NOPI is done

[nedannouncer]

They are cancelling the rest of their 2008 season.

Sorry for the racers in that series.

Brian

 

[BigTuna]

This is a huge loss to sport compact racing, in the beginning of 08 there was a merger between NOPI and NHRA to form one series. The merger required of the two required combining the street sportsman's classes, NHRA and NOPI had two very different set of rules. 08 started out really bad due to the fact Nopi needed to get its new rule book approved by NHRA, the final set of rules were not approved and released by NHRA until less than a month before the first event, this delay hurt the car counts early on due to people adjusting their cars, buying legal turbo's ect. The first 2 events were completely rained out with zero spectators, the next 2 had very good car counts yet were plagued by on and off rain which resulted in mediocre spectator turnouts, the last event at MIR, MD had great weather and a very good spectator turnout. All in with few sunnier days, better planning and management by NHRA/NOPI this would not of happened.

What is really sad is sport compact racing has plenty of racers and plenty of fans that will now will be without series, there was a post by a NHRA staff on another forum inviting all of the racers to pursue racing in the NHRA Lucas Sportman series yet there is no provision I can see for any of these car to fit in those classes. No import sport compacts are on the approved body lists ect.

Any one who has a good grasp of Lucas series class and rule please pm me, I have a few questions.

Thank you

 

[Toejam]

Stephen, about 2 weeks ago I put up a thread on this forum asking "What happened to Sport compact racing?" And even though NHRA has added classes to Comp eliminator to include some of the Turbo 4-6 cyl cars, you don't see many if any at most NHRA races. So that begs the question has Illegal Street racing wiped out all forms of SC racing?

 

[1992Si]

BOTI Battle of the imports will pick up where NOPI failed. There are good guys running BOTI , they will beable to step up.

I know it's a an IHRA track but New England Dragway was really caught out by this. The Track Manager is trying to put a show together for the guy's on the X-NOPI date of Aug 2/3.

Honda-Tech.com is a forum a lot of us post on and keep each other updated the same as you guy's do here and on other forums. Gary Raasch from NHRA as well as Pat Cvengros, even posts there sometimes in the Drag racing forum. Today Gary told us NHRA has come up with a new class mx/ex for some of the front wheel drive cars. There may be more classes coming.

We're building a 92 Honda Civic that will run in the high 7's next year. It will fit into BB/AF in Comp.

So even thought NOPI has moved on all is not lost. There is a future.

A lot of us on H-T are trying to get the guys to come out and support the tracks when they have any event. We're also trying to get people to email the magazines that cover Sport Compact drag racing and thank them for there coverage of the events. Like any series, it's only as good as the racers and fans make it.

 

[jackass]

Nopi suffered for the last couple years.... no way around that.. very low car counts at three events i went to.....

But..

its not a loss to the sport Compact teams.. many of them have already ventured to the ADRL last year and this year... and made a sizeable impact... Titan Motorsports won their first venture to the series last year... with growth of participation in the ADRL.. it could lead to their own class there.

Billy

 

[1992Si]

Stephen, about 2 weeks ago I put up a thread on this forum asking "What happened to Sport compact racing?" And even though NHRA has added classes to Comp eliminator to include some of the Turbo 4-6 cyl cars, you don't see many if any at most NHRA races. So that begs the question has Illegal Street racing wiped out all forms of SC racing?

Joe, please understand it takes time for the word to get out. Even some of the older SC racers know how hard it is to compete in Comp. There are a dozen or so FWD Honda's and Acura's that can run low 9's and are still streetable. Remember most of these engines are around 122 cubic inches.

There are a couple of Colbolts that can run in the low 8's, we think there running soft and should be able to run in the high 7's. So there are cars capable, it will just take a little time.

 

[Toejam]

Joe, please understand it takes time for the word to get out. Even some of the older SC racers know how hard it is to compete in Comp. There are a dozen or so FWD Honda's and Acura's that can run low 9's and are still streetable. Remember most of these engines are around 122 cubic inches.

There are a couple of Colbolts that can run in the low 8's, we think there running soft and should be able to run in the high 7's. So there are cars capable, it will just take a little time.

Byron,the DD/AT index in Comp was created specifically for 4cyl Turbo's. Iwish I knew what the index was and how many of those cars are competitive or not.

 

[BigTuna]

Byron,the DD/AT index in Comp was created specifically for 4cyl Turbo's. Iwish I knew what the index was and how many of those cars are competitive or not.

I believe index is 8.05 which is only attainable by pro class fwd's, street cars are mid to low 9's under sport compacts current rules.

