Why you won't see live drag racing on TV (1 Viewer)

[Nick Name]

First let me say, I was working Saturday, but I was able to watch the live video feed from Bakersfield CHRR on bangshift.com

Bangshift did an outstanding job. You saw every pass just as if you were sitting in the stands. My hats off to them.


However..... The oil downs were painfull. Granted famosa doesn't have a track crew on the scale of NHRA, so the oil down clean ups took like 45 minutes. Just guys out there with mops. This is the same thing you have to endure if you go to one of those events in person.

Bangshift had some video feed they replayed, but for the most part, you were watching the guys with the mops, just like if you were there.

If NHRA had had their crew there, perhaps this would have been cut down to 15 minitues per event, but there were so many of them.

For me, it wasn't so bad. I had the computer set up out in the shop, and I would just work and glance over to see if they were racing again.

But if an event was going to fill a certain time slot on broadcast or cable TV, Not going to happen.

The oil down deal is the deal breaker in drag racing on TV live.

Again, big congrats to bangshift.com

 

[Mooseman]

How come nobody mentioned the fuelers turn around time regarding live tv, I keep reading about people wanting shorter broadcasts and it live but how does that work when you have to wait for the turn around time for the fuelers. I say make the broadcasts all day and show every class.

 

[Rat]

How come nobody mentioned the fuelers turn around time regarding live tv, I keep reading about people wanting shorter broadcasts and it live but how does that work when you have to wait for the turn around time for the fuelers. I say make the broadcasts all day and show every class.

That's the thing, I tell everyone I want live and they misinterpret it. Live drag racing will work, but there must not be a time slot. I don't understand why NHRA just does not make a channel, broadcast all day each day of thr event on the station, no time slots. It could work. Make it pay per view type of system. Charge 10 bucks a race, that's 3 days of coverage you could be raking in the cash.

 

[Toejam]

I thought the N/FC's were easier on parts??? A couple of years ago a friend of mine was saying the same thing, since the Nostalgia cars are now in the 5's, the costs along with the parts, are exploding!

 

[Rajunz]

That's the thing, I tell everyone I want live and they misinterpret it. Live drag racing will work, but there must not be a time slot. I don't understand why NHRA just does not make a channel, broadcast all day each day of thr event on the station, no time slots. It could work. Make it pay per view type of system. Charge 10 bucks a race, that's 3 days of coverage you could be raking in the cash.

They used to broadcast all day and charge Pay Per View in the late 90's. They did not rake in the cash, no one bought it.

 

[FC138fan]

A bit off topic, and I'm no old timer, but the NHRA has really got the down time due to oil downs at a minimum. And the track try time after a rain event.

I remember when I was young at an NHRA div 3 race in Ohio, after it rained, they invited people to drive their cars up and down the strip to spread out the water so it would dry faster... and that was the early 90's.

For those that remember it was Salem OH... and I remember for oil downs they had this GIGANTIC yellow machine that went down the track at 5 mph to do the clean up.

 

[handsome]

i remember the pay per views. I liked it TILL one event was a rain out. they just put up a rain delay notice. and when it was over, you got no refund or free day for the rescheduled event so everyone raised hell and there was never another pay per view race.

 

[Jim]

On qualifying days, I'd be very happy if they'd just run the live / raw video with the tower chatter. As much as I enjoy Mike and Paul, I could live with real-time video and Bob Frye (or who-ever) doing the "who's up now" commentary.

Fact is, that's pretty much what I do on Sunday anyway (both audios during Pro rounds).

 

[nedannouncer]

Jay, thanks! We had a great weekend and the audience was the biggest we have ever had for a CHRR broadcast.

Being involved in live broadcasting drag race events I guess I have some perspective on the deal, not as much as Kernan or Stephens, but a little more than the average dude or dudette in the stands.

If Chad and I had more time and resources we could do a lot better with the down time (and we're already working on stuff for next year's broadcasts), but there is only so much you can do.

If you saw the Las Vegas IndyCar race you know that the broadcast team, led by Marty Reid filled something like 1.5 hours after the wreck before word came out that the event was cancelled and Dan Wheldon had tragically died. For multiple reasons, I watched that "fill time" with interest. Emotionally, to see if Wheldon was going to pull through (although I think any seasoned racing fan knew that the situation was very bleak after just a couple minutes) and with a more technical eye to see just what they were going to do.

In my opinion, they did a masterful job. Granted, they were working in a highly charged situation that lent itself to insightful interviews with drivers and some (I think) very candid and compelling commentary from Eddie Cheever and Scott Goodyear.

Frankly, an oil down is not going to provide that type of situation, so it won't be as riveting as that was, but time can be filled. The problems come in when there are multiple oil downs or time sucking incidents. There's only so much you can say and show to fill time. As magical as the "there should be no time slot" thought is, the only place it can exist is on the internet. As has been previously mentioned the Pay-Per View efforts of nearly two decades ago was not a success and will likely never be revisited.

