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Nitromater

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you can't tell the difference between 1000' and 1320' - watch this

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Registered member said:
ea01x_6696.jpg




With all due respect, Fire em' up Tony. That guy is waiting.....
Nobody can argue that it's now a 1,000' world in the NHRA, but in a few years when you might be out of a job, don't try to look back and wonder where "they" went wrong when the fans are clearly explaining it right now.
Click to expand...
I'm suppose to be getting paid? I didn't know that. I better give Mr. Zizzo a phone call.

George, do you have any scientific proof that attendance is what it is today because of 1000 foot racing? Do you have any official attendance numbers for the last 20 years? Pictures don't tell the full story. That picture could very well be of me watching round 1 of TAD/TAFC or a picture of someone else while I'm in the rental car heading to the hotel.

I think there are many reasons attendance is down, I suppose 1000 foot racing could be one of those reasons.

I'm all for going back to 1320feet racing, but I'm smart enough to realize it will not happen under this current rules package.

Goodyear is probably not interested in building a tire that will go 345mph.

NHRA probably isn't interested in paying the insurance premium to go that fast.

I would guess most of the teams are not interested in having their engines on the rev limiter for 320feet. Also they probably aren't interested in sacrificing all the time and money they have in R&D in the current parts they have to go back to 1320 feet. Look at all the screaming DSR did because they had to take the roll cage sheilds off.

Love your avatar. One of my favorite movies is "The Haunted World of El Superbeasto".
 
Registered member said:
Neither have I, or any of my family. They lost us. Maybe Bill would be happy if they just raced to the 60' mark.

I have been attending Drag Racing events since I was a kid, and I am 48 years old. That avatar of me with The Greek, wasn't just some staged photo. I was a very priveleged young man.

I went to the last 1/4 mile race that was at Norwalk, and then a short time later I went to the Night Of Fire event that was 1000'. It was not the same, and I didn't like it. Haven't been to a National event since.
Click to expand...

Like I said, there are more people who despise 1000' racing than people think! Not a factor to me since I sit around 60'-100'. But for the half track and further crowd I can certainly understand!
 
My difference in 1000' vs 1320': 1984-2010, 71 national events attended. 2011: "0" events attended with no plans to attend another. Baytown 2010...first and last 1000' race.
 
It still blows me away to see how quickly they get to the 1320 after shutting of at 1000'...just crazy!
 
Registered member said:
2011 NHRA AAA Auto Club Finals Nitro-Overload - YouTube

I'm not sure how an extra 320 feet makes this video any better.
Click to expand...

Tony.
You've been around for a long time, and I respect you and although just "slightly" underpaid from the Zizzos, I enjoy reading everything you post.

Tony, Tony, Tony...
Come on'... fess up to yourself my friend.....
It's like watching NFL Football being played on an Arena Football field...
You need less game plan, and enjoy shorter exposure for breakdown. That all equals second class competition that works too perfectly for the big teams to run the show, and that's just a bad recipe for longevedy.
Look into the stands Tony.. They're not filled like they were, and forget blaming it on the economy. The NFL seems to be selling high dollar tickets these days without a problem. People are throwing money at the Packers for worthless stock. If it's good, they will come. If it sucks, they will not...

Like C.K. Spurlock (K.C's dad and manager of Kenny Rogers) once told Steve Evans, "the NHRA is Show-Business. If there's no show, there's no business".
This horrifying simple truth doesn't seem to be entering the mindset of the powers that be, thus the attendence numbers are circling the drain. The team owners share equal blame because it's very easy to compete under these circumstances. The format makes it very hard for a potential 2012 version of Dick LaHaie to weld some pipe together and give it a shot. All you get now is a Force girl who might break a fingernail, and some pretty boy with a rich daddy (I guess not much has changed there)...
There is no show anymore to the newbies, and the old schoolers like me would rather mow the lawn than witness a once great product reduced to a canned sideshow that doesn't even make the papers anymore....
 
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George, as far as i know, there is no proof that attendance dropped off because of 1000ft racing (although thats why i dont go anymore). As u yourself hinted to, on your previous post, I believe the largest fallout from shortening the track is when it comes to trying to sell this style of racing to the remote/casual sports fan. The biggest critique of drag racing over the years is, its over to quickly and therefore not very interesting. shortening the course 25% is not gonna help entice new fans
 
don garlits - at 24:47 - we were way ahead, and it was a long time before he passed me.

exactly. you'll never hear that said again.
 
Registered member said:
.....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.
.......
Click to expand...

i agree, over the last 2 decades if the nhra expended half the energy to
to limit performance as the CC's do to maximize performance, we/they may
not be in this position today.
the 4 second and 300 mph barriers era was an extremely exciting time for the
sport, arguably the best ever.
nascar and indy car experienced these same moments in time when records
and racing happened simultaneously; now still racing but not setting records.

it seems today the nhra is still trying to set records and racing is
a residual product of this exercise.

