regarding the current state of the NHRA Sport Compact series. Thoughts? Comments? I hope this doesnt come to pass personally ...

http://www.dragracingonline.co....html

 

Well, its no suprise to any of us that appearance parts sell far and above performance parts.....I doubt that will ever change due to consumer ignorance, marketing and margins. This is still a very new sport to the general public, so there is no way in can draw in the crowds that the big show does for NHRA.

I do find it funny that he opted not to include NDRA, but said that was the only thing that would work other than exhibition.

The stuff about manufacturers sending out reps to scout for racers already does happen though.....I have dealt with it personally. If they do not rewrite their warranties though, you can still win.

 

Sorry to say it guys but the articles right.If the fields don't grow tremendously in the last races then NHRA's gonna pull the plug,just like the trucks.I've seen it before.

 

Well why dont the big backing sponsors like Mopar or Chevy step up and bring more cars out???

Us Honda racers are out of our own pocket, to get to events and cars ready racers...

It kinda puts a damper on things when those that have a $100,000 budgets per event compare to the regular Joe Schmo that take there weekly paychecks just to get out to the event....But then again this all goes back to all the rules and sanctioned events which kinda allows the bigger sponsored vehicles to dominate...

As for me, I dont think it would hurt very much if NHRA pulls...seems more people are having more fun and attendance is bigger at most NOPI NDRA events anyways...the classes seem more fun and competitive....

Lets just use for example NDRA's Pro 4Cyl class....when was the last time you saw that many in this class??

1 Chuck Seitsinger Honda Civic 8.811 162.06
2 Gary Gardella Honda Civic 8.821 152.90
3 Mike Crawford Dodge SRT-4 8.829 166.68
4 Kenny Tran Honda Civic 8.848 167.82
5 JJ Olson Honda Civic 8.860 163.51
6 Joe Demaree Honda Civic 8.993 156.75
7 Sean Glazer Eagle Talon 9.363 160.37
8 Angela Proudfoot Honda Civic 9.592 152.83
9 Andrew Bermea Honda Civic 9.654 153.79
10 Collin Ettienne Honda CRX 9.704 141.94
11 Darryl Hudson Mitsubishi Eclipse 9.716 147.54
12 Howard Anderson Honda Civic 9.999 143.80
13 Kevin Shrawder Honda Civic 10.421 130.91
14 Dan Truong Acura Integra 13.930 60.35

OR the ever soooo fun and competive Turbo 4 class

1 Jason Hunt Honda CRX 9.967 148.84
2 Brian Ballard Honda CRX 10.181 145.97
3 John Ferguson Honda Civic Si 10.371 139.75
4 Brian Fisher Honda Civic 10.473 135.43
5 Michael Ko Honda Civic 10.670 136.22
6 Jared Deskins Honda 10.942 138.91
7 Steve Sancic Eagle Talon 10.997 125.56
8 Peter Heu Honda Civic 11.181 108.65
9 Rickey Martin Nissan 240SX 11.259 122.46
10 Jeff Harrington Mitsubishi Eclipse 11.791 126.00
11 Micah Pangburn Mitsubishi Eclipse 11.795 109.19
12 Tracy Hyche Honda Civic 12.128 119.07
13 Matthew Johnson Hyundai Excel 12.179 118.92
14 Kevin Flinx Dodge Neon 12.208 109.27
15 Mark Johnson Honda CRX 12.712 120.03


I think NHRA is whiny because everyone is goin to the NDRA events...but i could be all wrong....this is just my .02

 

A few thoughts on what the guy said in the article.

I believe the reason you do not see many people out there drag racing their sport compacts is simply b/c of the age group. Most people who own sport compacts are between 17-24. At that age kids do not have the money it takes to build and all out drag car and keep after it, replacing all the broken parts, blown motors and so on. If you look at most of the professional drag racers how many of them are in that age range? Also what does it cost to race for a weekend? Say you blow one motor or blow a tranny. That will cost a few grand to replace. Most people in that age range will take them almost a whole summer to make a few grand.

