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It is the Christmas holiday
weekend, the family is sitting around the living room
discussing how much of a very fine meal we've eaten,
when the conversation shifts: "You on for the drag
races this summer?" I asked my brother. "Oh
yeah," he answers back. As we reminisce about the
past years NHRA Nationals and discuss plans and dates
for this years race, we wonder why the NHRA does not
have a bigger following. If you like fast cars, and you
have not been to a NHRA Nationals event, you have no
idea what your missing. That, we decided, is exactly the
problem. You have got to see it live to understand why
it has the following it does. Television is at fault,
after-all this sport has many times the horsepower of
NASCAR, the pits are open to anyone with a ticket, and
the drivers come out of the haulers just to sign
autographs on a regular basis. They even give you a
free, glossy team photo to get the autograph signed on.
The problem is none of that comes across on TV. When you
watch NASCAR they televise the pre-race activities, the
on-track activities, and the post-race activities. They
even have a segment called CRANK IT UP, in which the announcers
don't say a word for a few laps so you can literally
blow your speakers apart with your surround sound. This helps give you the feeling you are at the track. You
could be watching your first NASCAR event and by the end
of the race come away with the feeling you understand
it, and more importantly you will feel like you know the
drivers. I don't want to take anything away from NASCAR;
it is a great motor sport and they have done a fine job
of marketing to get to this point. But (and it is a big
but) there is no feeling in the world like two top fuel
dragsters coming off the line simultaneously; it will
shake your soul. Trying to explain this feeling to
someone who has never experienced it is futile. Nor can you explain the smells of the track, the
smoking tires, the rubber dust in the air, or the way
your eyes burn from the half-burnt alcohol sprayed from
the fiery pipes. The sound...absolutely deafening.
If we could somehow get these sights and sounds through
our TV's, the NHRA would explode with popularity.
"Maybe they should send out bag of rubber dust and
a candle that smells like burnt rubber before each
broadcast," we quipped.
In reality, the biggest thing I see that can be done is
for television to help us get to know the drivers and their crews. Even the
World Poker Tour understands they can't just show you
people playing cards. We have to feel as if these
drivers are our friends. Introduce us to their world! We
must be able to connect with them on a personal level.
Show us what it takes to go 300mph in less than five
seconds! The crews can tear down an engine and put it
back together in less than an hour. Show us that! Don't
talk while the rockets thunder down the track. Let us
blow our speakers! It will never take the place of being
at the track, but it would go a long way in bringing the
NHRA back to the fore-front of the racing world.
Do yourself a favor, the next time the NHRA is in your
neighborhood, GO. Take your kids, call some friends, or
go by yourself; just go. There is no experience like it
in the world, at least not yet. Maybe someday soon, when
we can board a rocket bound for the moon, the NHRA might
have competition. Until that day comes you owe it to
yourself to take in an event.
Richard A. Brink
AftermarketGoodies.com
About the Author
Richard A. Brink is CEO of
Internet Busines Realities. Richard writes articles for
several sites in the IBR network including, http://AftermarketGoodies.com
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