So it has been announced that two time funny car champion Tony Pedregon will take the place of Mike Dunn in the booth next year as the color analysis of the Mello Yello NHRA Drag Racing telecast in 2016. This coincides with the announce changes broadcast partners from ESPN to FOX Sports. It appears that show host Dave Rieff  will retain his duties.

This might prove to be an interesting hire for Fox, as Pedregon is a two time champion in funny car. Is a team owner, therefore he can speak to the audience from those capacities. It might be a rough first year as he is not trained in television, so there will be a learning curve. But Pedregon has not been bashful in letting his thoughts and opinions be known. The biggest unknown is that of chemistry. Can Rieff and Pedregon develop and maintain that chemistry that a good booth dual needs to have to make a good broadcast. Time will tell.

There are rumors also of who might take Gary Gerald's place in the broadcast as a pit reporter. The most interesting one to reach the surface here in beautiful Boise, Idaho, is that of veteran journalist and broadcaster Robin Miller.

Now for those who do not know Robin Miller, he was a very noted motorsports writer for the Indianapolis Star for many years, also a writer for Auto Week, Car and Driver, and is the senior for RACER Magazine.  Miller also has a great deal of TV experience with both ESPN and NBC. His core competency is open wheel racing and INDY Car.

Miller is not one to swallow his opinions either. He was a huge burr under the saddle of the IRL and its president Tony George. Miller lets his opinions fly and cares not care what others think.

Here is the sixty thousand dollar question? Will the Gang in Glendora allow two very opinionated broadcasters to be the face of their self produced television show, which is supposedly going to be done live next year.  Will TP be given free reign to speak his mind?

We will have to buckle up and hang on for the ride.

If you enjoyed this please share with a friend.

September Blog

It has been far too long since I wrote in this blog and for all four of you who have hung in there and read it. I thank you sincerely.

In writing about the sport I have a deep affection for, there are sometimes when one has to go out on a limb and stick their necks out, to say what is honest and true.  It is not done to intentionally cause harm, but it is done to tell the truth.

There are times when none of us, really do not want to hear the truth, but alias.

There have been plenty of instances when I have gotten emails, or phone calls about what I have written. Either in this blog, in my column, Getting Nostalgic, or in race reports for Drag Racing Online.com.

Therefore, as I embark on this literary journey I realize there might be some push back, but that’s ok. God love the first amendment.

This past weekend at ZMAX Dragway in Charlotte, the Big Show had its kick off to “The Countdown to the Championship”, the NHRA’s version of NASCAR’s Chase.

The one thing that got everybody’s attention was V. Gaines simply horrifying crash in the first round of Pro Stock.

Primarily V was able to walk away from this crash. In the interview with ESPN’s Gary Gerald V was calm, cool and collected holding his ever present trade mark stogie.  

Two things bother me about V’s crash.

One, about half way through his crash a very vital piece of safety equipement failed. The window net, which is designed to keep drivers’ arms inside the car in the event of a roll over, became dislodged, and V’s arm can be seen going outside the car on the last roll.

USA Today Sports Images Photographer Mark Rebilas has images of V’s arms outside the car prior to the net dislodging.

Gaines is very fortunate not to have suffered a very severe arm injury, like the one Rich Hough did in Gainesville years ago when his hand was crushed in a roll over accident. Hough lost his hand.

Pro Stock teams and the NHRA might want to revisit how window nets are attached to the cars. Arm restraints might not work in a Pro Stock due to possibility of the strap becoming lodged in the shifter mechanism.

 The second item that bothers me about this crash is going to foggier.

The Pro Stock contingent has had issues at this track before. Shane Gray’s crash two years ago comes to mind, and the numerous other incidents where Pro Stock cars to use a NASCAR adage “wrecked without hitting anything”.

  Why is this happening, especially at a place like ZMAX?  Is it weather, or track surface construction or track prep? Alternatively, is it little of all three elements? On the other hand, a general lack of down force on Pro Stock cars.

Many Pro Stock drivers and team will tell you that there is enough down force in the cars, that adding more wing will only prove to slow the cars down and not give any more down force.

Both Johnny Gray and Warren Johnson along with other Pro Stock drivers have both been on television giving their opinions on track prep.  Warren has stated, in an ESPN interview that the “NHRA preps the track for the fuel cars which make up less than one tenth of one   percent of the (drag race) cars in the country.” 

On a different occasion in an ESPN interview Greg Anderson stated “We cant raise the (rear) wing and make that much difference.” Anderson also states that the complete 1320 needs to have traction compound spray on it for the Pro Stock cars.

At Charlotte, photos have documented that the track surface from 1000 feet on to the 1320 mark, the track appeared to be chunking up. Where rubber and concrete were being ripped from the track surface.

This is where a double edge sword comes into play.

If the NHRA preps the track the full way to accommodate the Pro Stock cars it has adverse effects on the fuel cars.

Fuel cars at speed make eight thousand pounds of down force and have approximately ten thousand brake horsepower, which when a driver steps off the throttle at a 1000 feet the combination of down force and the chassis unloading literally flattens the rear tires, which increases the foot print.  This pressure on a sticky surface has two affects. One it will pull the rubber out of the center of the tire, or it will pull the rubber and a portion of the surface off the racetrack as what happened at Charlotte.

The fuel cars had pulled up the rubber and some of the concrete, effectively reducing the rubber on racing surface in some estimation by nearly forty percent.

This then forces the NHRA to spray less traction compound for the final 320 feet, which can have adverse effects like those that we saw on Sunday with V. Gaines.

One other question can be asked, is the sanctioning body communicating with the Pro Stock teams about their decisions to spray less on the top end prior to Pro Stock coming out for their next qualifying runs or elimination runs?

This is not just something that occurs at just Charlotte. It has happened at many different tracks on the tour. So what should the NHRA do?  Give the Pro Stock cars more and or a different wing, or slow the fuel cars down.

