HORSEPOWER JACKPOT
8/8/06
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t's been an interesting summer in Lenny Land, as I travel around and experience some good old Americana. You know, the stuff and nonsense that gives us all a reason to keep getting out of bed -- and I'm not talking about The Job, or whatever you call what you do to pay the bills. No, I'm talking about all those events and activities that take place from coast-to-coast, the participation in which gives real life to that well-known phrase in the Bill Of Rights,"...the pursuit of happiness." You know, the fun stuff!
The last full weekend in July, I accompanied the Woman of the House westward to Cheyenne, Wyoming. The object of the trip was twofold: a visit with her parents (my in-laws) and a visit to the 110th edition of the Cheyenne Frontier Days. Cheyenne Frontier Days calls itself "The Daddy of 'em All," and as rodeos go, it lives up to the title. Much as a win at the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis Raceway Park (oops. . .O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis) tends to be a drag racer's career highlight, a cowboy's win at the Laramie County Fairgrounds becomes the stuff of legend and statuary. And considering its 110-year run, it has become the sort of event that ropes up the entire community and takes it on a week-long ride.
I went on a Monday, and as I sat in my fourth row seat at arena level (acquired for the princely sum of fifteen dollars), I did what all newcomers to a given sport do: I read my program. Lots of event sponsors, news about the events to come, and towards the back, several pages of cowboy's names and the events they had entered. Since it was the Daddy of 'em All, every event had scads of entries, some as many as one hundred. As I read the section, I noticed some numbers below each event's heading. It was the entry fee all contestants had to pay to compete. Kinda like bracket racing -- no, exactly like bracket racing. I never got around to counting the total number of entrants (too boring, and besides I was busy watching the riding performances of the Cheyenne Frontier Days Dandies). The Dandies are a group of area girls who ride horses, carry aloft the banners of CFD sponsors, and generally do whatever they can to promote and support the rodeo. Now there's a concept that could work with any kind of horsepower! But I digress.
Getting back to the entry fee thing, it occurred to me it was something that drag racing, at the professional level at least, might need to take a look at. Yeah, I know, how dare I suggest The Pros pay for the right to race at national events, haven't they done enough by buying and blowing up millions of dollars worth of parts? Isn't life hard enough without paying to get in the gate? Entry fee and abomination, thy name is the same! Grip the table edge in front of you and let me explain my thinking.
Before I go any further, let me say this. The day of the Little Guy in pro nitro racing is dead. Wish it weren't so, but it is. And since it is, why not soak the rich for some more money. But include this caveat (and carve it in stone): At least 80% of professional entry fee monies go right back into the prize money for Top Fuel and Nitro Funny Car. It should be 100%, but that ain't gonna happen. Looking at who runs the town in these two eliminators, I don't see anything wrong in requiring a substantial entry fee for each car entered. For them, it will be just another line in the budget,and they will adjust things accordingly. Maybe, if these multi-car teams had to pony up say, five grand per event, you might not see so many multi-car teams. That may be a bit of wishful thinking on my part, maybe not.
At any rate, it's time to do the math. Let's take a look at this year's Phoenix stop on the NHRA tour. Examining the entry list in Top Fuel, we see a total of twenty entries. At five grand per car, that comes out to a cool hundred thousand dollar spike in the bottom line for the Top Fuel field. Distribute it any way you like, I don't have a dog in that fight so I don't care.
All kidding aside, if the pros want a pay raise, maybe they need to look at each other. The sportsman racers pay, so why not the pros? And as long as the money, or most of it anyway, goes into the purse structure, what's the harm. Please don't trot out the cost of doing business defense. I've seen too many half-a-million tow rigs, computer banks of run data, and personal chefs in catering tents to muster up much sympathy for those who might be affected. And besides, if paying to compete is good enough for America's bull riders and sportsman drag racers, it ought to be good enough professional drag racers -- and you can throw the Pro Stock guys into the jackpot while you are at it! There, that ought to make everybody happy!
Now that I'm done with that rant, let me impart some other insights gleaned from my brush with Cheyenne Frontier Days. Granted, as of 2006, there have been 110 year's worth of rodeoing in Cheyenne, so it shouldn't be too much of a surprise that it pretty much consumes the entire town for over a week. Lots of economic benefits for lots of people -- plenty of free stuff too. And civic involvement, the likes of which cannot even be bought!
Looking at the NHRA schedule, you see a number of venues that have been there since drag racing went legit. Several more have been there for over twenty years. I will be the first to admit I haven't been to many of these cities while an NHRA national event has been in session, but I would bet a short stack of chuck wagon pancakes that most people in these towns don't know where the track is or that there is a race being held. And I'll bet you the whole chuck wagon they don't have a role or a stake of any kind in the enterprise. Seems to me, NHRA could do themselves a big favor by doing whatever they can to get communities they race in more involved. Aside from Indy, no event in drag racing could realistically call itself, "The Daddy of 'em All," but they could at least start heading in that direction. Later! 
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