Our local track pays $5000 and $7500 a few times a month to win Super Pro. From what I've read, the divisional and national events don't pay anywhere near that much to win (for example) in Top Dragster which is comparable to Super Pro. My guess is that the attraction for a Top Dragster guy near our track to run a divisional race rather than a $5000 or $7500 to win race would be in the contingency money. Is that correct? What would be the average take home from winning an NHRA divisional race in Top Dragster including contingency money?
Purse question: (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter jgrigz
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You think that is bad look at what the payout is for the regionals in taf-tad- then go to the payouts for the national events-------
The way the top alcohol class has always been treated is a disgrace. They’ve always been my favorite class and used to pack the stands at Edgewater back in the UDRA era. I wish they had their own body and promoters.
On the subject of purses.....I ran Super Street and to win a national in 2006-7 was $1200 + contingencies, total potential purse (if stickered right) was around $10K, with a $240 entry fee. Rough cost for the weekend, $1000........fast forward to 2021 and the purse is a whopping $1200 + contingencies, total potential purse (if stickered right) maybe $5000, with a $340+ entry fee, no idea what the weekend cost would be now, but with inflation, I would guess around $1500 depending on distance
I laugh everytime I hear someone say "sportsman racing is the backbone of the NHRA". Well, we were definitely the financial backbone of the NHRA
I laugh everytime I hear someone say "sportsman racing is the backbone of the NHRA". Well, we were definitely the financial backbone of the NHRA
And to wonder for a fan, Why do they have so many stickers on their car to the point that you don't recognize it.
I would like to know what track you are referencing. I don't believe $5k-$7500 is typical for Super Pro. My guess is, the track runs it like a poker tournament where each driver pays a higher entry fee (or a separate side pot) which leads to a higher purse. Like those high dollar bracket races you see. "$100,000 Guaranteed to Win!!" That's because you have 200 cars buying in for $1000/$2000 a piece so there is $200,000/$400,000 worth of money to work with. Or maybe they have some awesome sponsors doing amazing things like the program Rodger Brogdon is running for Comp Eliminator in Division 4?
At my home track, Bandimere, Super Pro pays $800 to win, $400 RU, $200 semis, $115 quarters. I'd be interested in jumping on the website of your local track and seeing how their payout structure is setup.
My local track is Edgewater Sports Park in Cleves Ohio (just outside Cincinnati). Check out their website and facebook page.
Here are two screenshots from the Edgewater website. As I suspected, there are couple of factors in play here. The first screenshot is their normal Summit E.T. Series. You can see they pay $2000/$1000/$600 for Super Pro/Pro/Sportsman winners. The biggest contributing factor is Edgewater offers buybacks. If you lose first round, you can pay $40/$30/$25 to get a second chance in your respective class. Just like a poker tournament, if you allow players/racers to buy back in after getting knocked out, you increase the prize pool. At Bandimere, if you lose first round you're out. Some smaller factors are probably duration of the event and track prep costs. At Edgewater, Top Dragster, Top Sportsman (Edgewater calls them Quick 16 door and Quick 16 dragster), Super Pro, and Pro all run 1/8th mile. Only Sportsman and the street classes run the full quarter mile. I'm assuming there is a cost savings involved when you don't have to put as much spray, etc., on the top end when the only cars running full out on the top end are 12.00 and slower? If the event duration is shorter because of the 1/8th mile racing, there's probably a cost savings with track personnel salaries, electricity for the lights (at night), etc. At Bandimere, all of the aforementioned classes run the full quarter mile.
Here is the Super Pro comparison:
Bandimere Edgewater
Entry Fee $65 $75
Buyback Fee $0 $40
Winner Payout $800 $2000
RU Payout $400 $500
Semis Payout $200 $200
Quarterfinals $115 $100
As you can see, essentially all of the buyback money is going to the winner and the runner up. Along these lines, and back to your original question about NHRA payouts, if the NHRA allowed buybacks in all of their sportsman classes, you would see higher payouts across the board. (But the U.S. Nationals would probably need to be 8 or 9 days long instead of 6 to get all of the racing completed, lol)
The second screenshot is the Edgewater Memorial Day Weekend tournaments. As you can see, each day the winner's purse goes up, but so does the entry fee and the buyback fee which makes sense.
Huge
Nitro Member
A few of the big cash slot car bracket races back east and down south have buy backs. There was one in Tennessee in January this year that you could enter 10 cars max at $50.00 per car with a $20.00 buy back. There were over 700 cars and over 1000 cars after buy backs. It paid 30 grand to win. Plus they had some other warmup bracket races on Thur and Fri that had a pretty good payout also. That was 4 days of bracket racing that had some really good purses.
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T.Smith
Nitro Member
Even something like UDRA for various reasons ran it's course.
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