Event Coverage 2015 GEAR JAM DRAGS - Feedback wanted

The 2015 GEAR JAM DRAGS will be returning to Atlanta Dragway the last week in April 2015. I'm am not officially connected to the event, but a big fan of the event and would like it to succeed. That means trying to get proper feedback/input to make the event better. I can tell you from personal experience, Brad (the promoter), has been very appreciative of the info he has gotten back from the fans and uses that to make a better event.

This thread will concentrate on the racing part of the event. It is only to be used as INFORMATION ONLY and nothing discussed here is official Gear Jam policy. Feedback can also be posted on the Gear Jam Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/gearjamdrags?ref=br_tf.

Looks like the classes will be as follows. Hot Rod and Muscle Car will be run on 1/4 mile. FED/Altered/Gassers will be run on 1/8th. All racing racing will be bracket based. I believe there will be time set aside for grudge matches and show car runs as well...........as long as your car passes NHRA tech.

How do you think the dial ins should decided in the racing classes? I recommended something very similar to the way the Hot Rod Reunion in Bowling Green does it. Muscle Car and Hot Rod can use their fastest qualifying time. FED/Altered/Gassers will have .50 sec increments (5.0, 5.5, 6.0, 6.5, etc...) and will they will have to declare their dial in.

Also recommended that HR and MC classes use a full tree and all other classes use .400 pro tree.

Any input from people thinking about attending the event??

Thanks.

 

Rather than "dial-in," we are looking at Index Classes. NMCA Nostalgia Super Stock runs indexes, and several other races and events do as well.
Haven't decided on the tree style yet, will get more input from other racers.
All four classes CAN be set up to run independent styles of tree and length, for instance, if one group prefers a Pro .400 tree, and another prefers a .500 tree, that's no problem.

Grateful for any input!
-Brad

 

Just don't run it like the Atl 10,000 and it should be great

 

Easier for the guys who run in the HR and MC classes to race if they just have to match what their car is running in time trials. Don't have to worry about tuning up or down to hit a specific index........just maintain. Remember, this is where most of your racing participants are....and where most of the inexperienced guys are who just wanna have some fun. Wanna make it fun for them so they come back. I can remember racing for the first time. NO WAY I could have tuned my car to a .50 index. I was too busy trying to figure out everything else like doing the proper burn out, where to line up for the tree, cutting a decent light, shifting consistently, etc...

Leave the indexes for the more experienced racers in the other classes. That's what they're used to...

 

And if you wanna make it look like traditional racing.....let the cars leave the line at the same time instead of handicapped starts....

 

I'd love to make it a true heads-up event... but after doing the last two that way, I've learned a lot... mainly that racers want indexes so everyone has an even shot at the purse.
-Brad

 

I could give a shit less about the purse! BGII (my roadster) was and is built for driving pleasure on the road, not drag racing. For me at least, the drag strip is a place where I can come and let it all hang out without worrying about the boys in blue! I don't even care if I win or lose, I just come to play, and I want to see what the rules are so that I can determine whether or not I can run a few times just for the fun of it and not be told BGII can only be classed as an altered because it is a fenderless roadster. And we all know what the altered class requires in roll cage, etc. Nossir, ain't gonna drive all the way up there , get told I don't meet NHRA rules, and sit on the sidelines twiddling my thumbs while guys who like racing in brackets get out there trying to win without "breaking out" on their dial in.

 

Nothing's changed from the last two years, Dave... we have the Hot Rod Class that encompasses everything. If your car runs 10 seconds in the quarter, then you'd have to have any safety equipment just like any other race.
Running 12s and 13s? Put a seat belt in it. We aren't looking to send anyone home without making passes if they came to make passes.
AND, if you decide you don't want to race in the race, we've got fun-runs for the car show participants throughout the whole time.
You'll have to go through a cursory tech inspection to make sure you've got seat belts, you aren't using a milk crate for the seats or you won't fall through Mother Nature's Lace that some people call a floor.
The goal here is for as many people to have as much fun as they can.
For a lot of racers, that means a race program... with all those nasty rules, classes, indexes and (gasp!) purse money!
For those who don't care about any of that, we've got you covered too.

