Colorado Drag Racers

[infil]

Sup guys,
Little info on myself, i've been racing in colorado for about 8 years or so, about 6 of those with neons. Over that time i've become pretty good friends with most of the staff at bandimere, and have recently begun talking with Sporty Bandimere(Executive VP/Operations Manger) about expanding their current anti-street racing program beyond teh High school classes to include us, us being the sport compact/import guys.

The big suggestions I have gotten from a few other forums(www.domestictunerz.com and the colorado neons mailing list mainly) were a FWD Only class for either the Saturday ET Series, or a regular local Import series.

Of course there were quite a few request for lower fees for the cost of racing and spectating, I think spectating is possible but for the racers, its not likely. I will definately mention it but dont ocunt on anything there.

I did recieve an email from Sporty today saying that he would very much like to sit down at the IDRC event on the 29th of this month and discuss some ideas with me, I would encourage VERY strongly that anyone who races at bandimere, or who has an intrest in racing at bandimere come out and get involved. We have a chance to make a difference and get some stuff done specifically for us, lets take advantage of it.

I can be reached with questions easiest through email or via AIM, both of which are listed below.

Cyas,
Infil

[David]

sounds good. Any idea of when/if this will happen? You should tell him about the site, im sure a lot of people would like to talk to him and toss out some suggestions.

[V8SpankR]

How about include AWD cars too since I can't run in the "stick shift" class on Saturdays since they only allow RWD cars.

[infil]

I will mention both the forum and somethin for the awd guys to sporty for sure.
I just emailed him about the forum, although i'm not sure how much time he'll have to actually read it.
I can definately relay messages to him as I'm at bandimere pretty regularly.

Keep the ideas comin,
Infil

[AustinGT]

I'd be interested!

[stu]

You know we have a team that is registered for club clash already, Colorado Import Alliance (P) and one of our membersis on one of the commities at Bandimere as well. I would suggest getting in touch with him as he is our "mouth piece" for the site. You can PM him here (Dustin) to get in contact with him.

[thimages]

Not to rain on your parade, but in reality Bandimere can't really offer anything they don't already have.

Look at the Calendar, it's HEAVY with events.

Getting the street racers out to Club Clash isn't going to cut it.

They aren't gonna pony up what amounts to $10 a pass if they go out in the first round.

Bandimere is very unlikely to open more dates for Test and Tune days.

They are limited, to some degree, by agreements with the city and county in regards to operating periods.

Then there is the LARGE part of the year in which they are closed.

What they need is are "no time slip" days where people can run for "dirt cheap".

Bandimere is quickly pricing itself out of the reach of the racers with shallow pockets.

But in reality, people will street race no matter what legal venues are available.

Hal

[BoarderAJAX]

yes, AWD. They just need to open it on tuesdays or something for import/sport compact. Everyone pitches ten bucks, winner takes all bracket racing.

Mike

[infil]

Agustin and stu, i pm'd both of ya.

As far as bandimere not willing to do anything, Sporty wouldn't be listening to ideas if they weren't. Not sure how long you've been running at bandimere, but they are all about the racers, always have been. If theres enough support and constructive ideas, my moneys on them doing something.

I agree that they wont start up with an import only class in 04, their going to gauge it first, see what kind of response they get.

For those of you who do want to hook up on the 29th and talk to sporty as a group, i'm driving the neon below and am usually pitted up by the access road behind the top of the staging lanes, my name is eric, car number is p455.

Just look for a crowd of neons and ask for eric hehe.

http://home.earthlink.net/~infilhosting/infiltrated/infiltrated1.jpg

[Mr. NoSkills]

if they honestly want to focus on putting a dent into street racing, i don't think bracket racing will do it.
why do you street race? because you want to beat the other guy, not to see who hits their target et.
the only way i think you'd get the street racing crowd there is to offer some sort of "grudge match" type event. were fastest et wins, no bracket racing.
i have no idea how you would group the cars or anything, but that's the only thing that would bring people there I think.
i was into the whole street scene for a few years back when it wasn't gay and the only time people went to the track was for test and tune if that, they didn't really care about bracket racing.

don't take that the wrong way or anything, not trying to crash the party, but that's just my side of it...

[David]

nice car, im not much of a neon person but yours looks cool. I would lower it tho, it looks really high to me. Another thing, I would blur out your license plate, a lot of cars from this forum have been stollen lately, $5 and anybody could know where you live, just a heads up (dont wanna freak anybody out)

[infil]

TDJB, That is EXACTLY what I am looking for, Thanks!

With that, the list of things i'm gonna mention to sport is as follows:

FWD Specific Classes including Heads up and brackets
AWD specific classes including heads up and brackets
Pamphlets/flyers handed out with summaries of the consequences of street racing, mods that are illegal, and contact information for the various racing organizations and tracks locally.

