Hobby Stock Traveling Series

[Truck99]

I know way james car handling better the tech man has not fond it yet.

 

Huh?

[Del Harris]

i think we have gotten off the subject guy's, we were talking about getting the rules from three tracks together and try to come up with something compatible so we could travel if we wanted, not who got what on their cars.

[8_Hobby]

way it wont happen lol

[Lucky161]

way it wont happen lol

 

I try not to be the grammar and spelling police, but what in the world are you trying to say? Way what? You know "way"? What does that mean?

[HiTech]

HECK IM BAD AND I CANT FIGURE THAT OUT EITHER ...

[firemdk]

I think we need to get a group of people together from each class. RR / Hobby Stock and HMP Stock and look at the rules ourselves. Look at the changes we can make and then present a rules package to the tracks. If that doesn't work then we need to form a series where the people who want to participate put money in the pot for each race. We talk to the tracks about scheduling dates and we run it like tsrs where we come to each track and promote our class with our rules.

 

I don't think this would be that difficult to do.

 

Ricky,

Use word and the spell checker before you post. It will help alot.

[Lucky161]

HECK IM BAD AND I CANT FIGURE THAT OUT EITHER ...

 

When you do it on purpose, it's still understandable.

 

I think we need to get a group of people together from each class. RR / Hobby Stock and HMP Stock and look at the rules ourselves. Look at the changes we can make and then present a rules package to the tracks. If that doesn't work then we need to form a series where the people who want to participate put money in the pot for each race. We talk to the tracks about scheduling dates and we run it like tsrs where we come to each track and promote our class with our rules.

 

I don't think this would be that difficult to do.

 

Ricky,

Use word and the spell checker before you post. It will help alot.

 

I agree that this should not be that hard to work out. I still see the towing expense problem that Arthur mentioned, but maybe a tow money sponsor/sponsors could be found.

[Del Harris]

i talk to jack at hmp saturday evening about this and he said that our rules is not that far off already, he loves the idea, but i think it should be the tech officals from each track maybe with a couple from each group or class, let them sweep thru each tracks rules and have a happy medium. i don't think that we need a traveling series because that pulles cars from their home track and that would hurt the track. this should be just a convience to the drivers that would like to race more during the season and it would help the tracks with more car count. i hate to see such a good class that is affordable in most cases, be abandonded because there was not enough cars in the class. to keep a class like this, it takes promoting on our part as much as the tracks. it's as simple as this, if you can not afford to travel to another track, stay at your home track and support it, it may not be an option if you don't!!!

[Budman]

Yet another traveling series is NOT what is needed. Common rules are what is needed. As I've said on here before it will only happen when the tracks commit themselves to this and work toward a common set of rules, in small increments over several years. If they do it all at once, nobody's car will be able to comply without the drivers having to spend a bunch of money to make the changes. That would be counter productive to all and should be avoided.

[firemdk]

As it stands now we have racers like Huff and Ty that race at both tracks. Huff competes in the hobby stock class and ty in the RR class and both compete in the HMP Stock class in houston. Like Jack mentioned the rules are very similar and could be adapted very easily. I think what we could look at is weight restrictions based on engines and other factors like they do in other classes. This could easily be done but there should be some extra benefit for the people that want to make the trip to both tracks.

[Truck99]

As it stands now we have racers like Huff and Ty that race at both tracks. Huff competes in the hobby stock class and ty in the RR class and both compete in the HMP Stock class in houston. Like Jack mentioned the rules are very similar and could be adapted very easily. I think what we could look at is weight restrictions based on engines and other factors like they do in other classes. This could easily be done but there should be some extra benefit for the people that want to make the trip to both tracks.

 

I think it's a stretch to say that they "race at both tracks" or that Huff "competes in the hobby stock class."

 

He and Ty raced once at THR as a trial run. What most of us saw was that Huff's car was a rocket down the straight away compared to the hobby cars. I don't think THR would allow him to race in that class on a regular basis "as is", but I can't speak for the track. The HMP stock cars should really look at the prospect of running with the super stocks at some point. They would be more evenly matched, IMO.

[fast18]

I agree with Chase..........I posted this on another thread.

 

THR can't just change the rules in mid season. SAS closing came without warning. After the season is over there will be rule adjustments to help the classes merge. Only problem I see is the Houston cars are closer to the THR Supers. Would you like to change your car so you are more evenly matched with the Thunder Stocks or the Supers ? If I were in your shoes I would want to go faster...not take steps back to be evenly matched with the Thunder Stocks. I would be lobbying HMP to change the rules to match up against the THR Super Stock class. I haven't read HMP rules for their hobbies but am only going by last years race.

