Emptying out a cluttered reporter's notebook

At the recent Phoenix NHRA national event there weren’t enough Pro Stocks or Top Fuel cars to fill the advertised 16-car field on Sunday. This has been a more and more common problem at NHRA national events in recent years.

In the past there were part-time nitro and Pro Stock teams that could be called if NHRA knew they were going to be short cars at an event. Now for a lot of reasons -- the main one being money -- there are very few teams to call. Part of the issue is that after a couple of decades of constant development, current nitro and Pro Stock cars are very complicated and very expensive race cars. The days of going to the track and picking up a crew from the grandstands is over and dead.

But, assuming that a privateer team owner has the team, transporter, personnel and parts to attend an NHRA event, he faces one really serious issue and that is what they will get paid. At most NHRA national events a nitro qualifier gets paid $10,000. If they have to run all four qualifying laps plus first-round eliminations, the $10,000 they will get paid is about what it costs for a nitro racecar to make one lap if there isn’t an engine or drivetrain failure.

If the NHRA really wants to get more nitro racecars they must raise the first-round loser money. There simply aren’t enough independently wealthy hobby fuel racers, with a part time crew, that are willing to spend $40,000-$50,000 to race on a weekend and know that if they are able to qualify for big show they will get just $10,000 in return. I think NHRA will have to address the pay issue soon or be ready for eight-car pro fields on Sundays.

I didn’t like the FS1/NHRA broadcast from the Phoenix race any more than I liked the Winternationals’ broadcast. I was lathering up to write another rant about the new coverage when it hit me, the TV broadcast isn’t designed for my pleasure. I’m a seventy-year-old white man with an El Camino in the garage. I don’t have an iPhone, Facebook page, or tattoo. I definitely don’t fit into the 18-44 demographic that the NHRA and FS1 are seeking and catering to. Thus they probably aren’t concerned with what I want to see on an NHRA race broadcast. Maybe they are only interested in bringing in new viewers and don’t care about the long-time race fans.

So, if the TV ratings for the events continue to improve like they did for the Phoenix coverage over the Winternationals, then the production and direction for the show we’ve seen thus far must be what viewers want. As for me I’ll depend on the Fast News Network (Drag Race Central) to give me all the stats I can stand and almost in real time. And for the time being the NHRA events are off my must watch TV schedule.

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