Forum: Oklahomatidbits.com General Forum (go)
Moderators:  /  David Smith Jr

I have always liked the claim. Keeps cost down on the motors

I just left the Factory Stock rules meeting for Brill Motor Speedway. We will NOT be requiring restrictor plates, so you guys just load up and come on down. Look for updated and clarified rules for 2008 on the website (www.brillmotorspeedway.com ) soon. I won't attempt to recap the entire meeting here, but I didn't hear anything about any MAJOR rule changes. Mark's intent is to keep costs down as much as possible, and allow everyone to be competitive.

I think restricter plates on Factory Stocks are essential, you guys are going way to fast. LOL

Seriously Bobcat, I totally agree with you. Although I'm not a big fan of "Claimer motors" there has to be an alternative. Not only in your class, but all classes. Financially Motors, Tires, Trailers, and everything else that goes along with fielding a race car has gotten and continues to get out of hand for the local racer as a HOBBY. Not to mention the price of Pit Passes, Grandstand Admission (for our family and fans), and Concessions.

Reality is, We are racing on a local level. Maybee the Promoter should be reminded of that. It is getting harder and harder to keep up with the Jones, or Edwards as many may see it.

Restricter Plates Are A Joke. It Will Make The Fast Guys Slower And The Slower Guys Slower. What Are You Fixing Nothing. The Claim Rule Back Is The Way To Go. And Maybe We Should Look At Sims mods Or IMCA Lm The Motor is bone stock the Chassis is metric stock It Is Factory Stock Cars With Mod bodys On Them. This Class Is The Way To Go I think? As far Money Ruling In Classes It will never Change But Some Rules Make It More Even And The Claim Rule Does That.

The Deeper The Better. GO DEEP!

This is Lanny problem.  If he would actually hold everyone to his rules instead of letting the ones he likes get by with cheating the racing would be much better.  Everyone knows lanny allows certain people to cheat unless they are protested then he has to penalize them like he knew nothing about it.  but yes lanny is killing the factory stock division.  look at last year he had maybe three B feature races all year long and the year past never had a problem having a B feature.  But its his lose not ours there are plenty good track that all the factory stock drivers can come race at. 

JD don't you remember when they still had the claim? they only time anyone used it was the last points night to try to win a championship. Even when people tried to use it, the people who they would want to claim would threaten their lives or the well-being of their family members. So 90% of the people were scared to protest or claim someone for the fear of what the people would do. The other 10% were family. lol. But honestly in my opinion the claim wouldn't change much. The cars alone without the motor cost way more than most people getting into racing can afford. Like you said, they have disk brakes, mini clutches, 9"ford rearends, and so on and so on. There is nothing stock or cheap about this class anymore. Thats why he doesn't have a car count in the factories or the pro's anymore. Nobody is moving up and nobody new is getting into the factories because they can't afford it. They need to get back to having factory/pure stocks. Give people a class they can afford to begin in.

Bobby Springer #25

Race fan here. You've got people that would love to get a car and race, but there's no way they're going to drop 10k into a race car to have a saturday night hobby at an entry level. They don't know anything about sponsors or even where to begin because of the huge amounts of money required. Up north there's tracks all over the place that run front wheel drives and people are racing $1000 Tempos, Neons, Civics and so on. But there's lots of racers who look down at these cars as jokes and don't want them anywhere near their track and just want the true race car classes. That's fine... if I was a mod driver or whatever I suppose the FWD class would seem to be more of a roller skate with a Briggs and Stratton strapped to it. At any rate, what you have is hardly anyone NEW getting involved with dirt track racing because there's really no "entry level, affordable" class to hook up with near us. I understand there's racing families who pass down cars, chassis, knowledge and so on from generation to generation but to someone new (with no connections and having to learn it from scratch) they have virtually no way to get a race car because of the expense. Now, if you're not interested in a new crop of racers and just want the same money people to run that have run forever, then this wouldn't interest you at all.

I guess what I'm saying is it's just a doggone shame it's so expensive regardless of class these days. Getting new people started racing without having to take a 2nd mortgage out (which no new one will do... I hope) would help racing stay alive. To get new people into racing you have to make it easier to start out; cheap cars to run, little weekend driving schools so they don't have to learn by wrecking 10 times and hacking everybody off, and some safety seminars. If you want people involved you've gotta teach them the ropes and give them a way to do it.

Stock cars many years ago, from what I read, were thousand dollar (or less) Chevys with stock engines that raced. Now those Chevys are the $10k-20k cars that are running. Some out of state tracks have figured that the front wheel drives which are all over the place now for 500 bucks are now what a Chevy was years ago and they are the new entry level class. I realize a lot of ya'll wouldn't like the "roller skate" cars running, but it would make a way for a new generation of racers to get their feet wet and get a taste of racing without breaking the bank or getting divorced or both. Then, drivers could move up in class from there, stay in that class, or sell the car and get out without dropping unreasonable, unavailable amounts of cash.

Not trying to hijack the thread; I'm just ranting. This stuff is just what I think as a fan.

And for what its worth, I'm a race fan and I appreciate everything racers sacrifice to be out there every fri-sat night puttin on shows.

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What needs to be done, is pull the rule book from 2001 or 02, change a few things like instead of saying 'working torque converter' say 12" working torque converter. bring the claim back $550 and swap, work on gettting scuff tires that have some sort of marking on them or just say scuff tires only and do some enforcing of the rules. Look at the car counts, drop every year, used to be at SFS that you walked threw the pits feeling good that you made the A main out of 60 plus cars,now all 14 cars make the A. Racing is getting more expensive with the rise of fuel and such,we dont need tracks making it more expensive with rule changes and lack of enforcing them. ( and this is not just at SFS but other tracks threw Oklahoma and the country for that matter.) The most fun I had ever was racing under the rules F/S ran under in 01 when I ran weekly at SFS. The class was affordable, pretty tight competion, large car counts, it was great,seems like that every year a rule gets changed and 10 cars drop from the field.

A guy can go get a competive modifed for the same at what is needed for a competive factory stock, and last I looked it said 'Factory Stock class is an entry level affordable class'