 

(By last years race I mean the one where THR SS's race with the HMP Hobby Stocks)

[Budman]

TXSZ member "COMMON SENSE RACING" posted a set of common rules on this very forum more than a year ago. TXSZ member "PAPA" also posted some work he did on this subject, I believe. If they were to prove not to be workable, at least it seems to me they might well be a good place to start.

[NickHolt]

A couple of years ago, TTOPA developed a set of common rules which were completed but not adopted. Officials from SAS, CCMS and THR met several times to hammer the compromises out.

 

However, major changes in track ownership/promoters/operators at all three tracks sidetracked this worthy project.

 

Perhaps TTOPA could dust off those rules and call a "meeting of the minds."

 

Nick

[Del Harris]

the thr street stocks came to hmp last year and ran with us, they beat our socks off, its hard for us to compete with them because they can run camaro's and nova's, their cars can run a lot more than we can motor and chassis, i think if we look at our times around the track and see where every one is at, you will find we are not that far off. like budman said, it may be just weight and a couple of other things that need adjustment, we are real close, if some of you guy's would come to hmp and run with us, you may just find out how close we really are. you can get on mylaps.com and see our times. we would love to have ya'll come out and jack is our tech man also. with one tech man at two tracks, it can't be that hard to figure out and have more car count. the more car count, the better the payout, or it should be!!!

[speed demon 7]

The problem with common rules is that HMP is a crate motor track and THR is not. HMP wants to see all the cars running crate motors and I agree with the crate concept. HMP Stock Cars(Hobby) run the 602, 350 HP crate motors while the THR Super Stocks are 400+ HP motors which would be equivelant to the 604, 400 HP crate motor which is what is run in the Super Stocks at Pensecola. Even then, the THR Supers are more car than the Pensacola Supers because of suspension. There is no way that the HMP cars will ever be able to compete with the THR Supers with this motor combination even with weight penalties. The point of Huff and Ty going over to THR was to see how much different we were from the Hobby's. Although we are a little faster, we are closer together than we are to the Supers. There will have to be some major compromises to make the Hobby's work together, but it cannot be in motors on our side since 70% of our guys have bought crate motors. I agree with common rules to an extent, like I have stated before, but you also have to look at the racing demographics, what is already out here locally, and we have a lot of dirt cars sitting that have come out to play with us because we are close to the dirt Hobby class.

 

Legal Notice

 

*The opinion of this racer does not reflect the opinions of any racer that has any sense whatsover. The opinions are solely of the racer and gives no gurantee that he even knows what he is talking about. If any offense has been taken, feel free to kick his butt!

[Truck99]

HMP Stock Cars(Hobby) run the 602, 350 HP crate motors while the THR Super Stocks are 400+ HP motors which would be equivelant to the 604, 400 HP crate motor which is what is run in the Super Stocks at Pensecola.

 

Arthur, you've made some good points, but I can't agree with this comparison. A THR super stock motor is a far cry from the 604 crate. I know of several THR super stock motors that have been on the dyno, and I've never heard of one coming close to 400hp. In fact, we'd be lucky to see 350 hp with the carburetor we are running.

 

Whatever works out in the end, I hope that THR and HMP can ultimately come up with a set of rules that would allow cars from both tracks to run at either place, no matter what the class.

 

I just hope that the solution does not become requiring the THR cars to run crate motors. I say that because, as I've said on here before, we spend less than the cost of a 602 on our motors, especially considering the fact that a THR motor can be freshened at the end of the season.

[Lucky161]

*The opinion of this racer does not reflect the opinions of any racer that has any sense whatsover. The opinions are solely of the racer and gives no gurantee that he even knows what he is talking about. If any offense has been taken, feel free to kick his butt!

any racer who has any sense? name one.

[firemdk]

I don't think we're talking about the HMP stocks running with the THR Super Stocks but the Hobby Stocks and Road Runners which I think they call the Thunder Stock class now. I agree with Arthur that there would be a financial burden on travel but if we could figure out a way to gain some sponsorship for the classes this would increase the payout and increase the ability for people to travel. Also, each track would have to increase the amount of racing that is done in the class as I don't think anyone would want to drive all the way to Houston to run 1 (40) lap main event and that's it. I think we would have to throw in some qualifying, trophy dashes, heat races and such.

