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Bracket Finals
Point/Counter-Point
10/15/03
 ok
Nicholson, DRO's bracket racing editor and racer,
took the IHRA Bracket Finals event held at Cordova
Dragway to task in his Dead-On column for what
he thought were some serious short-comings.
In an effort to be fair we are printing track
owner/operator Scott Gardner's reply to Nicholson's
column as well as a short reply to that from
Nicholson.
DRO welcomes opposing views
from all readers and especially those subject
to abuse from our columnists. We will print
these in the News and Analysis section of the
magazine under the heading of Point/Counter-Point.
-- Jeff Burk, Editor
Dear Jok,
I've read your editorial concerning the IHRA Bracket Finals at Cordova Dragway
Park and agree on some of the concerns you brought forth. However, I feel
obligated to respond to other issues you have raised. The situation is not
always as it appears, something I learned from you years ago.
First, the event schedule originally had two time runs listed for Friday. However,
because of a crash and several weather delays,
we fell behind on the schedule. The IHRA then
elected to go into the gamblers races. The gamblers
races were concluded at 11 PM. If
they
would have provided a second time trial, the
gamblers races would have likely lasted until
1 or 2 AM. My best guess would have been a huge
outcry by the racers if the gamblers races were
not run in place of a second time run. I would
have heard, "I came all this way to make time
run."
It should be noted here that I switched sanctions of the Cordova Dragway from
NHRA to IHRA in 1997, mostly because of the IHRA bracket program and IHRA
Bracket Finals. When we attended the NHRA event at Indy in 1997, the Cordova
racers didn't like the event much, as it was two days of time trials and only
one race. Most of the bracket racers from Cordova prefer to race as much as
possible and have been known to comment that "time trials are overrated."
Cordova then attended the IHRA Finals at Norwalk. I guess each to their own
opinion.
Next, you stated "and the track made big profits" concerning the gamblers races.
That is incorrect; the track actually doesn't make any more or less from the
gamblers races and, the truth be known, actually makes less hosting the Bracket
Finals event than a normal weekend event.
I'm sure with your knowledge of track operations you can figure the event profit
pretty easily. With just under 400 entries and crew (and very few walk-up
spectators) including the gamblers entry fees and buy-backs, the event made
little profit for the IHRA. The expenses of the pay-out, track rental fee, track
and IHRA officials, insurance, glue, free food, etc. add up quickly. I would
love, as you suggest, if there were more of a profit and IHRA could then offset
the entry fees. In my case (Cordova), that would be to me, as I pay the main
entry fee for our entire team.
As far as the "Big Racers Bar-B-Que," it should be noted that we served over
1200 plates. Not bad when the total attendance
for the day was just over 1300 people. (I know
some took two plates.) The BBG was scheduled
for 5 PM. Because of several oil downs (namely
a large clean-up at 4:30), we pushed the BBQ
start time back to 5:45 PM. The gamblers races
were then completed at 7:30 PM. We had several
comments from racers that enjoyed the food --
I'm sorry you didn't.
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