From this vantage point, the answer is clear.  Slow the fuel cars down and run all classes to 1320 feet.

 I have spoken to fuel car crew chiefs, and some have stated that a 60 , gallon a minute pump, and a four disc limit would slow the cars down. Other tuners have stated a much simpler plan. Follow NASCAR’s lead and run a restrictor plate on the engines. Cut down the amount of air let into the engine. Less air in, less power!

Either way from my perspective, the root problem is the professional cars racing on two different surfaces on the same track. If the balance isn’t just right there are going to be issues, as was seen at Charlotte.

Speaking of Charlotte, it is awesome that the NHRA has two races at ZMAX. However not so awesome to see the place about half full for the first race in “The Countdown”. 

Now it is common knowledge that Bruton Smith and his son Marcus run an excellent facility at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Should Charlotte be the first stop of the Countdown? That is a tough question.

However, it is going to be tough to draw a great crowd for the first race in NHRA’s “Countdown”, at ZMAX in Charlotte, when NASCAR’s first race for the Chase is the same weekend in Chicago. Why?

Charlotte is the home base to about 90 percent of the NASCAR teams. So honestly many of those folks who might go the drags, are either watching Cup on ESPN, or in Chicago at the race?

Two.  The NFL’s Carolina Panthers were in town against Detroit. Cam Newton or John Force? Think big picture here folks.

Three.  Rain in Charlotte in September.  Shocker.

Now if all parties concerned are happy with the turnout at ZMAX, then all the above points are moot.  Be that as it may, personally, I don’t see Bruton Smith happy unless the grandstands at his venues are full. I could be wrong, but…

Nostalgia Racing Continues to Grow

There are times when big brothers can get caught up in themselves. They become so focused on their own life situations that they forget to take a look around and notice that their kid brother, has grown almost as big as they are, or have started to become as strong as the big brother is.

I feel this is what is happening with the nostalgia drag racing scene, represented by the NHRA Heritage Series , IHRA Nitro Jam, and the DRO Series.

For the past couple of years nostalgia racing has been filling the stands at the venues these different series run at.  It was SRO at Bakersfield for the March Meet.  The stands were full at Tucson and San Antonio for the first two IHRA races. Boise will be full for both of their Heritage Series events, as will Salt Lake City.

Now I can already hear the naysayers screaming about “you can’t compare the different venues.”

 This is true to a point the big show races are at larger venues such as Las Vegas, Pomona,  and Charlotte. However, many times these venues are only half to three quarters of capacity. Aesthetically I will take a smaller venue, which is at capacity, over a large facility that may be ¾ full, so will marketing partners. If there are big empty gaps in the crowd some venues use advertising, banners in an attempt to hide the fact there are empty seats. Pomona comes to mind.

The IHRA is doing a great job of this, filling these smaller facilities and putting on an excellent show that the fans are enjoying and the IHRA is reinvesting those resources into compensating their competitors a much larger scale than the NHRA.

I spoke with IHRA President Scott Gardner about their new business model for Nitro Jam.

As many of you already know, the IHRA has a field of six seated cars that have committed to run their entire schedule for the year. Then six more regional cars to make up the qualifying field then augment these six cars. The quickest eight cars then make up the race field.

The seated cars given no special treatment they all must qualify for the show and must win rounds to win the event. Their reward for being a seated car is a slightly larger non-qualifier stipend if they do not make the eight-car field.

The rationale behind this was according to Gardner “We wanted to bring competitive racing back IHRA and to have the best cars in the country running our events.” 

In order to accomplish this feat the IHRA put out a big carrot to lure those top competitors to their events.  Ten thousand dollars to win per event and 100,000.00 dollars points fund at the end of the year, with 50 grand going to the winner.

Gardner also stated “We are not dealing with the John Forces’ of the world, Kalitta’s, or Schumacher Racing.  Our guys have jobs or businesses which fund their racing. So we needed to make it feasible for them to travel the schedule, so that’s why we put the big carrot on the stick.”

Gardner shies away from using the term nostalgia. He feels “When fans watch these cars run 5.70’s at 260 miles per hour on a full quarter mile, it is obvious that these car make a lot of power, and a lot of fun to watch. They are not like their brethren in the other series if it (the run) isn’t perfect the drivers click them off. Our guys will pedal the car, so our racing is more enjoyable for the fans.”

Another facet  of the IHRA business plan Gardner said was crucial, was to make sure that ticket prices were balanced to show value and be reasonable enough for a family of four to attend their events “without breaking the bank” as he stated. “We want the family to come out, smell the nitro feel the ground pound and see the header flames.”

Gardner feels the prices are balanced for the ticket demand, and there is a great deal of value to the tickets.  With the series, having the seated cars that represent champions in all three flopper series it plus the top cars in the country, it is a good entertainment value.

Gardner however is not resting on his laurels. He wants to expand and grow the series. “We are constantly looking for more and bigger markets to help grow the series.”  Gardner feel’s that twelve races are just not enough but is not willing to go to twenty four races either.  Therefore, Gardner is looking for that balance of numbers there as well.

However, with future expansion he feels there would have to be more content to the show, which lead to the question would the IHRA entertain running front motored top fuel cars in the future. “Yea Im not saying we would not consider that because these (front engine) cars can be more entertaining that their brethren top fuel cars in the NHRA.”  Nevertheless, it would have to be affordable to the racers to make the tour, because Gardner does not want to go down the path that the cars cost so much to run of having to charge in ticket prices more to pay more to another class.

“So if we could make it work with the front engine top fuel cars, our current funny cars we are running, a door class like the Unlimited Mountain Motored Pro Stocks, throw in some fuel altereds and some jets and you have one heluva show, and as we expand into new and larger markets we are going to need more presence of classes and that (top fuel) would be a natural choice.”

Gardner is also looking outside the box when it comes to a television package. Rather than run the traditional same day tape delay, or one-week tape delay show, Gardner is looking to build a hybrid type of reality show.  It will include racing but will be more behind the scenes with the teams and racers as they navigate their way through a race weekend.

