WOW!!... 14 days out and it looks like 13 entries in Comp for the Winternationals... HEY Left Coasters, wassup wit dat??.. that's like down 50%from last year, right??
Wassup??
- Thread starter Charlie Yannetti
- Start date
I for one am going to go to Top Dragster this season I get to make a few more races even if I can't enter AZ Nationals in my backyard
Looks like they need some div 1 racers like we do to make a full field .If it was not for div 1 and div 3 comp would be in real trouble .
I know quite a few teams are VERY upset about the lack of nationals on the west coast and taking AZ away makes Pomona a hard race to do all by itself. It was nice when you could do two races back to back to save travel money....This is really hurts us div 6 guys,we have to travel a TON to chase national points.
The bottom line is simple, Comp has been deleted, we will never know why, but somebody has decided to do this, kind of like P/S Trk, here today, gone tomorrow. The real sad part of this is, whoever is deciding ,has the low car count to back up their decision.....no interest anyhow.....
I'd like to point out to the decision makers, if the small fields of Comp continue, your logic does not hold, we are even less of a burden on the system and we are the grass roots of NHRA drag-racing. Hardly a problem for the operation of any given race, some of the best racer's out there are going to stay home.....very unnecessary.
I'd like to point out to the decision makers, if the small fields of Comp continue, your logic does not hold, we are even less of a burden on the system and we are the grass roots of NHRA drag-racing. Hardly a problem for the operation of any given race, some of the best racer's out there are going to stay home.....very unnecessary.
Rob, I was shocked to hear that you were not going to Pomona to defend your title. I fully understand the decision but it is still a shock. Three Division 6 racers entered is pretty sad. I do not know what the count was last year but it had to be double that. It looks more like a Divisional race than a National Event.
I don't think you guys understand the situation. If the car counts continue to be low then it's very easy for NHRA to eliminate Comp. There's no reason to have a class that doesn't bring in entries. Look what happened to the Alcohol cars. The participation in some divisions was almost non-existant.
It is all about money, things are tight . Things will get better , You will start to see some big changes around this time next year .
The Legacy of Comp
NHRA Does NOT care about your financial plite or whether you show up or not because their money sucker hoses have never gotten anything from the Comp well of funds so why bother, if they show up we'll let them race, but their view on you and your anger over cut back races goes no were, just look at the money that was behind the Pro Stock truck deal and what was spent buy the engine and chassis people to get it to where it was only to have the rug pulled out, probably because like Pro Stock car the Corporate money well is not deep enough to get excited about and like you they see the stands empty too when Pro Stockers comes up to run ,Hence the issues they have with 1000' prepped tracks and NHRA not listening, look at Seattle last year and others, look at several years back at Seattle when Top Fuel Teams were put in the fish bowl a dirt pit of an area and the only reason they paved behind their pit area to roll their cars onto for warmup was because they stood in their faces and said we are going home if you don't do something, again this organization works for you YA RIGHT only reason anything was done is so it looked good to the fan, and later the teams where racked over the coals for creating a fuss and making the decision makers look bad, Some sactioning body in place for the racer,, YA RIGHT, They are not working for you or they wouldn't block out a race in Div 6 or 7 or even eliminate races knowing it is already a racer starved area to have any shot at a Title or to even just race your car against other quality cars unless you are willing to travel big time. Good Luck with your ongoing battle!!!!!!
