Asher Article

[vegasnitro]

We overlook the fact that drag racing – at the top NHRA level we are talking about, the one the public pays to watch – has become fundamentally changed. Tire limitations; the death of Scott Kalitta and the onset of 1,000-foot racing; the financial crash that squinched purse strings – all roughly coincided to bring an end to drag racing’s 50-year expansionist phase.

Outright speed has always been the sport’s special selling point. “Just how fast can drag racing get?” was the question on the lips of astonished onlookers over the decades as speeds advanced towards 200mph, then on to 300, then beyond even that.

Well, now we know: 337.58mph is the final answer, set by Tony Schumacher at Brainerd in 2005.

The “great” races that have gone down in history have been the barrier-busters: Ontario ’72 for example; Ontario ’75 especially; the 260mph Gators; the first 300mph pass. No one remembers these for the closeness of their racing. In the days before the internet, one would scour the new Hot Rod or National Dragster to find the latest race results – and it was the performance figures that really grabbed the attention. What new records had been set, what barriers broken? That doesn’t happen much any more. The emphasis has changed.

Super Comp provides inch-perfect, close racing. What kind of audience does it draw?

Doubtless some day soon we’ll see a Top Fuel 3.69 (or a 4.30 if we’d still had the quarter-mile). So what? ET means plenty to all of us in the know, but it’s terminal speed that truly resonates with the public at large. And for sure, we are never going see 340mph clock up on the scoreboards.

Now drag racing is moving into reverse. It’s a new world. Today’s talk is all about containment – containing speeds, containing costs. Worthy it might all be, but it’s hardly guaranteed to set pulses racing and the Twitter trends alight.

And therein lies the problem: it’s a new – and altogether trickier – challenge to sell a speed sport that is slowing down.

This is a very good post Robin. However, F1 cars are slowed, chicanes are put on the Mulsanne straight at Le Mans and restrictor plates are used in NASCAR. The one constant is that the engineers/crew chiefs ALWAYS recover lost performance. I personally believe 300 MPH is the magic number, and as long as we are north of that number, all is well as far as the casual/average spectator is concerned. Besides, the crew chiefs will find ways to get that performance back (as we have seen at 1000ft). Whether it is improvements in the clutch can, aerodynamics, increasing the volumetric efficiency of the engine or what have you, we are likely to be back here in 5 years wondering how we are going to slow them down again.

 

[The Swegian]

I love sportsman racing but we have too many classes, too many rules and no respect. Drop the Super classes. Run 1 or 2 bracket classes. Run whatever you want (except Throttle Stops), pick a time and go. People get into a race when some 8 second car is trying to run down an 11:30 car. Actually the wider the gap the better. Wheels up launches, huge variety of cars/trucks/dragsters and whatever else. Less confusion as to why that car is coasting, what is a CIC and so on.

Race schedules. Now I won't get into the countdown, but if this is your big drama push then why the long delay between races. Granted everything is pretty much wrapped up this year but doesn't it seem like Vegas was months ago? The finals should have been the next weekend, keep excitement and interest up.

There needs to be a re-thinking of the structure right now. It appears national events are NHRA money grabs with teams coming a distant second and fans after that. While no doubt NHRA needs to make money to continue, if they put the show first, quit bleeding teams and fans dry, and make it more worth the money then in the end they will actually make more.

I go to this funny car race every year at this small track. They pack the place (not nhra national event packed, but for their place it is standing room only). They toss out more T-shirts and Frisbees on one night then NHRA will in an entire season. Free marketing all year long as people where that shirt away from the track, people are happy, they feel like they have spent their money well.

I agree entirely PJ on the super classes. I mean no disrespect to anyone who races in these classes or enjoys watching them, but I think they're painfully boring. What I wish is they (NHRA) would get rid of the classes and contest Top Sportsman and Top Dragster at each event.

Regarding the "bleeding the teams and fans dry" comment, one need to look no further than the recent event in Vegas. I've attended every fall Vegas event since it's inception and this was the first year I can recall prices on concessions going up in quite a while. Everything seemed to be at least a dollar more. NHRA, is it really necessary to rape the fans in every way possible? The show is no better than it was several years ago, yet with the tumultuous financial times many people have endured the last few years, we fans still need to bend over and take it up the tailpipe?

I couldn't care less about getting a t-shirt launched my way from the Geico dorks, but if you're going to do this, how about doing it more than the 7 times it was done all weekend? I'm sure it was more than that but you get the point.

 

[yoda]

When I'm on tour, its pretty cool to have a race showing on ESPN when we have a clear dish on the bus- and because everyone I work with knows my involvement, I get to have it on uninterrupted.

