Is bracket racing really boring or is just misunderstood? Have any of you ever sat in the stands and watched a bracket race? What isn’t appealing about it to average gear-head race fans? These are some questions we better be asking ourselves, NHRA better be considering, and local track operators need to deal with. If we don’t fix the problem of no spectators (which means revenue) for local tracks they will turn into Friday night test-n-tunes and there will be no more bracket racing.
A lot of the conflicts about bracket racing deal with money. Some say entry fees are too high, purses too low, pit passes too high, and round money too low. It is all of these. This problem cannot always fall on the back of the local bracket or sportsman racers. Just because a track gets only 10 spectators is no longer a valid excuse why entry fees went up and prize money went down.
Look no further than the back gate to see why local tracks, in most locations, are suffering lower car counts and lower revenues. It’s not just the cost of gas to get there. It is the escalating entry fees, pit passes, reduced prize money and higher buyback fees. [As a matter of fact I have a different opinion of buybacks than I used to. Now I say eliminate buybacks, period. It is just another way the guys with extra money to burn can gain an
advantage over the racers with a smaller budget. If you need to lure racers in from a distance why not have a couple consolation races or a high-roller and low-roller gambler race?]
Back to spectators for minute. When I sat in the stands a few times last year there was one thing I would not tolerate if I was there as a spectator only: NO CARS GOING DOWN THE TRACK! Towards the end of the day (and, unfortunately, several times during eliminations) there were periods of 10 to 20 minutes that not one car made a run. Want to lose spectators? That is how it’s done. At least give away t-shirts, have drawings, golf cart races, something has to be happening.
Racers bear as much of the responsibility as to why there are no spectators at bracket races or divisional races anymore. We drag our feet between rounds. We have excuses from needing to charge a battery, adding fuel, cool down time, etc, etc. If we, the racers, let the tracks know we can be ready to go 5 minutes after each round I think the spectators will hang around and come back next week. It is going to be up to the racers and the track management to make this work but the effort will be worth it. Will there be immediate results? I doubt it. The people who do come will tell others about how fast things went and how it was a lot more exciting than the last time they were there.
The next year will be interesting as NHRA has the last half of 2007 to set a plan in motion. They have available funds to create a new excitement for sportsman drag racing. The ball and the cash are in their court. If you want to get behind them and support the growth of the local NHRA tracks, let the NHRA know about it. You can email them from their website, www.nhra.com, or you can send your letter to us and we will forward them for you.
I have a feeling the NHRA is on the brink of doing great things for our sport. I hope they choose to support local and regional events and grow the awareness of the sport of drag racing. One thing for sure, this is an opportunity like no other in racing history. The top bulb has come on for NHRA and it will be interesting to see how they handle the next two bulbs before the green or the red are lit.
See ya at the races I hope, travel safe and have a great June!
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