Possible Regional Series in 2007....NHRA wants your feedback

After several discussions with Len Imbrogno and other NHRA officials, Len suggested I posted this on here to get some feedback from the racers regarding switching from the current divisional format to a regional series.

I've posted my thoughts on here, but we'll go back through them.

Let's face it, the current divisional series is broke, as far as the alcohol cars are concerned. Many tracks are making their money on back-gate profit, not front-gate spectator ticket sales. It's low-risk profit. Yes, you can make a higher profit if you brought a crowd, but along with that comes a risk. The tracks that are doing divisionals like this, and it's the majority, don't want the alcohol cars because their purse money cuts into their back gate entry fee money.

It creates a lose-lose situation for everyone involved. If you're chasing points, or want to race a few national events, you have to attend divisionals. There's no crowd at many of these events so they have little marketing/sponsorship value. The payouts at these events are also very low. The track conditions at some of these events are subpar as well.

Yes, there are tracks that value the alcohol classes to draw a crowd. Rather than stick with a broke system, I think a new system needs to be established to maximize the value for all parties involved. Such a system could be the Drag Racing equivalent of the Busch Series we have looked for.

The first move is to eliminate the alcohol cars from the Divisionals. Then you create a Regional series featuring TAD, TAFC and possibly Pro Mod. Make it a two day show, mostly at night. 8 car fields, and each division gets two events at the tracks that want the show and have a good facility.

With the divisional series gone, racers in TAD/TAFC would now earn points at their best 5 of 8 nationals, and best two of four regionals.

By the numbers...

The payout on a regional event would closely mirror a national, just cutting off the first round payout to a 16 car field. The payout would be as follows:
Win: $5,000
R/U: $3,000
Semi: $2,200
Qual 5-8: $1,900
Alt 1&2: $1,000
Alt 3&4: $500
TOTAL: $23,000 per class.

If you ran Pro Mod in at this pay scale, your payouts from those three classes would total $69,000. Throw in Top Sportsman and Top Dragster as filler classes, and you're probably $75,000 to $77,000 into it. $25,000 in promotional expenses and $5,000 to put the event on you're in the ballpark of $110,000 to put on the event. A weekend pass at such an event could easily command $50 ($20 for Friday, $30 for Saturday). It only takes 2200 weekend passes to cover expenses. An event like this, promoted properly, should easily bring in over 5000 spectators over the course of a weekend. At 3000 weekend passes, that's a 36% return on investment. Lets not forget about those $4 hamburgers and $3 sodas. And that's with no sponsor support. The numbers are there to make money on the track level, and make a marketable event for alcohol racers, along with significantly better money than the divisional level.

What are the benefits?

Let's face a reality, NHRA is not going to pay the alcohol racers enough in payouts to offset the cost of racing. So we need to focus on our marketability to attract sponsors to cover those costs. That's why I'm so adamant about improving the current Top Alcohol program to make it more marketable. The regional series would just about guarantee a good crowd where the alcohol cars got top billing. Now that has marketing value. A divisional where the stands look like a ghost town has little or none.

We also need to look at the possibility of racing on Saturday, given the NHRA gives us more spotlight. That will be touched on in another thread.

This is just my opinion. NHRA wants to hear yours....so post your thoughts.

 

math

glad you caught me there dean. thats why i was a business major, not math...i ventured off my calculator and it bit me...LOL.

i'm sure there are divisional tracks that want to get an 8 car tad field and an 8 car tafc field for about 12-14k.

i dont know. maybe the magic number is 3 per div. if they want to put on an event of that caliber and scale, then maybe you do best 3 of 6 regionals.

if they don't want to buy into a full scale regional, i'm sure they can find someone like myself or you that can organize a smaller scale tad/tafc match race.

 

regionals

bruce, i'd have to differ from you on that one. I think your top teams are going to be there regardless. The Manzos, Newberrys and Paynes would be there testing anyway.

if you had two regionals per div and could only claim 4, 2 of them you're going to run close to home. that leaves you two to hit in another div.

it would also take a full season to 12 races. more teams could pursue a national championship.

you would incur more travel expenses in this format, but you would also have less races a year to have to go to. plus the races you would be going to would have sponsor value.

 

16 cars

if you had tad and tafc with a 16 car field at national event pay you're looking at $67,400 in payout for those two classes. a national event 16 car payout equals $33,600.

i think a 16 car field would be ideal myself, but putting myself on the other side of the ball, i dont know if a track would want to invest that kind of money in two classes.

maybe if we can get a regional series sponsor to step up we can get the extra money needed to bridge the gap.

it has been mentioned there shouldn't be a problem with finding a class sponsor for the alcohol classes....

 

runs and costs

woodchip,

we have to build a system that has value. how many alcohol racers with competitive operations would go to a match race that paid $3500 ($2500 to win plus maybe $1000 for assorted contingencies) for six runs stretched out over 3 days? Only one car gets that and it gets worse from there.

i agree in the fact that there should be something in place to make some of these divisionals promote the races the way they should, but that's just not realistic. nhra is not going to hold a gun to a member track and make them spend $10,000 in advertising. divisionals have become a sportsman, high car count money maker off entry fees. lets not forget that a real promoter is a rare breed these days.

if you amortorize a set amount of money to a set amount of races, yes that will make your costs go up. but even on that level, if you're only going to 4 of these races versus 8 divisionals, you free up money to apply to those 4 regionals, and should have some left to test. you also free up time and resources to hit more national events. 12 races to chase a national championship is far more feasible than 16.

