Another great article from Susan Wade

[CS]

SUSAN WADE: THREE KEY TOPICS NHRA MIGHT USE TO GROW DRAG RACING FAN BASE | Competition Plus

Is the NHRA worried that the grandstands will be full of Poindexters, analyzing and charting scientific data on clipboards? Hardly. So why not emphasize the

competitionplus.com

 

[mick]

almost every single 5 year old can kick a ball. not drag race. susan, have you turned on your TV lately?
it's that sport the whole world loves. where they kick a ball around. it is not extreme. doesn't have to be.
100 five year olds surveyed. i want to drag race, said none of them.

sophie cunningham and kaitlin clark are all over social media. sophie even going with sexy stuff (aka danica)
you can see where that is getting the wnba. come on erica, show a little skin ..... wait, please don't.

mechanical? is that why nascar rules the USA motorsports ratings? i'll take an nhra or indy car fan over a nascar fan anyday.

pump up the players, which i believe nhra is attempting to do, if not the players themselves doing it on their own.
it's a niche' sport. people it attracts will come and go. it is not mainstream, not will it ever be.

 

[GumbyWVU]

"Another"? I didn't know she had a "great" article previously, at least recently.

 

[ch streetcars]

While you can take issue with Susan's opinions (as I often do) I just like that she is trying to come up with ideas, anything, to keep our sport relevant. Even when I offer to buy their tickets, I can't get mid to late 60's friends to go to a national event anymore. It's just not on peoples minds anymore, even car guys. We hard-core followers all want Drag Racing to stay around.

 

[GumbyWVU]

While you can take issue with Susan's opinions (as I often do) I just like that she is trying to come up with ideas, anything, to keep our sport relevant. Even when I offer to buy their tickets, I can't get mid to late 60's friends to go to a national event anymore. It's just not on peoples minds anymore, even car guys. We hard-core followers all want Drag Racing to stay around.

Oh I think you're right, I was being half-sarcastic in my earlier post (too easy a joke to pass up). But in that article, honestly, I just read what seemed to be warmed over ideas that could have basically been written (and probably were) any time the past 20 years.

I can't even get my friends in their 40s and 50s, of either gender, to come to an event sadly. I blame (maybe wrongly) smart phones.

 

[Joe]

almost every single 5 year old can kick a ball. not drag race. susan, have you turned on your TV lately?
it's that sport the whole world loves. where they kick a ball around. it is not extreme. doesn't have to be.
100 five year olds surveyed. i want to drag race, said none of them.

sophie cunningham and kaitlin clark are all over social media. sophie even going with sexy stuff (aka danica)
you can see where that is getting the wnba. come on erica, show a little skin ..... wait, please don't.

mechanical? is that why nascar rules the USA motorsports ratings? i'll take an nhra or indy car fan over a nascar fan anyday.

pump up the players, which i believe nhra is attempting to do, if not the players themselves doing it on their own.
it's a niche' sport. people it attracts will come and go. it is not mainstream, not will it ever be.

Letting teams sell their own shirts would help pump up drivers….like IHRA does.

 

[stitcherbob]

Professional drag racing is in danger of becoming another Monster Truck traveling circus roadshow. We provide the vehicles and hire drivers who are like WWF wrestling stars. Not enough excitement? Wreck it on purpose....we will just rebuild it.
This is why the streets, small tracks and outlaw races are full of ugly, home built, scary unsafe cars....just like the old days

 

[GumbyWVU]

Letting teams sell their own shirts would help pump up drivers….like IHRA does.

That's a good idea, and would bring in funds too.

Without being at the track, one really can't get ps drivers' shirts. Nitromall online doesn't help.

 

[none]

That's a good idea, and would bring in funds too.

Without being at the track, one really can't get ps drivers' shirts. Nitromall online doesn't help.

Really? What driver doesn't have a website?

Alan

 

[Joe]

That's a good idea, and would bring in funds too.

Without being at the track, one really can't get ps drivers' shirts. Nitromall online doesn't help.

Nitromall doesn't have IHRA drivers shirts. It's a great experience buying from the team or driver. I bought. Lex shirt for a friend at Columbus. There was a 7 year old looking at the used piston. I ended up buying him the piston and got Lex to sign it. Maybe he will come back.

 

[GumbyWVU]

Really? What driver doesn't have a website?

Alan

Well, don't see one for Kenny Delco, for example. I'm sure that a scant few others (Cuadra's) don't either, unless you're referring to Facebook or Instagram or something like that. In that case you're right, they all likely have something, but I don't participate in those social media sites by choice.

And it seems Nitromall in person doesn't sell some items online. At the races, there's one or two separate vendors for PS and PSB merch rather than in Nitromall. Must be a contract thing.

 

[Joe]

Well, don't see one for Kenny Delco, for example. I'm sure that a scant few others (Cuadra's) don't either, unless you're referring to Facebook or Instagram or something like that. In that case you're right, they all likely have something, but I don't participate in those social media sites by choice.

