The Million Dollar Dilemma 6/24/05
I personally think that after the way NHRA's Board of Directors have been voting themselves pay raises and bonuses regularly that the pay raise for the racers is way past due. That aside, the NHRA and Tom Compton are to be praised for finally coming through with the long-promised pay raise even though they only delivered after the Professional Racers Organization threatened some kind of job action if it didn't happen -- but that's a story for another day. The subject for today is: Which racers are likely to benefit from the purse increase and how will it be split up among the racers? I personally have no idea how the NHRA intends to disburse the funds or if the PRO will have (or has had) a say in how the money is spread around, but based upon past history it is reasonable to assume that most of the money will go to the racers who make it to the final rounds. And there, my friends and fellow racers, is the million dollar dilemma. If you look at the records you would probably find that 99 percent of the time the cars and drivers that make it to the final rounds are those with the most money and sponsors. The teams backed by oil companies, Detroit auto manufacturers, breweries, auto parts chain stores, tool companies, and mail order companies usually end up in the final round. The truth is that those teams, even though they deserve it, are the ones that need a pay raise the least. If you do the math and divide a million dollars between three or four professional classes each with 16 qualifiers and then divide it again by the 23 or fewer if you use the races with PSB races on the NHRA POWERade tour, the pay increase per racer per class per event isn't going to be all that much. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to imply that the money is insignificant, because it isn't. I am saying that for those teams that are generally not going to go past the first round on race day, the purse increase -- if weighted towards the final rounds -- will do very little to help the budget teams' efforts or bottom lines and won't help the well funded teams. Besides, wasn't it Kenny Bernstein who once told a group of journalists something like, If you are depending on the purse money in drag racing to keep your operation going you are in the wrong business? That probably isn't the exact quote but it accurately reflects what Bernstein meant: that for him the prize money was a bonus but not a necessity. I'm inclined to believe that philosophy applies to most of the premier NHRA teams today. They need funding increases in the six-figure range, not a couple thousand per event. So, here's my point and a suggestion. If the NHRA and the PRO organization are really interested in helping those professional teams that are struggling to get from race to race, struggling just to qualify, struggling to pay their bills and generally are on the trailer by the first or second round, maybe they ought to do something totally different when they make up their professional purse structure for 2006. What they ought to do for the low budget racers is to put a majority of the $1,000,000 that will be added to the purses next year into the payout for those teams that are generally first or second round runners-up teams. NHRA could do themselves and the sport of drag racing a lot more good by increasing qualifying money instead of the winner's share. The million buck increase is only for the racers, it isn't going to increase attendance or television ratings. Never once in my career as a racer or journalist have I seen a fan that actually bought a ticket or attended an NHRA race based on how much money his favorite racers might win. I've never even seen fans hang around at ANY race just to witness a racer getting some humongous check. Have you ever heard a fan say something like, "Man, I just saw John Force go 4.59 but what I really came to see is him getting that giant check for $200,000 for winning the U.S. Nationals"? Most of the successful teams, crew chiefs and team owners don't care about anything other than winning those valuable NHRA Championship points. I have been helping George Howard put together his July 1-3 Rocket City Nationals race at Huntsville (AL) Dragway. When I approached some of the bigger Top Fuel teams such as the Kalitta, Amato, Prudhomme, Schumacher, Doug Herbert, and others, they had absolutely no interest in an eighth-mile race that paid $101,000 to win and pays back as well as any NHRA national event. But many of the teams on a budget were very interested and are coming to the race. Evidently, a few thousand additional dollars for the winner or runner-up in a pro class -- or even an additional $101,000 -- doesn't mean all that much to NHRA's premier teams. So, I'm suggesting that for the first time in a long time the suits
at NHRA and the highly-financed members of PRO really do something
that will help their less fortunate brethren and put a majority
of the new money coming in 2006 into the pockets of the teams that
really need it. It's the kind of thing drag racers like Connie Kalitta
and a few others already are famous for doing. |
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NHRA's worst kept secret (and God only knows why they would want
to keep good news like this a secret) these days is the fact that
they're going to add a cool one million bucks to their professional
class payouts for the 2006 season and that they will be making a
big deal announcement about the purse increase at this year's U.S.
Nationals.
