4-WIDE FROM THE SPONSOR'S VIEWPOINT
Sun, 2010-04-18 14:00
Charlotte Lucas said she had to wonder why Bruton Smith was talking about converting The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway from two lanes to four. And she was curious why she was hearing talk that the architect of four-wide racing and chairman of Speedway Motorsports Inc. wanted to bring a four-wide dragstrip to his New Hampshire facility.Four-wide racing was still an untested quantity when she and husband Forrest Lucas -- owners of Lucas Oil, Top Fuel team owners, and sponsors of several professional drag-racing teams -- spoke with NHRA officials this February at the season-opening Winternationals.
"The NHRA told Forrest and me at Pomona that they would try it and if it didn't work out, they wouldn't do it again," Charlotte Lucas said. "I can't see Bruton Smith going out and spending a lot more money without the NHRA saying something [encouraging to him]. It doesn't make sense."
Charlotte Lucas said she had to wonder why Bruton Smith was talking about converting The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway from two lanes to four. And she was curious why she was hearing talk that the architect of four-wide racing and chairman of Speedway Motorsports Inc. wanted to bring a four-wide dragstrip to his New Hampshire facility.
Four-wide racing was still an untested quantity when she and husband Forrest Lucas -- owners of Lucas Oil, Top Fuel team owners, and sponsors of several professional drag-racing teams -- spoke with NHRA officials this February at the season-opening Winternationals.
"The NHRA told Forrest and me at Pomona that they would try it and if it didn't work out, they wouldn't do it again," Charlotte Lucas said. "I can't see Bruton Smith going out and spending a lot more money without the NHRA saying something [encouraging to him]. It doesn't make sense."
Maybe the situation has become clear with the NHRA's announcement Saturday at Las Vegas that it intends to ignore a 60-3 vote from owners and racers against the notion and an ESPN poll that showed 70 percent of the voters against it (at the same moment the sanctioning body released its news).
NHRA announced that the 2011 spring race at zMAX Dragway in Concord, N.C., once again will feature four-wide racing in all four professional categories.
FROM A TRACK OWNER ...
John Bandimere Jr., the president of Bandimere Speedway, is opposed to four-lane competition for pro classes.“The professional level of drag racing, I think needs to be a two-lane deal,” Bandimere Jr. said. “You have guys who are way up there in the points, and they go up there and have lane choice and they choose their lane and they hit the hammer and the tires zing up into smoke, and the guy who shouldn’t win the race, wins the race in an upset. We just saw that happen in the race last weekend in Houston. Frankly, I think the four-lane (racing) takes that opportunity away from drivers, because it’s not a competition of two guys against each other. Plus, we all struggle to get sponsors and sponsors in a four-lane (pro) race don’t get the same kind of exposure that they would get in a two-lane race.”
Bandimere Speedway is based in Morrison, just outside of Denver, and the Bandimere family has been operating the track for 52 years.
The speedway holds a variety of different motorsports events, highlighted by the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals. The 31st annual Mile-High Nationals are July 23-25. The relationship between Mopar and Bandimere marks the longest running national event sponsorship in the history of the NHRA.
Bandimere, however, did say using four-lane competition for bracket racing, for instance, would make great sense.
“When you run a race track like we do with a lot of dates every year, and a large percentage of those events we have are either Test & Tune, a club race, or a high school race, or that type of a deal,” Bandimere said. “So, to have four lanes for that type of racing, where you can take and give people an opportunity or a shot at the race track, more than what they would normally get, that could be really good. Also, if you did have the opportunity to have four lanes, you could now develop a junior drag race program because you could run more often.” - Tracy Renck
But not everybody agrees with the NHRA's edict.
Charlotte Lucas said before Saturday's announcement that "as an owner and a sponsor, we're spinning our wheels. All it's doing is making Bruton Smith happy." She said she doesn't "have any problem with making Bruton Smith happy," per se, but that she and others simply want their say and want the NHRA to consider it.
"I don't like it, not at all," she said of the four-wide racing format. "It's detrimental to the sport, big-time.