As far as car manufactures go. They are trying to win the 4 cylinder HP race and target a younger crowed. But then do not want to back up their product when it is abused and breaks. I guess I don't see why you would build high hp factory car. Then when your target audience purchases it and uses it to its full potential and it breaks they want to deny warrenty claims. If you can not build something that can not hold up to abuse then don't build it and sell it. Or if you do build it and sell it expect that people will beat on it and break stuff. Factor that into the purchase price of the car.

"New car manufacturers and after market suppliers needed to discuss whether to continue with massive budgets to field professional sport compact drag racing teams in its own series. It's strictly financial, as most manufacturers still believe in the "Win on Sunday-Sell on Monday" theory, however if so few spectators are watching, who's buying on Monday?"

Maybe there would be more spectators and potential buyers if more events were actually televised. How many sport compact events do you see on TV? I hardly see any of them maybe one or two.

Also for people that don't know about internet sites like Honda-tech and other message boards or people that don't have internet access how would most people even find out about modifying a Honda? I know where I live there is next to no performance shops. We have like auto zone and pep boys and crap like that but no real hard core performance shops like there are for v-8's. So that is why most people get caught up in the bling and ricer products. I think if more knowledgeable and reputable shops were out there the sport would grow.

Look at some of the vendors on here that have come and gone in very short amount of time and have scammed people and left bad tastes in peoples mouth's. That does nothing for this sport.

Those are just some of my thoughts on this.

 

Hmm interesting... Of course appearance mods are the biggest sellers, always have been, always will be. Look at everything from trucks to hot rods to family cars. This is not unique to sport compact at all. I think its interesting he goes off about voiding warranties first. Most people do not go buy a brand new car and then dump a bunch of cash into it. They buy a car a couple of years old and add parts to it. Yes people do go out and buy WRX, SRT's and race them but dealers going to races to spy on racers?? Common, Dodge and Subaru both market these cars as pocket rockets. Are they going to follow you home to make sure you don't speed also? Besides this has nothing to do with how many people turn out at NHRA events.

"It's strictly financial, as most manufacturers still believe in the "Win on Sunday-Sell on Monday" theory, however if so few spectators are watching, who's buying on Monday?"

If people aren't watching whos fault is that?
If there are only 50 pro teams at the events whos fault is that?
Import attendance still sucks compared to the Big Show? Again who takes the blame for that one?

Its funny he says there is lots of grass roots (bracket) racers attending events. Isn't that where pros come from? How about the sanctioning body help facilitate the bracket racer going pro. There are a million things they could do.

1. Hold classes for the brackets guys on how to present yourself to prospective companies for sponsorship.
2. Higher, more payouts.
3. Teach local chassis tuning, driving (not just safety), engine building classes
4. Do what NOPI is doing with the bikinis and party atmosphere
5. More advertising to promote events on TV and locally
6. Hold an import/domestic grudge race. I think someone posted on here about seeing something like this.

I love how he talks about bringing Comp Eliminator up to speed and allowing EFI, turbos etc... You mean like what sport compacts are already doing?

I also love the parting shot comparing import big guns to domestic big guns, Gimmie a break, like import guys have had identicle money and seat time to be super drivers. The thing that makes me mad is that instead of predicting its demise he seems to be trying to help it come to pass. All I have to say is if NHRA leaves there will be no coming back, I would be happy if I worked for NDRA.

 

I believe this article to have some good views, some O.K. views and some ignorant views. The fact that we NEED more spectators is 100% right on. We need NHRA, NOPI and all the manufacturers to pull together some sort of marketing strategy to bring this sport to life, actually, bring it to the domestic public ( by domestic I do not mean the V8 guys, I mean the regular Joe who is looking for something to do on any particular weekend ) We also need more pro racers. Our team has said that for a long time. Our class has only about 5 competitors in it as of now that are able to compete. That doesn't make for good fan bases.

