Good Job, NHRA! (1 Viewer)

[nick name]

There have been times when I've been critical of the NHRA's promotional efforts, including a thread a few months ago. It's only fair to shine some light on a job well done, too.

For the last two days, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has run extensive, high profile pieces on NHRA drag racing and its people. Along with the print edition, the stories have been prominently displayed on the paper's website, stltoday.com.

Yesterday's focus was on female participation and included an informational sidebar listing all the women winners in the Pro classes. It even was the lead story on the website for a period of time. Today, there's a profile of Antron Brown discussing how he overcame those who doubted his ability to race in Top Fuel with no previous four-wheel experience.

For this to happen, a lot of things have to fall into place. The NHRA advance person has to be able to gain the respect of the local journalists. The journalists have to be open to doing the stories and have an editor who lets them go.

Along with this week's coverage, I've been seeing numerous tv spots during NASCAR races for a couple of months so the track is apparently on board also.

I'm not even sure who's been here from the Media Department promoting the race and won't know until I get to the track on Friday. Whoever it is, here's a public pat on the back for a job well done.

 

[NitroMustang65]

I wish my trip to St. Louis was a week earlier - I'll be up there next Thursday - Sunday. I'm from there (born and raised) and Gateway International was always a crappy facility until the year after I moved to Tampa, when they refurbished the whole place and brought the NHRA back to town. I'll see if my dad saved the newspapers from this week.

 

[Toejam]

That is good news! Gainesville has a Gator Natls pull out in it's paper every year, neat stuff!

 

[nick name]

I wish my trip to St. Louis was a week earlier - I'll be up there next Thursday - Sunday. I'm from there (born and raised) and Gateway International was always a crappy facility until the year after I moved to Tampa, when they refurbished the whole place and brought the NHRA back to town. I'll see if my dad saved the newspapers from this week.

Before the remodeling the place was, shall we say, memorable. It earned its nickname of "The Swamp" honestly. The sad thing is, Gateway was supposed to be the shining new replacement for Pacific, MO and Alton, IL.

I remember one night when the rent-a-cop at the head of staging pulled his pistol after one of the racers made him mad. Scary, indeed.

Or the concession stand - the owner of the track made his weekly money through pre-packaged sandwiches which were heated up in some sort of small oven (this was years before microwaves). They were sold at gas stations and bars so the owner decided to take advantage of the captive audience at the track also.

Nothing like not having enough time to grab a burger on the way to the track and having to pay $5 for a mystery meat cheeseburger. They, along with the submarine sandwich, were REALLY peppered. No doubt, that special seasoning was to cover up the taste of whatever it was between the bun.

And the best part - finishing a race at 3 am when there were less than 75 cars and first round was at 8. That's if there were no oildowns.

But we did it, and even got up early the next morning to race at Ste. Genevieve and in later years at Pevely.

 

[wilkfan]

Dan, you are right, NHRA has done some real promoting etc, and also I remember that good ole days at Pevely!! Wilk, was at the fan fest downtown yesterday, will be at a press conference today, and then he is racing at tri-city with the other NHRA DRIVERS, Fox Sports mid-west has had advertisement on there for several months, and even the radio stations here in springfield have been airing spots, and also giving tickets away.

 

[Nick Name]

A lot of it has to do with the local media also. Where I live, our local paper is the Bakersfield Californian. Just before the March Meet, there is practically nothing in their sports page but drag racing for a full week.

Jay

 

[NitroMustang65]

Before the remodeling the place was, shall we say, memorable. It earned its nickname of "The Swamp" honestly. The sad thing is, Gateway was supposed to be the shining new replacement for Pacific, MO and Alton, IL.

I remember one night when the rent-a-cop at the head of staging pulled his pistol after one of the racers made him mad. Scary, indeed.

Or the concession stand - the owner of the track made his weekly money through pre-packaged sandwiches which were heated up in some sort of small oven (this was years before microwaves). They were sold at gas stations and bars so the owner decided to take advantage of the captive audience at the track also.

Nothing like not having enough time to grab a burger on the way to the track and having to pay $5 for a mystery meat cheeseburger. They, along with the submarine sandwich, were REALLY peppered. No doubt, that special seasoning was to cover up the taste of whatever it was between the bun.

And the best part - finishing a race at 3 am when there were less than 75 cars and first round was at 8. That's if there were no oildowns.

But we did it, and even got up early the next morning to race at Ste. Genevieve and in later years at Pevely.

