(By Bret Kepner) – I seldom make my opinions public but, as the 2018 NHRA Drag Racing Season begins, I’m prepared to make an exception. In the interest of retaining the true spirit of the sport, I offer the following perspective.
Many of you are aware that, starting at the NHRA Winternationals tomorrow in Pomona, CA, NHRA qualifying days will feature no “win lights” on the scoreboards. Originally, the plan was to post win lights on the cars which improved position on qualifying runs. However, the idea was deemed confusing and was dropped. In fact, the win lights were dropped in total until eliminations.
I spend a lot of time in the grandstands listening in on the conversations of fans to better understand their feelings about the sport and, in turn, to better do my job. Many of us are so deep into the sport that, in fact, we often lose our perspective of the very basics of what the sport is supposed to be and, in fact, why people pay good money to watch.
The largest percentage of drag racing fans don’t care about reaction times, cubic inches, track length or the sport’s history. They pay to see “drag racing” which, by its very definition, is the spectacle of two vehicles racing over a straight course to determine a winner. Period.
It may come as a surprise that the many “peripheral spectators”, (those who come for the pageantry of the event with little to no knowledge of the straight-line sport), attend qualifying days without understanding they are, indeed, only going to be watching qualifying for the “big show” on Sunday. They simply know they’re “going to the drag races” and they will be watching professional drag racers drag racing at a drag strip.
Anybody who has watched with them knows they treat a win in qualifying with the same boisterous enthusiasm as a final-round victory on Sunday. Anybody who has watched John Force score a win light on Friday or Saturday during qualifying against any other opponent has also watched the fans jump to their feet and scream like lottery winners when they see that “win light” illuminate on the scoreboards.
Exactly what will those fans do at Pomona this weekend when no win light illuminates in Force’s lane after they just watched their hero put a train-length on the car in the other lane? Worse yet, imagine the stupefied looks which will come from those fans when they watch a Top Fuel qualifying pairing too close to visually make a win-or-lose “call”.
Now imagine an entire day of “no winners”. Without win lights, what does drag racing actually prove? Is it still “drag racing” or is the racing which the fans originally perceived now to be coveted by only Sunday spectators? What exactly are we trying to FIX here?
Drag racing, for all its complexity, politics and expense, is generally perceived by casual fans to be loud, fast and, most importantly, a CONTEST between two individuals. Spectators expect to see that contest no matter which day they choose to attend. Without it, it’s simply a parade of vehicles under virtually no context unless they can hear…and understand…the announcer. Unfortunately, that’s never a guarantee.
A loud and fast contest is all the fans ask. It’s all they want. It’s easy to give them what they want. I’m in my forty-ninth year of attending drag races and my forty-third year of announcing them. I have always strived to present the spectacle in a way which fits the perspective of the paying customer. It has always worked. The sport has always consisted, in its most pure form, of two cars, a starting system and method of clearly and concisely declaring a WINNER.
The NHRA is the standard of drag racing on the planet. The NHRA is coming off a year of unprecedented sellouts with a solid product. The NHRA has never overestimated its basic customer. Why would the NHRA ask so much of its fan base NOW?
Why would we EVER make a paying customer get up from the seats and walk into the Peak Antifreeze pits to stand in line in order to ask John Force if he won his last match? Why would we EVER cheat a paying customer out of cheering for his hero if that hero WON?
The NHRA are primarily selling an entertainment product. How does this decision make the product more entertaining to the consumer?
Who is running the show there?
A bunch political incorrect clowns
I agree 100% with Bret and have nothing to add!
Absolutely true, I take my son to see people compete. To see racers work their cars to the best run they can get on the track. To beat the other guy! Losing the lights…. you might as well just post the top 16 on a Jumbotron at the start line. No reason to follow the cars down the track. Better yet, watch the evening news for results
Way to go NHRA
Political correctness has come to the drags – You get a participation trophy!
How utterly stoopid and pathetic. NHRA is killing itself.
