The world of drag racing is one where evolution and change are constant. One need look no further back than the origins of organized competition in the 1950s to see the sport’s rapid expansion, its rapid evolution, and its rapid rise into the popular culture of America and the world to understand this concept. Even today in 2020 the sport continues to change. Classes rise and fall in popularity, performances continues to improve and flourish, and some of the newest categories that have been devised have risen to become instantly successful and popular among a core group of fans that were tired of the “same old, same old” in other areas of the sport.
All of this is highly positive and remains indicative of how drag racing has reinvented itself and “shed its shell” time and time again over the course of nearly three quarters of a century. It also represents the sharpening of a proverbial blade. Massive increases in performance have given way to incremental and hard fought ones. The technology that has allowed for more horsepower, better management of that horsepower through electronic control systems, stronger driveline components to handle it, mor aerodynamic shapes to allow efficient use of it, advancements in tire technology and suspension systems have increased mechanical grip exponentially over the years as well.
And of course there is track preparation and it’s this point that is both the great strength of small tire drag racing and the greatest threat to its long term existence.
Allow this paper to serve as the starting point of a discussion that needs to happen among competitors, track operators, promoters, and the people who are most entirely important to the success of drag racing of any type, on any level.
The ticket buying spectators.
At this moment in time, especially in the time of small tire drag racing an important and frightening crossroads is being reached. The intersection of performance/track prep and its potentially negative effect on ticket buying spectators is something that needs to be addressed and addressed quickly to the benefit of the industry as a whole and the health of the sport.
Through spectator attendance trends, conversations, social media interactions, and even the overt reactions of drag racing spectators at events, it is clear that the major question which has to be asked right now is as follows:
“Who are we holding these events for?”
It would seem that the current trend in small tire drag racing indicates that we are holding the events for the racers, crew chiefs, and traction applicators/traction product industry because there is no sane living person who can make the argument that these events are good “shows”. Far too often and frequently the centerpiece of a spectator’s experience these days can be described as one famous journalist once wrote about war:
Hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.
In the case of small tire/radial drag racing it is “hours of tractors for several seconds of entertaining drag racing runs.” This is an issue that seems so simplistic on its face but requires a far more insightful analysis to see it’s real potential destructive possibilities in the long-term. That insight comes from WWII.
Remember one thing: Since the FIRST DAY that drag racing existed the cars had too much power for the tires. The job, for 80 years has been managing that power. This is NOT a new or fresh issue in 2020. The cars have always needed a GOOD track. They have never “needed” what radial tire prep gives them today.
During WWII a brilliant statistical mathematician named Abraham Wald was assigned to help the Air Force better armor their airplanes. The placement of the armor was thought to be incorrect and by using stats and research it was determined that a better job could be done. Wald famously attacked this problem with an angle which literally no one else on Earth conceived.
When presented with vast numerical data that reported the specific locations of bullet holes and shrapnel in returning airplanes, he quickly determined that this information was both utterly useless and the smoking gun answer to the question at the same time.
Wald understood that the real airplanes that needed to be studied were the ones that did not make it back. The ones that DID return weren’t the problem. So what if the fuselage was shot to pieces, the airplane flew. Wald saw the retuning planes as a study in what damage an operable craft could survive. For this reason, he zeroed into an important conclusion. He needed to find the missing bullet holes, the places where the planes had not been shot. Those were the engines.
The airplanes that did not return had been struck in the engines which were not protected by anything other than the nacelles they were mounted in.
His ability to look past the obvious and recommend the proper armoring of the engines saved umpteen thousands of lives and helped the Air Force win the war.
This example is used because it stands as the method that should be used to look at this problem.
The fans in the stands are the returning airplanes. Annoyed with the current situation but still there, they’ve got the proverbial fuselage damage and yet they return. The fans who are not coming are the real problem and those NOT attending seem to be growing at a far more rapid rate than those who are.
So how do we “armor the engines” as Wald recommended in radial tire drag racing?
