Something I noticed at Memphis

[Chad Rhodes]

back in March, at No Problem Raceway, there was a great spectator turnout both Saturday and Sunday. They were in the stands all day, watching every pass. Mind you, No Problem, is 40 miles from anything resembling a large city. Now there is no doubt that Pat Joffrion goes above and beyond in promoting both the LODRS race and the SportsNationals, and the spectator turnout proves it.

Now for the flip side of the coin. This weekend in Memphis, a race to be held in the evening/night, i don't think you could have found a spectator that just came to watch the show, which was a very good show especially at night. MMP is 10 minutes from downtown Memphis, one of the larger cities in the southeast. My issue here is why? Did the heat keep everyone away? Did Dover Motorsports and the Memphis staff not deem a LODRS race worht promoting?

How are we as racers supposed to promote class racing, if the track hosting the event won't even pitch in a little bit?

[Dick Butler]

It is the Mind Set of the Track Operator, Owner. Pat is a racer. He loves Drag Racing and understands it. He understands that if you "work the crowd" before and during the event by hype and knowledge they can and do enjoy it. With time many places have Half @ssed advertising and had less knowledgeable announcers and advertising and when it failed to attract MAJOR numbers they decided to just STOP advertising and use the first attempt as an excuse.Example Divisional meets. They plan to exist on Entry money.... This has happened to Sportsman racing through out NHRA as Money priorities were used on PRO classes. Promotion of Eliminator is weak and other Class numbers and issues havent helped. If Pat advertised Class at INDY the stands would be FULL ALL DAY...and they would LOVE IT. Leo Taugher needs to announce it.

[Kenny Wigington]

While I havent had the opprtunity to go to NP, I hear its out of this realm. In a good way. I did see a few spectators, maybe a dozen, at best. I think that the 105* had something to do with that, or I would like to , anyway. I have to give big props to MMP for the track prep. It was good as it could be, to me, for the heat. I didnt hear anyone saying anything negative on that. I read over 130 more than once.

Chad, I saw you guys in the lanes but did'nt get back there to say hello. See you in Reynolds ?

[Chad Rhodes]

Originally Posted by Kenny Wigington

While I havent had the opprtunity to go to NP, I hear its out of this realm. In a good way. I did see a few spectators, maybe a dozen, at best. I think that the 105* had something to do with that, or I would like to , anyway. I have to give big props to MMP for the track prep. It was good as it could be, to me, for the heat. I didnt hear anyone saying anything negative on that. I read over 130 more than once.

Chad, I saw you guys in the lanes but did'nt get back there to say hello. See you in Reynolds ?

well I will probably be there but may not have the new motor done. It ate itself on the last Q pass, i guess it being .3 slow should have told me something

[Lynn A McCarty]

Agree mostly with Dick,

NHRA relies on the track to do promotion and marketing. I believe this is wrong. Marketing should be done at the NHRA level to improve fans participation. All marketing in most companies are done at the National level for economies. Local tracks wont get National pricing for advertising. Alex got tons of fans showing up to the US class Nationals without huge dollars invested.

However, no one wants to pay and see a bracket race.This is why we should have heads up for all stock and super stock cars during practice 2-3 days of practice is not necessary and pretty boring if you think about it compared to what it really could be like.

Watch the stands fill up like the NMCA races on Friday and Saturday night. Stocker shoot out on Friday night, SS shoot out on Sat night, regular eliminator on Sunday just like we have now. It would be way more fun.

Dick, I havent seen you get behind this?? Not heads up for a select few, but heads up for everyone instead of practice.

[Chad Rhodes]

Originally Posted by Lynn A McCarty

Agree mostly with Dick,

NHRA relies on the track to do promotion and marketing. I believe this is wrong. Marketing should be done at the NHRA level to improve fanss participation. However, no one wants to pay and see a bracket race.

This is why we should have heads up for all stock and super stock cars during practice. 2-3 days of practice is not necessary.

Watch the stands fill up like the NMCA races on Friday and Saturday night. Stocker shoot out on Friday night, SS shoot out on Sat night, regular eliminator on Sunday just like we have now. It would have zero effort, no changes, be way more fun. Dick, I havent seen you get behind this?? Not heads up for a select few, but heads up for everyone instead of practice.

