Grand Rules - Wheel Tethers

[CIN]

Fyi: Call The Riverhead Office At 631-842-race (7223) To Have Them Send You A Copy Of The Diagram For Installing Wheel Tethers For The Grands.

Good Luck Guys

Cin

[Bobby Pease]

I forgot about them.. I know we will be going much slower this year, actually slower than the stocks... what was the reason for tethers again? I know NASCAR sanctioned classes need them.. Maybe its the Hoosiers.. good luck to all.... Hey, Howie and Uncle Petey... fix that 1/2 inch off center fuel cell, and get your tethers..LOL... NO, you don't get picked on in tech... If you show up with no tethers, there will be a meeting in the trailer about you! LOL..(just kidding) Talk soon.
Bobby Pease :)

[W. J.]

Simple reason for tethers: the SAFETY of all involved in case a wheel assembly comes off a car in a wreck, it keeps the parts (hopefully) attached to the car, though in rare instances they have failed to do that.
Just one more measure to make racing a safer sport, all should be in favor.

[pitbull113]

Just another instance where the grands get treated like a weekly division without getting the perks. Crappy purse, no points fund and no respect. Riverhead won't be happy until this division is dead and buried. Lord knows why. :mad:

[richardpetey]

If I put feathers on my car will that make it really FLY.................... :help:
HEY! When do we call NASCAR for the templates................... :eek:
YO, YO, YO Peaseman! Do we have to have 13 gallon fuel cells and competition pit stops so we break up that dangerous Riverhead draft, hehe.................... :rolleyes:
UNCLE PETEY................... :wave: :wave: :wave: :wave: :wave:

[CIN]

This should be another post, but I'll do it here since it was brought up.
We are currently working on points for the Grands. So, until I have the exact information I was not posting it.

CIN

Also, regarding the purse (and I'm not saying right or wrong) but ask any Saturday night division what their purse is?

[racing#s]

I'd like to suggest truck enduros, grands too, how about every driver give fifty bucks(?) to a trusted individual for a years-end Champion purse? If twenty drivers go in, $1k to the Division Champ.

[pitbull113]

Also, regarding the purse (and I'm not saying right or wrong) but ask any Saturday night division what their purse is? Don't forget the Saturday night divisions don't pay their own purse. The enduros have to pay to enter their cars plus a pit pass. Saturday night guys just pay a pit pass fee.

[CIN]

True, but all Saturday night divisions plus their crews have to buy a NASCAR License, whether they are sanctioned or not. It costs money to race....do you race to make money, or for the fun of doing what you love to do? And if you expect to make money racing, better go get a Cup ride. Let's get off of this, we'll just beat a dead horse.

Listen guys, I am talking to the track about points and various ways of getting money into a point fund for you. Until it is worked out for whatever divisions, how much the fund can be and how to get the money, let's not speculate or complain. We still have racing for us on LI. I've talked to way too many drag racers and road course racers that wish they would have supported Westhampton and Bridgehampton. And I know first hand how difficult it is to try to get another facility.

Let me work on this. What would be nice is anyone with suggestions, like the one posted. Maybe if someone has a company that would like to help with sponsorship of a division, let me know.

[pitbull113]

The money for the Nascar license is mostly for insurance and goes straight to Daytona, it has nothing to do with entry fees. All I was trying to state was that the Grands should be treated like the other enduro classes and shouldn't need special tires or wheel tethers. Drastic rule changes every year, causing more and more expense to the drivers, is killing the division.

[CIN]

Ok let me ask you this...don't you think that part of the entry fee for enduros goes towards insurance and ambulance and all the other business expenses that it takes to open up the track for that day. Sorry, I know that it has been hard with the rule changes, and maybe or maybe not if Rich was still here this would not have happened, but it did. No one is forcing anyone to do anything. You can go with the rules. You can go back to stocks. You can move up to Saturday nite. Or you can sit in the stands or go play baseball. It is what it is. If the division does go away...well, we tried.

Again, I am trying to work with the track to get more...please just give me sometime.

[pitbull113]

Just like on Saturday night, the pit pass fees and general admission goes towards operating expenses. The extra $20 that the enduros have to pay should go towards the purse, not the $8-10 or whatever it works out to be.

[W. J.]

Yeah, the track should only charge what it costs to race! How dare they make a profit! :mad: How dare they promote safety!!! :*-(

But when they close the gates forever, who will be left standing there with no place to race? Hmmm, not a lot of thought went into that one, huh? :confused: :)

[woot lawrence]

Steve, the extra $20 or so does go toward the purse. The winner would get $10 per car entered, 2nd place gets $5 per car, 3rd, 4th & 5th get something, so with just 1st & 2nd, there is $15 of your entry fee.

[pitbull113]

Walt don't even start. Don't twist my words around because you know that's not what I was getting at. The race track should make enough money off of the general admission and concessions along with sponsorship to keep the track running. They should not be fleecing the very people that the spectators are there to see. As far as safety is concerned, all I was stating was that the Grands shouldn't be the only enduro division that has to run wheel tethers if they're that worried about safety. Thank you Woot for clarifing that about the purse that does make sense. I guess I am just spoiled down here in Florida, the enduro purses are huge (regularly $5,000-$10,000 to win) regardless of the amount of cars in the race. The entry fees are more ($100+pit pass) but every bit of that money goes to the purse plus a significant amount more put up by the track. Sometimes the grass is greener on the other side.

