Atlanta fan appeal.
 

I noticed something this week at Atlanta. There were a lot of fans looking at Jimmy Ronzello's car. And a lot of them were young. I also noted that there were more fans inspecting my "wierd car" than the early style Camaro parked next to me.
I you guys want to make stock and superstock a "notalgia" thing. It's all over but the car crushing.
These younger fans can relate to a new Mustang, or a Challenger, Or believe it or not my "lowly" Neon.
They were even born when those older muscle cars were 10 years old.
And due to the hard but very true fact, that old people are a dying breed. nhra better push the newer cars. If they have any hope of surviving.

Re: Atlanta fan appeal.
 

Dont laugh at Neons, Darrel Cox is 30 miles from us. When we owned Piedmont Dragway we had Darrel Cox neon day, figured maybe an extra 30 cars on top of a regualar TNT day. We had 125 neons, and at least 300 people. No one over 30. 1/2 of them ran in the 7's in the 1/8. We then did a Carolina Honda day with the similar result.

Herb jr

Re: Atlanta fan appeal.
 

Art and Herb, I think you are both unfortunantly correct. That is why I am excited to see any of the new cars hitting the track. Don't get me wrong, I love the old cars, but maybe that is because I'm old.
New Mustang, new Challenger, or Camaro bring them on. It will be GREAT for the sport we all love.

Re: Atlanta fan appeal.
 

I remember the first race of the year at the old Little Rock Dragstrip in 1967. A local dealer had a new '67 Camaro 350 SS in Stock Eliminator. Also present were about two dozen '55-'57 Chevy Jr. Stockers from around the mid-South, many of them record holders, known names, etc. We were all over the Camaro, even though it was a slug. Similar deal, different calendar.

Re: Atlanta fan appeal.
 

Honest question here and not meant as a put down though some will take it that way. If they are so popular then why did the sport compact concept fail so badly ??? Even the bikini show couldnt keep it floating !

Re: Atlanta fan appeal.
 

When the new wears off, they'll all leave for the next new thing. Not just the next new race car, the next new fad. It's called a short attention span. Seen it before. Watched two grass roots sportsman style motorsports practically die and never really recover from it.

Re: Atlanta fan appeal.
 

Great question Terry, my opinion is the expense of building these cars are more then most young people can afford. Their format was designed for heads up racing only. I do not think they had a bracket class, and if they did it was not promoted very well. I think that was the main reason for the low car counts at the import races. Heads up racing is cool, but it will only survive if you have major sponsors bringing in the money. To grab a fan base you have to better than whats out there, and for most fans, top fuel car is more exciting to watch then the fastest front wheel drive cars, even if they went 7's, it still would not appeal to the mass's.

The only way they could have survived is to have a strong grass roots membership like NHRA, which takes many years to developed.

I think if they had a structure like NHRA they might have grown. Even though NHRA is not perfect you can still build a car relativity cheap. The bracket part of stock and super stock keeps racing affordable. I know its easy to bash NHRA, but if you think about, it is a pretty good system. Stock has been around for 40 years with cars that are older then many that race them. Although there is improvement to make it better, you have to give credit for NHRA lasting this long for a sportsman category and even for the entire NHRA survival. With the fuel shortage of the seventies, the horrible economy of the late seventies, the high gas prices of a year ago and the poor economy we are in now, its a testament to NHRA's survival. Maybe the import's should have followed a model that has had success in good times and bad.

Re: Atlanta fan appeal.
 

The import racers that I know are mainly younger (low buck guys). They are very active on test and tune/grudge nights, but they are not keen on the rules and expense of sanctioned racing.

Re: Atlanta fan appeal.
 

Thats what BRACKET racing was invented for.

Re: Atlanta fan appeal.
 

And it is also why bracket racing is so strong. The stands at sanctioned events are filled with spectators that run imports and/or brackets. The topic of this thread is "Fan Appeal". I agree with Art on this one. The younger spectators are drawn to cars that they can relate to. Just like the fans of 1969.