And it seems Nitromall in person doesn't sell some items online. At the races, there's one or two separate vendors for PS and PSB merch rather than in Nitromall. Must be a contract thing.

And cheaper from the drivers at track.

 

[mick]

would be interesting to know what percentage of drag racing merchandise is purchased at event vs. online.
not sure how long ago, maybe 15-20 years? when nhra started allowing the merchandise trailers, in addition to
the nitromall? whatever the case, you still have to give the fan ample opportunity to spend money while you have them
at your event, whether it is food/beverage, apparel, or other items on display such as tools.
what do you think is the average amount of time per day the nhra has a fan at a nat. event? 4-6 hours?
we have all seen nhra nat. events with strongest attendance on saturday for Q3 and Q4, and now with added tasty challenge.
this might be hard to do, and the racers may not want it? but what about lengthening the time between Q3 and Q4.
seems like the most opportune time and event day to cash in on your spectators. the way it is right now, if you watch all the pro cars
run Q3, there aren't too many other classes ran between the pros, often the sportsman eliminations running later into sat. evening.
i think the chance that a fan spends more money in-track greatly decreases as soon as last nitro car goes down the track in Q4.

 

[Chili]

would be interesting to know what percentage of drag racing merchandise is purchased at event vs. online.
not sure how long ago, maybe 15-20 years? when nhra started allowing the merchandise trailers, in addition to
the nitromall? whatever the case, you still have to give the fan ample opportunity to spend money while you have them
at your event, whether it is food/beverage, apparel, or other items on display such as tools.
what do you think is the average amount of time per day the nhra has a fan at a nat. event? 4-6 hours?
we have all seen nhra nat. events with strongest attendance on saturday for Q3 and Q4, and now with added tasty challenge.
this might be hard to do, and the racers may not want it? but what about lengthening the time between Q3 and Q4.
seems like the most opportune time and event day to cash in on your spectators. the way it is right now, if you watch all the pro cars
run Q3, there aren't too many other classes ran between the pros, often the sportsman eliminations running later into sat. evening.
i think the chance that a fan spends more money in-track greatly decreases as soon as last nitro car goes down the track in Q4.

I believe NHRA purposely tightened up their schedule to give the “pro” fans a chance to come to the races, see what they want, and get home in a 3-4 hour window. While the true fans have the option to come earlier and stay later as they choose. I’m one of the fans that get there about 30 minutes prior to alky/pro mod and stay through the last round of alky/pro mod before heading out.

 

[mick]

I believe NHRA purposely tightened up their schedule to give the “pro” fans a chance to come to the races, see what they want, and get home in a 3-4 hour window. While the true fans have the option to come earlier and stay later as they choose. I’m one of the fans that get there about 30 minutes prior to alky/pro mod and stay through the last round of alky/pro mod before heading out.

yeah you're probably right. just getting someone through the gate is half the battle, and the 3-4 hour show makes that easier to achieve.

edit: it does beg the question though, where is the happy medium. the host (nhra) is trying to shorten the show so fans come out and enjoy
in a reasonable window of time. the vendors are paying top dollar to sell, and want the fans there a maximum amount of time. at what point
do the vendors decide it's not worth it anymore?

 

[65 Goatboy]

I liked a lot of what she said. Nhra promotes the mayhem but not the diversity so much. Promote how a Jr Dragster racer of any gender can become a TF world champion. Do a TV commercial with Leah Pruett and Shawn Langdon who both started out there along with countless other drivers. The science and math angle for becoming a crew member, car chief or crew chief. Great Austin Coil quote that she used. .TV waste's a lot of time that could be put to better use as far as advertising. Just my 2 cents.

 

[sammi]

While sitting in the grand stands at the Winter(Spring)Nationals, it became clear that a sport that only takes seconds to crown a winner can find more ways to waste time between runs. A Nil-Nil soccer match has more action than Sunday at a National event. I do remember sitting in the wood and steel grandstands at the Winter(Winter)Nationals in the 70's that a race of some kind was always going down the track. There was always someone racing someone else and the only break in the action took place when the track got messed up. We have WAY to much down time and I didn't pay $70+ to watch and listen to announcers goofing around to try and fill the numerous dead spots. I get the FOX TV thing, but race day fans aren't getting any value for TV being there.

In between runs we have to endure waiting for the quads to push cars off the track, hearing about GOV X's challenge coin and John Force's ring, many sessions of track cleaning and prepping, tributes to heroes, goofy **** from the DJ, t shirt cannons, tributes to the Mission Foods sortof winner, watching the big screen commercials and promotions and just nothing happening for any explainable reason.

Today, I try to go to a national event on Friday so I can see a ton of cars go down the track and catch the worlds best car show in the pits. I watch the Sunday stuff at home.