The point about how this sport compact industry is mostly appearance based is also right, but trust me, there is a huge, and I mean HUGE base of people that do harcore engine performance to their cars. This guy talked about warranties and ****, but most of the cars that are getting fixed up now are over 5 years old! Most of them DON'T have warranties anymore, so I really don't think that that is the case. I want to know where this guy got all of his info about the performance manufacturers not doing well. I think it is just the companies that he has been talking to! Sport Compact does not use the same performance parts as the V8 guys use. Edlebrock, Dart and only a few others have successfully developed ANY sort of customer base. The others have failed simply because today's buyer for this market does not want to see the same **** that was on his Grandpa's car on his own!!! Plus most of the performance is more technologically advanced! Computer piggybacks, turbo controllers, turbo's and accessories, fuel injection, stand alone fuel management...... Go tell grandpa that you want a stand alone fuel management system for your birthday! He will have no idea what you mean. The same thing can be said for the older performance manufacturers. They just don't seem to be able to change with the times to the new way of things, for the most part.

The thoughts of this industry dying is a scary thought for many of us. For some of us, it is our living, and we do damn well at it. Good people like Lisa and Gary Kubo rely on this industry to pay their bills, Ron Bergenholtz relies on this industry to buy diapers for his kid! I cannot even think of this industry dying, I see too much growth just on my small end of the spectrum. Point is, the powers that be need to work together to get a pulse on what the consumer wants to see. I think NOPI has done a great job at that. I also think NHRA can do it, but it is up to them to make that call. To all the sanctioning bodies, we want to race for a while!!!!!

 

Some thoughts of my own.

Has anyone ever heard of the guy who wrote the article? Ever seen him at a Sport Compact Event? He may be knowledgeable about domestic drag racing, (I don't know) but it's obvious he doesn't have much interest in Sport Compacts.

It's an opinion column, and it sounds more like a domestic guy just trying to bring down the Sport Compact Industry. He's trying to instill panic and fear, and that would mean people pulling out and putting their dollars back on the domestic side, which is his obvious slant.

Comparing a Sport Compact event to a POWERade event in terms of attendance only proves that he's not in touch with the Sport Compact Drag Racing scene at all.
If anyone thinks a Sport Compact event is ready for that level of attendance, please share your plan with us. Someday for sure, but not overnight. He also compares the appearance of Funny Cars to the appearance of Sport Compacts. Again, apples and oranges. He's simply out of touch.

My sources advise that everyone sleep soundly, and keep doing what you're doing. We'll all get there in time.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by old guy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Some thoughts of my own.

Has anyone ever heard of the guy who wrote the article? Ever seen him at a Sport Compact Event? He may be knowledgeable about domestic drag racing, (I don't know) but it's obvious he doesn't have much interest in Sport Compacts.

It's an opinion column, and it sounds more like a domestic guy just trying to bring down the Sport Compact Industry. He's trying to instill panic and fear, and that would mean people pulling out and putting their dollars back on the domestic side, which is his obvious slant.

Comparing a Sport Compact event to a POWERade event in terms of attendance only proves that he's not in touch with the Sport Compact Drag Racing scene at all.
If anyone thinks a Sport Compact event is ready for that level of attendance, please share your plan with us. Someday for sure, but not overnight. He also compares the appearance of Funny Cars to the appearance of Sport Compacts. Again, apples and oranges. He's simply out of touch.

My sources advise that everyone sleep soundly, and keep doing what you're doing. We'll all get there in time.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

well said jim

 

I think if NHRA pulls out, it will screw alot of us "grass roots" west coast racers. we will only have IDRC and a few battle events out here... dont get me wrong, they are both great events, but since we already have very few events on the west coast, we dont need to have the amount of events reduced even more...
I personaly would not like to see the NHRA pull out of the sport compact market.

Mike...


