NHRA and the Olympics

[X-TECH MAN]

Originally Posted by Michael Beard

Palm Beach coverage aired on a Saturday at 7PM
Rockingham coverage aired on a Sunday at 4PM
All-Stars coverage aired on a Saturday at 6PM
K&N Spring Fling coverage aired on a Sunday at 11:30AM (also available on YouTube. You can view the first segment, which contains a closeup of the Volare in the pits (at :50 sec in the video) as well as one of the elimination runs (at 2:06 in the video) at http://www.bracketraces.com/)

Damn....I missed all of them.

[david ring]

Greg,

One of my big interests, besides drag racing, baseball, and economics, is music and none of the stuff I really like (jazz, blues, bluegrass, folk) was on the Grammy's during prime time either, although it was nice to see Esperanza Spaulding (a jazz artist) win Best New Artist rather than a haircut (Justin Beaver or whatever his name is).

[Bobby DiDomenico]

Originally Posted by FED 387

5-6 years ago we could qualify a car for a National meet and with our qualifying money pay for our entry fees/ most travel expenses/misc race expenses like gas-oil- tires/plugs & other small stuff now it costs us about $500 min maybe $750 just to go a coupla hundred miles down the road--we cut out National events other than one that is about 50 miles away and stay/eat at home no motels, just do Opens and Divisionals still have fun but not as often---what really gets me is I watched qualifying (Daytona 500) today and saw sponsor names/products on cars of companies that I know many guys(everything from T/F to PS as well as Sportsman cars too) have put proposals to and in no uncertain words were they interested in "anything" to do with racing/ motorsports of any kind, totally against it--- now maybe the Nascar guys are asking for a minimal amount of money maybe a one race deal and thats it but they are still getting money no matter how much and drag racing is not!!! I do not understand it do you???

If you followed the NASCAR coverage over this past weekend, there are a few companies paying large sums (millions) of dollars and not getting a penny's worth, while others spending a few dollars are getting tons of exposure. In the few short hours we watched, Danica somebody got more exposure than a company which spent most of their last years earnings for no dollars!! Where are the shareholders?

[Curmudgeon]

Addressing Greg's initial observation about NHRA/Olympics media coverage,at least the sport gets coverage as flawed as it is. Without the "Pro" and "star" coverage drag racing would probably be relegated to the airtime given to Figure 8and Demolition Derby events. I cite by example the SCTA which drag racing evolved from,with the exception of terrible Bonneville coverage they get no airtime at all. Much as I despise the format of National Event coverage , I am thankful drag racing is being aired at all. I remember the days when the Daytona 500 was shown six months later interspersed with figure skating and drag racing was barely covered if at all .

[Bret Kepner]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

I remember the days when the Daytona 500 was shown six months later interspersed with figure skating...

No, you don't.

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

I cite by example the SCTA which drag racing evolved from,with the exception of terrible Bonneville coverage they get no airtime at all.

As a veteran of twenty-eight years on the salt, I can attest the SCTA doesn't actively pursue any television coverage of their events.

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

Without the "Pro" and "star" coverage drag racing would probably be relegated to the airtime given to Figure 8 and Demolition Derby events.

I'm beginning to get the impression you read NONE of my replies to your observations in the "Why Can't..." thread.

[Curmudgeon]

I am truly sorry Bret,I did not intend to offend you. I did read with interest your posts as put up and after first realized how unworkable and unrealistic the concept proposed really is. I was only trying to make apoint of how one group took a path toward commercial success and the SCTA proudly stuck to its roots. I do by the way remember when stockcar races were broken up into segments for TV with unrelated sports in between segments. I did read and learned how television really works from someone respected within the industry,thank you for the education. Once again my apologies as was never my intent to offend.

[Bret Kepner]

I'm just jokin' around so no offense was taken. Funny thing about our memories; even I thought the old Wide World of Sports coverage of Indy and Pomona showed up months after the fact but I did some research and found, (to my dismay), the shows actually aired no more than five weeks after the races! I didn't look it up but I sure the Daytona 500 was probably never delayed by more than that amount.

You got it right about the SCTA; it's a gaggle of the hardest-core "old school" racing people on the planet. They make drag racing class racers look like Marilyn Manson by comparison and those old guys wouldn't care if there was never another TV show shot on the salt. A TV camera at El Mirage is almost unheard of!

[Terry Cain]

Originally Posted by X-TECH MAN

One reason is the TV exposure time....the other reason is its ONE race...ONE winner. Not multi winners at each race. To many different eliminators, to many classes in each eliminator plus the handicap starts and breakouts = confusion to the non car guy TV viewer. Not all who watch are car people. They want entertainment. Who really won? Sure we like the class structure.....we are car people but to the large mass of people who watch and buy avertised products...they are confused when watching Top fuel whatevers and they very rarely get down the track side by side. The TV time never even bothers with the sportsman eliminators. HOW does one fix this?

Ya know, I was thinking the other day about how the normal fan does not understand handicap racing and how to explain it in a way they would understand.
How about first round of stock eliminator (everyday at a national meet) run two cars, say an A or so car and have it run a lower class car and have the announcer explain it as their running.

[Michael Beard]

Originally Posted by Terry Cain

the normal fan does not understand handicap racing

This is a myth. This is like saying The Price Is Right is too difficult to understand. People have watched and understood game shows for decades. Here's the set of rules, here's the objective. It's NOT hard. I have explained the sport to novices in the stands (or over the PA) on numerous occasions, and people not only pick it up quickly, but also start to enjoy it -- once somebody BOTHERS to tell them what it is they're looking at. It was only a matter of minutes before a 12-yr-old boy watching Super Rod running at Tri-State (1/8th mile) was pointing to the scoreboard, "Dad, look! There's another 6.40!"

Announcing at a bracket race with all racers and no spectators is a different discipline than announcing at a National event. I was given the opportunity to give an NHRA announcer a pizza break at Maple Grove one year, and got to announce a round of Super Comp. I had Stocker guys tell me that was the most interesting Super Comp had ever been to them... like, they actually paid ATTENTION to it.

Know your audience. Inform, then entertain.

[Marvin Robinson]

You guys are all talking AROUND the central point of the problem as far as TV goes... there is no apparent will on the part of the NHRA TV crews to enlighten the television audience about sportsman gasoline racing... it would not be too difficult to put an announcer in place that could pass along the nuances of the sportsman competitor, they just need to want to (granted, part of that wanting is driven by how many revenue dollars they think it will generate). I point again to the phenomenal rise of televised POKER... a sport where everyone sits at a table and plays with CARDS!!! The interest comes from giving a CLEAR explanation of strategy, potentials and outcomes to the viewer, and making a connection to the personalities for the audience... how easy would THAT be for NHRA to do??? Right.... not hard at all, the problem is with NHRA, not the spectators.