Folks Of Interest Prudhomme selling out?

Rich,
I'm not real comfortable talking about the last administrations record debt. It'll be one of the shortest records in history with the bunch we've got in there now.
Back to car talk.
Larry T

BTW, must be a full moon out tonight. Lots of discussion going on. LOL

 

Well I see you feel that the new bunch is saving the world so saving NHRA should very easy for them.

 

Indy this year. Gen Admission. Fri= $35 Sat= $46 Sun= $49 Mon=$49. + parking. Wonder why the crowd is down?

 

I can remember when Indy was the most prestigious race, that everybody had to attend. Right now the must attend events are the California Hot Rod Reunion at Bakersfield, and the National Hot Rod Reunion in Bowling Green.

 

Wife and I went to Topeka, we were going to try and make Ennis but at 46 to 50 per day per person , hotel , gas and eats...it gets a little expensive for the normal guy.....I hate to say it but the economy is also playing a big part of this and if you can't see the toilet flushing by now you must be blind....Just my 2 cents worth.... CHANGE IS COMING TO AMERICA!

 

Plain and simple, if you want entertainment, go to your local dragstrip and support the guys and girls doing it out of a plain white trailer. I'd much rather give my money to the local economy.

 

NHRA?...US Nationals?...Are they still doing that?

 

I've been going to the drags for over 40 years and I used to love going to the National events, went to several a year for many years. The races all started to be about the same wherever they were held, then they became the same. Same cars, sponsors and so forth almost no locals in the Pro Cl***es. Then the fuel cl***es became so quick that frankly I think that they're boring. A five second drag race is over so fast that I don't get anything out of it, just like the tractor pulls. I quit going to those races and go to nostalgia races instead. They're way more fun, have more variety and cost less. The racers are also more relaxed and seem to be enjoying themselves the way they used to at NHRA events.

 

Oops, I forgot; One more thing that No Hot Rods Allowed did was to expand the schedule so much that the tour was all they could do. No time for the match racing and hitting local tracks. Sure the fuel cars should not make a full p*** on most tracks (and some 'tour' tracks), but when you expand the series to the point where these guys and gals can only run for the points, you have nothing left for the little tracks, no stepping stone to move up in the ranks, it's just the big show. Now they don't even allow them to, under the guise of No Testing to save nitro (which is another joke)....

 

Yep.

 

Since this thread has kinda wandered off to general drag racing and nitro was mentioned, I thought I'd thow something in about the truck load of nitro that was stolen. I heard today that it was a "repo", not a theft. Kinda strange how the headlines were sensational when it started and you don't hear anything about how it ended.
Larry T

 

My Brother and I went to Cordova last weekend. If I remember right it was $35 to get in. Oh, and I seem to remember Tony P, Cruz, and Wilkerson were there along with Zizzo, and Litton and Wyatt. Hmmmm, no testing, hmmm, Indy the following weekend. Hmmmmm.

 

I agree with some of what your saying there #1 I take my boy to the "Nostalgia Drags" and tell him this is more like how it use to be & he loves it maybe even a hair more than me when those altereds start running. #2 Re; that 1,000 ft run, that whole wreck that started that, WTF were they thinking placing a conceret barrier width wise across the end of the dragstrip? That should have never been there, did they ever stop to think what would happen when someone (who happened to be Scott Kalitta) hit that barrier? (By comparison it would be like having a live high voltage wire around a football field so when a player stepped out of bounds he gets electrified) there should have been a sandtrap at the end of that strip, not a concrete barrier. Needless to say that sure got swept under the rug & then they start the dog and pony show, blame the cars for going to fast - of course nothing said about their death trap end of strip design- and drop the 1,320 to 1,000. #3 Anyway, next there is the IHRA, check into that.

 

When a form of (motor)sport becomes an "all for profit" corporate show, the fun factor tends to drop quickly.
Luckily, we still have a few nostalgia events and local races that serve up Drag Racing the way the Oldtimers remember it.
And don't forget, if you need a fix of true Hot Rodding at its individualistic best, you can spend a few hours watching the proceedings right on the starting line at Bonneville, El Mirage, Maxton, etc. . . .

 

NHRA has gone wrong by trying to become a clone of NASCAR.

And it has forgotten it's role......

The "cars are the stars" idea is gone in NASCAR and now NHRA. It's now a race of personalities like the John Force Show. The funny cars don't resemble any car made with phony Toyota badges. The Pro Stockers are not even close to any form of stock. Kind of like a WWE show. The brand iden***y is downplayed and eventually NHRA may become like NASCAR with Toyota vs. Toyota as the Big 3 drops out. Look at the IRL with Honda vs. Honda...boring.

The Compton turning of the NHRA into a corporate business where profit is king and executive salaries are more important than car counts is typical of today's corporate greed. I don't see NHRA continuing on for too much longer with the expense of fielding a team.

The biggest money teams like Force or Kalitta helped fuel the demise with Semi's, Hospitality Tents, Executive chefs, trailers full of spare parts, and in Force's case, the obvious attempt to buy a championship with the four car team.

Maybe NHRA needs to die and a new less expensive alternative rise out of the ashes. But unfortunately I suspect if NHRA dies nothing will replace it and organized National drag racing will be a thing of the past.

 

Yikes, Bro, eat a candy bar or something, it's NOT that bad. There's lots of drag racing besides the Big Show...

 

The Snake sat out 1986 too.

 

Perhaps, but getting another sponser(s) to match tobacco money would be tough. A number of the lesser known pro teams either parked their rigs this year or ran a limited number of races due lack of sponser support. The 2010 season will probably be worse. Example: Warren Johnson lost GM (no real surprise), Budweiser cut Kenny Bernstein loose after something like 29 years of support, Mopar is pulling out of the teams it supported, etc. One of the clean-hands car magazines recently listed the bigger NHRA sponsers that are bailing out ... discouraging.

