one of those days

Yesterday was the 2nd points race of the season for us. My father loaded up the trailer saturday, and we raced yesterday. Dad didn't do much. Went out 2nd round. My other car ('84 Mustang coupe-306/c4/9") was driven by a friend of mine and his new girlfriend showed up to cheer him on, so he was a little distracted. He went out 3rd round on a bad light.

My day started out crappy. The track was COLD and damp. Traction was nonexistent. My first time trial netted a 6.02 on and off the throttle about 3 times with a 1.36 60'. A fellow racer's truck got away from him and he hit the rail, took out the 60' photocell on the right lane. Another guy got crossed up, also left the track but didn't hurt anything but his pride. The track owner got wind of cars being loose and did what he could--dragged the track, sprayed, dragged again. It was better for my 2nd time trial but still not 100%. It ran a 5.99/115 with a 1.35 60'. I put a 5.98 on the window and figured I'd be out in first round. I was right. I got took out by my own Mustang, but bought back. There was another wreck, but I didn't see it...don't know what happened as I was back in my pit fixing a broken intake manifold stud. 2nd round of elims, boy the track came around! I watched a few cars, all were breaking out by as much as a tenth. So I dialed down to 5.94. On my 2nd elim round, the opponent red lit and I had a while to sit there (his dial was 9.06). Light came down and I put that size 15 shoe to the wood. Front wheels came up out of the beams, carried them a long way out and set it down nicely....looked at my slip, car ran a 5.941 at 117.2 with a much better 1.28 60'. The rest of the day went like that....the last 3 rounds I dialed 5.95 and ran 95 or 96. Got the bye into the final. The qtr final round I had .007 light, ran 5.960 on 5.95.

In the final I drew a $100,000 ex-prostock 2000 firebird. VERY nice car and very consistent, so I knew I had my work cut out for me. Long story short, his light SUCKED and I took the win. But I didn't take it easy on him. Dialed 5.95. Ran 5.9501. Reaction was .00014, 60' time 1.282. He was going to have a hard time beating that anyway....he ended up running 5.82/127 on a 5.81 dial...and his reaction time was .146.

Sure felt good to take out a car of that caliber! It is absolutely beautiful, fast, pulls like mad on the top end, and the driver is usually GOOD. I don't know what his excuse was for losing, he avoided me when I went to shake his hand and I didn't press the subject.

Now, I have a question for you racers. What is considered a "fair" payout? We split $300 in yesterday's final round. It BARELY paid for diesel, alcohol, gas for the generator, and normal wear and tear. I think that this is going to continue to be a low payout because of the costs to the track operators....I know they need their money to survive. But what can be done to increase payouts? Our track pays based on the car count. 100% payback. I run a footbrake class, but the electronics class also pays 100% payback....and usually their car count is lower than the footbrake classes.

If the track pays based on car count, you get what you get and be glad the gates are open at all. Remember, we used to beat each other up for trophies. Lots of tracks pay back 80% or so on an eliminator. What our new folks are doing is getting the points races sponsored. his deal is to get a sponsor to cover the race payout, then if the car counts go up enough the payout can float up.

Midland pays $250 to win guarranteed and they pay 3 places - and I mean 3 places, as they run off the semi winners to get a 3rd place.
Desert Thunder Raceway - Event Details

We on the other hand - thanks to sponsors - pay back 8 and it's $500 to win Mod and $1K Top.
Abilene Dragstrip - Classes/Payouts/Points & Tech Information

We had a cold track problem last points race - the owner called the race at the start of the second round when the Top cars started to get loose down track. The track just hasn't got hot enough to stay warm at night - This Friday the starting line was 102F at 6:30, then had dropped to 68F by 9pm. Lotsa concrete to heat up, need more sunshine LOL. The good thing is that they gave everyone in the race a run card credit and told the sponsor (Budweiser) that they will re-run the race later, so the sponsor gets a "double" and we'll get a weekend with two paying races. That should bring in the out of towners - not easy for folks to travel at $4/gallon diesel.

