Thank you Justin Bieber...

REALLY!!!!   Here we go again. Another friggin’ knucklehead going out being stupid, getting caught by the cops and it is reported in the news that he was involved in “drag racing”.

Justin Bieber last night (1/22/14) was caught in Florida participating  an illegal street acceleration contest, while being under the influence of alcohol and illegal drugs. All the while driving a” yellow Lamborghini at the time cops spotted him in a residential neighborhood” according to TMZ.com. TMZ also states “Justin's people (including his father) actually blocked the street off so Bieber could drag race.”

So not only did dear old dad take his 19 year old to the strip club, he let him get high, get drunk and drive a rented Lamborghini. In addition to he helped his son get involved in an illegal street acceleration contest. No wonder this kid is screwed up.

So of course, the Main Stream Media reports it as “Justin Bieber arrested for Drag Racing and DUI.”

Well hell, this is a boost to our sport. It is bad enough to have the two terms DUI and Drag Racing linked together, let’s just pile on and throw this bozo’s name in there too for good measure.

It is just super cool to see a mug shot of this kid who looks like an anorexic q-tip with a pair of oversized sunglasses on and below the photo the words “Charged with DUI and Drag Racing.”  AWESOME!!!!!

I have written about this before, cops and MSM using the term drag racing cause it is “simple and concise”.  In fact a local newspaper photojournalist Joe Jaszewski responded to one of my tweets by saying, “@nitrophoto Drag race definition: merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dra… makes no mention of legality.” I will have to site that Mr. Jaszewski is correct that in Websters there is no mention of legality, however, I replied to him by stating that Websters does not state the legality of war, either. Moreover, if I were to kill someone in war there is a big difference over if I murdered someone.

I would have to say that my outrage is still at the MSM, but it is also starting to grow with the two major sanctioning bodies, the NHRA and the IHRA. Where in the world are your people in legal and communications on this. Why are these two sanctioning bodies not pounding down the doors of the MSM outlets?

The NHRA put out one tweet and I have not seen anything on the IHRA twitter feed concerning the Bieber deal.  

Conversely, many fans of the sport have taken to social media to voice their opinion, and support for the sport.

It appears from this perspective that the fans are more concern about the branding of the sport than the sanctioning bodies are. Come on drag racing leaders, it is time to let you voices be heard long and loud on this issue. You are the ones who are entrusted with protecting the brand but the sport as a whole. Do your jobs.

Thanks for taking the time, please become a follower of the blog, would love to have ya, and if you have a second also like Nitrophoto Motorsports on Facebook along with follow on twitter, and like the DRO Facebook page as well.

Why doesn't the NHRA partner with MAVTV?

Somewhere the NHRA and drag racing in general has lost its footing when it comes to multimedia. Yes, there is a large presence of drag racing on the internet, Dragracingonline.com; Competitionplus.com; nhra.com; and yellowbullet.com to name a few, but it has one outlet for television and that is ESPN. Which, many including myself sometimes curse and other times are grateful for their involvement in the sport.

Conversely, NASCAR has Fox, Fox Sports One, ABC/ESPN and Turner Network Television for television.  In addition, to both the Motor Racing Network and Performance Racing Network on terrestrial radio and Sirius/XM NASCAR radio on satellite radio.

Jayski.com, which is a major internet contact for NASCAR teams and fans, even before the 2013 season ended, Jayski, has images of new paint schemes/wraps for the 2014 teams and new sponsors, and driver line up already posted. In addition Fox Sports 1 will show twelve hours of live preseason testing of NASCAR from Daytona. In three days.

NASCAR knows that this is an important platform for both the sanctioning body and its teams to get momentum going into the 2014 season.

However, there is a television network, which has and organic tie into the sport of drag racing, MAVTV. MAVTV’s parent company is LUCAS Oil. Who as we all know is the longtime supporter of many teams in the sport, and is umbrella sponsor for NHRA sportsman drag racing.

Therefore, my question is this.  An I can be silly like this sometimes, has the NHRA brass been to Forest Lucas’ office with checkbook and hat in hat asking MAVTV to broadcast the testing from Palm Beach, Florida? This would be a wonderful way to provide programming for MAVTV and also do as NASCAR has done, provide a spring board to launch NHRA drag racing into the 2014 season. Show the new paint schemes, and team line ups. Talk to all the drivers and crew chiefs present.

More importantly it would not be the John Force and family show.  Talk to everybody who is down there to test.

MAVTV would also be a wonderful place for drag racing content shows such as a weekly recap and highlights show that could bring news and updates in the sport.

 Now, I know the guys at Bangshift.com are going to be in Palm Beach to cover pre-season testing, and Bryan and Chad do a wonderful job. These two work their behinds off bringing the story of pre-season testing to the fans. Nevertheless, there is a measurable difference between streaming video on the internet and live television production.

The NHRA from my point of view should effort MAVTV to hire either or both Dave Rieff or Alan Reinhart to be the host and maybe some up and coming new television talent to be the pit reporter talent and show a two hour block of testing from Palm Beach on both Saturday and Sunday.

Ok I also understand I am spending other people’s money, and it is a very easy thing to do. But, from my perspective the NHRA leadership team is not putting for the effort to bring the sport back to it prominence.

For the past decade, the NHRA management team has fallen behind in their creativity, and seemly has just mirrored NASCAR when it comes to many different things. Example, NASCAR created “The Chase to the Sprint Cup” The following year NHRA does “The Countdown to One”. Same basic premise, same scheme different types of cars.

So if the NHRA is going to mimic the eight hundred pound gorilla in the room, why not keep going, produce, and air preseason testing from Florida.  Why not talk to Sirius/XM radio and come up with programing for drag racing.  It would have to start small and build up, but it could be done.

Use not only NHRA announcers to host the radio shows, but bring on some of the more prominent  NHRA media members, and former drivers and crew chiefs to host the shows. Take calls from listeners.  

On race days simulcast the internet NHRA tower feed and put it on Sirius XM so fans that are out and about or traveling can listen to the races.

NASCAR has already proven the business model works, so if NHRA is going to copy some of it they might as well go all the way and copy all of it. 

Now for many of you, I know that I might have just been running off with the face, but it pains me to see that the sport that I truly love and love the people in is being casted off and treated like second-class citizens by those in charge of the sport.  Now I might be wrong but it is my perspective.  In addition, if I have this perspective undoubtedly many others feel the same way.

I would like to take a moment to give a heartfelt thank you to everybody who reads this blog, and visiting my blog site.  I would like to invite everybody to become a follower of the blog, Nitrophoto.blogspot.com, and like my Nitrophoto Facebook page, please.