New design: Thumbs Up -  13, Thumbs Down - 14

We asked for your opinions about our redesign. We didn’t get a lot of feedback, but hope those of you who didn’t like it to start with are now of the same mind as this reader who wrote a second letter:

Jeff,

I apologize for the crack in my recent email about changing your website like the NHRA did. Shame on me, bad comparison, over-reaction and old dog/new tricks syndrome.

I’ve figured it out pretty well with some practice and getting lost a few times. It is making sense now. So far one issue I have is that the header in the Agent 1320 section doesn’t allow a full view of the photographs.  You need to scroll in order to see them top to bottom.

Regards, I appreciate the effort by all involved in putting out DRO Magazine.

Steve Pitt

Salem, OR

Steve (and the rest of you): We’re still tweaking the design to make it better. Thanks for giving us a second chance. Keep those letters coming. -- Editor

And now back to the regular mail:

That darn TV schedule

Fox has the same ugly time slots that ESPN had in my area. I am not sitting up until 11 pm to watch an hour of qualifying. Maybe if the NHRA found a way to get some kind of ball involved with the races they would fare better on time slots with the sports TV folk. Golf, tennis lacrosse, and bowling get a better shot than NHRA.

Plus, it has gotten somewhat boring; seems that cubic dollars make for frequent winners. I have followed NHRA since the early 1960's. Something is missing. Is it the no ID shape and look of the cars? Where is the Chevy-Ford-Mopar fan cheering and name calling? Boring.

Maybe I am just too damn old, but it ain't what it used to be or could be.

Phil Scala

Billings, MT

Let’s level that playing field?

Why doesn’t the NHRA add some weight to the Chevy Pro Stockers like they did to the Harleys to balance out the field. The class needs some help.

Donald Hacker

Canton, MI

Choosing what he likes

I don’t watch NHRA on TV because the pros have the same 15 or 16 competitors. Pro (Camaro) Stock is even more boring. Now if they threw in sportsman racing I would watch. Probably record it, speed through the pros and watch sportsman, just like I read the National Dragster.

Bob Kowal

Michigan

NHRA: same old, same old

Just read (Burk’s) latest column, as usual, with interest. I agree with you that NHRA certainly needs a shot in the arm, although I doubt seriously that it is ever going to get it. I agree with you completely that Competition Eliminator needs a complete revamp, as does Super Stock, Stock, Pro Stock is all but dead from a spectator standpoint, and I for one, would love to see Modified Eliminator come back, although it's doubtful that will ever happen.

I'm of the opinion that, although the Nitro classes are the main attraction, I think NHRA places a total emphasis on these classes, and nothing else, and could really just care less about any of the Sportsman classes, and I think that if they had their way, would do away with the Sportsman classes entirely. I still believe that NHRA would just as soon have Top Fuel and Funny Car, everything else would just run in a big ET Bracket Race, and be done with it.

NHRA, after all this time, though, shows no indication of changing their way of doing things, and even though the spectator attendance keeps dwindling away, they show no apparent signs of changing anything. Wonder what's going to happen when they put on a race and no one attends? I'm afraid that day isn't all that far off.

Bob Small

Has Been NHRA Super Stock Racer of No Particular Renown

Get with the times, Jeff Leonard

You may have exposed the most important aspect of Mr. Leonard's guest column by way of introduction saying he had ..."drifted away from drag racing over the years.." Upon reading it, it seems clear to me he drifted away from drag racing when he last hung up his corded telephone.

Look, I may be as old as or older than Mr. Leonard, but I am pretty sure that if you reference "Broadway Bob" as what you might perceive to be a contemporary model or standard to hold up as a crucible, you're in trouble. Maybe, while evoking the business prototype for success the wisdom of Broadway Bob can insure, Mr. Leonard can set up the Mr. Gasket display on the manufacturer's midway as he is preparing for the return of Gas Rhonda and Roger Lindamood to match race.

"More cars is better, every day of the week", he wrote. Of course, we would all agree with that, and hey, as he goes on to write, "If a team doesn't want to make an attempt, cut their payout".  It is following this bag of potash that he invokes the memory of Broadway Bob.

Here is the guest column tragedy of Rip Van Leonard: He slept through twenty years. He is/was unaware of the 2017 NHRA paradigm: Superteams. Only three real challengers to the nitro crown (sorry, Torrence or Wilkerson, but you won't win) for there is no competition, there are no loggers just waiting to join the nitro racing ranks, due to expense and domination by a trio a oligarchs that run the association.

The complete lack of nitro racing teams is lost to Mr. Leonard. Search though he might, Fred Goeske and Randy Walls won't be driving through his and Broadway Bob's gates.

Richard Gebhart

Bring it on!

With the seeming demise of AHRA Motorsports, the only hope for the small time “fuel privateer” is IHRA adopting what has always worked in the past: Run What Ya Brung Open Shows! I would guess literally dozens of “retired” fuel dragsters, coupes, altered are sitting in garages on flats or stands. The owners occasionally looking longingly at them wishing “I would do this again if I had a place and a race I could afford to go to.”

An 8, 16, 32, 64-car field of Run What Ya Brung, open to everyone who can pass a tech safety inspection. No track prep! 100% allowed!

Big money has ruined the sport for the little guy, and some of those whose innovations drove the costs beyond even their ability to keep up.

So, make the races happen and purses realistic and they will come. All for now…JR out!

Jim Robbins

Houston, TX

Too top heavy?

Jok, Thanks for the great perspective on “splitting.” Like buy-backs, I think it is something that should never have been allowed in the sport. But now that it has happened, I believe that your thinking is the right way to go. Structuring the purse in a realistic manner is very important in bringing racers in that might not normally come to a particular race.

I know a lot of guys who won’t go to race where the advertised winner share is 10 or 20 G’s because they feel that it would be populated by too many ringers, where a 5G-to-win race would be much more attractive to them.

Dale Tuley

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