Departments - Missed Races

3/9/04

The Drag Racing World From My Point of View

"Boring - boring - boring ... Same old - same old - same old ..."

Well, I waited all winter, read every issue of National Dragster and was hoping for some great drag racing to come across my big old television screen. WRONG AGAIN!! I somehow forced myself to sit through all the Professional (?) coverage of the Winter Nationals and then again at the CSK Nationals from Phoenix. I guess I should have been at a bar and grill where it wouldn't have been so painfully obvious just how boring the coverage of these events is.

As you know I have been an avid fan of drag racing for over 35 years. I watch everything that comes on the TV about drag racing and I have never seen anything as sad as the last NHRA National Events. If you watched the coverage of the events you almost have to agree with me.

They start almost every event off with some sort of feature on the same Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro-Stock teams. Why not feature someone else, maybe a new team, a team that doesn't have a $5,000,000 budget and more crewmembers than most people have relatives? I sat there and wondered if the NHRA management has ever sat down and struggled to watch one of their events on TV. I hope not because if this is the best they can put together, it is time for a change at the top of the NHRA chain of command.

I would imagine that one of the goals of having an event on television is to increase fan base and to expose sponsor corporate logos and products to more people so the sponsor will continue to support the events and the racers. Finally, I would think the TV coverage is intended to offer race fans the experience of being at the event and get a "feel" for what is happening on the track as well as off the track at NHRA events. It is my opinion they couldn't have missed it any further at the two events I just watched.

I tried to keep track of how many times I actually watched two fuel cars make full power runs for the quarter mile. I lost track because about 80 percent of the runs were either both cars smoking the tires, one of them smoking the tires or one of the two best reasons for an incomplete run. According to the announcers: "They "dropped a cylinder" or they "pitched the blower belt" just before the end, that is why they ran a little "off the pace". It was the most unprofessional show by a group of "professionals" I have ever seen.

Then there is Pro-Stock. I have watched these cars since the very inception of the class and have loved them to death for the technology and detail it takes to run that fast with some real tough rules. I have decided this after watching the last two years ... change the rules! These cars are more boring to watch than watching paint dry or any bracket race I have ever attended or raced in. At least the Pro-Stocks make side by side runs, except Greg Anderson who runs about 60' ahead of the rest of the bracket cars, errrr, I mean Pro-Stockers. They all look the same, run the same, shift the same, they ARE THE SAME and this makes them incredibly boring to watch. I will give them credit for at least having some personality conflicts and accusations about cheating. At least they care enough to open up a little about their part of the sport. Now that some of the Pro-Stock racers are covering their entire pit area and their cars with tarps to keep "spies" from seeing their "secret parts," that should just about eliminate the rest of their fan base. Other than watching these guys thrash on the chassis, clutch and engine between rounds they don't offer much else that is exciting except for some great in-car camera angles.

I have to go back to the TV coverage. Why in the world don't they use some Sportsman racing to fill in between rounds of tire smoking fuel cars? A little tech insight on some of the Sportsman cars would interest more fans than watching Del Worsham walk around the pits with a baby stroller and Gary Scelzi interviewing him from inside an upside baby crib. If technical things aren't what a race fan wants, why do you think the American Choppers, Monster Garage and other hands-on mechanical shows are the fastest growing shows on cable TV today? Show us the Manufacturers Midway, teams swapping engines and converters in the Sportsman pits, we want to see something beside Dick LaHaie telling the same old stuff.

Come on NHRA, give the race fans what they want. If you can't give them side by side Nitro action because of the junk track prep or rules that have gotten so out of control the power cannot be controlled on a regular basis, then at least fill the void with some interesting tech features. Show us just how tricked-out those Featherlite transporters are; go into the sportsman pits and show the TV audience that there actually are other racers there. Show the final rounds of the Sportsman classes, the uniqueness of Comp Eliminator cars and some heads-up wheel-standing Super Stock action. And one last thing I have to mention --- why didn't you do a feature on or at the very least show Ashley Force making a pass in her A/Fuel dragster? Yeah, yeah, I know you have Sportsman coverage. Not that Alcohol dragster and Funny Car are Sportsman by any means! How small is the audience that watches those shows? Teeny-tiny-itty-bitty is my guess.

I am sure I am not the only one who is tired of seeing the same interviews with the same old 65-year-old crew chiefs that really say nothing technical. Why not show the viewers the clutch system that is so crucial in making the cars get down the track? Show an inside view of the cars (under the sponsor's decal laden aluminum body). And the last thing I can't get over, get someone else to help Mike Dunn announce ... maybe someone who has actually raced a drag car would help.

I know I am supposed to be the bracket-racing editor but this is a subject I just could not ignore anymore. I hope they do something to at least make their TV coverage interesting. If not, forget it, as I cannot believe anyone who tuned in for that two hours of torture will be eager to watch the GatorNationals in a couple of weeks. It is just about as exciting to watch the results show up on Summit's Drag Race Central ... and that is a sad situation.

Hoping for more. (Yes, I'll probably tune in to see for myself. Too cold up here to race yet.)

nicholson@dragracingonline.com

P.S. NHRA, please quit turning down the sound when the Fuel cars run, OK!