Maybe they need a cake decorator fart pipe class, and the drivers have to wear bikini's.
Maybe they need a cake decorator fart pipe class, and the drivers have to wear bikini's.
Is that really necessary? I thought we were beyond that, but I guess not. Side by side 7.1 second passes at 200+ MPH in FWD cars...
I have sat through quite a few of those import NHRA shows on TV. The biggest issue is fields of only 6-8 cars and half-empty stands. I have to laugh at the drivers who say "we've been struggling" and he's safely in the show.
I liked the sport compacts when they were allowed V8s. Although me and I'm sure many others are impressed by a 4-banger that puts a grand worth of horsepower, to a casual drag racing fan or people who like V8-powered cars (like me), what does the sport compacts remind them of? They remind people of the riced-out Honda or Toyota with the fart cannon exhaust and basket-handle wing that's owned by the rap-blasting punk down the street.
Not to mention many of those sport compacts keep the track crew busy with all the axles and other parts they snap/break leaving them unable to make the call for the next round.
Oh, and as for as the half-empty crowds? It would be even worse if not for the bikini contests....
If people think I'm off-base, then why do guys like Matt Scranton and Justin Humphreys switch to AMERICAN cars in pro stock?
Yeah I know what you mean, kinda like, all Blacks are theaves, all Italians are mobsters, all Mexicans are lazy, all Southerners are stupid.......................................Although me and I'm sure many others are impressed by a 4-banger that puts a grand worth of horsepower, to a casual drag racing fan or people who like V8-powered cars (like me), what does the sport compacts remind them of? They remind people of the riced-out Honda or Toyota with the fart cannon exhaust and basket-handle wing that's owned by the rap-blasting punk down the street...............
That same Punk is liable to grow up to be a doctor........................and don't forget for a second what you looked like at that age. Those same kids can tune a Turbocharged, Electronic Fuel Injection System in their driveway faster than an old fart can adjust the idle on his Quadrajet.With the import crowd its all about respect.......or the lack of. To see a guy with his hat sitting sideways looking like the punk down the street from my house its really hard to take them seriously.
The NOPI races have great bikini contests already even without having the drivers in them.
It sounds like NHRA is combining with NOPI and that isn't a bad thing. The competition is becoming unaffordable to the group it was started for and that's made for dwindling car count. 8's was very fast for any import just a couple years ago. Now some of those low six second cars run heads up against Pro Mods. Any new class of heads up racing suffers that fate.
They may be foreign cars to us but to most of the rest of the world they are quite domestic and that is a good way to expand the appeal of drag racing to the few places that haven't already heard of it.
Bangkok Drag Avenue
Drag-Bitva 2007
Being a "import" racer myself, it is very annoying to be classed with those that ruin it with the above examples you gave but in most cases anyone who knows something about racing can tell whos there for show and whos there to race. I went to the SC finals in Pomona last year and was very impressed with the drivers and crews in how professional and knowledgable they were and I wish that more people would come out and learn something. And being a female, I think the bikini contests and bs like that just brings the wrong crowd to the track, granted money is money and it gets people in the stands but I go to the track to race. Sport Compact series will never be what Powerade is today but it would be nice for the sport to grow and have more people out there racing.