When you have a bunch of guys watching a big-screen with 7.1 surround sound on WAY loud (their call, not mine), its really interesting to see what gets a rise out of a bunch of roadies

-The first question is "Did that car REALLY just go 300mph? Seriously? WOW"

After four or five of those, the buzz swings to

-"Why is every car in that lane doing a burnout instead of trying to win the race?"

Then Pro Stock comes up, and something really cool happens

-"Whoa! Who won?" "That was 200 and they only won by six inches!!!"

Yeah- nitro is a great experience in real life, but, in my experiences on a bus with a bunch of guys that, if nothing else, are pretty tech-savvy, close competition is when the beer gets popped and people are jockeying for a good seat to see the screen.

 

[RebilasPhoto]

When I'm on tour, its pretty cool to have a race showing on ESPN when we have a clear dish on the bus- and because everyone I work with knows my involvement, I get to have it on uninterrupted.

When you have a bunch of guys watching a big-screen with 7.1 surround sound on WAY loud (their call, not mine), its really interesting to see what gets a rise out of a bunch of roadies

-The first question is "Did that car REALLY just go 300mph? Seriously? WOW"

After four or five of those, the buzz swings to

-"Why is every car in that lane doing a burnout instead of trying to win the race?"

Then Pro Stock comes up, and something really cool happens

-"Whoa! Who won?" "That was 200 and they only won by six inches!!!"

Yeah- nitro is a great experience in real life, but, in my experiences on a bus with a bunch of guys that, if nothing else, are pretty tech-savvy, close competition is when the beer gets popped and people are jockeying for a good seat to see the screen.

Bet the roadies will LOVE super comp and super gas then!!!

 

[yoda]

Bet the roadies will LOVE super comp and super gas then!!!

Possibly- I need to get them out to a real race... I haven't done that in a few years

 

[robinjackson]

This is a very good post Robin. However, F1 cars are slowed, chicanes are put on the Mulsanne straight at Le Mans and restrictor plates are used in NASCAR. The one constant is that the engineers/crew chiefs ALWAYS recover lost performance. I personally believe 300 MPH is the magic number, and as long as we are north of that number, all is well as far as the casual/average spectator is concerned. Besides, the crew chiefs will find ways to get that performance back (as we have seen at 1000ft). Whether it is improvements in the clutch can, aerodynamics, increasing the volumetric efficiency of the engine or what have you, we are likely to be back here in 5 years wondering how we are going to slow them down again.

Thanks, Chris, for your comments. You are absolutely right. My point was more general than specific. After some five decades of unfettered performance growth, NHRA drag racing has now entered an era of containment, and the people charged with marketing the sport have a subtly different story to sell. You could say the sport has reached maturity, but that’s maybe a hindsight judgment that will be made in years to come.

Agreed: other major motorsports change their formulae and trim their speeds from time to time. It’s not unusual; they are familiar with it. But raw performance figures are much less central than in drag racing. They don’t flash up times and speeds on finish-line scoreboards at Silverstone or Daytona.

By contrast, drag racing’s TF and FC formulae have stayed stable for more than 30 years. In that time, engines and blowers have grown no bigger, nitro has gained no greater power, the track hasn’t got longer; yet by ceaselessly refining and improving equipment within the parameters allowed, drag racers have achieved staggering performance gains. (The same is true for Pro Stock.) To date, drag racing’s history – its entire ethos – has centered on going ever quicker, ever faster. Now that is starting to change.

Of course, racers will continue to push the boundaries, only now those boundaries are being artificially imposed. Agreed: 300mph is the magic number. But from now on, as you suggest, as racers forever push beyond that mark, the sport will forever regulate to rein them back.

We’re stepping into a changed new world, is all I’m trying to say in a few too many words.

 

[yoda]

Nice post Robin... Well put.

 

[Toejam]

Rewind the clock 15 years to 1998. 100% nitro, quarter mile, no rev limiters 4.50s 320mph, Pro Stock Truck... but also a better economy, Winston sponsorship, and even some live races on tv!