Look corporate sponsorship is totally destroying NHRA. Years ago they no longer did a ” pick from the hat” to set up the ladder for eliminations .Now the #1 qualifier races the # 16 qualifier . There is no other reason for that .Except the sponsors are yelling we don’t want a no body winning,because they pay out big bucks. So they want the lesser teams that qualify lower eliminated early on. Now they don’t want any racing in qualifying .They again don’t want a nobody racer to beat their sponsored team,even in qualifying .No win light no race !!!.I myself always went on qualifying days.You see more races and more cars ,all those that do not qualify. NRHA has totally forgotten that asses in the seats make them money . Look at some of the races from last year on youtube .Some have about half filled stands. I haven’t seen any filled stands in the last few years. I went to Indy last year on Saturday.It was always a full grand stands.When we were there maybe 60 to 70 percent. Nascar is having the same issues. When the promoters only listen to the corporate sponsors for making rules . The race fan will leave ,and its happening . NO WIN LIGHT NO RACE .I and all others go to a drag strip to see a race .
I\’ve been going to the drags as long as Kepler. I\’ve seen a lot of bad decisions made by the nhra. One of the worst was when ,due to pressure from the PRO membership organization headed by Kenny Bernstein,top fuel,funny car and pro stock eliminations went from the number one qualifier racing the number nine qualifier to what it currently is today; number one meets number sixteen,two races fifteen,three matches up with fourteen,etc. That really screwed the lesser funded,independent teams,but,then as now,money talks. That decision,as well as dropping the modified production eliminator ,the pro stock truck fiasco,and forcing the .90 classes ,which are nothing more than expensive bracket racers,on the paying casual fan show an ineptitude that is only rivaled by the ass clowns currently in residence in our nation\’s capitol.
I agree. I have a lot of respect for John Force and family, along with other top teams. Frankly, though, my favorite times at the track these days are Friday night test & tune/grudge night. I like watching \”mere mortals\” run hot rods.
Excellent read there Bret. Couldn’t agree more. What were they trying to ‘fix’…? In today’s society can winners no longer be tolerated…? Continued watering down of the sport. I do not know what the decision makers are thinking…..or perhaps they aren’t thinking. So dumb.
So much great drag racing outside of NHRA makes it easy to not care what they do
somewhere in the recent past, a high end corporate sponsor got butt hurt when they overheard a snarky commit during qualifying. NHRA better take a stand, empty stands, empty pits coming soon otherwise..
And the NHRA wonders why people are not going to races any more. quit messing with it you should have left prostock truck in left prostock car look like a showroom car and should keep corporate America out of it the glory days of match racing funny car teams is gone because corporate America was allowed to polute the sport.
They are slowly killing the sport we love with their bad decisions
Spot on observation! I attend a number of events each year as a spectator and I too have noticed a majority of the paying folks around me have no clue about anything other than who got there first! That is why so many people abandon the stands when the sportsman classes come up. Who can easily explain throttle stops, delay boxes, and hitting the brakes at the finish line to slow a car down? (but not too much) I can see no reason not to have a win light. The NHRA brass need to hunker down in the general admission seats and just listen to what the fan base has to say and better yet, learn what the fan base actually knows..
Another piss-ignorant move by the “Gods in Glendora”…. Absolutely no benefit to the sport, but a new way to alienate the spectator…..
Qualifying runs are not races for a \”winner\”. I get frustrated when in the stands on qualifying days hearing fans getting excited about a driver \”winning\” a race.
Qualifications are heads up races! You’re racing for your seeding in the Sunday tournament as it were. It’s your whole basketball season every weekend before March madness! It absolutely matters and you and your family/friends should be cheering! Do you realize what it actually costs to make a single pass in top fuel? You bet your asterisk it matters!
People have favorites .Weather its the race or the qualifying. They want their driver to win,And they cheer the win light.
Great article! No win lights would be a big mistake! With the super tight racing in today\’s NHRA and all other drag races, you need those lights, even if you are sitting right at the line it\’s often too close to call with the naked eye. If your feelings get hurt by not getting the light, try harder, focus your disappointment into performing your job better like the rest of us adults! Thank-you, RAH
After what they did to the California Hot Rod Reunion is any of this a surprise?
Time to get back to grass roots racing because if the NHRA is involved they WILL slowly tear it apart. Also if it matters reaction times…ET….and yes win lights DO matter to us. We are interested in horsepower, cubic inches and any other info we can glam onto. Do they think Drag Racing is any different than say footbal or basketball (which I don\’t follow ) the stats are important. NHRA just stop and listen sometime to your average coworkers go on and on about how much playing time some player had or why they shouldn\’t have traded that player…..information matters, not all of us are talented enough to compete at the level we love but we have no problem trying to figure out the info for the why someone won or lost.
