Ok this has been on another board for a week or two. I was hoping it would migrate over here but it hasn't yet.

To paraphrase the opening statement that they had. There is much negativity aimed at nhra and hd partners, how about some positive thoughts on areas that they could improve or grow? People spend a lot of time criticizing but often no ideas to answer the issues.


I think its a decent idea, we know nhra looks here, so how about some more positive feedback not only on what needs to be improved but how it could be done.

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Here is what I had posted over there

Marketing, marketing, marketing

you can't grow if you don't invest. I don't remember who said it but the famous line of "you have to spend money to make money"

-I want to be able to go into walmart and buy drag racing towels, my kids want racing sheets for their bed. I don't want to have to go to a race to buy a shirt. I see nascar stuff everywhere, we need to be the same way

- a one stop shop for all racing items online. Most drivers e-stores are lacking and nitromall doesn't carry everyone. My in laws don't know anything about drag racing but they do know that their grandkids love it. They would love to be able to go to one website and buy gifts. Instead they have try to remember who is who and who they drive for and then find their website just for one kid. Then they need to repeat it for the next. A one stop e-store is much needed

-drag racing themed toys for kids

-eliminate the countdown (big surprise from me right lol)

-exposure. get one of our drivers on dancing with stars or something like that. Hillary was on a game show but it really didn't give her a chance to promote the sport. Why don't I ever see a racing ads on pinks, pimp my ride, nascar or any other car themed shows. How about putting together an ad blitz that shows on non racing times. Maybe epsn during football or on whatever the hot show is right now.

-lower the cost for fuel cars. Going back to 90% is the right direction, lets look at ways to keep the cost a little more controlled even if it means slowing them down A LITTLE. Both fuel classes need to be above 300mph. But if slowing them 10-15mph can make it more affordale not only for the drivers out there now but also for the ones wanting to be, well then thats something that should be explored. Also lower cost mean less money needed from sponsors, with a lower level of funding needed it may open the possibility of sponsoring to more companies.

-Audiocast is great but there are ways to improve it and to even make it a revenue stream. <my own little million dollar idea >

-A small form of profit sharing. Could be sticky I realize but a mentality of group growth and survival should overcome.

-There is a sense that nhra snags sponsors away from teams. While there are occasions when this has happened, there are also time that they have helped teams. There needs to be a bigger sense of all for one and one for all. If nhra holds a race but teams can't afford to get there who does that help. Develope a program to not only bring up new drivers but also to help grow sponsors.
What if they helped start a group for new drivers as well as helping to get regional sponsorships. They could combine a driver in training with a regional sponsor and have them exhibition at a couple of divisional events. The benefits are huge if a divisional event could promote that they had 2 fuelers there. It would increase people coming to those events, give a smaller or regional company some publicity and a taste of racing. That could help entice them to jump in bigger on the national level. Plus it could help be a training ground for up and comers. More people through the gate would make the local tracks happy. The sportsman racers would have more people seeing them and in turn their sponsors.

-part of marketing it to see who are the faces of our sport. Obviously Force, Shoe and the likes but the main 2 people that present the sport to the masses are Mike Dunn and Paul Page. Mike does an awesome job, any first timer can tell he has a love for the sport and a deep knowledge if it. Paul...well he is trying and is improving but he's still nowhere near what we need. Put Dave Rieff, Alan Reinhart or John Kernan into that spot.

-Put people with race experince onto the board of nhra. There is a sense that everyone there is either a suit or hasn't been in a car since the 50's. We don't need all suits or all greaseheads running the show. A good healthy mixure is needed.

ok I suppose thats good for now

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I think you are on to something here. The one stop e-commerce store is especially big, shopping from website to website is a pain, and even then they don't have much. So I wait each year for Sears Point to come around.

Now we have to get this to people who can take action.....anyone know how to email HD Partners?

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not only shopping from site to site but also the lack of items. A trailer at the track is stocked with all kinds of items, then online they have only a small % of those items. Opening up a one stop shop would increase sales.


Maybe they'll hire me to be the ideas man for them

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here's my idea: ask ESPN to sell its NHRA contract to FOX

NHRA - should spend some (more??) money and effort on a weekly TV News package.
That is, put together a couple pre-digested/colorful package for all the TV Sports outlets they can run with very little effort or cost.

One package for the Saturday deadline - qualifying stuff and some human interest stuff.
One package for Sunday night with the results and key runs.

Make it easy for the media outlets to publicize our sport.

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www.wannaberacing.com

i have a nhra towel and washcloth from somewhere in the 70's,
the towel has really cool car animations as well as lists the orig. 8 nat. events.

i can't help but think bringing other celebrity/business types to the drags
can't be a bad thing. It's like sales; throw enough sh#t against the wall and eventually some of it sticks.
the burden for this lies on everyone's backs; nhra's, the teams, track owners;
you never know who knows who and who might want to invest in drag racing.
even us common fans should never stop trying to bring
new faces to the races.

NHRA "buys" their time on ESPN2. Ostensibly, they can take their package anywhere they wanted as long as they are willing to spend the dough.

My ideas have been said before, but I will say them again. First one is TV. It is too long and redundant. The incessant replays of each fuel run are not necessary, and the interviews are too repititious, many of them could be cut altogether. I do not see any reason that the TV show for eliminations could not be 1.5 to 2 hours and be just as informative and entertaining. Secondly, the time slot is HORRIBLE for those on the east coast or in flyover states. Asking someone to stay up until midnight or 1 on a Sunday is just dumb. Lastly, nominate a series of races (maybe 3 or 4) and call it the triple crown or the fantastic 4. Hype the hell out of those events as the "Big Ones" and put them on NETWORK TV (my initial thoughts for the big 4 are Gators, E-Town, Indy and Pomona Finals but this is open to discussion). If NHRA can buy time from ESPN, they surely can buy the time from ABC, as they are the same company. Also have a mid week panel show, kinda like Inside Nextel Cup on speed and a NHRA tech show. Each show could be a half hour, and I am sure they could find time on speed for them, or maybe even buy the time slots on ESPN2.

Next is purse structure. No one in the media takes NHRA seriously because they don't pay seriously. It has to be at least 75K (preferrably 100K) to win a race for the fuel guys and at least a million to the season champ, 50K to win a race and half million champ for the Pro Stockers. HDP will have to either get POWERade to step up, or wrangle another series sponsor.

Another thing is in the heat of the Summer, run eliminations on Saturday night. I am tired of hearing about track temperature and seeing smokefests.

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Maybe they can snag POLAROID away from The Hulkster's son's drifting deal...

Nick Hogan "blogs" for first time since crash - Autoblog

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i REALLY like this idea. but could you imagine the ratings if NHRA had to compete with college football? secondly, what channel could broadcast NHRA on saturday night that isnt already broadcasting college football?

summer races- no football.. June to Indy

It is a great idea- let's hope they are lurking

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We'll see how that works out. The new guy with the Bud colors is certainly a more successful driver but lacks that magical last name.

NHRA needs to start listening to the Professional racers who put on their shows. Pay more attention to their needs, chassis, purse, parts, etc. Most of them have many more years experience than any of the talking heads at NHRA. And I totally agree about knee-jerk reactions to things.

One of the reasons you don't see more Pro racing items on the NHRA site is that NHRA takes a huge chunk of the proceeds of every sale. It took the racers years to get to have their own souvenir trailers at each event. But then it costs them to do that too. God forbid NHRA doesn't get a cut of everything.

NHRA & HD need to realize that if the professional racer can no longer afford to race, be it for lack of sponsor or whatever, then NHRA doesn't have a show. It's that simple. Perhaps a bit more attention to their needs would be smart.