With the usual off season talk of classes coming and classes going in the various racing organizations and one-off events for next year, it got us to thinking, “if one were presented with a fresh slate to build a drag racing series from, and an ala carte menu of classes with no restrictions other than it being financially viable, how would we go about it?”

Image courtesy of IHRA

The IHRA has, to some extent, done this over the last few years with their Nitro Jam format and their newly-minted points format that’s coming in 2014. The long-running organization, when it moved to the Chicago-style Nitro Jam format in 2010, began picking and choosing classes based on the market they were racing in. When it was announced they were going back to championship-style racing next year, they again chose classes that were known hits, and will continue to pair it with some great sportsman racing categories to create a show they hope to pack the stands with.

The NHRA has and will likely continue with its nitro classes, Pro Stock classes, and sportsman racing format for the forseeable future, while the ADRL, the NMCA, PSCA, and others will continue with their heads-up doorslammer-only or doorslammer plus index and bracket format.

Image courtesy of IHRA

There’s certainly nothing wrong with the lineup card that any of these organizations present, but what if you had the power to mix and match, to blend some of the series’ classes together to create the end-all, be-all drag racing series…say an ADRL meets Top Fuel and Funny Car, with some Fuel Altereds or nitro bikes thrown in for good measure. Or, if you’re a doorslammer junkie, some small-tire classes paired with Pro Mods and Nostalgia Funny Cars for a full-bodied festival of horsepower. 

Would you keep sportsman racing? Perhaps spruce it up a little with some Top Dragster, Top Sportsman, and 8.50 Index door cars, and kick the .90 classes aside? What about a heads-up-only class that replaces Stock and Super Stock as we know it for the modern factory-built cars?

Staying within the boundaries of reality in terms of money and time, how would you assemble your racing series to top all the rest and really get people talking about drag racing?