Vegas entry list (1 Viewer)

[R.I.P. O.C.I.R.]

put T/F harley after the fuel cars and the bleachers WILL NOT vacate.

 

[camaro]

put T/F harley after the fuel cars and the bleachers WILL NOT vacate.

your kiddin' right !

 

[FABMAN]

Billy could very well make the top ten, but you still didn't tell me if he is a Leaker or a Slacker? I'm pretty sure we both know that he's not underfunded. And yes, there was a time when Terry McMillen was struggling and he got some help, he also hired Rob Wendland and now not only is he a contender, he is the reining US Nationals Champ. At one time John Force was considered a Leaker, and then he got some help and hired a great crew chief. Seemed to work out OK for him. Bob Vandergriff has two cars running part time, I wouldn't call them Leakers or Slackers. What about T.J. Zizzo? I can guarantee you that NOBODY pulls up next to him on raceday and thinks "This will be an easy win." Oh, and I count six different car owners in the Top Fuel top 10 Shoe, Force, Torrence, Kalitta, Salinas, and McMillen.

I assume that you were referring to Ron Smith, what would you do? Tell him not to try? He knows he doesn't have the latest stuff, and that he's not going to set the track record, but everyone says the little guys don't have a chance to do this anymore and when one tries you say he shouldn't be here. Which is it?

The top ten as it stands now doesn't include Scott Palmer who has made it the last couple of years, or Brittany Force who won the Championship just a couple of years ago. And we will add one more contender when Schumacher comes back, that leaves some spots that are usually filled by part timers, and there are plenty of those. And often times they will wait until the last minute to enter. But don't confuse part time with not competitive. I refer you again, to Billy, T.J. or the BVR cars. The 14 cars in Pomona has as much to do with the California DOT than anything else.

Our attendance is up the last few years, and we have sell out days fairly regularly, Saturday has become the biggest day as a rule, but on Saturday you know that you get to see all the cars run twice, where on Sunday your hero might be out first round. Plus Saturday is a bit more laid back so you have a better chance to get you autographs come to Nitro School and such. And with the live (or at least same day) coverage some fans would rather do something else with their Sunday and watch the race when they get home.

I know some of the hard core fans don't care for Four Wide, but the crowd that comes out tells me loud and clear that casual fans like it a lot. And if that's what it takes to introduce someone to the sport, then I'm all for it.

I'm not saying that it's all sunshine and rainbows, there is certainly room for improvement. I am saying that the sky isn't falling. Anybody remember when the Snake sat out a year for lack of sponsorship? He put together a deal that brought him back fully funded for many years, instead of just grabbing whatever might have been offered just to be there.

Those who are asking for an 18 race season, what do you propose? Do we just tell our fans in certain cities that we don't care about them anymore? When E-Town closed, Richmond jumped in and the fans from Virginia came out in force to support us returning to the track. Would it have been better to not make that move?

As always this is just my opinion.

Alan

Scott Palmer was a part time player, look at him, now. I say give anyone a chance if they have ambition and desire.

 

[mgty3whlr]

I dont believe Reading is very long either.

Maple Grove is plenty long now. They added the extended shut down numerous years ago that actually crosses a road. Take a ride around the back and you'll see. When the big cars run, they have R/R arms that come down to stop traffic during the run but, there isn't much traffic.

 

[R.I.P. O.C.I.R.]

well james, T/F Harleys will put pro stock cars into transporters fast. other than consistency, P/S does not stand a chance against a T/F Harley. and yes, butts will remain in the grandstands to watch those things carry the front wheel to the 1000 ft. mark. ppl dont fast forward DVR's past T/F Harley. and they cant do it fast enough when P/S or PS/B comes on

 

[none]

the top 10 T/F cars are owned by 4 ppl. i notice nobody replied to that.

I guess you didn't read my response the top ten are owned by: Force, Shoe, Kalitta, Torrence, McMillen, Stringer, and Salinas.
That comes out to seven on my fingers.

