NHRA & ESPN must HATE sportsmen.

[doublet]

NHRA broadcasts are tiresome in the ways that you mention, but sportsman racing, while fun to watch live, is not something meant for TV, IMO. They appear to be crawling down the strip. If they were a viable TV product, I think they would have been telecast by now.

No disrespect to any of you sportsman. I can watch you all day live, but not on TV.

[Bob Don]

I hate to admit it, but Pinks and Passtime have made sportsman type cars a viable TV product. For whatever reason, they are just shunned by the ESPN coverage. I don't get it! There is so much down time and crap during ESPN race coverage that you could fit in the semis on in for all the eliminators and still not miss a beat on pro coverage. If memory serves, I believe the old Diamond P telecasts had the finals in all the eliminators.

[Ed Wright]

Originally Posted by Bob Don

I hate to admit it, but Pinks and Passtime have made sportsman type cars a viable TV product. For whatever reason, they are just shunned by the ESPN coverage. I don't get it! There is so much down time and crap during ESPN race coverage that you could fit in the semis on in for all the eliminators and still not miss a beat on pro coverage. If memory serves, I believe the old Diamond P telecasts had the finals in all the eliminators.

Ten second cars don't look as slow on pinks because you didn't see a four second car just run. Class racing was a better show when we ran off of records so everybody was not playing games at the finish line. Nobody wants to watch that. We are just filler, and we need to get over it or find something else to do. Thirty years ago the stands didn't empty when we came up to run the way they do now. We are now, with the bogus soft indexes, not a lot better to watch that the throttle stop bracket cars.

[Chris1529]

Originally Posted by Ed Wright

Ten second cars don't look as slow on pinks because you didn't see a four second car just run.

my thoughts exactly

[Billy Nees]

The trouble here isn't that we're boring or don't have an audience. We see shows about disfunctional biker families, disfunctional Funny Car families, Ice Road Truckers and crab fishermen and maybe it's just me but they have managed to find an audience. The trouble is that Sportsmen haven't (or can't or won't) found anyone to put down the money to produce a show. For what advertizing costs I have to believe that a Sportsmen biased company (Jegs, Summit, Edelbrock) can't or hasn't looked into producing a Sportsmen related show in lieu of paying for the commercials. Hey, Musclecars, Hot Rod TV and Car Crazy are just half hour infomercials.
Now I'm not a TV producer by any stretch of the imagination but I'll bet that somebody in the Sportsmen community is in some way involved in TV production and can maybe explain to me why this can or can't be done.

[Billy Nees]

Originally Posted by Billy Nees

The trouble here isn't that we're boring or don't have an audience. We see shows about disfunctional biker families, disfunctional Funny Car families, Ice Road Truckers and crab fishermen and maybe it's just me but they have managed to find an audience. The trouble is that Sportsmen haven't (or can't or won't) found anyone to put down the money to produce a show. For what advertizing costs I have to believe that a Sportsmen biased company (Jegs, Summit, Edelbrock) can't or hasn't looked into producing a Sportsmen related show in lieu of paying for the commercials. Hey, Musclecars, Hot Rod TV and Car Crazy are just half hour infomercials.
Now I'm not a TV producer by any stretch of the imagination but I'll bet that somebody in the Sportsmen community is in some way involved in TV production and can maybe explain to me why this can or can't be done.

OK, I guess I'll ask again. Why can't something like this be done?

[Bob Pagano]

Ted Jones with "Inside Drag Racing" mite be the only way it would happen, last episode showed 2 super comp cars and what they go through to qualifiy at a national event. Set up a show and try selling it to them, use Fletch and a new cj for contrast and show what S and SS go through at a national event. It would be a start.

[Alex Denysenko]

Originally Posted by Billy Nees

OK, I guess I'll ask again. Why can't something like this be done?

It can be done Billy.

How do I know?

Because we did it!

USCN was broadcast on ESPN2 and it was not that expensive to produce.

Granted Ted Jones and Bret Kepner gave us a huge break, but in the grand scheme of things a monthly show can be done for peanuts by MEG with a couple of paying sponsors.

[Michael Beard]

Originally Posted by doublet

NHRA broadcasts are tiresome in the ways that you mention, but sportsman racing, while fun to watch live, is not something meant for TV, IMO. They appear to be crawling down the strip. If they were a viable TV product, I think they would have been telecast by now.

No disrespect to any of you sportsman. I can watch you all day live, but not on TV.

Try Larry Pfister's Horsepower Heaven videos, of "Four Days in May" fame. This guy can do the filming (with a single camera), narration, and editing all by himself and create an entertaining package. www.horsepowerheaven.com He's got some trailers on youtube, too. Sanctioning bodies and TV producers could learn a LOT from this guy about presentation.

Watched a little drag boat racing on TV last week, and it was pretty decent.

[Alan Roehrich]

Originally Posted by Michael Beard

Try Larry Pfister's Horsepower Heaven videos, of "Four Days in May" fame. This guy can do the filming (with a single camera), narration, and editing all by himself and create an entertaining package. www.horsepowerheaven.com He's got some trailers on youtube, too. Sanctioning bodies and TV producers could learn a LOT from this guy about presentation.

Watched a little drag boat racing on TV last week, and it was pretty decent.

No kidding. Sportsman racing, especially class racing, can be promoted and filmed to look as good as it can be.