Race Fans Are Uneducated (well no not really but others think this malarkey)

For now the tears I shed have dried, until Sunday when I watch the memorial. It’s so weird that its been a week since Wheldons passing it still doesn’t seem real. It seems any moment we will all awaken from this dream, and he’ll be there smiling. But now, in this moment, racing is obviously under attack. The sudden self ordained experts of motorsports have come out of the woodwork. Like distant cousins when you win the lotto. Some have stated racing is ridiculous and that cars going round and round is entertainment for the uneducated masses. Others have said racers only do it for the money. Me personally I have huge issues with those statements. Taking a cue from Daniel Tosh, “let’s take a look at this in this weeks ‘Blog Breakdown’”

Money. Ehhh have you seen the prize money from ALMS? Ya not to much to brag about. I work with several aspiring dirt track guys, and I can tell ya its not about money. It’s about going out in a car and having fun. Granted winnings great, but nothing beats battling somebody cleanly lap after lap. Trying to out smart him corner upon corner. I did it in a go kart this summer and let me tell ya its a rush. After I finally put enough pressure on him to screw up he did. He wasn’t happy I got the better of him. He even bitched about it all the way out to his vehicle, to me that’s winning.

Back to the money topic, some people have said Dan Wheldons accident was a product of the $5 million dollar prize. The only thing the prize money did was get him in the car. He didn’t race any harder then he usually did. If some of these “experts” would do some research they would see that well here’s a shock Wheldon was a damn good racer, and what happened was an accident. Not an overzealous narcsist that a commentor on the LA times wrote.

Race fans being uneducated is something that bothers me greatly. Neat how people who really don’t know why racing exists and what advancements it has given the auto industry, are saying we are uneducated. Motorsports is farther reaching then anyone on the outside could ever begin to comprehend. Passenger safety compartments, safety glass, turbo charging, crumple zones, all came from racing. The cars we lust for were born from racing, the 911, the Corvette ZR-1, any Ferrari. All made in the name of racing. If not for racing we would be driving some horrible crap wagons. If we took racing away then what would the stick and ball guys pimp out? Civics? Oh wait those were perfected through racing too. Ehhh I’m done with that rant.

Should racing be banned…..
Football in between ’91-’06 averaged 4.3 deaths a year. Yet, stadiums fill up 6 days a week. Do I think racing should be banned. NO! When Eric Medlen died in one of John Force’s funny cars. Tire deflated causing the car to shake violently down the strip. Essentialy he was shaken to death. What came of that? John Force made it his mission to make a safer car with the Eric Medlen Project. Now the roll cages are heavly padded and covered by nomex among other safety features. This is exactly what REAL race fans are talking about. Don’t stop make it better, make it safer.

Jimmie Johnsons quote about ovals was taken more out of context than the Danica Patrick Brazil quote. Give me a break folks. “Ehhhhhhh he’s never been in an indycar blah blah blah” Atleast he had the cajones to say something. He’s a racer that doesn’t want to see more drivers hurt or worse killed. Can’t say I blame him.

So what’s next for IndyCar. Well……alot. The ball is in the court with the investigation group. There’s a lot of questions that need to be answered, of not only why, but how can we prevent such an accident from happening again. Several actual race fans not the ones seeking fifteen minutes of fame and internet clicks, and drivers have suggested closed cockpit cars. I’m a firm beleaver in this idea. If done right the cars will look not only bad ass, but fast sitting still. I’m sure two Audi drivers wake up everyday thanking the engineers they went to a closed cockpit car. One concern is the obvious what if the cars upside down, or on fire. I’m sure there’s an easy solution maybe a three piece top with doors. I can envision I just suck at PhotoShop.  Thought of the minute, see how the H1 Unlimited Hydroplanes build thier cockpits. Better catch fences, is another area of improvement. One that doesn’t involve the cars ripping apart. Ballistic glass is one I heard, I say make it close to (I’m sure Tony Johns will like this) what a hockey rink looks like. I’m sure there’s more that can be done in the name of safety, like grass at road courses, tire barriers, and others.

Let’s be honest all that can start Monday. Let’s get through Sunday together first.

Congress woman still fighting to oust nascar sponsorship

A congress woman from Minnesota is once again making a push to put an end to sponsorship of nascar teams. I used to be up in arms over this. Questioning why would someone do that?! I then realized, wait a minute, the Navy backed out of sponsoring Dale Jr’s nationwide team and it wasn’t so bad on the sport or Jr’s team. Granted it was rough for a bit while he searched for sponsorship. And now through out the season his cars look like a patch work quilt of sponsors. But I wonder, What were the recruiting numbers before navy left and after.

Realistically I beleave she has a point.  $20 million to have a sticker on Jr’s or Gordons car, or $9 million for Ryan Newmans car does seem steep for a military that’s trying to cut funding elsewhere. For instance, in the area veterans benefits. Which makes a lot of sense. And a lot of people out there still view nascar as exciting as watching paint dry.

Not sure if this is how it is in other parts of the country. But, the activation or promoting of ones own race teams seem to be lacking. Best Buy, Target, Home Depot, Lowes, have maybe one thing showing they sponsor a car. For a sponsor wanting a return on said investment they’re not up to snuff in my book. Shoot exclusive die cast, or shirts we keep me happy.

But, for the sake of sounding hypocritical, the National Guard is a marketing wizard when it comes to sponsorship. A year ago they had an Impala wrapped like Dale Jrs grey ghost tribute livery. Obviously in Nascar they are teamed with the two biggest names. In Indycar their car bout won Indy with an American at the wheel on memorial day weekend. And in AMA Superbike they are a sponsor on one of the most recognized sports figures ever. Michael Jordan Racing.
Honestly there’s two sides to the story. Both sides make very very good points. But what if, the military did a flat rate for all sponsorship? Not to much not to little. The other thing that bothers me is why aren’t any other motorsports mentioned?

