Promotion idea for the NHRA (1 Viewer)

[aakar]

BB was no longer the owner of Greatlakes Dragaway when Force & Bazemore ran there. Also, Force & Bazemore didn't run at 2am, nor was it at The Olympics of Drag Racing.

Pretty sure BB still was the owner, as he was the one that asked for the second Saturday race, making for only one match on Sunday, reason being that there was a great crowd late night. Force was in the Firebird, it was that long ago.
I will change what I said about the time to well after midnight
Never said Force and Bazemore match race was during the Olympics
Peace

 

[James]

I don't think BIG ever made a pass on a carrier, but there were advertisements (posters, banners, and such) with the Swamp Rat parked on a steam catapult on a US Navy carrier. (google it) And if I'm not mistaken, I've seen the same thing with Bernstein's car at one point or another. The Garlits deal was early in the early70's, and KB would have been somewhere in the 80's.... if I'm not mistaken.

Edit: And now that I think about it, the KB deal might have been just a drawing that I saw, not an actual photo of his car on a carrier. I'm sure someone with a better memory than I will post what really happened.

I believe KB did do a burnout on the carrier. Remember an interview with Armstrong where he mentioned the film crew pulling their hair out because after each take they had to service the engine.

 

[T.Smith]

Pretty sure BB still was the owner, as he was the one that asked for the second Saturday race, making for only one match on Sunday, reason being that there was a great crowd late night. Force was in the Firebird, it was that long ago.
I will change what I said about the time to well after midnight
Never said Force and Bazemore match race was during the Olympics
Peace

Great Lakes Dragaway was sold to Mofoco in 1994.

It was an above average crowd on Saturday night and below average on Sunday. Maybe the $35 ticket price (1995) had something to do with it. UDRA was also booked in that weekend.

I can't imagine the track made much money that weekend and possibly even lost money.

 

[Luke Nieuwhof]

A good start would be to allow video under their media accreditation policy. The audience of some of the big automotive YouTubers is even larger than Fox.

 

[BOO BOO]

They need to promote the sport, learn from the Bader family (and others like the Bandimeres and study the history of Broadway Metzler) and stay as far away from gimmicks as possible

Not sure I would call it a gimmick. It would reach a lot of ppl and hopefully it would get some to come to a races and get interested in the sport.

 

[Jeff]

Would never happen but I would like to see call outs on Friday nights. Have the teams pick a entrance song and have the crew escort the car and driver to the water box. Basically a boxing entrance.

I really like that idea of Friday night callouts.
Money could bet, I mean donated (betting may not be legal...) and the money donated to charities like the Make a Wish Foundation, Riley Children's Hospital in memory of Terry Chandler, who I really admired for her generosity.
Make it the last run of the qualifying session, maybe use just a couple minutes to hype it up for the crowd and encourage them to donate in the winner's name.
There is so much that could be done creatively.
A grudge match between Josh Hart's team and Elite, with Hart's team backing another P/S car to run for them... the list goes on.

I don't have a lot of money to "contribute", but I would love to be apart of something like this to help generate donations and excitement for the crowd and would volunteer my time.

You can tell I have been bored at work today...
Heck, we could bet, I mean donate some of Don Schumacher's money...
I better get back to work...

 

[M Jones]

I really like that idea of Friday night callouts.
Money could bet, I mean donated (betting may not be legal...) and the money donated to charities like the Make a Wish Foundation, Riley Children's Hospital in memory of Terry Chandler, who I really admired for her generosity.
Make it the last run of the qualifying session, maybe use just a couple minutes to hype it up for the crowd and encourage them to donate in the winner's name.
There is so much that could be done creatively.
A grudge match between Josh Hart's team and Elite, with Hart's team backing another P/S car to run for them... the list goes on.

I don't have a lot of money to "contribute", but I would love to be apart of something like this to help generate donations and excitement for the crowd and would volunteer my time.

You can tell I have been bored at work today...
Heck, we could bet, I mean donate some of Don Schumacher's money...
I better get back to work...

AA/FD 1972 USS Lexington

AA/FD 1972 The late T.C. Lemon on the deck of the USS Lexington durning the
shooting of a Navy recruitment video

AA/FD 1980
Photo's taken from two different Hot Rod magazines I have in my collection.

Pretty sure Garlits raced a jet on a land based runway with a training catapult next to him

 

[stitcherbob]

I watch probably a bit too much YouTube, and there’s this veterinarian named Matt Aker in Texas that has three separate channels on there. He has a vet clinic channel, one that chronicles his family’s exploits on their ranch and a gun and shooting channel. His gun channel alone has 10. 4 million subscribers with 1,947,583,954 views…. I didn’t look up his views on the other 2 channels. He reaches our demographic and lots who never heard of drag racing. He has dabbled in building cars and has been featured on another big channel that features drag racing - Cleetus McFarland.
Put him in Larry’s dragster and imagine how many new pairs of eyes the NHRA will get.

 

[mick]

I watch probably a bit too much YouTube, and there’s this veterinarian named Matt Aker in Texas that has three separate channels on there. He has a vet clinic channel, one that chronicles his family’s exploits on their ranch and a gun and shooting channel. His gun channel alone has 10. 4 million subscribers with 1,947,583,954 views…. I didn’t look up his views on the other 2 channels. He reaches our demographic and lots who never heard of drag racing. He has dabbled in building cars and has been featured on another big channel that features drag racing - Cleetus McFarland.
Put him in Larry’s dragster and imagine how many new pairs of eyes the NHRA will get.

and then how does this work?......well, someone, like nhra, pays larry to give this guy a ride.......it's like buying a commercial spot on radio or tv. somebody has to get paid, and veterinarian
youtuber sure isn't gonna' spend a dime just because drag racing is suggested to him........same with cleetus, although he may not be able to cross promote sanctioned nhra content on his channel.
social media is such a great tool. it can reach so many specific groups with the right research and application

 

[stitcherbob]

I would at least offer him a discounted ride....what car guy with Youtube money to burn (they buy thousands of dollars worth of stuff just to destroy on their channels because it's paid for in views) would turn down a ride in a Top Fueler? Especially if he can film it for his channel as well?
He also owns Bunker Branding T shirt sales......

 

[timebombkal]

Short fields don't HELP.

 

[mick]

how difficult would it be to pull of something similar to the netflix f1 series? apparently this show has grown the f1 audience exponentially, witnessed first hand
last weekend in austin. did i read the statistic right? last weeks f1 texas race was a record attendance for a single f1 race @ 140k?
IMO the various drag racing blogs are well done. it's great to see the racers take the time to do the interviews. good information and entertaining.
plus i don't think nhra should ever rest on it's laurels when it comes to diversity in our sport; females and ethnicities. hammer it home as often as possible.
this whole B2B thing happening with sponsors rite now IMO is great. maybe this happens already, but what if there was a bleacher section/large tent/suites/etc.
area near the starting line exclusively for hospitality guests of the professional teams. a mac tools franchise owner attending as guest of kalitta racing rubs elbows with
a rustoleum representative attending as guest of zizzo racing......i'm thinking so these guests aren't just relagated to their specific pit hospitality all weekend.
an informal meet and greet if you will.