Ha - Pevely, now that brings back memories. I'd hit that place fairly often (I lived in Arnold so it was just a short drive down I-55) and loved going. I've only been to Gateway twice - once for the one and only time the Car Craft Street Machine Nationals were held there in 1985 and basically got kicked out of the city for the havoc that happened at night in the surrounding areas, not to mention that some goofball lit 'em up inside the facility/car show The other time was in 1990 or 1991 when there was an IHRA race there and my company sponsored Mike Brotherton's TF car. That was my first taste (literally ) of nitro - standing about 5' from the car in the pits when the crew chief whacked the throttle and I about crapped down both legs One of the best things about that day was being able to stand about 40' behind the water box. Good times!

 

[mick]

105.7fm 'the power loon' radio station in brainerd does an excellent job
of pre-race promoting.

 

[nick name]

Dan, you are right, NHRA has done some real promoting etc, and also I remember that good ole days at Pevely!! Wilk, was at the fan fest downtown yesterday, will be at a press conference today, and then he is racing at tri-city with the other NHRA DRIVERS, Fox Sports mid-west has had advertisement on there for several months, and even the radio stations here in springfield have been airing spots, and also giving tickets away.

Though doing the Pro stuff has been rewarding, I'd honestly have to say that some of the most fun I ever had at a track was hanging with you and Ron when you were racing the famous Green Machine.

Then, when you two stepped up to be TAFC racers you introduced me to Wilk. That's a favor that I doubt I could ever repay.

As I remember, Springfield is a very valued market for the NHRA and since that's Tim's home town they work it pretty hard.

See you in a day or so.

 

[none]

I wonder if a local racer/announcer/journalist/photographer that goes by the monoker MR.DIRT might have had something to do with this ???

 

[nick name]

A lot of it has to do with the local media also. Where I live, our local paper is the Bakersfield Californian. Just before the March Meet, there is practically nothing in their sports page but drag racing for a full week.

Jay

Considering that the Cardinals began the season strong, the Rams just went through the draft, and the Blues once again crashed and burned - I'm still very impressed.

The St. Louis market has dropped in the last few years, but I'm still pretty sure it's in the top 20 nationwide.

 

[PJ]

Its a step in the right direction.

I know last year when Norwalk was coming we saw ads for it on the TV and we weren't watching racing then. I was surprised given that we are several hours away but hitting the Detroit market was one reason that they said for moving from Columbus to Norwalk.

I would like to see a push on the national coverage as I think more and more locals would cover it then. Regardless this sounds great

 

[Toejam]

It's obvious that the smaller markets pay far more attention to this sport than the Big Cities! Gainesville, Norwalk, Topeka, and Memphis, etc... Do a great job promoting a race coming to town. Houston, L.A. and Dallas are pathetic!

 

[NitroMustang65]

It's obvious that the smaller markets pay far more attention to this sport than the Big Cities! Gainesville, Norwalk, Topeka, and Memphis, etc... Do a great job promoting a race coming to town. Houston, L.A. and Dallas are pathetic!

Also along those notes, Tampa radio stations do promote the Gatornationals.

 

[Kelly]

Houston's actually getting alot better than say 10 years ago or so.

 

[PJ]

It's obvious that the smaller markets pay far more attention to this sport than the Big Cities! Gainesville, Norwalk, Topeka, and Memphis, etc... Do a great job promoting a race coming to town. Houston, L.A. and Dallas are pathetic!

Detroit is ok, not great but when IHRA rolls into Milan they do a story and I have seen, although rare, general stories. usually on the kallita camp

 

[Toejam]

Houston's actually getting alot better than say 10 years ago or so.

You live there so you would certainly know, now the Baytown papers do a great job with the Houston race!

 

[Darryl]

A lot of it has to do with the local media also. Where I live, our local paper is the Bakersfield Californian. Just before the March Meet, there is practically nothing in their sports page but drag racing for a full week.

Jay

I can summarize the Californian in two words Jay...Mike Griffin! If Mike wasn't such a huge fan I'm not sure where we would be. BTW, are you going to The Patch at the end of the month for The Heritage Series? TF and everything BUT Funny Car I believe.

 

[Wayne]

It's obvious that the smaller markets pay far more attention to this sport than the Big Cities! Gainesville, Norwalk, Topeka, and Memphis, etc... Do a great job promoting a race coming to town. Houston, L.A. and Dallas are pathetic!

Excluding our own Kris Hill , Seattle media doesn't do much either!

 

[nick name]

Updating the thread, today's coverage was a article covering Melanie and Tommy Jr.

The forecast for today is a 90% chance of rain for most of the day, so all this work may be for naught.