to do something ASAP to help insure full fields, like more money for 1st round and non-qualifiers for starters.

 

[Andy]

I was thinking about the Phoenix race, to me quite a few very low budget teams filling the fields, with no chance to compete with high dollar teams. Not a knock on the low budget cars. Glad to see them out there, and I will always pull for the upset.

 

[my friends call me Zappy]

Paul, you know what's up with that. It's no mystery, it's just money. Same thing that's killing Comp. NHRA is making some positive moves on the media side, they need to somehow improve the business model for the racers. These are related topics, but they need to do something ASAP to help insure full fields, like more money for 1st round and non-qualifiers for starters.

All the more reason to drop the 16 car max & let ALL run.

 

[The Counterfeiter]

I was thinking about the Phoenix race, to me quite a few very low budget teams filling the fields, with no chance to compete with high dollar teams. Not a knock on the low budget cars. Glad to see them out there, and I will always pull for the upset.

Without those low-budget teams, you would have REALLY short fields and some very strange ladders! I've been attending national events since 1965 and have seen bucks down guys who have won an upset in round 1 and have no idea (or parts) to go to round 2. What happened? - high buck teams show up with parts and help! God bless the Diehls, Haddocks, Chrismans and others who are out there knowing they supposedly don't have a chance in Hell, but keep trying for just one round win.

 

[troy boy]

Terry McMillen talks about that just winning a round feeling at comp plus.
http://www.competitionplus.com/drag-racing/news/mcmillen-riding-a-wave-of-reasonable-success

 

[Jimbo]

Jim Young your comment "God bless the Diehls, Haddocks, Chrismans and others who are out there knowing they supposedly don't have a chance in Hell, but keep trying for just one round win".

In my opinion this is what always made drag racing great in the first place!

Right now drag racing is experiencing the same thing that NASCAR is going through.
NASCAR went from a 43 car field to a 40 car field and at the their very next race has only 39 cars show up!

Drag racing having a 16 car show right now is also kind of crazy when many Pro Classes only have 15 or 16 cars showing up to race.
Drag racing can either lower the cars that make the show to 12 or simply leave it open!

Your would have to be blind not to see the trend that is taking place in both racing associations right in front of our eyes right now.

Both NASCAR and the drag racing associations are working hard trying to figure out how to deal with smaller events in the future and just what it all means for 5 or 10 years down the road.

I also find it's interesting to note that what's going is effecting a number of car magazines, racing companies, and others have either gone out of business or are hanging on my their finger nails right now!

Just my opinion.
Jim Hill
http://www.nostalgicracingdecals.com

 

[The Swegian]

All the more reason to drop the 16 car max & let ALL run.

They're barely filling the fields now so they ARE all running.

 

[Nunz]

39 cars for NASCAR, think about this: When we have 3 full pro fields, that's 48 qualified cars. We forget sometimes that we have our pros split up into 3 categories, or 4 counting bikes. Meaning we have that many more teams out there looking for funding to race at the pro level. Just a little food for thought.

 

[my friends call me Zappy]

They're barely filling the fields now so they ARE all running.

My point is the cars are out there. IF they were aloud to race on Sunday (and get sponsor exposure) they would show up.

 

[PJ]

My point is the cars are out there. IF they were aloud to race on Sunday (and get sponsor exposure) they would show up.

So many issues with that
-Format change every week, NHRA wouldn't know how many rounds would be happening until the cutoff date. It's hard to schedule things then. You can look now for race schedules well in advance to plan your day. Not they won't know until Sunday morning when they see how many cars line up as to how many rounds they will have.
-TV Coverage, would they squeeze in airing and extra round.
-TV coverage with them wanting to go live, adding another round messes up the timing of that.
-More bye runs YAWN!!!!
-Much like the countdown wimping down the sport by allowing just about everyone to run for the title. Letting anyone who shows up in the big show, waters it down further. They have their chance to race on Friday and Saturday to get to the main event.
-They days of 32 car fields are over. Until cost gets under control or people start making crazy money again, there just are not going to be that many teams out there.
-Even when IHRA was going full tilt you couldn't get 32 cars between them when they were on different weekends (IHRA ran an 8 car show).

 

[FABMAN]

The fields are starting to fill up especially in sportsman catagories. Alcohol funny cars is only one that doesn't have 16. I'm sure it will by race time.

