Now to the second problem of why the nostalgia racers have no leverage with the sanctioning body and probably NEVER WILL: I am of the opinion that Funny Cars were culturally relevant thirty years ago. In the days of yore, young adults with disposable incomes could relate to "Chargers," "Mustangs" and "Camaros." They fantasized about the really hopped-up ones that sounded like a stack of Marshall amps, shook the ground like Vesuvius and made the little girls squeal. They wanted to drive that over-amplified iteration of their carbureted daily driver, because then maybe that foxy white trash vixen in the halter top would want to mount both the blown-on-fuel Charger and its day-dreaming "driver" too...
For reasons too manifold to get into here, they don't make street or race cars like that anymore, The Big Three are all of junk bond status and the kids cannot relate to what the nostalgia Funny Car movement is doing... they weren't there the first time, so they have no idea what to feel nostalgic about, exactly.
If you want to see what kids identify with, go to the drifts, not the drags... Do people care about funny cars based on models that are thirty years old? Not really... They don't even care about American cars in general, much less vintage iron….
Let's face it, race fans: because of that disconnect, nostalgia drag racing -- by any name -- is not professional racing, it is club racing, like the Sports Car Club of America. The economics work thusly: the promoters make a little money off the front gate, they make a lot more off the back gate, the racers open their wallets, then race and complain, and there are volunteers in the corners waving flags.
Accept nostalgia drag racing for what it is. Or continue tilting at windmills. Excite the villagers and cajole them into wielding pitchforks at the gates of Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Whatever.
Bottom line: This stuff is a money loser for racers and promoters, and because – price of nitro be damned – there are *NO* marquee names, it won't draw flies without the NHRA's involvement -- and even then it is a crap shoot.
Regardless of relevance in the modern marketplace, the NFCA has made its political statement and perceived acts of civil disobedience and have stuck it to the Evil' Ol' NHRA, then they can really get down to some serious bench racing and re-live the nights of sleeping under their trucks at Atco, New Jersey, after a hard night's match race, back when there were actual preeminent names in funny car racing that attracted teenagers who had never heard of "drifting" or "imports" or "Xbox 360s"...
Then they can get together and push each other's funny cars up and down the street and make "Vroom! Vroom!" noises because they have no place to run.
After hubris, comes the fall, right? If so, remember that history repeats itself first as tragedy and second as farce. One of the most recent examples of racers banding together and letting social democracy have its say was the Champ Car World Series (nee CART). Both incarnations were led by racers. Both iterations went bankrupt.
Yes: the "free market" is the gleaming spire that guided CART and its megalomaniacal car owners, as it now shows the NFCA the way towards self-rule and riches; just remember: the free market also told CART what it was worth -- just ask the judge at the bankruptcy court.
CART/CCWS isn't the first time a racer-run organization has missed the bigger picture, and to the detriment of the entire series.
Yes, just like the time the Sour Sisters took Amarillo, the new Nostalgia Funny Car movement is a prime example of people distorting their history, their worth and sense of self.
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