vegasnitro
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Nothing to do with the power plants. No manufacturer involvement and no sponsors ... Hmmmm sounds kinda like Pro Stock ...
Larry Morgan Interview at DRO (2 Viewers)
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Nothing to do with the power plants. No manufacturer involvement and no sponsors ... Hmmmm sounds kinda like Pro Stock ...
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They were mid 7 second small block slugs.
FABMAN
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The Trucks ended up where they should have started Comp Elem. Wasn't the idea when they started Pro Stock Truck to draw interest
from truck owners to the sport just as Nascar did with their truck series.
from truck owners to the sport just as Nascar did with their truck series.
sdwarf36
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So I can take my 6 year old engine-that got cracks in the mains-that never been in the .70's-and get a weekend of running a Cagnazzi motor-then get a couple of weeks to reverse engineer it-get his cam profiles-copy the intake-before i got to give it back? And what I find I would "let everyone know?" Fat chance!
Do some reading about IMCA claimer motors. The average amount in a $500 claimer motor? About $5k.
Do some reading about IMCA claimer motors. The average amount in a $500 claimer motor? About $5k.
BlueStangGT
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I don't remember lack of sponsors being an issue and the class was very affordable to run, comparatively speaking. I think Larry is dead on accurate with a lot of his statements. "Because the cost is out of control in our class, I suggested they take our cars and take whatever the NASCAR motors are and put that in our cars and put fuel injection on it, where it looks like a car you can buy from Ford – actually a production car. " I was touting exactly this years ago on this forum and still think that the future of PS should be in this direction.
Like Chris said, the power plant wasn't responsible for the demise of the class.
Interesting thought re Comp. While they did end up there, IMHO opinion it was pure politics that drove them there.
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The engine restrictions made them too slow. You can't have a mid 7 second Pro anything in drag racing. When they realized the truck thing had beed rejected by the fans, they should have given them nitrous,
You don't think much closer to stock ( real cars you can buy) with factory available engines running low eights maybe high sevens would be more popular with the average fan then today's gas burning carburated funny cars?
haagar
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Having raced in oval series that have claimer rules, and oval series that don't, CLAIMER RULES SUCK! Especially at that price. At the very least you need to have it high enough to help eliminate some of the grudge claims, and most of the claims end up being grudge claims anyways. Might be less of an issue in drag racing since people shouldn't be spinning each other out and pissing each other off
Most of the oval track series that have claimer rules also have tire rules that make having a ton of power unnecessary anyways.
Yes I do. I saw yesterday P. B. Candies run a series of 7.90 & .80's run in his brought from the factory mustang. I can't wait to see it run today.
It's funny when someone thinks 7sec cars won't hold fans' interest. PS cars are running 6.40-50s and the stands empty when they come to the line. So i think it's not necessarily about ultimate performance. Shaking up PS could only help, IMO, and Larry has some great points. Here's the bottom line folks: As long as there are tracks, there will be drag racing. But for drag racing to have a "big show", worthy of TV and sponsor support, there HAS TO BE CHANGE. There have been SO many articles, SO many threads, SO many interviews, etc., all saying the same thing, but the powers that be need to pay attention, and become forward thinkers.
I know it is "cool" to bash Tom Compton and Graham Light on here, but I don't really see that they are ruining NHRA racing any more than the guys that go out and buy a program (car, crew, setups), rent a motor program, higher a tuner and sit in their million dollar motor homes until first round is called.
What are Compton and Light supposed to do when guys show up with 3 $100,000 leased bullets per car in the trailer when Morgan is over there working on his own stuff, and now add a 2nd car with Humprhies driving one of his motors? With 3 motors to be split between 2 cars. All for less than what 1 of those leased program motors cost.
What can Compton and Light do to force cable companies across the nation to ad MAVTV to their lineups? That isn't their job anyway.
What are Compton and Light supposed to do because ESPN realizes that there are few drag racing fans, and although they are fervent about the sport, they represent about 2% (or whatever % it is) of their viewing audience? People complain about the Little League World Series every year preempting some taped running of a national event. Sorry to say, but here are more little leaguers in any one state than there are drag racers across the country. Add in parents, and that is a big viewership compared to what NHRA events draw on TV.
As for his comments about the vendors, the T-shirt sales argument has been going on for 30 some years. It aint gonna change any time soon.
Now, if you want to talk about manufacturers alley, lets do that. Manufactures alley is really pretty useless on race day. I don't know many racers that actually use them. Very few racers actually buy anything of any monetary value at the track. They might listen to a sales pitch, but at the end of the day they go home and order it from a catalog off of the internet. Fans are certainly not buying rear end gears there and taking them home to put in their cars. Personally, I think the manufacturers should be set up in the pits, for the racers to use and not charged a dime off of their sales. If they can make it by selling what they can out of the back of a trailer great, they will continue to show. If the cant, the wont.