 

That has never been spelled out to that degree where I've seen it Brad. I can live with what you have outlined here. sounds like maybe I could come up and havew a little fun after all! Somehow in the past, this hasn't been put quite this plainly!
I really don't care about a race program except to run some with my brother Sock Fuckers!

 

I'm just glad we have another nostalgia event...

I'm solidly in the "don't care about purse money or trophies" camp so it was disheartening to hear a bunch of people complain about the 1/8 or 1/4 mile thing at the drivers meeting last year but I know you have to do what you have to do to make it worthwhile on your part brad.

I like the car show but make runs deal...I care more about seeing people I don't get to see all the time and watching my friends run then winning a class.

 

I like what you have set up brad. I'm also with Tyler. I've made some changes to my car and should be able to pass tech. I also got a helmet with a snell cert. they let me race without the snell but said to get one. I'll be fed and like the pro tree. Wider indexes are better I would think. Less complicated right?

Glad dirty ol man is going to give it a shot.

I would say that you need to tighten up on who gets to run what classes. Last time the tech folks with the cards is where you picked your class and they weren't judging the cars for the classes at all. Full on race cars ended up in the hot rod class and that really takes the spirit outa the street hot rods competing.

 

Will there be a crackle class
http://www.racingjunk.com/Nostalgia/182332211/Early-1960-s-fed-project-great-crackel-car-.html


Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

You can have that done by gear jam no problem!

 

Josh,
The first year there were definitely a couple issues with classification.
Specifically, a couple cars got put into the Gas class that shouldn't have. We pretty much handled that last year.
Our classes are: Gasser, FED/Altered, Muscle Car, and Hot Rod.
Muscle Car is 1961-1974. Gasser, FED/Alt are self-explanatory. Hot Rod covers up to '63/'64, so there's a little overlap there. Gassers can run in both Hot Rod and Gas class if they want; Cars that overlap into Muscle Car and Hot Rod can also run both classes if they want.

For the cars that don't fit the Gas, FED/Alt, or MC, we've got the Hot Rod class. It's designed that way specifically to give everyone a place to run, and a class to fit in--because I want guys to be able to participate, I don't want to send them home.

I know some guys don't care about the purse money, and just want to make passes. We'll have qualifying all day on Friday, doing nothing but making passes.
Saturday morning, there will be more qualifying. Then we'll start Eliminations... all cars entered in the program will be in the field, so everyone gets to make at least one competition pass. And if you took a nap through the tree and just totally muffed the first round, we'll have first-round buy-backs, so anyone who wants will get to make another round in competition.
After that, people start going on the trailer.
With the indexes, you'll see how fast your car was in qualifying, and there's your index. The lights are staggered and you just go... no dial-ins. It's really not different than when cars were factored by weight/cubic inches back in the day... if your car wasn't competitive in B/Gas, you added weight until you were competitive in C/Gas... or found more HP. With an index, instead of weight breaks, it's ET... tune your combo accordingly, so you're as close to a break-point as possible.

Everyone will get to make passes for the whole weekend, and everyone at least has a shot at going a couple rounds in Eliminations. For every guy here who said they just wanted to make passes and don't care about the purse money, I got calls and emails from guys who said they didn't like the heads-up format I ran in the past because they had zero shot of going rounds or getting purse money.

And between Qualifying rounds on Friday, and between Eliminations on Saturday, we'll have open, heads-up runs for the car show participants.

I'd LOVE to put on an event like The Meltdown Drags, where everyone just runs, no purse, etc. etc. The fact is, that works in the Great Lakes region very well, but we've all been to enough events down here in the south, that we know it doesn't work as well. I'm not the first guy to try and put on a nostalgia event down here with that format... the car counts just aren't there. Not at mine, not at others. Putting on this event takes a pile of scratch, and it's gotta get covered... and the only way to do that is a program that encourages as many race cars to show up as possible, which will bring in as many spectators as possible.

