Helping HD Partners (2 Viewers)

[headporter]

Ok folks lets KEEP this Positive please.

Since we all have to accept HDP taking over NHRA Pro Racing.. Lets see what we all come up for thoughts that will be on a positive note to HELP out the pro racers, and HDP to improve the show/races..

1. Increase Purse Money
2. Keep the Sportman side at Nations events
3. Improve track conditions for better side by side racing

etc etc

Lets keep this on the Up beat side so perhaps HDP will actually read this, and Listen to what we all have to say.

Lets show them we are willing to share Good ideas that can be brought about in a timely manor.

All the rumors of this take over should be left out, as there is too much keyboard racing gossip in other threads.

So come on with your ideas and lets see if we can make this work for everyone.

 

["Dr. Dirt"]

I'll bite on this one:

Firstly, I believe the current boycott should be addressed. The Pros are very right that every round winner should have their moment on the screen to promote their sponsors. There's much room for improvement there.

Next, let them use their networking expertise to improve the overall TV packaging. This is where the real revenue can come in if they are successful at creating a market that will lure sponsorship into the mix as other forms of motor-sports have in times past.

Also, I believe there needs to be a clear understanding of the need for constant communication between the Pro classes and the sanctioning body beyond the current system. This would be such where the stars of the show can collectively input their two cents in such a way that it will always be considered important.

SFI could be reorganized in such a way that fewer individuals have such a strong voice that the common consensus gets left behind. In other words, remove any and all politics and stick with documented facts.

I'm looking forward to other's input on this.

 

[PJ]

Marketing, marketing, marketing

you can't grow if you don't invest. I don't remember who said it but the famous line of "you have to spend money to make money"

-I want to be able to go into walmart and buy drag racing towels, my kids want racing sheets for their bed. I don't want to have to go to a race to buy a shirt. I see nascar stuff everywhere, we need to be the same way

- a one stop shop for all racing items online. Most drivers e-stores are lacking and nitromall doesn't carry everyone. My in laws don't know anything about drag racing but they do know that their grandkids love it. They would love to be able to go to one website and buy gifts. Instead they have try to remember who is who and who they drive for and then find their website just for one kid. Then they need to repeat it for the next. A one stop e-store is much needed

-drag racing themed toys for kids, heck even a cartoon or movie (think Cars version of drag racing)

-eliminate the countdown (big surprise from me right lol)

-exposure. get one of our drivers on dancing with stars or something like that. Hillary was on a game show but it really didn't give her a chance to promote the sport. Why don't I ever see a racing ads on pinks, pimp my ride, nascar or any other car themed shows. How about putting together an ad blitz that shows on non racing times. Maybe epsn during football or on whatever the hot show is right now.

-lower the cost for fuel cars. Going back to 90% is the right direction, lets look at ways to keep the cost a little more controlled even if it means slowing them down A LITTLE. Both fuel classes need to be above 300mph. But if slowing them 10-15mph can make it more affordale not only for the drivers out there now but also for the ones wanting to be, well then thats something that should be explored. Also lower cost mean less money needed from sponsors, with a lower level of funding needed it may open the possibility of sponsoring to more companies.

-Audiocast is great but there are ways to improve it and to even make it a revenue stream. <my own little million dollar idea >

-A small form of profit sharing. Could be sticky I realize but a mentality of group growth and survival should overcome.

-There is a sense that nhra snags sponsors away from teams. While there are occasions when this has happened, there are also time that they have helped teams. There needs to be a bigger sense of all for one and one for all. If nhra holds a race but teams can't afford to get there who does that help. Develope a program to not only bring up new drivers but also to help grow sponsors.
What if they helped start a group for new drivers as well as helping to get regional sponsorships. They could combine a driver in training with a regional sponsor and have them exhibition at a couple of divisional events. The benefits are huge if a divisional event could promote that they had 2 fuelers there. It would increase people coming to those events, give a smaller or regional company some publicity and a taste of racing. That could help entice them to jump in bigger on the national level. Plus it could help be a training ground for up and comers. More people through the gate would make the local tracks happy. The sportsman racers would have more people seeing them and in turn their sponsors.

-part of marketing it to see who are the faces of our sport. Obviously Force, Shoe and the likes but the main 2 people that present the sport to the masses are Mike Dunn and Paul Page. Mike does an awesome job, any first timer can tell he has a love for the sport and a deep knowledge if it. Paul...well he is trying and is improving but he's still nowhere near what we need. Put Dave Rieff, Alan Reinhart or John Kernan into that spot.

