[BKSG1198]

I know we chat about this almost every year on how to make Divisionals Great and I have a lot of insight from talking to track owners when setting up my MA Schedules on how they feel about the Divisional Events and for the most part track owners are not big fans of having them due to the cost factor and let's be honest it's up to the tracks to spend the additional funds to help market those events and not all tracks have that deep of pockets to do so.

When you have Alky at these events, the tracks have to get additional insurance and the Top 10 in each Division in Alky get in for free along with a certain amount of crew and the track pays the purse on top of the fee that they pay NHRA (It's a base fee for certain amount of cars - I was told at one time by a track owner it's $15k for 350 cars and then it goes up as the count goes over 350....so when we complain about $60 crew pass, it's because the track is trying to re-coup some of that money)....when you look at 2023 D1 Alky points there were 22 TAD that earned points but, only 10 TAFC earned points in D1 with 2 who made a run so they could earn the free status next season. I mentioned at the MG August race that the Alky guys are mostly business men / women, they should be getting together to do their own purses, I know DJ Cox did at Cecil one year to help the track out. Then you have Alky qualify on a Friday at times that won't attract any crowds because people are working (12,3,5) it doesn't make any sense, I think you move Alky to qualify on Saturday and elims on Sunday to make it a show beginning at 3-4pm, let Stock, SS, .90, Comp get their qualifying rounds and maybe R1 in before the "Show" starts and be done for the day and run TS, TD, Alky, Jets, Benny the Bomb, Wheel standers, etc. for the fans. They always say that Alky runs on Fri / Sat so they have a travel day.....ummm most these guys have drivers who drive their stuff to the next location, and they fly in.

I know Bobby does a great job of promoting the "Car Show" with Stock & SS but let's all be honest kids today want to see a lowered Honda that can barely go over railroad tracks than see Stock, SS and the .90 cars. Our last .90 race was at Maple Grove on October 15th, we ran with a car show called "Static Struggle". The place was packed with about 250 show cars all Hondas, all fart boxes, all lowered and it stunk like weed....lol. The field where we park for the NE & LODRS was packed with spectators filling the stands, the concession stand was wrapped around the building with people buying stuff, they definitely made a killing on that day with just those cars and then you add in 100 T&T Cars at $50 a pop with no payback. Why I think your also seeing NHRA partner to run Alky cars at events like Cleetus & Cars and the Norwalk Night of Fire.

One thing you notice when you ever watch on NHRA.TV telecasts there is reasons we kick things off early in the morning with sportsman and you'll hear Alan, say maybe after SG or Comp runs "From this point forward, everything that goes down this track will go faster than 8 seconds". It's to tell people the "fast, not complicated cars" are coming out...people want to be able to understand classes and not try to figure out why this guy went 9.50 and the other guy went 13.23 and won. Thats why when you go to a NE.85% of the people are there to see ...John Force.

How do you make it better? I think you put together a 4-5 hour show that highlights the fast classes, if they want to come in early to watch Stock, SS, .90 they will come but, people these days are looking for the best bang for their buck, they don't want to be priced gouged, kids have the attention span of about 3 hours before they are bored....I saw this on a page today about Pomona:

"Im really perturbed in Pomona raceway I dont care what association it partakes in but if its $15 for a hot dog or $23 for a sandwich it better be at least descent it amazes me the cost of everything and get sub-par absolute junk . I understand inflation but these venues are failing if you disagree you are the problem . No common family can come out here and afford for a good time"