Let's give the Sportsman racers a little break 9/9/05
The conspiracy theorists among you out there might think this is part of NHRA's grand plan to eliminate the Sportsman cars, but I don't subscribe to that idea. I think the drop in entries recently could be attributed to the price of gas, entry fees, and weather. I also think the arcane system NHRA has in place requiring grade points is part of the problem and could be part of the solution. That system was originally put in place to force Sportsman racers to support the NHRA's division races and it succeeded very well. Too well, in my opinion, because after a period of years the system basically made it impossible for the true sportsman racers to ever compete at an NHRA national event. In my opinion that is a real shame because the grading system as it exists has basically kept the real hobby sportsman racers that supports their local tracks from ever getting to compete at the "Big Show." When I was a young racer they held national events at my home tracks
of At today's NHRA there is virtually no chance of that happening at the 20 or so national event tracks. A racer who would like an opportunity to race at his local national-event track -- where as many as four grading points are required just to buy an entry -- needs a pretty big budget for travel and the expenses that come from running the car at four races to get those points. As a result, many racers who might be future stars or long-time supporters of NHRA racing will never get that national event experience that hooks them or their sponsor to the sport. The IHRA, bless their hearts, basically have an open door policy at their national events. Show up, pay the entry fee and go racing. I'm sure that wouldn't work at NHRA due to the limited space they have available at some of their tracks. (Although, if they would make racers park their motorhomes off the premises there would be plenty of room for more entries.) The local racers and their sponsors love the IHRA program at their national events. So, here is my suggestion. How about a program that allocates five to ten spots in every Sportsman category at national event tracks for local racers? The track itself could control those entries and it wouldn't cost the track or NHRA a dime. There was a time when an NHRA national event was a real "happening" for local racers as well as local speed shops and sponsors. Local racers competing at the race brought out all their friends, family and sponsors to the event. The locals, their buddies and sponsors started getting ready for the big show months in advance. Bracket cars suddenly became class cars again and people that normally wouldn't go to the races bought tickets to watch their son, daughter, or friend take on the traveling pros. I know that drag racing, and especially NHRA drag racing, will
never get back to its past. There are just too many guys who never
owned a firesuit or took dad's car to the drags without telling
him running the show now, but one thing is sure -- they aren't selling
out all the seats at every national event and they desperately need
to make more fans and find ways to get more of them to attend events.
Giving NHRA's real Sportsman racers, their families and sponsors
a chance to attend and compete at the main events might be one way
to do that and to grow their base at the same time. |
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ne
thing I noticed at my short visit to this year's U.S. Nationals
was the unusual number of empty parking spots in the Sportsman pits.
In past years every square inch of that huge grass cow pasture pit
area was filled with race cars and trailers; not so this year. I
seem to remember years when NHRA had Sportsman cars parking and
racing in shifts. That definitely wasn't the case this year. For
whatever reason -- weather, heat, economics or the price of fuel
-- the NHRA events at St. Louis, Memphis and Indy appeared to have
fewer Sportsman entries than they have had in the past. 
