How to fix the NHRA (1 Viewer)

[Oggy]

So Ford AND Castrol are pulling out?

WHAT?!?!?

Time to fix things. I don't claim to have all the answers, but I have a pretty good idea of what needs to be done from a fan's perspective.

1. Go back to 1320ft in the fuel classes by taking Dale Armstrong's advice and implementing some sort of blower overdrive rule.
WHY?
Suddenly, Top Fuel racing is marginally affordable for all involved. No one is going to complain about less parts being hurt, less maintenance in-between runs, and roughly the same sensory overload for the fans.

2. Replace Top Fuel Funny Car as we know it with the Nostalgia Funny Car ruleset, but do not impose restrictions on body styles.
WHY?
You want your 32-car fields? There you go. You want the cars to have more personality than just a doorstop with wheels and a spoiler? There you go. 70's Firebirds running against modern Dodge Chargers? There you go. You want regional heroes like Bucky Austin and Jason Rupert competing for a championship against Tim Wilkerson and John Force without having to drop $3,000,000 a season on R&D? There you go.

3. Pro Mod runs the full NHRA schedule.
WHY?
These cars headline most sportsman drag racing events. Unless the money situation really IS that bad, they should be running the full schedule.

4. Replace Pro Stock Bike with Nitro Harley. Also, they run the full NHRA schedule as well.
WHY?
Nitro Harley is the most insane class in drag racing and there's no reason these guys shouldn't be under the NHRA banner.

5. Combine Pro Stock Car and the now defunct Pro Stock Truck into one PRO STOCK class using PSC rules.
WHY?
Aero complications aside, this would add a much needed diversity to the field in Pro Stock.

6. Add two Canadian events to the schedule. One in Grand Bend during the spring (ideally after New England) and another one in Edmonton (ideally after Seattle).
WHY?
The IHRA is only getting smaller and yet the Edmonton & Toronto events are always packed. Like, "if you're not in the stands two hours PRIOR to TF qualifying, you won't have a seat" packed. Capitalize on this because even though we have to wait till 2 in the afternoon on a Wednesday to see eliminations coverage, Canada DOES have more than five drag racing fans.

7. Q3 and Q4 are always run on Saturday night under the lights.
WHY?
IHRA's "Night of Fire" is the best thing about their entire program and 90% of the time results in an absolutely perfect evening. Why WOULDN'T you want to copy this?

8. Thursday night before the event is "Street Legal Night". Time trials from 6 - 8pm, eliminations (with dial-ins) start at 8:30pm. Run rounds until you have a winner. Give out a Wally.
WHY?
Tons of tracks have street legal nights and the NHRA always plays adverts for them over the PA system during breaks. Why not make an NHRA-sanctioned street legal night part of the national event schedule? The ESPN3 coverage of this would be glorious given how much fun Dave & Mike have in the booth already.

There, fixed it for ya.

 

[HEMI6point1]

1. Oh hell yeah!

2. That would be awesome to see.

3. The costs to run the full tour might make it tougher, but yeah.... this would be cool. And include them on the ESPN2 telecast, NOT just when one of them crashes.

4. Nitro Harley is exciting to watch, but what do you tell all the PSM guys/girls who worked hard on their setups that it's all going to go *POOF*?

5. No. How about making the cars look a little more "stock" and adding EFI? That would be a start.

6. That would be nice for the Canadian fans, but what US tracks would be dropped to accommodate them?

7. Nice for the fans, terrible for the teams who have to stay up until 1AM then have to get up at 7AM the next day.

8. I can agree with this, actually.

 

[Silly Savage]

8. Thursday night before the event is "Street Legal Night". Time trials from 6 - 8pm, eliminations (with dial-ins) start at 8:30pm. Run rounds until you have a winner. Give out a Wally.

Never happen with the amount of prep and set up that needs to be done the day before a National begins....but a nice idea.