Alan

 

[camaro]

well 3 of those fingers own 8 of the top 10 FC teams, so if your point was, that ownership is spread out then ……. lets face it, as the Schumacher/force/kalitta regimes end, NHRA will have a humongous void and I don't feel like there has been another 'mega team' in the making over the years, to replace them

 

[ZWeinstein]

i consider anyone that does not make all events a slacker. billy is only out there to get in the top10 and he will with limited races. in the past, you miss a national event and your chances for a championship were nil. sure, ron is one of our local racers on a budget. does that mean he gets to play on sunday since only 15 other cars showed up? what happened to the days of EARNING a spot for sunday?? i fully expect pomona to stay. and be the first to run 1/8th mile. we all joked when we seen the first 1000 ft. beams on a track. oh, thats just no big deal we thought and some were scared that was our future. guess what?? it was our future. laugh at me all you want. but i will step up and say 1000 ft fuel racing will be history sooner than later. a 16 wide race on 1/8th mile track solves the problem. all cars run one round. and its over. solves noise issues / give the casual fans the day to spend on the phone at the dragstrip. the top 10 T/F cars are owned by 4 ppl. i notice nobody replied to that. i lived and was a part of the glory days of drag racing. that scale of entertainment will NEVER return to this sport. if you could put a national event on tv the same time as a 64 F/C shootout donar put on we all know what will get the ratings. given all things being equal, that one man could all but bankrupt NHRA when it comes to tv ratings. idiots doing motorcycle stunts / wheelstanders / burnout contests / the guy that tried to jump cars with a go-cart did not go so well, but tv ratings would skyrocket. how about that car named "smokey red" that had wheels under it and could smoke the tires far past the 1320 mark. god forbid adding entertainment to our sport that will draw a crowd. at age 5, if my first drag race was like todays events, i would have never devoted my life to this sport.

So let me see if I am reading this right, If you are not a full time, full touring team you are a slacker and should not race? You talk about small fields and yet your argument is that only 10-12 cars should race and the other 6-8 cars that run a handful of races and fill the fields should just stay home? As far as earning a spot on Sunday if you run quick enough to qualify top 16 no matter how many runs you make you deserve a chance to race on Sunday and more often than not that small time local team will at least give the pros an honest race and every once in awhile can knock out the big team. For someone talking about the 70's & 80's I would have figured the small buck teams would be closer to your heart and someone you would cheer for since guys like Terry Totten/Don Sosenka, Terry Haddock, Gary Densham, Paul Smith, Levritch Team, Greg Carrillo and many others are a bit of a throwback themselves with volunteer crews who just like racing and guys like Totten & the Levrich guys still towing to the track in a dually and a gooseneck trailer.

 

[ZWeinstein]

And as far as what you described would crush the NHRA in ratings, well something very similar was tried about five years ago with the IHRA and their Nitro Jam shows. They had wheelstanders and jet cars and hell even Grave Digger racing Shockwave along with a few Top fuel cars, a 8 car nostalgia funny car show and a fuel altered show. I went to a couple of them in Tucson and they were fun and drew huge crowds but I dont think it ever became a ratings hit on TV when it aired. Granted I am not old enough to have been to a 64 funny car show in the heyday of funny cars but when I was a kid I went to a few 32 funny car and jets vs. funny car shows at Firebird and yes they are great shows and great for kids but the format doesnt play into TV and even if somehow you got somebody like a Bill Doner, Bill Bader or the Bandimere family to produce an event and put it on television no matter how great a show would be for the folks in attendance it wouldnt amount for much ratings as there is no competition you would get from a championship series like the NHRA

 

[Cliff]

Greg Carrillo is a home town Phoenix racer, so gotta root for him. He has come up thru the ranks, used to run S/C. I believe he was the S/C champ once, or maybe 2X. It is nice to see him run.

 

[R.I.P. O.C.I.R.]

zed- doner put on races that created local disaster zones the crowds were so big. those fox hunts were beyond anything NHRA could do. and NHRA has never had darn close to 100 funny cars show up, or back to back weekend 32 funny car races. the county was so packed at times race cars could not get thru the pits. and the manufacturers meets. we cant discuss the fun those were. in short, if you have never been to a bill doner race, i feel for ya. i would give up a entire season pass to all national events to attend a weekend bill doner race. anytime. orange county. jet cars went off at midnight. and a good rocket car will leave ANY top fuel car in clutch dust. rockets were beyond cool. utter silence, the car leaves, then you hear it AFTER its gone. the cars were not banned from what i remember, the pure hydrogen peroxide fuel was. they put a bit on the pavement in the pits and it ate right thru the rocks in the asphalt. i was mikes crew man for 8 years. mike and kenny green were good friends. one rocket put up a INSANE number at irwindale and they would not tell us the ET or speed as they were afraid the city of irwindale might have a fit. we heard it was a 2.9 second run. but official information on the pass was kept quiet. they take this stuff away and expect fans to stay. that is glendoras I-Q on full display. close up seattle on friday and sat. at 6pm, and on sunday at 4pm gives new fans no reason to go. the mass amount of empty aluminum grandstands on sunday prove it. that is 4 hours of wasted daylight each day. doner has made fool of NHRA with his creativity for fun and entertainment PACKING THE PROPERTY TO STANDING ROOM ONLY.

