Status-quo for Sportsman racers or NOT??

12/9/04

The first thing I want to tell you guys is I have been upset at IHRA and NHRA before, but this time it is just frustration and doubt. I have been out of the office and working in Florida for about a month. After all the traffic and people and BUGS in Orlando I am ready for some good, clean cold Iowa air.

My first concern is Bracket Racing….always has been, always will be.

When Jeff asked me to think about the status of Sportsman racing, my first thought was how are the bracket racers doing? Locally it seems there are a few more cars on a regular basis and the quality of cars is getting extremely nice. In the S/Pro bracket where Andy and I race our dragsters it is “anyone’s race” on any given day. The cars are excellent and the drivers are experienced. We have not had too many Jr. Dragster drivers move up to S/Pro, but they are coming-- we can be sure of that.

The No Box racers are improving across the country to the point where you can barely tell the difference if all you look at is reaction times and how close they are to the dial-in.

Barb and I took a day off in Florida and went to the Bradenton 5-Day event. $10,000 to win each day with NO BUYBACKS (which I think is the ONLY WAY to run a Big Bucks race!) and losers could enter a $5000 to win “Second Chance" race if they wanted to.

I sat there and watched a lot of racing. Sure, there were a lot of dragsters, but the day I was there Jeff Ledford put his Nova in the final against Jeff Strickland’s dragster. The dragster won but only because Ledford broke out by a few thousandths.

The one thing that really caught my eye while I was there was how fast the cars have become. It was almost common for one, if not both dragsters to be dialed 7.30 to 7.60 and running 170+ m.p.h. When I owned my dragstrip I used to book Funny Car circuits with nobody who could even run that fast…..let alone do it for nine rounds a day and five days in a row!!!!!

The door cars seem to be the best when a tube car is running low eight seconds and the back-half cars are running high nines or low tens. I was just so impressed by how close the racing was.

I know that might sound crazy since I race a 7.50 dragster every week, but you know what? I haven’t just sat down with an adult-type beverage and watched a drag race in a long time. It was very interesting and entertaining to me, but until the regular race fan understands the dynamics of racing I can see how it would be a little boring I guess.

One thing I would like to see is a light on the scoreboard that indicates “who got there first” and then the “true-win light” like we have now. Another thing I wish would happen is 1/8 mile racing. It is a lot quicker when you watch, easier to see the finish line driving and when you have 80 cars running 170 on the quarter mile the 1/8 mile is a lot safer, easier to clean up an oil-down and a lot faster to dry off if there is a rain shower.

Overall, my opinion is BRACKET RACING IS IN GREAT SHAPE. If we can get some of the racers who have become “points-meet racers” to return to do some bracket racing, local tracks will again enjoy growth and racing will get better.

The remainder of this month’s Dead-On deals with what I think is the beginning of a major problem in IHRA and NHRA pertaining to Sportsman racing. Hey, I could be wrong, but I don’t think so. We’ll look at it in a year or so and see how I did.