All F-Body Series in '07?!?!?!?!

[NJSPEEDER]

hey gang,

after the success of many of our monthly meets, last years strong turn out at the East Coast Nats at Island, and the club's invovlement in the F-Body Clash at Atco we have received a lot of positive attention.

one of the results of all this is that we have the opportunity to get invovled in some more major gatherings and possibly have our class formula used as the basis for a new, all f-body racing and car show series.

this is something that has been growing for a while, since shortly after the club started actually. we have support from several other regional F-body clubs and tracks around the region.

the idea would be to have a 4 or 5 event series. there is a points system in the works for both the racing AND car show series. racing will feature expanded heads up catagories as well as most of our existing bracket classes. the car show would most likely use a similar general format to what we have used at the east coast nats with the addition of several more special awards and some expansion of the primary catagories.

my question to all of you is a simple one. does this sound like the type of thing that you woudl all like to see the clubs name on and the club standing behind?

please be serious when you answer. this is the kind of thing that could put our club in the national spotlight through internet and media coverage.

off topic responses will be deleted, so please stay on point.

-thanks

[enRo]

Excellent! Yes it does sound like the type of thing the club should do. Get the name out. It sounds like it would be a great experience.

[HardcoreZ28]

I'd definitely be in for the Show part of this. Let us know when there's more details.

[Ian]

my input isnt very important because I dont have an F-body, but I think it would be a good move for the club as a whole to get involved with that.

[Bandit]

Sounds like a good idea.. It would be great if the events were in the Spring and Fall.

[BigAls87Z28]

Hell yeah, get in on the ground floor of a racing league that could grow like how the Mustang's have there own racing division? Lets do it!

[Untamed]

Sounds awesome, but also sounds like a lot of work and coordination between clubs. Secondly, it also sounds expensive for people who are normally on shoe-string budgets. I don't want to rain on anyones parade, however our inability as a club to pull people together within our own state shows that folks are often all talk - twenty people say they'll show at a meet one month before it happens, then within the last week before the meet, more than half drop out.

If you plan to put something together that would involve (potentially) thousands of people across multiple states, you'll have to clearly define what the expectations are - and make damn sure money is involved for prizes and cost. Someone who pays to go somewhere is much more likely to show up than someone who says they'll be there... if they can get off work. Also make sure the prizes and expenses are uniform across whatever club / state joins. And lastly, make sure there are classes people can actually compete in - not just 1st gen, 2nd gen... and so on.

Racing competitively is really for those who can consistantly afford it. If you cannot, you're just a casual racer. If this is truly competitive and not just a chance to travel like a mini Power Tour to someone elses home track, eat some BBQ, race your car and make new friends, then the number of people involved will be very small (my opinion).

What I would do is - schedule a date, location and theme (if any) for the meet at another location, identify possible hotel space and cost, identify track / food / entrance fee (basically make it a packaged deal) and collect that stuff UP FRONT from anyone wanting to go. Then identify a good route to drive and offer to convoy there as a club. Anything else bought along the way is up to those attending. Sound like a lot of work yet? It should.

Don't jump into this half-assed. It'll make the club look bad and will put a lot of stress on the few volunteers willing to make all of the above, happen.

[NJSPEEDER]

bandit, the events would be spread out over the spring and summer mostly. the limited discussions so far are thinking an event in mid to late april and have the other events spread out by at least 3-4 weeks. that should give everyone time to spread out and plan vacations and get their cars ready for the next show.
unfortunately with a series there would not be any way to avoid having a few events in the middle of the summer heat. but if we started in april and had the last event in september, maybe we coudl skip july or august to stay away from the worst of the summer heat. all of that will depend on what the tracks have going on though, so we will see.

bigal, the NMRA was actually part of the inspiration for this. the mustang crowd really have their **** together with that. they let their classes evolve each year and are constantly looking for ways to offer an entry level into racing.

untamed, a lot of what you are saying are the concerns that we have. we plan to keep the racing as economically realistic as possible by having 4 brackets classes along with the heads up program. we also have a rules outline for a heads up class that is pretty good sounding for entry level/fast street cars. obviously, heads up still comes with a cubic dollars stamp on it, we would just work on keeping it at least partially realistic.
the dates and locations are still to be determined. the only event that is absolutely going to follow the format as of right now would be the east coast nats.
having participants prepay for the events is something we have looked into before for the nats. it is definately something to follow through with for the series.
volunteers are gonna be a big deal. the local host club or the njfboa would have to provide people to help with tech, at teh front gate, parking car show participants, and other little odd jobs. nothing stressful, just stuff that require a person or two paying attention to one thing for a few hours.
believe me, we are planning to go all the way with this. that is why the thread was put up. so far the idea is out there and receiving good feedback from tracks and some potential sponsors. we just wanted to see what the clubs take on this was before we made any concrete moves to put this together.

thanks for the feedback everyone. keep it coming.