Modified by Group Tenacity at 1:07 AM 7/14/2004

 

I think he's judging the Sport compact scene too early ... using statistics and comparing the the "big" powerade events is like comparing superbowl to cricket in the US

to help bring more people out:
-advertising in better periodicals where more diverse readers
-giveaways at the events (not always about buy buy buy)
-commentators need to explain how competition works for spectators not everyone understands
-when you get 1st-timers out to spectate, make it an event they never forget so they come back and bring their family and friends.

leverage off all the corporate sponsorships that the big racers get and apply to the event itself.

greg

 

well yea but i think half the reason that westcoast attendance is low is because of cops being stationed on streets before or after the races end to pull people over..And its gotten even worse at california speedway..at that track, cops just sit right out front and looks and smile and pull people over as they leave the track.. and THATS why people with performance or as this guy said the "bling bling" factor dont come to races in the west coast.. I mean i have to borrow mommy's car to go to races now, just so i can avoid a ticket for being too low or some other horse **** ticket.., but i dont see cops waiting outside of powerade events..

sorry pointless rant

 

Well said Mr. Skelly

My thoughts on the whole thing, and some people may not agree but oh well here it goes ....

Sportmans racing? Does it really have a huge fan base? Lets say Super Gas/Super Comp. The throttle stop cars. Pretty boring stuff in my opinion.

Lets reverse it a little bit. Say the Sportmans cars had their own series that traveled around, not along with the Powerade, I wonder what kind of fan base they would draw in?

What I am trying to say is, I think for NHRA to continue to grow as a sport as a whole they really need to think about allowing us "next generation" racers into the "Big Show." Not just in the Extreme Rush way but as in the whole 10 races. Sort of like the AMS Pro Mod series. 10 tracks across the nation. Expand the TV coverage also. This will allow alot more racers to get sponsorships as the marketing value will be there. Plus we would bring in alot better looking women to those few venues.

Just some thoughts.

Scott

 

yea cut the tv coverage of the "car show" section and concentrate on races only.. and get rid of that crash chick and that other idiot..I have to watch the show in mute cause of them two

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by old guy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">My sources advise that everyone sleep soundly, and keep doing what you're doing. We'll all get there in time.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

I sleep GOOD at night... no fear of the sport dying at all. its here to stay... but i do see nhra disapearing out of sport compact in a few years if they dont do something... nopi is for sure right on the money ....

we need to educate the new comers. have a site of informative stuff about everything and something more about sport comp drag racing. every single thing from the bottom up. from 4 stroke basics to meth tune on a 1300+ hp 6 cyl motor for pro rwd. from the basic to the complicated... and i do agree we are all very young....

i know for a fact that theres a bunch of kids right here on honda teck ages 19 to 22 that have the capabilities of building 9 and 8 second fwd cars.... they have the stand alone tuning knowledge and experience already and they can build motors and many can tig a cage to pass tech, theese are all kids.... they know they can do it. but most of the time no one else will ever believe in them not even their parents who would happen to have enough money to back them up until they cought a sponsor. and well theres not that many 19 to 22 year olds that can afford the prices of racing.. they can do it.... but they cant afford it... and usually people and companies laugh at them in disbeliefs... when in reality they are responsible for certain pro import cars hitting their BEST ******* ET'S EVER at very very premature and early ages.... THERES MANY OF US HERE.....

GIVE US ALL LIKE 3 OR 4 YEARS AND THEN I'D LIKE TO READ THAT GUYS ARTICLE REVISION....


Ed-

 

I agree 100% with Scott! I think that just showing 'us' off at 2 Powerade races per season, is not an introduction of our sport to the 'old school'. I attended the extreme rush here in Dallas, they just look at us like an annoying fly, we will buzz around for awhile, but they will eventually swat us away hoping they won't see us again. I think we need to make a presence, and why not at Powerade events, this way it will force these 'old schoolers' to look at us and see that racing is racing no matter what you drive! Plus, it will open up more opportunities for us, up and coming racers, to get financial assistance with the large exposure.

