What’s going on with Top Sportsman?

[Quesadilla]

Looking at entry lists for the upcoming events and the car counts in Top Sportsman are WAY down with only 12 cars entered at the US Nationals, 3 cars entered at Reading, 7 for Charlotte and 2 a piece for St Louis and Dallas. While there’s still plenty of times for those entries to fill in entries in Top Dragster are still healthy at around 30 for those races, so what’s going on? Has the class priced it out? Is there some sort of boycott? Just curious

 

[Joe]

Looking at entry lists for the upcoming events and the car counts in Top Sportsman IHRAare WAY down with only 12 cars entered at the US Nationals, 3 cars entered at Reading, 7 for Charlotte and 2 a piece for St Louis and Dallas. While there’s still plenty of times for those entries to fill in entries in Top Dragster are still healthy at around 30 for those races, so what’s going on? Has the class priced it out? Is there some sort of boycott? Just curious

IHRA payout? What does NHRA pay for TS?

 

[rpasley]

TS is not the only short list. Indy is in two weeks and the Hemi Challenge only has three cars entered and Comp, even with the DeeCell specialty race only has nine. That's a huge bummer. ProMod only has 16 cars, TAD only has 14, TAFC is dreadful with 10.

 

[Billy]

These numbers will all increase the closer you get to the event. Don't forget, when you enter, that is when they charge your card. Could just be cash management to save that charge until closer to the event.

 

[Chili]

TS is not the only short list. Indy is in two weeks and the Hemi Challenge only has three cars entered and Comp, even with the DeeCell specialty race only has nine. That's a huge bummer. ProMod only has 16 cars, TAD only has 14, TAFC is dreadful with 10.

Comp now sits at 31, TS 22, PM 19, TAD 17, TAFC 12 and Hemi 13

 

[Mike]

My peeve specific to Top Dragster is every year, this year included, the entries for TD fill up to 40.

Every year, around Brainerd, they start dropping. There were 40 a week ago, now 37.
After Bowling Green Divisional, will probably wind up at 33. I understand breakage happens, but in TD it seems like some guys enter, watch who else has entered, figure they can't run in the 6:30s and won't qualify, then drop out.

 

[justafan]

My peeve specific to Top Dragster is every year, this year included, the entries for TD fill up to 40.

Every year, around Brainerd, they start dropping. There were 40 a week ago, now 37.
After Bowling Green Divisional, will probably wind up at 33. I understand breakage happens, but in TD it seems like some guys enter, watch who else has entered, figure they can't run in the 6:30s and won't qualify, then drop out.

Big fan of both TD & TS. Don't forget, TD and TS run in other series as well. At the last PDRA race at U.S. 131 they had a total of 53 Top Dragster and 51 Top Sportsman entries.

 

[*******]

but in TD it seems like some guys enter, watch who else has entered, figure they can't run in the 6:30s and won't qualify, then drop out.

That is exactly what they are doing

 

[Chili]

Big fan of both TD & TS. Don't forget, TD and TS run in other series as well. At the last PDRA race at U.S. 131 they had a total of 53 Top Dragster and 51 Top Sportsman entries.

Many of the racers in those classes prefer the 1/8 mile. As far as I know, NHRA is the only 1/4 miles series for those two classes.

 

[Joe]

Big fan of both TD & TS. Don't forget, TD and TS run in other series as well. At the last PDRA race at U.S. 131 they had a total of 53 Top Dragster and 51 Top Sportsman entries.

What do the other series pay?

 

[justafan]

What do the other series pay?

Hey Joe, your question aroused my curiosity, did a little dive on this. This is what I found.

Top Dragster & Top Sportsman Payouts per sanctioning body

NHRA $1500 W, $1000 RU, $500 Semis, $300 1/4 Final, $200 1/8 Final; $250 entry fee + $145 insurance surcharge
MWDRS $3000 W, $1000 RU, $500 Semis, $250 1/4 Final $275 entry fee
PDRA Elite $4000 W, $1000 RU, $650 Semis, $400 1/4 Final, $250 1/8 Final; $250 entry fee (top 16 qualifiers)
PDRA Regular $3000 W, $750 RU, $500 Semis, $350 1/4 Final, $200 1/8 Final; $250 entry fee (17th qualifier on)
IHRA $6000 W, $2500 RU, $1000 Semis, $800 1/4 Final, $500 1/8 Final; $300 entry fee

I know that MWDRS pays $250 for No. Qualifier, not sure about the others

 

[Joe]

Hey Rick, thanks for reply. If a race was reasonably close, it's not hard to figure out where to run. 395$ sure seems high

 

[SS140]

Hey Joe, your question aroused my curiosity, did a little dive on this. This is what I found.

Top Dragster & Top Sportsman Payouts per sanctioning body

NHRA $1500 W, $1000 RU, $500 Semis, $300 1/4 Final, $200 1/8 Final; $250 entry fee + $145 insurance surcharge
MWDRS $3000 W, $1000 RU, $500 Semis, $250 1/4 Final $275 entry fee
PDRA Elite $4000 W, $1000 RU, $650 Semis, $400 1/4 Final, $250 1/8 Final; $250 entry fee (top 16 qualifiers)
PDRA Regular $3000 W, $750 RU, $500 Semis, $350 1/4 Final, $200 1/8 Final; $250 entry fee (17th qualifier on)
IHRA $6000 W, $2500 RU, $1000 Semis, $800 1/4 Final, $500 1/8 Final; $300 entry fee

I know that MWDRS pays $250 for No. Qualifier, not sure about the others

The Yellow Bullet race is also on top of Indy. $200 to run T/S, Q16 pays $5k, with the 32 qualifiers after that running off for $3k.

 

[Billy]

My peeve specific to Top Dragster is every year, this year included, the entries for TD fill up to 40.

Every year, around Brainerd, they start dropping. There were 40 a week ago, now 37.
After Bowling Green Divisional, will probably wind up at 33. I understand breakage happens, but in TD it seems like some guys enter, watch who else has entered, figure they can't run in the 6:30s and won't qualify, then drop out.

What I love about watching Top Dragster at Indy is that all the quick guys are there, so other than like 4=5 qualfiers, it's for all intents and purposes, a 6.10 heads-up category!

 

[Mike]

...And like clockwork we're down to 35 TD as of noon Monday eastern time. Frustrating.