Setting a standard for crowd attendance at divisionals

i'm not trying to be mean will, but you are beating a dead horse. you seem to spend a ton of time trying to figure out why and how to fix it. THEY (NHRA) DOESN'T CARE. i think the way they look at it is, if the purses are paid, and tracks schedule the races, then why worry about how much profit is made by the tracks because that is entirely up to how much THE TRACK wants to promote the race. sorry but that is my opinion.

 

You have a good point Bruce but I know that I worry about keeping my sponsors happy when there aren't any crowds in the grand stands. The lack of promotions and small crowds hurts the racers ability to attract and maintain sponsor relationships. Dave Germain

 

Its hard to convince a sponsor that he's getting the bang for his buck when he sees more butts in the stock car stands. who do you think he will give his money to for advertising. and that what we do. advertising at 200 mph. ok some can do it 260mph. I need the sponsorship money myself. I wish the tracks would give some extra tickets to the racers for there sponsors. I have seen the tracks benifit from adds on the track. help me bring some money to them.

 

track attendance

Will:

one thought maybe next year we could get enough racers to put on a race and rent a track and do our on show, the racers promoting and have a decent payout, a run what ya brung type deal, i was at phenix city al sunday
bet there was 10,000 fans at $20 a head people want to see real racing without all the rules with the exception of safety.

G Kelly

 

tad 2155,
I agree with the fact fans want to see run what ya bring style races. The best thing Milan Dragway (Michigan) ever did was to put on a first of the month run what ya bring quick 8 and outlaw 10.5 race. They pack in 12,000-16,000 @ $14.00 per person, ladies and kids free.
However.... BIG however... how would a run what ya brung race benfit the TA classes at divisional events. Certainky your not proposing we throw out rule books for divisionals............ are you?

 

racing

yes from the stand point if a-fuel wants to run 100% and blown could run any
combination of blower or if we could get enough cars, separate the 2 classes also have funnies but only a heads up style race
even maybe do a 1/8 mile race, we have got to think outside the box, i have done a lot of research looking at different venues and hve gone to lot of races since not racing this year, it's apparent the track promoters not gonna help us on Div level, for example the Dixie Promod group has a set of guys that will travel and book a track and have a $5000 payout and draw a crowd
just some ideas, oh this would not be a NHRA Div race
Guy

 

This is EXACTLY why I run IHRA! I aam sure some of you NHRA guys will call us "busch leaugers" or some lower form of life but my sponsors are VERY happy with the "bang for their $$". And for the record I sincerely wish the Divisional races would be promoted better as I would probably cross-over and run some of these too!

 

all of the ideas are great, BUT it comes back to divisional races NOT self promoted match race nights. nhra (for some reason) likes to put divisionals back to back with national events and usually within 1 to 2 hours apart. this past season division 1 had 3 that were either the week before or the week after 2 of the biggest races on the east coast. now the way the economy and ticket prices are, if the average working man wants to go to a big race and watch for 1 day, which will he go to. (A) a divisional or (B) a full blown national event? thats not hard to figure out. how about the west coast? seatle and sonoma national events, and then a divisional for a 3rd week in a row? by the 3rd weekend the average fan is probably sick of racing,hot dogs and high reving head aches. and of coarse how many people actually know a divisional race is going on in their area because most tracks don't even advertise because they make enuff money on the back gate so to them who cares about the front gate. i have run a ton of matchraces over the years that were correctly promoted and the track owners told me that they made enuff money to cover the track bills for the YEAR. i am sorry to sound so negative but this is the truth. now if races were spaced out like Will's proposed schedule and track owners would spend mabey 5% of what they COULD make, we wouldn't be debating this .

 

Will this is the right time for discussing this subject and you are right on target. The fact is the division races as a package has great value to the tracks. The problem with the purse in the alcohol classes is that the tracks look at it as if the purse is taking money out of their pockets. They are wrong! The alcohol classes are a big part of the package and if they were not content to just take the money from the back gate they could turn these races (which are most of them's biggest race of the year) into a cash cow. As you stated lack of spectators is bad for the track, racer, NHRA, and the series sponsor. The managers at drag strips used to be called Track Promoters now I think they are track maintenance supervisors. I don't want to color all with a broad brush but there are very few who are promoters.
Hell most of the people within 100 miles of a major race don't even know there is one.
It is not for me to tell them how to run their business but I see that it is a loosing proposition for the Sportsman racer and especially the TAFC & TAD classes.
The track managers should take a page out of the old days when if they had a TF show or match race it was on the local hot radio stations 24/7 for days prior to the races and most of the time it was standing room only.
NHRA and Lucas should demand that a minimun $$$ amount be spent on avertising the race and National Dragster adds don't count!

