ROMCO rules changes for 2004?

[hray]

Read Nick's reply under the thread "Tire Rule". Maybe ROMCO could come out better with a tire rule. Go figure! Sounds almost like 'trickle down economics'.

[gasman]

That would lower the quality of the racing for sure. Noone ever said that racing a SLM was cheap or affordable. The crate motor thing is already taking place in Houston. If you cant afford 4 tires for a race, you dont have to race. But dont ruin it for the whole series because someone cant afford $500 for new tires.

[supertx]

Well said gasman. I keep hearing about SLM cost my question is do you want to run a SLM or do you want to run something else and call it a SLM?

[NickHolt]

gasman,

 

While I certainly do advocate a tire rule for weekly local classes, I agree that it would not be appropriate for the ROMCO SLM series. Money is the name of the game in Super Late Model racing and that concept is widely accepted. If you can't afford it, don't do it.

 

That being said, I would applaud every attempt that ROMCO makes to adopt rules that would allow teams with less money to run competitively in the series. The best teams (with or without a wad of cash) will prevail in the end anyway. Why not adopt a set of rules that would leave the present specs alone, but that would make allowances (weight breaks? Carb?) for teams with less cubic horsebucks in their engines.

 

The key here would be to keep the cars that are just too slow out of the feature. ROMCO could limit the number of cars that start the feature either based on the number of cars (like limit the field to 18 cars at THR or 22 cars at SAS, etc.) or by lap times that are consistently off the pace, or both. I know that with the transponders every lap time could be recorded and anyone not clicking off decent lap times in practice or in qualifying would not be able to start the feature.

 

Just my two cents..

 

Nick Holt

[jp17]

What goofy logic. Should they subsidize half million dollar houses `cause I want one but can’t afford it? While you’re at it I’ll take a new BMW and an Ivey League education for my son. Racing, like life has those that can afford the best and those that can’t. Romco’s key to success is talented drivers in exotic equipment making ultra fast laps. If you take out “super” you get late model and there are already plenty of venues for those cars. Why penalize the guys that can afford the ultra-cool stuff to accommodate guys like me? I’m plenty happy and having a blast where I am. JP

[NickHolt]

JP,

 

The logic may be goofy, but the reality is that very few SLM organizations have been able to sustain the very top level you are talking about. SAS maintained a class like that for a while, but eventually it dwindled to just a dozen, or so, cars. The same scenario was repeated at short tracks all over the country at about the same time. That's when the TIDA LM class was formed. And while Neil was able to sustain the division for several years, the division never really took off like All-Pro or ASA. And when Neil finally threw in the towel, ROMCO took over and has been doing a fine job with the series. But taking a look a the final point standings, it's pretty clear that there were a core of a dozen really fast cars and the rest were, well, the rest. How long can ROMCO sustain? Forever I hope.

 

But talk of how to bring less expensive cars into ROMCO that would be just as fast and just as good looking as the existing ROMCO cars is seems like a good idea to me. Talk is cheap and throwing around a few ideas on a forum like this doesn't seem so goofy when you look at the big picture...

 

Nick Holt

[gasman]

Nick,

SO what you do is displace the guys that have figured it out under the current set of rules with lighter cars and less horsepower. If that was the answer, why didnt you and Neil try that when it was TIDA instead of throwing in the towel. I think sustaining the rules year end and year out builds stability in the series. If you change the rules over and over, noone wants to build a car for the series because by the time they are finished with it, it may not be competitive. If some people want to run a SLM, maybe they should get a second job instead of utilizing their time crying about rules, costs and car count.

[Jason]

So gasman, nothing should be done about dwindling car counts?

[gasman]

Dwindling car count?

[rona]

There were plenty of cars at all of the ROMCO races I attended this year. I only missed one. I spend my hard earned money to see races that consist of professionals that have followed the rules and want to race. Seems like some people want to race in ROMCO but can't afford it. I seem to recall a post with a comment about not asking NASCAR or BUSCH to change their rules so ROMCO cars can compete. You need to stay in the series you can afford or find sponsors to support you. Of course, I do not own a car, drive a car, or sponsor a car. I am just a fan who enjoys ROMCO as well as my local LM series. I also understand the difference between the two series.

 

RONA

[NickHolt]

gasman ...

If that was the answer, why didnt you and Neil try that when it was TIDA instead of throwing in the towel.

 

I was not employed by Mr. Upchurch at that time and had nothing whatsoever to do with his decision to end the TIDA LM division, but as I recall he sent a very detailed letter to all TIDA LM members explaining exactly why he was ending the series.