Lynn

why not run both sat night, with the first round counting as last Q pass (just like class elim's). How would you pair them up?

[Jason Oldfield]

Originally Posted by Lynn A McCarty

NHRA relies on the track to do promotion and marketing. I believe this is wrong. Marketing should be done at the NHRA level to improve fans participation. All marketing in most companies are done at the National level for economies. Local tracks wont get National pricing for advertising. Alex got tons of fans showing up to the US class Nationals without huge dollars invested.

Maybe a track owner could chime in here, but I'd love to know what the split is between the track and NHRA for spectator entry at an LODRS event. The reason I bring this up is this: If you owned the track, but had to give NHRA 80% of the gate, how much of your money would you shell out up front in an attempt to lure more spectators to the track?

That's a pretty risky proposition, especially given that there's one major factor that's not under your control: the weather.

Now, if it's 80/20 the other way, it would certainly make more sense as it wouldn't take near the spectators to earn back your marketing investment.

So, don't take this the wrong way as I would like to see them advertise these races just as much as anybody. But, until we know the financial details behind this, I don't think it's fair to bash the track owners. If it's 80/20 in NHRA's favor, how come they are spending more of their money to advertise these races???

[Mark Yacavone]

Originally Posted by Jason Oldfield

Maybe a track owner could chime in here, but I'd love to know what the split is between the track and NHRA for spectator entry at an LODRS event. The reason I bring this up is this: If you owned the track, but had to give NHRA 80% of the gate, how much of your money would you shell out up front in an attempt to lure more spectators to the track?

That's a pretty risky proposition, especially given that there's one major factor that's not under your control: the weather.

Now, if it's 80/20 the other way, it would certainly make more sense as it wouldn't take near the spectators to earn back your marketing investment.

So, don't take this the wrong way as I would like to see them advertise these races just as much as anybody. But, until we know the financial details behind this, I don't think it's fair to bash the track owners. If it's 80/20 in NHRA's favor, how come they are spending more of their money to advertise these races???

Jason ,that's not how it works. NHRA gets a substantial fee (up front ) for bringing in the points meet. After that, it was up to the track to actually make money. There was some help in advertising from Winston in years past .Don't know about now.

The smaller divisionals are hard pressed to make anything at all . They just do it as kind of an ego thing,...to have a big race at their track.

Even with the bigger divisionals ,the tracks don't make a killing .
Why do you think there isn't a points meet at Weinle World anymore?

[Lynn A McCarty]

Originally Posted by Chad Rhodes

why not run both sat night, with the first round counting as last Q pass (just like class elim's). How would you pair them up?

Agree Chad, what ever is the best way. However, I was looking maybe to fill the stands Fri for Stockers, then fill the stand SAT night for SSers. We gotta get the track owners excited about it too! Even come up with additional pay for the tech guys.

If NHRA doesnt want to support it, hell we do it ourselves. What is so hard in showing up to practice A-Z? If someone doesnt want to co-operate, then fine. No biggie. If there is no one left to run in your class, run heads up against your index. If NHRA doesnt want to stagger.....fine we use our 5-cent CPU(pencil) again to determine the winner.

[Jason Oldfield]

Originally Posted by Mark Yacavone

Jason ,that's not how it works. NHRA gets a substantial fee (up front ) for bringing in the points meet. After that, it was up to the track to actually make money. There was some help in advertising from Winston in years past .Don't know about now.

The smaller divisionals are hard pressed to make anything at all . They just do it as kind of an ego thing,...to have a big race at their track.

Even with the bigger divisionals ,the tracks don't make a killing .
Why do you think there isn't a points meet at Weinle World anymore?

Thanks for the clarification Mark. If that's the case, then I don't know why ANY track would take on a LODRS event and then not advertise it. It almost sounds like some of the bigger tracks might be getting extorted by NHRA to take a LODRS event if they want their national event too.

Does every non-NHRA owned track host a LODRS event too? I'm going through the list in my head quickly and can't think of one that doesn't...