Notes from the Top Alcohol Owners/Drivers/Mfg meeting at IMIS

Again I'd like to thank those of you who took the time to attend the meeting this past weekend at IMIS. We had 50 owners, drivers, representatives and manufacturers at the meeting. I would also like to thank the IMIS show for graciously providing a meeting room free of charge.

Below is a summary of what I presented and what was discussed. There will be a separate post to discuss the formation of the proposed organization (name yet to be determined).

The purpose of the meeting was to gather ideas and input to improve the alcohol classes moving forward. To identify concerns and potential problems to the class, and come up with potential solutions.

Right now we are going through tough times. It's tough for us racers, the tracks and NHRA. As I have said on this site, the economy is what has brought the situation to a head. Sportsman car counts across the board have dropped. With many tracks looking to have a 'back gate' event that makes it's money off entries and crew passes, the alcohol cars were an unwanted expense to many tracks. Money is the bottom line of why we lost races, not an effort to increase car counts. At the end of the day, we have to show ourselves to be an asset to the tracks.

To be an asset, we need to be a profitable investment to the tracks. In some cases we need to be 'packaged' better to achieve those results. Too many of the current divisional races are too slow paced to be a good entertainment 'front gate' spectator draw. Not to mention scheduling sometimes puts the event at a disadvantage to be a front gate draw. Whether it's day racing in 100+ degree heat or having a divisional in close proximity to a track's national event date, those types of things don't allow our cars to draw the kind of crowds we could with better scheduling.

While there could be a case for dropping a few events that were not well attended in the name of car counts, the swing from 39 events to 23 definitely went over center in that regard. There's definitely a need and demand for more events, so we need to make it a priority moving forward to see where we can add events to the schedule. Even more critical than that is to MAINTAIN what we have this year. This year should have been a pretty big wake up call to all of us we can't take anything for granted anymore.

One thing that I have really been pushing on my website and want to get out to as many people is the concept of trying to allow and recruit tracks to put on alcohol only events. To clarify on this, these would be events outside of the traditional divisional events that would feature one or both alcohol classes as the show. Tracks would be allowed to select 'filler' classes as they deem fit. Make a compact tight show. This allows the track to focus all of their attention on putting on a show rather than running a big 'event.' For instance, what's best for the show may put you at odds with what's best for the racers...we see this all the time at national events. The show may need to get another round of alcohol back in, but Super Street loses a qualifying session. These events would count as a full 'regional' just like the other races in points.

Between making improvements to the way the upcoming divisional/regionals are produced and potentially adding front-gate friendly alcohol shows, we may be able to sway the needle back in our direction. If we can show we are a profitable draw, we may get some of the tracks that dropped us to pick us back up again.

Hand in hand with trying to maintain and add events to our schedule, we need to rebuild the 'brand' of Top Alcohol racing. There hasn't been much of a presence from NHRA Field Marketing over the past few years at divisional events and they haven't done a whole lot in regards to getting the alcohol cars more press. If we can work with NHRA to make the Field Marketing department promote our classes better, it would be a big step in the right direction.

While there's a lot of things that would happen in a perfect world, we're far from a perfect world. NHRA and the tracks should promote us more. But the reality is in many cases they don't, they aren't or they don't do the job adequately. If we had more Bill Baders in the world, we probably wouldn't have this conversation. In my opinion, we cannot just sit back and leave the promotion of our class to the NHRA and the tracks. I'm not just talking about on an event to event basis, but promoting our 'brand' of racing as a whole.

We need more special interest stories covering and promoting our classes. We need to be getting press in not only the traditional drag racing media, but local and automotive outlets as well. In a nutshell, we need more 'buzz' surrounding our class. The buzz is there, we just need to get people to know about it.

If we are going to promote ourselves, do we just take a group of volunteers, or do we organize? I'm afraid the volunteer option would quickly lose steam. It's not hard to 'over volunteer;' to commit to more than you can handle. This job will be time consuming. A half cocked effort won't do us any good.

It's my opinion as a veteran of the PR business that we need to hire someone. That will take money, so we will need to organize, collect dues and establish a budget. If we find someone with experience (that person is not me) in the PR/Marketing field, we could really see an increase in our exposure as a whole.

While the sole purpose of this meeting was not to discuss the formation of a "P-R-O" type of organization, it's certainly something we need to discuss. Many of you may remember all too well our last attempt to organize with the Top Alcohol Racers Association (TARA). I think it could have worked, but the major stumbling block was that it got caught up in performance rules issues. Namely blown vs. A/Fuel. It tore the TAD racers apart down the middle, then caused apathy by the TAFC racers because the bickering between the dragster racers.

If the scope of such an organization was focused entirely on the promotion of our type of racing, and to a lesser extent, safety and non performance related rule issues, I think it would stand a good chance at being successful.

Depending on the budget we have to work with, ideally we could hire one full time PR/Marketing rep with experience in the business. The scope of the job would be to ensure that feature stories are distributed to the media and we are getting coverage in national, local and racing media. This person would be responsible for coordinating with racers for the material. With the proper budget, this person would be on the ground at most regional events to work with local media to create promotional opportunities.