20 years ago i would ask this question;
- did the fans come to see racing with residual records?
or
- did the fans come to see records with residual racing?

for short periods of time i would say the fans came to see the two major
barriers broken, but as they were broken did the attendance drop off?
no - the racing product was still very good.

IMO nhra has lost a percentage of their 'racing' product.
a quick spurt to the finish line with a new set of pistons @ 100/gl per minute
- more parts / more fuel / more money
- less distance / less racing / higher ticket prices

i do like the countdown but would ask why were the grandstands packed
@ the finals for all those years, and now this year with the dramatic finishes
played out @ pomona attendance was off?....it's not the economy.
 
Registered member said:
I posted this on another thread but it also fits here. I delete a paragraph because it didn't need to be repeated

At the time I was told the problem started with the tires being unable to handle the speeds. The rev limiter was implemented to slow cars down and keep them from exceeding 3xx mph so the tire problem would go away. The rev limiter created a unhappy motor and resulted in a series of motor explosions. Not being able to remove the rev limiter because of the tire situation NHRA shortened the track for fuel cars to 1000'.

Goodyear has to fix the tire problem or NHRA has to slow the cars down before racing at 1320' can ever come back. Seems like I recall Goodyear saying that they don't know how to make a tire that will allow that to happen. So IF all that is correct it's either 1000' or slower cars and based on recent performance it may be both.
Click to expand...

From another thread:

Registered member said:
I think the most important factor in this whole controversy is being overlooked.

In my opinion, the major reason for 1000' at this time is because of doubt about tires. Yes, Scott's accident was precipitated by a catastrophic engine failure. But at this point I think the reason no action has been taken is because we still haven't solved the tire chunking problem.

From my research, Goodyear hit a brick wall as to the top speeds and loading that their slicks could take. They build an extremely high quality tire, but unless millions and millions are spent to re-invent the wheel there's not much more they can do. In my mind, that's why we still have the 1000' limit.

Facts are facts.
Click to expand...

John and Dan - These two points are I think right on with what I was thinking, that there is a reason that we are at 1000', and it stems from a "speed limit"

If true, then they're stuck at a speed limit of 335 or so. Like you said until Goodyear re-invents the wheel this speed limit set for good. With that, the only way to get back to the quarter is to come up with a way to keep the engine under load the full quarter, while still keeping the speeds under 335.

These points are the most convincing reason why the 1000' stands, yet nobody has really talked about them - Well, George hits on it a bit and really had a gem in one of his posts - I missed it but saw Mike's post quote it.

Registered member said:
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.
Click to expand...

And here we are - something big has to be done, and somebody has to step up to get it done.


One more thing - I always loved watching nitro cars because they were the ultimate drag cars. They were the most powerful drag cars on the planet, fastest accelerating cars anywhere, they used everything technology wise to squeeze out everything they could to go the quarter, and it was just awesome. Unfortunately, they have been pressing the technology envelope ever further, until now they've come to the weak link that can't be strengthened - the tire. They've pushed those Goodyears to the structural limit it seems... so I guess there's no pushing the technology envelope any further and so a little bit of the appeal has died in my opinion.
 
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Count me in as a guy who would like to see 1320 racing back again. There was a time where I would attend 4-6 national events per year, either as a crew member on various sportsman cars, or just as a spectator. There was a time where I would set my VCR/DVR to catch every minute of the action so I wouldn't miss anything. There was a time where I NEVER missed a televised national event for about 12 years straight.... not even one!

That all changed when the 1000 foot rule happened. For example: I watched ONE race on TV this year and I thought it was a snore fest. My DVR caught most of the races this year but I hit the delete button on all of them before ever watching a single minute.

Now days, the only national events that I attend is the Brainerd Nationals once a year..... and it certainly isn't because the racing is great. I have about 50 friends who also attend Brainerd either as sportsman racers, or spectators and we all have fun being together for 1 week out of the year. Even if there was no racing at all, we would still have fun in the ZOO, or just hanging out.

Another reason that I have steered away from "Big Show" racing is the explosion of the nostalgia classes. I have been working as a crew member on various nostalgia nitro funny cars out of the Minneapolis area for the last 3-4 years and I can honestly say that I don't need to see 4 second, 300+mph runs on he scoreboard to feel excitement at the track. These cars still run 1320 and can legally burn up 100% nitro. Sure, they don't burn the same volume of fuel as the big show cars but they still smell and sound just as good. (some say better)

Just my worthless .02
 
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