2009 Nationals Site

[Steve Ekstrand]

Blytheville????

David Avard just mentioned Blytheville.... Open google... NO!!!!

Its on the EAST Arkansas border. Haven't we learned out lesson yet about holding events in Arkansas???

[Steve Ekstrand]

A town of 18,000 people. We'll be having the nationals banquet in the junior high cafeteria.

I hope we can get some golf cart rentals. Because sitting outside your tent watching Tommy Saunders crash golf carts will be the only real social scene at nationals.

Think of all the poor Kansas strippers who will starve.

[Randy Chase]

Hell, I will combine it with a Tail of the Dragon trip then, it is only 400 more miles east.

Blytheville from San Diego is 1862 miles. That is not a trivial distance.

Looks like a lot of concrete?

[Steve Ekstrand]

Wonderful....

Get to drive on concrete once a year at our biggest event. Yeah.... Test on any surface all the time Andy gets another big leg up on STS...

[Aaron Goldsmith]

Wonderful....

Get to drive on concrete once a year at our biggest event. Yeah.... Test on any surface all the time Andy gets another big leg up on STS...

Guess wendover would get more than 123 entries next year.

[Aaron Goldsmith]

Huh, would Memphis really be the closest major airport?

[Steve Ekstrand]

Memphis is closest real airport I found.

[Randy Chase]

Think of all the poor Kansas strippers who will starve.

I almost hate to go there.. but some of them could use some starving.

[Jeff Shyu]

wow.. google map zoomed out a few clicks indicates this to be a kicking town.. >_<

i thought bentonville was bad enough, but at least there's all sorts of Walmart * paraphernalia to get/take pictures of.

[KJ Christopher]

Blytheville????

David Avard just mentioned Blytheville.... Open google... NO!!!!

Its on the EAST Arkansas border. Haven't we learned out lesson yet about holding events in Arkansas???

Pretty convenient for me as my parents live in Jonesboro, not too far away. That said, I wouldn't want to see it there.

[KJ Christopher]

Huh, would Memphis really be the closest major airport?

Yep. It's not too far from Memphis. At least, not what the locals would consider far.

[Sebastian Rios]

I'll still go. I like to try new venues.

The new Atwater site is concrete, it is small though. Maybe we could get that big concrete pad at Norton again?

[Jayson Woodruff]

I'll still go. I like to try new venues.

The new Atwater site is concrete, it is small though. Maybe we could get that big concrete pad at Norton again?

El Toro concrete migh come back.

BTW, Walnut Ridge was a blast of a small town Tour.

Jay W

[Mako Koiwai]

Anyone ever figure out how many miles everyone has to drive over a three year period if Nationals was rotated between East, Central and West coast venues? As it is now, the Central drivers always get a good deal.

[Curt Luther]

Anyone ever figure out how many miles everyone has to drive if Nationals was rotated between East, Central and West coast venues? As it is now, the Central drivers always get a good deal.

But then you gotta live in one of those god forsaken states...

[Jeff Shyu]

it would be interesting if the location was determined based upon weighed average of previous year's champions.

ie, bring up a map, start from the center of the US, and pull the dot closer to each of the champion dots.

you get 90% of the champs from Southwest, and suddenly the nationals is in AZ!..

[Marshall Grice]

it would be interesting if the location was determined based upon weighed average of previous year's champions.

ie, bring up a map, start from the center of the US, and pull the dot closer to each of the champion dots.

you get 90% of the champs from Southwest, and suddenly the nationals is in AZ!..

that wouldn't work at all. if nationals were held on the east coast there would be more east coast people that would enter thus improving their chances of winning a championship. same if it were on the west coast.

[Jayson Woodruff]

it would be interesting if the location was determined based upon weighed average of previous year's champions.

That'd be like trying to balance a ball bearing on a globe. It'd fall off the left or right coast quickly.

There's an advantage to living in the center of the country and that's why so many companies move there. That's the only real explaination why anyone would want to live in Chicago.

Jay W

[Thomas Barrett]

I don't know about that Jayson, they have the most and the best blues bars in the world in Chicago, that alone was enough for me.

They have the largest free blues festival in the World in Grant Park each summer paid for by the city.

If you stay drunk in the blues bars, winter goes by fast

[Chuck Fowler]

...If you stay drunk in the blues bars, winter goes by fast

all 9 months of it?

[Bill Martin]

If the democrats, greenies, speculators, petro-megacompanies, and oil-monarchies all get their way...and I'd bet they will, gas will never really come back down and will eventually soar to new heights. Some in power welcome this as leverage for needed change to a renewable global energy baseline. It's a point of view I won't debate here.

But if $6 to $8 dollar gas becomes a reality, will there still be a Solo Nationals? Towing out would cost me $2400 to $3200 in fuel alone. Stockers who drive their cars out would still pay nearly half that. When you do the math, aren't an awful lot of people going to pass?

So maybe a better question than where in '09 is WHAT in '09 and beyond. Anyone know in detail how Canada does their distributed solo national championship? -- Bill

[Randy Chase]

I was thinking along the same lines Bill.

At some point (and I bet we will see some of the impact this year with reduced entry numbers), it just will not make sense for a grassroots budget sport, to have one single National championship that requires thousands of dollars to pay for fuel to attend. At that point, some other method makes more sense. Either a coastal championship and have a Western US Champion and an Eastern US Champion.... or alternate locations year to year.

[Jayson Woodruff]

Well more than just putting $$ in the gas tank is the effect high gas puts on the economy. I can afford to put $20/gallon gas in my car and pretty much go anywhere, I just can't afford to pay 3, 4 or 5x as much for all my consumables while watching my 401k drop like a rock.

Part of Guy's push on the California Div series is good timing with people not wanting to travel to national for SLIGHTLY more competition than we get in our state.

Jay W

[Jason Isley BS RX8]

Part of Guy's push on the California Div series is good timing with people not wanting to travel to national for SLIGHTLY more competition than we get in our state.

Jay W

I would say that is very class dependent, as it would be if we had East and West Coast Nationals. Whoopee you are the I Stock champion and you ran all by yourself, yeah that means something. There has to be some type of national run-off to crown a natl champ. imo.

[Steve Ekstrand]

As a little kid I remember my dad going out and having two large tanks added to our tow vehicle. Then during gas rationing we'd fill up our cars and my grandparents cars and neighbors cars buying the gas off of them siphoning it into 5 gallon cans and then into the truck tanks so we could travel to a race. It gave us nearly a 1000 mile range. Racers are insane.

But the Solo Nationals is part racer, part true hobbiest. Its going to take a toll on the racers to some degree. But its going to decimate the hobbiest.

I'd like to see an Eastern US and Western US seperate events. But I do agree with Jason that if there isn't a runoff event, then there really isn't a National champion.

In drag racing the oil crisis in the seventies brought about tow money to the world finals for the top 6-10 (its varied over the years) in each eliminator.