 

[none]

Yes, Donor put on some wild shows back in the day, but he couldn't do it today and even he knows it. I talk to him a couple of times a year and he freely admits that he was in the right place at the right time. He still has some interesting ideas about things he would like to try, but it would be nothing like what he did back then.

Just curious about what business you are in? I'm guessing that you don't do things the same way you did back in the 70's or 80's. I know I don't. Times change......

Alan

 

[Tybamf]

If I am a sponsor and you cut back on my exposure by 6 races I also will cut how much money I put in as exposure is reduced. Funding would still be an issue. The cash intake and burn rate would be the same as it is today with 24 races.

 

[Nunz]

Dave the rockets you saw may have been my buddy Rocket Rod Phelps, he ran a Dragster and a FC version in the early ‘80s, both of which are in Big’s Museum. Don’t remember his exact best times, but he was running mid 4’s at around 350mph back then.

 

[sammi]

You know, the more I think about it, close racing with MOV's in the 1000ths is not memorable. What is memorable are peddle fests and races where driver skill emerged from computer control and massively prepped tracks. I truly believe if you had a race where all the races MOV was in the .001 to .01, many would not return as they would have no memory of anything exciting happening.

 

[none]

You know, the more I think about it, close racing with MOV's in the 1000ths is not memorable. What is memorable are peddle fests and races where driver skill emerged from computer control and massively prepped tracks. I truly believe if you had a race where all the races MOV was in the .001 to .01, many would not return as they would have no memory of anything exciting happening.

I agree with you to a point, I'm sure that anyone who was at Gainesville if asked what was the most exciting thing they saw would either reference D.J. Cox, or Tommy Johnson. (Knocking to body off seems to get everyone's attention). But the final two cars down the track had an MOV of .003 And that's a good way to finish the day. I'm talking casual fans, most here don't fall into that category.

If every race was AMAZING then by definition they would all become average. My scale for rating races is simple, if this was the first race I ever saw, would I want to see another one? In Gainesville, I believe that the answer would be "Yes" across the board.

Alan

 

[Cliff]

Alan, I agree with that. I still have great memories of around early 1962, San Fernando Drags. They had a bunch of Top Gas Dragsters that had run Indy in 1961 and it was the first time I saw really fast cars. Twins running side by side. Someone ran 177 MPH, & it blew me away. Over the years I've seen great races and some that were not so great. But I keep coming back, based on the memories from the first times I went.

 

[R.I.P. O.C.I.R.]

alan- i was only a crew man in this sport. never drove a race car under power down the track in my life. we will not discuss the non-stop free rides gas cars were giving ppl down irwindale the last day. henry the dog got in a 9.90 130mph pass in mikes car. at 17 yrs old i did not know what to expect. no shotgun seat, had to hold on to roll cage. seen the lights drop and i instantly ended up in the trunk area upside down. it was 1/2 track before i could climb up just to see where we were on the track. the car pulled the entire 1/4 mile, something i never felt before. during the 1990's i was into truck pulling up here in oregon (crew man). i retired in 2000 and all i do now is travel around watching races. kinda fun to see others bust there butt 16 hours on a race car instead of me. mike burbach took me in as his "wrench chaser" at age 12. he could throw them far when mad. drag racing was/is my childhood dream, i have been racing in all lower 48, canada many times, and 2 trips with jet cars to monterray mexico. i am 58, and have lived my childhood dream non-stop since 1972. as for doner- right place right time fully agree. but me and you both know he has more potential to create entertainment at the dragstrip than any man on this planet. and with all the limitations we have now he could still pull off a helluva weekend. and he knows it.

 

[Cliff]

Just for yuks & grins. Suppose there were no national meets? What kind of shows would tracks have to run to get the crowds? One day race? Two day race? I well remember OCIR running 16 T/F, 16 F/C and 16 Combo Elim (like pro Comp) and the stands would be full. We didn't realize it then, but that really was the equivlent of a national race. I was really spoiled by all the races we had then. Now it's once a year at Wild Horse.

 

[nitrorodeo]

Just for yuks & grins. Suppose there were no national meets? What kind of shows would tracks have to run to get the crowds? One day race? Two day race? I well remember OCIR running 16 T/F, 16 F/C and 16 Combo Elim (like pro Comp) and the stands would be full. We didn't realize it then, but that really was the equivlent of a national race. I was really spoiled by all the races we had then. Now it's once a year at Wild Horse.

June 29 Night of Fire on the Saturday night before Independence Day ... 4 jets, fuel altereds, Hemi Under Glass and Little Red Fire Truck heelstanders, fireworks and Robosaurus with big salute to firefighters. More details to come.