Signed: Sick of the NHRA
I am not a big fan, or any kind of drag racing expert. This decision makes no sense to me at all. OK, they are not racing for eliminations. Big deal. But, they are racing for seeding for eliminations. They may be racing the clock more than the guy in the next lane. But, this is fixing something that isn’t broken.
Are drivers, teams, or sponsors complaining they didn’t really lose during eliminations, and that little light is hurting their feelings? If so, they should shown the exit gate. Let a real competitor take their place.
So far, every comment posted here has said the same thing. And I have to believe that it is the hardcore race fans that care enough about the sport, that they will take 5 minutes
of their time to leave their opinion here.
I couldn\’t agree more with what everyone has said! Such a simple concept, 2 competitors with similar engine set-ups, smash their pedals on green, first one to the finish line wins. Imagine that!
I too, am one of those spectators who goes to the national events on Saturdays, simply because I get to see ALL the racers compete. And YES, I know that a win light on a qualifying run doesn\’t necessarily mean that that team is going to eliminations. But just maybe for the pure spirit of the sport, And for the fact that some of the first time attendees who don\’t really fully understand the whole concept of qualifying, and eliminations, that they can say, \”Yeah, I saw Brittany Force race Doug Kalitta, and she beat him!\” Or whatever.
I know that win light doesn\’t mean anything,
but to the gods of NHRA, could ya please just LEAVE IT ALONE ! ! !
Alot of those new fans are there because a friend might have told them about the sheer \”SENSORY OVERLOAD\” of standing in the pits and watching a driver climb into one of them F*#!\’?G MONSTERS, and lighting it
up! (My eyes are watering just thinking about it !) OR maybe they had to see for themselves, a hand-built, custom nitro-bomb on wheels, that can blaze the strip in alittle over three and a half seconds, at 338 mph.
That win light should be a part of all that excitement !
NHRA, don\’t let big corporate sponsorship lead you around by your nose !
When 2 cars race down a track, there should be a winner ! Show us who won ! ! !
Agree %100!!
sounds like NHRA is getting input from NASCAR . Lord knows you want to listen to them with their success rate lately . Show the win lights in the top categorys . Ar least when a guy loses with a quicker time you know the other guy is on his game driving !!!
Who the hell watches the pros anymore? I would rather watch, the fastest street car shootout, the zip-tie drags, x275, no-prep, or street outlaws events. That is the future of the sport. Not this big commercial BS fantasy world they live in.
During qualifying there are no winners, no losers! They are only qualifying for a spot in the actual race, (eliminations), on Sunday. That being said the reader board can still display the elapsed time & speed, as well as the qualifying position, labeled as such. No win light during qualifying.
That\’s what Friday and Saturday are for; qualifying position.
Of course it is still drag racing; qualifying on Fri. and Sat., racing on Sun. Take your pick. Do you want to see more cars, for less $ on Fri. and Sat., or eliminations, less cars, more $ on Sun?
No these brainiacs are getting their input from an even more screwed up outfit than Nascar, the NFL or “How to destroy your biz model in 3 easy steps and all at WARP Speed” Dummer than dirt idea! Agree w/ author entirely. For years we made 2 or 3 Nascar and NHRA events per year, and now that we can afford 10 ea, we go to NONE due to their adoption of political correcetness and BS like this. They will both be gone in 10 years and we will be back to racing on county back roads and abandoned industrial sites.
My only question is : what is NHRA trying to accomplish here ?
They are wanting to save money to the crooks in the glass tower can have more of the pie.
Bret contact me,Rover Ralph!..Good to see you writing bro,,Have info on the Raped Salt!…Stay in touch and yes Win light is Basic decency!
I still say it has to be coming from the corporate sponsors .They don’t want there car looking like a looser even in qualification ,when it really don’t mean anything. Just some A- hole in a New York or LA office building with a huge ego about his widget he sells ,and it being on a loosing car . The egos of this country are really messing things up ,everywhere .
Looking at this from a totally different angle. If I don’t know who is winning in qualifying, what do I base my betting decisions on come race day? My fantasy drag racing pool will suffer severely.
