Words, but what"s the action? (2 Viewers)

[Chili]

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.

Sorry but hard to get excited about a potential third car that makes one qualifying attempt and then a quick first round exit. I want to see a team whose desire is to improve and get better like the funny car guys who are showing up in IHRA.

 

[mick]

as long as the purses stay the same, and nhra operates independently of the race teams, we'll continue to see up and down fields at the same
suspect races every year. i think we can all agree the economy right now is not booming, but it is still strong. business is cyclical, and when things
start booming again, hopefully this handful of suspect races will escape with one bye or 16 cars.

 

[Headerfire]

Comp Plus
Item #8 on this article implies that there will be no western swing in 2026. There was a lot of chatter at the track about this being the end. What a gut punch after such a great weekend.

 

[J]

Comp Plus
Item #8 on this article implies that there will be no western swing in 2026. There was a lot of chatter at the track about this being the end. What a gut punch after such a great weekend.

Isnt sonoma a bruton track???

 

[mick]

let the guessing begin regarding rumor of two tracks out and two others in.
was there writing on the wall when the sonoma tower was leveled last year?
as someone mentioned in another thread, maybe only 4 or 5 west coast TF teams remain? ron smith with hired driver and ron august
the only two to be lone independents the last two weekends. what a shame, seattle and sonoma might be the most beautiful
two tracks on the schedule.

 

[Chili]

let the guessing begin regarding rumor of two tracks out and two others in.
was there writing on the wall when the sonoma tower was leveled last year?
as someone mentioned in another thread, maybe only 4 or 5 west coast TF teams remain? ron smith with hired driver and ron august
the only two to be lone independents the last two weekends. what a shame, seattle and sonoma might be the most beautiful
two tracks on the schedule.

Flying H would be the most obvious addition. SGMP could be another. Denver won’t be ready for 2026. They have yet to even break ground as of yet. For years I’ve heard rumblings of rotating some national events around from year to year. Not sure if that’s the plan but kind of sounds like it from the Comp Plus article.

 

[mick]

Flying H would be the most obvious addition. SGMP could be another. Denver won’t be ready for 2026. They have yet to even break ground as of yet. For years I’ve heard rumblings of rotating some national events around from year to year. Not sure if that’s the plan but kind of sounds like it from the Comp Plus article.

agree with flying H and anything new in CO not ready for next year. i take the article's reference to 'revolving door' as one in, one out, or in this rumored case, two in, and two out. i guess if you were going to rotate venues, i'd look at those with lowest attendance as possible candidates

 

[J]

Flying H would be the most obvious addition. SGMP could be another. Denver won’t be ready for 2026. They have yet to even break ground as of yet. For years I’ve heard rumblings of rotating some national events around from year to year. Not sure if that’s the plan but kind of sounds like it from the Comp Plus article.

Looking at flying h where are all the rigs suppose to park lol

 

[Professional Fan]

Might they double up Indy?

 

[Chili]

Might they double up Indy?

It makes sense for everyone. It cheaper for most teams since they are based there and cuts down travel cost significantly. Also NHRA owns the track so I would think that would make the race more profitable for them.

 

[none]

You could run the whole season there and save the teams all the travel and hotel expense since everyone could stay in their own beds, and not need rental cars.

Of course, that doesn't do anything for the fans that don't live in Indy, and the fans that do live there won't come every week.

Yes, they did it coming out of COVID because there was no option, but it is not a long term solution.

Alan

 

[yoda]

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

Agreed. Same for many traveling Entertainment situations. I'm currently putting together logistics, including trucks and busses, along with crew, for a one month US musical tour.
EMPTY Trucks alone are $10k/wk plus fuel and drivers per diem. Busses are coming in higher than that and personnel expenses including salaries, insurance and hotels are in the $6-9k/wk range, based on position. Add in the cost of gear, security and local labor, and a daily concert expense sheet is easily into six figures. That's why your concert ticket is $200 a seat.

And we don't blow things up (most of the time)

 

[RebilasPhoto]

It's about time NHRA starts looking into doing double header race weekends. It works well for Indycar and would be a great way to ensure we don't end up with a 15 race schedule

 

[GumbyWVU]

let the guessing begin regarding rumor of two tracks out and two others in.
was there writing on the wall when the sonoma tower was leveled last year?
as someone mentioned in another thread, maybe only 4 or 5 west coast TF teams remain? ron smith with hired driver and ron august
the only two to be lone independents the last two weekends. what a shame, seattle and sonoma might be the most beautiful
two tracks on the schedule.

Never been to Sonoma but it's on my "want to go someday" list. I bet it is really nice there. Denver was track I wished I could have seen too.

Agree, would be a real shame to lose those west coast venues (two tracks out rumor), but consider that LA has been without pro football for periods of time, and presently a large metro like San Diego has no pro football. Strange economics of pro sporting events.

 

[GumbyWVU]

Every time I see this thread title all I can first think of is this:

 

[John Farce Racing]

Flying H would be the most obvious addition. SGMP could be another. Denver won’t be ready for 2026. They have yet to even break ground as of yet. For years I’ve heard rumblings of rotating some national events around from year to year. Not sure if that’s the plan but kind of sounds like it from the Comp Plus article.

I don't think Flying H will ever get a national event until they figure out something with the road to the staging lanes. it's a horrible bottleneck. go look at google maps. I know guys that went to the division bracket finals there and they said never again..

 

[Dennis]

I don't think Flying H will ever get a national event until they figure out something with the road to the staging lanes. it's a horrible bottleneck. go look at google maps. I know guys that went to the division bracket finals there and they said never again..

Just looked at the satellite view of that place. You ain't kiddin.

This article on nhra.com said they were hoping for a national event there in 2024. Did anyone at NHRA see the plans for the track or the footprint of the facility? Not sure how they thought a national event would fit in there. Unless the drag strip owns more undeveloped land and the plan is to convert it to pits/parking.

 

[mick]

IMO if a few issues at flying H are remedied, i think a smaller nat. event could be held there, like sonoma where
car count is only around 250, or maybe even smaller.

 

[jsracz]

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

Alan along those same lines and I apologize if this was asked before. What would your educated guess be when it comes to what a top sponsor pays per year for example Peak?