-Put people with race experince onto the board of nhra. There is a sense that everyone there is either a suit or hasn't been in a car since the 50's. We don't need all suits or all gearheads running the show. A good healthy mixure is needed. You need to have business smarts but there needs to be a passion and love for this sport in order to properly sell it to the masses. I deal with sales people all day at work, you can tell if they are selling it for the paycheck or if they actually believe in their product.

 

[Draw 3D]

I'm pretty sure HDP has their own specific ideas for generating profits for the stockholders, their main directive, and, since they have not taken over as of yet so there is nothing to review, my only thought is; don't listen to keyboard "experts".

 

[PJ]

I'm pretty sure HDP has their own specific ideas for generating profits for the stockholders, their main directive, and, since they have not taken over as of yet so there is nothing to review, my only thought is; don't listen to keyboard "experts".

true I would hope that they have a plan in place. I don't see where a healthy discussion and exchanging of ideas should be threatening to you or them though....

 

[Alan]

I say dump the Countdown as well, but if they insist on keeping it, alter it. The top 10 in each class compete from Indy on for the title, and that's the only cut-off.

Pro-Mod....make it a full Pro Class, but have a cut-off for the body style. Nothing newer than (fill in the blank).

E-store is huge. PJ is right, it is a pain in the ass to tell people what I want for Xmas, and what website they have to go to to find it.

Increase the purses.

 

[Draw 3D]

true I would hope that they have a plan in place. I don't see where a healthy discussion and exchanging of ideas should be threatening to you or them though....

I don't think an exchange of ideas is "threatening", just premature evaluation and I don't think anybody wants that!

 

[blackbeard]

abc, fox, nbc, or cbs. 'nough said

 

[PJ]

I believe abc is out of the football shuffle. So sundays' are open for them.

5 or 6 pm drag racing every Sunday on the big network. A consistant timeslot would do wonders.
NBC could do the same leading up to the sunday night football game

 

[DrRocket]

I believe abc is out of the football shuffle. So sundays' are open for them.

5 or 6 pm drag racing every Sunday on the big network. A consistant timeslot would do wonders.
NBC could do the same leading up to the sunday night football game

I thought ESPN2 did OK on that this year. Most all of them were on at 6pm central, from what I remember.

 

["Dr. Dirt"]

I don't think an exchange of ideas is "threatening", just premature evaluation and I don't think anybody wants that!

I'll respectfully disagree and take offense to your statement at the same time. Now, I remember you from the old board real well. It's all coming back to me-one of the keyboard "experts" clear as a bell now. It appears that others who are offering their input also may "want that!" I suspect they find your remarks a "slap in the face" as I did.

 

[Muddy]

I'm sorry to say this because like you I truly enjoy and love drag racing. But the truth is drag racing will never be able to compete with NASCAR and other forms of motor racing because of its very nature. Think about it..you get to see the sponsor's name for 25 or 30 seconds in drag racing and that's only if the team is very successful. In most other forms you see the sponsors name lap after lap after lap. Total exposure time for the sponsor is measured in minutes not seconds.

Simply put the return on investment is and never will be there. At the end of the year a 3 million dollar investment get a sponsor perhaps 10 minutes total exposure at the rate of $5,000.00 per second while 20 million in NASCAR may get 90 minutes total exposure at the rate of $3,700.00 per second. Next you must calcuulate how many eyes view that second. I don't know the numbers but its very easy to speculate that for every drag race viewer there are 20 or 30 NASCAR viewers.

Before you jump on this about the numbers let me say they were just for illustration purposes and I'm unsure of the accuracy but I suspect if they are wrong then it will only make the ROI for drag racing worse.

At some point we must get back to our roots and realize drag racing will never be a big time fan based motor sport. It just doesn't lend itself to a made for television event that provides an acceptable ROI for the sponsors.

We've taken the real innovation out of it which is the reason most of us did this thing. We've made it so expensive that 3 or 4 guys can no longer go together a build a competive car that can run in the "PRO" classes. We used to have 32 car fields in fuel classes all the time and once in a while 64 car classes. What happened? We need to get back to our Roots!

Just my opinion

 

[PJ]

I thought ESPN2 did OK on that this year. Most all of them were on at 6pm central, from what I remember.

the last few races did have good time slots and I think were the same but most of the season saw it jump around alot. Including some 11pm starts

 

[PJ]

I'm sorry to say this because like you I truly enjoy and love drag racing. But the truth is drag racing will never be able to compete with NASCAR and other forms of motor racing because of its very nature. Think about it..you get to see the sponsor's name for 25 or 30 seconds in drag racing and that's only if the team is very successful. In most other forms you see the sponsors name lap after lap after lap. Total exposure time for the sponsor is measured in minutes not seconds.