 

How far does $2500.00 go.
....It dont,..... you already
spent that, getting to the track, crew, room, food
and maybe 1 pass........ IT JUST AINT RIGHT !!!!!!!!!..

$2500.00 to win...laughing my ass off.

I spend that much on just the truck and trailer tires.

 

Thought I'd let you all know that the track for the Div 4 race this weekend has been advertising on at least two different radio stations, I heard the commercials yesterday acouple of times and then again today acouple of times. I am not sure of what other ads are being run but I hope it does some good. Weather is supposed to be great for this weekend, alittle rain maybe for Sunday. But lets see how many folks show up.

 

that makes perfect since because as of right now for Noble, highest Alky count in the history of the track:

As of yesterday between Dragster & F/C 31 cars pre entered

17 floppers & 14 dragsters

and the dragster count is expected to go even higher

 

its a joke

I went to the div 5 race at bandimere in june, small turnout. then in july i went to the western conference jr dragster finals,larger turnout. then last weekend i went to salt lake ( nicer track in some ways not as nice in others. my wife sure liked the bathrooms)for the summit et series national dragster challange (took 4th with a large field) even larger turnout. the next night was the night of fire and the place was an absolute mad house there are a lot of ways to argue this but i think that the nhra should hold a competetion for the tracks that hold the divisional races and lose the good old boy system that will keep us a second rate sport to nascar forever.

 

real racing

Will and all alcohol racers

Next year we should rent a track and put on a outlaw type race for dragsters, funnies, promods, the normal safety standards as we have for NHRA but any % on injected nitro, any combination on blown, pro mods are already wide open, do a purse of $10 grand each class i really believe it would work! we may have to do 1/8 mile but maybe not or let the rails,funnies
do 1/4 mile and pro mods do 1/8 mile your thoughts

G Kelly in Bama

 

The two greatest races I have ever raced at was @ Tulsa, Ok back in the seventies. Was promoted by racers. Three classes only. Unlimited non stop qualifying for TF/Funnycar/Pro Stock. 25k to win, 32 car qualifying fields.
There was over 100 cars there in each class. I will never forget this race!
Would love to see something structured like this for TAD/TAFC/Pro Mods.
With NHRA ticking off some sponsors maybe there would be some interest in supporting such an event.

 

Recently re borne to the sport (started going to drag races in early 70's at Lions drag strip, raced super comp and super pro in the NW in the early 80's then was in recovery till 2005, 2006, fell off the wagon bought a 285" BAD and sponsored a TAFC for 2007) I have to agree with Will, No offense to Bruce but it may be a dead horse but we shouldn't just be beating it we should be kicking it!! From my point of view the only difference between you TAD and TAFC owners / drivers and the TF guys is a half a second, Reichert has his sites set to be the first in the 4"s and to "Buba wana to see somethan go really fast and blow up" there is no difference! He’ll pay the same! It's the way the track and the media segregates the cars that emphasizes the difference and the fact that most of us have to drive all night Sunday night to be back to "Work" on Monday makes us "Sportsman Racers" well our cars cost about the same and "Sportsman" do not have a Kenworth and a 53' liftgate champion or $300,000 in a Renegade deal, spend $10 G's on a good weekend and lets not talk about the bad ones! You guy's are professionals and I think it's a real crime that large companies would rather spend a million bucks for just the hood of a car that makes 2 hours of left turns than a hundred grand for the entire body of a flopper. At the minimum by division we all arrive at the same place every weekend to compete with one another maybe we should take this opportunity to meet for a couple of ours to brainstorm with the track on how to fix the front gate problems, not use this time to complain who "burnt you down in the last round" but really be productive. Every track has a band in the area that’s popular with the locals and will usually perform for a few hundred bucks, let’s bring them in after last round on Saturday night? Maybe a mandatory % of the back gate of an event, be spent on advertising the next event? Buy one get one free tickets? When we were at the Topeka division race someone came into our pits that new of our company, lived in Topeka and didn't even know there was a race?? But they came, (6 adults 8 kids, all had something from concessions in their hand) because they got 4 free tickets, so they purchased at least 2 more (not sure about kid tickets, cost?) Key here is they didn't hear anything in there own town and if not for a few free tickets would have sat on the couch watching the other guys! Sorry for the length but $2500 to win is almost embarrassing to compete for and from a sponsor’s point of view we need the seats to be full. Let’s activly work on this problem this winter so maybe 2008 can be better for all of us and the greatest sport on earth!!
Kent Goss
President & CEO
Operational Solutions Inc.

 

Some one explane to me what is going to happen to the sportsman classes when HD Partners Acquisition Corp. takes over? Is NHRA going to run the sportsman classes? are they going to drop the classes? anyone know whats going on?