Some type of event like the bi annual swap meet geared towards sport compacts.

Anything else you guys would like to see? Lemme know!

4g63, believe me, lowering is coming up very soon. To date i've dumped most of everything into the motor/drivetrain. Next month shes getting a set of coilovers, camber plates, busings, new tranny, new axles, itb's, new header, new exhaust, fuel system, new computer, y-type 3pt harnesses, and possibly some recaro's.

Next month is going to suck basically lol. Oh, and the car is not moving if i dont want it to without a tow truck, and anyone who wants to steal it that bad is welcome to try, I also happen to be a rather avid weapon collector and am friends with numerous cops that live on the property :) I do plan on blanking out the liscense plates, just haven't gotten around to it yet :).

One question on drag radials, i've run nittos in the past and honeslty hated em. How are the BFG gforces? Heard alot of fairly good things and a few bad. Also thinking about the old school bfg drag radials as i'd really like to avoid nittos again.

Take it easy

[john]

I used to race. And I used to be fast. Now I am slow and I don't race. Such is life...

[infil]

Ok, this is what i've come up with for a rough layout. Ideas and suggestions would be VERY welcome for this.
The big things we want to see:

-FWD Only Class
-AWD Only Class
-Sport Compact Series:
Bi or Tri weekley schedule, similar to the Friday Night ET series(9 or 10 events over the year i believe) with similar entry fees including a few broken down classes as listed below.

Heads-up Classes: Slicks and Open exhaust ok, No electronics**

13.99 and quicker
14.00 and slower

I figure most people wanting to run heads up are going to be running something competitive. I know that is a major difference in times between those 2, but I figure heads up will probably end up not being very popular for the majority of people due to the lack of competition for the average tuner car. If the heads up classes take off, this could be expanded a bit or broken down into more classes that woudl more effectively cover everyone.

Bracket Classes: Slicks and open exhaust ok, no electronics**

13.99 and quicker
14.00 - 15.99
16.00 and slower


Points Systems:
Heads up:
100 points for attending each event
Each round win=10pts
quarter finals and higher=50 points for loss, 60 points for win.
Event win=100pts
Perfect series attendance=100pts

Brackets:
100 points for attending each event
Each round win=10pts
quarter finals and higher= 75pts for loss, 100pts for win
Event win = 125pts
Perfect series attendance = 100pts

Payouts:
Heads up:
Quarter Finals = Trophy + $20
Semi Finals = Trophy + $30
Finals = Trophy + $40
Event Win = Trophy + $60 + half off next series event
Season Win = Trophy + $150
Season Runner-up = Trophy + $100
Season Third = Trophy + $50

Brackets:
Quarter Finals = Trophy + $15
Semi Finals = Trophy + $25
Finals = Trophy+ $35 + half off next event
Event Win = Trophy + $50 + half off next event
Season Win = $150 + Trophy
Season Runner-up = $100 + Trophy
Season Third = $50 + Trophy

**(this does not include ignition controllers, I will dig up the NHRA rules and see what all is excluded, but I beleive electronics mainly refers to delay boxes, traction control and the like.)

[Dustin]

Wont happen bro. Not enough regulars to make a series like that work. The ET event on Friday nights barely gets 30 cars a week.

[V8SpankR]

Dustan's right,there just aren't enough real import racers that would commit to that;hell,we have enough of a hard time to get 20 racers out to support out team at the Club Clash. (which better change)

[infil]

well..the lack of attendance is mainly due to lack of knowledge. Seems that hardly anyone knows about either event. I'm going to be working with Yee at Trenz, the guys at paragon, and as many of the import/sport compact shops i can find to get the word out about this. The racers are there, the desire is there, not enough people know about the et classes which makes it kinda slow unfortunately.

[Dustin]

Originally posted by infil
well..the lack of attendance is mainly due to lack of knowledge. Seems that hardly anyone knows about either event. I'm going to be working with Yee at Trenz, the guys at paragon, and as many of the import/sport compact shops i can find to get the word out about this. The racers are there, the desire is there, not enough people know about the et classes which makes it kinda slow unfortunately.

I disagree, The ET series are nearly every friday. The rice events are twice a year and get 400+ cars. They know when the races are they just choose not to come. If there were more of a showing on Friday ET nights, your idea might have a chance. Most ricers, and people on this bored will race once, twice a year max. They will say they are going to show up, and never come. Tobi, Mudd, and myself have seen dwindling turnouts for 3 years in a row. Your Idea is probably a good idea if the average import owner wasn't an 18 year old flake. A series as such takes dedication and commitment from a lot of racer. ie Super Pro, Pro, Run-Tuff. until the import owners grow up, we will be seeing 30 cars at the Friday ET events.

