What's up Tom Compton's sleeve? A lot? Thanx for the clarification. (1 Viewer)

[Shan]

Let me guess:
Tom's bringing his brother to the next race? I hope his brother drives.
Just kidding! Only kidding! Just a joke!

LMAO!

 

[NitroRichFire]

If you want a business to grow, you'd better be willing to dump a large pile of dollars bills back into it, as you make a profit. Also you better be taking care of the most important thing that a business has it's customers, "The Fans". Yeah the “Fans”, they spend their hard earned money on the tickets to get into the races, they spend their hard earned money to purchase the TV packages to watch these races on TV, they spend their hard earned money on the sponsors products. Take care of the “Fans”. NHRA needs to take a lesson from Bristol’s “Thunder Valley Club”, angle the stands away from the track, as the stands go down the track, angle them away from the track. That way no one needs to stand up, and you can see the action from start to finish. Make the seats, like stadium seats, you know the ones that fold down. The only complain I ever hear after I take a new fan to a NHRA National Event is “The seats suck, I couldn’t see anything once the tree when green, cause every one stood up!”. And the only track I never heard this compliant about is “Bristol”, out of the tracks we go to Columbus, Englishtown, Indy, Reading, and Virginia Motorsports Park. I don’t know what it's like at the other tracks that I didn’t mention. But angling the stands would be one way to better the sport.

 

[ProStockJunkie]

If you want a business to grow, you'd better be willing to dump a large pile of dollars bills back into it, as you make a profit. Also you better be taking care of the most important thing that a business has it's customers, "The Fans". Yeah the “Fans”, they spend their hard earned money on the tickets to get into the races, they spend their hard earned money to purchase the TV packages to watch these races on TV, they spend their hard earned money on the sponsors products. Take care of the “Fans”. NHRA needs to take a lesson from Bristol’s “Thunder Valley Club”, angle the stands away from the track, as the stands go down the track, angle them away from the track. That way no one needs to stand up, and you can see the action from start to finish. Make the seats, like stadium seats, you know the ones that fold down. The only complain I ever hear after I take a new fan to a NHRA National Event is “The seats suck, I couldn’t see anything once the tree when green, cause every one stood up!”. And the only track I never heard this compliant about is “Bristol”, out of the tracks we go to Columbus, Englishtown, Indy, Reading, and Virginia Motorsports Park. I don’t know what it's like at the other tracks that I didn’t mention. But angling the stands would be one way to better the sport.

While I'm not disagreeing with "taking care of the fans", the fans won't have anything to spend their 'hard earned bucks' on, if there aren't racers to race. More $$ need to go into the racing purses in drag racing. You can still make a living in NASCAR if you finish 20th at every race for crying out loud.

 

[D]

NASCAR's purse size also helps drive mainstream interest, anyone remember the Winston Million?

D

 

[Rich]

The reason, of course, that a NASCAR driver who finishes 20th every week can still make a good living is because of a huge television contract and big sponsorship dollars. NASCAR also has an advantage over drag racing in that races take place nearly every week during the season (there are even Busch series races on those few weekends when the Cup series is off). The regularity of the NASCAR schedule is advantageous to the networks since they can schedule regular weekly programming just like they do for the NFL. NASCAR has an advantage, too, in that even at the smallest Nextel Cup track there is seating capacity for far many more people than even the largest drag racing facility can hold. For instance, there will be somewhere around 300,000 people at today's race at the Brickyard in Indianapolis, where even a last place finish in the race will pay $100,000. And while I'm probably going to get dumped on for saying this, I believe one of the reasons for the popularity of NASCAR is precisely because it's marketed in such a way that you don't have to be a gearhead to enjoy the sport (compare and issue of National Dragster to NASCAR Scene and you'll see what I mean).

One of the things that NASCAR has done to make the sport more fan friendly is to update the tracks. New tracks have been built, others updated, and still others have passed from the scene. I think the drag racing has made a positive move in this direction with such facilities as Las Vegas, Chicago, Bristol, etc., - and I hope the trend continues. But I also believe it would help grow the sport if there were regular drag racing programming every Sunday at a regularly scheduled time. While this might mean tweaking the Powerade series schedule, it could also mean showcasing and broadcasting Lucas Oil Series and/or AMS Pro Mod races on off weekends for the Powerade series.

