[Moparteacher]

I was there ten hours on Friday, all day Saturday, and all day Sunday. I have to regretfully agree with these observations. The oil downs from the top fuelers was one after the other. Saturday wasn't any better. Sitting in the bleachers under the hot sun and only getting to watch a run down the track every twenty minutes was painful, literally.

The pro stockers suffered from a right lane that took out four or five contenders in a row. The top fuelers were blowin' them up at the finish line, one after the other. The sportsman announcer sounded as if he was a computer recording piecing words together to form sentences.
AND
Once again the NHRA failed to capitalize on the opportunity to educate the spectator on the differences between the classes.

The average spectator doesn't know the difference between a stock car, Super stock car, comp car (other than it's a performance based class). I suspect the average fan would ask "It's drag racing, are not all the cars based on performance?"

Sit up in the stands and you hear alot of "why did he leave before the other guy", "that guy has lower time so why did he lose?", and "why do those cars start fast, go slow, and then go fast?"

I brought 40 plus college students on friday. During my Wednesday evening and Thursday classes I took an hour to explain to the students, and these are 18-40 year olds, about NHRA drag racing, the rules for each class, the differences between pro and sportsman, the tree, timing, reaction times, ET's, and so forth. Most of the students were amazed at how much they didn't know. I was not. I heard a lot of "oh that explains it". NHRA does little if anything to inform and educate the fans about the very sport they lead. It takes a true diehard to spend the time and effort to figure out the rulebook, car lettering, indexes, and what makes a wheel standing stocker truley spectacular to watch. What an incredible waste of revenue opportunity. Thousands of sportsman racers, thousands of spectacular cars, thrilling races won by thousandths of a second, and it's all a big mystery to generations of fans and potential fans. This is why Pinks is so damn popular, people understand it.

If the NHRA was responsible for promoting baseball for the last fifty years we would all would be kicking around a white soccer ball as our national pastime.

On more thing. I think I'll invest in Budweiser, specifically Bud Light. More Bud Light was consumed Saturday and Sunday than oxygen.