Professional Fan
Nitro Member
Alan indicated it was a timer malfunction. Speculated something may have been in the beam.
chicago 2024 (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter mick
- Start date
Topfuel386
Nitro Member
Yea a bummer for Q1. The fuel pressure fitting worked its way loose.
Custom Body Fan
Nitro Member
Watching Q2 on DVR. Very sparse crowd watching a great set of nitro sessions.
Jer
Nitro Member
ive always wanted to go there bc it always looks empty,the year i go prob would have a record crowd lol
what track packs them in on a Friday? It's been that way for years, we don't have the Friday crowds we had 30 years ago.....
I attended the inaugural 1986 race at the Texas Motorplex and you couldn't have shoehorned any more fans into that place. If I recall, 30,000 showed up for Friday night. It's no longer like it used to be, but even nowadays theu pretty much pack the pitside stands for Q2. The track temp for Q1 is more often than not up around 140 degrees and a 3 second fuel car pass is a rare occasion. It's brutal in the stands when it's approaching 100 degrees ambient and those who do show up normally spend their time roaming the pits.
The crowd is the worst I’ve seen since Pomona, and definitely fewer people than last year. Only one little section at about 1000 feet on the left side of the grandstand with people in it, although the right side seems fairly decent. That’s a little puzzling to me, I thought these people in Chicagoland would come out and support this race and this incredible race track better than they do. Let’s discuss.
This is the follow-up to my above, this is really bizarre considering the incredible nitro fields that they have at this race this year. I’m sorry, I’m just bummed out about it.
Professional Fan
Nitro Member
Keep in mind that, as last year, there are two trailers with big screens parked on the left side so no one on that side can fully see the track except for the people at the far end. That's why everyone sits on the right side.
Yes, I did see that. I wondered about it.
ZWeinstein
Nitro Member
I dont understand this point of "look at the Friday crowd" seemingly every week. This is not 1984 where if you were not at the track you had no clue on what happened for weeks. Some folks may skip a day knowing they can look online to see results, videos, etc. or watch on NHRA.tv. That being said, crowd sizes across the board have been up over the last few years. And given the size of the stands at place like Rt. 66, Charlotte, Pomona, etc a 30% crowd would still be a pretty solid "looking" crowd at most other facilities.
How much of the sparse crowd can be put to a lack of advertising in the weeks prior to the event? At a track that NHRA does not own, who is responsible for advertising? NHRA? Or the track owner? We don't see anywhere near the advertising of upcoming events that we used to, since the whole advertising landscape has changed. But I can't but think this is part of the problem at a place like Chicago.
Maybe NHRA will end up buying this track and managing it.
Highly doubt that. I know of two big offers that were made to buy the Rt 66 dragstrip and dirt oval complex and were turned down.
Is there a noise ordinance affecting this track? They need to adopt the Nelson Hoyos no problem Raceway school of thought, and have more stuff there. I mean, amazing facility. I don’t know why these tracks, with the exception of maybe Pomona and a couple of others, can’t have cars on it every weekend. These tracks should not be sitting idle 51 weeks out of the year. Extremely valuable real estate, and excellent facilities, this is no way to make money.
I’m sure it’s more complicated than this, but Just my thought, if there’s a problem with my approach, please let me know.
I don’t think NHRA in the position to buy anything these days. I could be wrong.
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