Is it piling on more expense by adding more equipment for the track operator? Asking for more employees to “quicken” the process? Is it adding “prep-time entertainment” to events across the country?
It would seem that all of those things would not help the problem but ultimately it would make the existing problem worse.
Increasing expense load on tracks already hobbled by horrific economic factors is non-sensical and incredibly harmful to the already tenuous financial position of many facilities. Adding labor cost is also self-defeating for both the reasons of increased expense/diminished return and the fact that adding hands to the prep process exponentially increases the potential for mistakes and accidents.
The addition of “entertainment” is also one that fails a few simple tests, the most simple being the fact that the spectators at the event bought their tickets to WATCH DRAG RACING not to play games, see people pop wheelies on motorcycles, or be otherwise distracted. The additional entertainment comes with its own financial burden as well.
None of these “solutions” move the ball in the proper direction for any of the stake holders involved in the event and are ultimately self-defeating.
If one begins to actually measure the negative immediate financial effects of the current way this business is being conducted the results are downright terrifying.
At five events over the 2020 season I kept unofficial stopwatch timelines of the amount of time spectators were seeing race cars competing versus the amount of time they were watching tractors, scraping, and glue drying. At EVERY SINGLE event, the relationship of competition and preparation was astonishingly bad.
Over the course of days that ranged on average 12 hours, spectators saw a roughly 60/40 time split of race cars versus track preparation. We’re talking 60% racing and a sickening 40% of their day spent watching nothing.
Delving deeper into this trend, by the 12th hour of the day, the number of fans in the stands at EVERY SINGLE one of these events could be counted on the hands and feet of an able bodied man, by and large. This makes the breakdown even worse when you concentrate it over a shorter number of hours of “prime” viewing time.
Think of it this way. If an NHL hockey game, which is 60 minutes long was stopped multiple times each period to prepare the ice WHILE THE GAME WAS IN PROCESS how many people would stay until the end? Intermissions built in to prepare the ice and spell the teams are an accepted and welcomed part of the game as are the between round service periods in drag racing. Those are some of the cultural touchpoints of our sport and they are sales tools for the track operator. “Buy a beer, a hot dog, and your favorite driver’s shirt!”
The amount of excess payroll expense, amount of excess fuel cost, the amount of excess traction compound cost, and the amount of “negative spectator training” that is happening is beyond incomprehensible and it is all coming to a head at a moment in time when this aspect of drag racing can least afford it on every single level.
But the racers want, need, crave it!
Perhaps the greatest and most important part of this problem is understanding what the “racers” want. The vocal minority vs what the actual racers want to compete on has helped to drive us to this point in time.
The majority of the racers do NOT want the situation as it is now. They do not want to be racing in the middle of the night, they do not want to be sitting around most of the day, they do not want a surface that makes those who lack the finite talent they have to look like heroes because they can throw the house at their car every time down the track.
The problem is that no one has actually asked.
To this point the “loudest guys in the room” have largely dictated the conversation and have set the groundwork for the grip and compound standards that dictate the scene and events in 2020. Conversations with professional level competitors has revealed that they, to a MAN are opposed to the current tactics being used and the current state of affairs when it comes to preparing radial drag racing tracks.
Financially, the over-zealous prep of tracks has driven many, many more racers OUT of the sport than have come into the sport. Make a mental list of cars and drivers who were here and are gone and those that have appeared anew in the last few years. The inverse sizes of both lists should make your blood run cold.
When you create an environment where the only variable is how much power you make and how quickly you can get it to the ground we’re no longer drag racing, we’re budget racing and the larger one always wins.
So how did we get here? Simply put, ego.
Auto racing is, was, and forever will be an ego driven enterprise across its whole spectrum. From the racers who want to go faster to the track operators who want to tout their facility to the fans who pay money to “say they were there”, it drives the economics of competition and forever will. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that ego is also the reason people construct $300,000 cars to race for $20,000 at a time and a million other reasons that defy logical thought.
