Jorge responds to August 11th Burk’s Blast point by point

1. Unfortunately most TV viewers DO want to see only the Pro categories as few viewers are “entertained” by sportsman racers after seeing 200-300+ mph Pro cars. Even P/S has a limited entertainment value to race attendees and TV viewers. Pro Mod is a car crash looking for a place to happen. That would be attractive to CRASHCAR fans but few others as the Pro Mods break about 50% of the time so there isn’t much real racing IME.

2. No, race fans hate the 60-90 minutes of “fluff” that NHRA insists on inserting into the final rounds so that the Pro teams can have 50 minutes to rebuild their engines and suffer significant financial losses when the rush-for-TV results in a blown engine or car crash. NHRA falsely believes that “live telecasts” results in more TV viewers when it does not. More TVs may be turned on to the FS1 channel but it does not mean someone is actually watching NHRA racing – especially when FOX post qualifying air times and then changes the real air time to 1:00 am... or worse – numerous times so far this season. VCRs don’t read the FOX broadcast announcements that NHRA qualifying has been changed to some wee hour in the morning after a FUBAR FOX management decision to shaft NHRA viewers AGAIN.

3. I do not for a minute believe that the Nielsen ratings are accurate at all as discussed above.

4. Big Chief is an unscrupulous, jive talking fool that not a single TV viewer would believe no matter what he says. In fact, NHRA is so alienating long time NHRA members by allowing an ass clown to even discuss NHRA racing which is 100% opposed to street racing. Wally Parks is turning over in his grave at the outrageously ignorant decision by NHRA suits to employ such a deceitful, dishonest person as Shearer to speak for NHRA. Nothing good can come from using an evil shill to promote NHRA racing when this shill illegally street races every week and it’s broadcast by money hungry pigs at networks like Velocity/Discovery who have no moral fiber what so ever. It’s all about duping people for huge financial gain.

5. NHRA has managed to increase executive salaries to six figures over the years but purses have remained the same as they were 15 years ago. The NHRA suits are looking out for #1 and that isn’t the racers or the fans.

6. I highly doubt any Fortune 500 companies would waste their advertising budget on the NHRA TV broadcasts as it’s not likely to generate any practical return on investment.

7. Pro Mod could never replace P/S. Pro Mod however could be entertaining for some folks who like to see cars crash and burn.

8. I did not find the NHRA broadcasts from Denver or Sonoma anything special. They still seem to have difficulty showing reaction times when the cars leave the starting line. On occasion they show the reaction times after the run with the ETs. Evidently the show producers don’t understand the importance of showing reactions times immediately.

9. The reason why CRASHCAR and Street Outlaws have high ratings is because of the crashing and antics by the criminal street racers on Street Outlaws. It has absolutely nothing to do with being able to identify with the cars – especially in CRASHCAR where even with the body changes this year there is little difference other than painted on brand names, etc.

Jorge Meister

NYC

A Small rant

Just now getting caught up on some of my regular reading after being out of town for a bit. As always, "Burk's Blast" is one of the first for me, as I am always interested in what you have to say with regard to NHRA and IHRA. Your comments regarding door cars are insightful, to say the least.

I've often wondered to myself over the years as to why NHRA decided to get rid of Modified Eliminator. Even though I never raced in that category, I always thought that it was a great eliminator bracket that allowed a lot of innovation, and was the starting point for a lot of creative and talented racers, who later went on to the Pro classes, and did quite well in those categories. Modified Eliminator was a great place for a racer to start out with a home brewed hot rod, and with the rules being somewhat more flexible than Super Stock or Stock Eliminator, allowed some flexibility while the car owner/builder learned more about what went on with a race car, as he or she progressed in knowledge, and the car benefited as well when the technology was applied to the race car itself.

If the Pro Mod cars are in fact more popular than the current Pro Stock cars are, that should leave a clear message to NHRA that their present program isn't working, and isn't going to work in its current form. The definition of insanity is when you continue to do the same things you've done before, hoping to achieve different results.

As per usual, thanks for taking the time to listen to my ranting and raving.

Bob Small

Has Been NHRA Super Stock Racer of No Particular Renown

IHRA should go back to sportsman racing

Tell Mike Dunn and Aaron Pulburn to bring back the old IHRA that was making money not the new IHRA. It sucks. No one wants to see the new IHRA. Nostalgia funny cars suck so does the jet class. Bring back the Pro Mods, Top Fuel, Top Sportsman, etc. That’s where IHRA made itself and bring back major corporate sponsorship.

Thomas Blalock

Ed. Note: Aaron Polburn is no longer with IHRA.

Money is another reason to kill Pro Stock

While I agree with (Burk’s) views on NHRA’s P/S class, he missed one important reason why the suits might desire to kill P/S. That is $$$$$. They could save themselves a bunch of money that could be funneled to the current excessive and outrageous salaries of the suits instead of paying P/S qualifiers and race winners. Probably the only thing that prevents NHRA from killing P/S is the revenue they receive from the K&N Pro Stock Horsepower Challenge and similar marketing $$$$.

The sad reality is that current P/S cars bear very little resemblance to a production muscle car these days. During the ‘60s and ’70a fans of Chevy, Ford and Mopar brands could root for the P/S drivers who originally had cars and engines based on production models. As the class evolved and U.S. auto makers stopped selling Muscle Cars due to the gas crisis, P/S cars by necessity drifted farther away from production cars and into 100% custom built race cars with engines that are only made for this class of racing and no other. With the cars all being very similar in shape you really could not tell what brand of car was being raced except by painted on brand names. Because fans could no longer relate to their favorite brand based on a production model body or engine a lot of fans lost interest in P/S because they have no idea of the incredible work and engineering that goes into producing and racing a P/S vehicle.

I have personally witnessed the mass exodus of fans at NHRA national events for decades once the fuel cars have finished their rounds. For the CASUAL race fan the fuel cars and stars are all they care about. Everything else is of much less importance because the fuel cars shock the senses where as normal race cars do not. Just like in CRASHCAR racing, many casual fans are there for the smoke, fire and crashes. The more of each the better. The racing is kind of secondary to the assault on the senses and the high probability of a massive engine/body explosion. The ETs mean little to most casual drag racing fans. The 300+ mph speeds, however, are bragging rights.

I don’t believe there is any way to make the current P/S class more exciting for casual fans. I do believe that knowledgeable race fans enjoy the current P/S racing and also racing of current factory limited edition Muscle Cars such as the Camaros, Mustangs and Challengers. The Hemi Challenge is also very popular because race fans of all brands can relate to the days when these Hemi powered bad boy cars were THE cars for hard core racers in the Stock or Super Stock classes with extensive factory involvement. You could actually buy some of the same engines/parts the pros used in those cars for your street Muscle Car.

Jorge Meister

NYC