 

[HEMI6point1]

The only issue with street legal night is that you'll have every jalopy that has sat in a garage trying to give it their all on thursday. Cab you say, "cleanup?" LOL!

 

[cdag]

The only issue with street legal night is that you'll have every jalopy that has sat in a garage trying to give it their all on thursday. Cab you say, "cleanup?" LOL!

Those street tires destroy any rubber that's laid down on the track, especially the start line.

 

[None]

Never happen with the amount of prep and set up that needs to be done the day before a National begins....but a nice idea.

Not enough room in the pits anywhere to park them.

 

[None]

1. Oh hell yeah!

2. That would be awesome to see.

3. The costs to run the full tour might make it tougher, but yeah.... this would be cool. And include them on the ESPN2 telecast, NOT just when one of them crashes.

4. Nitro Harley is exciting to watch, but what do you tell all the PSM guys/girls who worked hard on their setups that it's all going to go *POOF*?

5. No. How about making the cars look a little more "stock" and adding EFI? That would be a start.

6. That would be nice for the Canadian fans, but what US tracks would be dropped to accommodate them?

7. Nice for the fans, terrible for the teams who have to stay up until 1AM then have to get up at 7AM the next day.

8. I can agree with this, actually.

6. Two of the NHRA owned tracks, does not matter, any two.

 

[Project Paladin]

Very good points, I like it a lot. Just add, Fuel Altereds!!!

 

[Silly Savage]

I'll throw out 10 ideas (ideals) that may or may not be worth a damn:

1) Slow down the fuel classes and get back to 1320ft and find some cost cutting to get the cost of racing down somehow. I believe the sounds, smell and other sensations of nitro racing are more inportant than them going 3 seconds at 400mph.

2) Less sportsman racing at National events. As a former racer I am on the fence here, but the filler should be something that keeps the action going for the fans. TA/FC and T/AD is good, but add some Fuel Altereds, nitro harleys Pro Mods or exhibition cars that a lot of people don't usually get to see.

3) Market the drivers better. Need to get better name recognition of the drivers and find ways to get them air time. Stories on ALL drivers.

4) A driver developement system that doesn't go from JR Dragsters to Top Fuel. Try and work with alcohol teams to develop drivers to move up like most other racing organizations do. Find some insentive and help build driver recognition early so fans can really watch them move up. Like Morgan Lucas, Brandon Berstein, Melanie Troxel, Cruz, Tony, etc used to do.

5) Going back to the less sportsman racers thought, find ways to have RV/Camping at the tracks at more events for spectators. You can RV/Camp at most tracks in NASCAR, maybe use the open pit area free'd up by less sportsman cars to get more people to the track. Get some tail gating going on and let the spectators pay to camp over night near the pits. (extra revenue for track/NHRA)

6) Since NHRA is paying for TV anyways, try different outlets. Speed Channel, MAVTV, etc. Got to be more than one way to skin that cat.

7) Marketing: MORE MORE MORE. There should be contests for people/familys to win to travel to events and have VIP tickets, etc. More teams doing pre event meet and greets, more news about drivers doing things in their communities with schools, YMCAs, etc, etc. Nicknames...corny, but affective. Every driver/car has a nickname.

8) How about some MORE marketing....get NHRA appareal in WalMart, Target, etc. Be able to buy a hat, t-shirt or sweat shirt of your favorite teams and drivers at places other than the track or team website.

9) Get some of the big names of the past back on the scene. If Force and Schu weren't out thre, where would you see any generational connections....
Need more heros of yester-year walking the grounds and having a place to be remembered and embraced. Look back to number 1 above: some of those guys know what is best for drag racing....

10) Here is one WAAAAAY outside of the box. Bring back divisional points on a national level. Divide up the map of the yearly national events, using the NHRA divisional borderlines. At the beginning of the season the drivers decide which "division" they are going collect points for and they only get division points at those race tracks. Have a bonus program for the divisional champ for each division. This gives you a race within a race at every event AND you might be able to pursuade smaller regional teams to come out more and have something more to shoot for. (ya, big spit wad there....)

