More Black Helicopters

I must start by confessing that my exposure to the NHRA Big Show is now relegated to my Tivo box catching whatever time ESPN or ESPN2 decides to air the weekend coverage on their incredibly clogged schedule.

Yeah, we all know that there’s a better than 50/50 chance the NHRA Whatever Nationals, brought to you by Unicorns and Rainbows, will air once the college baseball playoffs have finished their extra innings yawn. To be fair, there probably is a larger viewing audience for most collegiate sports than for the NHRA Big Show.  However, the fact that, after all these years there is still no incredibly talented and ultra savvy NHRA marketing executive able to nudge ESPN into establishing a repeatable time for TV nitro fans to get their fix, is unconscionable.

NHRA TV must compete with NASCAR broadcasts, Indy Car events, and MotoCross, but that we “fans” cannot find a consistent time to see the Stars (or is it the Cars?) of the National Hot Rod Association is simply stupid, shortchanging the audience and sponsors. We can find Speed Center and Wind Tunnel at a repeatable time on Sunday evenings, but often there’s only B-roll footage or a couple of qualifying passes shown because of an embargo against showing the actual winners of an NHRA event, because the ESPN/ESPN2 show has not materialized on its random schedule, yet.

With all that high-priced marketing brainpower over at 2035 Financial Way in Glendora, you'd think an executive of the Association might have some input, but they don't know everything about everything drag racing any more than you do. You’ll probably keep renewing your NHRA membership because you want to be a member of the fastest motorsports sanctioning on earth (OK, I know that the SCTA is actually a faster sanctioning body. Still.), assuming that card in your wallet means something. 

NHRA is one of the largest motorsports sanctioning bodies in the world, but I’ve done the math on the NHRA Form 990 2010 Federal Tax return and, by my crude calculations (in the interest of full disclosure, math was not my strong suit in school), there are still approximately 60,000 card-carrying members, not over 80,000 as NHRA boasts in their forward looking Press Releases.