The DRO Series has matured into the most prominent independent series in the country. DRO’s races fill the needs of drag racers in the mid-west. Champions like John Hale, Shawn Bowen, and front-runners Ronnie Young, and Frank Ousley just to name a few racers that run this series. These are all very tough competitors and are in the upper echelon of the sport.

DRO biggest race is at Cordova, Illinois, for the World Series of Drag Racing.  This event will rival any of the other series major events in both car count and attendance.  There is talk that there could be as many as 20 funny cars could be coming to Cordova for an eight-car show.  Qualifying itself will be worth a full event ticket price.

This has the potential of being a huge year for nostalgia racing. No matter what you call it, people love to see funny cars that make full pulls down the track and have bodies on them they can recognize from sight. In addition, if IHRA can find a place in its lineup for front engine top fuel cars in the future.  Well then, the sky is the limit for both classes.

This could help both sanctioning bodies in a sense, by increasing car counts in funny car and top fuel. That is music to a racetrack promoters ears, and brings joy to the hearts of the fans.

As I started out this column big brother (NHRA Mello Yellow Series) might want to take a look over its shoulder as “little” brother is not so little anymore. Nostalgia racing is growing bigger and bigger every day. The proof is in the close racing and full grand stands.

I write this every month, just to see who notices.

Brian

Boychuk and Leong Reunite for 2014

For the 2014 Nostalgia Funny Car series and IHRA Funny Car season, there will be a force reunited, as Tim Boychuk will have long time crew chief Roland Leong back after a nearly two year hiatus. Leong who spoke with DRO's Nostalgia Editor Brian Losness via phone Sunday evening, said that "The deal was finalized on Wednesday, and that Leong is positive that new parts for a new tune up will arrive in time for the race in Bakersfield." 

Leong will be working on the car at Boychuk's Arizona residence, The Hogensen Boychuk team  is one of many NHRA Nostalgia funny car teams that will run the March Meet and then switch their focus to IHRA tour and their Nitro Funny Car class.

 This duo made serious runs at the NHRA Nostalgia Funny Car titles in the past, and now will even be more of threat with Leong back in the fold.

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.

Time to look back on the past year.

As the year of our Lord, 2013 draws to a conclusion, and the Christmas or Holiday season is upon us, it is time for reflection and looking forward for the New Year.

The past year in drag racing has been exciting and somewhat controversial, but for the most part, it has been exciting.

We saw Antron crash test the Schumacher capsule at Pomona, and come out with for the most part all right. He walked away from it, which is all that matters.

The NHRA tried its best to engineer a way to keep funny car bodies on the cars when and engine explosion takes place when both Johnny Gray had a body almost make it to the spectator area, and Robert Hight’s did get into the crowd.

Gray was the Ginny pig for the first version of the tether system.  It nearly concussion from the blast battered the Artesia, New Mexico driver severely.  This incident at Sonoma forced the NHRA to readdress their tether system again. At this time, it appears it is still an ongoing process.

The point’s races in the NHRA “Big Show” had some drama to them. I was glad to see Shawn Langdon win the top fuel title. Having Shawn race his Super Comp car back in the day, it is reassuring to see that there is hope for those with god given talent and not a fat checkbook to be able to make it to the top echelon of the sport, and be successful.

For many people who are either AARP or AMAC members, the sight of seeing 64 year young John Force take his 16^th title in funny car was kinda like “ In your face” to the Gen Xer’s and Milennial’s who are in the sport. For some of us in that AMAC age range we still have a hard time forgetting Indy 2009.

The best emotion of the year goes to first time Pro Stock winner Rickie Jones, who took the win at the final race of the year in Pomona. People who win national events are happy and thrilled. Some it seems may enhance their enthusiasm to make it a better show. However, this was not the case with Rickie Jones, the kid was crying for joy before the car came to stop, and when all the photographers realized what was happening, it was on, to capture that most genuine of moments.

In the nostalgia world of drag racing it too was filled with drama.

Legendary nitro racer and four-time Good Guys top fuel champion Jim Murphy made it one for the thumb with his first ever NHRA points championship this year. Murphy who split up with long time crew chief Tim Beebe took delivery of Frank Ousley’s old/new car, along with a new ingenious oil containment system, developed with the help of another mad scientist Jim Head.  The system was put to use at Boise, where in the semi final round  win, the engine split a piston in half and not one drop of oil hit the track, the system contained it all.  More on that later.

Back to back to back flopper champion Jason Rupert took the 2013 title, in the most dramatic fashion during the final race of the final event of the year.  My perspective  when there are four teams with a chance at the title on the going into the final race, of the year it is dramatic.

What will be interesting in 2014 is what will happen with the IHRA and their infusion of what would be considered huge money 50,000.00 per event with 10K going to the winner and 100,000.00 dollars for the season points fund with 50 large going to the victor.

Will this get the NHRA’s attention?  It should as four of their big name funny car teams either have committed to the “I” or will attempt to work on both sides of the fence, as much as possible.

The Pro Mod world from this perspective is in turmoil. There are so many factions / sanctioning bodies in the world of pro mod racing it looks more like United Nations general assembly.  I do not know if all these different entities will be able to fight for enough racetracks to race on, and find the money to pay the racers.  Alternatively, will the pro mod racers have to start paying the sanctioning body to race at their events? That might just be a very slippery slope.

So time will tell how all this shakes out. As there are some teams who have already started testing for 2014 and it is about time as there are only 48 days until Pomona.

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.

For those of you who are traveling, travel safe and sanely. The Losness’ are headed to Montana.  My in-laws have this wonderful log house in the mountains and their closest neighbors are a quarter mile away.  The house is in the beautiful Stillwater Valley.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year. We will talk more about drag racing in a couple of weeks.

Media and Law Enforcement Give Drag Racing another Black Eye.

