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.
Thank You !!! I've been saying the same thing for a few years now.Mr. Forest Lucas please read this.Thank You Randy "Hot Rod"Gee
ReplyDeletePalm Beach International is IHRA sanctioned and owned by the people who own IHRA...
ReplyDeleteVery well written article. In the last few years I have made the leap from fan to independent agent thanks to socal and face to face networking. I have poured hundreds of dollars trying to work my angle. I have a few well known clients and have parted ways with others. I want to see this sport thrive and I want to help racers and the NHRA do this. I can say this much the NHRA has helped me more than I ever expected. I agree we need a new perspective on the sport. Some of the folks in the pits don't want change. The only way I see it happening is to have great young minds come together and reinvent the wheel.
ReplyDeleteYou are right on the money in this article. I have pretty much quit following the sport I also love because the broadcasts have become the John Force and his dysfunctional family show. Watching pre season testing would be great especially if the hosts had ex drivers and tuners on hand to as you say , take calls and maybe answer a few questions from the Internet. I sit and watch Bangshift's coverage of testing for hours on end on my computer and they do a great job , and have a live chatroom going at the same time. One thing is obvious , and that is that if nothing changes , drag racing as we know it will soon be history. You see less and less people attending races , and the Nationals has become a joke as well as TV viewership being in the toilet and a lot of the blame has to go to ESPN who seems as if they could care less about this sport. Even cheerleading competitions get more air time than drag racing and they have a better show. The downside to your article is that not everyone gets MAV TV so that would be a problem . But a great article that makes a lot of sense.. Good job.
ReplyDeleteJoel, thank you and thanks to everybody who read this blog and who have read it in the past. I consed your point of not everybody get MAV TV. Nevertheless, MAV's foot print is growing, and if they would partner with NHRA on testing, then at least it is a jumping off point for broadcasting testing on television. I am no way trying to exclude Bangshift from their coverage, due to the fact the MAV TV's market penetration is not 100 percent, I am looking to take small steps. NHRA needs a presence on satellite radio as well. Start with races and build from there.
Delete