[woot lawrence]

$5000-$10000 to win?? do you have an extra car?? :)

[pitbull113]

$5000-$10000 to win?? do you have an extra car?? :)I wish Woot. I've already wrecked the Bimmer twice down here. I don't even know if I have one car.lol

[RebelMtrspts29]

I called the raceway office today for the diagram for installation. I called two times and was told not to call back again because the diagram was posted online. I am not sure which individual I talked to, but I am a very kind person and I was treated like a child. The lady was positive that I was trying to obtain a set of rules. I reassured her multiple times I was requesting the diagram for wheel tether installation. If this is so, can someone please send me a link to this diagram. Thank you very much.

Brian Obiedzenski #29

[W. J.]

All I can tell you, Steve, is every track that I am familiar with pretty much does the same thing as far as what they charge to enter enduros, at least in this part of the USA. If running enduros were dependent on paid grandstand admissions, the prize wouldn't be worth it if you finished 1st. Sadly, Riverhead usually plays to under 500 spectators on a good day when the enduros are run. Having them on Saturday night occassionally is a good way to grow interest in them, it just may take some time, that's all. It boils down to if you want to do it, you will have to pay the price.
As far as tethers are concerned, maybe they should be on all race cars. It certainly isn't a bad idea to protect all the people involved, both race competitors and fans.

Tether Mounting While I found no picture or diagram of how the tethers are to be attached, I did find that each division has a specific paragraph, basically the same, describing how and where to mount the tether. Follow this link, which is for LM, but is the same for Chargers, etc. www.riverheadraceway.com/latemodel.pdf Scroll down to page 9, and you'll see a paragraph with the description that is all underscored like that. It's the best I could find.

[CIN]

I will check again on the information I was given. If I can come up with a copy I will get it to everyone.

[racerwife]

Brian,
My husband races in the figure 8's. I can tell you that there are explicit directions, no diagram, on wheel tethers in our rules. Page 14, under suspension. I don't think it should be any different installations regardless of divisions.
As for expenses versus winnings.. our engines cost anywhere from $7500.00 -$10,000. Tires last 2 weeks if you're lucky...$500.00 /4, we mount them or add another $20.00. Fuel...we can't run regular pump fuel, add that expense. And yes, NASCAR license for us is $90.00 for the lowest level of membership per person, plus a minimum of $27.00 a week per person entry. For a whopping purse of $400 -$500. for first place if you have the right engine builders, sponsors decals used and showing on your car. Oh yeah... we can't use "junk yard" parts for our repairs anymore. Our cars got far too technical for that choice. Oval Speed parts bills are very common and they aren't small potatoes to pay... Yeah, we have huge expenses too. We just are glad that the track is still here and operating.
As for the wheel tethers... if they were on the car the night the wheel exploded off of the car during a racing accident, maybe, just maybe, we wouldn't have lost our chief steward Walt Edsell. He died because of a loose wheel. I think a cheap enough piece of equipment REQUIRED that might save someone else's life is worth it.

[WEEZER]

I have something positive!!! Judging from Mr. Pease's post about who's running Grands this year, I'd say it looks like a good field. (Hey Bobby, did you get my phone call??) The points deal would be cool, and if it flops, I'll do again here, on Long Islands LEADING race information network, the LONG ISLAND JAM!!!! I don't really care about point funds, would be nice, but if I can drive my car off the track, spend minimal time or money getting it ready for the next race and have fun again that's all I need. Let's keep the enduro camaraderie together, and Brian O., talk to Dennis at Oval Speed, he sells the tethers and probably can tell you how to install it. Basically, you wrap the tether around the spindle and frame of the car.

[vsmidge68]

If you buy the tethers from Dennis, they come with directions. By the way, it could have been worse. They could have said you need to have mandatory safety wheels and they cost more than the tethers.

As far as the $ goes, when we send our registration before raceday, the driver's pit entry is included in that. When we go elsewhere, we pay to get in and a registration fee. So let's not rock the boat there please. As far as a point fund goes, I agree with racing #s. Having a trusted individual, (let's call her Cindy) collect $50.00 from each driver and then maybe a 50/50 each raceday would be a good idea. Perhaps a sponsor could throw in some $ too. The racetrack doesn't have to put any $ towards it and the drivers can decide how to split it at the end of the year. Just remember if the divisions start making $ towards a point fund, the track may eventually want a percentage, after all it is a business. A championship trophy is worth more to the guys than $ anyway, so the amounts probably don't matter too much. No one I know is making any money racing, so aren't we all in it for the fun anyway? I believe the Grands should be set apart from the other enduros for the simple facts that have been stated here before. There is a camaraderie (had to go to dictionary for that one) between these guys. Let's not shake that up either. Remember, the track has the right to drop the division if they want and the more problems we give them, the more likely they are to do just that.