He must be one of the SIT-COM writers out on strike!

Because it was about as funny

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******** AHDRA -- PG 144 ********
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Brent,

I agree with you and the writer. I believe his points are accurate. I've posted (many times) that our sport will never be any bigger on TV. Too much down time and waaaaay too many classes for viewers to figure out. Whether it's NASCAR or Indy Cars, there's one class and one winner. That's simple for novice fans to understand. Without big TV ratings we'll never get the big sponsor committments that NASCAR enjoys. And in business, nothing happens without revenue.

No new revenue = no growth.

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Mopar to ya'!
Johnny Mopar

He's a little too "green" for my tastes, but that is expected from many in SoCal. Also, I've seen pieces like this written by guys who think driving around in a circle for three hours trying to find the finish line is exciting. That kind of racing makes me dizzy and bored.

I've covered quite a few types of racing (Cup, Busch, IRL, USAC, FF and others), and I chose drag racing as my only focus more than ten years ago for a few reasons. Those reasons are, it is unlike any other form of motorsports in the diversity of the cars involved, the diversity of the people involved, the fact that there isn't just one winner at an event -- there is a winner every time a pair of cars go down the track, the competition is heads-up -- one-on-one and every driver has a shot at winning, and nitro racing is a sensory overload unlike anything offered by any other series. 43 Cup cars are kind of loud. Two fuel cars are physically disturbing. And as exciting as that is, I still get just as tickled watching a pair of muscle cars bury their bumpers on the hit in Stock or Super Stock.

He was paying attention to some things, but he wasn't paying attention to (or was totally ignorant of) other aspects of this sport that make it so desirable and so unique.

NHRA is to NASCAR what the Daily Breeze is to the New York Times.

My wife and I went to the FOOD CITY 500 about 10-12 years ago at Sears Point. She commented "The first 20 minutes was sure exciting, and the last 20 minutes to the checkered flag sure was exciting...But those two and a half hours in the middle just about killed me."

Drag Racing isn't for everyone. But neither are those cow dung flinging contests.

RG

He expressed his opinions and I didn't see any facts. No big deal. How many people read his column or would stay away because of his statements?

This isn't worth the time to even read it.

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Bob
Doug - 2006 & Greg - 2007 The Real Champs

I can't agree with this guy. Pomona has nice bleachers on the pit side

Jay

The only problem I have with the column, and I could be wrong here, other than completely disagreeing with him (which is fine, it's just his opinion, man I'd love to get a gig where I get paid to spout my opinions, journalism dream job) but I could swear that drag racing events easily draw 50,000 spectators in a weekend, if not more.

What many of you are reacting to on a gut level is the clear fallacy of logic employed in his column which patently weakens his argument: comparing the NHRA to NASCAR. It's an apples to oranges comparison and you can't logically compare two things that are incomparable.

It's all good. I never thought I'd like drag racing but I went to the track with an open mind not tainted by NASCAR. Some of us reporters aren't half bad after you get us out to the track and subject us to the joys of NHRA racing.

What I'm wondering is why this clown even bothered to go to the track at all. He was obviously bias before he ever walked in the gate.

Ma Green

I couldn't agree more. What the reporter failed to report is that while NASCAR did indeed snare the billion dollar plus TV contract, I do believe that the general consensus is that their TV ratings are dropping week-to-week and compared to last year, are a disappointment. Plus, it's always a pleasure to watch 5 minutes of racing with 5 minutes of commercials. NOT! I've been to the Daytona 500 and attended races at Talladega. Yep, it's really cool when the cars are off in the backstretch and are a mile away from you (see those little specks way off in the distance?) and come by you once every 50 seconds. I've attended about 25 NASCAR races because I like racing in any form, but drag racing is always my first love. I feel no other motorsport comes close in matching the accessibility to the cars and drivers and for a sheer rush of energy, it's hard to beat 300+ mph of "ear-splitting noise".

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"I never said most of the things I said."

Same guy same story...at least it's just one guy. I think he hits on a couple things that NHRA should address. Everything else he's way out to lunch on. I guess you can do the same comparison to the LA Times and the Breeze nobody has heard of the Breeze outside of LA so screw him.

Maybe we should duct tape him to the wing struts of a top fuel car and start it. Think that happened to someone else we all know and love

He doesn't like drag racing and even looks down his nose at it. Does that surprise all of you? THAT is the most common attitude that pervades the press room at a lot of events. By in large reporters tend to be a been there seen that lot and extremely cynical! This guy's just living up to his J-School teachers. The bad news to me is that once you get around his cynicism I'm not sure he's THAT wrong! These folks need to be competing for the same level of $$$ that the other groups play for.

Mr. Oberjuerge’s rant of November 5th rant was rife with inaccuracies – but that’s to be expected from an individual with no personal experience in drag racing, either as a spectator, participant or fan (he’s obviously anything but that).

For starters, hi-rise aluminum grandstands 40 or 50 rows high running almost the length of the quarter mile are anything but “a couple of banks of glorified high-school bleachers.”

Further, had your writer ever witnessed an event in, say, Las Vegas, or Chicago, or Bristol he would have seen the kind of seating he apparently prefers. Remember, the track at Pomona is part of the Fairgrounds property, and is only used as a race plant on a limited basis. While NHRA would certainly like the track to be on the same basis with those mentioned, it’s not in the cards under the current Fairgrounds situation.

The purchase of NHRA’s pro racing assets by HD Partners is a long way from being consummated – something a good reporter would have known, or at least looked into before writing yet another inaccuracy.

More sponsorship is coming into the sport. Companies like UPS, Gieco Insurance and Caterpillar are indicative of that.

Mr. Oberjuerge has no clue about media coverage of the sport. If he did he would know that such coverage has been steadily increasing as well as expanding into areas not usually affiliated with motorsports coverage.

If Mr. Oberjuerge knew anything about televised motorsports he’d be aware of the fact that NASCAR’s ratings are declining, which might be an indication that their $4.8B investment wasn’t such a good one.

The NHRA national events absolutely draw more than 50,000 fans at every race. Every demographic study done on the series demonstrates this – but I guess doing the research to uncover that the audience is twice – or more – than he’s suggested would have been too difficult for a writer with a built in prejudice against drag racing.

Might it have been instructive for your readers had Mr. Oberjuerge “confessed” to having been far more interested in attending a Lakers game than an exhilarating drag race? We can’t fault him for wanting to watch the Laker Girls, but clearly, his prejudices against the sport aren’t based on much more than his own personal proclivities.

Jon Asher
Glorieta, NM

Amen, Mr. Asher!

There is a comment link to that article, Erica wrote a great response btw...

http://www.dailybreeze.com/sports/ar...tml?page=4&c=y

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