Words, but what"s the action? (1 Viewer)

[Mike]

While the quote below from a comp plus article was referenced in the Seattle thread, it could apply to Sonoma, maybe Epping or Brainerd also.

I understand his frustration with the short TF field, but beyond venting is he actually going to do amything? Does NHRA allow promoters to increase purses, or are all races mandated to have identical payouts? PSB was an even shorter field but that class barely gets a mention. The sportsmen fields were light. Does he care about that?

NHRA cannot mandate teams travel across country. Even if his purse matched IHRA, TF racers at an IHRA race would not have to face the 10 full time teams that were at Seattle, aka easier to make a little more money.

"He said he recognizes that Seattle is a challenging trip for teams, most of which are headquartered at Brownsburg, Ind., but also from as far as Oklahoma, North Carolina, and Georgia. “It’s a long pull. But we have an obligation as a track, a sanctioning body, and as the racers organization. If we’re going to be on the schedule, it’s got to be a mandatory pull,” Fiorito said.

“And we have to figure out how to make that economically feasible for the teams, the tracks, and the sanctioning bodies,” he said. “We haven’t had a full field in Top Fuel and Funny Car since COVID started. And that’s not OK for our fans. So if I have a gripe, it’s as a promoter. As a track owner, we put a lot out there to put on these events, and we do it for the fans. That same level of commitment has to be shown by the teams to get up here and give the fans a good show both on TV and in our grandstand. So if I have a gripe, it’s that we have 11 [Top Fuel] cars here, and that’s got to be managed going forward so that we have full fields.”

 

[SS140]

In the 80's, not every race had 16 car fields. I think we're there again.

Look at how light the IHRA list is for Milan this week. Pathetic in my opinion, after the initial offering at Columbus.

 

[Joe]

St Louis probably light also, it’s on top of IHRA race. Milan light I’d say because of late announcement, harder for lower tier team members getting off work etc. other races scheduled. I really hope IHRA succeeds for the lower and middle teams. If IHRA does increase its nitro payout just a fraction more, it will make the decision to skip other races for more tesms.

 

[aakar]

While the quote below from a comp plus article was referenced in the Seattle thread, it could apply to Sonoma, maybe Epping or Brainerd also.

I understand his frustration with the short TF field, but beyond venting is he actually going to do amything? Does NHRA allow promoters to increase purses, or are all races mandated to have identical payouts? PSB was an even shorter field but that class barely gets a mention. The sportsmen fields were light. Does he care about that?

NHRA cannot mandate teams travel across country. Even if his purse matched IHRA, TF racers at an IHRA race would not have to face the 10 full time teams that were at Seattle, aka easier to make a little more money.

"He said he recognizes that Seattle is a challenging trip for teams, most of which are headquartered at Brownsburg, Ind., but also from as far as Oklahoma, North Carolina, and Georgia. “It’s a long pull. But we have an obligation as a track, a sanctioning body, and as the racers organization. If we’re going to be on the schedule, it’s got to be a mandatory pull,” Fiorito said.

“And we have to figure out how to make that economically feasible for the teams, the tracks, and the sanctioning bodies,” he said. “We haven’t had a full field in Top Fuel and Funny Car since COVID started. And that’s not OK for our fans. So if I have a gripe, it’s as a promoter. As a track owner, we put a lot out there to put on these events, and we do it for the fans. That same level of commitment has to be shown by the teams to get up here and give the fans a good show both on TV and in our grandstand. So if I have a gripe, it’s that we have 11 [Top Fuel] cars here, and that’s got to be managed going forward so that we have full fields.”

Maybe if payout was commensurate with costs the teams endure and @ least a small profit was guaranteed the teams might be more prone to attend more races?

 

[mick]

the thought occurs that along comes ihra with another pile of money somewhat equal to nhra's. how long? we'll find out.
just think if both piles could be combined, and the racers form an alliance with ONE sanctioning body guaranteeing the same size fields
at every race, where every pro contestant is compensated at minimum to an agreed upon amount. almost sounds too good to be true.

 

[*******]

11 TF cars in Seattle, 8 bikes and the TV show still can't show every single car/bike go down the track. If your name isn't Force or Kalitta you are pissed on and given no TV time. No wonder sponsorships are hard to come by and more and more small teams are sitting out. It's just a rich mans playground for those who have deep pockets. What would have NHRA looked like a decade ago if Schumacher and Kalitta had taken their toys and went home?

 

[Mike]

Somewhat off topic, but maybe not. Didn't NHRA have a nasty habit of taking a racer's sponsor and asking them to sponsor a race or the series, at least at one time?

A racer who loses a sponsor like that may be more inclined to support the other guys.

 

[Nappy]

Somewhat off topic, but maybe not. Didn't NHRA have a nasty habit of taking a racer's sponsor and asking them to sponsor a race or the series, at least at one time?

A racer who loses a sponsor like that may be more inclined to support the other guys.

It has happened before.

 

[65 Goatboy]

11 TF cars in Seattle, 8 bikes and the TV show still can't show every single car/bike go down the track. If your name isn't Force or Kalitta you are pissed on and given no TV time. No wonder sponsorships are hard to come by and more and more small teams are sitting out. It's just a rich mans playground for those who have deep pockets. What would have NHRA looked like a decade ago if Schumacher and Kalitta had taken their toys and went home?

Obviously your watching the Fake News Channel instead of Nhra.Tv. Also look at the top 10 in points in the two nitro categories, those are the 10 full time teams that attend every race except for Steve O. TF two are named Kalitta one is Force both 3 car teams and you can look up the rest of the 1 and 2 car teams. Same for FC two are Force and one is Kalitta. Hasn't the NHRA looked pretty much the same for the last 10 or 15 years? Seattle and Sonoma are "odd" races on the schedule, the other 19 are usually different. And better?