[69RSZ]

Tim, I was at the american musclecar madness at RP and they really had a great show with STOCK RULES in drag raceing classes.In my opinion it was a good thing,no electronics so the regular (ringers) racers couldnt race a real race car.no 4 links and so on.they go to different tracks and put on a good show.It was like street wars back in the day when we used to race on the street with street tires and closed exhausts.The years they have are from 1960 to 1974,so maybe you can pick up where they leave off 1967 to present fbodys.Check out their rules at http://www.stockappearingdrags.com/ you keep it all street cars you will have a good thing going and it wont fail.that way all can compete not just a few.just my 2cents.

[NJSPEEDER]

i have seen the FAST adn factory stock racing stuff before. if anyone wants to see absolutely beautiful cars doing what they were built for i highly recomend hitting up one of their events.
the rules packages we look at are always based around real street cars since that is what makes up 95% of our membership. that is why we run classes with "stock" interior, factory glass, basic street equipment requirements, and muffler rules at the nats.
these rules packages will need be opened up somewhat for many classes, but will remain based on street cars for almost all classes.

[Savage_Messiah]

I'm for it, my cars no show car and i dunno how much racing I'd do but I think it's definately a good idea

[Jersey_TA]

I'll be in if my car stays on the road long enough lol. Sounds like a good idea. I'd be interested in the racing. :)

[Pampered-Z]

I would certainly be interested in doing a series. And this is exactly why the East Coast Nats needs to be a huge success. Not only with the show and races but with spectators as well! You really need to prove to tracks and potential sponsors they your event will drawl a crowd or promote their products. Most of the cost for the racers goes to the track's operating cost and some to prize money. Spectators pay to get in, eat and some buy track souvenirs. So spectators are a big plus to any event.

[jims69camaro]

my question to all of you is a simple one. does this sound like the type of thing that you woudl all like to see the clubs name on and the club standing behind?

yes.

[NJSPEEDER]

thanks for the feedback gang. this looks like somehting that we will persue for next year.
work basically starts now for the series. expect some basic ruels outlines to be posted up for debate with in the next few days. we will also be posting up an idea for the points system that we would like to use for everyone's review.
first step will be to start a new forum for the series and lay the ground work in. once i have some talks with the tracks and some potential sponsors we will have more permanent information and we will see what we have to do as far as web space for the series.
we are also in need of a good name for the series. so if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. i only have a few ideas and none of them sound very catchy to me.
please keep in mind that a step like this will put the club into the national spotlight. so there may be other changes that we need to make to rules in the forums and adjustments to the topic areas.

thanks again for all the support. there is going to be a lot of fresh information hitting the site in the next few days. let us know what you think so we can keep improving everything for you guys.

[BlackBADaSS02]

I'm all for having a series. After the Clash, I was thinking it would be great to have a series of all f-body races.

[NJSPEEDER]

hehe, around the time of the clash was when the final pieces sort of fell into place for this to be considered. the crew at atco was pretty happy with the results and left the door open for us to work with them again.

F-Body Shoot Out Series sound like a good name for it?

trying to come up with something catchy and easy to remember.

[NJSPEEDER]

another question that keeps coming up, what is a fair price to charge to participate in an event like we are looking to put on? how much is fair to charge for spectators?
it looks like a lot of tracks charge $25-35 for test and tune days and $30-50 for special events dependign what kind of event it is. as of right now we are jsut trying to get an estimate of what everyone woudl consider fair so that we can make that part of our presentation when we approach the tracks about hosting the events.

-thanks

[baddest434]

those prices seem to be fair and in the ballpark of other events i've attended.
sure i'd be up for the racing series thing as long as there is an electronics bracket. and imo the heads up at atco on the 18th didn't seem fair. the hooter car was in it's own league. and at what tracks would these races be held any idea at this time. thanks bill

[NJSPEEDER]

we are looking into both heads up and barcket racing, an electronics bracket is definately a part of the plan.
yeah, that hooters car was nuts. we promoted mainly on late model sites, so we pretty much expected what teh rest of the field looked like. open rules being what they are, the hooters car was in the right class though.

[kazman]

Tim ,
I think its a great idea. I run regular points at MG and compete in the Corrvette Challange at RP so it would be hard for me to schecule a third series durning the season. But I'm in the minority. Most don't run points etc.

I would take 2 examples of current club events. The first is the Impala club that runs a number of races at different tracks. I believe they are within 2-3 hours of each other. Island, Atco, MIR, Cecil, etc. They run points and keep a tally of the standings. http://www.ecirs.org/

The second example is the Corvette Challange at Englishtown. The race has 10 events for points. Always at Englishtown. This race has a lot of sponsers. Points are maintained and posted. The season points winner gets to run in the Division 1 finals with team RP. At the end of the season the top 16 races get to run for a $1000 in the last race of the season. http://www.corvettechallenge.info/2006standings.php

[NJSPEEDER]

hey gang,
the forum is up for the series discussions. it is under the events heading. please look over what we have so far and give some feedback about the rules packages and other info.
go there >>>> http://ls1tech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=535188

[97transam]

I be interested in a series. It would be cool to check out different tracks with a group. Bracket racing is what I am into now.