If your track operators can't bring in sponsors, they will be operating on a shoe string. VHT is nearly $600 a barrel plus delivery, Lane Choice (VP version) is about half or 2/3ds that. Insurance, etc - costs a bunch just to swing the gates open. And fuel is hurting ALL race tracks, but it's the more rural tracks that it will hurt the most.

Thanks. There are a few good points in there, some of which I will bring up to our track owners.

I guess I'm got it pretty good here. The track I race at NorthStar in Denton has a great program for the second year in a row. The pay out in footbrake is $1000, $500 runner up, $150 semi's and $50 in the quarters with a $50 entry. Super Pro pays $1500 to win, 700 to runner up, $250 semi's and $75 for quarters with a $65 entry. If the car counts surpass 64 cars in a class they will increase the pay outs to the eight's which did happen a few times last year. The payouts are guarranteed no matter what the car count is. Of course being only 15 miles from the house dose'nt hurt either.
North Star Dragway

I've been considered a prick before, but I don't like to split with the runner-up. Maybe I'm old school, but I say let the best racer win. If I win, then I want the money. ALL of it. I feel cheated if I have to give half to the guy that lost.
If I'm not the winner(which has happened many times as well) then I still hold to the my guns. The winner earned it. I didn't. It's that simple. It makes some guys mad when they come to me before the final and ask for a split and I say "no thanks, but good luck." I take the fact that they are asking as a lack of confidence. If I get that far in the game, I am usually feeling pretty confident in myself. But again, I can sometimes seem like a prick.


As for low payouts, it may be that you could seek out a class that pays contingency. That can pad up a low payout really well.

I usually split at my home track. Most of the folks there are friends, including the runner up this last weekend. None of us are in it for the money, only for fun. The money is nice but greed usually takes it's toll in the long run

If I am having problems in the pit at my home track, I may need some help. I promise that I wouldn't get any help if I was a prick. Quite a few times I've had fellow racers help me out of a jam. Once, I won a money round but broke my car....another racer unloaded his '70 Cougar Eliminator and let me win in his car. I guarantee you that he wouldn't have done that if I was thought of as the butthole.

If I go elsewhere, I won't even ask. I just show up to the lanes and if the opponent asks, we'll talk about it. In all of my final round appearances at other tracks, I'd say I've split 1/4 of the them.

We usually split here, most times we do 60/40, 50/50 if it's a bud. I don't care - I'm after that little round sticker that says "EVENT WINNER".

>But again, I can sometimes seem like a prick
So you're the guy that says "If you wanna split, go to Dairy Queen!" LOL

Northstar is doing very well, good for them. The big difference between Northstar/Tx Raceway/etc and Abilene is the potential racer pool. Abilene has a population of about 114K, all of Taylor County has about 124K. Tarrant County (Fort Worth) has - by contrast- 1.6 million. Next door is Dallas County with 2.3 million for a rough total of nearly 4 million in that general area. Denton County is just north of Tarrant and has only about 500K.

We had 110 cars at the season opener - a very good turnout for us. You can go all the way to Midland and you'll only find 300K people. Fisher County, just NW of Taylor has a whopping 4K population. Kent County - between us and Lubbock - has 734 people per the 2006 census. That's for 734 people for 900 square miles. Tarrant has 863 sq/mi, Dallas 879 sq/mi.

Kent puts the R in Rural LOL.

Originally Posted by mavman

If I am having problems in the pit at my home track, I may need some help. I promise that I wouldn't get any help if I was a prick.

Point taken. I have never really been in the final with a close friend before. I also tend to travel to other tracks where I don't know a lot of people. I've been following the NMRA around when I can.

So you're the guy that says "If you wanna split, go to Dairy Queen!" LOL

Well, I try to be a polite prick.

Not that I make it to the final round much anymore but most of the time the split is 50/50 with the regulars at Irwindale.

One thing I never thought was fair though are "buybacks". If ya lose ya lose. Now if there was a separate losers bracket for the buy back cars that would be OK.Just my opinion.