 

And I'm not sure that allowing different wieght/power ratios into ROMCO would "displace the guys that have figured it out." It might, however, force some of the exisiting ROMCO teams that have NOT figured it out, actually figure it out. But, as I said, it can hurt to at least look at some of the possibilities.

 

Nick Holt

[Jason]

I guess none of you went to the CC ROMCO races this year.

 

Official Results:

 

FP CAR # DRIVER_NAME HOMETOWN ST LAPS GLL FRL SP QT PAYOFF POINTS

1 3 John Heil Floresville TX 125 103 13.915 1 13.739 $3,600 90

2 8 Brandon Bendele Adkins TX 125 2 14.020 3 13.575 $2,000 87

3 22 Tommy Grimes San Antonio TX 125 0 13.929 6 13.772 $1,600 84

4 79 John Meyer Floresville TX 125 0 14.164 9 13.908 $1,400 81

5 71 Christopher Davidson Pearland TX 125 0 13.963 8 13.852 $1,200 78

6 13 T Wade Welch Houston TX 125 0 14.023 4 13.510 $1,000 80

7 0 Tuffy Hudson Portland TX 125 0 14.220 12 14.174 $800 72

8 41 Eddie Butt Corpus Christi TX 124 0 14.462 13 14.436 $750 69

9 33 Robert Richardson Mc Kinney TX 119 0 14.256 11 14.092 $700 66

10 11 Tom Grothues San Antonio TX 110 0 14.060 5 13.771 $600 63

11 28 Michael Denman Corpus Christi TX 104 0 14.678 14 14.473 $600 60

12 98 Martin Lyall Channelview TX 55 0 14.862 15 14.485 $500 57

13 115 Joey Heinaman Corpus Christi TX 35 0 14.333 10 14.062 $450 54

14 25 Eric Covington Glenpool OK 1 0 39.719 7 13.842 $400 51

15 96 Greg Davidson Pearland TX 0 0 NA 2 13.645 $375 48

 

Take a look! 14 cars started as Greg broke on pace laps. 13 cars made it past 1 lap! Wow 13 cars running sure makes for a good car count. You can make statements but if you don't have facts to prove it then they are worthless.

[gasman]

Jason,

That was CC speedway. Enough said. Go look at the rest of the tracks turnouts. They needed to eliminate a few cars. 16 is Plenty at CC. And you want to talk about worthless, that is the neighborhood the race track is in down there. I am scared to go much less take a nice car and family there. By the way, I cant argue with you anymore, I have to get back to work now so I can buy some more tires.

[rona]

One race out of the whole season with 13 cars hardly constitutes a low car count classifcation for the entire season. Not trying to start a war, just stating my opinion. If you read my post, I attended all but one. That was the Texas Motor Speedway race. I was at all of the others.

 

Rona

[Jason]

There were plenty of cars at all of the ROMCO races I attended this year.

.......

 

Gasman, The surroundings of the track are nothing but industrial buildings. Yeah the neighborhoods around there are bad but why do you go through them to begin with? Some of you guys got more excuses than the Bodine brothers combined.

[gasman]

Yea, but no excuses are bigger than the money excuse you guys are using.

[Jason]

Shouldn't you be working?

lol

 

Gasman, what is wrong with trying to save some teams money so they can race more and get a little nicer equipment? I am just curious. What team are you with? Not really an excuse. Hell its not even critical thinking. Economics. You keep them super latemodels but find ways to cut cost and wouldnt there be more people racing with better equipment? Thus a better show. Which equals more fans. Which equals more sponsors. Which equals more $$$ for ROMCO and the teams. What a concept.

[lloyd#5]

hey i got an idea. why dont we just get rid of all the existing rules for romco and all the romco slms and replace them with a combination of san antonio charger rules and thunderhill charger rules and then call them the romco super late model series since they have the most cars and thats all everybody seems to be worried about.................lol

 

if you cant afford to run the series than run a series you can run!!!!!!!!!

[TheLegend96]

I don't foresee rule changes making the ROMCO car count improve by leaps and bounds. What I do see is a bigger purse making a diffrence. For example, the CC race several racers had prior commitments that they couldn't break, and a few went elsewhere to race. There is more than enough ROMCO cars out there to fill the car count, but the problem is, it just isn't alluring enough for them to "pay to win" also known as "pay to race". This is not a stab against Terry or Robert, as we all know just how hard it is to secure a car sponsor, much less a series sponsor.