The qualifying lists from the 1998 Winternationals:

Top Fuel
Mike Dunn - paid driver for Gwynn - Mopar $$$
Cory McClenathan - paid driver for Gibbs - MBNA $$$
Gary Scelzi - paid driver for AJ - Winston $$$
Kenny Bernstein - own team? - Budweiser $$$
Doug Kalitta - Connie's team
Larry Dixon, Jr. - paid driver for the snake - Miller $$$
Bruce Sarver - own team? - CarQuest $$$
Eddie Hill - own team? - Pennzoil $$$
Jim Head - own team
David Grubnic - paid driver for the montana express?
Joe Amato - own team - Keystone $$$ which he was part owner of
Doug Herbert - own team - Snap-On Tools $$$
Tony Schumacher - paid? driver for the Peek Brothers
Bob Vandergriff - own team? - Jerzees Activewear $$$
Cristen Powell - family team? - Royal Purple $$$
Rhonda Hartman - family team
Shelly Anderson- family team - Western Auto Parts America $$$
Dave Promnitz - ?
Terry Mullins - ?
Randy Parks - own team? - Rydin' Decal $$$
Bobby Baldwin - ?
Spike Gorr - ?
Ray Stutz - own team?
Robert Reehl - own team?
Tim Gibson - drove for Bill Miller?

Funny Car
Al Hofmann - own team - some GM Performance Parts $$$
John Force - own team - Castrol $$$
Ron Capps - paid by the snake - Copenhagen $$$
Tim Wilkerson - own team? - JCIT $$$?
Chuck Etchells - own team - Kendall $$$
Del Worsham - own team - Checker Shucks Kragen $$$
Tony Pedregon - paid driver for Force - Castrol $$$
Dean Skuza - family team
Gary Densham - own team
Whit Bazemore - own team - Winston $$$
Dale Creasy, Jr. - family team
Randy Anderson - family team - Western Auto Parts America $$$
Frank Pedregon - paid driver for Jim Dunn?
Jeff Arend - ?
Tom Hoover - own team - Pioneer Electronics $$$
Mark Sievers - own team
Norman Wilding - own team
Cruz Pedregon - paid driver for Gibbs - Interstate Batteries $$$
Jerry Toliver - own team?
Jim Epler - own team?



you were right.. a lot more did drive their own stuff! How many teams are left these days? 6 or 7 in top fuel and 6 or 7 in funny car? It's probably easier for a driver to get a sponsor or come up with their own cash to bring to the table to a current owner rather than start their own program from scratch.

Just for the hell of it, here are the 32 drivers who attempted to make the 16 car field in Pro Stock
Mark Osborne
Mike Thomas
Jim Yates
Steve Schmidt
Jeg Coughlin Jr
George Marnell
Troy Coughlin
Warren Johnson
Barry Grant
Scott Geoffrion
Kurt Johnson
Ron Krisher
Richie Stevens
Gordie Rivera
Bruce Allen
Tom Martino
Darrell Alderman
Larry Nance
Larry Morgan
Mark Pawuk
V. Gaines
Ray Franks
Dester Cambron
Mike Bell
Frank Iaconio
Allen Johnson
Robert Patrick Jr.
John Nobile
Mike Edwards
Harry Scribner
Greg Anderson
Brad Klein

Went to both races at Pomona during the 1990's, and I couldn't count the number of times these independant racers you mentioned Trashed the track for 20-30 Minutes at a time! Don't miss those days one bit.

 

[sammi]

Large bins of iced Mello Yellow were waiting for spectators as they left Pomona today. Also, Wj got a large cheer for his very enthusiastic burnout today. Looks like more than us keyboard crew chiefs read Nitromater.

 

[Huge]

Large bins of iced Mello Yellow were waiting for spectators as they left Pomona today. Also, Wj got a large cheer for his very enthusiastic burnout today. Looks like more than us keyboard crew chiefs read Nitromater.

You may be very surprised at how many team owners, drivers, crew chiefs, and crew members read this forum.

 

[RebilasPhoto]

Went to both races at Pomona during the 1990's, and I couldn't count the number of times these independant racers you mentioned Trashed the track for 20-30 Minutes at a time! Don't miss those days one bit.

Joe, at least back then the 20 minute oil down was given to us with a spectacular fireball instead of a light haze of oil in the air.

 

[PJ]

You may be very surprised at how many team owners, drivers, crew chiefs, and crew members read this forum.

Very true, there may not be as many posters as there once was. But the eyeball numbers are still up there.

 

[Nunz]

It would be great if we could attract more racers to participate here, like Jeff Arend has of late. I think it would make for some real interesting, and maybe productive, discussions.

 

[TSK]

Now that the funny car title is settled, every one of them ought to be required to do at least half track burnouts at Pomona.
Shoot, let's see Force do a 1000 footer in the first round. That's how he made his name.

 

[Toejam]

We overlook the fact that drag racing – at the top NHRA level we are talking about, the one the public pays to watch – has become fundamentally changed. Tire limitations; the death of Scott Kalitta and the onset of 1,000-foot racing; the financial crash that squinched purse strings – all roughly coincided to bring an end to drag racing’s 50-year expansionist phase.