Update: Posted by NHRA

NHRA Technical update: New Super Stock/MX EX class
NHRA has announced the adoption of a new class, which will be implemented Jan. 1, 2009, and known as the EX class within SS/MX. The EX class will offer a category for Sport Compact All Motor cars to compete in at NHRA national and divisional events. EX class rules will be released at a later date. For more information, call the NHRA Technical Department, 626-250-2485.

Looks like something is in the works

 

[Raconteur]

Joe, please understand it takes time for the word to get out. Even some of the older SC racers know how hard it is to compete in Comp. There are a dozen or so FWD Honda's and Acura's that can run low 9's and are still streetable. Remember most of these engines are around 122 cubic inches.

Byron,

With all due respect

Even some of the older SC racers know how hard it is to compete in Comp.

Saying something like that is a slap in the face of Sport Compact racers, it should be very hard to compete in every aspect of motorsports, especially drag racing. Sport Compact racers should NEVER have been given a stand alone series, No other group has been given that status in the history of the NHRA.

Here's a quote from a Sport Compact racer I talked with at a NOPI event three years ago that summed it up, "NHRA? Why would I want to go racing in my grand dad's series?" Related Story

Sport Compact racing has strength at the local level when paired-up with drifting, car shows and bikini contests.

 

[1992Si]

Byron,the DD/AT index in Comp was created specifically for 4cyl Turbo's. Iwish I knew what the index was and how many of those cars are competitive or not.

2008 rule book page 191 BB/AF 8.60 index. I keep reading the rule book and comparing our chassis which was going to be a NHRA SC Hot Rod car, class record for that was 7.87 I believe, set by Stephanie Eggum.
I believe our car fits BB/AF better then DD/AT which I agree is more for Pro FWD.

Have you guy's seen the video's on youtube of Pro FWD ? The engineering in these cars is pretty amazing. There are number of different combinations that are equally amazing.

Don't get me wrong I still enjoy RWD but I taught my son to look at all cars from the engineering in them not weather it's Import or Domestic.

In the end they all need to get to the end of the 1/4 mile.

 

[1992Si]

Byron,

With all due respect


Saying something like that is a slap in the face of Sport Compact racers, it should be very hard to compete in every aspect of motorsports, especially drag racing. Sport Compact racers should NEVER have been given a stand alone series, No other group has been given that status in the history of the NHRA.

Here's a quote from a Sport Compact racer I talked with at a NOPI event three years ago that summed it up, "NHRA? Why would I want to go racing in my grand dad's series?" Related Story

Sport Compact racing has strength at the local level when paired-up with drifting, car shows and bikini contests.

There are a lot of guy's now that want to down play the "Life Style Events" that seem to help draw single males to the track. That's not what racing is about.

I didn't mean that out of disrespect, it was stated as a compliment to the class.

I also have wondered why SC was given a stand alone series. I can tell you most of the guy's and girls want to win a Wally. There were a lot of unhappy SC races last Fall when he merger with NHRA and NOPI was made public and there were no more Wally's.

For the Grand Dad Series, I wondered back in the mid to late 80's when I saw that were fewer younger guy's getting into drag racing and the manufactures were producing lame cars, what effect that would have on drag racing. May be I'm way off base there...


There will always be the battle between the young and the old, it's a fact of life, the young will take over. Then the cycle starts all over again.

It's just good to know there will always be a safe place to race our cars.

 

[K20A2]

some of us are not afraid of running in comp in a FWD. some of us are already working on some rule tweaks and index adjustments to make it more balanced based upon what the cars were running last year. some of us are more interested in racing with drag racers just some of us have decided to do it with a FWD and a 4 cylinder.

personally, I am glad that this is probably the end of a stand alone sport compact series. I do think that it should have been a stand alone series in the beginning because of the nature of the cars and the people racing in it. the problem is that it grew too fast with a standard that it should have been the same size as the powerade series. This is the best thing that can happen, it needed to die in order to be reborn.

 

[Toejam]

I admit that back in the Fast and the Furious days('00-'01?) when it Appeared that SC racing was growing like a Wildfire, I like many looked at that style of racing with discontent! Maybe because it was mainly the under 25 crowd trying to change our sport mentality. However after seeing Personett, Gardella, and a few other hitters run in person, you learn a respect for what those cars can do!

The First Sport Compact car I ever saw run was Abel Ibarra back in like 95-96 at Pomona. He had that old Mazda RX-2 that ran a 8.60 and the place went NUTS! I think had NHRA just slowly opened up Comp and perhaps a 4 cyl. class at a few races , the cars would have molded in better and there wouldn't have been the disconnect that existed.