The percentage of fans that don't go to the track because of '1000ft' fuel racing are such a small percentage - the crowds haven't dropped that much. Fine, you don't like 1000ft, and yeah I still get to see 1320 fuel racing, but I love both. So whilst you and a few others are sitting around beating a dead horse, ill be at the track smelling that sweet, sweet nitro, and watching drag racing. Yes George you've seen a lot, and sometimes I agree with what you have to say, but if I had a choice between 1000ft or no fuel racing I know which one I'd take.
Michael, I agree with some of what you are saying. But..
The "but" has to do with looking into the future.
I just a regular a small businessman. A "nobody". But I see my job as this: to see that my employees not only do a great job right now for our customers, but my main job is to project where we are going to be in 5-10 years, and to make sure my company is economically viable so that my employees have a secure workplace to grow within, and more importantly, to make sure I'm around with growing competition for that dollar from all angles. That's it and that's all I focus on. I look primarily on attracting new customers, and making sure they have absolutely NO reason to go anywhere else If I can be so fortunate.
I don't have a crystal ball, but I do think I've been lucky enough so far at focusing in on what I need to do in order to stay somewhat viable in my very small corner of the country. So, I am just offering that perspective here. I'm not beating a dead horse, I'm concerned about the future of a sport that I like to be watching in a few years.
The NHRA shouldn't be looking to please you, or the nitro fan in all of us with as you put it, "the sweet smell of nitro". What they need to be focusing in on is building the sport with winning over new customers in order to stay viable for the future. They are failing.
Some of the decisions to go 1,000' make perfect sense. It's safer, the teams love it, less oil interuptions for TV coverage, the tires hold up etc. The problem is that it's incredibly redundant now, and to the casual viewer who might take an interest in watching it may think it's stupid to watch a 3 second race with no real drama unfolding. The 1,000' decision also reeks of a company that wasn't taking the right steps in years past to prepare for the future. Simply said, hindsight is always 20/20, and the NHRA did not do enough of the unpopular little steps to slow things down in the past before we got to this position of having very limited options.
Once you are forced to stray away from the what it was that built this sport, you are in uncharted territory. You risk losing that rare chemistry that came together to build this thing into what it was. You lose your benchmarks, your history, your measuring sticks, everything. Add to that the lose of any drama. I'm simply pointing that out because the fan base is erroding fast. Think there may be a correlation?
Unlike Nascar who dealt with the problem head on years ago, the problems that exist with 330 MPH cars are now very difficult to deal with short term. I would suggest that the NHRA take this year and really look inward. I would suggest that they form a group to look at every possible scenerio to make this sport more watchable and dramatic, while starting the procedure of returning back to 1,340' where a measuring stick is well established and respected. I have many suggestions. All will be very unpopular, but I believe in time would be better for the health of the sport. That's for another day.
JMO..