According to some the racing coverage that I have read, NHRA has also had a problem finding "***le" sponsers (like Auto Club in California for the Finals, etc.) for a number of events. As someone else pointed out on this thread, they may have spread themselves too thin with too many events. NASCAR has been accused of this also.

On the bright side, maybe this is an opportunity for sportsman racing to reinvent itself. There is currently a thread running on this site requesting Junior Stock drag racing photos that has run over 200 pages. Equally interesting were the number of people who lived it who reconnected through this board. There certainly is still an interest by a lot of people, even if they only have memories!

Interesting Prudhomme sidelight: This week's Hemmings e-newsletter has a piece about one of his old transporters that he found and restored. Back in the days when he and Tom McEwen match raced, Mattel's Hot Wheels was his sponser and the car and truck (single axle Dodge, open cargo area) had the Hot Wheels logos and color scheme which was really considered "big league" at the time. He bought the truck used off a lot in the South ... its previous owner was the Richard Petty team. Maybe there is a lesson here. I remember those days very well and fan and participant interest was much higher. Maybe bigger isn't necessarily better.

 

Nah, they won't go to jail, the guys responsible are all in control now. Those regulations, the banking controls that led to last fall's crash, came off in 1998, so maybe you should blame that guy too. And we had a worse recession towards the end of the Carter administration if you look up actual figures and adjust for inflation. This is why you should just leave politics out of it - even if you did manage to get it right someone's going to disagree because they just have to blame one side or the other when the truth is they're all a bunch of ***holes who at the least belong in jail, and no side is really much better than the other.


Sponsors are hard to come by because the economy is down, and the way things are going with never-ending spending out of Washington everyone is afraid to spend money, from you and me up to the corporations who sponsor these teams. In Prudhomme's case, the nanny-state mentality strikes again, his sponsor can't come back even if it wants to because it's a tobacco product. Which, WTF, crossing the street might be hazardous to my health too, but I still do it and if I don't look both ways first who's fault is that?

Now if the guy running the NHRA is making them money he must be doing something right business-wise, unless he's one of these guys who cuts spending to make it look good on paper. But unless the money's all coming from sponsor dollars, I don't get it, because I've never cared enough to even try to understand how the chase to the cup.. err countdown works.

 

Jon Asher seems to understand. Excellent commentary here - http://www.compe***ionplus.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7054&Itemid=21
and here - http://www.compe***ionplus.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11475&Itemid=21

I've lost interest in the Big Show and didn't understand why because I love drag racing more than anything. I believe it's because I don't feel connected any more. I can't see the drivers in the cars, I can't tell that they are driving them, the drivers don't work on the cars anymore, it's a team sport now, like football, not a couple guys working on their car, it's corporate (gaack/ho-hum) it's plastic, the cars are ugly. (starting to sound like a Top Ten reasons I don't like NHRA)

Surprisingly I kind of like the 1000 ft. I can stand at the 1100 ft mark and watch the whole run without putting my fingers in my ears. Seems stupid, but it's true.

 

Yes! Good Points. It is the State vs. you!
I would love to see the drivers in total control in the fuel cl***es. It would slow them down but I think it would make for better racing. And get rid of that stupid countdown.

 

After being briefly involved with some of these “Top Fuel” teems for a few years a few years back I couldn’t care less if most of them went ***s up. With very few exceptions there egos could use the tune up.

 

Here's another suggestion........ start supporting shows like this where you will see gr***-roots style drag racing.....

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=340146

Old style drag racing is coming back, re-emerging on the small strips around the country as "fun drags". They may not be NHRA sanctioned, but who cares???? It's awesome to see old racers go down the track, so support/participate in events like the one above and you'll have planety of g***ers, altereds, etc to watch.

 

Nice try. Not even close.

 

and more gov. regulations where they don't belong

 

Bernstein will be next. NHRA is not being run by racers and therein lies the problem. Like most corporations the people in charge have never done the daily business of the corporation. As an example has the CEO of GM ever built, fixed or sold one ?

 

Well I've been going to drag races since about '57 or so. I went to the Gator Nationals this year. It was the first time I've been to a big event in years. Earlier in the year I went to the S. Georgia Motor Sports Park for a local gig. I would like to go to Bristol just one time to hear the Thunder in the Valley. My personal opinion is that I cannot stand bracket racing. There's just something about easing it off of the line and then jammin' it or goin' like a bat out of hell and near the end puttin' the brakes on so one doen't "break out" .. It may just me but that ain't drag racin'. It's a hell of a deal when "Pinks all out" can draw bigger crowds than NHRA. Wonder why that is? I can watch it on TV just because it's not live and they can speed things up. Those on here are right, there's no manufacture races. No funny car has one part on it that was made at a car company. Same with NASCAR except I suppose the engine blocks may be and I emphasize "may be". I don't think one can go to your local Toyota dealer and get a Tundra with a pushrod motor. You can't get one at Ford either. I guess this is what it's all came to and for me it's not for the better ...

 

When I was a kid, drag racing was affordable to kids who never even went to a race. It developed a long term following. Kids could buy the ****oose and Snake for a couple bucks. They could build their favorite car for $2.00.

Now there are no models (or very, very few) at the local store because everyone wants a large piece of the pie and a kid can't afford $20 for a model. They can't afford $39.99 for a special logo gold trimmed diecast either.

I could buy a mag of color photos of all the top cars for a $1.00.

In the end, the younger generation doesn't have the connection to drag racing earlier generations did. That's what's going to kill it. Before long nobody will care.