Have at it....

 

[my friends call me Zappy]

1) go back to 1320ft, - WHY?? they are going almost as fast at 1,000ft as they were at 1320. And we didn't loose any tracks that couldn't expand.

3-4) you want to dump PSM, that's fine, but why replace with another bike class. They have their own series. Put those bucks towards the cars.

P/M at ALL races...?? you just tripled their budget. They run what 10 races a year, and you want them to go to 26 a year. Where's the money coming from. You want bigger fields, great, but you got to make it cheaper to play if you want more players.

Everyone loves night Q's, but you can't make them mandatory, some tracks have local noise restrictions, you don't want to make an enemy of your neighbors.

PRO/STOCK...yes make them real. Now they are nothing more than GAS FLOPPERS like Karl says. Run F/I and pump gas. No 500 in dual quads. May
get the car Co's back involved.....who knows.

Some nice ideas from a fan stand point, but not practical , you will add to the cost instead of lowering it.

 

[SundayNiagara]

So Ford AND Castrol are pulling out?

WHAT?!?!?

Time to fix things. I don't claim to have all the answers, but I have a pretty good idea of what needs to be done from a fan's perspective.

1. Go back to 1320ft in the fuel classes by taking Dale Armstrong's advice and implementing some sort of blower overdrive rule.
WHY?
Suddenly, Top Fuel racing is marginally affordable for all involved. No one is going to complain about less parts being hurt, less maintenance in-between runs, and roughly the same sensory overload for the fans.

2. Replace Top Fuel Funny Car as we know it with the Nostalgia Funny Car ruleset, but do not impose restrictions on body styles.
WHY?
You want your 32-car fields? There you go. You want the cars to have more personality than just a doorstop with wheels and a spoiler? There you go. 70's Firebirds running against modern Dodge Chargers? There you go. You want regional heroes like Bucky Austin and Jason Rupert competing for a championship against Tim Wilkerson and John Force without having to drop $3,000,000 a season on R&D? There you go.

3. Pro Mod runs the full NHRA schedule.
WHY?
These cars headline most sportsman drag racing events. Unless the money situation really IS that bad, they should be running the full schedule.

4. Replace Pro Stock Bike with Nitro Harley. Also, they run the full NHRA schedule as well.
WHY?
Nitro Harley is the most insane class in drag racing and there's no reason these guys shouldn't be under the NHRA banner.

5. Combine Pro Stock Car and the now defunct Pro Stock Truck into one PRO STOCK class using PSC rules.
WHY?
Aero complications aside, this would add a much needed diversity to the field in Pro Stock.

6. Add two Canadian events to the schedule. One in Grand Bend during the spring (ideally after New England) and another one in Edmonton (ideally after Seattle).
WHY?
The IHRA is only getting smaller and yet the Edmonton & Toronto events are always packed. Like, "if you're not in the stands two hours PRIOR to TF qualifying, you won't have a seat" packed. Capitalize on this because even though we have to wait till 2 in the afternoon on a Wednesday to see eliminations coverage, Canada DOES have more than five drag racing fans.

7. Q3 and Q4 are always run on Saturday night under the lights.
WHY?
IHRA's "Night of Fire" is the best thing about their entire program and 90% of the time results in an absolutely perfect evening. Why WOULDN'T you want to copy this?

8. Thursday night before the event is "Street Legal Night". Time trials from 6 - 8pm, eliminations (with dial-ins) start at 8:30pm. Run rounds until you have a winner. Give out a Wally.
WHY?
Tons of tracks have street legal nights and the NHRA always plays adverts for them over the PA system during breaks. Why not make an NHRA-sanctioned street legal night part of the national event schedule? The ESPN3 coverage of this would be glorious given how much fun Dave & Mike have in the booth already.

