Drag
Racing Needs to Get into the Lemonade Business
This
last week the NHRA and professional drag racing felt the blow when out of the
blue, Ford decided that it would terminate their contract with the NHRA as the
provider of service vehicles and stop the support of professional drag racers
in the Funny Car and Pro Stock Classes. However, Ford is not getting out of
drag racing completely.
In
a statement released by the Dearborn, Michigan-based company stated, “Ford is not getting out of drag racing. We
are fully committed to continue our support of grassroots sportsman drag racing
with our Mustang Cobra Jet, parts support and contingency programs.”
It
can be analyzed that Ford was not seeing a Return on Investment with the
professional side of the NHRA.
Ford is aligned with John Force Racing
arguably the most powerful team in NHRA racing; Bob Tasca Racing, a mega-Ford
dealer in New England, and Tim Wilkerson, and unofficial teammate to Tasca.
These teams
have won races over the past five years and garner a good deal of airtime on the ESPN coverage,
especially Force, who gets a lion’s share of it.
So
why would Ford pull these deals from the funny car team? From
this perspective, the bodies on the funny cars don’t look like Mustangs. They do not resemble the Mustang setting in
the show room of the local Ford
dealership. Why do these companies get
into racing? “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday”.
Therefore, if
Tasca’s “Mustang” wins at Seattle, a fan cannot go to Kendall Ford and buy one
that looks like Tasca’s. There seems to be a lack of product identity with the
funny cars. But fans can buy a Mustang
which is just like the stock or super stock
on Monday morning.
Sound
familiar from another major motorsport a couple of years ago.
Here
the lemonade comes into play. This is a
terrible situation for these teams; however, they have time to react and as my
mother is fond of saying, “when you get handed lemons, make lemonade “.
There
are two suggestions for the Gang from Glendora and for team of JFR and BTR/TWR
to turn this situation from a negative into a positive.
x
One, the NHRA needs to look at this as NASCAR did a few years ago, make a bold
change. In 2015, all funny car bodies will have to resemble the streetcars the
bodies are based on. This will
accomplish two things. A) This will give product identity back to the cars for
those manufactures still supporting the teams and possible bring other
including Ford back to drag racing.
B) This would slow the cars down and make them
safer because of the the lack of aerodynamic enhancements allowed on
present-day funny car bodies. Eliminate the shovelnoses and reduce the size of
those dump truck style rear deck spoilers.
Suggestion
Two: The NHRA and the teams need to start getting serious and propose working
with other manufactures such as Honda/Acura and Hyundai.
Why you ask?
Simple. These companies build cars here in America. These cars are what
the younger generation is driving, and this will start to bring new younger
fans to the sport. Both Honda/Acura and
Hyundai are progressive, forward thinking companies.
Hyundai
has the Genesis Coupe and Acura is getting set to rerelease the vaunted
NSX.
Both
of these cars would make excellent flopper bodies. The cars are already swoopy without making it
look like a giant bubble.
Making
the bodies more stock appearing would help Toyota, and Dodge as well, in
getting product identity back into the funny car class.
From
this perspective, this could be the best thing to happen to the NHRA if they
handle it correctly.
This is an excellent opportunity for the
sport, if the NHRA and these professional team leaders and managers would take
a few moments and read John Kotter’s book “A Sense of Urgency.” Then apply the
principals involved.
From
behind the lens
Brian
Losness