There may be a day when the technology exists to provide super fast cleanups of oil and wrecks. Until then, your live drag racing will be on the internet and your well produced, directed, and talent filled drag racing broadcasts will be live-to-tape like they are now.

My $.02 (before taxes)

Brian

 

[Rat]

They used to broadcast all day and charge Pay Per View in the late 90's. They did not rake in the cash, no one bought it.

wow really? I had no idea. I'm guessing they did not sell it right. With the no refunds that can't help. I am thinking today in this economy NHRA may patch up some loss revenue in tickets and make it on TV. I would pay $230 dollars a season for fri-sat-sun all day watch when you want what you want broadcasting. Who would not? How could this fail? ESPN3.com could not compete with it.

 

[pete]

I remember the pay per view. It was on DirecTV. I think one of the problems was that there were very few subscribers back then.

 

[handsome]

wow really? I had no idea. I'm guessing they did not sell it right. With the no refunds that can't help. I am thinking today in this economy NHRA may patch up some loss revenue in tickets and make it on TV. I would pay $230 dollars a season for fri-sat-sun all day watch when you want what you want broadcasting. Who would not? How could this fail? ESPN3.com could not compete with it.

they only broadcast on sunday. I thought it was going to be great for the sport because all the classes got airtime.

 

[Jon Asher]

Every time this subject comes up I end up getting irritated because so many people refuse to face the facts about drag racing and television.

William Payne, who is going to pay for all-day broadcasts?

Who’s going to watch along with you and your three friends who also live in their mom’s basements?

Get a life!

NHRA tried Pay-Per-View (PPV) broadcasts, and they failed miserably. They failed from the artistic standpoint and they dramatically failed from the financial standpoint. If memory serves me, at least one of the telecasts was ”slaughtered” by rain, and they didn’t have enough material to fill the time slot.

NHRA creating their own channel? Who do you think NHRA is, the University of Texas, which has (with ESPN as a partner) set up their own network. Who has a bigger audience, Texas or drag racing?

Please don’t be so naïve as to think it’s us, ‘cause it darn sure isn’t.

Starting a channel is the easy part. Now let’s see you “sell” an All-Drag-Racing-All-The-Time channel to DishNetwork of DirecTV. Let’s see you get Comcast to pick it up.

It will not happen, period.

Lance Peltier is right. No one bought those PPV telecasts, and before a dozen of you shout back “I did,” when I say no one I mean the numbers were almost too small to be even measured. It was a financial disaster.

Drag racing simply does not work “live,” despite the number of people who continue to believe that without live TV we won’t move forward. Think about how many seemingly small things that can ruin a live TV window. An untimely oildown. A 30-minute rain shower requiring a two hour clean-up. An accident.

Does anyone remember the Mile-High Nationals that was going out live
back in the 90s? I think it might have been ’94 or ’95, but that doesn’t matter. As the black clouds rolled in over the mountain and the Denver fans, who knew what was coming, began screaming for them to run the darn cars, TV was in commercial. By the time they got finished screwing around it was raining, and that’s how the show ended, with no Top Fuel finale.

They apparently weren’t smart enough to run the cars and then back up the tape with rain falling in the background while they explained why the finale had already been run.

It ruined the telecast for the people at home and certainly pissed off everyone in attendance. They didn’t run another car down the track for something like three hours. Now THAT would have made for riveting television, don’t you think?

Jon Asher
Senior Editor
CompetitionPlus.com

 

[Mike]

Jon, all good points but dont you feel that market might be a little different today for pay per view.

 

[nedannouncer]

Jon, all good points but dont you feel that market might be a little different today for pay per view.

Mike, I don't think so. Looking back when they did it before, the big draws on pay per view were:

Boxing and Big Wrestling Events

The only change today would be:

Boxing, MMA, and Big Wrestling Events

 

[DrRocket]

Jon, all good points but dont you feel that market might be a little different today for pay per view.

IMO, no.

First of all, doing something like this would involve a LOT of technical equipment. You just don't plop a couple of cameras in place and "roll 'em." It still takes a large staff to set up the equipment, operarate it, co-ordinate the content and provide the video feed. I'm assuming through all of this that you're not going to hire separate people to announce, that you'll use feed from the announcers. (Think they might want a bigger peice of the action if this happened?) Then said staff has to break all the equipment down, load it all into trucks and ship it to the next venue. Now the question is does the staff follow the equipment (Travel costs.) or do you hire more local talent (And hope they know what the hell they're doing.)?

THEN, you've got to covince the various regional and national cable and sattelite providers to CARRY that content. Good luck because IMHO that's not likely, for a niche sport as ours. When's the last time you called your provider and asked for a channel that isn't available on your system? If you experience is the same as mine, you were told "We'll look into it." and that was that. End of subject.

Let's say you managed to do all of that. Now you've got to build up a base of customers that will purchase this product from event to event. Casual, "Once in a while" buyers won't cut it. AND you've got to price it so that it's affordable. That's going to be tough to do because all of this equipment and staff aren't exactly cheap.

