The timing of this update seems very appropriate, following my viewing
yesterday of the taped coverage of last week's Hi-Lo/O'Reilly Nationals (presented
by Pennzoil) from Houston Raceway Park. New "world" records were set in both
(professional) fuel classes and career best performances were achieved by many
racers. Highlight of the meet had to be Doug Herbert winning the $100,000 Winston
"No Bull" challenge after coming so close to it at the previous event, the
Gatornationals. Consistent runs by the Dick Lahaie-tuned Snap-On Tools car
took Dick to the winner's circle, in contrast to the "rotate the earth - or
else" tactics of many of his competitors.
And that's where this "soapbox special" is leading today. The most telling
moment of the race coverage was John Force's admission (in a finish line interview
after he won the race) that he had used up six engines -- that's in his
car alone; that doesn't include the (probably) two or three more expended by
team-mate Tony Pedregon in the other Castrol Car.
Heck, even if he'd been the No-Bull winner, plus won the race (which he
did), plus took the $25,000 MBNA record bonus (which he did), plus the runner-up
money for Tony's car (which they did), he still would have lost money, lots
of it, for the weekend. Is this really any way to run a race car? Sure, he's
got the quickest and fastest Funny Car on the planet, he's probably got the
most sponsorship support of anyone in drag racing, but is this really any
way to run a race car?
And is this really the right direction for the "sport" of drag racing
to be heading? Of course not. While the performances continue to spiral into
the realm of the unbelievable, the costs continue to spiral upwards and the
competitiveness of the field(s) as a whole continue to decline. The pressure
on the teams to perform, to allow them to keep their sponsors happy - and on
board - is driving the fuel classes to the brink of extinction.
With the much reduced television package this year, the opportunities to
justify those big sponsorship/marketing contracts are shrinking. Without some
serious TV time, no team will stay sponsored for much longer and with no
improvement of the current TV package on the horizon, the pressure to go deeper
into eliminations (to get that oh-so-valuable "tube time") is forcing the racers
to push harder and harder - and spend more and more.
In the last two seasons the absolute necessity of major sponsorship has
seen more than a few teams drop out when the dollars evaporated. Shelly and
Randy Anderson (when Parts America was bought by another company), Whit Bazemore
(when Winston decided to "go in a new direction"), Jim Dunn - after winning
two consecutive races with Frank Pedregon driving - was forced to park his car
due to a lack of sponsorship. Considering that "Big Jim" runs a very tight
ship (dollar-wise) and had won two national events in a row, does that tell
you something about just how bad the situation is getting?
Let's not look at the purses for other forms of motorsport, such as
NASCAR, Indy cars, Indy Racing League or Formula One. They would make the drag
racing payouts look like pocket change by comparison. There are obviously many
reasons for the great disparity, with television coverage and the attending
increase in mainstream acceptability and marketability being foremost. The
attendance figures are, in most cases, similar to those for NHRA national
events, but the income from television - as opposed to having to pay to have
races broadcast - makes a huge difference in the money available to the racers
and teams.
Also, with all that increased TV exposure, the individual teams and drivers
are able to attract much larger sponsorship contracts. The other series are
on a sprial too -- upwards, not downwards in every area except performance.
In fact, performance increases are not even desired in many other areas. Witness
the changes in Formula One last year to slow the cars down and make the
racing more competitive; therefore more interesting and marketable.
So, do we have any answers to these problems? Are you kidding? If I did,
do you think I'd be sitting here writing this; I'd be down in Glendora trying
to knock some sense into people who have their heads stuck so deep (fill in
the blank yourself) that they have no clue what is going on outside their office
or the corporate suites.
Looking at the world of drag racing through their eyes, everything is just
fine and exciting and wonderful, but the reality is that there are some very
dark clouds on the horizon.... and they're getting darker and closer all the
time. By the way, this "editorial" was aimed at the fuel classes, but you could
apply - to a degree - the thinking to the other "Pro" classes and some of the
more expensive Federal-Mogul eliminator categories as well.
The foregoing is simply one man's opinion of what's wrong, written from
a fairly narrow viewpoint, but if it makes even one other person sit back for
a minute and think about just where we're headed, then it's served its purpose.
As always, more news as it happens.... even if we have to invent it ourselves.