COMPACTS DON'T COUNT?
A request: Please stop writing about sport compact drag racing all together. If you are so afraid of the success of sport compact racing that you must write untrue tidbits about the series that portray a negativity that is beyond comprehension, then just don’t acknowledge sport compact’s existence whatsoever.
WD-40 is a great sponsor for the NHRASC series (a quintessential do-it-yourself product that has been greatly unpenetrated (sic) by a young do-it-yourself crowd). Yet, you have to go negative in your release. Then, in an incredible opening weekend… you publish false car count numbers and print completely untrue rumors of the sport's demise.
Let’s take a look at car count. Overall pro car count was down from the prior year… however, you under-reported the car count and in actuality the pro car count was down 4 cars from the year prior. 4 CARS! (a grand total of lost hard-card revenue of $260, surely
enough to cripple NHRA forever!) What you also failed to mention, was that the sportsman car count nearly doubled from the year prior! Since you are so ‘in the know’ regarding the sport compact series, you would know NHRA is focused on increasing sportsman car count and have wildly succeeded in that goal going back to the start of last season.
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Sony Xplod has signed on through the 2007 season and NHRA sport compact turned a profit in 2005. Why is it you have to spread rumors that the series will fold after this year? They have a contract with the series primary sponsor for at least the next year and the series has made money! Being an esteemed bastion of drag racing knowledge, you must have conveniently misplaced the impressive media guide NHRASC published towards the end of 2005 explaining many of these same points.
You also conveniently failed to mention spectator count, which was again quite high. NHRA won’t officially publish numbers… but paid ticket count was north of 14k. (all but two of 2005’s events had spectator count above 10k, and VA has been added this year who have had spectator counts at sport compact events reach the 26k mark in the very recent past)
Be sure to check out Inside Drag Racing on ESPN, they are now going to have 5-minute segments recapping previous weekend’s sport compact events. After the big show, you can catch the 30-minute show on NHRASC. Surely, NHRA must be turning their backs on sport compact racers to include them within Inside Drag Racing (I mean, no one watches that show anyway and it's not like NHRA PAYS anything to air that show, right?)
As always, I do not work for the NHRA or any of the member tracks associated with the NHRASC series.
I'm sorry you are so afraid of the future that you must try to unnecessarily discredit a large generation of future drag racers. As a longtime reader of your website, I have finally decided to stop reading altogether in disgust of your questionable distaste for sport compact drag racers.
In amazement,
Mike Field
RESPONSE
Although Mike won't be reading DRO to see this, Darr Hawthorne has this reply.
I understand your passion for sport compact racing. At one time I had a similar, but less enthusiastic interest. When I saw the reality facing the NHRA Sport Compact series and after talking to racers, fans and many in the automotive aftermarket, the NHRA smokescreen was simple to see through.
I believe the NHRA Sport Compact series should never have turned into a
professional points-based series. Grass-roots series such as NOPI and Battle of the Imports developed on a local/regional/sportsman level and have proven to be viable, while NHRA car counts and spectators continue to dwindle. There is no doubt that spectators show up at Moroso and Englishtown for NHRA Sport Compact events; they are proven venues. Ticket sales “north of 14K” is hard to believe, but since I was not there and photographers seem to have missed shooting any photos of the grandstands I cannot comment. Moroso and Englishtown are not the problem; it’s every other venue.