In finishing, I would also like to state that the NHRA is a doing a great job on putting on a well balanced exhibition of racing and lifestyle, it's all the internet racers that are bringing this sport down. I am so amused to read these roll calls for events, and there will be hundreds of people committing to the event and never show up.

And as for the people that say that they can't afford it, that's just an excuse, your priorities are not lining up properly. If racing is a top priority, then you gotta save to make it to a race. I have missed meals to make it to a race (those of you that know me, know that I haven't missed many ), and I will do whatever it takes to insure that we make each and every event out of our own pocket, on what little money we have! By no means are we rich, we just love this sport and will continue to love it until it STOPS loving us!

That's my nickel and dime! Sorry didn't mean to get so winded!

 

not alot of us can afford that, im 22 and i work but i also gotta pay for school. times have changed between the 50s and now. in the 50s people werent going to college so they worked after high school and had money to spend. now college is mandatory so kids wont have real money till they get out of college. i mean yeah theres summer jobs but you aint gonna make much off a summer job, would still take years to save up enough money just to build a motor. i just started saving up about a year ago and right now i dont got any money at all, i have bought 2 bseries engines and 2 trannys though. i think its harder nowadays for kids.

you guys are lucky you even have nhra or ndra, we aint got anything like that over here. i mean **** the first 10 sec honda just popped up not more then 2 years ago on this island. we have a 9 sec car on another island but only 1. but then again hawaii probably does have the highest cost of living

 

Here is my two cents. I will apologize in advance for pissing anybody off, it is not my intention to do so.

It is expensive very expensive. I work weeks strait to get the car ready to race, Now I am not saying that I am the only one that does this there are a lot of us. I have also missed meals lots of them not only have I done this but the owner of the team has also done the same. this is a full time job for us. We do it because we love it, we do not get paid and most of the time we are trying to sell of some used parts so that we can get the car down the track. It cost on average about $1000-1500 to go to an event that is if you do not break anything. Which we all know never happens. I can not see a 19-22 year old being able to afford that plus all the other expenses that come with racing.

Now with that aside.

It is a fact that some of the manufactures out there charge more for import parts than they do for domestic parts. I can buy a set of pistons for a LS1 cheaper than I can for a B18. Another problem comes in when you are dealing with people that are stuck in there ways. While I was building our motors at a friend’s shop that builds V8s, I heard it all from the older generation of racers. Even after I would tell them the amount of HP we would be making and how our FWD car would be going 2 seconds faster than them they would still talk all kinds of crap. All they see is the kid on the street with the loud exhaust and big wing causing all kinds of trouble. Than they have to make some type of comment about a stupid movie.

There are some hard core racers out there that we all owe big thanks too. I will not mention any name because I do not want to leave anybody out but they are the Godfathers of this sport and I thank them. People need to give this sport a chance it is still new and we are all growing. Nopi does a great job in putting on quality events. The NHRA can do the same if they would stop thinking like 50 year old drag racers and start thinking like the new generation. They need to realize that we are here to stay and do not plan on going anywhere.

 

Article is right and wrong in some ways. There are two types of crowds in the sport compact scene, ricers(the idiots you see on the road everyday that don't have a clue and you just wanna beat the hell out of) and the more perf. orientated crowd that are like the people here on honda-tech. NHRA domestic drag racing has had over 50 years to weave into the mainstream media and culture. That is going to result in the huge turnouts, sponsors and tv coverage. Its like Nascar, alot of the fans arent really car people. They watch and go to it becuase its popular and more excepted in U.S culture. People follow eachother.. Nascar and NHRA domestic racing have had decades and decades to marinate into the mainstream. And those forms of domestic racing started out just as grassroots as Import racing started out. Just give sport compact racing some time.

