The New IHRA ???

[chris3racing]

I had to get to this post. All of the disturbance I have stirred up over the years about Pinks All Out and here we have some posts wanting IHRA to look at their format. If IHRA can make their work plan close to Pinks All Out I know a lot of cars that will be ready to race. I always said that NHRA and IHRA had to have been looking at Pinks All Outs car count, how fast their car count filled up, and sold out venues for spectators

A track cleaning up their act and their facilities to make it friendly for family is a big selling ticket. That was the thing at tracks with Pinks All Out. Things were set up to acccomodate racers, and their families. During the day the children played together while the adults raced. Night time was like a big family campground. I will give two IHRA tracks a point here, Dunn-Benson demolished all of the old facilities and now has very nice, family friendly facilites. Piedmont Dragway has followed suite and now has new cleaner facilities. Chris3 Racing is a three generation racing family and a track has to be where I would take my wife, children, their spouse, and grandchildren if I am spending our money to race there.

Oh yes, myself and alot of others who raced the Pinks All Out Series and still keep in contact over the years are watching IHRA site every day to see how this is going to mature.

[Lyn Smith]

From what i have read about the new owners of IHRA is that they are looking to buy tracks.Right now mostly in Canada.As for Pinks coming back i dont think so.As for any reality show Pinks was all about the drama.And that is why it was so popular for its short time.From Rich C. falling off of a motorcycle ,to him getting in someones face for "not running all out".I dont think any sanctioning body really want to put up with that bs.

[novassdude]

Originally Posted by Dan Fahey

Drag Racing needs to attract a wide and more affordable level racing.
Fixing up the Pit Area to accommodate Large Trailers and Driven Cars.
Add electrical connections and other facilities to quiet the Generator noise.
Make easy to get in and out of parking spaces for drive cars.
Smaller spaces for towed car trailers.

FIX up the Rest Rooms. Most are modified outhouses and the better ones ones step up from a Prison.
Hell, I cannot get my wife and daughters out because they are so disgusting.
AND women are the other half of participants rarely considered.
Appealing to women's needs, who may have kids following along would bring a lot of additional participants.

On the larger racing meets create a play area for the kids.
Making Drag Racing more Family friendly will bring in paid participants.

Dining and Food:
The food is barely edible, not tasty and over priced at the tracks.
Get a few Chefs in there, fix up and entertainment and make a nice eating and viewing area.
Have BBQ and Roasted Chicken and decent Pasta.
Invite local restaurants to bring in their Food Coach's.
You entertain the public they will come.
How about a tasty New England Lobster sandwich?
or English Fish and Chips


D

Most of this is facility related and unless they buy all the tracks they will have little todo with any of these things.

[Wade Mahaffey]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, you need to raise awareness of your product! You must advertise in order to maximize your portion of the publics entertianment dollar !!! THEY WILL NOT COME AND SEE/SUPPORT YOU IF THEY DON'T KNOW YOU EXIST! Everybody is not a motor head, atleast not yet but there's a first for everything. Expose them to what you love to see and do!

1. Fill the grandstands....even if you need to give them away with free admission (on the spectator side). Now charge them to enter the pits, (after they're hooked). Sell products to all the full seats ie. food, souviners. YOU CAN'T SELL ANYTHING TO AN EMPTY SEAT!

2. Have a cost for up close/priority parking for spectators.

3. Saturate the community with promotional oppurtunities ie. Race Cars and Drivers/Teams on location in the publics eye. Media advertisments Radio/TV/ internet. I realize these things cost money....but most are simply effort driven!

4. Have some type of compensation for racers who are willing to go above and beyond to promote in the area prior to an event ie. priority pit parking, additional event passes, acknoledgement on the public address system etc. The racers should back this program to the fullest, because it enhances the their future and drag racing in general.

5. As far as the racing itself, I don't believe that you should cheapen or water down the Stock and Super/Stock classes/rules to gain competitors. I do like a bracket program during the event at a seperate time in which the class competitors can enter if they like.

I must say that as a competitor on race day, I'm not aware if fans are present or not. But when not in the car....I love to see the stands full! I feel that the single most important factor in the future of what we love ...is $$$$$. And the single most important portion of incomming money is fan support. The more fans...the better the ratio of money for the racers...even though it's hard to see that on the NHRA side!

Wade Mahaffey

[Michael Beard]

Originally Posted by Dan Fahey

IHRA should video tape their events

[Dan Fahey]

Originally Posted by Michael Beard

MIKE:
This is a start...

However needs to be on TV and a professional format not just YouTube.
AND
without the painful advertisement !!

I like PINKS and their format...

D

[Michael Beard]

Originally Posted by Dan Fahey

This is a start...

However needs to be on TV and a professional format not just YouTube.

1) This is merely archived footage. The entire event was broadcast live, including photo galleries, results, and interviews.
2) TV is EXPENSIVE. Pinks All Out cost "more than $400,000 an episode"
3) Missed a TV broadcast? Unless you DVR'd it, it's gone. There's very little multiplier available.
3) TV viewership is a guesstimate. Online viewership is trackable via server stats, it's a targeted, engaged audience, where advertisers have the ability to do more than just show static banner ads or traditional commercials. Audiences can also participate in live chat while watching the broadcast. Times, and audiences, are changing.

If it wasn't for my wife, we wouldn't even have cable. I canned it when I was in NC, and didn't miss it at all. There is an enormous amount of content available online now. The paradigm is slowly from "watch when we tell you to watch" to watch on-demand.

AND without the painful advertisement !!

That would be the people that PAID to make the broadcast possible. While you can't skip it in the live broadcast, you can very easily click past it in youtube. I've seen a lot of threads recently saying how "sponsors should do this" and "sponsors should do that", yet people complain about how sponsors don't do everything the racer wants and exactly how they want it.

Quite frankly, I thought the use of 'classic' elevator music in the elevator ad was hilarious! Am I in the market to buy an elevator? No, and never will be, but I sure appreciate everything John Taylor has done for the sport, both locally and nationally.