I could rent a smaller track, but they're out of the way, the prep isn't good, the pits are rough, and it just doesn't fit my long-term goal with The Gear Jam... I'm not interested in putting on a small show for the next decade; my goal is to build a big-ass event with three days of racing, an enormous swap meet, and a couple hundred cars in the show area. I want to build The Mopar Nationals of nostalgia events. The Atlanta Dragway is a 12-hour or less drive from every metropolitan city East of the Mississippi, except Minneapolis and Miami. Some guys will travel for purse money, some will travel just to make passes for two or three days. This year strikes that balance.

I'm in this for the long haul... just like with the NE Georgia Swap Meet.

-Brad

 

Not this year, but I plan on incorporating one into next year's event.

 

Brad, I think my question was are there 9 second cars allowed into the hot rod class?

 

You can't cross gasser and hot rod. It needs to be either or

 

Crackle

 

Or actually it's real simple.... Hot rods drove to the track and gassers arrive on trailers

 

if you trailer your car it ain't a hot rod


Further clarified - race cars usually have to be trailered. Race Cars that have to be trailered are elligible for other classes and shouldn't be in the hot rod class as well

Hot rod class should be reserved for street cars that don't fit in muscle car or gasser classes

 

When your hot rod needs slicks to be controllable, and you have a trailer, and an air impact back at the shop, IMO you're a dumb SOB if you drive it and wallow around in the dirt, mud, and grass with a fuckin' 4 way lug wrench changing tires at the track that you had to haul to the track somehow because you don't want to wear out your soft slicks driving 100+ miles to the track.
Seems to me I saw pix of the Can O' Worms at a strip somewhere on a trailer and your comments that you didn't want to wear out your slicks getting to the track driving it.
There should be a divide between gassers and hot rods, I agree, but a trailer has nothing to do with it.
Hopefully BGII and I will be there, but she will be on a trailer when I arrive. Just makes good sense if you have the trailer and a truck to pull it.

 

I've put slicks on at the track and trailered the car to the track with the slicks on when there was no class consideration out of laziness. I have also driven the car 6 hours plus and raced it and driven it home in the rain 6 hours

 

I should have said youre a pussy if you sign up for hot rod class with a drag car that won't make a 30 minute road trip

 

Yeah?
How about a back-halved '58 Ford that sits low to the ground up front, with a big block and full cage? Or a certain flat-black mid-'40s Hudson that's back-halved and a full-time drag car? Where do you want me to put those guys? They aren't gassers, Front Engine Dragsers, Altereds or Muscle Cars.
I'm certainly not going to tell them they can't run at my drag race because they trailered their racecar to... a drag race.

 

Of course. Why wouldn't they be?
If it fits the class rules, it runs in that class.
Those rules being things like no round blowers or turbos, no nitrous, etc. etc.

Why? If someone with a nose-high '55 Chevy wants to try racing in two classes, why would I stop him? Do you really think it would detract from the event to see someone with a 2-Lane Blacktop clone running in the Gas Class next to a '40 Willys, and then 30 minutes later paired up next to the Can-o-Worms '32 Ford in the Hot Rod Class? I guess I just don't see what the problem is there.
Same with the hot rod and the muscle car class... a '61 Impala or Catalina or Starliner fits in the muscle car crowd, and it fits in the hot rod crowd. If those guys want to compete in two classes, why would I tell them no?

 

Why even have classes? Previously when it was heads up a super fast drag car with a big inch motor won his class then hot rod too. Maybe even a third class as well, I can't remember. It just made it pointless to even enter.

If you have a hot rod that's all you've got. Hot rods can't enter FED, muscle car or gassed classes. But all those can enter hot Rod. Are FEDs eligible for hot rod too? Why not?

Since its all bracket based now the slower cars will have a chance.

 

Maybe you need a general drag car class. Would the muscle guys like it if you just lumped these guys in with them because they really aren't hot rods?

 

Nostalgia Drag and Gasser Class

Why do the gassers get their own class when they are mostly full on drag cars?

 

What about a stick car class? The 41 Willys ProMod car would not be able to sweep that one. I can count 8 local stick cars that are nostalgia cars off the top of my head.

 

"IMOyou're a dumb SOB if you drive it and wallow around in the dirt, mud, andgrass with a fuckin' 4 way lug wrenchchanging tires at the track"

Love this.