Media and Law Enforcement Give Drag Racing another Black Eye

Last Saturday evening I was sitting in a media room with other photographers  at a local university, covering a college football game for USA Today, when one of the other photographers who was monitoring a social media site said with shock and sadness that Paul Walker had died.

My response was” Who?”  He looked at me like I had three nipples and said “ Paul Walker…. You know The Fast and the Furious.” 

Now with all honesty I can say that I have never seen an entire one of these Fast and the Furious movies. I watched about twenty minutes of the first one and then changed the channel to the Discovery or something.

Movies and reality shows that depict illegal street acceleration activities are not something I tend not to watch or give credence to. Then when compared to a legitimate sport such as drag racing, it pains me even more.

            Furthermore, I feel that those knuckleheads in Oklahoma with their reality show have done more harm to the motorsports industry than help it. Even though some racetrack promoters have felt it is OK to bring these people in as celebrities and such to heir events. Nevertheless, I digress.

The mainstream media and the law enforcement community have also done a great disservice to the sport of drag racing when they file reports on situations such as what happened last Saturday afternoon. “There was a possibility that Mr. Walker was drag racing when he was killed.”

Having my undergraduate degree in media studies, I understand why the mainstream media, and law enforcement officials are comfortable with using drag racing as a way to describe the illegal street acceleration activities, when these activities go aria.

The term is laziness.  It is easier to write drag racing than it is to write, illegal street acceleration activities. Two fewer words to write by the author.

The shame is, mainstream media types and some in law enforcement don’t understand that incorrectly using the term “drag racing” in these negative connotations can do to irreparable harm to half billion dollar dollar industry.

These reports are in a sense putting a legal, legitimate sporting activity and business in the same light as an illegal criminal enterprise. 

These erroneous reports can affect how a potential sponsor might look at the sport of drag racing, if that potential sponsor is new to the sport. It will make it harder to convince a potential sponsor to become involve if they see the sport in such a negative light.

However, to many of these uninformed people in law enforcement and the media, they don’t get it or worse yet don’t care.  Case in point.

About ten years ago, I was part of a fledgling all sports newspaper here in Southern Idaho, and there was an accident on a rural road where two cars were engaged in an illegal street acceleration activity. A gravel truck happen to  pull onto the road from a side street and the three kids in one of the cars involved were killed when the car and gravel truck collided.

The local law enforcement put out a report which was picked up by the local print and electronic  media and stated that the kids were killed while drag racing. I tracked down the officer who wrote the report and was doing a story on this tragedy.

My first question to him was “How did the gravel truck get on to the drag strip?” He looked at me with a puzzled look, and I followed up with, “Your report stated that the 3 occupants in the car were drag racing when they collided with the gravel truck and were killed, so how did the gravel truck get on the race track?” His response was “They were drag racing on the street.”

I tried to explain to him that drag racing is legal activity done at a drag strip and illegal street acceleration activities are not legal, and done on the street.  His response was “It’s all the same to us.”

Therefore, I asked him if that is the case then private security guards are the same as police officers.  His response was a very stern “NO”

 I said “Sure you are. You both drive cars with flashing lights on top, both have badges, both carry guns, Billy clubs, and handcuffs etc. All the same to us, right?” 

If he would have had a tazer, his facial expressions pretty much said he would have tazed me right then and there. Rather he spun round on his heels and got in his patrol car and left.

Now I am not trying to make light of what has happened this past Saturday.  It is tragic. Two families have lost a father, a son, a brother. Many others have lost two dear friends. Moreover, many have lost an entertainer who brought them enjoyment.

However, let’s not drag (no pun intended) an entire industry down where many people are employed and many positive things occur, just because somebody in the mainstream media or law enforcement official is too lazy to give a proper description to actually what happened when people engage in illegal street acceleration activities by calling it drag racing.

So when these instances occur where media and or law enforcement take the easy road and use the term drag racing when these illegal street acceleration activities take place. It puzzles me why the leading sanctioning body in the sport of drag racing the National Hot Rod Association sitting on their hands and not coming out with a statement refuting the description of the activities that caused Mr. Walker or others to lose their lives in illegal street acceleration activities.

Because you know damn good and well the next time some high profile individual is killed or seriously injured in an illegal street acceleration activity, and it will happen, if a reporter in the mainstream media or law enforcement office puts in the report, that the victim was involved in stock car racing on the street.  NASCAR would mobilize its legal and communications department in order to contain and redirect those comments so fast it would make one’s head spin.

One last thing is that racing is a legal sport done at sanctioned facilities throughout the world. Where there are safety measures in place and rules to govern the activities.

 When people get out on the street and drive fast it is not racing.  In addition, when there are two or more knuckleheads out driving fast on the streets, it still is not racing; it is illegal street acceleration activity. Alternatively, use the term wreck less driving.  

Either way my message to those in the media and law enforcement don’t take the easy way out when describing a tragedy like what happened on Saturday by just throwing out the term drag racing. It is not fair moreover, it is not an accurate description.

Just to see if anybody notices.

Rumors about NHRA going to quarter mile racing for T/F and F/C, and what I think must be done to accomplish that.

Greetings to all seven of you who follow my blog and I appreciate your continued support. 

I know it has been sometime since my last post and I apologize for that. Between master’s program, (do not roll your eyes at me) and other things it was necessary to put the blog on the back burner for a while.

Well now that the reason for not updating is out of the way. The subject of this week’s blog is somewhat of a rehash of an earlier topic.

At the world finals in Pomona, the rumor mill was running overtime with the topic of the NHRA going back to quarter mile racing for the nitro classes, top fuel and funny car.

Now if this is true it is a great piece of news for us purist in the sport.  Many drag racing fans are linear thinkers and they see the set distance for drag racing as a quarter of a mile nothing else.

Here is a question, would the return to quarter mile drag racing correct the trend of slumping TV ratings and declining spectator attendance?

