daygoVR6
10-26-2005, 03:16 PM
This is an open letter that has been sen tht ethe NHRA Sport Compact Series Offocials as well as the head editors of Turbo Magazine, Super Street, Import Tuner, and Over Rev magazine
To the head offocials of the NHRA Sport Compact series
This is an open letter inquirying concerns that have come up from this last seasons NHRA Sony Explode Sport Compact Series that NHRA offocials seem to either want to ignore or just flat out dont care. Please note this email is also being sent to every major sport compact magazine head editors email to hopefully help with the addressing of these issues before the 2006 season begins.
The '05 season offered many drivers another chance at big prize money, a place for people to get off of the streets, and of course the fun of drag racing, but at what cost to the participants in the lower end classes or sportsman classes. Being a competitor on the west coast myself i have attended and competed nationally for the last 10 years in events drag racing in everything from NHRA Winston sponsored events, Poweraide sponsored events, Summit series events, even the old Sears Points seires events and rescently the Sony Explode events. I am a sportsman competitor I do not have the big dollars to compete in the pro catagories like many of the sportsman competitors.
My frustration starts back in '04 with the Las Vegas NHRA event when the sportsman catagories were left sitting for 2 and a half hours after being called to the staging lanes only to have to wait for the local points series competitiors who had nothing to do with the event make 2 rounds of eliminations before we finally got our shot at our first round of eliminations.
Bring us to the '05 season again back in Las Vegas where the sportsman catagories were at least recongized as actually being there and we ran our rounds as quickly as the other classes, BUT was this becasue we only had 30+ cars between the ET 1 and ET 2 classes so things were able to move quicker? Or was it because of the number of compalints about the way the '04 event was ran. What i found even more intresting when talking to a local Las Vegas track offocial was when he stated "The NHRA representatives have told us we are the ones in charge of the sportsman ET classses and the NHRA has nothing do to with them at this event" Im curious as to how many west coast event competitors out there who run in these events would like to hear that as an offocial statement from the NHRA, to me this leaves me with the attitude of "We dont care".
I shrugged it off like most other people at that event hey we were at least not sitting - so lets take a look at the '05 Pomona event. Great track awesome facility and the staff has always done a good job at keeping things moving. Saturday durning qualifying there were numerous wrecks that delayed alot of the qualifying chances on both ends of the spectrum - pro and sportsman, BUT agian the ET class cars were called to the lanes and all anyone could tell us about the long wait was "I dont know what is going on" while the othere classes were given their shot at qualifying. Now before you start saying it i know Pomona has a curfew and time delays can cause problems there even the poweraide guys have issues with it, BUT when the waiting is due to the amount of time it took to clean the track it seems a little excessive. You have cars running trap speeds of a Pro-Stock drag car but if a track needs to be cleaned we wait for over an hour before anything gets moving again and who takes the biggest hit - the class of cars that has the largest number of people participating. That sunday before the elimination rounds a competitior whom i was talking with was switched to a slower class for no reson what so ever. The car was running 12.90's is basically on the higher end of the spectrum for the sportsman catagories but yet was told he would be pushed into the ET 2 class with no reason given. This situtation was also handed to many other drivers as well. Why put cars that obviously are faster than the class rules mandate if you are going to have 2 different levels of competiton?
The lack of events have also been something that I have been questioning. Granted times change and to be able to keep running these events I understand that the NHRA goes where the larger crowds can be seen and more industry exposure is apparent. Lets not forget that drag racing pratically came from the west coast - im sure most of the NHAR offocials can explain the Parker Avenue road sign that sits next to the track in Pomona. I dont have the big money to be able to travel across country next season to participate in most of the events on the East coast so myself along with a very large number of people are left with the very small number of events here on the west coast. The lesser number of events we have the lesser number of people are going to want to participate, espically when the biggest class that brings in a majority of the people that watch the pro drivers are basically treated with the "I don't care" attitude.
The few times I've had the chance to talk with your offocial starter he has been very friendly and helpful when answering questions. He actually told me at one event how the NHRA was looking to improve atttendence, and create a better event for everyone which is what representatives should be looking at - situtations like i mentioned above doesnt help the situtation. The ET classes as well as the other sportsman classes get harldy any media exposure and for those that are running times faster than the average street car, it discourages possible vendors and sponsors from wanting to become involved in this sport as they would see it not necessary since the class gets no exposure. The ET class winners arent even listed on the web site after an event is done so why arent these competitors recongized as the other drivers?
Lets take a look at the 06 season where the west coast drivers are given 2 events to run in with the NHRA. Vegas in July, and Pomona at the end of the season. So again the west coast has an even smaller number of events this year (no arizona event, no colorado event, no utah event). I know that racing is a business, and with business you have to be able to change with the economy and keep up with the demand, but when you take away what people want from this industry and do not give opportunity for it to grow who knows where it will lead.
I hate to see things contiune into the downward spiral next season. I myself would love to see the sportsman classes tunred into one large group of competitiors and put us all on an index and run us from there just like the Poweraide series sportsman classes. You'll have more people intrested in competiting in the class and possibly bring in more sponsor dollars and vendors to these events since there will be more exposure to these classes. On top of that you could even start creating a divisional point series.
I do not expect a reply from this email - I know eveyrine is getting geared up for Sema as myself as i will be there covering the show for the people I write for. Please do not take these issues lightly as if things continue I can surely see this sport getting smaller and smaller and I dont see the NHRA Sport Compact program having much luck running these events with just the pro-catagories in attendance.