 

[The Counterfeiter]

39 cars for NASCAR, think about this: When we have 3 full pro fields, that's 48 qualified cars. We forget sometimes that we have our pros split up into 3 categories, or 4 counting bikes. Meaning we have that many more teams out there looking for funding to race at the pro level. Just a little food for thought.

Actually, only 38 cars have practiced. 36 of these are "Charter" teams (some of which no longer exist, so other teams bought the rights) who paid for the right to guaranteed entry into every race, no matter their performance. If you think NHRA has problems, remember that NASCAR just finished spending $400,000,000 (yes, that is correct) to remodel Daytona Speedway to accommodate 100,000 fans. Motorsports in our country has some major issues.

 

[my friends call me Zappy]

Ok Pj point one, scheduling no problem, field is still set Sat after Q4.
2) TV...they have 45 mins of dead time (no racing) now. So I see no problem there.IF they absolutely had to they could pick up action with RD 2 .
3) TV...other sports run over all the time. Ex football-base ball, can't pinpoint there ending either.
4) Bye runs...anyone around the sport as long as you, knows it's just part of the sport - always has been. Besides we got bye runs now.
5) It's not "wimping" the sport to let more cars run. Folks complain about the same few cars always winning, well If ya only let the same few cars race - yer gonna have the same cars win. You mentioned the C/D, NHRA tried to artificially create drama. Well what's better then a David vs Goliath race ??
5+) To have a Pro class car that passes tech, just sit in the pits on Sunday is a waste. Let the ticket buying public see them race. Ticket price goes up & up, and we still have the same 16 car show, why not give the fan 20-24- ?? what ever shows up.
6) ...We are a ways from 32 cars, yes, but in time who knows. Remember it wasn't that long ago we had 20+cars showing up.
The cars are out there.........................If you let them - they will come.
Finally, what is the harm in trying this? Instead of limiting it to 16 cars, open it up and lets see what happens. It may take a while, but eventually if more cars start coming, is that a bad thing.

 

[Pete]

2 weeks out yet for entries ...

• TAFC will be over full in time. Especially with a Regional event the weekend before at Gainesville.
• Will be curious to see which other (if any) of the part time East / Midwest pro stock teams have an EFI program yet. As they typically have filled out this event in the past.
• Comp ... have to wait and see. Been way off so far this year at the 1 National and 1 LODRS race held to this point.

I saw 3 part time PS cars for sale recently. I know 2 of them are done due to EFI.

 

[Rajunz]

Ok Pj point one, scheduling no problem, field is still set Sat after Q4.
2) TV...they have 45 mins of dead time (no racing) now. So I see no problem there.IF they absolutely had to they could pick up action with RD 2 .
3) TV...other sports run over all the time. Ex football-base ball, can't pinpoint there ending either.
4) Bye runs...anyone around the sport as long as you, knows it's just part of the sport - always has been. Besides we got bye runs now.
5) It's not "wimping" the sport to let more cars run. Folks complain about the same few cars always winning, well If ya only let the same few cars race - yer gonna have the same cars win. You mentioned the C/D, NHRA tried to artificially create drama. Well what's better then a David vs Goliath race ??
5+) To have a Pro class car that passes tech, just sit in the pits on Sunday is a waste. Let the ticket buying public see them race. Ticket price goes up & up, and we still have the same 16 car show, why not give the fan 20-24- ?? what ever shows up.
6) ...We are a ways from 32 cars, yes, but in time who knows. Remember it wasn't that long ago we had 20+cars showing up.
The cars are out there.........................If you let them - they will come.
Finally, what is the harm in trying this? Instead of limiting it to 16 cars, open it up and lets see what happens. It may take a while, but eventually if more cars start coming, is that a bad thing.

Why not let all NFL teams play in the playoffs?

 

[Nunz]

I get the reason for the all-run theory. But it's almost all run now, since each event seems to average right around 16 cars. The goal needs to be to improve the economics, so that the part timers can race more, as most want to. Maybe we'll never have 30 cars trying for 16 car shows, but for years we had consistent 20+ cars trying to qualify, which brought real drama to qualifying. Remember the events where a big team would fail to make it or would make it on the last shot? That really made it exciting. I think if the money improved down at the bottom, including money for non-qualifiers, the part-timers would run more events. Of course the bigger issue is we've reached a point where it takes 3 Million to run all the events, and that is just out of whack, given the economic environment we are in and probably will be going forward.