CLASS RACER FORUM - View Single Post

chris3racing · 02-17-2011, 10:43 AM

This is going to be long, but Wade you just hit this one out of the park. First off the white, enclosed trailers, I think, are because of so many highway laws concerning what is a private operation and what is commercial and proving to DMV that you are a private individual out to have some fun.

Promotion of drag racing. Back in "the good old days of match racing" cars and drivers were brought into a track and was advertised on the radio. That old familiar "Sunday, Sunday." The cars and drivers got into town and the track would have something set up with a local car dealership and everyone could go see the cars before the race that night. At national events everyone stayed in motels or the motel parking lot and spectators would come and look at the cars in the parking lots. The cars were polished and shining. How many wash and wax your car, black the tires, polish the chrome? My old friend Ronnie Sox had someone ready the minute the car came off the track to begin wiping and polishing his cars. Right Dean? Most everyone did, whether you were the famous race car driver or the local guy brought in by the track to get beat up on by the big guy. If you, the local guy, didn't put on the show you would not get paid to come back again.

We have our car on display at carshows, Saturday night cruise-ins and other special events. Part of our agreement with our sponsors is to make the car available for special events that they want to show off the car they sponsor. You will be amazed at how many people you get to talk to when you have the car on display and at different event. I just finished my second tour of being invited to display our car for the International Auto Expo at the State Fair Grounds in Raleigh. The car was part of the classic car display. We had it polished and shining. There is no telling how many thousands of people walked by and looked at that car over two days. My wife and I stood at that display spot from 8:30 am to 9:00 pm on Saturday with people constantly looking and asking questions. With camera telephones, now everyone has a ready camera. My wife made a comment, if we could charge 25 cents for each picture taken at the show we could possibly pay most of our racing expenses. Yes guys my wife, for 40 years, still works on the car and goes to the races. Everyone of our family working the show display had Mopar Team shirts and represent the people who help us to race in a professional manner. Sure it takes a little extra time and money, but when you enjoy this sport as much as I have for almost 50 years it is a lot of fun, especially if you like to meet new people and talk about drag racing. There are dozens of charity shows that you can participate in and be welcomed. Crank the car up, burn a little racing fuel, make some noise and see the reaction you get from all ages, from, the little ones all the way to the old timers who remember how it was. Take photos of your car, fire up the computer and print little small calling card size photos and hand them out to the kids at these types of events. I haul my car on an open trailer, as I have done for years, and when people stop to look at the car at a gas station, resturant, or motel, I have the photo cards in the truck and will give them to the children. Look at their face when you give them that simple little photo of your drag race car.

As I have posted on this site and others, I continually have people who do not know that there are still drag strips operating in North Carolina and that they have races almost every week-end. The track owners need to fix this. As I told most people I talked to on Saturday, from the point at which we were standing, in one hour and a half you could be at five good dragstrips and see some good racing if you extended the time to 2 1/2 hours there are over a dozen. For people not to know that the drag strips still operate is a real problem. Danny, I had two guys on Sunday wanting to talk about the special Gas and Modified Production ( C/MP, E/MP,etc) race they use to have at Kinston Drag Strip. Those guy just got all jack up, talked almost an hour, as I named off some of the cars and drivers that would be there on Sunday for those races. Do you remember that?

Sure it takes a little bit of time. But I came up in drag racing when there was a match race show and we raced almost every night. Remember the days of Super Stock match racing and a couple of nitro funny cars match racing on a week-night at the same show.

02-17-2011, 10:43 AM	#8
chris3racing Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 528 Likes: 0 Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: How do YOU..... promote drag racing? This is going to be long, but Wade you just hit this one out of the park. First off the white, enclosed trailers, I think, are because of so many highway laws concerning what is a private operation and what is commercial and proving to DMV that you are a private individual out to have some fun. Promotion of drag racing. Back in "the good old days of match racing" cars and drivers were brought into a track and was advertised on the radio. That old familiar "Sunday, Sunday." The cars and drivers got into town and the track would have something set up with a local car dealership and everyone could go see the cars before the race that night. At national events everyone stayed in motels or the motel parking lot and spectators would come and look at the cars in the parking lots. The cars were polished and shining. How many wash and wax your car, black the tires, polish the chrome? My old friend Ronnie Sox had someone ready the minute the car came off the track to begin wiping and polishing his cars. Right Dean? Most everyone did, whether you were the famous race car driver or the local guy brought in by the track to get beat up on by the big guy. If you, the local guy, didn't put on the show you would not get paid to come back again. We have our car on display at carshows, Saturday night cruise-ins and other special events. Part of our agreement with our sponsors is to make the car available for special events that they want to show off the car they sponsor. You will be amazed at how many people you get to talk to when you have the car on display and at different event. I just finished my second tour of being invited to display our car for the International Auto Expo at the State Fair Grounds in Raleigh. The car was part of the classic car display. We had it polished and shining. There is no telling how many thousands of people walked by and looked at that car over two days. My wife and I stood at that display spot from 8:30 am to 9:00 pm on Saturday with people constantly looking and asking questions. With camera telephones, now everyone has a ready camera. My wife made a comment, if we could charge 25 cents for each picture taken at the show we could possibly pay most of our racing expenses. Yes guys my wife, for 40 years, still works on the car and goes to the races. Everyone of our family working the show display had Mopar Team shirts and represent the people who help us to race in a professional manner. Sure it takes a little extra time and money, but when you enjoy this sport as much as I have for almost 50 years it is a lot of fun, especially if you like to meet new people and talk about drag racing. There are dozens of charity shows that you can participate in and be welcomed. Crank the car up, burn a little racing fuel, make some noise and see the reaction you get from all ages, from, the little ones all the way to the old timers who remember how it was. Take photos of your car, fire up the computer and print little small calling card size photos and hand them out to the kids at these types of events. I haul my car on an open trailer, as I have done for years, and when people stop to look at the car at a gas station, resturant, or motel, I have the photo cards in the truck and will give them to the children. Look at their face when you give them that simple little photo of your drag race car. As I have posted on this site and others, I continually have people who do not know that there are still drag strips operating in North Carolina and that they have races almost every week-end. The track owners need to fix this. As I told most people I talked to on Saturday, from the point at which we were standing, in one hour and a half you could be at five good dragstrips and see some good racing if you extended the time to 2 1/2 hours there are over a dozen. For people not to know that the drag strips still operate is a real problem. Danny, I had two guys on Sunday wanting to talk about the special Gas and Modified Production ( C/MP, E/MP,etc) race they use to have at Kinston Drag Strip. Those guy just got all jack up, talked almost an hour, as I named off some of the cars and drivers that would be there on Sunday for those races. Do you remember that? Sure it takes a little bit of time. But I came up in drag racing when there was a match race show and we raced almost every night. Remember the days of Super Stock match racing and a couple of nitro funny cars match racing on a week-night at the same show.