but the feedback is appreciated. maybe the magic number is 3 regionals per div. take your best 4 out of 6.

keep in mind with the regional series, this may not be restricted to division. maybe there's 3 tracks in div 1 that wants to hold one and 2 in div 2, etc. i think at least two tracks per div should hold one, and if additional tracks want dates, maybe up to 6 extra dates...that would be 20 regional events.

as far as car counts, three eight car fields means there will be 24 come first round for tad, tafc, pro mod. there will be probably close to 40% more at very least trying to qualify, so now you have 40-50 heads up cars trying to qualify. i stated originally, there needs to be some filler. top sportsman and top dragster (top comp out west) are popular categories.

so you take 3 eight car fields and start elims at 8 pm on a hot summer night. without major delays, with a 75 min pit turnaround, you're looking at 90 min from the start of one round to the start of the next. so you run at 8, 9:30, and 11. you figure 20 to 30 min. a session, if you open up with pro mod at 8, 8:30ish you're sending TAFC down, and 9 ish you're sending TAD down. You roll right back into Pro Mod at 9:30 R2, and you'll be complete with TAD R2 by 10:15 or so. So that means you need to have a round or two before 8 of your filler classes. you should be able to fill most of your down time with the remaining rounds for those eliminators. you come around to the finals at 11:20 or so. you have now ran within that 4 hour entertainment window. a little downtime isn't a bad thing. alot is, but a little isn't. at these caliber of cars, there is interesting action going on in the pits. plus you need time to hit the restrooms and grab a snack. i think pro mods, fc's and tad could command a $30 saturday night ticket.

 

moving forward

moving forward is going to take changes. i'm trying to map out a realistic route to moving forward.

in a perfect world, nhra would be able to enforce an advertising fee for divisionals. however in reality, in the absence of promoter type track owners, you have car count track owners. they want to open their gates up on friday night and have 200 street cars. they want bracket races with high car counts. when the divisional rolls to town, they want high car counts. back gate, back gate, back gate. maybe they tried to advertise one time, but they probably half assed it. some might not have the resources to put on a big event. bottom line, there are alot more back gate owners, opposed to promoters who know what they're doing and can bring them through the front gate. keep in mind on the non national event level, there is quite the track war going on between nhra and ihra. if they want to be back gate, and nhra says you need to be back gate, ihra comes over and tells them 'we don't have alky cars at divisionals, and we have good sportsman participation to help your back gate.' i agree, nhra holding some sort of promoting clinic would be good for the sport. sending a free copy of steve evans' "Be There" CD would be a good start.

it's just not realistic to sit here and talk about how nhra needs to tax the tracks. let's put together a program nhra will get behind.

nitrohawk, you're absolutely right. one assumption that this potential program is reliant on is nhra getting behind this. and i mean more than a mention at the end of nhra2day. nhra would really need to blitz the deal hard. pump it up on the website, with numerous plugs on motel 6 vision during national events. this program absolutely has value to nhra in expanding it's fan base to regions and market groups the powerade series doesn't hit.

as far as expenses go, there's no way you can tell me that 8 division races are cheaper than 4 to 6. yes, there will be additional travel expenses incurred. it will effect everyone's job differently. you might have a couple more early weekends, but you'll have less weekends to take off thursday for that divisional.

if alcohol cars are to be a main attraction, 90 minutes in the pits is a thing of the past. 75 minutes guaranteed is more time than you get at most nationals these days.

as far as running at night, if you go back to my original post, i mentioned facilities capable of holding an event like this. obviously lighting is an issue. i don't think you would bring this event into a substandard race track.

where am i going with all of this. it's to take the alcohol classes to a level where it's easier to find sponsor support. where you don't have to be independently wealthy to chase a national championship out of your own pocket. nhra has said and it's pretty much a policy statement that you will never be able to support your racing off of prize money. it's very difficult, if not impossible to make a class cheaper with new rules. it's never going to be like it used to be. we can try to control rising costs, but generally the only things i've ever seen make a class cheaper to run is technology advancements, and i've never seen a rules change work. so you've got to focus on a way to make the class more marketable to bring in sponsors.

what i don't see is the current system getting us there. if you're going after sponsors, you're more than likely going to go after at least a top ten. to do so, you're probably going to have to go to 8 divisionals. depending on which div you run, i bet more than half of that 8 will have a pure spectator count less than 500. half of that total will probably be less than 100. so if you're not discounting your divisional events to your sponsors, their not getting their money's worth. well, once you discount the deal, and with the low payouts, you're probably spending more money than what you take in on both payouts and sponsorship for that race. if a rep goes to one of those no fans in the stands races, or sees a picture posted on the internet with empty stands, you better start looking for a new sponsor monday.

maybe some racers are just content with the way it is. maybe i'm wrong and the majority out there would just keep on going to 5 or 6 divisionals because they're close and you can qualify pretty easy.

i think the majority however, is like most racers, they want to move up. most of them probably moved up to alcohol from a lower category. maybe a limited divisional schedule is all they can afford on their own budget. they probably would like to chase points, but they can't. what i'm trying to do is create a system that has enough value that a team can secure the corporate backing to step up to that level.

more than creating a system, i'm trying to stimulate interest, get a pulse and get feedback.

i firmly believe the alcohol classes have the potential to be an equivalent to nascar's busch series, if presented the right way in the right environment and promoted properly. i just don't think you get there from here in the current system.

maybe i'm out in left field trying to get there. maybe the majority just wants it to be the same. i don't think so, but if i am totally out there, sound off.

i forget who said it, but someone once said, "Change isn't mandatory, but neither is survival"