Don "Shoe" Back in the Seat (1 Viewer)

Could you imagine a Senior Tour...Connie, Snake, Mongoose, Eddie Hill, Don Shoe, Don Garlits, Jim Dunn, Greek,........to name a few.
I know I would buy a ticket to that show.


I actually LOVE that idea. Dragster and Funny Car. Garlits can bring the "whirrrrrrrrrrrmobile" but he MUST bring a fuel car as well.

I bet that "tour" would catch a lot of the available sponsorships. (insert your jokish products here)

I would go, and go, and go.
 
While we're dreaming here, why stop at nitro?? How about other stars of yester year. Big John, Ohio George, Arnie Beswick, Animal Jim.....
If I hit the power ball, (yeah right) I'ld love to promote this tour. Not only would you get todays fan, wanting to the the GREATS one more
time, but you would also get the past fan, that hasn't been to a track in many years, but recognises the names.

It would sell out tracks coast to coast. Run one Sat. and another Sun. PM. Revive the old SUNDAY-SUNDAY radio adds.
 
While the 'old farts tour' would be entertaining for 'us' you do make a good point for the real problem. The old guard and the ones that like to watch the old guard are dropping off the earth every day. You can compare/contrast NHRA's scenario just like 1960's collector cars. The muscle cars had a great time in the auctions a while ago. Guys that got their first piece of ass and had money wanted to buy them but eventually the cars come back to auction and there isn't that 'significance' assigned with the car(s) anymore. All of motorsports is the same way. Today on Yahoo's main page is a great article on the challenges Brian France has in front of him. Five years ago...looked like a genius. Now even NASCAR is struggling to fill the stands. Its not that NASCAR or NHRA inherently has a problem, the problem is motorsports isn't considered a form of entertainment for Joe Average.

A great example is watching the ESPN telecast of the Denver/Bandimere race. It used to be on a friday night it was a sold out deal. Not the case anymore. Its not really that drag racing all of a sudden isn't entertaining. Its that Joe Average has changed how he wants to spend his free money on a weekend.
 
While the 'old farts tour' would be entertaining for 'us' you do make a good point for the real problem. The old guard and the ones that like to watch the old guard are dropping off the earth every day. You can compare/contrast NHRA's scenario just like 1960's collector cars. The muscle cars had a great time in the auctions a while ago. Guys that got their first piece of ass and had money wanted to buy them but eventually the cars come back to auction and there isn't that 'significance' assigned with the car(s) anymore. All of motorsports is the same way. Today on Yahoo's main page is a great article on the challenges Brian France has in front of him. Five years ago...looked like a genius. Now even NASCAR is struggling to fill the stands. Its not that NASCAR or NHRA inherently has a problem, the problem is motorsports isn't considered a form of entertainment for Joe Average.

A great example is watching the ESPN telecast of the Denver/Bandimere race. It used to be on a friday night it was a sold out deal. Not the case anymore. Its not really that drag racing all of a sudden isn't entertaining. Its that Joe Average has changed how he wants to spend his free money on a weekend.
F-1 has the same problem with empty seats. They were talking about yesterday and it got a little...... uncomfortable. Tough economy is my thought.
 
F-1 has the same problem with empty seats. They were talking about yesterday and it got a little...... uncomfortable. Tough economy is my thought.

I was absolutely SHOCKED watching F1 all weekend. The place was dead empty for Friday practice, about 1/3 full for Saturday qualifying and about 1/2 full for the Sunday race. The place we are talking about is not your usual place where no one shows up like Malaysia or Bahrain. The place we are talking about is the Hockenheimring in Germany!!! It was absolutely jarring to see empty grandstands at one of the "old guard" F1 venues, particularly with a German driver leading the points in a German car (and sitting on pole and winning the race).

The grandstands were appallingly empty at Joliet for the Nationwide race Saturday night too. I bet there were more paid fans for the NHRA race at Route 66 a few weeks ago.
 