Brad Harvey
Feature Editor
www.socaleuro.com
To the head offocials of the NHRA Sport Compact series
This is an open letter inquirying concerns that have come up from this last seasons NHRA Sony Explode Sport Compact Series that NHRA offocials seem to either want to ignore or just flat out dont care. Please note this email is also being sent to every major sport compact magazine head editors email to hopefully help with the addressing of these issues before the 2006 season begins.
The '05 season offered many drivers another chance at big prize money, a place for people to get off of the streets, and of course the fun of drag racing, but at what cost to the participants in the lower end classes or sportsman classes. Being a competitor on the west coast myself i have attended and competed nationally for the last 10 years in events drag racing in everything from NHRA Winston sponsored events, Poweraide sponsored events, Summit series events, even the old Sears Points seires events and rescently the Sony Explode events. I am a sportsman competitor I do not have the big dollars to compete in the pro catagories like many of the sportsman competitors.
My frustration starts back in '04 with the Las Vegas NHRA event when the sportsman catagories were left sitting for 2 and a half hours after being called to the staging lanes only to have to wait for the local points series competitiors who had nothing to do with the event make 2 rounds of eliminations before we finally got our shot at our first round of eliminations.
Bring us to the '05 season again back in Las Vegas where the sportsman catagories were at least recongized as actually being there and we ran our rounds as quickly as the other classes, BUT was this becasue we only had 30+ cars between the ET 1 and ET 2 classes so things were able to move quicker? Or was it because of the number of compalints about the way the '04 event was ran. What i found even more intresting when talking to a local Las Vegas track offocial was when he stated "The NHRA representatives have told us we are the ones in charge of the sportsman ET classses and the NHRA has nothing do to with them at this event" Im curious as to how many west coast event competitors out there who run in these events would like to hear that as an offocial statement from the NHRA, to me this leaves me with the attitude of "We dont care".
I shrugged it off like most other people at that event hey we were at least not sitting - so lets take a look at the '05 Pomona event. Great track awesome facility and the staff has always done a good job at keeping things moving. Saturday durning qualifying there were numerous wrecks that delayed alot of the qualifying chances on both ends of the spectrum - pro and sportsman, BUT agian the ET class cars were called to the lanes and all anyone could tell us about the long wait was "I dont know what is going on" while the othere classes were given their shot at qualifying. Now before you start saying it i know Pomona has a curfew and time delays can cause problems there even the poweraide guys have issues with it, BUT when the waiting is due to the amount of time it took to clean the track it seems a little excessive. You have cars running trap speeds of a Pro-Stock drag car but if a track needs to be cleaned we wait for over an hour before anything gets moving again and who takes the biggest hit - the class of cars that has the largest number of people participating. That sunday before the elimination rounds a competitior whom i was talking with was switched to a slower class for no reson what so ever. The car was running 12.90's is basically on the higher end of the spectrum for the sportsman catagories but yet was told he would be pushed into the ET 2 class with no reason given. This situtation was also handed to many other drivers as well. Why put cars that obviously are faster than the class rules mandate if you are going to have 2 different levels of competiton?
The lack of events have also been something that I have been questioning. Granted times change and to be able to keep running these events I understand that the NHRA goes where the larger crowds can be seen and more industry exposure is apparent. Lets not forget that drag racing pratically came from the west coast - im sure most of the NHAR offocials can explain the Parker Avenue road sign that sits next to the track in Pomona. I dont have the big money to be able to travel across country next season to participate in most of the events on the East coast so myself along with a very large number of people are left with the very small number of events here on the west coast. The lesser number of events we have the lesser number of people are going to want to participate, espically when the biggest class that brings in a majority of the people that watch the pro drivers are basically treated with the "I don't care" attitude.
The few times I've had the chance to talk with your offocial starter he has been very friendly and helpful when answering questions. He actually told me at one event how the NHRA was looking to improve atttendence, and create a better event for everyone which is what representatives should be looking at - situtations like i mentioned above doesnt help the situtation. The ET classes as well as the other sportsman classes get harldy any media exposure and for those that are running times faster than the average street car, it discourages possible vendors and sponsors from wanting to become involved in this sport as they would see it not necessary since the class gets no exposure. The ET class winners arent even listed on the web site after an event is done so why arent these competitors recongized as the other drivers?
Lets take a look at the 06 season where the west coast drivers are given 2 events to run in with the NHRA. Vegas in July, and Pomona at the end of the season. So again the west coast has an even smaller number of events this year (no arizona event, no colorado event, no utah event). I know that racing is a business, and with business you have to be able to change with the economy and keep up with the demand, but when you take away what people want from this industry and do not give opportunity for it to grow who knows where it will lead.
I hate to see things contiune into the downward spiral next season. I myself would love to see the sportsman classes tunred into one large group of competitiors and put us all on an index and run us from there just like the Poweraide series sportsman classes. You'll have more people intrested in competiting in the class and possibly bring in more sponsor dollars and vendors to these events since there will be more exposure to these classes. On top of that you could even start creating a divisional point series.
I do not expect a reply from this email - I know eveyrine is getting geared up for Sema as myself as i will be there covering the show for the people I write for. Please do not take these issues lightly as if things continue I can surely see this sport getting smaller and smaller and I dont see the NHRA Sport Compact program having much luck running these events with just the pro-catagories in attendance.
Brad Harvey
Feature Editor
www.socaleuro.com