I myself wouldn't do it. Why? First of all, if I spent 23 weekends in the house, sitting on my butt watching TV (Or the computer, for that matter.) I GUARANTEE you my wife would divorce me. Even if it was only on Sunday. No way she'd stand for it, and I wouldn't blame her. As a matter of fact, I myself am LOATH to spend a nice weekend day sitting on my butt watching TV. It is the prime reason I prefer the current format. I can DVR it, and watch it on Sunday evening when the weekend's activites have wrapped up and I have some time to myself in the late evening when everyone else is in bed. I NEVER watch it in real time.

I agree with Jon. Drag racing simply does not lend itself to live TV.

 

[Mooseman]

William Payne, who is going to pay for all-day broadcasts?

Who’s going to watch along with you and your three friends who also live in their mom’s basements?

Get a life!

Jon Asher
Senior Editor
CompetitionPlus.com

Exactly, I agree. You would have to have the financial means and backing to pay for it and also be sure of their being a veiwer base there to watch it.

As for the get a life comment you are probably correct, I probably spend to much time of my life focusing on drag racing.

I didn't mention in my original post but honestly as far as drag racing on tv goes I love watching the old diamond P races. 80's drag racing was pretty good to not that I was around back then but have watched quite a view of the old broadcasts, infact I would like to get a copy of every single nhra broadcast upto 1990.

Its funny how some sports just capture the people though, we just had the rugby world cup down here in New Zealand and its like the entire country was glued to their TV's. The same thing happens with the V8 supercars that also gets shown down here.

 

[DrRocket]

The same thing happens with the V8 supercars that also gets shown down here.

I watched the Gold Coast race this last weekend. That was a fun race to watch.

 

[vegasnitro]

The old Diamond P races were good, but many people forget a couple of things about them:

First, they were usually delayed at least 1 week. Usually only Indy and Pomona were same day. I still remember being a kid and watching American Sports Calvalcade on TNN PRAYING that it was going to be NHRA Drag Racing because our TV guide back then would only say "Motor Sports". Sometimes it was Sippie Hole racin', sometime tractor pulls, sometimes ASA ... and on those golden Sundays, it was indeed a NHRA National Event. Most people conviniently forget it was only the late 90s that same day coverage became de riguer.

Second, no qualifying coverage unless there was a record or wreck.

Third, the shows were only an hour. Highlights of first round of nitro, first 2 rounds of Pro Stock. That's right, if you wanted some real airtime in Pro Stock, you had to make the semis. You think Pro Stock is marginalized now?

Fourth, there were only 10-12 National Events back then, so there was a greater anticipation for the TV, and no internet. It was possible to wait a week without knowing who won. Unthinkable in these times.

One thing the old Diamond P shows did very right was it showed all the finals. It was cool seeing who won Comp or Stock or TAD on "the big show".

The are many, many things wrong with the way drag racing is televised now, but in context, us fans have never had it better.

One thing not to be overlooked about drag racing that has not been mentioned is that every track is the same and it's always the same core group of racers being interviewed and almost without exception, they spew the same spiel everytime a microphone is put in front of them. Thusly, every program looks the same. A casual observer could watch Gainesville and Topeka and see 80% of the same show. And if you extrapolate that out to 23 events = Boring for the casual fan. What's worse is I don't know how you overcome that. NASCAR goes from Charlotte to Talladega to Martinsville and different cars and drivers move to the front and get interviewed. Each week feels fresh and looks different to the casual observer. EVERY NHRA event is 1000ft track, 2 lanes surrounded by white walls (Charlotte 1 excepted, jury is still out on that one). And the same guys are going to keep winning and giving the same interviews for the most part. You have to really care to put up with that monotony.

 

[Bill]

My all-time FAVORITE "live drag racing on TV" broadcast occurred back in the dark ages (I have NO IDEA when.... '70s, maybe???) but what happened was, NHRA had paid for a certain time slot on a national network, and the drag race schedule for the day got derailed by a rain shower, an accident, or some other event-altering disaster, and HALLELUJAH, because of that, I got to see, up-close and personal, what I believe was the first round (ALL the cars: a complete round) of Stock Eliminator cars that I'm sure 95-percent of the TV viewing public didn't even know EXISTED before then (because NHRA has always refused to give them even minimal "air time.")

That event had great coverage of Stock Eliminator, and I can't remember if they ever got around to showing any of the fuel burners, but I couldn't have cared less... lol!

I finally got to see what ~I~ wanted to see... on network TV. I think that was the first time I utterred the cliche', "There IS a God!!!" LOL!

That event probably helped drive a couple of nails in NHRA's "live drag racing on TV" coffin, but me??? I was smiling for a week...

Selfish? Maybe.... but I looked at it as "one for the little guys."

Doesn't happen all that often....

BIll, in Conway, Arkansas (still smiling, when I remember that broadcast.)