Look, I like Morgan. And I think, just like WJ, he is correct in a lot of his thoughts and has earned the right to be heard.
But I also think that a if a lot of people who complain that (insert whatever sport we are supposed to hate this week) delayed a taped race actually had a race car and had to worry about how much money they broke last night at the track, or how some guy across the lane burnt him down, the complaints about Compton and Light would go down drastically.
What are Compton and Light supposed to do when guys show up with 3 $100,000 leased bullets per car in the trailer when Morgan is over there working on his own stuff, and now add a 2nd car with Humprhies driving one of his motors? With 3 motors to be split between 2 cars. All for less than what 1 of those leased program motors cost.
What can Compton and Light do to force cable companies across the nation to ad MAVTV to their lineups? That isn't their job anyway.
What are Compton and Light supposed to do because ESPN realizes that there are few drag racing fans, and although they are fervent about the sport, they represent about 2% (or whatever % it is) of their viewing audience? People complain about the Little League World Series every year preempting some taped running of a national event. Sorry to say, but here are more little leaguers in any one state than there are drag racers across the country. Add in parents, and that is a big viewership compared to what NHRA events draw on TV.
As for his comments about the vendors, the T-shirt sales argument has been going on for 30 some years. It aint gonna change any time soon.
Now, if you want to talk about manufacturers alley, lets do that. Manufactures alley is really pretty useless on race day. I don't know many racers that actually use them. Very few racers actually buy anything of any monetary value at the track. They might listen to a sales pitch, but at the end of the day they go home and order it from a catalog off of the internet. Fans are certainly not buying rear end gears there and taking them home to put in their cars. Personally, I think the manufacturers should be set up in the pits, for the racers to use and not charged a dime off of their sales. If they can make it by selling what they can out of the back of a trailer great, they will continue to show. If the cant, the wont.
Look, I like Morgan. And I think, just like WJ, he is correct in a lot of his thoughts and has earned the right to be heard.
But I also think that a if a lot of people who complain that (insert whatever sport we are supposed to hate this week) delayed a taped race actually had a race car and had to worry about how much money they broke last night at the track, or how some guy across the lane burnt him down, the complaints about Compton and Light would go down drastically.
my question has always been since Larry makes a living racing, why would he switch to ford in the first place. Ford hasn't had a major presence in NHRA pro stock in nearly 40 years and yes I've heard of Bob Glidden, but Gliddens success was due more to 'Bob Glidden' rather than the ford brand as evident by the fact that, throughout Gliddens rein, no other fords were competitive and the one year he switched to Chrysler, he won every race on the schedule. so Ford just happen to be Gliddens choice of car make. When Larry ran the Dodge he was a middle to back of the pack runner, so as a business man trying to succeed in nhra pro stock, why add the degree of difficulty by trying to become competitive with an ford. If Morgan was a rich guy with money to burn I can see giving ford a shot, But with my livelihood on the line I wouldn’t make such a risky move. As a pro stock fan no one wants to see a competitive ford more than myself but even the great Bob Glidden, years ago, once gave a newcomer named Jim Yates some advice on how to build a competitive NHRA ford and his answer was 'get a pontiac'
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Larry is one of THE coolest guys around. I barged into his pit to take some pics and he was so cool with it. Very fan friendly.
Regarding Vegas attendance (from the interview), I didn't make the trip due to workload and gas being $4.10. Today, it's up in the $4.20's and 30's. It was real soon after the March Meet too. $$$$
The SouthWest had a loaded calender in February, March, and April. There was the Winters at Pomona, a monster truck event at Anaheim, motocross at Anaheim, Phoenix NHRA, nascar at Fontana, nascar at Vegas, the divisional at Vegas, March Meet at Bakersfield, Indy cars at Long Beach, Major League Baseball, nostalgia drags at San Antonio, boat drags and who knows how many other things.
Lot of events bunched together in a localized area in a similar time frame. I can see peoples' budgets straining a little.
Regarding Vegas attendance (from the interview), I didn't make the trip due to workload and gas being $4.10. Today, it's up in the $4.20's and 30's. It was real soon after the March Meet too. $$$$
The SouthWest had a loaded calender in February, March, and April. There was the Winters at Pomona, a monster truck event at Anaheim, motocross at Anaheim, Phoenix NHRA, nascar at Fontana, nascar at Vegas, the divisional at Vegas, March Meet at Bakersfield, Indy cars at Long Beach, Major League Baseball, nostalgia drags at San Antonio, boat drags and who knows how many other things.
Lot of events bunched together in a localized area in a similar time frame. I can see peoples' budgets straining a little.
