The New IHRA ???

[HR9121]

Originally Posted by Michael Beard

Yes. I've personally competed at most of the national event hosting facilities since 2003, and been to over 70 tracks, so there's a basis for comparison.

Palm Beach
Budds Creek
Pittsburgh
Rockingham
Memphis
San Antonio
State Capitol
US 131
Possibly the new Old Dominion.
Did I leave any out Michael?

[House of Darts]

Now is the time to think about" PINKS". It is not about the types of cars that came out, but how they got the seats filled, the racers excited, TV coverage and a payout that makes sportsman classes look like freebies.How many divisionals fill the seat to 25%? How many divisionals get 350+ cars? Look at the number of cars that come out to race on Mopar Ford and GM events.Mopar nostalgia SS events. It is all hard racing.It is all exciting . Lots of factory loyalty. And it is not about the $. It's on the wall that NHRA is having $ problems. Their business plan does not work. There are plenty of new Mopar GM and Ford factory hot rods that can race and continue this tradition. You just need the get higher car counts and fans in the stands. I can't answer these questions but the new owner have the resources to do it.

[Dan Fahey]

Originally Posted by House of Darts

Now is the time to think about" PINKS". It is not about the types of cars that came out, but how they got the seats filled, the racers excited, TV coverage and a payout that makes sportsman classes look like freebies.How many divisionals fill the seat to 25%? How many divisionals get 350+ cars? Look at the number of cars that come out to race on Mopar Ford and GM events.Mopar nostalgia SS events. It is all hard racing.It is all exciting . Lots of factory loyalty. And it is not about the $. It's on the wall that NHRA is having $ problems. Their business plan does not work. There are plenty of new Mopar GM and Ford factory hot rods that can race and continue this tradition. You just need the get higher car counts and fans in the stands. I can't answer these questions but the new owner have the resources to do it.

You make a great point...
IHRA should video tape their events and show them on Speed like PINKS all Out does.
Add some drama with a good team of announcers and history.
It is interesting watching old Videos of races in the 70's.
There were exciting to watch.

Bringing PRO Classes back is a good idea.
Do it the IHRA way and does not have to do what NHRA does.

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

Consider adding the Local Bracket Racing Point programs to compete at Divisional and National Meets.

Go back to more 1/4 racing and less 1/8 mile racing.

Top Fuel & Funny Car and Alcohol
Limit Supercharger size dramatically.
Will reduce breakage, create reliability and lower organization costs.
Engines may last an entire meet without a full rebuild.
Noise and speed are still there, but lower ET, Mph and insurance costs and operate 1/4 tracks safely.

Pro Stock..needs to take a step back and get back to Stock Bodied vehicles instead of the Pro Stock style Bodies.

Regarding Pinks..there are a lot of cars running in the 9, 10, 11 Second Range, most in the 10's.
Good time to recreate Modified Production by standardizing engines and power adders.
Yeah this will require a lot of jiggling.
But we have lots of Engine power Models work with.

Just a suggestion: Limit RPM with Valve Spring, look at all the Master Engine Builder Rules, limiting Induction, cam size, piston configuration.
AND NO HOOD SCOOPS ! Except maybe little ones.

Create a 16 MP Classes and run them for champ bracket style.

Got to start attracting the foreign made cars.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This alone will drive a whole new generation of racers to IHRA.
Something that NHRA is not doing.

Stock and Super Stock are still hot items.
Pure Stock, Jr Stock, Nostalgia, Pure Stock Drags all need to be promoted.
Especially if you add foreign makes like BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Nissan, Toyota...

Bigger is better if done in the right way.

my 2 cents again

D

[GarysZ24]

I'm with you on your thoughts Dan....especially the import racing thoughts. Less we also be aware that just like those domestic specialty events are contested in frequent contests nationwide, so is a series called "Import Face Off". They run in the same format as "Super Chevy Show", as well as the other shows, and they get spectators out for them nationwide. How about it IHRA? I'm not a fan of imports, and I love racing against them, but they are getting the following, so they're worth looking at too...their racing is much less expensive also...how does $30 bucks to race for $2k in their top classes sound to ya???

[ALMACK]

Originally Posted by Dan Fahey

You make a great point...
IHRA should video tape their events and show them on Speed like PINKS all Out does.
Add some drama with a good team of announcers and history.
It is interesting watching old Videos of races in the 70's.
There were exciting to watch.

Bringing PRO Classes back is a good idea.
Do it the IHRA way and does not have to do what NHRA does.

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....

I have often wondered why tracks do not offer spaces with 30 amp hookups.
Seems like a good money maker to me. Must be a liability issue.

I would pay 30 bucks a day to be able to hook up to that instead of burning 4 bucks a gallon gas running a noisy generator.

[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.

[MLP]

Pinks filled up tracks for one reason.....TV. Everyone and their brother showed up in hopes of getting on tv with their cars. Without the tv coverage, nobody would have shown up. It had everything to do with tv exposure and nothing to do with format, racing, tracks or anything else.

[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