Vegas Going 4 Wide (2 Viewers)

[Nobody]

Hey guys, like Live coverage? You don't have to run 4 wide all at once. Run F/C and P/S car in lanes 1&2. T/F and P/S bike in lanes 3&4 all weekend (run on the lanes you qualify on). Alternate pairs? Now if I could just figure out the 15min turnarounds.....
(4-wide only works for 32 car fields)

 

[Raconteur]

I am not wild about 4 Wide, but at least they are trying something to increase the Spring event rather than just shutting the event down.

Why not drop the Spring LVMS race, the schedule needs to be reduced, too many events has made Professional Drag Racing less special. Get the schedule down to 18 races and reduce the ticket prices.

 

[PJ]

Hey guys, like Live coverage? You don't have to run 4 wide all at once. Run F/C and P/S car in lanes 1&2. T/F and P/S bike in lanes 3&4 all weekend (run on the lanes you qualify on). Alternate pairs? Now if I could just figure out the 15min turnarounds.....
(4-wide only works for 32 car fields)

Not sure I would want to be on a bike next to a fueler either blowing shrapnel or body parts at me. Sure you'd be two seconds behind but if you're not dodging it in the air, they'd be dodging it on the track.

 

[glofria]

It his money, He can choose how he wants to spend it as I will choose not to spend my money there.

 

[Jim]

Never go to one of his venues? That's your loss.

I've only ever been to Charlotte (NOT the 4 wide race 'tho).
Nicest track (and one of the best sport venues) I've ever attended.

BS knows how to run an event (at least from a fan's perspective).

BTW: I'm not really interested in 4 wide racing. Like to hear and feel it once but, just not enough time racing.

O-Boy... Yet another Circus not to watch... I'd go sit at a mail box on a desert highway before I'd ever go to a Smith owned track...

d'kid

 

[Mark]

Maybe he can move the two superfluous lanes in Charlotte out to Vegas. My kids wouldn't like it (they love the four wide) but grumpy ol' paw wouldn't mind a bit.

 

[club]

Hey guys, like Live coverage? You don't have to run 4 wide all at once. Run F/C and P/S car in lanes 1&2. T/F and P/S bike in lanes 3&4 all weekend (run on the lanes you qualify on). Alternate pairs? Now if I could just figure out the 15min turnarounds.....
(4-wide only works for 32 car fields)

I like this idea, but I would run all the fuel cars in the same lanes and PS in the other two lanes. That way they could be prepared for each class (WJ would like this). While one side is doing the burnout etc. the other side could be cleared and checked for debris. Of course oil downs and crashes will still bring things to a halt, but if it worked it would speed things up and give almost constatnt action. They should at least try it.

 

[Butch]

You can’t fix stupid - Larry Morgan, NHRA Pro Stock driver

 

[vegasnitro]

Why not drop the Spring LVMS race, the schedule needs to be reduced, too many events has made Professional Drag Racing less special. Get the schedule down to 18 races and reduce the ticket prices.

I agree the schedule needs to be reduced, but if that did happen, I can guarantee you ticket prices won't be going down.

 

[SoCal Racer]

Please say it isn't so...... I occasionally go to the Vegas races but absolutely will not for 4-wide. Like others have said, drag racing is a mano a mano sport and anything else is an abomination/freak show/________ (your pejorative of choice).

Maybe just build a 16-wide, run all 16 qualified cars at once, first one to the finish line gets the trophy, and we all go home 30 seconds after arriving.

 

[my friends call me Zappy]

With two races at Vegas no one is forced to go to the 4-wide. Lets wait and see the attendance numbers of each race.
BTW does anyone know the numbers to compare Z-max spring to fall race...........??

 

[PDQ]

I know the fall race draws a bigger crowd but the spring race isn't like there no one there throw in concessions and I betting they are doing ok.

 

[Toejam]

I have always thought 4 wide wouldn't be bad if there were the cars to fill it! 16-18 cars just 4 laps per session? FAIL!!!!

 

[Toejam]

I guess Bruton has gotta do something to prop up the Spring race. I am not worried about the Fall race as it is a "Countdown" race ... And the best race on the tour IMO. I am not wild about 4 Wide, but at least they are trying something to increase the Spring event rather than just shutting the event down. Now if Bruton would build a drag strip at Kentucky Motor Speedway instead, he would really be onto something.

I thought NHRA and Bruton Smith agreed the 4 wide at Zmax would be the only 4 wide race on the Tour?

 

[rckymtn3]

I woke up in a cold sweat.

It was officially a nightmare.