 

If you change the rules to whatever you, me or anyone else thinks, the outcome won't vary too much from what you see now. The team that spends hundreds of thousands of dollars will still spend hundreds of thousands of dollars with different rules. They guy like Bandit that is just spending "the minimum" and getting by with that many wins is still going to spend what his budget allows. Key phrase, "What your budget allows." Just because you have the money to race an upper class series like ROMCO doesn't mean you should, and it doesn't mean you shouldn't. As far as the drivers that don't personally have the money in thier pocket to run ROMCO, pay your dues. If you think you are good enough to run ROMCO then show it on the track in your series and try to get the word out that you want to run ROMCO. There are plenty of cars just sitting out there with out a driver. You could rent (sometimes borrow) a car from some car owners and find out how you compare, prove yourself, and find out if you still have some learning to do (not that some ROMCO drivers don't). Maybe if you do well there's someone out there that just needed to see that you wanted to make the extra effort to enter a race and notice that you aren't along for the ride with them paying the tab.

 

If a race that pays $10,000 to win falls on the same date as a ROMCO race that pays $3,600 to win, where would you go when you can be competitive in either race. The $10,000 right??? Bottom line ROMCO has carried all of the burden of this series so far and done very well I might add, but if there was an additional series sponsor we would have other series talking about thier dwindling car count and changing rules. You would see ROMCO pulling in alot of cars that would never run down here otherwise. If you change the rules to accept current engines and add another configuration, it will only seperate the ROMCO series further from other series. This would only further isolate us from other series. First we are isolated because of our location. There is no racing in any state that borders Texas that can compare to the ROMCO series. That means that we have to work twice as hard to pull in racers to run in Texas.

 

If you're a driver running in another series and you have to decide on whether to run in a ROMCO race for X amount of dollars and running in another series for the same amount, wouldn't you run in the series where you can win, not worry about being legal, and it has a good purse.

 

To sum it all up ROMCO has the people and the tools we just need to add a sponsor or two. By the way it doesn't hurt to open your mouth and try and help ROMCO get a sponsor. If you make a contact, get with Terry on here at Texas Speed Zone through a PM and let him carry out the deal from there.

[NickHolt]

lloyd#5

hey i got an idea. why dont we just get rid of all the existing rules for romco and all the romco slms and replace them with a combination of san antonio charger rules and thunderhill charger rules and then call them the romco super late model series since they have the most cars and thats all everybody seems to be worried about.................lol

 

Now there's an ... er.. ah.. um...... I almost said "idea." LOL

 

Nick Holt

[lloyd#5]

Now let's see if i can put it in a way that you might like even though you still got my point the first time.

what is and will always be a problem associated with racing? MONEY!

super late models are the PREMIER division of short track racing and not everyone will be allowed to race it because of money issues it's just a fact of life. Just like jp said i'd like to run nascar but just because i want to doesnt mean i will be able to and why is that? MONEY!So what everyone needs to understand is run the division of cars you can afford to run and be competitive, do good and you might be able to pick up a sponsor to elevate you to super late model racing. but dont expect for them to change the whole series because YOU can not afford to run it right now!

[ProTree]

Like they say-If You Can't Run With The BigDogs-Stay on the Porch

[6BeesRaceFan]

Jason,

You keep bringing up dwindling car count, if you go to the ROMCO web sight and check the car counts for each track, you will see that CC Speedway is the only track with what you call low car counts! Let's see April 19, 2003 22 cars, July 19, 2003 18 cars, August 30, 2003 (Labor Day Weekend) 15 cars, this seems to be a CC speedway problem not a ROMCO problem.

 

Are you a driver? Do you own or sponser a car? If the answer to these questions is No, than why do you suggest changing rules in a racing class that you are just a spectator in? If you like bigger car counts go see a different class race.

 

I enjoy watching all the different classes of racing, each with thier own rules, and find each one unique in it's own way. ROMCO is a premier class and should continue to distinguish it's self from the other classes. Like Tommy42 said "If You Can't Run With The Big Dogs.......Stay On The Porch"!!!!!

[Sarge]

Are you a driver? Do you own or sponser a car? If the answer to these questions is No, than why do you suggest changing rules in a racing class that you are just a spectator in?

 

Not to put words in Jason's mouth, but.....

 

If you don't care what the spectators think then you are doomed. Or else your only racing in front of your family and friends, cause the people who would come and pay their hard earned money to see your show will instead stay home.

 

Racing is entertainment. PERIOD. If no one wants to come watch it, it ain't going to survive.

 

So, the most important people involved in this, or any other series, is the spectators. Who are the sponsors marketing to? If there ain't no one in the stands, do you think you are going to attrack sponsors?

 

My $20 a ticket is the most important exchange of money in this whole deal, cause if you don't get mine, you won't get the big sponors. Empty seats don't spend much money on the sponors products.

 

Bill "Sarge" Masom

[6BeesRaceFan]

ROMCO draws the spectators, so they must be doing something right!