THE NEW DEAL: Reshaping the Sportsman racing scene
7/7/06
 Will Hanna has two racing websites, InsideTopAlcohol.com and InsideCompRacing.com. He drives TAFC 425. |
s I quoted in my last column, a savvy business man once said “Change isn’t mandatory, but neither is survival.” Change just for the sake of doing something different usually doesn’t yield positive results. However, with a clear goal in mind, and a realistic path to that goal, the willingness to accept change is the first step towards that goal.
A lot has changed in the sportsman ranks, but the one thing that remains the same is the structure we race in. The goal of my “New Deal” for the sportsman ranks is to adapt the structure we race in to reflect the current landscape.
In the coming months, we’ll address areas that need major change, with some that only need minor adjustments. Part I of the new deal addressed fixing the alcohol ranks. Part II expands on the Regional Racing Series proposed in Part I. To keep from being too redundant, we’ll move straight into Part II.
Regional Racing
This new regional racing series could finally be the ‘Busch League’ equivalent drag racing has been looking for. Headlining these shows would be Top Alcohol Dragster, Top Alcohol Funny Car and Pro Mod. Other crowd pleasing additions would be Top Dragster and Top Sportsman.
With this series in place, the alcohol cars would no longer be contested at division events. There would be two to three events per division. Both regional and national points would count the same towards the national championship. The national championship
would be decided by claiming your best eight out of the first 12 events you attend, while claiming a minimum of three of each type of event(to prevent someone from running all nationals or all regionals). This would create anywhere from 14 to 21 regional events in addition to the 16 national events they compete at.A track that would hold a regional event would have concrete guard walls, adequate lighting, good surface, and a crowd capacity of at least 5,000 people. Below is a rough draft list of potential regional tracks:
Div. 1 - Atco, N.J., Lebanon Valley, N.Y.
Div. 2 – Valdosta, Ga., Bradenton, Fla. (if concrete guard walls are added)
Div. 3 – Indy, Bowling Green, Ky., St. Louis
Div. 4 – Belle Rose, La., Shreveport, La., Rusk, Texas
Div. 5 – Earlville, Ia., Great Bend, Ks.
Div. 6 – Mission, B.C., Woodburn, Ore., Medford, Ore.
Div. 7 – Fontana, Calif., Tucson, Ariz., Las Vegas
Events would be structured primarily for a two day show, either a Friday/Saturday night show or a Saturday/Sunday day show.
Pro Mod and the alcohol categories would be eight-car fields with three qualifying sessions. Top Dragster/Top Sportsman would run their standard 48 car fields.
Payouts for TAD/TAFC/Pro Mod follow:
Winner: $5,000
R/U: $3,000
Semi: $2,200
Qual 5-8: $1,700
Qual. 9-10: $500
TOTAL: $20,200