For the second week in a row, I’m going drag racing specific in my Barnstormin’ column, but this is a topic that has had me thinking for some time now and it does relate to other racing genres as well. The question relates to nostalgia racing and what’s going to become of it in the short and long term.
Focusing on nostalgia drag racing because it’s the highest profile genre that concentrates it’s efforts on keeping the past alive, one has to look in awe at the sheer number of people who are racing at events like the March Meet, all the NHRA Heritage Series events, and the myriad of independent shows, match races, and “nights of fire” put on at dragstrips all across the country. New venues for Nostalgia Funny Cars are popping up, and with sanctioning bodies announcing multi-race schedules with some regularity, it’s all looking very good.
I’ll come right out and tell you that I personally love it and am counting the days until I’m at Bowling Green for the National Hot Rod Reunion in June, but there’s this nagging feeling in the back of my head that I better cherish it while we have it because we’re either at peak or peaking as we speak.
It’s got nothing to do with economics, either. It’s about the inevitable march of time and the fact that most of the people running high-level nostalgia operations are not exactly spring chickens, and at 29 years old, I don’t fit the normal demographic of a spectator at these events, either. There’s lots more gray hair on peoples’ heads than any other color and that’s counting the people in the pits, the people owning the cars, and most of the people driving the cars.
I think this is a very unique time in drag racing history to be a fan. There are just so many options of where to spend your money. For decades there were people who just went to national events so they could see fast doorslammers run. They sat through everything else just to see that stuff. Now you can walk into an ADRL race (for free!) and not see a dragster or Funny Car all weekend. Just a couple years ago, if you wanted to see a nostalgia fuel Funny Car, you basically needed to fly to the West Coast. Now there are races up and down the East Coast, Midwest, and Southeastern parts of the country.
Success breeds success and naturally as more people were exposed to it, more people got hooked, more people built cars, and more people began attending events. The NHRA saw this wave rising and created its Heritage Series of events to get a piece of the pie. Goodguys was pretty much instrumental in lighting the powder keg on this thing and is now largely out of the racing genre, but still features nitro front-motor dragsters and nostalgia floppers at some events and there is not a track operator worth his salt that has not considered booking an independent nostalgia show to make some cashola at his track.
I’d love to think this circle can continue, but it’s not sustainable because the folks driving it are not going to be physically capable of doing it long term. Compound that with the fact that there is virtually no prospect of building a youth movement to feed these series and what we have is a train speeding towards the end of its track.
With the strength of the crowds at events like the March Meet, I’m obviously way out ahead of this thing in pronouncing its imminent death, but at some point, it’s going to go over center and those attendance numbers will begin to head in the other direction, and probably quick.
Can you take a kid obsessed with a Nissan GT-R, “the Ring,” and Twitter, and sell him on old Funny Cars that look like nothing they have ever seen on the road? I honestly don’t think so.
Top level nostalgia racers should not get caught up on remembering the good old days. As the old expression goes, “These ARE the good old days.” Make hay while the sun shines and enjoy. It doesn’t get much better than this.
