Where?s Alan Reinhardt?

[reig3]

Originally Posted by jmcarter

Redman, Bloom and now Alan? Wonder if one of the Pro teams took exception to some of his witticisms?.it will be interesting to one day get the rest of the story

Definitely miss Lewis Bloom announcing and stats!

[SuperStock fan]

There's one more announcer who we lost that kept you smiling and laughing while listing to the racing action and that was the late great Bob Unkefer. Bob Frey was quite the historian when it came to stock and super stock racing also. Let's all hope Alan returns soon and the NHRA didn't make stupid mistake and letting great personal go.

Originally Posted by SuperStock fan

There's one more announcer who we lost that kept you smiling and laughing while listing to the racing action and that was the late great Bob Unkefer. Bob Frey was quite the historian when it came to stock and super stock racing also. Let's all hope Alan returns soon and the NHRA didn't make stupid mistake and letting great personal go.

Put a smile on my face! Unk! What a great guy! God speed buddy!
Frey! Same deal just awesome!
AR = Where’s Waldo? Alan also the voice.
How these guys can remember names / history and stats is amazing.
Hope we get back to the norm soon.
Never got to hear one announcer at Sonoma, too busy!

[HR9121]

It would be a huge disappointment if Alan is no longer announcing but let's face it the crowd running the show could care less. If you piss in their cornflakes they don't care what kind of job you're doing just look what happened to our former DD in Division 2 Rich Schaefer. He was as good as they come in my opinion and they didn't mind running him off.

[TOSTO RACING]

They run everyone off that actually does a good job and cares ! Problem is they don't care !

I hope Alan is still around he is the best!

[Billy Hampton]

Why do we choose NHRA in the first place? Is it the so called prestige of making a pass at a "national event" that actually never makes it on TV? or is it the "enhancements" that continually chip away at our enjoyment? Maybe its the cost of the tech cards that in no way are commensurate with the payouts.

I would offer the following as the real reasons:

It is the competitive nature of S and SS, the friendships and history of the class along with bragging rights of event wins. Opportunity for sponsorship $$ perhaps?

When it comes down to it what is desperately needed is one of our well heeled "friends" in our class that would hire someone to organize a national organization with points, realistic payouts, well organized and enjoyable events at great locations that make sense. I would even add catered food and nightime entertainment to attract the next generation of fan and racer alike.

And most importantly a support team of video production and promotion that would actually get 10's of thousands of views on streaming services that would naturally attract manufacturer and related sponsorships. (unlike the whopping "hundreds" of views we see now for divisional events).

Coordinating with local parts suppliers and dealerships ahead of the events, like NASCAR used to do by displaying our vehicles as the show-pieces they truly are. This would add butts to the seats also.

The $$ is in eyeballs. Someone with production and advertising background could take a serious approach to this and see it flourish. Kiss Gendora goodbye forever- Non profit my *****. Get real.

[Billy Nees]

Originally Posted by Billy Hampton

When it comes down to it what is desperately needed is one of our well heeled "friends" in our class that would hire someone to organize a national organization with points, realistic payouts, well organized and enjoyable events at great locations that make sense. I would even add catered food and nightime entertainment to attract the next generation of fan and racer alike.

"When it comes down to it", NHRA would never allow a direct competitor to stage an event at any of it's sanctioned tracks.

[Dan Bennett]

Originally Posted by reig3

Definitely miss Lewis Bloom announcing and stats!

This may look like I posted twice in a row, and I know we're getting a bit off track. But it's my chance to share something about Bob Frey. I spent a lot of time with most of the announcers during my days with DRC working in the tower.

I doubt that many people know, but Bob has the most extensive drag racing computer database I know of - miles ahead of anything else and something he's spent countless hours on. He has a massive literature collection that any facts had been harvested from, and he actually updated his program every day. Not monthly, or after a race was over. Daily.

And considering how slow the NHRA was to embrace technology, and the staff cuts after they did, I'd bet it's better than what they have.

A group of us would often go to dinner after the day ended and it was great conversation. But Bob was always the first to leave by a bunch. He'd go back to his room, update the database, and do extensive research for the next day's announcing. Yes, he had a great memory but a lot of info was from the hours of research and prep he'd done the night before.

I consider Louis a good friend, and there were few people I knew who were as motivated as he was/is. But unless he came up with his own after I left the tour, his information came from Bob's records since he sort of took him under his wing when the "kid" at the time first started annoucing. Not a slam on Bloom in any way since he was one of the best. More trying to shine a light on Bob.