Photos from DRO files and courtesy Dean Papadeas

Dean Papadeas is acknowledged by almost every expert in the sport of drag racing as the most successful producer and purveyor of drag racing videos in the sport/business. Papadeas was forced to quit making his Main Event videos in 2002 when the bottom fell out of the drag racing DVD market and the NHRA denied him access to NHRA tracks to shoot footage.

So he turned his talents towards the financing and production of a feature length film about drag racing, which he has completed pre-production on.

In the meantime, other than various drag racing-based game shows, orchestrated "races" and totally fabricated "reality" TV, professional drag racing's ratings for race broadcasts continue to be embarrassingly minuscule. So DRO editor, Jeff Burk, decided to ask “The Director" his opinions on (among other things) why NHRA drag racing on ESPN cannot deliver a Nielsen rating above a half a rating point and what he would do to change that.

He’s never at a loss for words.

: Dean, just to show how popular Main Event (www.maineventvideos.com) drag racing videos were in their heyday, what was your best year in terms of videos sold?

Dean Papadeas: In 1990 two major distributors took 11 of our titles to the mass market and into auto parts stores. They sold in the hundreds of thousands of videos. A nationally advertised and promoted 3-pack CRASH & CRUNCH TV commercial sold an equal amount of tapes.

: What single DVD that you produced was the most popular by sales and what made it popular?

DP: CRASH & CRUNCH was the best seller I ever made. That DVD is in reality a "best of" DVD using a bunch of fascinating mishaps and crashes we had shot over the years. We put blues and rock music to quick cuts, MTV style. Drag racing and rock and roll fit.