Speaking of TV ratings Michael Knight in a recent report stated that NHRA’S television audience had declined for the third straight year.  Since 2011 to 2013, viewer ship is down nearly 11.7 percent. It fell 5.9 percent last year.

Now if the NHRA would go back to quarter mile racing will that improve the rating? Most likely, it would not do much to move the needle. 

So why are the numbers down?  Mr. Knight did not elaborate, but I am going out on a limb here and say the reason for the decline is when the broadcast are shown, or not shown on ESPN which has a contract with the NHRA to broadcast their events.

 It seems the NHRA broadcast is the redheaded stepchild of the “Mother ship”.  It makes it hard to build viewership when qualifying shows frequently air at horrible times such as 3:00 am Eastern time.

Or when then NHRA shows are delayed by broadcasts of “The Iowa High School Girls Junior Varsity Badminton Championships” or some such thing.  

Now I know, I am being facetious, but you get the point.

Even though the NHRA pays ESPN to air their shows, NHRA seems to be kicked around when it comes to showing the events. Maybe a change of tact is in order.

Would it be better to be a big fish in a smaller pond of sports network such as CBS Sports or NBC Sports, or even drag racing supporter Forrest Lucas’ network,  MAVTV, rather than being an afterthought on the Mother ship.

Nevertheless, I digress.  Will going back to quarter-mile racing help those ratings? I do not think so. There must be a solid consistent television package to increase the ratings. In addition, the television rating might just go up if the broadcast would shy away from the John Force Show.

On the other hand, would quarter mile top fuel and funny car racing help attendance at the events? Possibly, it would. Drag race fans, purist equate the sport to quarter mile racing. Drag racing is the quickest sport on the planet, and running a shorter distance makes it almost too quick to derive any enjoyment from.

There is a dilemma with going back to quarter mile racing for the nitro cars.

One, technological advancements have allowed the top fuel cars to exceed 332 miles per hour in a thousand feet and 320 miles per hour for the funny cars.  Now if the cars were simply to return to quarter mile racing you might see top fuel speeds nearly 350 miles per hour and 340 miles per hour in funny car.

From a marketing and promotions aspects this would be fantastic. The NHRA marketing and promotions department if they were aggressive would have a field day with these statistics. Pumping up the fan base to take in the greater excitement of 350 mile per hour race cars.

Conversely, the NHRA like many corporations also have a risk management division.  I could see those people in risk management wanting to have no part of racecars going 350 miles per hour on their tracks.

The NHRA this year dodged a bullet when it comes to having fans seriously injured at when the body from Robert Hight’s funny car blew off at Charlotte and landed on fans in the grand stands.

If there was a 350 mile per hour dragster were not able to stop at Pomona and end up on Fairplex Drive at five o’clock on a Friday night.  Well you could just about write off the sport of NHRA Drag Racing.

Which leads me to part two and there are tracks that have the limited space for the shutdown areas. Pomona and Englishtown are two that come to mind. These facilities are land locked and have no physical ability to be extended to allow a car with a parachute or brake anomaly to stop safely 350 miles per hour without crashing onto a public highway.

Therefore, if the NHRA is looking to go back to quarter mile racing, the sanctioning body must address the speed of the cars and slow them down. As I have stated in earlier blogs, there are two simple ways to slow these cars down.

In talking with various crew chiefs in the sport and consensus is that the NHRA can either take away one of the magnetos from the engine.  Thus, there is no way to burn all the fuel injected by the 100 gallon per minute pump into the combustion chamber.  Therefore, fuel flow rates would be reduced until the magnetos could produce a spark with enough energy to burn the fuel. Moreover, in theory slowing down the cars to a more manageable speed..

The other school of thought is regulating the pump rate to 60 gallons per minute rate rather than 100 gallon per minute, and keeps the two magnetos. The theory is the two magnetos would eliminate dropped cylinders and fire the fuel in the combustion chamber which can a does cause engine damage.

Either way horsepower reduction in a manageable order must be done to slow the cars down.

The long and the short of if it is, if the NHRA does go back to quarter mile racing for the nitro classes,  some due diligence must be done before this can be accomplished.

The NHRA must address these rumors and look at the risk/reward factors of going back to quarter mile racing for top fuel and funny car, and inform the competitors in a timely manner on their decision.

For this fan, I hope the answer is yes, to quarter mile top fuel and funny car racing.

Just to see if anybody notices…

.

Sometimes I Wonder, Why?

Wendell Scott and Darrell Wallace Jr. are linked together by many things in life, including passion, determination, history and now after this past Saturday, success.

Darrell Wallace Jr, or Bubba as many know him is 20 years old, and a gifted individual who loves to drive race cars in NASCAR. Wendell Scott was also very gifted and determined, competing in NASCAR back in the 1960’s. He took his first and only win in 1964 at the Jacksonville 200.

 Bubba Wallace this past Saturday in Martinsville, Virginia won his first ever Camping World Truck Series event, driving for another gifted and determined individual, Kyle Busch. Both Busch and Wallace drive for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Earlier this year, at the opening race for NASCAR, the Daytona 500 Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year, candidate Danica Patrick won the pole for the Great American Race. Patrick’s feat was extraordinary because not many rookies have been able to accomplish this feat in the history of NASCAR.

These feats of greatness have been and are celebrated in the national media as being special. But, why are they special?

NASCAR makes these feats special with their media and marketing departments touting the cause of diversity. Darrell Wallace Jr. is black, as was Wendell Scott. Danica Patrick is obviously female.

The national media was abuzz with headlines: Darrell Wallace Jr. makes NASCAR history with victory. (USA Today) Darrell Wallace Jr. hopes to pave way for other African-American drivers after historic win. (The Sporting News) and Darrell Wallace Jr. sets NASCAR milestone. (Al Jazeera) Yes Al Jazeera the network from Qatar.

The NASCAR marketing machine is full throttle getting this story out about Bubba Wallace and their “Drive to Diversity Program” to the media as it was when Danica won the pole at Daytona.