Professional sport compact racing is alot like the hot rodders of the 50's and 60's. Where everyone is trying new set ups and constantly breaking huge barriers. Rules are still not that restrictive. That is what is soo great about sport compact racing. You will see a 1.8 liter( in some cases 1.3L) line up next to a 2.6 makin the same whp and runnin the same times (reffering mostly to allmotor class). Using diffrent schools of thought for engine building making the same power.

It is very hard to be in the 18-24 age bracket and build a racecar while you are also trying to build your life. The sport compact rwd racers are older but the fwd racers are alot younger. Alot of the professional racers in their teens and 20's get financial aid from their parents and their parents help them alot w/ their racecars. There barely more than a few professional racers in their teens and 20's that don't get help from there parents. Proffesional racers in the NHRA have either been racing for decades and are hired by team owners or they are business owners and have alot of money to start out with.

I was in Walmart the other day and walked through the toy section. Most of the cars in there are imports with the Dub series brand of toys and "tuners" brand from Import Racer magazine. There was a toy car crx that you can build that comes w/ a oncepiece front end,rollcage , skinnies and slicks, and it even has a hole in the front bumper for the turbo to stick through!! i was blown away. Im sure the kids playing with these toys can't wait untill the day that they can build an import racecar of there own.





Modified by antigravity at 10:06 PM 7/13/2004

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Agent P.I.M.P &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">well yea but i think half the reason that westcoast attendance is low is because of cops being stationed on streets before or after the races end to pull people over..And its gotten even worse at california speedway..at that track, cops just sit right out front and looks and smile and pull people over as they leave the track.. and THATS why people with performance or as this guy said the "bling bling" factor dont come to races in the west coast.. I mean i have to borrow mommy's car to go to races now, just so i can avoid a ticket for being too low or some other horse **** ticket.., but i dont see cops waiting outside of powerade events..

sorry pointless rant</TD></TR></TABLE>

This is a huge problem around here. They try to entice the street racers to go to the late night drags on fri/sat but then when you leave you have half the police force out by the gate ready to write tickets for anything and everything. Cars too low, cars too loud, tint, dirty windshield...I donno anything they can think of. I have been lucky enough to not have any problems personally...but the stories I hear are terrible. I guess its common to threaten to write street racing tickets to anyone who talks back to the police...and as well all know one of those tickets = you're fucked.

Kinda sad.

 

I say why would you want to be where your not wanted or welcomed. The demograph of people that attend powerade events are largely baby boomers and early gen X er's (people in the +35 age group).

The powerade series and most everyone involved with it are in that age group, as are the people that are in the positions to sign the contracts that ultimately fund that series. The upper management at the NHRA is very much like upper management anywhere else in a company that has been around as long as it has been. The people at the top are old or at least middle aged and their views reflect that.

That means they don't live the way we do anymore. Their basically your parents and in some cases your grandparents. Which isn't really a bad thing but I wouldn't want my mom or dad planning a rave or race for me and my friends. Because their ideas are obviously slanted toward thier past experiences of a good time.

They have homes and mortages and kids to pay for. Your probably not going to catch them pulling all nighters on work days and then quiting that job because it interferes with their ability to get a comp4 car to a race you have been saving money to attend for 2 months. Now that's not say to that the author didn't do that in his day way back in the 5 0 days but his prioities, likes and dislikes are what drive his opinion of reality. But thankfully in this case perception has not become reality. A wiseman does not judge a movement by attending a few events from only one promoter. And unfortunately many people easily get caught up in the hype of bad news and rumors.

One only needs to look at an NDRA event and their sponsors to see that the sport compact lifestyle is alive and growing in all respects. They have an excellent balance of youth and maturity in their personnel. They empower young minds in some of their most powerful positions such as Michael Brennan and Emillio Perez.

I think when you really love something and dedicate a part of your life to it others see that and want to become a part of it and that is why the NDRA is growing and the NHRA isn't.

My opinion is the NHRA seems to be in it soley for the money and that shines through more then their love of sport compact racing and the lifestyle that accompanies it.

