Was curious what other tracks are doing lately. A couple months ago, Kuhlne Motorsports Park (formerly Thompson) held a test n tune and featured a 6.50 class that drew alot of racers that day. A couple years ago at Thompson, they hosted a series called Renegade Racing that I think had 4 classes in it. Seemed like it was getting popular then it dissapeared.
I know that no prep is getting popular in heads up racing as I attended a failed event at Lucky's in Erie yesterday. Dunno if it was weather related, not promoted enough, or the locals didn't want to race heads up but a dozen cars showed at best and 6 actually raced. But they had a free pig roast!

I only race a few times a year anymore, but when I do I either match race with an NSS group or index race with a NSS group. From what I have seen the issue with index racing is the performance of people's cars fall outside the index, and it is easier and cheaper to just dial it in. I got turned off many years ago by delay boxes, throttle stops, and buy backs. Index racing makes it mostly about the driver, which I like. Even in NSS what few rules we have to keep the group unique is in constant question by people wanting to change the rules to fit what they want for their car and not what the group started with. I see the popularity of no-prep driven by several TV shows and by younger racers, and the tracks love it because it reduces the costs of running the track. My concern with no prep is super high HP cars on a slick track, it is not a question of if you will wreck your car it is a question of when. While wrecks are great for TV ratings and spectators, it is very hard on pocketbooks and bodies of the racers. At most of the nostalgia races I see lots of gray hair, and while tracks still have nostalgia races, many do not draw the big crowds they once did. I have raced at events in NSS and with street outlaw personalities, at the same race, and in our NSS pits were usually 30 to 40 old guys talking about the good old days, and a mob of several hundred around the street outlaw pits wanting T-shirts and autographs. Tracks have to do what they can to make money, after all they are selling entertainment.

Several tracks in our area have been running index from 5.80-6.00 depending on altitude. I love it ! If you cant hit the index it wont stay popular. I've converted my duster to run it. I think its going to be a wait and see as far as racer car count goes and its success.

Have to learn how to adjust the car to run the index (or maybe hold a couple), regardless conditions. Harder than just putting a different number on the window.

Throttle stop is only one way to do it.

Mason Dixon Dragway on their street night races has 3 classes for index racing, all 1/8th mile. 5.90, 6.50 and 7.10. The 5.90 and 6.50 run on a .400 pro tree, while the 7.10 uses a .500 pro tree.

I've been index racing since the 90's. We have run .50 index and .25 index spacing. Once you learn it, it's not that tough. At the recent Indy NMCA race it took .009 or better off index to qualify in the top 15. 30 out of 77 cars were closer than .030 off index. All with no electronics.
Doug

I myself really enjoy index racing and I have been moderately successful at it I have a 10.90-11-00 car slowed down to run 11.50s via a throttle stop. My home track doesn't offer it so I have to travel two hours to run but its worth it. An advantage at most of the tracks I run at is you can run two classes : your index class ( 8.50. 10.00 or 11.50 ) and also Pro Dial which is basically a bracket / dial in class ran on a 5/10s pro tree. I prefer the 5/10s pro tree to the full tree and will probably be gearing my future racing to more of it.

Id love to try an 11.50 index but do spectators like to see that versus a bracket program? And are there enough racers to try it?

I don't know about spectators , there were a few in the stands this past Saturday during an Index race. The car count for 11.50 index was over 20 , at the big Halloween Index race 2 years ago there were over 50 cars first round, I know I qualified #1 with an 11.503 . Because its heads up it appears to be more popular than regular bracket racing.

We have a lot of 6.50 and 5.80 index racing locally with the small tire and big tire heads up stuff.

Heads up brings a lot of spectators. A lot more than bracket racing!

A couple of smaller nostalgia races we do have, in the interest of time, went to taking the 4 fastest cars in every class and doing a heads up runoff with them. I enjoy these because I usually win!