The problem is when it comes to motorsports as a whole and diversity, NASCAR is a day late and a dollar short.

In actuality, the NHRA is the tip of the spear when it comes to diversity, the problem is they really do not pound their chest about it, or the national media does not give it a great deal of credence.

The deal is the NHRA is so diverse it does not need a program to promote it.  Drag Racing has had female world champions Shirley Muldowney (Three times); Angelle Sampey (three times); and Jackie Alley. Latino world champions, Tony and Cruz Pedregon,( both have done it twice) and a black world champion Antron Brown.  Antron Brown won his first Top Fuel World Championship in 2012 and has two race wins in 2013.  These people were not just race winners, but winners of season long championships in both professional and sportsman categories’.

In 2008 Lewis Hamilton, won the F1 Drivers World Championship and continues to be perennial race winner on the F1 circuit.  In 2012, he took the victory at the first annual US Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas in San Antonio, Texas.

My question is this, why in 2013 if we live in a country where everybody is equal (supposedly) then why would a person’s skin color or gender even brought up when we talk about racers winning races or championships.

Why can’t we just say that Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr, took his first ever Camping World Truck Series win at Martinsville. 

 Wallace is very talented, aligned with a great organization in Joe Gibbs Racing, and is destined for greatness. This kid will be a star in NASCAR in the future.

Why quantitatively classify this by putting race into the mix?  For ratings, for hits on websites? 

I feel we need just to talk about the talent of the driver, or crew chief, or crewmember. Why do we even need to bring race or gender into the equation?  I can guaran-damn-tee  you that the race car has no clue what race, creed, sex, or religion the person is working on it, or driving it. Nor does it care. 

So neither should we.  Congratulations to Bubba Wallace Jr, racecar driver on your win at Martinsville.

Radford Returns to the Pro Mod Wars.

Dennis Radford

Radford Returns to the Pro Mod Wars.                      

Veteran Pro Mod driver Dennis Radford will return to the NHRA Pro Mod Series driving a second IDG back 2013 Chevy Camaro. Radford’s return will take place at the 13th annual NHRA Toyota Nationals, October 24-27, 2013 at The Strip of Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Radford who has taken a sabbatical from driving to concentrate on his business interests and over see his wife Judy, racing endeavors.

Radford still holds the fifth fastest speed ever recorded by a nitrous pro mod at 243.94 mph at Charlotte, North Carolina in 2011.

“I am looking forward to getting back into the seat of a great car prepared by Rickie Smith with the backing of IDG”, stated Radford from his home in Baker City, Oregon.

 IDG is the Market Leader for Industrial Distribution and Supply Chain Solutions.

Is there room for common sense in Pro Mod racing.

This week’s blog has to deal with safety in drag racing. I have and always will be a big proponent for safety, safety equipment and rules that promotes safety.

The focus is on the class of Pro Mod. The past two NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series races have seen two devastating crashes.  These two events along with crashes that have taken place at ADRL, XDRL, and other independent Pro Mod races along with some Top Sportsman racers. This also includes the crashes that took the life of two racers.

Why is the occurring?  I have many contacts with in the Pro Mod community and I spoke with some of them about these occurrences.  I had a suspicion to the cause of these accidents. However, to my surprise the response I got was not what I completely expected.

The consensus of these drivers and crew chiefs that I spoke with the cause of these incidents were attributed to two different factors.  Lack of down force and OHS.I will explain OHS later.

Speaking with a couple of drivers they said that first off there is a lack of down force on these cars, as in many instances on the pro stock cars. One driver told me  “These cars need to run more wing in them, but if you do that it slows the car down, so they (driver) trim it out to get the car faster.”  The lack of down force will make the car faster as long as it is in the grove and can stay stuck, but once it gets out of the grove the lack of down force and traction makes the cars skate around.

When I asked the crew chiefs if the speeds were too fast for cars with suspension?  To a man, they said no. Technology has made suspension cars more stable. Many of the pro mod cars do not run the electronic shocks; most have gone to the Penske shock package that seems to make the car more forgiving.

So what is the other contributing factor?  A very grizzly Army warrior explained it to me many years ago when I served in the Army, he called it OHS. So what is OHS?  Operator Head Space, according to this Army warrior is, and I will edit it somewhat. It is when an individual’s posterior overloads their capacity of their cranial cavity. Lack of common sense.

One of the drivers stated it somewhat in the same vernacular. “ When drivers, drive over their heads that is when they get into trouble. Another crew chief stated  that “ It is hard sometimes to get it through their ( a drivers) heads that if the cars starts moving around, just shove the clutch in and come back to fight another day.”

This same crew chief stated that “ The competition has gotten so tough that if the car doesn’t make a perfect run that it doesn’t make sense to try and pedal the car to save a run.”  He went on to say “ is it really worth that $1000.00 in round money to risk wadding up a $120,000.00 dollars race car?”

However, all of these arguments make sense, but racers will be racers and when these drivers get into the cars their only thought is to get to the other end under power no matter what. I have personally seen this attitude develop from the time the driver steps into the car till they get out at the other end. It is like a thousand meter stare. “I will do almost everything to get the car to the finish line.”

Therefore, we know racers will be racers and some of them will put their brains into neutral when they go down the racetrack. It is how they are wired. So is there anything which would assist drivers in having better control of the car or do something to the cars to help the drivers if the car gets into trouble.

I think so. First, the sanctioning bodies need to work with car builders and racers to come up with a rear wing and front air dam package to make the cars more aero-stable.  Therefore, when the cars start to move around out of the grove it will help the driver to get control of the car. However, many drivers and crew chiefs say that aero really does not start to effect the cars till about the 1/8 mile.  Which is what the ADRL, XDRL and other outlaw bodies run on.

 The other thing is that since the NHRA has no problem taking other ideas that NASCAR has come up with, and bend it into something that will help the NHRA.

