FEEDBACK ARTICLE - Up Front with Jon Asher
Hey, John....didn't I e-mail that idea to you when you were at Racer Magazine??
:)
I totally agree with your scenario and I think it's long overdue for
happening. I think that moving the PS finals would be a great thing for them to
get max exposure for all of the car makes and the sponsors for each competitor.
I'd agree with another post from Ted that they should go to 32 cars.....Such a
tight field and I think this would make for some killer racing!!
I'll
take your thoughts a couple of steps further, if I may.....A) More promotion of
the alcohol gang. If these ladies and gentlemen are the future of the Nitro
classes, how about a little early promotion for them and potentially, their
sponsors if they come with them?? I think they put just as much time and money
as the Nitro crowd....a little more pub will do wonders to keep some of these
folks in the sport and replentish the Nitro ranks when older drivers
retire.....B) Dump the bikes. Sorry, but I hit the drags to watch serious
horsepower coming from 4 wheeled vehicles, not 2. I'm not into the whiny
Suzooks or lumpy soundin' Harleys and I think most of the crowds that go agree
with me. Those guys and gals have their own sanctioning body besides NHRA,
anyways. Time to grow it more and make it on their own. Lets make more time
for the cars and move the bikes onto their own platform. Besides, not all of
the tracks feature them, too!! C) Feature some of the old nitro cars back for
another round. I'd much rather watch old FC's and NFD-ster's than a bunch of
dipsticks shootin' t-shirts into the crowd....Celebrate our heritage and show
the youngsters where the sport came from. Plus, more NITRO!!!
Great
points and I'm with you.....NHRA, pull your head out of the sand, make a bold
move with different ideas and quit following NASCARs footsteps!! We're
different, we're loud and we like NITRO!! Show it off!!! - Scott Heinrichs
Scott:
If you emailed me at RACER, I honestly don't recall it. Further, if you
emailed directly to the magazine it's unlikely that I would have seen it at all,
as I was never in the California offices, but did my work from here in New
Mexico.
But with that said, what did you email me about? The concept of Pro Stock
Saturday, or the changing of the run order for Sundays?
I'm not trying to hurt anyone's feelings, I'm only being realistic, but
there's very little likelihood of NHRA doing anything to promote the alcohol
cars. They get very little "play" during the national events and it's literally
impossible to get the straight press people to cover them in those venues.
Given a choice of doing a story on a Hillary Will or a totally unknown young
woman in an alcohol car, the newspaper guy is going to stick with Hillary if for
no other reason than his readers -- and his editor -- may have heard of
Hillary.
The proper venue for promoting the alcohol competitors is through the Lucas
OIl Series races, so the responsibility for this falls on the shoulders of the
individual track PR people and/or the NHRA division director. Given that, how
aggressive and successful do you think they can be? Probably not very.
I won't touch your motorcycle comment with the proverbial 10-foot
pole!
Sorry, but you're wasting your time thinking the NHRA management tam should
care about the sport's history and insert nostalgia cars into the down time. I
know for a fact that there are those in management who remain adamantly opposed
to the whole idea of the Cackle Fests as they mistakenly believe that such
happenings detract from the sport's current stars! Amazing obtuse, aren't
they? Even the youngest fans love the Cackle Fests and inherently understand
that some guy revving the engine on a front-motored fueler is not the same as
hero worshipping Brandon Bernstein. - Jon Asher
