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It's Time to Bring the Factories
Back to Drag Racing
In case you haven't noticed,
all of the major U.S. and foreign auto manufacturers all
have a much bigger presence both monetarily and on an engineering
level in racing leagues like the IRL, F-1, endurance, road
racing, and especially NASCAR racing programs than they
have in drag racing. The reasons for this, in my opinion,
are really self-evident. For the most part drag racing simply
doesn't offer the manufacturer's engineering and marketing
departments the audience exposure or opportunities to do
engineering R&D that those other racing disciplines do.
Drag racing's premier attractions are generally conceded to be the nitro burning classes of Top Fuel and Funny Car. The only way the factories can really get involved here is either by supplying unrecognizable Funny Car bodies or by putting their logo on a Top Fuel car. Neither of those two classes seems to really help the factories sell cars on Monday. GM has for all purposes bailed out of the Funny Car body and Top Fuel sponsorship business, TRD (Toyota Racing Development) apparently has taken a hike after one year of involvement, and Ford only supplies Mustang bodies to one team. Of the big three U.S. automakers only DaimlerChrysler/Mopar seems to devote a lot of engineering and financial support to the pro classes. Compared to Ford and GM commitments to NASCAR and IRL, what Mopar gives drag racing pales in comparison.
Now, none of what I have said is news to anyone. And I'm not saying that GM, Ford, and Chrysler's contributions to the sport aren't significant or unappreciated. What I am saying is that the people in control of this sport should find a way to make it more attractive for the factories to become involved.
The problem, as I see it, is that the classes in contemporary
big time NHRA drag racing do not really lend themselves
to promoting, selling, or offering an R&D opportunity for
the major automotive factories. The classes of Top Fuel,
Fuel Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Mod basically have nothing
to offer major automakers of real value beyond billboard
status.
Funny Cars at one time, when the bodies were recognizable and similar to what Detroit manufactured, actually had teams that were completely backed and funded by Ford, Chrysler and their peers. Now the factories can barely be coaxed into supplying bodies.
Pro Stocks, once the darling of the factory wars between the big three, are now, with the exception of Mopar involvement, no more than billboards for services and parts. The factory engineers have no use or desire to flog 500-800 inch carbureted V-8 powered clones of what they sell on the showroom floor. The last time (that I am aware of) that a factory actually got seriously involved in a professional class was with the ill-fated NHRA truck class. Chevrolet actually assigned engineers to that program to help with the drive trains in those vehicles. The time prior to that was when GM backed Buddy Ingersoll's turbocharged V-6 powered Buick Skylark. As soon as that program got going pretty good, NHRA banned it from Pro Stock competition mostly because of the stink raised by the carb/gas/500-inch engine contingent. They wanted and got the status quo; the factory just got out.
My point here is that both NHRA and IHRA should admit that, if they are going to ever get the factories and perhaps more fans back to drag racing in a big way, they are going to have to re-think the way the sport is structured.
The best I can tell, most of the factories apparently have more interest and direct involvement in sports compact racing than Pro Stock racing. Just attending one of NHRA's sports compact races and seeing the amount of overt factory involvement in John Lingenfelter's operation from chassis to engine development, as well as the Ford- and Mopar-backed teams proves that point. Oh and just for the record, most of the major Asian car manufacturers have major investments in that venue. Unfortunately for drag racing, those events don't have the crowds or television that drag racing's "National" events offer.
Am I the only one that thinks that it is time for major league drag racing to come on into the twenty-first century? Bring the premier import car classes up to NHRA National events immediately. I don't mean for a couple of "exhibition" races; bring them in for ten or more and offer a world championship and a manufacturer's championship. Find a way to get these cars competitive in Super Gas and Super Street and bring them into the drag racing mainstream and main events.
And do away with the jingoistic rule that prohibits foreign and sports cars from competing in Stock, Super Stock, and Pro Stock. The rule is 50 years old and has long outlived its reason for being. U.S. workers in U.S. factories right here build Honda, Nissan, and other makes of cars that aren't allowed to compete in Pro Stock. Why not?
Find a way to allow the engines that these manufacturers make legal for competition. Want the factories involved? Give them a place to play. I'll bet Honda and the rest might become interested in Pro Stock.
One of the things we've learned the hard way here at DRO is that the average sports compact fan doesn't give a damn about "traditional" drag racing because they just can't relate to the cars or the stars of NHRA/IHRA drag racing. They aren't into muscle cars. However, these are the next generation of car buyers. Detroit and Tokyo know that and they are going to find a way to reach them. If they can't do it at NHRA or IHRA events, they'll do it somewhere else.
In order to compete with the rest of professional sports entertainment and attract the kind of consumers that sponsors want to reach, we'd better start putting cars in front of them they can relate to or our core audience is going to get grayer and grayer and smaller and smaller. Nitro racing is cool but it isn't everything.
To paraphrase a line from the movie "A Field of Dreams" -- Give them what they want and they will come. I think that applies to the fans and the factories that support big-time drag racing.
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