In motorsports, the silly season spans from the last few races of the season to the middle of the off season. During this time, a flood of changes are brought to bear on motorsports. The center of attention is usually driver changes, and no one plays musical chairs better than NASCAR.
Sometimes two teams will swap drivers, other times somebody is drop-kicked and replaced. The replacement can be from within the Winston Cup ranks or from either the Busch series, Craftsman Truck series or ASA. Lately in CART, it hasn't been about the drivers, rather, it's been about teams folding up their tents and leaving the series for the IRL and its centerpiece, the Indy 500.
Even the WRC is not immune to the silly season. Tommi Makinen went from Mitsubishi to Subaru. Alistair McRae is stepping from Hyundai into an EVO VII and 2001 WRC Driving Champion Richard Burns bailed from Subaru to Peugeot. Say what? The only thing for certain is that Subaru's WRXs are still painted World Rally Blue.
In import drag racing, the silly season has little to do with driver changes; the vast majority of racers own their cars outright. Some of the silliness can be traced to gaining or maintaining sponsorship but the major thrust centers around which series to concentrate on. At the heart of the matter is the number of races per sanctioning body and differing rules between similar classes in different organizations.
For example, IDRC's Quick Class and NHRA's Hot Rod Class. It's the last week of January and the NHRA just issued its 2002 rules. Changes include running alcohol, upping minimum weights, using aftermarket control arms as long as they retain OE mounting points and "excessive lightening of unibody structure, i.e. drilling of holes, etc. is prohibited." The IDRA (Battle of the Imports) and IDRC are good to go, but no one is sure what NOPI and its NDRA have in store for 2002.
After a few seasons as a non-issue, the subject of class rules is again in the limelight. I bring this up because we are currently mapping out a plan for covering "import" drag racing in 2002. Turbo magazine's drag race coverage is second to none and we'll scorch the skies in 2002 to retain our title. Our motto has always been, "we go where the racers go." This season is looking like a logistical nightmare. Between the four aforementioned sanctioning bodies, there are about 45 races and according to tentative scheduling, there are seven weekends with conflicts-on one such weekend, IDRC, IDRA and NDRA all have events planned.
Where are the racers going? They're not sure yet. With the rules and/or rule changes late in coming, many have yet to formulate travel plans of their own. In fact, some have cars in the works but are waiting for the rules shoe to drop before completing the car(s). It's the silly season indeed.
As far as number of events goes, IDRC had too much of a good thing in 2001. Some racers pointed out they could run fewer races elsewhere and win a national championship. The IDRC response? It came out with a regional points series which offers all of the glory with less traveling. Will it be popular? The racers will decide this.
Unfortunately, the IDRC's regional set-up does nothing to make scheduling our coverage easier. Just looking at the "calendar of excitement" for 2002 gives me a migraine. Rest assured, we'll see you at the races; we're just not sure which races.
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