2026 NHRA Coca-Cola Cavalcade of Jet Cars, Monster Trucks and Drift Cars
There were 60,000 fans each day of the three day event. all tweeting and facebooking and recording their life on their phone plastered to their face.

Bruton Smith was there. He looked like a cross between Jabba the Hutt and the Devil, with a pitchfork and two strippers in Princess Leia slave girl costumes and those stupid looking Gucci Sunglasses he wears.

At the end of each day, two cars were pushed to the area before the starting line. The announcer said this was once called a water, or bleach box.
The two cars were burning Nitro. They were exhibition cars. The crowd left the stands to go home early, and me, and three other people were left in the empty stands to watch these two teams launch.
I remember screaming, but I couldn't hear myself.
That's when I woke up.

I felt like it was a Capra film without the happy ending.
"Help me Clarence, please! Please! I want to live again!"

I know there was a lesson I had to share with everyone, but I can't quite place my finger on it...

.

 

[G'ginna]

O-Boy... Yet another Circus not to watch... I'd go sit at a mail box on a desert highway before I'd ever go to a Smith owned track...

d'kid

Like an old two lane, long flat one where you might see somebody going by side by side? Or the one where you're sitting tied to a milk crate, holding on to the roll bars while the driver is checking to see if he is going to make the 200mph club this year with a cop friend & a radar gun at the other end helping him out? Not that I know of anywhere that might happen...

 

[Luke Nieuwhof]

With fans like these, who needs enemies?
Who needs innovation, right? Everyone knows our future lies in our past champions racing 40 year old-bodied cars where any driver under the age of 60 is banned. /sarcasm
If Bruton Smith wants to spend the money and he thinks it will make him money back then god speed...for a sport with very sparing major redevelopments occurring on its major tracks I think we should all be glad that he is choosing drag racing to put some funds into!

 

[PJ]

With fans like these, who needs enemies?
Who needs innovation, right? Everyone knows our future lies in our past champions racing 40 year old-bodied cars where any driver under the age of 60 is banned. /sarcasm
If Bruton Smith wants to spend the money and he thinks it will make him money back then god speed...for a sport with very sparing major redevelopments occurring on its major tracks I think we should all be glad that he is choosing drag racing to put some funds into!

Yes you need change to grow, you need to think of new things. BUT you don't change, just for the sake of change. You don't stick your nose up to what(and who) got you there remember New Coke?

Hell why does my car come with four doors, lets just make it one door. The whole family can climb around the vehicle from there.
Why not have dragsters with 3 tires? (less chances for a blow out so it is safer).
I like football but I don't want to watch 4 teams play at once.

At this point Smith is moving into the realm of Vince McMahon who tried to save football with the XFL and all the rule changes because he was a visionary and thinking far ahead. Nope it fell flat.

 

[rckymtn3]

With fans like these, who needs enemies?
Who needs innovation, right? Everyone knows our future lies in our past champions racing 40 year old-bodied cars where any driver under the age of 60 is banned. /sarcasm
If Bruton Smith wants to spend the money and he thinks it will make him money back then god speed...for a sport with very sparing major redevelopments occurring on its major tracks I think we should all be glad that he is choosing drag racing to put some funds into!

I get it. I really do. It's been addressed in these postings. No one, and I mean no one, is saying don't make the track better, or don't make it more pleasant for the fans to watch and do other things fans need to do. By all means make it more racer friendly. Yes YES.

But honestly, do you really define the addition of two more lanes on the track as innovation? It's been done. The reviews are at best, mixed. Do you honestly think two more lanes will make people who shrug their shoulders at two lanes, suddenly change their mind, and think drag racing is the best motor sport? Will it make them dig into their pockets to go to more than one race once the gimmicky part of their brain is satisfied?

What's next? Queen of lane #1 versus Queen's #2, #3 and #4 in Top Eliminator Float? Visions of parade floats with their tasseled ground skirts blown flat from the 90mph speed, the bikinied Queens gripping the shifter placed out front, their cheeks flapping in the wind amongst other parts, heroically hanging on as they pass through the lights. Yup. probably a lot of people want to see that. Heck, I want to see that once. But then the gimmick is over.

I honestly think what should be looked at besides better payouts for racers starting at qualifying, is racer and fan comfort. With the non-existent climate change occurring around us, is it time for covered pits and track that also shades the stands? I know it would be a lot more comfortable. DIA-type fabric tenting would fit the bill. It's not cheap, so I sure don't expect it anytime soon, but that would be innovation without changing the sport.

We all want drag racing to survive, to continue on, but what are you personally ready to accept as change? When does it stop being better, and simply become different?

 

[mike]

Karl is the man! You ain't too bad either Ray Hope you're well brother.