There’s no blame to assert here, but there is now a moment of soul searching that everyone in radial tire drag racing has to participate in. At what cost to the sport are you getting your class record (that will undoubtedly be shattered somewhere else within weeks!)? At what cost are you basically torturing a fan base that likely by and large has NO IDEA what any records are and have attended your facility to see loud, fast cars do things that impress them?
None of this is being said to devalue records, devalue the quest for more speed, for smaller elapsed times, etc. That will continue unabated long past our lifetimes and it is actually a comforting thing to know.
This is being said in an effort to create conversation and debate among the decision makers and those who have the clout to actually make change.
There is absolutely no reason that events with reasonable car counts cannot be run in reasonable amounts of time. No reason that fans cannot walk into the gate and see an action packed day of competition, leaving to tell their friends how much fun it was and how they cannot wait to go back. No reason that the heroes of this style of racing cannot be promoted and celebrated in ways that make them true rock stars. But in order for that to happen, something has got to give.
Well, you are thinking that this is a lot of words to simply say, “prep the track less” but saying “prep the track less” is the drag racing equivalent to saying “defund the police”. It’s a slogan that causes mass panic and freak out, ending any semblance of rational discussion or debate.
Remember, the big question here is:
Who are we holding these events for?
Ultimately we are holding them for the entertainment of the spectators because without them we have nothing but test sessions. The purses, the facilities, and the industry as a whole are 100% dependent on people caring about, knowing about, and wanting to spend their money on seeing these races.
At this juncture we are giving them all plenty of reasons to do none of the above. Yes, WE all love the records, WE all love the chase to different performance barriers, but THEY only see a tractor, the unpleasant sound of squealing tires, and the screens of their phones as they complain privately or publicly about how long an event is taking or how boring their experience is.
This paper is not designed to “solve the problems of the world” as much as it is to serve as a wake up call among those that can to make a change for the betterment and longevity of big time radial tire drag racing. Otherwise we will be talking about it as fondly as we talk about dozens of other once fantastic categories in drag racing history that no longer exist or have any relevance.
The way things are being done right now is not sustainable on any level, especially on the financial side.
As a wise man once said, “change or die.”
I think the fan wants to see a heads up first to the finish line race instead of a record being broken, remember its called racing.
At the southeast gasser association races the times arent even posted and they are drawing record crowds.
Two things to fix the problem:
1) don’t prep the track
2) get rid of the Xmas tree and hang a traffic light out and above the track.
Keep it real!
The “Southeast Gassers ” is a good example of drag racing entertainment done right. It’s ONE day of qualifying and eliminations, lots of racing without a lot of prep. The cars aren’t the fastest but it is a great entertainment value. There are others out there as well but I think any successful sanctioning body is following the same recipe. Keep the cars racing, keep the races close, and spectators love wheelies!
I agree whole heartedly with what is said in this article, and much of it can be applied to other types and series of drag racing. I think tracks should follow a consistent routine of prep that provides a good surface for the majority of cars on the property. Touch it up a couple of times a day, but make them quick touchups. Don’t do special prep for the mega-buck racers. If they can afford to build the car and the horsepower, then they can afford to learn how to tune the car or pay someone who does know how.
WOW does this sound like the debates raging in the tractor pulling world the last 5 years!!!
“Negative Spectator Training” The participants crave it! The modern race-sleds have made it a checkbook race.
So many parallels!!!
Not to mention when they do throw the house at it and scatter it all over the track the amount of time it takes to clean and re prep all of it all over again. This racing is pretty awesome but it seems to be more and more aimed at its hardcore fanbase and racers, not really toward the folks who casually keep up with small tire racing. The races were once free to stream and now require a pay per view subscription to watch. While I and most folks understand it takes money to produce the races and live feeds, it also drives away the casual fan who may not physically be able to be there but wants to keep up with whats going on. Selling more ads and/or only live streaming the important rounds (instead of every absolute second of the weekend including the tractors) would keep cost down for that and will drive more interest in actually attending in person.
For our Texas friends…imagine if Forrest Gump mowed the high school football field after every five or six plays.
