Economy vs. Economics

[Pat Joffrion]

This is not an attempt to show any disrespect to NHRA or any of its people in the sunny hills of Pomona, California. It is just a statement of facts as to what has occurred at our facility in the wet swamps of Louisiana.

It has been 7 months since NHRA raised their sportsman license fees and chassis inspection fees. I don't know how it affected other tracks, but in those 7 months, we signed-off on only 17 new license applications... down from 56 new license/members/drivers during the 7 months before the increase. That is a decrease of almost 70%. Since the price increase, we have only seen 90 chassis inspections. Prior to the increase, during the same number of certification dates, we did 163. Down 45%!

Call it a bad economy? I don't believe that to be the entire case. It's not the economy... it's economics! I was taught in college economics classes that Supply + Demand = Price, and with supply being constant, if you want to increase demand, you lower your price. If you raise your price, you will see a decrease in demand. This is basic economics 101.

We have not raised our spectator fees since we opened our gates in 2001. My 84-year old dad told me recently that I needed to go up. His logic was that a dollar is only worth ½ of what it was worth 10 years ago. My explanation to his is that there are 5 times as many people that can afford to spend $10, as there are those that can afford to spend $20. (see above paragraph)

Racetracks survive from local customers. They cannot survive with full grandstands once or twice a year. With the increased fees, fewer of our "bracket" racers have stepped up to racing divisional and national events. Just look at the racer entries from 2009. Most national and divisional events were down dramatically. We were blessed to have over 500 racers attend our Cajun SportsNationals, and I would like to thank each and every racer, crewmember, and fan that helped make our event so successful.

The only good thing about the increased fees is that it has kept more racers spending their money bracket racing, rather than pony up the extra bucks to "follow the circuit". And as far as chassis certifications, racers have just slowed their cars down to 10-flat. That correlates to saving almost $450.00 by not having to join NHRA, not paying for a physical, not paying for a competition number, and not having to fork out $150 extra for a chassis certification sticker.

We now have so many cars running 10-0's that we are seriously looking into having a separate heads-up 10-flat category during our bracket races. Those that can afford to pay the price can still run fast. Those who cannot afford the extra costs are having just as much fun running 10-0, rather than 9-50 and down $4-50 out of their wallet.

Perhaps NHRA may "re-think" their decision to increase fees. They need new members to survive, and I can tell you that at our track, new NHRA memberships have dropped by 69.6429% from the prior 7 months! That is not a formula for success, no matter if you base your formula on the economy or base your formula on the laws of economics.

No Problem Raceway has had another very successful year, despite the weather. We have recently sold our road racing track to a group of road racers from New Orleans. We are currently enhancing our track revenues from non-drag-racing events. Without these concerts and other activities, we would be suffering like most other facilities. Drag racing is not paying the bills, and customers and fans are watching real hard how they are spending their dollars.

We need NHRA to not only survive, but to thrive. Without NHRA, more racers would have died in crashes that are now survivable. Think about that next time one of your buddies goes over in a crash. Just this past Saturday, one of our local guys went off the big end at over 200 mph (stuck throttle), drove through the 300-foot gravel pit with dual parachutes deployed. His car traveled another 300-feet before flipping several times, and came to a final stop more than 3 football fields past the end of our 4,000-foot long track.

After cutting the roll cage to safely remove the driver, I removed the chassis certification sticker, as required by the rule book. The sticker was dated 09/2009. He was one of the 90 in the past 7 months, and I am sure glad that he added those extra bars. The driver sustained a broken arm, and doctors found a blocked artery near his heart. Thankfully he survived the crash, and the doctors prevented a possible heart attack.

I would like to hear from other track owners. Please feel free to forward this post to your local track owner. I can be reached at patjoffrion@hotmail.com, or on my cell at 985-665-7145 to discuss what owners can do to insure the survival of drag racing tracks. I'll be glad to offer any advice that might help to keep your local drag strip going. No need to contact Memphis... It's already too late to help those area racers and fans. With them closing, NHRA will see a decrease of 100%. Anyone ever heard of someone pricing themselves out of the market? My old Grandpa once told me, "Son, 50% of something is always better than 100% of nothing". Every time NHRA loses a member or worse yet, loses a member track, they are stuck with the latter… 100% of nothing.


Pat Joffrion SS/KA 4308

No Problem Raceway Park
6470 Hwy 996
Belle Rose, LA 70341
(985) 369-3692 - office
(985) 369-1157 - fax
(985) 665-7145