NHRA Does NOT care about your financial plite or whether you show up or not because their money sucker hoses have never gotten anything from the Comp well of funds so why bother, if they show up we'll let them race, but their view on you and your anger over cut back races goes no were, just look at the money that was behind the Pro Stock truck deal and what was spent buy the engine and chassis people to get it to where it was only to have the rug pulled out, probably because like Pro Stock car the Corporate money well is not deep enough to get excited about and like you they see the stands empty too when Pro Stockers comes up to run ,Hence the issues they have with 1000' prepped tracks and NHRA not listening, look at Seattle last year and others, look at several years back at Seattle when Top Fuel Teams were put in the fish bowl a dirt pit of an area and the only reason they paved behind their pit area to roll their cars onto for warmup was because they stood in their faces and said we are going home if you don't do something, again this organization works for you YA RIGHT only reason anything was done is so it looked good to the fan, and later the teams where racked over the coals for creating a fuss and making the decision makers look bad, Some sactioning body in place for the racer,, YA RIGHT, They are not working for you or they wouldn't block out a race in Div 6 or 7 or even eliminate races knowing it is already a racer starved area to have any shot at a Title or to even just race your car against other quality cars unless you are willing to travel big time. Good Luck with your ongoing battle!!!!!!
besides the nhra not giving a sheet..the current economy has to be a huge factor with car counts.
Right now D6 averages 12 cars/race. D7 averages 18 cars/race with a lot of help from that vegas divisional in the fall as more than 1/2 the field was out of division cars. Without the vegas fall points race you average 15 cars/race. That means the tracks lose money at those races. Over all 7 divisions last year the average was 23 cars/race. National events averaged 29. Everyone I've talked to out west hates the phoenix track. They say it's a dump. Maybe that's NHRA's way of "listening." The same way they "listened" about altitude tracks by not contesting comp at them. Denver, Seattle and Brainerd always have dismal car counts compared to the other Nats. So perhaps Sonoma gets guilt by association on the swing. Especially when they can turn away TD and TS entries that exceed the quota because they want to go anywhere and race. So they pay them less, charge them the same to get in and pay 16 places for 40 entries. Or get 20-25 cars, pay 16 places, pay more per round.
We're concerned about the events they cut comp from, but from a numbers standpoint it makes sense. If I lived out there I would be unhappy about it too. But you gotta figure, D5, D6 and D7 relies on cars from out of division to fill the fields. The same as D2.
D6 gets doubled screwed. They have only 1 national and no cars. Jeff Lane left 40 points on the table because the races he won were only 4 round races. Is it NHRA's fault they don't have car count?
We're concerned about the events they cut comp from, but from a numbers standpoint it makes sense. If I lived out there I would be unhappy about it too. But you gotta figure, D5, D6 and D7 relies on cars from out of division to fill the fields. The same as D2.
D6 gets doubled screwed. They have only 1 national and no cars. Jeff Lane left 40 points on the table because the races he won were only 4 round races. Is it NHRA's fault they don't have car count?
Yes, in part it is NHRA at fault . If there was no T/D or T/S there would be more comp cars . In dragracing there is a pool of racers to fill the classes , not many new racers getting into racing at all . If you close the doors for comp NHRA would die in 2 years where would you get the P/S racers from. Back years ago before there was a class called bracket racing the fans fill the stands to watch class racing . Then somebody came up with the idea if you could give these guy a class to race in more racers more money . They never dreamed that the fans would quit comming to watch these cars . But that is in part is what happen , instead of working on their cars I will use the shoe polish .
That's a damn good summation, Charlie, paints a pretty clear picture of the birth of shoe-polish.....
Being an occassional shoe polish racer myself, I would say that most of the people in the stands watching comp are bracket racers. Most of the non-racing public do not think your cars are "that" fast, even if you are doing it with tiny little motors, and those that do, don't understand the whole index isn't a dial-in thing.
As much as comp is a breeding pool for aspiring pro stock racers, I would say that bracket racing is a starting place for wannabe comp racers. NHRA "needs" them both.
As much as comp is a breeding pool for aspiring pro stock racers, I would say that bracket racing is a starting place for wannabe comp racers. NHRA "needs" them both.
GB head back to the bar for another round.
Stock and Super Stock are dial-in classes. Their rules are more specific, but at the end of the day, they are punished for maximizing their performance, encouraging the bracket mentality you speak against. In fact I've heard the term "bracket mode" used pretty commonplace around stock and super stock. So it's pretty much top sportsman and top dragster with slower cars and bigger wheelies.
