8/8/06
IT’S ALL AL GORE’S FAULT?
Ian, nice article about race attendance. I believe another factor is the Weather Channel. In the good ole days you went to the track for better or worse (drivers and spectators). Nowadays, what with gas prices, etc., people don’t take a chance on a rainout. They can go online and get an hour-by-hour forecast.
I think Burk hit the nail on the head when he said the HRA’s should put their money in covering the grandstands. I don’t know about global warming, but it has been pretty hot lately. Let’s face it, it takes a mighty big draw to get the masses out of their climate controlled environments these days.
John Nance
PRO STOCK, THE GOOD OLD DAYS
Back in the 70’s, amongst the door cars, there was no better class than NHRA Pro Stock. Ronnie Sox rowing a four speed like no one else. Lee Shepherd, Dandy Dick Landy, Grumpy Jenkins, Dyno Don Nicholoson, Don Carlton in the Mopar Missle, Wayne Gapp piloting the Gapp & Roush Tijuani Taxi, and Bob Glidden, no matter what he was driving. Pintos, Camaros, Dusters, Mustangs, and even a four door Maverick. Small blocks, big blocks, shotgun motors and Hemis. It was rosins, rivalries, and relevance. Stars with cars we could all relate to you.
Fast forward to today and the competition in Pro Stock is phenomenal and…no one cares…and why should they? With 500 cubic inch engines, carburetors, hood scoops the size of a sub compact, and cars that few fans are clamoring to own the street equivalent of, the class is in a self-denial time warp. For the most part, there are two manufacturers
represented. Perhaps the modern day version of an announcers chant to work up the crowd should be “How many fans do we have for Hertz and how many for Avis?” since there are probably more butts in the stands that may have rented these same brands and models to get to the track than those that have bought them.
The reality is it’s hard for most race fans to get excited about today’s NHRA Pro Stock and change is in order even at the risk of lowering hot dog sales. Right now membership in this class seems to resemble an exclusive 200-mph country club for those that can afford the hefty greens fees. It needs to be a category that mirrors the marketplace it supposedly represents. Open it up to domestics and imports alike. Accelerate it into today and beyond with fuel injection, modern powerplants, and all the electronic condiments out there…including traction control. With those changes, NHRA Pro Stock could conceivably become a breeding ground for automotive advancements. A place where automotive engineers could take clean sheet ideas, try them out on the race track, and then use the lessons learned in the production of automobiles.
There are many parallels between searching for incremental gains in a race car and increasing efficiencies in a passenger car. A restructured NHRA Pro Stock provides an arena that allows for that kind of seamless R&D which bolsters the argument for investment by the auto manufacturers. With open wheel racing still divided and the cost of fielding a competitive NASCAR team looking more and more like the economy of a third world country, (with antiquated powerplants to match) why not capitalize on these negatives by crafting a NHRA Pro Stock class that could make this category the most relevant as to what’s actually being built for consumption by the general public?
Will it be hard to structure and police a class that embraces so much? Of course it will, but the marketplace no longer allows GM or DaimlerChrysler to exist in a bubble, so why should professional drag racing try to? Toyota didn’t build a pushrod motor to enter NASCAR to advance their technology, they built it to advance their brand appeal.
Change NHRA Pro Stock and you would have a brand of racing that is both popular and relevant and, like drag racing itself, isn’t it about time?
Chris Finney
Ann Arbor, MI
