Every country’s balls are being held to the fire and this time, as much as I hate to say it, it WILL affect our little corner of the world and soon. The drag racing sport, like a lot of entertainment sites, sort of lives in a Never-Never Land. What affects the outside world seldom vexes the drag racer. Don’t worry, be happy.  In general, they don’t care and will not hear a discouraging word. The vast majority of racers, certainly from Comp Eliminator on up, are on the higher end of the salary scale and live relatively comfortable lives.  You can’t drag race at their level without big bucks. But it’s those kinds of salaries that are getting punched now, it’s not just the factory workers or cash register jockeys. The big recessions like those of 1973 and 1982 and business holocausts like the post 9-11 airline hemorrhage hardly dented the consciousness of the race players.

In 1987, when the stock market crashed at Depression levels, you would have hardly known it. I was at the Chief Nationals at Billy Meyer’s place in Texas at the time. And I would say 50-75% either didn’t know it happened or thought it was no big deal. Compared to 1987, the Depression of the new millennium has already dwarfed it in severity. And I think this time it’s going to be extremely difficult for our players to feign ignorance. The wolf isn’t at the door. He’s inside the crib looking for something to eat.

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To attend an NHRA race in the last several years you had to have more than 8-9 dollar-an-hour bucks from the job. I saw the stats when I worked at NHRA back in the late 1990s. The biggest percentage of our crowd came from the upper middle class and further north. What makes everything different now isthose people are getting whacked real hard and, as much as I hate to say it, that’s going to show in our bleachers as sizeable bald spots.

Think about it. An $8 cup of beer, $5-6 hot dogs, Cokes at $4-5. If you brought along the wife and two kids, you could apply for food stamps after a trim job like that. The good ship Lollipop can’t continue afloat forever with that stuff on the marquee. Something’s got to give and it’ll be wearing tennis shoes and chick sandals and watching the races from TV, if they can afford that.

The 2009 NHRA Winternationals, at the bare minimum, may just be the most important race of the season. California’s sustained a horrible groin-kicking in the past few months… will it affect us?  While I hope it doesn’t play out this way, I think that some of the aforementioned baldness may show up at Pomona. The Golden State figures to be $40 billion in the hole very soon, and you don’t need a weatherman to know which way that wind’s blowing.

In the past Thursday and Fridays of the race, the crowds have almost always been thinner than they are on Saturday and race day, Sunday. Some folks were working and couldn’t get those days off in the early years of the Winternationals, but by the time R.J. Reynolds took over in 1976 (Winston wasn’t involved at the 1975 Winterntionals), things had fattened up. The fans had learned to strategize and set up their days off so they could attend when the circus hit town.

True, the economy has always been a bit shaky, but not choking and gagging as now. I went to Friday qualifying at the Winternationals, oh… two to three years ago, and really marveled at the heavy turnout. Lots of butts on the aluminum, but I have some serious doubts that that will be the case this year.

There are still 23 more events to follow and these will occur in what most experts say will be worse economic conditions. Depression conditions. 
 
The terrain that lies immediately before us will determine the sport’s future. As it stands right now, drag racing may never be the same. Loss of sponsorships, attendance, fans passing on $25 dollar t-shirts and junior dragsters, pro and sportsman car turnout, are all very strong possibilities and lead me to believe the sport will not be the same come the 2010 NHRA Winternationals.

Even sadder, I mean that in a nervous, negative way. But on the other hand, if drag racing does survive 2009 without some serious amputations, well then, it just might survive anything…

I think.