 

[mike]

Somewhat off topic, but maybe not. Didn't NHRA have a nasty habit of taking a racer's sponsor and asking them to sponsor a race or the series, at least at one time?

A racer who loses a sponsor like that may be more inclined to support the other guys.

ASK how I know

 

[unclebob]

ASK how I know

OK Mike, I'll bite..... How do you know ? Did they steal Iron City Beer from you ?

 

[mike]

OK Mike, I'll bite..... How do you know ? Did they steal Iron City Beer from you ?

Tractor crash -Pins got infected three months--your fading Bob -Rolling Rock-Good try

 

[DragFan2]

the thought occurs that along comes ihra with another pile of money somewhat equal to nhra's. how long? we'll find out.
just think if both piles could be combined, and the racers form an alliance with ONE sanctioning body guaranteeing the same size fields
at every race, where every pro contestant is compensated at minimum to an agreed upon amount. almost sounds too good to be true.

That would be socialism? I agree that there should be enough compensation by NHRA for teams to at least cover their expenses if they were able to Qualify and maybe even if they don't, but if they make at least 2 qualifying passes out of 4. Fans are really getting short-changed now. Seattle was a disaster on their Friday night single qualifying round. Light fields and nobody seemed to remember how to tune for a cool/cold track. I would have really felt I was cheated, at least on Friday.

 

[DragFan2]

Obviously your watching the Fake News Channel instead of Nhra.Tv. Also look at the top 10 in points in the two nitro categories, those are the 10 full time teams that attend every race except for Steve O. TF two are named Kalitta one is Force both 3 car teams and you can look up the rest of the 1 and 2 car teams. Same for FC two are Force and one is Kalitta. Hasn't the NHRA looked pretty much the same for the last 10 or 15 years? Seattle and Sonoma are "odd" races on the schedule, the other 19 are usually different. And better?

Seattle and Sonoma are "odd" races on the schedule? I don't even know what you mean by that. They are both on the West Coast. Is that why they are odd? They have cooler temps in the summer than most tracks they run in the summer. Is that really that "odd" ?? Teams should have plenty of data about both tracks to tune from. The distance from Brownsburg, IN is a long way, and I get that, but so is Pomona to Gainsesville...or vice versa. My understanding for basing their racing operations in Brownsburg is to make both coasts only a 1-2 day tow. NHRA still isn't paying enough for almost any team to survive without lucrative sponsorship. And we all know that is harder than ever to obtain other than for a few teams. As many have said, it is a rich man's sport.

 

[Professional Fan]

I wonder if it would help to put all the western tracks together. Do Pomona, Phoenix, Vegas, Sonoma, Seattle so racers only make one trip across the country.

 

[none]

Identifying the problem is step one. That's what I believe that Jason was doing with the statement. Acknowledging that something needs to be done.

Running all the west coast races together would still be a problem. Seattle in March? Not likely. Vegas and Phoenix in July or August? Not a chance.

Would show up money help the smaller teams? Sure. But if the track was paying the smaller teams, don't you think the bigger teams would want to be paid more too?

I spoke to a number of teams when I was with IHRA and asked "What would it take to get you to look at running with me?" I know that most have contracts that they have to run the NHRA events, but on an off weekend, would they consider running one of my events. The answer was "Yes, but it would have to be profitable" and the numbers were much bigger than most people would think. An extra $5K ain't gonna make it happen.

One full time single car team that I spoke too said average cost for a weekend counting everything was north of $150K.
That's diesel fuel, race fuel, tires, parts cycle life, hotels, crew travel, salaries, etc. etc.

Alan

 

[M Jones]

Identifying the problem is step one. That's what I believe that Jason was doing with the statement. Acknowledging that something needs to be done.

Running all the west coast races together would still be a problem. Seattle in March? Not likely. Vegas and Phoenix in July or August? Not a chance.

Would show up money help that smaller teams? Sure. But if the track was paying the smaller teams, don't you think the bigger teams would want to be paid more too?

I spoke to a number of teams when I was with IHRA and asked "What would it take to get you to look at running with me?" I know that most have contracts that they have to run the NHRA events, but on an off weekend, would they consider running one of my events. The answer was "Yes, but it would have to be profitable" and the numbers were much bigger than most people would think. An extra $5K ain't gonna make it happen.

One full time single car team that I spoke too said average cost for a weekend counting everything was north of $150K.
That's diesel fuel, race fuel, tires, parts cycle life, hotels, crew travel, salaries, etc. etc.

Alan

Thanks Alan for the numbers, helps to understand what the racers are dealing with

 

[none]

Here's something I think most people don't consider as far as racing cost.

I believe that JFR has 8 semis on the road for every event. What they pay for insurance, maintainance and fuel, would allow me to live VERY comfortabley.

Depending on the event, sometimes the weekend hotel bill is $50K+ That's why you need sponsors.

Alan

 

[BOO BOO]

In the 80's, not every race had 16 car fields. I think we're there again.

Look at how light the IHRA list is for Milan this week. Pathetic in my opinion, after the initial offering at Columbus.

Late start for the IHRA didn't help. A lot of teams already had prior commitments , plus finding crew members is still a problem. If they survive I think they will be a lot better next year , with bigger car counts

 

[Joe]

Late start for the IHRA didn't help. A lot of teams already had prior commitments , plus finding crew members is still a problem. If they survive I think they will be a lot better next year , with bigger car counts

If they increase their purses by just a few thousand more it would be even more of a tipping point. Mitch King spoke yesterday of bringing on a 3rd TF car. Hope he does.Give a new driver a chance.