Brian’s point of view is spot on and the data supports the hunch we’ve all been seeing. Let’s look at the classes that have either completely died or have been reduced to shells of their former selves…Outlaw 10.5″, Pro Extreme (true Outlaw Pro Mod)…once thriving with near nation-wide acceptance they fell victim to egos and deep, deep wallets while paying no attention to the true reason for their success. Study history, folks. Lessons to be learned there.
You cant even keep your shoes on at the tracks! When I raced back in the Flintstones age, there was little track prep. Engines are too big,tires are too big,blowers are too big and 1/8th drag racing is pretty much a holeshot thing! How many cars can you buy that have 500 ci engines? Limit the size of engines to make it have less down time and it will be worth watching.
Great job articulating exactly what most fans are saying about drag radial racing. I have heard mountains of complaints over the years about track prep and the down time associated with it.
A few weeks back we streamed a no prep race. It was 50 degrees, I expected a crash fest. That did not happen. Were cars running on the ragged edge, yes, it was actually exciting to watch even from the scaffold.
Many years ago Kenny Nowling said the thing that was hurting pro mod racing was not the lack of spectators, it was the lack of excitement. With a track prepped from wall to wall and start to finish, it gave no incentive for teams to ‘adjust’ the car to the conditions and created a very boring racing environment. I agree…
Something needs to be done, exactly what that is I can not say, I’m not a radial racer nor car owner. However, unless something is done to create excitement about that segment of the sport again, it will go away. Like Brian said, change or die, those are the only options.
This discussion is right on point. I have been a drag racing spectator and fan since 1965. I was in a gas station in Illinois with my Dad while he was getting new tires. I found a copy of National Dragster on the table in the office; I was hooked. My first drag race was a packed clay track cut out of the corn fields and the 55 Chevys were running dirt slicks. They still pulled the front wheels! I have been in the stands ever since. That said, I was at an NHRA national event in Houston a number of years ago and, to my dismay, I found myself thinking this is boring. How can a 10,000 horsepower dragster be boring?! For all the reasons you have discussed above. The most exciting races are the ones where it is an upset; the John Force or Don Schumacher car did not win. Don’t get me wrong, those guys have kept NHRA alive. However, we need racing, not constant record attempts. I went to the last Meltdown Drags at Byron Dragway; it was awesome. No one set records, there were not hours of track prep: just good heads up racing. No one really cared what the time or speed was. There has to be a happy medium.
Great article .. 539 entries at a 3 day bracket race in NC last month !! It can be done !!
You may not want to say it, because it’s like saying “defund the police”, but less track prep is the only thing that can be done. This doesn’t mean that you do a poor job of preparing the track, but rather just spend less time doing it. I come from the bracket racing side of things where cars are making enough power to have potential problems, and the track is prepped only several times a day and cars are basically printing time slips.
Prep the track in the morning, do a quick touch up before a class like RVW and repeat. In this instance, the promoter has to have the attitude that if they lose one or two “high budget” teams for the survival of the class, then so be it.
In response to Brians article , let me address the other side . I will NOT attend a NHRA national event because I don’t want to see 3 sec runs . what’s next 2 sec runs ? what’s after that , 1 sec runs ? NHRA is nothing more than NASCAR in a straight line . Go expensive or go home . I attended “LIghts Out ” @ S.G.M.P. and I have to say it was the best gracing I’ve ever attended . I attended the “Geezer Gasser” event and I loved it . I attended a Stock/super Stock race and loved it . I attended an alcohol funny race and loved it . I attended 10.5 outlaw racing and loved it , Outlaw 632 also . Nitro racing is just cubic money .
Us radial racing fans dont care about the time it takes to track prep we know radial tires need glue You need for the weather to cooperate as well I go to Donald Longs Races 3 a year you would have to break my legs not to go or have a pandemic The racetrack isnt where all the action is at
I can’t remember the series name but we went to Rockingham Dragway in NC–Pro Mods They had 4 or 5 classes by performance–so any pro mod no matter how old or slow could run in one of the classes–they ran hundreds of pro mods through faster than I have ever seen even in a normal bracket race–the fans PACKED the house so much so they ran out of toilet paper, food, everything! It was the best drag race I ever attended–Hundreds of runs fast as lightening–no showy long burn outs no BS’ing around pull in stage up GO , next pair same, repeat I have never ever seen anything like it–if you broke or whatever they had track cleared in seconds-on to the next pair It was astonishing!