 

[knightrider]

While I'm not disagreeing with "taking care of the fans", the fans won't have anything to spend their 'hard earned bucks' on, if there aren't racers to race. More $$ need to go into the racing purses in drag racing. You can still make a living in NASCAR if you finish 20th at every race for crying out loud.

Finish 43 today at the Brickyard 400 and pocket a little over $100.000. And has anybody noticed how espn is always plugging indy car racing on the Drag racing shows, but never hear abc plugging NHRA on their Indy broadcasts.

 

[NitroRichFire]

While I'm not disagreeing with "taking care of the fans", the fans won't have anything to spend their 'hard earned bucks' on, if there aren't racers to race. More $$ need to go into the racing purses in drag racing. You can still make a living in NASCAR if you finish 20th at every race for crying out loud.

Hmmm, Jackee you missed the point. There's always a starting point of every business, if the fans don' t come, don't watch on TV and don't purchased the sponsor's products there won't be any pile of dollar bills. Yes, I agree, the purse amounts in drag racing are very sorry, very sorry. If the NHRA is making a big pile of dollar bills, where is that money going? It's not going to the purses or better stands for the fans, so who's pocket is getting filled up with all those dollar bills?

 

[ProStockJunkie]

Hmmm, Jackee you missed the point. There's always a starting point of every business, if the fans don' t come, don't watch on TV and don't purchased the sponsor's products there won't be any pile of dollar bills. Yes, I agree, the purse amounts in drag racing are very sorry, very sorry. If the NHRA is making a big pile of dollar bills, where is that money going? It's not going to the purses or better stands for the fans, so who's pocket is getting filled up with all those dollar bills?

I got the point. I'm just bringing it back to point A. Without racers, there's nothing to watch. Let NHRA take a few less bucks in their pay checks and make the purses bigger for the racers (who provide an excellent living for all of them.) The rest will follow.

 

["Dr. Dirt"]

Not to derail the ongoing discussion here but is there a list of accomplishments Tom has brought to the NHRA we should be aware of? We've all been privy to his mistake (s) but are there things he's done to bring this organization forward during his tenure we should be touting as well?

 

[Shan]

With attitudes like Graham Light has as portrayed in this article, NHRA and car owners are going to be hard-pressed to ever procure unconventional sponsors, which, by the way, President Compton claims is one of five key focus areas in expanding the NHRA. I realize this was from 2003 or therabouts, but it's the principle of the whole thing that I'm getting at.

NHRA Kiss-off...

And that lady hit the nail right on the head when she said this:

"You think I'm about sex, and you're incorrect," Madame Cummins said in a letter to Light and NHRA President Tom Compton.

"(NHRA has) more sex going on in the pits than I do behind closed doors," she said. "All I do is treat people as though they matter . . . No matter how much money they have or whether they even choose to partake of time with a lady. I wish to cause no one embarrassment."​

 

[D]

With attitudes like Graham Light has as portrayed in this article, NHRA and car owners are going to be hard-pressed to ever procure unconventional sponsors, which, by the way, President Compton claims is one of five key focus areas in expanding the NHRA. I realize this was from 2003 or therabouts, but it's the principle of the whole thing that I'm getting at.

NHRA Kiss-off...

And that lady hit the nail right on the head when she said this:

"You think I'm about sex, and you're incorrect," Madame Cummins said in a letter to Light and NHRA President Tom Compton.

"(NHRA has) more sex going on in the pits than I do behind closed doors," she said. "All I do is treat people as though they matter . . . No matter how much money they have or whether they even choose to partake of time with a lady. I wish to cause no one embarrassment."​

Ah yes I'd almost forgotten about the thought police element to sponsor discouragement/poaching.

D

 

[hellfirejim]

Ok so what should the rules of engagment be? What guidelines do you suggest be used to determine if a sponsor is "ok" to have on a race car???

I think the first think most people would say is a negative, no nudity.... I can accept that remembering the TV exposure. This would lead us to no vulgar signage on the cars.

Now on to a positive. Perhaps the standard should be: Any legitiment business that is legal in this country or any country for that matter. Of course that also brings up the point of self sponsorship or private sponsorship. Since these people are not business can they have signage??

See it is easy to say at our discresion (sp) but not actually have any guidlines posted so IF you have a sponsorship posibility you can check to see if it meets the criteria.... Ok course if you check with the NHRA first about your sponsorship, can you lose it to them????? Maybe......

All in all a lot to think about.
jim