Outright speed has always been the sport’s special selling point. “Just how fast can drag racing get?” was the question on the lips of astonished onlookers over the decades as speeds advanced towards 200mph, then on to 300, then beyond even that.

Well, now we know: 337.58mph is the final answer, set by Tony Schumacher at Brainerd in 2005.

The “great” races that have gone down in history have been the barrier-busters: Ontario ’72 for example; Ontario ’75 especially; the 260mph Gators; the first 300mph pass. No one remembers these for the closeness of their racing. In the days before the internet, one would scour the new Hot Rod or National Dragster to find the latest race results – and it was the performance figures that really grabbed the attention. What new records had been set, what barriers broken? That doesn’t happen much any more. The emphasis has changed.

Super Comp provides inch-perfect, close racing. What kind of audience does it draw?

Doubtless some day soon we’ll see a Top Fuel 3.69 (or a 4.30 if we’d still had the quarter-mile). So what? ET means plenty to all of us in the know, but it’s terminal speed that truly resonates with the public at large. And for sure, we are never going see 340mph clock up on the scoreboards.

Now drag racing is moving into reverse. It’s a new world. Today’s talk is all about containment – containing speeds, containing costs. Worthy it might all be, but it’s hardly guaranteed to set pulses racing and the Twitter trends alight.

And therein lies the problem: it’s a new – and altogether trickier – challenge to sell a speed sport that is slowing down.

So Robin, you saying you and most other Fans of this Sport will quit going because no ET or Speed records will be broken? If that were the case this sport would have died Years ago!

 

[sammi]

I thought Force would let one rip, but he did one of the weaker burnouts.

One other curiosity was the number of times the sort-of models who populate the Manufacturers Midway areas approached me as a walked through the place. It really made me sales adverse. I kinda miss the old days where you could walk up and look at racing equipment. I did enjoy the Simpson area(going to buy a HANS from them) and the Mac tools(bought a screwdriver) display. I walked in to the Toyota area and at least three people told me I could push the button on the fuel pump display. All I wanted to see was the porting job on the AJPE head.

 

[robinjackson]

So Robin, you saying you and most other Fans of this Sport will quit going because no ET or Speed records will be broken? If that were the case this sport would have died Years ago!

Nothing of the sort, Joe. I'm suggesting that a sport which has been associated with unfettered performance expansion for five decades is now entering an era of fettered performance. It's a changed world and a subtly different marketing challenge for the people charged with handling that. That's all.

I imagine TF and FC ET records will continue be set but all the talk seems to favour curtailing speeds, especially if 1320 returns. Doesn't it? Or are we reading from different manuals? Anyhow, I wasn't talking in such specific terms, but merely commenting that today's prevailing atmosphere of containment is a new experience for drag racing.

I'm certainly not quitting going. From reading posts on here, one learns that some people have indeed quit -- I've seen posts saying they won't go back again while 1,000-foot racing continues. Personally, it doesn't worry me -- I go to watch the cars, not the track. I like the sights and sounds as they are -- don't want to see the cars emasculated. But I'm aware that plenty others feel otherwise.

I did happen to see a bit of the recent NASCAR race at Texas Motor Speedway (cable channels show it over here) and was struck by the number of empty seats visible. Plainly it's not just happening with NHRA. Seems to me a boom period in major US motorsports peaked a year or three ago and is now slipping back. Seating capacities were expanded substantially at speedways and dragstrips during that boom period and now we're noticing they are no longer being filled, though the crowds may still be every bit as big as they used to be back when the facilities were smaller. I read that Daytona Speedway is getting a makeover and they are reducing capacity by 40,000 (40,000!!). That says it all.

 

[Paul]

I can't see giving points towards the championship for things like long burnouts and throttle whacks.

But why not have separate year end cash prizes in the Pro divisions for Most Popular Driver and pay first thru 3rd.

If it was a reasonable chunk of change I think you'd see some long burnouts and throttle whacks happening and and probably more entertaining interviews. The NHRA might fully recoup the cost plus more from this as it could drive up fan interest and attendance.

But who am I kidding, the only thing the current management is good at is protecting their ill gotten and overly secure jobs. There is no incentive for them to take any risks so they would never try anything like this.

Fellas, you had a nice ride long enough. Things aren't going well for the organization and its time for a change.

Call a board of directors meeting and vote to change the bylaws to have open elections for board members. At this point its the right thing to do, the company needs new blood to survive.