How do YOU..... promote drag racing?

[chris3racing]

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.

[Michael Beard]

I was involved in the "Thunder in the Streets" promotion at Norwalk three times (crowd estimates of 10K each year), and the one time that they did a pre-event show for Milan's national event (only 6-8 of us racers I think, but it was coupled with a regular street rod type show in a park). I believe Thunder in the Streets was a major component in beginning our relationship with Duck Tape.

- open trailer
- open pit area (plus the "gas station shows") - always talk with fans, educate, inform, and entertain
- display opportunities
- baseball card-sized hero cards (I make these. Much more affordable than 8x10's, and kids love them. Easy to carry and distribute)
- t-shirts (designed myself)
- Drag racing resources available online: Guide to Bracket Racing, Track Directory, etc.
- Guest Instructor on ThisIsBracketRacing.com, sharing knowledge with racers from novice to advanced.

Drag racing is quite literally my life - eat, sleep, and breathe.

[Mark Yacavone]

Thanks for asking ,Wade.
The simple answer is; By promoting drag racing!

We do three events a year now , and in between , we're at multiple cruise nights, car shows ,and other nostalgic race events.

Every time I stop for gas with the Tempest, I end up handing out fliers and telling someone about our events. It's amazing to me ,how many old timers "used to race at the old Mel Larson's place" , yet don't realize it's still open and running every week as "Speedworld"
We even manage to get a few young guys interested in old cars. That's of course, after you answer the question "What the heck IS that car?"

[Marvin Robinson]

Originally Posted by X-TECH MAN

Great post Wade......

Wade, this is a TERRIFIC post... all of the complaining/whining and criticism of a lack of promotion of Sportsmen by NHRA is not getting us where we want to be, we all need to be proactive and do our part to make ourselves more in demand. It can start at a concerted attempt to engage the unknowing public at every local opportunity. Our cars (Team Rock) will be on display at several local events this year, starting with the Drag Expo at Pheasant Run in Dupage, IL. We already have planes to display at a detail shop open house, and several vendor locations and parking lot car shows. This is a good start, but we need to keep in mind that marketing to folks who are already involved in Sportsman racing is not the best path to expanding our presence, everyone needs to look for opportunities to expose their cars, and our sport to those who don't already know who we are.

Open trailers used to be our best attractor, I remember when the lines or race cars on open trailers waiting to get into US30 Dragstrip in Hobart, IN would stretch for two miles, and traffic would be stopped for another mile in both directions(by the way, that track is where the SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY screamer ads originated) The track REALLY promoted it's Sunday and Wed/Fri nite Coca-Cola Cavalcade of Funny cars races, but added local racers to the promotion as well... (No Big Thing, Uncle Louie, Dick Messino and Shake, Rattle & Run, Rapid Randy, Clayman, etc would be part of the ad spots) the place was packed almost every race, no doubt a large number of spectators attracted to the races by actually seeing the race cars on the trailers. This was before the advent of serious TV coverage, so in today's market we have to address competing for air time, and the homogeneous white trailers don't help, but it's not realistic to expect racers to give those up. Maybe working with the appropriate agencies to alleviate the CDL burdens on amateur racing might be a place to start.

Bottom line... think of ways to promote on a personal level as hard as you think about how to maximize your combo within the "rule book", and get busy doing your individual part, and to hammer away at NHRA for more inclusion, but the track owners need to promote, too. We may be able to influence this situation with our own efforts..... maybe a forum to help guys/gals share promotion ideas??? (We will be making up photo cards to hand out, hadn't thought of that one, Chris, thanx for the idea...)

[chris3racing]

Marvin try the little photos, you will get a good feeling when you see the expression on a childs face when you hand him one of those pictures of your car. You don't have to have a big fancy tow rig, park in the "Pro Pit" area and hand out big 8x10 photos for people to appreciate you giving them a picture of your car.

[Dan Bernay]

Wade, with all due respect I do not promote drag racing.
I do think it's someone else's job.
It is a hobby not a business for me.
If drag racing stopped tomorrow I would find something else to do.
Dan.

[MEXJOE]

I really liked towing with the open trailer.
I think it was a big part of the fun going to the track and seeing the kids, young and old giving you the thumbs-up and screaming out the window "NICE CAR!!!!!"
The people in the other lane of the freeway rubber-necking to just to get a look at the car.
Every place you stop someone would ask " Are you going to a car show? "
Id say; "No this is a race car"
The answer was almost always the same...
" That's the nicest race car I've ever seen! You are going to wreck that nice car racing it?"
Then I'd Explain it to them. Some would "GET IT" Some... not so much.
But at any rate it was a good ego boost (we all like that)
The in-closed trailer is almost a necessity for security and safety today.
But I am afraid we have lost something with it.

[Hemiparts]

if we don't start doing more to bring the next generation in to the sport,Drag Racing as a whole will start to fade away. Alot of people still think racers are greasy characters that meet up outside of town and make a lot of noise. If we show the people the value and excitement that is still drag racing I think we can open it up to a whole new group of fans. As pops posted earlier our car is somewhere every weekend, if we're not @ the track we're doing a vendor display of one of our sponsor or doing a display @ a local charity car show just for folks to see the cars. I am a second generation racer and I hope the sport survives so the next 2 members of Chris3 racing have a chance to enjoy this sport we love,but if we don't all do our best to promote the sport, it will only exisit in stories @ racer reunions. IMO

Chris

[Chad Rhodes]

I think it is everyone's responsibility to promote our sport. Obviously it can't be left to NHRA/IHRA, or even track owners in most cases.

[Greg Hill]

It's a sad fact of life but most track operators live on entry fees and do not do what it takes to put people in the stands. There are some exceptions to this like Dallas and Clay Jones in BG, Pat at No Problem, and Bill Bader at Norwalk. The biggest difference I see is the owners are there every day and are hands on. Hired help does not have the motivation these owners have. Yes there are things we as racers can do but getting people to attend races is generally up to the track operators. When we had our furniture business in Memphis, I
spent around $250,000 a year on advertising, just to keep people walking through the door.
If we didn't promote we didn't do business.

When I see the crowds at the Sports National race in Belle Rose and then look at the empty stands in Columbus at the same event it tells you the difference in track operators. Columbus probably is 10 times the market area of Belle Rose , yet Pat's crowds are probably 10 times the size of Columbus. The same thing with the Norwalk points race and the one at Indy. Until track operators look at these events as opportunities to increase revenue and spend some money promoting things won't change.