Simply put the return on investment is and never will be there. At the end of the year a 3 million dollar investment get a sponsor perhaps 10 minutes total exposure at the rate of $5,000.00 per second while 20 million in NASCAR may get 90 minutes total exposure at the rate of $3,700.00 per second. Next you must calcuulate how many eyes view that second. I don't know the numbers but its very easy to speculate that for every drag race viewer there are 20 or 30 NASCAR viewers.

Before you jump on this about the numbers let me say they were just for illustration purposes and I'm unsure of the accuracy but I suspect if they are wrong then it will only make the ROI for drag racing worse.

At some point we must get back to our roots and realize drag racing will never be a big time fan based motor sport. It just doesn't lend itself to a made for television event that provides an acceptable ROI for the sponsors.

We've taken the real innovation out of it which is the reason most of us did this thing. We've made it so expensive that 3 or 4 guys can no longer go together a build a competive car that can run in the "PRO" classes. We used to have 32 car fields in fuel classes all the time and once in a while 64 car classes. What happened? We need to get back to our Roots!

Just my opinion

While I agree that we may never be as big as nascar (and I am ok with that)

Now admittedly I don't watch nascar but the few times I have stopped to see what the big deal is it seems only the front few cars get coverage or any big name person that isn't doing well and of course whoever crashes.

Do they really show all 30 or 40 cars that are running in nascar. When the are shown is it focussed on them or are they looking at 10 cars fighting for 7the place?
When Winston sponsored both nascar and drag racing they said that while they did get twice the new customers from nascar then they did from drag racing, it took them 4 times the money to do it. Seems DR is the better deal as you get a better ROI

 

[Draw 3D]

I'll respectfully disagree and take offense to your statement at the same time. Now, I remember you from the old board real well. It's all coming back to me-one of the keyboard "experts" clear as a bell now. It appears that others who are offering their input also may "want that!" I suspect they find your remarks a "slap in the face" as I did.

My "premature evaluation" statement was a "slap in the face" to you? I guess it doesn't take much.

If you think of me as a keyboard "expert", I don't have a problem with it, but apparently you do.

I don't post much, usually only in matters that I have had some experience in. In this case, I thought posting ideas about what a HDP should do before they have even taken charge is a bit, well, premature. And that is not meant to be a slap to anybodies face.

I guess you think I am not allowed to post my comments, that is, if they go against yours.

If you want to continue this, maybe a PM would be more appropriate.

 

[vegasnitro]

Seems like we are just rehashing stuff from old threads, but I will go ahead and rehash my ideas:

- Shorten the TV show. 3 hours is too long, too many replays of the same runs especially first round top fuel and funny car. Also too many interviews. We don't need to see Force thanking everybody four times an eliminations show.
- Fix the TV time slot. Asking folks on the east coast and in flyover states to stay up to 1 AM on Sunday night is ridiculous.
- Pick 4 events and call them the "Grand Slam" or "Big 4" or something along those lines. Hype the heck out of them and buy time on network TV for those races. If NHRA can buy time on ESPN, they should be able to get on ABC. (I nominate Gainesville, ETown, Indy and Pomona 2)
- Run races in the summer on Saturday night. Too hot during the day on Sundays and too many tire smokers. Also allows you to pick your time slot on Sunday for a replay show for those that can't stay up Saturday night for the first broadcast.
- Develop ancillary TV programming. Should not be hard to develop NHRA Tech or Inside NHRA or something similar for a mid week show on ESPN2 or Speed.
- Either increase the purses for the Pros or backoff on the ridiculous fees they charge for selling merchandise on the midway. Also allow teams to have reasonable fees for hospitality and catering.
- Develop the sportsman series as a type of Busch series for NHRA pro racing. Hype the stars of tomorrow. Give a short segment on the national event broadcast for the sportsman winners.

 

["Dr. Dirt"]

My "premature evaluation" statement was a "slap in the face" to you? I guess it doesn't take much.

If you think of me as a keyboard "expert", I don't have a problem with it, but apparently you do.

I don't post much, usually only in matters that I have had some experience in. In this case, I thought posting ideas about what a HDP should do before they have even taken charge is a bit, well, premature. And that is not meant to be a slap to anybodies face.

