Where are we headed?

11/8/05

was talking to some friends who are getting ready to go to Florida for the Winter Series and it turned into a real conversation on “where is bracket racing headed in the near future?”

It is probably a fairly common conversation or topic to discuss among racers who have been racing for a couple decades or longer. Are cars getting too expensive, are entry fees too high, are the payouts capable of generating enough interest to attract full fields of cars? Some say YES to all those questions, other say it is up to everyone to decide what level they want to participate at. I guess I am in the middle of those two answers.

I think building a competitive car is getting very expensive. It is just about “typical” to spend over $50,000 for a new turn-key Super Comp dragster that can run 8.90s at 180 mph State of the art door-slammers for Super Gas or Super Comp can easily reach the $60,000 price tag with engine. Stock eliminator cars can start out as a new car for $20,000, then receive $20,000 worth of engines, chassis work, driveline pieces and spare parts.

If you have paid attention at all, you have noticed that tow rigs are getting bigger and bigger, and with that comes cost. There are always alternatives and how you race is a personal choice. The reality, in my opinion, is most people who race are competitive by nature and staying competitive is always one of their goals.

Staying competitive is a concern and goal for most of you that read this column if you are an active racer right now. What I see happening to bracket racing has been bothering me for a while and I have talked about it before. Bringing it up once in a while might get everyone thinking about ways they can help their local drag race program and dragstrip.

HAS BRACKET RACING BECOME A “HIGH STAKES GAMBLING CASINO?”

If you haven’t heard about the race I am going to describe, you probably will read about it somewhere on the Internet. Before I tell you about that particular race that is scheduled for next November let’s step back a little and see how things have progressed in recent years.

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Several years ago a track could have a $5,000 to win bracket race for $100 to $125 entry fee. Buybacks were not common then and most tracks would see about 200 to 250 cars roll through their gates. It was a great deal for the racers, as the entry fee was affordable, and the track owners were smiling also, as the event generated good profits.

For the next few years, everything seemed OK. Then car counts started to drop, as it seemed most of the events were being won by the same racers. As this happened, the track operators had to add buybacks for first round losers to add income to the event. Then it was second round buybacks as car counts continued to fall off.

What was happening was there were just too many big buck bracket races scheduled. Only so many racers have the freedom to travel to the big bucks races and the lure of going somewhere every weekend and drop a couple hundred dollars in entry fees for another $5,000 bracket race just wore too many racers out. Then the big bucks races were starting to lose money from lack of support and track operators resorted to other ways to make profits to keep the gates open.