There was every pro mod to that point from the east coast there and racing–pits were PACKED
Drag racing is like Nascar–it has evolved to the point where no guys say hey lets go watch the drags Sat night–it is OK to see a fast car but when you do you are done–seeing it again is no big deal
Southeast Gassers has made a good stab at it but really if you see the show once you have seen it—you can pick a favorite and follow and support that racer –that is good but I drag raced for decades and I always looked at the stands when in the burn out box–we were there racing for OURSELVES–always…………..sad but true
Lose the clocks, lose the glue and Drag Racing will thrive.
Werd !
Two things to fix the problem:
1) don’t prep the track
2) get rid of the Xmas tree and hang a traffic light out and above the track.
Keep it real!
Great reading Brian. Using the Shakedown Nationals at Virginia as a recent example, track prep between the running of the radial class and the other cars, Tyler was up and down the track more than the racers. Tyler told me the racers demand this kind of track prep. I was around in the days of no track dryers, no sticky goop. Just the track, the drivers, the tuners and whatever they could get out the situation. In the mid 70’s NHRA discovered at the 1974 World Finals that VHT could get cars down the track quicker than they ever did and the records fell like dominos. Now it’s taken to a level that is ludicrous. As one of the replies stated, your shoes can come off walking on the track! Let’s get back to getting the track ready in the morning before racing commences and a few touch ups throughout the day.
Brian,
I know it’s not necessarily the topic of this…but let me apply this to NHRA for a second. I went to NINE DAYS of the four National events held at Indy this year. And I have to ask a similar question…who are National Events for…the paying public…or TV?
For a sport built on and bragging about the access to the pits and the stars…the turn-arounds have gotten so short, that to visit the pits, you now have to decide what you want to miss go down the track. If you’re on the pro side at Indy…you can’t make it across the bridge to the Manufacturer’s Midway and back…without missing the start of the next round…all so TV can show 2 rounds “live”…with 30 minutes of endlessly interviewing the same 8 drivers 2 and three times.
Drag racing is a niche sport…inside a niche sport…we all grew up on Diamond P & Wide World of Sports…and more recently “when-we-feel-like-airing-it” ESPN.
Give up 15 minutes back so we can actually ENJOY the event. So we can watch the pro classes and still get a hot dog…or meet the hot dogs. Less…is not more. And it pisses me off to spend $75 a ticket…and have by day compromised…all to the benefit of someone sitting on their ass, watching it for free. My $0.02. Thanks
SGMP has 2 events that are Radial Tire races and they seem to draw a decent car count as well as spectators even with the track prep. Small tire car owners can’t run that type race on a small tire without the proper prep which is different than prep for a slick and believe it or not spectators understand that. Kenny Nowling ran the ADRL promod races and would pack the house out by having Hardee’s restaurant sponcer the free tickets and give them out all over the southeast. They would charge 20.00 per car no matter how many people were in it. His thoughts were if you can get the people in the show you can get the money out of their pocket once they were inside the facility. He walked away from ADRL and it went down shortly after. Heads up Index racing is getting to be a lot of fun in the south with (decent payouts) at smaller tracks that are hosting a decent spectator count. Just a few ideas I’ve seen over the years. Change is in the air for drag racing in the future for sure.