I'm absolutely shocked that you would spend all weekend watching F1. :)
Heyyyyyyyyy! lol
I love my F1. Drivers so good, that taking a slightly different exit point on one turn means the difference between qualifying 1st and 13th. Different engines, different chassis/tubs. All coming together and racing at the highest level of motor racing. All that aside, which is saying a lot, it really comes down to the coverage. I get to see a practice session. I get to see qualifying, I get to see the race. I actually feel like I'm getting it all. I get to see the highest level of camera work, with the highest level of production team, giving me the most amazing shots of cars. They actually let the hosting country bid on who is going to cover the race, so you get different styles of camera work from each country, but it all has to follow a set format. They all use the same tools to capture the feeling of F1. They have so many views, and types of cameras they use, but they never beat any one type to death. It changes. Lots of different tracks. Lot's of different tech being introduced. It's stays lively. Cover this whole thing with the fact that it's fronted here in America by a great group who knows their stuff inside and out, and a pit reporter that is Johnny-on-the-spot with good information, and offer it to me in a way that's obvious they're as excited about it as I am. Well, that's a great recipe for good racing television. I do love me some F1. I feel like I've seen a race, produced by racers.
It's tough to compare to drag racing at all, except once upon a time, Drag Racing and F1 shared the most cutting edge materials and science. F1 continued on, Drag Racing sort of stopped. Sure there's innovations still, but a whole lot of rules stop the true leaps that could still happen. It's tough when our track never changes. Face it. Besides us fans who love it, it's kind of hard to get folks excited about a straight track that's smaller than most racing's pit lanes, and it never changes. Take a picture of Joliet, and Pomona, without showing any thing other than the racing surface, and you would be hard pressed to say which is which. It's just one of the things that people that don't "get" drag racing, have a very hard time understanding why we get so fired up.
Now, what were we talking about? I forgot. I got all goobery-eyed.
Oh. Yeah, F1 attendance. I am rather sure that's why Bernie is selling his F1 rights. He probably sees the writing on the wall as far as growth, and since he's made a bazillion already, and he's older than dirt, he's selling. I hope it stays healthy, but I think like a lot of posts here, it just seems the interest in motorsports just isn't there like it used to be.
What do we do? I don't know. I watch old races. I "like" ideas like this one. A legends tour. Something. Anything to get that feeling I used to have when I watched drag racing, either on TV or from the stands.
 
I thought it was cool for Shoe to warm up his car. But we don't need a legends tour. We just need better economics, from within the sport and outside of it, to make it more appealing for new teams to be created. And keep existing teams out there. That, and better marketing to get and keep new fans. Simple stuff. Simple, but not easy...
 
Its funny how Schumacher owns all the big show nitro cars in the other lane, and its a big deal he warmed one up, Force drives his. Old Don better be in the seat he owns the MF'ers. And there already is a Legends tour Its called the nostalgia drags.
 
He cackled a fuel car. So does my wife.
someone's gotta wear the pants in every family.

Its funny how Schumacher owns all the big show nitro cars in the other lane, and its a big deal he warmed one up, Force drives his. Old Don better be in the seat he owns the MF'ers. And there already is a Legends tour Its called the nostalgia drags.
the jealousy runs deep..
 
Geez I didn't think this thread would hit any nerves. And I don't think it's a big deal that he cackled one of his cars, I just thought it was neat and wondered if he may entertain the idea of making a squirt someday. :rolleyes:
 
People crap on F1 for it being boring but I swear every race this year has been more exciting then any NASCAR race in the last few years. The F1 race today had me on the edge of my seat, I put the NASCAR race on later and almost fell asleep
 
Worse than low fan attendance for the Nationals and other Major Motorsports is that Drag Racing is basically a grassroots sport and at the local races I have attended the fans came but car counts are half what they were ten years ago when the economy was good .
I doubt the fans will keep coming to listen to dead air . Even some booked races don't have enough filler to keep the fans interest and give the impression of bang for the buck .
We still have five Drag Strips in the D/FW area down from six and by next year I expect there will be only four .
Not enough cars and fan participation goes south too . It's a double edged sword .
 
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