[stu]

Also, do we really want all the people who like to street race showing up at Bandimere and acting like fucks?

[V8SpankR]

Originally posted by stu
Also, do we really want all the people who like to street race showing up at Bandimere and acting like fucks?

I'd really like to think that people that will actually shell out $30 to race might take it a little more serious. I don't think it would be much of the crowd from the two biggie import events since that's held just a couple times a year and in the day plus it's more of a show off kinda thing like seeing who has the riciest car,the racing is secondary.

[thimages]

If the focus is REALLY on reducing street racing then this is NOT the way to do it.

The way to do it is to INCREASE the opportunites for people to actually go to the track.

In order to INCREASE the opportunities you must:

1) Have more dates at the track
2) Have more affordable racing

A new racing series isn't going to do squat. Like has been said, if people wanted to do this, there are already opportunites to do it (at least for brackets).

As far as heads up racing goes. I love it, it's all I really do, but I wouldn't run the series as you've set it up.

The payout to win won't even pay for the fuel costs and gate/entry fees.

Hal

[HONDA GHANDI]

bi-weekly? Youre high on something. Its hard enough to get people out to pay $30 once a week but two or three? No way.
You must mean Bi-monthly. I know Yi at trenz too and he is not at all interested in the racing scene in this state, Wayne maybe but those guys are into selling parts and being part of the "trend" but not racing. As much as I hate to say it Import Sports is theonly shop in town that actively supports racing. I very seldom see any other shops cars or "crews" at the track other than the main events. I.S. is always out there racing their fast cars which says a lot for their dedication to the industry. I too have my company name on my car and I go out and race every week religiously but its not to promote my business or sell parts, its to have a good time with my buds doing what I love. So to really get a crowd out there you will have to promote the angle that the track is a safe place to come hang with your friends, race legally and have a fun time at a reasonable price. It will also have to be competetive enough for racers to want to come back again and again.

[V8SpankR]

AMEN!!!! ,HONDA GHANDI

Unfortunatly you are so right,the actual import race scene is as weak as Jenna Jameson's sphincter. :)

[thimages]

Originally posted by HONDA GHANDI
angle that the track is a safe place to come hang with your friends, race legally and have a fun time at a reasonable price. It will also have to be competetive enough for racers to want to come back again and again.

bingo

Fun for money is KEY to this, which is why I seriously doubt we are going to see any dramatic changes.

The operators at Bandimere know about the "low buck" events that other tracks offer. But they haven't offered any.

Why not? Because it would kill the high priced T&T events.

A lof of people would pay $10 to be able to just run even if they could not get time slips.

Schedule an event like this, and I bet the number of T&T cars drops by 50%.

Hal

[Mudd]

Originally posted by Dustin
I disagree, The ET series are nearly every friday. The rice events are twice a year and get 400+ cars. They know when the races are they just choose not to come. If there were more of a showing on Friday ET nights, your idea might have a chance. Most ricers, and people on this bored will race once, twice a year max. They will say they are going to show up, and never come. Tobi, Mudd, and myself have seen dwindling turnouts for 3 years in a row. Your Idea is probably a good idea if the average import owner wasn't an 18 year old flake. A series as such takes dedication and commitment from a lot of racer. ie Super Pro, Pro, Run-Tuff. until the import owners grow up, we will be seeing 30 cars at the Friday ET events.

Took the words right out of my mouth Dusty.

I gotta say man, what you are trying to do is commendable. However there is a series on Friday nights already as you know.

My advice.......take your message to all these tuner shops you talk about and get all these supposedly "un-informed" racers who don't know when the events are held to start coming out and competing. Maybe you might want to spread the word to the 500 ricers that will be there Sunday.

On another note, you aren't going to get them to change prices especially with the escalating costs of operating a first class facility such as Bandimere. They just raised the rates not long ago and I don't see them droping rates for any real reason. I for one, wouldn't be too excited if 200 ricers showed up on a Friday night to race in the E.T. Series, it would just slow things down more. A few would be nice, but turning it in to one of the special Import days on a weekly basis would be horrible.
IMO, if you truly enjoy the competition of racing, the cost of entry fees is of little significance. I know that even when I was un-employed had had zero income, I made damn near every event I would have made even if I had a steady income. I am sure any other competitive racer would agree with me 100%.
Good Luck with your crusade, but I will continue to participate in as many events as I can.

Brian

[Mr. NoSkills]

if your aiming at street racers, you need to go to the street races. like most of us, most of them don't even fuck with shops, everything is done over the internet, so putting these flyers at the shops won't do to much i don't think.
i'm not really sure what to think though as far as how well it will work.
i guess only time will tell eh?

[Pang]

Originally posted by tdjb-potc
most of them don't even fuck with shops, everything is done over the internet

:werd: over the net and in my garage, don't trust any shops around here to do my work.