Most of us are in business. If given the choice to break even/lose $ or change the way we do business and make additional profit which would you choose? How is NHRA any different? You need to realize all this is bigger than the Comp class. Some of you actually think we are here for someone other than ourselves. The fans don't really care about us. And the harder we try to be that king gnat on NHRA's ass the more they are apt to decide to "listen" to us some more and levy down more unfavorable decisions.
This whole thread started as to why there are no entries at D7 race. If you go back and look at D7 races, you have typically 14-18 in division regulars and the rest are D6 and other out of division cars on their way somewhere else. Bottom line is D6 and D7 just don't have a large universe of comp cars. Does it step on those 14-18 guys, yes. It's the same in D2. If the snowbirds don't come south from D3 and D1, there is no car count, especially in Comp.
But from NHRA's standpoint, stepping on 18 old to get 80-100 new then, well, I think we all would do that if we were in charge.
Like I said, I'm not for it, but you have to at least see why they are doing it. Is it right? Depends which side of the desk you're on. But with average car counts at nationals being 29 entries (including anemic fields due to poor scheduling and no cars in certain divisions), I think the class is healthier than some lead to believe. And if you added Sonoma and Phoenix to the list I guranteed you that 29 average would go down. I think the phasing in of TS/TD is more of a co-existence than a replacement. I just think it took a number of years for the guys that struggle performance-wise to realize that with things getting tight they can't go 8 hours or more to barely qualify and get beat first round. There may be less cars, but the quality of the entries has greatly improved in my opinion.
And Chuck, explain to me how there would be more comp cars if there was no top sportsman or top dragster?
Stock and Super Stock are dial-in classes. Their rules are more specific, but at the end of the day, they are punished for maximizing their performance, encouraging the bracket mentality you speak against. In fact I've heard the term "bracket mode" used pretty commonplace around stock and super stock. So it's pretty much top sportsman and top dragster with slower cars and bigger wheelies.
Most of us are in business. If given the choice to break even/lose $ or change the way we do business and make additional profit which would you choose? How is NHRA any different? You need to realize all this is bigger than the Comp class. Some of you actually think we are here for someone other than ourselves. The fans don't really care about us. And the harder we try to be that king gnat on NHRA's ass the more they are apt to decide to "listen" to us some more and levy down more unfavorable decisions.
This whole thread started as to why there are no entries at D7 race. If you go back and look at D7 races, you have typically 14-18 in division regulars and the rest are D6 and other out of division cars on their way somewhere else. Bottom line is D6 and D7 just don't have a large universe of comp cars. Does it step on those 14-18 guys, yes. It's the same in D2. If the snowbirds don't come south from D3 and D1, there is no car count, especially in Comp.
But from NHRA's standpoint, stepping on 18 old to get 80-100 new then, well, I think we all would do that if we were in charge.
Like I said, I'm not for it, but you have to at least see why they are doing it. Is it right? Depends which side of the desk you're on. But with average car counts at nationals being 29 entries (including anemic fields due to poor scheduling and no cars in certain divisions), I think the class is healthier than some lead to believe. And if you added Sonoma and Phoenix to the list I guranteed you that 29 average would go down. I think the phasing in of TS/TD is more of a co-existence than a replacement. I just think it took a number of years for the guys that struggle performance-wise to realize that with things getting tight they can't go 8 hours or more to barely qualify and get beat first round. There may be less cars, but the quality of the entries has greatly improved in my opinion.
And Chuck, explain to me how there would be more comp cars if there was no top sportsman or top dragster?
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Stock and Super stock runs off a nat index . If there was no T/D and T/S then some of them would run comp . Comp has lost a bunch of racers to these classes . We also ran et brackets when Joey was learning to drive,he won the championship 2 times . But the plan was to keep the car legal for super stock . Then all we need was a competive motor .
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