TGIF?

I originally wrote this Sep 29, 2011 and it appeared in the December issue of Flat Out. This came from a converstaion I had with a fan during the week of the nationals, and some notes I handed to John McCoy in August. Sounds like he liked my ideas....

Friday night of the Knoxville Nationals has seen a few format changes over the years. Since the race became a four day show in 1975, the Friday show has always been a event for the “non-qualifiers” who were 51st in qualifying points or worse. The idea was to give the slower cars a chance to compete for a little more money, build the car count, and it gave teams a chance to improve their starting position (somewhat) for the Saturday finale. The winner of the Friday Non-Qualifier A-Main has always been award the eleventh starting position in the Saturday C-Main.

But the fans were not happy to pay to see the slower cars only, so tobring more of the bigger names to compete the idea of the Mystery Feature was born in 1979, and then the Race of States was added in 1981. But when some teams refused to race in the special event races in fear of tearing up a car the night before the high paying race the Mystery and States races were tossed aside and the invention of the “Scrambles” was given to us in 1993. The Scrambles was for the top 10 in points of the A, B, and C Mains and gave those cars a chance to “scramble” or improve their starting position on Saturday night by awarding more points and forcing the bigger names to race on Friday. In 1996 the World Challenge was added. This past year promoter Ralph Capatani changed it up again doing away the Scrambles in favor of a Race of Champions. The Champions race was for past Nationals winners, past Knoxville track champions, and champions of other series’ and events across the country over the past year. This was a good event, but with it being a “reverse draw” where you had to give your number to another driver it worked out to be a fun race to watch, but to think those same drivers would be willing to do this again is absurd.

So many race fans complain that the Friday ticket is expensive for only five races on the night and it really has no effect of the outcome on Saturday night and is meaningless. It’s a sham, and a way for Knoxville to force you to see a race that no one cares about. Those are all comments I hear nearly every year throughout the week of the Nationals. And let’s face it, the car count at the Nationals isn’t going to grow, so we don’t even have that many cars to put in to a Non-Qualifiers show. So what does Knoxville do with the Friday show at this point? I have some ideas.

One easy solution is to divide the field up on three nights instead of two. 30-35 cars each night wouldn’t water the field down that much. And you run four heats instead of five each night, we would still see good racing.

A more complicated idea is to lock in a lower number than 50 cars from Wednesday-Thursday in to Saturday. Make Friday night mean something and still reward those who do well on their qualifying night. My idea is to only lock in the top 16 in points for Saturday and reward them with taking Friday night off. Everyone else, roughly 80 cars, come back Friday to re-qualify or maybe race for a new night of points and keeping the best of your two totals. Or you could run a split show. Carry over their qualifying times and sort them into a odd and even program of 4 odd heats, 4 even heats, 2 B-Mains, and 2 A-Mains with the top two in each A-Main transferring to the Saturday A-Main in positions 17-20. This would make good racing as everyone is trying to claw their way into the “big dance” on Saturday night, the carrot is dangling for all who come. And the cars finishing 3rd and on back in the Friday A-Main can determine the B, C, D, E on Saturday by finishing order, or points.

And while we’re at it, let’s make the Saturday C-Main 18 or 20 laps instead of 15 to give some drivers a chance to run the alphabet. The days of Doug Wolfgang passing 20 cars in 15 laps in the C-Main are over.

I personally like the 50 laps for the Saturday championship. I think it would be more interesting if you couldn’t change tires though. Let’s run harder tires that last longer and don’t allow as much horsepower to be transferred to the ground and put more emphasis on the skill of the driver.