Could not agree more with Brett. I mean whats next getting rid of the Christmas Tree and doing a arm drop to start a race
Heck no, use a flashlight, just like Street Outlaws do
turn off the lights the partys over
50 year fan. My kids and now my grandkids picked their favorite car by color.\” I like the red one, I like the blue one.\” Now how are they going to know if\” their \” car won or not? Does the NHRA management know anything about their fanbase? Its their paycheck that dies with the sport.
NHRA, NO HOT RODS ALLOWED.
100% agree with you Bret.
It is sad to see how much NHRA has changed since we lost Wally. I can only imagine how many times he has rolled over in his grave.
Agreed Gary. I like the new acronym \”No Hot Rods Allowed\”!! That is so true, and sad. NHRA was started to get guys racing on the track not the street. The nitro classes were mostly exhibition. Now they pushed all the hot rod guys out for the .90 \”super\” classes which suck a** to watch!! Let\’s watch a 6 second car run 9.90 seconds. We don\’t go to see cars doing 45 mph for the first half of the track!!! I feel bad for Wally Parks memory.
I agree with Brett. Although it really has no bearing on my friday @ Gainesville, I know it does to my uninformed friends that tag along every year. They watch that light and could care less if it is qualifying or not.
Different but the same, I will NEVER go to a race that has the timers turned off. Drag racing is time/speed and a winner between two cars. I laugh when I hear the Sesame Seed Outlaws say ” that was a fast pass ” ANY Pass in the dark on a narrow road with a fast car by itself feels fast. Timers prove it was fast. IMHO no time kills the excitment. Duck uses times and I now think it is the BEST drag race of the year. Rambling, I will quit.
I agree too,
I was sitting behind a group of guys who were betting on the “races” during qualifying at Seattle. I could have made a bunch of money off their lack of knowledge but might have ended up dead for “insider trading” for having a pretty good idea of which cars are faster.
I bet you Wally is rolling in his grave seeing what these idiots are doing to his NHRA I grew up in the sport I\’ve watched it all in Southern California watched it go from a backyard sport to what it is today and it just sickens me
Put the damn win light up there. We all understand that they do not mean anything for the real race on Sunday. But we desperately need the casual fan to have something to cheer for on those extra days – a reason to drop a bunch of money for a ticket and t shirt. Hell – if they had any sense at all they would make Friday qualifying into a little race of its own, with some kind of benefit for making the best overall bunch of passes – maybe the \”winner\” gets a preferred qualifying time on Saturday or something.
thank you Brett, keep the lights on and visit http://www.fantasydragracingleague.com
lets see where to start. 1000ft top fuel and funny car, lost all interest in this part of the show.. always was a pro stock kind of guy. lost all interest with the less than pro show and the advent of sort of funny car bodies, not to stock looking. makes for a real boring gasoline funny car program, quite the snooze fest. are pro cars mandated to leave side by side during qualifications? seems they did not have to in the past. lets you not be wrecked by the number 24 qualifier. so the win light did not matter then just like now. grew up in pomona in the late 50s and 60s. Actuallly rode the old bike to the track to watch the sunday show..so i have been around and was always a die hard drag racer. it is to late to save the nhra show. as for bret your ok just not so much, kind of like the idiot stout on mav tv something else i would never ever watch.
I agree Mike, Stopped going to races after 1000ft was instituted. I too was a Pro Stock fan though until I really started digging into how the rules would change as soon someone would dominate. Won\’t go into manufacturers here but everyone knows drag racing or stock care racing are geared toward one make.
I\’m 62 been drag racing back in my teens – 30\’s. Very sad how the sport has changed and not for the better. Done with my two cents.
I\’ve been attending NHRA Drag Races since 1968 and i don\’t understand this new generation of decision makers. There important because of a degree they optained in school and no knowledge of the sport. It was racers for racers now its i went to school with that person so lets bring them aboard to help run tbis show. Failure is the future.
Anyone who has ever drag raced is there to do one thing. Beat the guy in the other lane. I don’t care if it’s test and tune, bracket time-shots, qualifying, or eliminations. I’m gunning for the other guy and at the same time trying to make my car go faster. For the folks in the bleachers it’s the same. “Who won?” Why should anyone have to ask that at a drag race?