I’m an old fart that loves Drag Racing, especially NITRO. In the early 70s it basically all no prep, clean the track, scrub a little rubber in and have at it. The 64 F/C shows were insane, downtime was mainly to racers killin’ their stuff, packed stand and sometimes standing room only, Match races with a few F/C-T/F cars would fill Fremont on off weekends.I still love going to the NHRA national events on the left coast when I can, Bakersfield is awesome too with the Nostalgia/Reunion stuff. BRING BACK BASIC PREP, make it a tuner/drivers game again. Yep I go to the divisional/bracket races with my friends and have a great time, hope to do a little racin’ again myself next year (been 20+ years)———-be well be safe y’all
Thanks Brian
What is funny is that right now the two hot tickets in drag racing is radial racing and no prep. Radial demands the track be glued from end to end while no prep almost requires the track to be graveled before the start of the event. I like radial racing. I went to my first radial race probably 10 years ago at SGMP (No Mercy I think) and was blown away by the technology side of the cars and by the times. I have been a fan of it since then. But watching it is just like you stated- you really have to like watching track prep to stay with it. I think that qualifying can be a home run derby if they want it, but eliminations have to run at a faster rate than qualifying. Perhaps by saying that the track will be prepped twice (barring incident) during the round for the first two rounds and once in all later rounds and drawing chips to see what order the pairings race. To me, that would speed things up and make the race a little more even for the cars lower on power.
And another thing-yes your car is fast, but you don’t have to take 10 minutes to go from startup to stage. Get the burnout done, back up and stage. Good grief, you are not John Force nor are you launching the space shuttle.
“Once any door class loses the wheelstands and sideways and unpredictability, it loses appeal.” —Ron Leek (RIP), Rockford/Byron Dragway promoter
“I’ve always argued against any track prep beyond what’s necessary for safety. I’ve joked that it would be better to water down the whole track before they run; make it equal for everyone. —Wally Parks (RIP), ex-NHRA president, in a 1990s’ interview
Cut event time in half if you do away with theatrical burnout/staging. It’s nothing but a way to show off how many friends you have and how nice your wife/girlfriends ass is. Grumpy use to do it all while chomping on a stoggie. Grow up people, show and tell is over.
Available run time won’t make a difference. At SGMP, they have (had) a curfew to stop racing but it made no difference. People don’t think about anyone else but themselves. The curfew just made racing bleed over to the next day.
It’s all about TV. I quit drag racing when brackets became the norm. If you can’t out perform the other guy you need to learn more, try harder. With all of the computer power available today a lawn tractor can break records. And track prep; that is just ridiculous. Get it cleaned up first thing then let the cars lay down the surface. And the high prep shows are for the guys crowding the staging area shooting off their mouths and placing bets. Hats off to SEGA.
I miss the early days or small tire racing . Cars were slower but still fast , and more streetworthy . And it was full quarter mile stuff . Now the staging process is longer than the race .
Look at the Outlaw Fuel Altered Association for how to run a successful series for a long period of time.
No prep the first 60′ then prep the rest to help keep it safer. Google Uncle Sam’s Pie Eating Contest at Byron. They have it going on.
The first National event I went to was the Winternationals in 1963. Drove there from St. Louis with some buddys. It just doesn’t make sense to me to build a car with huge horsepower and then try to go fast on small tires. In other words, limit the ability to go fast. It’s like Super Comp racing. (That’s when I go to the concession stand) It’s not interesting to see a car go slower than it should. Cubic dollars are ruining racing. Cars look like rolling billboards and not like cool racecars anymore.
I noticed how almost every response was about the racer wants and needs and nothing about filling the stands with people which is what sponsors and or local business need to see before writing a check to advertise at that event.
SEGA, not slot car racing….please
I didn’t expect you to call out your employer, but NHRA has the same problem / mentality, and they have catered to the few large pro teams. Stop prepping the track to be a perfect surface, and put the race back into the hands of the drivers / tuners (not the bankroll). In turn, this will entice more lower-budget teams to come out to compete, which in turn will make a more exciting show for the fan, which in turn should result in more money for everybody involved in the production of the event.
As racers, we race for a multitude of reasons. The fans show up to be entertained, plain and simple. Once the fans are bored (and they clearly are bored of NHRA’s shows), they’ll take their entertainment dollars elsewhere (and sponsors will follow suit, such as Coca-Cola, since there won’t be any fans there to sell their products to)..