 The NHRA should take the NASCAR idea of roof flaps and makes those mandatory on all Pro Mods, Pro Stock and Top Sportsman cars. Therefore, when the cars get turned around as the air gets under the rear wing and tries to lift the car, the roof flaps will help fight that tendency. I would use the Gen Six style roof flats as they have a larger surface area and the small “parachute” side areas on the flaps.

The final thing is that maybe drivers need to step back and evaluate their situations. If the car starts doing something silly, shove the clutch in. It is one thing to wreck your own stuff , but it is another to wreck your opponents stuff in your moment of stupidity.

These are suggestions and I would gladly love to hear what others have to say about this.

I just hate seeing race cars tore up and more so, drivers hurt or even killed over a lack of for common sense, and driving over their heads. No I am not calling for a nanny state, but I am calling for an injection of common sense.

NHRA and its Teams Needs to Capitalize on Mistakes Made in NASCAR

Business, especially big business is not for the faint of heart.  Therefore, if you are in business and you see a competitor possibly having some difficulties, it is perfectly understandable for to capitalize on those your opponent’s difficulties to help enhance your own position.

This is the position that NHRA seems to be in. There is a possible chink in the armor of the monster of motor sports NASCAR.

Nationwide Insurance has decided to pull sponsorship from the second level of NASCAR series known as Nationwide Series at the end of the 2014 year. 

 NAPA has pulled its support from the Michael Waltrip Racing organization after the debacle that occurred at the Richmond event involving Waltrip driver Clint Bowyer and the MWR Executive Vice President of Business Development and General Manager Ty Norris.  

Bowyer’s action of spinning with eight laps to go and bringing out a caution along with Norris telling MWR driver Brian Vickers to pit, which would put Vickers a lap down and then put NAPA driver Martin Truex Jr. into the NASCAR “Chase to the Sprint Cup.”

NASCAR penalized the NAPA driver Truex fifty driver points as well as the other MWR drivers. NASCAR also penalized Waltrip 50 owners’ points along with 300 thousand dollars.

This effectively put Truex out of the Chase, which cost MWR nearly 3 million dollars in lost revenue.

This action caused NAPA to pull its two remaining years of funding of MWR estimated at nearly 18 million dollars a year.

NAPA in a press release last week stated, “NAPA believes in fair play and does not condone actions such as those that led to the penalties assessed by NASCAR.”

Now this past weekend Five Hour Energy, the sponsor for MWR driver Clint Bowyer, company president Scott Henderson in a statement regarding NASCAR and NASCAR President Brian France stated that,” "There's a lot of talk about integrity," he said. "When the guy who's in charge can say, 'I can do whatever I want and I'm going to do it and I just did,' I wonder about integrity. I want to make sure we can win in this sport, OK?"

There is some sentiment that Five Hour will walk from MWR at the end of the 2013 season.

With all of this said, I would hope to think that people who work in the marketing department at the glass palace in Glendora, along with some of the marketing people working for the NHRA teams would be burning up the phones to those agencies handling some of these NASCAR marketing partners accounts.

If Five Hour Energy does pull out of MWR over lack of integrity, then the NHRA should be talking to Coke in Atlanta about the exclusivity clauses Coke has in place not allowing other drink companies to be marketing partners with NHRA teams.

The NHRA must capitalize on this opportunity to exploit and opening and bring more money and new marketing partners to the sport of drag racing.

Now I know that NAPA has a presence in the NHRA with DSR, however, it might get NAPA to expand on that platform and activation.

However, Five Hour Energy would find a great home in NHRA if Coke would allow it, and Five Hour could do a three-year deal with a NHRA team for the less than the cost of one year in NASCAR.

With ESPN losing their NASCAR, deal at the end of 2014 and possibly as early as the end of this year as being speculated by some. I see this as an opportunity for NHRA to leverage ESPN to get better coverage and air times.

All of this would require the NHRA to get motivated and be aggressive with some of its partners to take advantage of these situations.

I understand that this is pie in the sky kind of thinking; however, if these two sponsors are not very happy with NASCAR, there is a possibility that others might be not overly happy with NASCAR and with what has happened over the past two weeks.

Therefore as I stated before, it might behoove NHRA and their teams to start working hard on some of these opportunities.

It would take a lot of back end work, such as getting a better television package, and maybe some expanded programming on ESPN, or MAV TV by doing pre and post-race coverage of national events.

Alternatively, look at doing something with Sirius XM radio to provide coverage of the national events on satellite radio to expand the drag racing media presence. The NHRA already steams its events from the announcer’s deck, on the internet; they could do the same with Sirius XM radio

In concluding, I understand that I am not in any of these marketing people offices at NHRA or at the respective drag racing teams. So maybe some people who are employed in these offices might be working on these opportunities.

 If so I feel the NHRA needs to put out the word, they are going to be aggressively seeking to expand their marketing profile to expand the sport and take advantage of these mistakes made by NASCAR.

ESPN disrespects NHRA fans or did they?

Let us be honest the sport of professional drag racing is treated like red headed stepchildren in the arena of sports and in particular motorsports.   This was very evident last Sunday evening, when ESPN decided preempt the NHRA broadcast to show the conclusion of the rain delayed NASCAR event from Chicago.

The NHRA telecast was the switched to ESPN news or HD. This is not found on most basic cable or satellite subscriptions. Therefore, many fans could not watch the remainder of the event.

Now as I understand it, and it is possible my information is not accurate, ESPN pays NASCAR in the hundreds of millions of dollars for the rights to show “Cup” racing. The NHRA pays ESPN to show the drag races.

Now so it seems as though the management team at ESPN is more concerned with taking care of those they pay money too rather than take care of those who are a profit center for them.

However, I can see from a business standpoint that ESPN sees paying to broadcast NASCAR as an investment and ESPN must to do whatever possible to achieve a return on investment or better known as ROI.

