BRACKET REACTION #1

"...Just Wondering...Wasn't bracket racing supposed to make drag racing affordable and hasn't that experiment failed miserably?

"Just Wondering... Why not allow automatic buybacks at big bucks bracket races based on entry fees? If you pay two times the original entry fee you get to come in for the second round, pay triple the entry fee and come in for the third, pay four entry fees and don't race until the fourth round. Then you get one shot to advance. .."

Good observations (and "wonderings"?). The affordability of bracket racing is quickly draining away with the advent of widespread $100+ entry fees and b*ybacks (I find even the word b*yback too offensive to spell correctly). I just don't see the logic of bracket racing when the cost begins to approach that of heads up competition. And this is coming from a bracket racing participant of some 25+ years.

Tom Worthington.

BRACKET REACTION #2

On bracket racing... You are so right about spreading out the payout, especially to the Street classes. If you give the third or fourth round losers a little money (5-10 bucks) they

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will be much more inclined to return the following week. I don't think there is a single track in the area(central Indiana) that sees it that way. They simply do not put themselves in the casual racers position.

You are wrong about bracket racing not making it affordable for more people. Maybe you were looking at it from the big bucks racers point of view(fast Super Pro & Quick 8). Those are, of course, very expensive to run. Bracket racing allows a person with anything from a junker (500-1000 bucks)to a $75,000 car to race. They may not be competitive with a "junker", but at least they are racing! If they raced like I did when I started (class racing and lucky to get 3 runs total) I think you would not see nearly as many people involved.

I have a car with about $5500 invested and I win with it. If I was class racing as it stands now, I would not be racing.

Thanks,

Tony Neu

BRACKET REACTION #3

Jeff: Very profound, Dude! You seem to hit the issues square on...most of the time. You've managed to touch on at least one of the issues that cranks my shorts about our sport......namely buy-backs. Granted, when I'm wearing my promoter's hat, I fully understand the logic. My racer's hat suggests that if I've lost once today the chances are highly likely I'm going to lose the next time I go up there today. And I've fouled every one of the first round winners in the process! The buy-back and damned delay boxes, throttle stops, and any other electric/pneumatic device other than the shifter (which I consider a safety item) really whiz me off!

This sport used to be mano a mano, let's get it on, the best that day wins. Now it's who has the best computer program, dial in predictor, weather station, or combination of all the above that has a remarkable shot at winning that day. Just wondering....why not go to full scale slot cars and take the driver out all together? Oh well......tell me again how much fun I'm having. I started this in 1955, started quitting in 1956, and continue to get deeper. At least I don't have to buy a delay box or throttle stop in TA/FC......yet!

Ron Evans

DEAD-ON REACTION

I am in total agreement with (Jok's) 11/20/2003 column. I don't know if IHRA is ready for the turnout they may start to get with the NHRA cars giving them a try. We may run in to eliminator quotas there similar, if not for the same reasons, to NHRA. As someone who has raced brackets since 1975 with my stockers, I have never understood the stocker guys (as well as many others) who will not race brackets. God forbid you'd race your race car. And the money spends just as well.

I do bristle at some of the bracket racer's comments about stock racers being soft on the tree, etc. There are plenty of bracket racers who aren't exactly stellar on either end of the track.

Sounded off enough. Keep up the good work. By the way, your E.T. Finals article pretty much hit it on the head.

Thanks,

Don Holben

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