This person would also maintain contact and follow up with membership on ideas, concerns and issues. They would also work to develop marketing opportunities for the collective group.

The feature story content this person would be responsible for would be above and beyond the team news releases many of you currently submit to the media. This would be a great opportunity to streamline those team news releases and submit them along with specific 'feature' stories going into events. Such features would be topics like "Four contenders to do battle for TAD title in Reading." "Northwest TAFC Division title to be settled in Reynolds," etc. Besides competition based articles, find special interest stories such as "Firefighter Ahten trades his fire helmet for racing helmet this weekend in Woodburn.."

Coordinating with local sports editors would be critical to the success. We need someone with the time to pick up the phone, stay on top of email contact and let those editors know, "hey we'll be in town in a few weeks, I will have some copy ready stuff for you a week ahead of time. If you can get a reporter covering the event, we'll make sure he gets access to the teams for more news opportunities." Depending on the event market, that conversation may need to take place 5 times or 15 times depending on the potential markets to cover the event.

From a marketing standpoint, this person could try to develop marketing packages to serve the collective membership. Just for the sake of easy numbers, let's say a sponsorship agreement was reached with Costco. If there were 100 paid up members and the deal was for $100,000 to run a 24"x6" decal on your car all year, each member would get $1000 for that deal. Obviously that type of deal would need a rigid structure in place going in, but that's another promotional opportunity available. Additionally, and possibly more importantly, this person could work to create cross promotional opportunities for racers and the tracks. Maybe they work a deal with Costco if a car for display is provided "X" tickets to give away, some in store type promotions could be done. Free tickets on the back of receipts, etc. There's a lot of ways to build this from a marketing stand point.

Obviously maintaining correspondence with the membership would be very important, and in many instances time consuming in itself. Such a person would need to listen to ideas and share those ideas with the membership. If we keep it clear of performance rules type issues, it might not have the overwhelming level of correspondence TARA did. Tate Branch and Shelly Howard put a ton of time into running that, predominantly on a volunteer basis. We don't need someone to get burned out and not get the job done. That's why I feel we need someone to be paid for their time.

Obviously hiring someone with experience and putting them on the ground at the regional events will take a budget. So-called "Marketing" guys and gals are a dime a dozen. We need someone with experience and a track record. As far as dues, we are probably looking at a minimum of $500, with $750 probably being more realistic for yearly dues.

As I mentioned earlier, I can't be that guy. I have too much on my plate with my tuning commitments along with my own website to do the job properly. I also don't want to create a conflict of interest where it gets said "Will just dreamed this up so he could get another paycheck." I would definitely be interested in helping co-ordinate the scope and mission of the organization, but I can't be the full time guy.

In closing, we need to work together as a group AND work individually to promote our type of racing better. There has been much doom and gloom lately that this is just a sign we're on our way out. If that was the case, NHRA would have just pulled the rug out from the whole divisional deal in one fell swoop. The fact NHRA worked so hard to salvage this deal shows they have a vested interest in keeping us around. However, we don't need to take for granted we will always have the amount of races we have now.

At the end of the day, the whole purpose of this conversation is to build potential opportunities for us to have races added to the schedule and MAINTAIN the level we have now. If we can build up our VALUE as a class to tracks, things will improve for us as a whole.

Below are some notes of comments made during open discussion:


• Sell to other Markets (try to find tracks that dropped us to pick us up)
• 1/8 mile tracks (if there are 1/8 mile facilities that are safe and want events, may be something to look into)
• Doing something outside of NHRA (Idea brought up, but most in attendance were opposed to that direction)
• SAFETY (In response to going to match race grade tracks - safety not as good as NHRA events)
• Concerns of safety issues at smaller events
• Regionals are better
• Work with tracks (Work with tracks to provide cars/drivers for promo appearances)
• NHRA Alcohol only events
• Working with NHRA to Promote as a Professional level
• Change the view of alcohol being viewed as “bracket class”
• Promotion Level is number one.

Tracks-Adopting a new attitude
Norwalk promotion is the best - asking Bader to speak to other tracks about awareness.
Fan Base - making them aware of Horsepower and ET times
Knowing that not all track owners are full time - Help them promote too
Division Tracks are getting a lot for $15k
New ideas:
Promotion
Work more with the tracks
Exhibition passes - maybe driving a week before the event
Show car appearances
TV time?
Headline sports nationals
Match race on Tues/Wed
Track provide tickets for promotional efforts

Manufactures stand point- to help drivers achieve goals - support goes both ways
Alcohol Association - benefit for them
Potential in-house marketing agreements with manufacturer members

Need to show Members what they will get for their $$
Biggest bang for the buck is at the Divisional races
Need to organize a group to open a dialogue for all racers
Put pressure on NHRA to Partner with the group
Media / Promotional by NHRA on Division level needed.
GOAL - Not to lose more races