[Truck99]

I don't think we're talking about the HMP stocks running with the THR Super Stocks but the Hobby Stocks and Road Runners which I think they call the Thunder Stock class now. I agree with Arthur that there would be a financial burden on travel but if we could figure out a way to gain some sponsorship for the classes this would increase the payout and increase the ability for people to travel. Also, each track would have to increase the amount of racing that is done in the class as I don't think anyone would want to drive all the way to Houston to run 1 (40) lap main event and that's it. I think we would have to throw in some qualifying, trophy dashes, heat races and such.

 

You're correct, and I apologize for sort-of crashing this thread with the suggestion that the SS would be a better match. I can just assure you that most racers at THR in both the Thunder Stock class and Super Stock class feel that the better combo would be the HMP Hobby cars and the THR SS cars. You guys can move your motors back, run spring spacers, move the firewall, hull out the floor, you can run tubular upper a-arms, rear disc brakes, and weigh 3200 lbs. In those areas except for the hulling, your cars are allowed more than even the THR SS cars. The engine rules and the camaros are the major differences, of course.

 

The goodyear tires are a tick slower then the hoosiers. When we ran there last year, most of our cars were running 16.60s. You guys run those times almost every week now. If you put the better tire on your cars, you might be surprised what times you'd run.

 

Just my .02

 

This is a good discussion.

[speed demon 7]

I know that a 488 Lift cam and closed chamber heads will give you close to 400 HP. My 450 lift cam motor with open chamber heads would probably pulls 365 HP. Even then, that 365 HP doesn't have the torque the crate motor has. I think that a good idea would be to have THR adopt theate HMP rules for Hobby, and HMP create a Street Stock(Super Stock) class. Since our car count is low, we could run together until both classes build a car count. But then again, we don't need 9 classes of cars at HMP.

[stillspinning]

I don't think we're talking about the HMP stocks running with the THR Super Stocks but the Hobby Stocks and Road Runners which I think they call the Thunder Stock class now. I agree with Arthur that there would be a financial burden on travel but if we could figure out a way to gain some sponsorship for the classes this would increase the payout and increase the ability for people to travel. Also, each track would have to increase the amount of racing that is done in the class as I don't think anyone would want to drive all the way to Houston to run 1 (40) lap main event and that's it. I think we would have to throw in some qualifying, trophy dashes, heat races and such.

 

Brent I agree with you 100% I really enjoyed how THR had us run a heat and main. They limit the amount of laps by the number of cars, and the show always keeps moving with constant action. Instead of just a 40 lap main how bout a 4 lap trophy dash, 8 lap heat and a 25 lap main gives fans and driver more oppurtunity for sucess and action. My car ran well with the RR class and huff ran well with the Hobby class. It wouldnt take much to even up the rules so drivers have the option of running either track. I dont believe a traveling class would be cost effective, but having the option to hit the other track on an off weekend would be great for drivers and track owners.

[firemdk]

It would be nice to get some cars out to HMP and to THR on a non race night to run some practice times with their classes rules. Run some individual laps for "qualifying" times then run some dashes against each other to see how the cars stack up against eachother. Maybe have Jack out there to see what he thinks is the best. This would give a starting point with actual numbers. As far as tires, maybe the tracks could come together and have either 1 tire for both tracks or allow both tires. I prefer the hoosier to the goodyear but that's just because we've alway run the hoosiers. I'd be curious to hear if Graham or Mary Ann are aware of this conversation and to hear their thoughts?

[CommonSenseRacing]

TXSZ member "COMMON SENSE RACING" posted a set of common rules on this very forum more than a year ago. TXSZ member "PAPA" also posted some work he did on this subject, I believe. If they were to prove not to be workable, at least it seems to me they might well be a good place to start.

 

 

Thanks BUDMAN,

 

With SAS closing and THR doing their best to accommodate the displaced racers, patience and support is what the owners need from the racing community.

 

I believe that there are other issues that need to be addressed before a traveling hobby stock series would be considered.

 

JMO

 

The whole chicken and egg theory.

[Budman]

Again I see racers on here speaking in absolutes like ........... "We can NOT do this" or "They MUST do that".

No progress toward compromise will ever be made if that's the case and no common rules will ever evolve.

 

One thing I know. Car counts have been chronically low at all the tracks for quite some time. Let me remind you what the alternative could well be in the near future (as I recently posted on another thread.)