It’s a fundamental of drag racing.
NHRA stands for “Not Helping Racers Anymore”!
Keeping digging that hole deeper so you can bury yourself.
One of the best parts of going to an event was while they were warming up the cars, they would WOP the throttle before shutting off. Now other than maybe Scott Palmer, they don\’t do that anymore. I used to love taking somebody that has never been before and not saying anything, just turn around and watch the expression on their face and when they hit the throttle. It was priceless. Now I don\’t even go in the pits anymore. Dry hops are gone. Now your shutting off the win lights in qualifying, makes no sense.We are losing most of the experience that kept us there in the first place.
I agree with Bret. But if I were king look out!
Qualifying, for the spectators and any true racer, they are racing to win Q1 or E4, so there should be a winner declared. Also if he red lights in qualifying the run is not counted
.
Qualifying order would be 1 vs. 9 and 8 vs.16 giving the lesser dollared teams a shot at the gold
.
As king I would pardon Larry Dixon.
I couldn’t care less about whether or not the win lights come on during qualifying. If I’m there on a day other than Sunday, I understand that they’re qualifying and that nobody’s actually going to win anything that day. What’s the big deal? I’m just there on those days to watch the cars make passes. In fact, I’m there on Sunday primarily to watch the cars make passes. I know all the drivers, but for me, the cars are the stars. Go ahead and strap a monkey in there–it’ll look exactly the same when the car’s going by at 300 mph…
I would hope that the IHRA would be taking notice of the general disdain of NHRA and be making some plans.
Wow. We will probably have to subscribe to to radio frequency to here the winners. If the lights are to expensive then maybe we can just have a checker flag pop up.
Bret,
Well said, I can see by the number of replies you have struck a cord with people who loves the sport. Since that is the case I will submit to you some ideas I had several years ago and sent to NHRA. I was not surprised when I received the usual canned response.
Here are my thoughts since you provided a platform:
Reaction Time Display: There should be a display of reaction times for each lane on the E/T scoreboard at every track, so fans would know instantly who is on a possible “holeshot win”. This would be a big hit with the fans!
Pits: Over the past 10 years I’ve noticed the pit area access to watching the teams is becoming more and more limited, the teams are surrounding the work areas with more haulers and tents with very little viewing area for the fans to watch or they are watching from a much greater distance, for example most of the Top Fuel teams are now backing the cars into the pit area so fans trying to watch engine tear downs have a much more limited view than if the rear of the car was closer to the fan area, also by doing this I think the fans are at a much greater risk if a car stand was to fail during a warm up it would launch into a very crowded area. I always have my kids and myself either stand way to the side or only view pit areas where the cars are facing in for this reason.
Fuel car warm ups: I know this is each teams call but in recent years none of the Fuel cars burp the throttle during the warm ups anymore, I know there are various schools of thought, such as not putting more heat in the clutches than necessary, but I have to say the lure of that sound and feel would hook most people for life. The teams have to realize that this is as much a part of the show as the racing itself and the fans are ultimately the ones who sign their paychecks.
Im an avid car person for my whole life ( thanks dukes of hazzard) as we are all here. Ive been to a few big races and raced in a lot of small street car stuff at the track before it was called small tire racing and they raced the track backwards??? And same as now back then especially at the big races most people came to see two cars race with a (in their minds) a final descion. Its funny to hear them say oh hey theres that vega again hes back not realizing hes quailfiying. All these people buy the sponsored drink or a beer a NHRA hat or t shirt and keep our sport running they need to be entertainted to keep them coming back so we (the fans) can have our sport keep going. Keep the win light man. Theres no ties in drag racing.
Thanks Bret . You got it right . I will never go to a national NHRA or Nascar event again . My events will be : NMCA , PDRA , ECPCA , Stock/Super Stock and nostalgia events . Three years ago I attended “Lights Out 7 @ SGMP. Four hundred and ninety six race cars seeking $40,000 in prize money . On Saturday night the parking lot was so full the overflow was parked in a cotton field across the street . $10 admission , too . Best drag racing on the planet . Best fans on the planet . Best track on the planet .
Funny I never even noticed that there are win lights in qualifying runs. Just like I learned that red lighting in qualifying does not count either. I watch the clock and speeds and John Force blow up.