Meeting was attended by:
Paul Noakes- TAFC driver/owner
Chase Knight - Crane Cams
Bob Miner - Miner Bros Racing Engines
Randy Sackfield - Paul Noakes Racing TAFC
Nate Van Wagner - media Top Alcohol News
Dave Hill - TAD driver/owner
Ryan Hill - Ameling/Hill Motorsports TAD
Rich Lavelle - SSI Superchargers
Pattie Frost - Hoosier Tire Great Plains
Wayne Fling - CarSafe Motorsports
Joe Cheeseman - JawBreaker TAFC
Lou Sgro - TAFC driver/owner
Bob Toth - Lou Sgro TAFC
Richard Clark - Jay Payne TAFC/Clark Gaskets
John Waldie - Pro Mod/Pro Stock
Brandon Greco - TAD owner/driver
JP Gutierrez - TAD owner
Phil Gutierrez - TAD owner
Mark Fetsko
Ken Juszczyk - Motorsports Unlimited
Chris Foster - TAFC owner/driver
Justin Jacobson - Ace Racing/ Williams Bros. TAFC
Kevin Newburgh - TAFC owner/driver
James Hart - Hart Brothers TAFC
Billy Davis - TAFC owner/driver
Marty Thacker - TAD owner/driver
Alex Deikfuss - Andy Bohl TAFC
Andy Bohl - TAFC Driver/Owner
Cassie Simonton - TAFC Driver - KonRodz Racing
Todd Robertson - TAFC owner/driver
Todd Veney - TAFC driver - Follow A Dream Racing
Scott Hall - Moroso Performance
Al Meade - TAD Owner
Don Nolan - TAD Owner/Driver
Mike Randazzo - Brian Mans TAD
Brian Mans - TAD Owner/Driver
Ray Drew - TAFC Owner/Driver
Michael Nolan - Nolan Racing TAD
Tom Strayer - TAFC
Harry Rydbom - TAFC
Bobby Martin - TAFC/Pro Mod Owner/Driver
Lori Martin - Bobby Martin Racing TAFC
Lee Littlefield - Littlefield Blowers
Brad Littlefield - National Dragster
Clint Thompson - TAFC Owner/Driver
Noel Manton - Manton Rockerarms/Pushrods
Joe Lease - NHRA Tech

 

contact

i am looking to build my contact list to keep everyone in the loop via email. interested team owners, drivers and manufacturers, please drop me an email to will.hanna@insidetopalcohol.com. Even if it's just to give your contact.

A couple of things I would like to touch base on:

-The plan is to work with NHRA, Lucas and the tracks, not work around them or against them.

-There was overwhelming manufacturer support of this idea. I don't think there will be many of our suppliers that won't jump on board. That will help shore up the budget considerably, so it is not completely reliant on racer participation.

-One idea discussed was to have one part time person with experience to coordinate the program and use a team of college interns to help shoulder some of the load. When I was in the marketing program at University of Houston, sports marketing type internships were fought over. I think we can get some motivated, qualified people involved.

 

Nhra

This isn't a deal to start another racing circuit, bypass or do all of the promoting for our cars at an event. This is more for us as racers to take some of the promotion of our class into our own hands.

 

promotion and budget

The membership dues and monies collected would go towards paying the salary and expenses of the hired person/persons. Above and beyond that, the money would be used for functions of the organization. We are absolutely not looking to subsidize any track's promotional budget.

My sources tell me NHRA has already cut the divisional fee to some or all of the tracks hosting the alcohol cars. I would also be inclined to believe most of that 'rebate' came from the year end purse fund. NHRA is not in great financial shape right now.

We can talk about what NHRA and the tracks ought to do for days. Hell we already have for years. I can promise you NHRA is not going to go out of pocket to subsidize our racing at more tracks.

This organization will be about us the alcohol racers becoming proactive and more directly involved in the promotion of our classes. Let me be clear - it is not the racers fault why we are in this situation. But we are all in the same situation nonetheless.

We're really at a cross roads. We can sit back and put it all in NHRA's hands and the track's hands and just hope everything gets rosy again. Or we can become actively involved in trying to improve the state of our class of racing.

Jeff, you have some good points in reference to the website. NHRA's sportsman website leaves a lot to be desired to say the least. These are the type of things that our organization might be able to work with NHRA to improve, and in turn better promote our classes.

 

scope

Thanks for all of the contacts and feedback, keep them coming in.

If you have not emailed me, please just don't assume I already have your email. I get so many emails every day over the course of the year. Please just drop me a quick email to will.hanna@insidetopalcohol.com to put your name on the list. I plan to put an email out on Monday to the contacts I have to get the ball rolling towards making this organization a reality.

Mark, you're right, we do need a board, I'm not sure we need 10-12 people. At least not in the formative stages. I was thinking 4-6.

If we hire a person, they need to be more along the line of a marketing/pr/sales type rather than an administrative role, ie., president or director type. We're not starting a racing series, not managing rules or racers. Decisions don't need to be ruled on by this person. They need to be the type that can write a good story, make a good sales pitch, and knows how to work the 'game' with the media. Basically we are creating an in-house promoter to promote our class. Someone to work hand in hand with NHRA and the tracks, not to replace the track's efforts, work against the track or NHRA. If we use some interns, their role would be to support the 'point man/woman' we hire.

The end game is to increase our value as a commodity to tracks through increased and better promotion of TAD/TAFC.