Combined Nitro and Alcohol Class????

On Saturday evening, as I was sitting at home, having a cool one, waiting to see the qualifying from Gainsville, I was watching the Speedfreaks on the Speedchannel. They had Larry Dixon and TJ jr. on and possed a very interesting question...."IS THE NHRA GOING THRU AN IDENTITY CRISIS?" One of the Idea's that Larry Dixon came up with was to COMBINE the Fuel Classes into (1) Class. Pile up all that Divided prize money and combine it for a $150,000 payday per race! His Idea....a 200" WB Rear Engine FUNNY CAR! WITH A REAL WING FOR DOWNFORCE!
Do you think a "COOKIE CUTTER" class for Pro and Top Alcohol (kinda like Nascar's NExtel and Busch Series) would work in NHRA??? So that there would be 1 winner in pro fuel and 1 winner in let's say for the sake of arguement...Jr. Fuel? Do you think it would draw more interest..??? Maybe 32 car fields???? Run Jr.'s On saturday, Pro's on Sunday with Sportsman filler in between???? Or does it totally go against what NHRA stands for? Does NHRA need to be like all the other motorsports or is that what seperates us from them?

 

In my humbel opinion,I think the NHRA is banking on the woman of the sport to take it to the next level.Don`t under estmate them they control 85% of the money in the U.S.A. And guys we can`t live with them and we can`t live with them!

 

Yes there are reasons we are drag racing fans and racers. Mine is that I hate body and paint work. I ran a stock car for a couple of years and we crashed a lot. We went really fast but crashed in the corners. Maybe it was telling me something?

 

promotion?

Will,
You and a lot of other people in this sport use the word "promotion" like it is something that grows on trees. It is by far the most over used word by people who really have no concept of what it means or what it COSTS. There is only one thing that drives promotion and that is a cubic dollar promo/ad budget...something that very few tracks can either afford or chance to spend. I believe you yourself tried to promote a few alcohol races, how successful were you?? It aint easy and it AINT cheap as I am sure you will agree.
This is not 1975 and fans are not falling out of the trees to come and watch alcohol cars in a sport that has sponsors spending millions to promote blown nitro cars. If the ads don't say "Force, Bernstein, Kalita, Schumacher and all the "big gun" names, casual fans don't care and will not come!!

 

NHRA will NEVER combine the classes!