Pinks vs. NHRA

[bill dedman]

Here's an ad I found on a website I frequent:

.>>> "Starting on Monday, December 3rd, (insert drag strip name, here) will begin accepting pre-registered entries for Pinks All Out. Registration will be ongoing until we reach the mandated 400 cars, then no more entries will be accepted. Pre-registration fees will be $40.00 for car and driver. We can think of no better way to highlight our racers than to give you the chance to be a TV star. Drivers will earn $1000.00 for every round won, with the finalist taking home $10,000.00 for the top prize. Don’t miss your chance to be the center of everyone’s attention. Call the (insert drag strip name and phone number) office at XXX-XXX-XXXX, or go online at (insert drag strip's website URL here) and get your name on the list." <<<

There are no minimum combustion chamber volumes, piston weights, maximum valve-lifts, or carb numbers to worry about, with no teardowns for the winner, or runner-up...

Is there any reason why someone should be able to take a backyard-built, "fits no class" car, and win this kind of money, when the expensive, and pristine, scienced-out, mechanical masterpieces that make up Stock and Super Stock Eliminator pay six times as much to enter, and win so much less??

Oh yeah; no contingency money... LOL! Apparently, it all comes from PINKS...

Somehow, I don't think this is what Wally intended.

[jarn05]

Screw Wally, Pinks And The Present Upgraded Nhra!

[Larry Munk]

From what we saw when my daughter wanted to go see them up at VMP, before they went to all out.
The parking lot was full,
They had to have extra people show up to sell tickets,
The people in the stands were having a great time, much like a local oval track race.
The line at the concession stand was too long to get a burger.

From what we've sen watching Pinks All out on TV.
Class racers show up to participate.
Mark Lewis and Hilary Sloan got more TV time by going to Pinks in '07 thank all other Class racers in Nhra.
Recently MAC or one of the other Tool companies have added a 10 grand tool box to the Kitty.
The people putting this on don't know squat about class racing and could care less about it.
The racers all seem to have a good time.
Some get a big payday for a $40 ticket.
And the real kicker is; it's on TV at least 5 times a week.

[THE LEGEND]

I went to Pinks at Rockingham. We had a blast. The entry was only $25 though. Just like any other race they will figure out a way to milk it til it dies too. Back to Pinks at Rockingham. The place was packed. More people than a national event. Cars you have never senn and probably will never see again. I'll go back.
Chip

[goinbroke2]

But, but, but, people don't want to see "family cars" puttering down the track, they only want to see fire and smoke and 300mph runs! It's not a show unless the car is pulled in a tractor trailer or three and crewed by a dozen people. The fans only want to be entertained by big dollar pro's!!

It must be true, every internet mag, paper rag and anywhere else you read about dragracing all seem to say it.

Too bad they didn't actually talk to some of the "fans". Too bad the talking heads who always seem to have all the answers are blind to the fact that many smaller more profitable venues are popping up because people actually DO like door slammers and cars they can relate to. I think pinks has evolved from the "I won because I lied" style of match racing to hand-drop-start style of bracket racing.
In spite of the multitude of pro heads-up proponents spouting off about the complexities and bland/boring action at a bracket race, when promoted properly, index racing can be fun AND entertaining.

I can only hope the exposure to 9-12 sec door slammers can change some attitudes about the "fun" and profitability of index racing. Obviously pinks (which is growing) is a testimony to that fact.
Someone said to call Rich and offer Stockers and SuperStockers as a closed show that he could promote the hell out of for his own profit. I think this would be excellent. A complete show on pinks with only S/SS cars? How professional would THAT look compared to billybobs shaggy vega with a big block?

Certainly an opportunity here in my opinion.

[Philip Saran]

I'll add my 2 cents. I enjoy watching Pinks All Out, I thought the first version of Pinks
was too hokey. Both sides trash talking each other.

My wife has only been to the drag races ONCE (Irwindale CA 1/8th mile), but watching
Pinks All Out she gets excited and roots for her favorite car (or driver).

I agree that a all Stock/SuperStock show would be great, but then I would also watch
a entire show made up of only SS/AH cars too.

[Tony Curcio]

It looks like a lot of us were having similar thoughts about how class cars could fit the Pinks All Out format and vice-versa. Hemi cars could fill a 16-car field on both coasts and in the mid-west. And they would be faster than any field they've shown to date (I think the fastest so far was Phoenix, where they had a 9.00 field that included a dragster, driven by a woman whose husband went to the final in a Firebird super-gasser).

Top Stock could probably fill a 9.90-10.00 field almost anywhere in the USA. Acccording to Nitro Joe's stats, 147 cars entered an NHRA event that were classified in either B/SA or B/FIA. Add in stick cars, and "A" or "C" entries, you get well over 350 potential entrants.

Junior Stockers are almost as numerous, but with the exception of four or five B.M.F.'s (i.e. Henry Kuntz, Evan Smith, Bruce Noland), most entries would not run quicker than 11.0's unless the race was held at Atco or Cecil County in April or October. I'm not sure if Pinks ever had a show with eleven-second cars. But there's a first time for everything, and it would be close racing and a good show.

Of course, you know the show's producer are never going to get involved with enforcing rules, so the most likely scenario is that the field would be populated by a mixture of class cars and some "run-wut yew brung" cars that happen to run within a tenth of each other. Or perhaps a once per year event in which a Hemi Shootout is featured as a Pinks Special.

These guys will notice quality cars. Larry Munk pointed out above that Mark Lewis and Hillary Sloan got exposure at the Rockingham show. Do you also recall that Rich spoke into the camera while Mark was doing his burnout, and said something like "that's a good-running old muscle car". He probably had no idea what a stocker is, but he could tell something special was happening.

[grateful sled]

what wally intended? lol! nhra--non-profit organization. where do you think the profits go? do you believet that most of what you see @ national and divisional events has anything to do with wally parks' vision? think about it? want to have fun; call nhra in glendora sometime and ask them what the nhra mission statement is. don't you think an organization that large and that wealthy should have one? start asking more questions. questions are the race fuel of evoltuion!

[Bryan Worner]

Bring it to Maple Grove, Englishtown, Virginia, Budds Creek, Atco, or Cecil County and I'm in!!!!!

[Gary Smith]

Looks like the timing couldn't be better for our cause. Reading NHRA.com this morning I discovered DSR is taking a hard hit in sponsor dollars for '08: Stevens losing Mopar and Valspar, BRUT pulling out of NHRA alltogether. With a recession looming, there will probably be more. But marketing departments will continue to hunt opportunities in value not only in television, but other media outlets (like YouTube). Rich Christiansen's deal just gets bigger all the time. He's rapidly proving the value of advertising dollars for grassroots drag racing week end and week out. Grassroots video clips are popping up all over the internet like a rash! Again, this could prove we don't need NHRA to keep class racing alive