There, fixed it for ya.

Grand Bend is not near Toronto. As a matter of fact, neither is Cayuga, which is more like, Atlanta-Commerce.

 

[Raconteur]

Job #1

Replace Pro Stock with Unlimited Pro Mod.

Job #2

Replace Pro Stock Bike with Unlimited Nitro Harley

Job #3

In most cases, take one day off of all events.

 

[Silly Savage]

Job #1

Replace Pro Stock with Unlimited Pro Mod.

Job #2

Replace Pro Stock Bike with Unlimited Nitro Harley

Job #3

In most cases, take one day off of all events.

Sums it up pretty much right there.

 

[mw6789]

1. Oh hell yeah!

2. That would be awesome to see.

3. The costs to run the full tour might make it tougher, but yeah.... this would be cool. And include them on the ESPN2 telecast, NOT just when one of them crashes.

4. Nitro Harley is exciting to watch, but what do you tell all the PSM guys/girls who worked hard on their setups that it's all going to go *POOF*?

5. No. How about making the cars look a little more "stock" and adding EFI? That would be a start.

6. That would be nice for the Canadian fans, but what US tracks would be dropped to accommodate them?

7. Nice for the fans, terrible for the teams who have to stay up until 1AM then have to get up at 7AM the next day.

8. I can agree with this, actually.

4. Same thing the Pro Stock Truck owners were told.

 

[Silly Savage]

1) go back to 1320ft, - WHY?? they are going almost as fast at 1,000ft as they were at 1320. And we didn't loose any tracks that couldn't expand.

My suggestions to slow them down, back to 300mph zone and keep the motors together, at least for a little longer

3-4) you want to dump PSM, that's fine, but why replace with another bike class. They have their own series. Put those bucks towards the cars.

Never said dump PS/M...I said dump SPORTSMAN classes

P/M at ALL races...?? you just tripled their budget. They run what 10 races a year, and you want them to go to 26 a year. Where's the money coming from. You want bigger fields, great, but you got to make it cheaper to play if you want more players.

NOPE, not what I said. I said to add other CLASSES, like Pro Mod, Nitro Harleys, Fuel Altereds....

Everyone loves night Q's, but you can't make them mandatory, some tracks have local noise restrictions, you don't want to make an enemy of your neighbors.

PRO/STOCK...yes make them real. Now they are nothing more than GAS FLOPPERS like Karl says. Run F/I and pump gas. No 500 in dual quads. May
get the car Co's back involved.....who knows.

Totally agree....infact, let them run ethonal since that seems to be the "fuel of the future"

Some nice ideas from a fan stand point, but not practical , you will add to the cost instead of lowering it.

Wasn't the point to make this more fan friendly and a better show for the fan? I'm not a fan, I'm a 2nd generation former racer.....

 

[Bullard Anderson]

Slow the cars down and give back 1320 feet. Fans need to "SEE" a race visually, cars going side ways, drivers hanging on. Not a blur and "oooh wow that's 3.96 in a Funny Car" Going after a number is great in the 80's and 70's when the fan's were watching a race not blurred vision.

 

[DrRocket]

I seem to remember that one of the reasons there's no NHRA involvement in Canada is Canada's strict leaded fuel ban. They won't even allow the use of leaded fuels in racing gas, iffen I remember correctly.

 

[Silly Savage]

I seem to remember that one of the reasons there's no NHRA involvement in Canada is Canada's strict leaded fuel ban. They won't even allow the use of leaded fuels in racing gas, iffen I remember correctly.

I do recall that teams were also severly raped at the border and the rigs were gone through with a fine tooth comb....

 

[PJ]

I seem to remember that one of the reasons there's no NHRA involvement in Canada is Canada's strict leaded fuel ban. They won't even allow the use of leaded fuels in racing gas, iffen I remember correctly.

IHRA still holds races there

 

[Super Mod]