Do you really think major auto manufactures are going to have people looking through race reports and attending local tracks. That's is absolutely absurd.
With the advent of OBD II in '96 all that dirty little data is already there for the taking. A service tech need only looking into your car's ECU to find out what youv'e been doing or tampering with and for the most part every tech I ever met was a car and they understood what you where doing and where more then happy to stick it to the man. As long as you weren't an *** about breaking parts because of mods.

And comparing us to the rodders of the 5 0 period isn't fair either. It is a lot harder to manipulate a car with an ECU then to set point gap and turn a couple of screws.
Pro/Stock Trucks too little too late. The NHRA drug it's feet with that class and that is why it died. The truck scene was all but dead when they finally brought out the class. They also thought by limiting engine size they would keep the cost down? That just lead to slower ets and boring racing.
Totally out of touch with their market on that one. I see history repeating itself.

Seems like I'm hating on the NHRA but I'm really not, it's just corrective crictism.
I've talked to Wally Parks and he's probably the youngest at heart of anyone there. I see him kinda like my grandpa. He has all the cool old stories, he listens to you attentively and deep down he believes in you . And strangely you find you have more in common with him then your own dad.
That's how I view the NHRA they have every piece of the pie and a great recipe but no one left who cares about cooking, just a lot of hungry people they want to fight for places at the table.

 

All i gotta say is sponsors...

How many of the sportcompact pro racers have big time sponsors like the domestics? the domestic guys have matco, skoal, k&n, advanced auto parts, jegs, army, miller lite, snap-on, car manufacturer, etc. Sportcompact guys have AEM, golden eagle, act, summit, and their shops. the domestics have the whole nations support instead of just parts manufactures. it's starting to get better with saturn sponsoring lisa and all but it just takes time.

Also if we were to get coverage like the powerade series maybe more people would know about it. If i wasn't a member of honda-tech, or any other web sites like this, i dont think i would of heard of even half the races going on. where besides on the nhrasportcompact.com website is there any publicity about their races? when they do show the nhra races.. how long do the shows last? 30 mins. that's not long enough to build a big fan base. do they even have any comercials stating when it's going to be coming on?

i was at the last nhra event in sonoma, ca. the fan turnout was very poor. that's why the pulled out of sonoma. reason being there was no advertising for it. The only other norcal race here is CMI(california modified imports). they advertise for it and everytime there are over 300 racers. nhra need to work on there advertising. they need to appeal to the young racer and not the young ricer. give us bracket racers payouts... what's the incentive to go race or watch a nhra event? at sonoma all there was, was the racing action, pit action(looking at the pro cars in the pits up close) and a section for manufaturers to show off product and sell stuff.

IMHO i dont think nhra takes sportcompact serious. Do u ever see the announcers for poweraid trying to make it seem like there's a grundge going on between two racers? they always try to instigate stuff with the sportcompact guys..


hope some of that made sense.. it's too late to think clear..

 

Anyone want to email the guy? hawthorne@dragracingonline.com

 

... And if you email, be nice. Flames get ignored. If you disagree with him, you can explain why in rational terms, and maybe you'll change his mind.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Arturbo &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Anyone want to email the guy? hawthorne@dragracingonline.com </TD></TR></TABLE>

Done....

Here is what I wrote

Darr,

Hello, how are you? I am writing you this short e-mail to let you know that someone had posted a link to your article on honda-tech.com. If you are not familiar with honda-tech.com, it is in my option one of the most informative and knowledgeable Honda/Acura internet forums out there. There are quite a few responses to your article and I thought you would find them a good read.
Here is a link to the thread.
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=924308

I feel if you read the thread you may get some more insight from true import racers/enthusiasts rather then your normal everyday ricer. Feel free to sign up for an account and make your own rebuttals. I feel it could turn into a very knowledgeable thread for both you and the members of Honda-tech.


Sincerely,
Chad Colfer