I guess you think I am not allowed to post my comments, that is, if they go against yours.

If you want to continue this, maybe a PM would be more appropriate.

From the number of posts in the short time since Bob posted the thread, I believe we would want to continue this through general posting without the keyboard "experts" comments.

May we now return to our regularly scheduled Mater thread.

 

[Muddy]

While I agree that we may never be as big as nascar (and I am ok with that)

Now admittedly I don't watch nascar but the few times I have stopped to see what the big deal is it seems only the front few cars get coverage or any big name person that isn't doing well and of course whoever crashes.

Do they really show all 30 or 40 cars that are running in nascar. When the are shown is it focussed on them or are they looking at 10 cars fighting for 7the place?
When Winston sponsored both nascar and drag racing they said that while they did get twice the new customers from nascar then they did from drag racing, it took them 4 times the money to do it. Seems DR is the better deal as you get a better ROI

I'll be more than happy to stipulate that you see the "successful" NASCAR teams lap after lap just like I had stipulated you see the successful drag racing teams. Truth of the matter is you almost don't see anything of the less successful drag racing teams (count down or not) and the sponsor get no exposure. In NASCAR the sponsor of most teams (good or bad) at least gets some exposure because of that big ol bilboard called a hood.

By the way I don't care for the count down the way its structured and I think it further impacts the sponsors exposure but not as much as the teams lack of success.

 

[PJ]

OK but I have to wonder. If the low budget team who barely makes it in the field and qualifies 16. Does he not get more direct coverage than whoever finishes 13th, 21st,29th or last in a nascar event?
In drag racing they will show the burnout, last second adjustments, staging then the run as well as replays. You have 2 vehicles or for this conversation sponsors and thats it. In nascar anytime that they would show cars further back in the back it would be as a group shot. The viewers attention is split in several directions and that assumes that the camera is such that each sponsor on the 3, 6, 12 cars in the frame can all be seen.

I would think The leaders in a nascar race would get more actual tv time then a winner in tf but even at that I wonder if this is a question of quality vs quantity. Driver A wins the race. He/she gets 4 passes where it is only them and one other car, interviewed after each pass plus the race winning interview. Drive B wins the nascar race. Leads 25 laps. never runs away from the pack the camera is always on 4-7 cars. One interview after the win.

Now driver b gets more tv time, but with spiltting the viewers attention is it to the same quality(and arguably more of an impact) then drive a gets.

 

[megadeth]

I'm sorry to say this because like you I truly enjoy and love drag racing. But the truth is drag racing will never be able to compete with NASCAR and other forms of motor racing because of its very nature. Think about it..you get to see the sponsor's name for 25 or 30 seconds in drag racing and that's only if the team is very successful. In most other forms you see the sponsors name lap after lap after lap. Total exposure time for the sponsor is measured in minutes not seconds.

Simply put the return on investment is and never will be there. At the end of the year a 3 million dollar investment get a sponsor perhaps 10 minutes total exposure at the rate of $5,000.00 per second while 20 million in NASCAR may get 90 minutes total exposure at the rate of $3,700.00 per second. Next you must calcuulate how many eyes view that second. I don't know the numbers but its very easy to speculate that for every drag race viewer there are 20 or 30 NASCAR viewers.


Before you jump on this about the numbers let me say they were just for illustration purposes and I'm unsure of the accuracy but I suspect if they are wrong then it will only make the ROI for drag racing worse.

At some point we must get back to our roots and realize drag racing will never be a big time fan based motor sport. It just doesn't lend itself to a made for television event that provides an acceptable ROI for the sponsors.

We've taken the real innovation out of it which is the reason most of us did this thing. We've made it so expensive that 3 or 4 guys can no longer go together a build a competive car that can run in the "PRO" classes. We used to have 32 car fields in fuel classes all the time and once in a while 64 car classes. What happened? We need to get back to our Roots!

Just my opinion

I agree!
There is too much down time between action and if an oil down happens it's worse!
I think Sportsman classes need their own event, I like sportsman classes, but people are paying to see the Fuel Cars that is an undisputable fact!
Just look at the stands when the sportsman classes are running it's not rocket science.
Make Pro Mod's, T/F Harleys and Fuel Altered a class would be a good idea.
I agree with Doc a solid TV package would definitely help the cause but bottom line Drag Racing is not TV friendly and until they could figure how to make it friendlier it will stunt the sports growth!
I don't have any ideas myself but it still needs to happen.