Make Divisionals Great Again

[Billy Nees]

Originally Posted by Doug Hoven

but to face facts, it takes a special person to want to race a rusty, brown cavalier. I know it's easier said than done, but maybe there needs to be more "old timers" letting "punk kids" race their cars from time to time.

Hey! Wait! What????

[Billy Nees]

Ya know, just among the track owners/operators that I know or know of in Div.1, there are people who race with or are friends with Pro/Stock, Pro/Mod, Drag Radial and Fastest Street Car Racers. I don't know or understand why these track owners/operators can't get together some kind of a "buddy-deal" and put together some kind of a show if that's what it will take.

[BKSG1198]

I know we chat about this almost every year on how to make Divisionals Great and I have a lot of insight from talking to track owners when setting up my MA Schedules on how they feel about the Divisional Events and for the most part track owners are not big fans of having them due to the cost factor and let's be honest it's up to the tracks to spend the additional funds to help market those events and not all tracks have that deep of pockets to do so.

When you have Alky at these events, the tracks have to get additional insurance and the Top 10 in each Division in Alky get in for free along with a certain amount of crew and the track pays the purse on top of the fee that they pay NHRA (It's a base fee for certain amount of cars - I was told at one time by a track owner it's $15k for 350 cars and then it goes up as the count goes over 350....so when we complain about $60 crew pass, it's because the track is trying to re-coup some of that money)....when you look at 2023 D1 Alky points there were 22 TAD that earned points but, only 10 TAFC earned points in D1 with 2 who made a run so they could earn the free status next season. I mentioned at the MG August race that the Alky guys are mostly business men / women, they should be getting together to do their own purses, I know DJ Cox did at Cecil one year to help the track out. Then you have Alky qualify on a Friday at times that won't attract any crowds because people are working (12,3,5) it doesn't make any sense, I think you move Alky to qualify on Saturday and elims on Sunday to make it a show beginning at 3-4pm, let Stock, SS, .90, Comp get their qualifying rounds and maybe R1 in before the "Show" starts and be done for the day and run TS, TD, Alky, Jets, Benny the Bomb, Wheel standers, etc. for the fans. They always say that Alky runs on Fri / Sat so they have a travel day.....ummm most these guys have drivers who drive their stuff to the next location, and they fly in.

I know Bobby does a great job of promoting the "Car Show" with Stock & SS but let's all be honest kids today want to see a lowered Honda that can barely go over railroad tracks than see Stock, SS and the .90 cars. Our last .90 race was at Maple Grove on October 15th, we ran with a car show called "Static Struggle". The place was packed with about 250 show cars all Hondas, all fart boxes, all lowered and it stunk like weed....lol. The field where we park for the NE & LODRS was packed with spectators filling the stands, the concession stand was wrapped around the building with people buying stuff, they definitely made a killing on that day with just those cars and then you add in 100 T&T Cars at $50 a pop with no payback. Why I think your also seeing NHRA partner to run Alky cars at events like Cleetus & Cars and the Norwalk Night of Fire.

One thing you notice when you ever watch on NHRA.TV telecasts there is reasons we kick things off early in the morning with sportsman and you'll hear Alan, say maybe after SG or Comp runs "From this point forward, everything that goes down this track will go faster than 8 seconds". It's to tell people the "fast, not complicated cars" are coming out...people want to be able to understand classes and not try to figure out why this guy went 9.50 and the other guy went 13.23 and won. Thats why when you go to a NE.85% of the people are there to see ...John Force.

How do you make it better? I think you put together a 4-5 hour show that highlights the fast classes, if they want to come in early to watch Stock, SS, .90 they will come but, people these days are looking for the best bang for their buck, they don't want to be priced gouged, kids have the attention span of about 3 hours before they are bored....I saw this on a page today about Pomona:

"Im really perturbed in Pomona raceway I dont care what association it partakes in but if its $15 for a hot dog or $23 for a sandwich it better be at least descent it amazes me the cost of everything and get sub-par absolute junk . I understand inflation but these venues are failing if you disagree you are the problem . No common family can come out here and afford for a good time"

[official22yrs]

So TVD had one, over 20 years ago, was $12,000 to have it. NHRA got the gate fee, spectator and pit gate. All tech cars fee.
Only money you got was the food you sold.
So TVD gave out 10,000 free tickets, hoping to make money selling water etc.
NHRA says we own them $10,000 dollar. We switched to IHRA.

And we got over 15,000 spectators. Proved to Div 5 director Darrell, we can get spectators, to come to a Divisional event.
He told us, you can't spectators to come to this race.

[doglover44]

Originally Posted by official22yrs

So TVD had one, over 20 years ago, was $12,000 to have it. NHRA got the gate fee, spectator and pit gate. All tech cars fee.
Only money you got was the food you sold.
So TVD gave out 10,000 free tickets, hoping to make money selling water etc.
NHRA says we own them $10,000 dollar. We switched to IHRA.

And we got over 15,000 spectators. Proved to Div 5 director Darrell, we can get spectators, to come to a Divisional event.
He told us, you can't spectators to come to this race.

Noticing a lot of tracks are going IHRA lately why is that ?

[Ed Carpenter]

Originally Posted by Bobby Fazio

How do we do it? Why don't tracks want them? Why is there little to no crowd at 90% of them? I would like to have a few track owners/managers on my Tuesday show to educate us. Maybe someone from NHRA could do the same. There are many questions.

Talk to the people at No Problem as there is always a crowd all 3 days at our D4 divisional every year.

[CMcAllister]

These days, the buzz is all about No Prep, No Time, Drag Radial, Cash Days, Street Outlaws, boosted and sprayed, grudge, etc. If it helps tracks make money and stay open, good for them.

National events are fuel cars and everybody else for filler

Local tracks don't typically get spectators for bracket shows and rely on specialty events to get people in the gate.

Not sure how much more can be packed into a 3 day Divisional, or a race like the Dutch, when it seems like they have trouble getting it all done if there are any weather or on track incident delays now.

Not sure how you can attract people who don't understand, or appreciate, class or .90 racing without dumbing it down or fundamentally changing it. They might show up once, but if it's not their cup o tea, they probably won't keep coming back.

Different audiences. Not a lot of Jamey Johnson fans showing up at a Limp Bizkit show. Not even if it were free.

[JeremyDuncan]

As a non retired working racer the Economics of of Division race are way out of wack. Too much time from work for way too little potential to win $$$. Add in the ridiculous long delay in receiving contingency money when you do Win and Runner up, only makes it worse!

Once upon a time Top Fuel, Funny Car, & Pro Stock were contested at Division races. That went away when not enough people were showing up to justify the teams and tracks costs. Now Non Alcohol categories subsidies the Alcohol categories with the high entry fees to payouts Time is now to move TAFC and TAD out of Divisional races and raise the payouts for the Sportsman classes.

[rboyle]

Some realistic low cost options I think could help
Incorporate car shows also where space allows. Most of my local cruise nights get a bigger crowd than a divisional
Track promoters can do their own podcasts especially to cover last races results and next races scheduled events
Local band night is a-good idea or DJ
Food trucks are usually better than concession stands
Gambling used to take place in the Raceway Park grandstands unofficially but if the announcer says just “who ya got in this race the Mopar or Chevy?” It drums up the people a little.

[1legjerry]

I'm a big drag race fan, but I will not watch throttle stop racing ever. even if my best friend is in the final. Get back to index and heads up racing.