Therefore, since there was MLB game Yankee’s verses Red Sox on the “mother ship” ESPN, and the millions of viewers tuned in to see that game on the Eastern Sea Board. There was no way ESPN is bumping that game.

Therefore, ESPN management saw NHRA drag racing as being “expendable” and who is bumped? The drag races to ESPN News, to make way for NASCAR on “the duce”. 

The problem is that not all the basic cable and satellite programing packages have ESPN News as an option.  Thus, those fans that waited all day to watch drag racing from Charlotte were “bitch slapped” by ESPN because of economic reasons, and demographics.

Is this entirely the fault of ESPN? No.  Why you ask?  Let us go back to that word demographics.  More people watch NASCAR. It is a basic fact.  More people who watch means more money is charged for advertisements on the broadcasts and there you have a return on the investment.

 Advertisements that are part of a racers marketing partner’s (sponsors) activation plan. So, the more people who watch, the more marketing partners get views of their branding and the more people will go out and act on the impulse to purchase from those partners. And the marketing partners see a return on investment.

NASCAR racing’s format one race with 43 cars running at the same time, allows ESPN to produce a live telecast.

NHRA’s format, of having many different classes of cars and focus strictly being on the  professional cars during the event, does not allow a live telecast to take place, because the focus of the event is on the professional categories,(top fuel, funny car, pro stock and pro stock bike)  so it has to broadcast on a  live/ tape delayed. 

The other thing I have noticed is that broadcasters at the NASCAR events will work in a team’s marketing partners into their descriptions of the action. I have heard many times pit reporter Dr. Jerry Punch describe a pit stop by Jimmy Johnson by saying. “Jimmy Johnson brings the “Lowes” “Chevrolet” to attention of Chad Knaus”.

I feel this practice has to happen more on the NHRA broadcasts to help promote those marketing partners who have decided to use NHRA drag racing to promote their products. “Tony Pedregon’s American Racing Wheels/ Toyota approaches the water box”.

One last thing, while having the drag race broadcast preempted and moved to another part of the ESPN family of channels, was a slap in the face to the drag racing fans, we as fans need to know that at least they are showing the events.

There is not a lot of other sports channels clambering to broadcast NHRA Drag Racing events. 

How can that change. In my humble opinion, a few things would help:

One- The NHRA must open up the market place start allowing more marketing partners to come into the sport by stopping the practice of exclusive advertising practices.  For example since Coke is the umbrella sponsor of the series, and under the NHRA/Coke sponsorship agreement,  there can be no other soft drink sponsorships can be brought into the sport.  

If this agreement is modified it would allow, for example other, drink companies come on board with teams needing marketing partners.  The possibility of more and diverse companies coming to drag racing is enhanced and expands the field with more teams.

Two- When a new company does come into the sport, the NHRA needs to keep their hands in their pockets and not try not get “theirs” too.  If the new company wants to expand their activation to the NHRA side then great. The NHRA needs to capitalize on those opportunities, only when offered.

Three- Teams need to do a better job of taking care of sponsors.  Do not give away the car just to have a name on the side of it. Team need to prepare handle the activation of the sponsorship, and under promise and over deliver on the expectations given to the marketing partner.

Learn a lesson from Kenny Bernstein, how he took care of Anheuser- Busch and Budweiser for nearly 30 years.

Four- TV must do more to promote those partners who are in the sport or those new partners who have decided to use NHRA drag racing to promote their products and services. Not concentrate on just a few of the “major” players such as JFR and DSR.

Five- NHRA needs to examine the pricing structure for event tickets so that more people and their families can afford to come to the races. Give the fans a great value.

Six- Fans need to do their part by going to the events marketing partners love to see a racecar in front of full grand stands. Fans need to interact through social media with teams and marketing partners, to show their engagement with the sport and the event.

Seven- Fans must become engaged, and support those who support drag racing. Moreover, tell those marketing partners why you use their service or buy their products.

Will all of these suggestions work? Will any work?  I honestly think that some of these suggestions will help expand the sport and keep the fans who love to watch drag racing on television from being “bitch slapped” again.

The first round of Nostalgia qualifying is in the book here at Rocky Mountain Raceway, in Salt Lake City.

In Junior Fuel four cars made the trip. On the point is Scott Parks  with a 7.11

In A Fuel the same number of cars made the trip to RMR and Kin Bates is the leader after Q1 with a thundering 6.57.

In 7.0 Pro six cars have made the voyage to the Salt Lake area.  Chuck Roark from Great Falls, Montana is on the point at 7.10

In Nostalgia Funny Car there are 10 cars running for the eight spots.

On point is Kris Krabill with a  5.97, followed by Dan Horan with a 6.06, third is Robert Overholser at 6.186.  Reigning series champ Jason Rupert is fourth at 6.187, Tim Boychuk is fifth at 6.23.  Number six is Dennis LaCharite at 6.24, in seventh is local hero Scott Stanger with a 6.37 and rounding out the top eight is Bob Godfrey with a 6.43

On the outside looking in is Mark Sanders at 8.35 and Nathan Sitko.

The next session is scheduled for 3:00pm

Robert Overholser #3 after Q1

Mark Sanders had engine problems in Q1

Jason Rupert is number 4

Dan Horan is 2nd after Q1

Kris Krabill is number one after Q1 with a 5.97

Salt Lake City-

Well it is raining off and on. However, the pro do not run till eight oclock tonight therefore it appears we will soldier on.


7:17pm MDT  We are racing, Well bracket racing decision was made to forego the Heritage Series for the evening and pile it on tomorrow.

NHRA Heritage Series Event- Rocky Mountain Raceway- Salt Lake City, Utah

Just arrived on site, and the sky's are overcast and dark.  The wind is blowing like crazy, teams are looking to find ways to secure awning, and the like. I will make a walk through the pit area.

2013 Pepsi Nightfire Nationals

The Pepsi Nightfire Nationals- Day One watch for updates through out the day.

Drag Racing Needs to Get into the Lemonade Business

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