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Yes, it IS a popularity contest
1/9/06
 ast
year I talked with and read of the many fans wringing their
hands, worried about how we can all make drag racing more
popular. Now in the modern era of drag racing some look to
leadership of the sanctioning bodies to get it right this
year while others look to the local level for our weekly dragstrip
show to provide special shows to keep all us interested.
Well here’s a shocker for some of you, drag racing
isn’t ever going to be mainstream popular and isn’t
one big happy family of fans and competitors all fighting
for a common goal. On the local level there is not much interest
in the big shows for the local track champions who prefer
being a big fish in his or her local pond.
Drag racing will certainly keep moving along no matter how
much some voices demand more, more, and more! But don’t
expect your local newspaper to all of a sudden jump up with
overnight box scores, qualifying ladders and in-depth coverage
of the weekend’s event, it just isn’t that important
in the big sports picture. We have what seems to be an easy
sport to understand so why doesn’t the media have that
same passion, why can’t they get how important drag
racing is? It’s damn tough for drag racing to gain media
legitimacy when our hero national champions fail to reach
a million dollar payout for winning the top championship as
other secondary motorsports like Champ Car and IRL already
pay.
The latté drinking outsider, who cares nothing of
the passion we all possess, will never be interested in drag
racing, but might very well take the family to a NASCAR event
at California Speedway where his kids will recognize the cars,
the stars, the shirts, the brands and be caught up in the
show a show that can be understood and completed in 4 or 5
hours. While I railed in 2005 at the idea of California Dragway
closing to make way for a gift shop and museum where the burnout
box sat, as a motorsports fan I completely understood why
the plans would sacrifice a mere operating dragstrip for increased
NASCAR fan exposure. Thankfully drag fans spoke up enough
for track management to hear the importance of a dragstrip
and will move it to an alternate site on the huge Fontana
facility early this year.
Do any of us fans really want NHRA to ever become as big
as NASCAR? God I hope not. I like the way drag racing is fragmented
with special venues for so many competitive classes. Diversity
is what makes drag racing strong. The same muscle car fan
that’ll build a car for NMCA or PSCA is not likely to
be interested in the NHRA big show and vice versa. A Goodguys
nostalgia competitor may have a passing interest in the NHRA
big show, but probably doesn’t follow the nitro pro’s
as much as he or she used to do. On the other hand does an
NHRA nitro pro follow what goes on at a Goodguys event? Handfuls
do, but the word I’ve heard used by a few professional
team owners and racers is “hobby racing.”
Now don’t get me wrong, as a fan and marketing expert,
I hope every competitive team has sponsorship dripping off
of their racecar, but truthfully that’s not very realistic.
The sales pitch it takes for the part of the market drag racing
garners is so very small in the eyes of Madison Avenue advertisers.
I spoke with an Account Executive at the ad agency of a national
auto parts chain last year. They were not happy with the way
their client’s Return on Investment was working in NASCAR
since the “Do-It-Yourselfer” has apparently left
NASCAR being replaced by the latté drinkers. Latté
drinkers don’t go to the local auto parts store to buy
an alternator or water pump; they’ll take the family
Toyota to the local dealership for service, indirectly buying
Toyota parts.
When I explained to the Account Executive that the “Do-It-Yourselfer”
was very much a part of today’s drag racing fan and
sportsman competitor on all levels he was not really aware
of drag racing as a viable advertising medium. Ultimately
the advertiser reduced their dollar participation in NASCAR
but the same Exec said that after queries of most of their
distributors, they were a lot more interested in a hospitality
tent at a Nextel Cup event than the accessibility of the POWERade
pits. They chose to stay with NASCAR.
One thing is for sure, there are some changes coming. This
year I think we’ll see a few of the traditional newsstand
car magazine titles you’ve known for years in the hot
rodding and drag racing word either fold or be sold off as
the readership erosion of print magazines continues. Look
at how you’ve traditionally received your information;
TV, radio, newspapers, weekly and monthly magazines. But now
the Internet brings you email with your friends, you can download
specialty I-pod shows, streaming video media on drag racing,
fan chat rooms and of course DRO. Across the board, traditional,
mainstream advertisers are now fragmenting their ad budgets,
not necessarily adding new dollars, but dropping some of the
traditional delivery systems such as newsstand magazines,
newspapers and curtailing television commercial productions.
Today where we demand split-second, in-depth info, data,
stats, photos, x-rays, reports and interaction on an unprecedented
level, take a look around you. Drag racing is not the most
important thing in the wide world of sports. But it can be
a significant player if those in charge park their egos, take
off the rose-colored lenses and realize that if drag racing
is going to compete with the rest of motorsports, they'd better
spend more money selling our sport to the general public and
less adding luxury seating for venues that sell all the tickets
now. 
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