"I signed a petition, and Morgan (son Morgan Lucas) signed it, saying we're against four-wide racing," Charlotte Lucas said. "I told (husband and Lucas Oil founder) Forrest, and he told me, 'Good. I'm glad you did. I would have done it, too."
Charlotte Lucas cited safety as her primary reason for opposing the unique brand of drag racing.
"I don't think it's safe," she said. "We had tire come off of Cory Mac's car (Cory McClenathan's Top Fuel dragster). Had that not happened just exactly like it did, can you imagine what would have happened to the drivers and the cars? If a car's coming up behind you and a wheel comes off the car or the body comes off -- any number of little goodies can happen -- you've got drivers in the other lanes you're taking a chance or hurting or killing.
"This is not a safe sport to begin with," Lucas said, shuddering to think that the probability of accompanying trouble is "probably more than double" the normal risk.
"You add four cars on the track at one time, and you're just asking for something to happen," she said. "There's always going to be something happening. There's just no sense going out there and bringing more problems than we've got already."
Marcus Smith, president and general manager of Charlotte Motor Speedway and son of Bruton Smith, insisted the event was a roaring success. He spoke of skyrocketed TV ratings, social media frenzy, and wildly positive fan feedback.
Charlotte Lucas' equally unofficial poll told her otherwise. She said that "people who came to our pits were asking, 'Why are they doing this?! It's hard enough as it is.' "
JEGS spokesman Scott Woodruff understood what Marcus Smith was saying.
"The four-wide format provided an excellent return on investment for JEGS," he said. "I can tell you without a doubt that four-wide racing created new sales for JEGS and put our brand in front of people (who) might not have thought of JEGS before. Now it's our job to make them customers for life."
Increased media attention was key, Woodruff said.
"The event was followed by numerous media outlets that normally put limited effort at best on following our sport. This time they watched, they talked about, they reported about it -- and that means new and additional eyeballs enjoying our sport," Woodruff said. "It doesn't matter if you are JEGS, the NHRA or z-Max Drag way -- we need new people looking at our great sport if we expect to grow."
John Torok, of Matco Tools, qualified his comments by saying, "As a fan, I thought it was fun, but it is a novelty."
His job requires him to analyze such things from a business, or promotional, angle. That's when he had to take off his fan's hat, and he confessed that he didn't enjoy four-wide racing nearly as enthusiastically.
"I spent a lot of time watching the broadcast," Torok said, "and I can say from my point of view, it's not good for the sponsor. Exposure is way down for each car and therefore the sponsor. Cameras had to be a mile away to cover the action. I guess you can say it is like being in the pack in a NASCAR race."
By an overwhelming 60-3 verdict, PRO -- composed of team owners and drivers -- voted not to participate in four-wide racing again in a points event. However, in a letter PRO sent to Compton and copied to Bruton Smith, the racers indicated they would be willing to discuss racing four-wide at some sort of exhibition or all-star event (something on the order of the old Winston No Bull Showdown that pitted dragsters against Funny Cars).
Still, the racers used such language in the PRO missive as "circus-like atmosphere" to describe some of its complaints. Safety compromises, confusion about starting-line procedure, and what they figured was a flat-line response for their sponsors also were factors.
NHRA announced it "is planning to improve upon the format and make adjustments to enhance the experience for everyone. Areas under review include the experience on-site for the fans, improving television for fans watching at home, maximizing sponsor value, and working with the race teams on operational functions including the staging process."
Pro Stock driver Allen Johnson wrote in his latest Mopar blog:
"My J&J Racing/Mopar Dodge Avenger squad and I adapted to it, and it was fun for a change and generated some publicity. However, I don't think the place for it is in a competitive points race. Now, if they want to do a four-wide high-dollar incentive race during qualifying, sort of like the K&N Horsepower Challenge, that's fine. Maybe they do a big shootout with the top four in points from each class during qualifying. I could see doing something like that. But a regular points race, where we're all so serious about winning a championship, it's just not a place for it."
The NHRA and PRO felt otherwise.
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