Honestly I hate seeing sponsors go but it happens, just like STP, or Marlboro. The sport will go on, someone else will step up to the nascar plate, and try and be the next, Budweiser or NAPA.

Team Meeting Weekend in Review: Disaster in Daytona Edition

This weekend saw NASCAR Sprint Cup take a rare off weekend and because of the Bahrain GP issues no F1 race.  With the “big name” series both in America and internationally off the AMA Pro Racing and Camping World Truck series had a chance to shine.  While actual racing was rare there was plenty of news and testing.  On the upcoming weekend we can expect both the American Le Mans Series and the MotoGP to begin and next weekend Indycar and F1; and of course, the Never-ending Series (NASCAR Sprint Cup) will continue on with Bristol and Martinsville.  Hope you enjoyed your break, because the racing season back even stronger than before.

Indycar:

Firestone was gone and now it’s back.  Everyone involved in Indycar is part of the Cult of Firestone except me it appears.  Potentially the Firestone news is good but I worry that the series will see a serious lack in marketing from Firestone next year and that Goodyear or Michelin would be able to have done just as good of job.  Of course after the disaster Dunlop (owned by Goodyear) had in the Daytona 200 this weekend maybe I’m wrong and maybe Goodyear/Dunlop really are unsafe… not sure.  Again, I don’t know the inside information on the tire deal so it may have been the best possible outcome… but I’m not 100% sold either.  Judging by what I’ve read Bernard isn’t expecting them to stay past 2013 and is still looking for a new supplier but now has more time to do so.

The Lucky Dog rule may or may not be in place this season, but double file restarts will be everywhere, not just on ovals.  Fans overwhelmingly dislike the rule while teams are for it.  I’m not a fan of it but it doesn’t upset me as much as most people.

Lot’s of announcements and rumors on who’s driving where with the first test at Barber today.

Robin Miller is reporting Tony Kanaan to KV racing but nothing has been officially announced.  Rumors are also flying that Luzo Dragon will sign Paul Tracy for the full season.  No news on Dan Wheldon.  Sebastien Bourdais isn’t officially signed but things are looking good for him to be all road courses this season.  We don’t know whether Milka Duno will be allowed to race or not… Cavin says no and Pruett says yes.  John Andretti and Richard Petty Motorsports will continue their association with Andretti Autosport for the Indy 500.

In surprise news, AFS has announced they’ve bought two chassis and have an engine lease and plan on running the full season.  No news on who’s driving but Adam Carroll, Dan Wheldon, Alex Lloyd, and potentially Ralfa Matos are all possibilities, as is Tony Kanaan.

In some sad news… Sebastien Saadevra has been confirmed for Conquest and another F1 reject, James Jakes is testing with Coyne.  It almost makes me in favor of the 26 car limit… because it’ll make their lives very unpleasant.  Saadevra left Bryan Herta’s Indy Lights team because they didn’t give him enough of a chance to win (even though he won a race last season) and so he goes to Conquests Indycar team??? Yeah, that makes sense.  Saadevra might just get the Dani Pedrossa treatment by the fans at Indy.  I’d love to see Herta give Saadevra the Kevin Conway Treatment.

Numerous drivers have expressed interest in the Vegas race.  They include Supercross rider James Stewart, former CART and F1 champion Jacques Villenuve and AJ Allmindinger.  I’d love to see Stewart and Allmindinger is a good driver, but I can’t say I’d want to see Villenuve.  Sure, he’s a former CART and F1 champion but he’s done nothing of note in the last 10 years and has really hurt his image with his repeated failures in NASCAR and F1.  Plus, outside of the French Canadians does he have any fans??? I don’t think so.

Bernard is not budging on the 26 car field limits.  I’m still not a fan of it but the announcements of James Jake (or is it Jake James??? Who cares???) and Saadevra not to mention the rumors of Dunothing being allowed in makes me slightly more in favor of it.  I still don’t like it… but it does mean if there are 27 or 28 cars a talentless ride buyer’s going to struggle to make the field and it will make Indy Lights experience a bit more important as those drivers have seen these tracks where as random GP2 and F3 drivers haven’t.

Indycar has lost it’s live streaming video for 2011.  Thoughts range on this from apathy to rage, largely depending on whether or not a person has Versus on their cable package or is a Canadian/Austrillian/Brit.  However the rumored TV crew for Versus sounds good with Wally Dallenbach Jr and Kevin Lee joining; replacing Jack Arute and Robby Buhl.  Sounds good to me as it takes the idiot (Arute) and the conflict of interest (Buhl being an owner of DDR) out of the equation.  To Buhl’s credit he did a much better job of managing said conflict than Micheal Waltrip, Darrell Waltrip or Rusty Wallace have ever done.

Indycar testing began today with two sessions at Barber Motorsports Park, also known as one of the worst race track in America for passing, competing with Infineon and the hypothetical track in Austin.  Anyways onto testing Power set the fastest lap of the day. There were a few interesting developments including Hinchcliffe in 6th and Wilson in 3rd.  Simona and Hildebrand were a bit disappointing as both were stuck in the late teens; Hildebrand also was involved in a wreck.  Considering Indycar’s a spec series the testing’s not that interesting as no one’s debuting new equipment.  Compared to either the ALMS test or the MotoGP test the Indycar tests feels kind of pointless.  It’s important that they have the test to work on setup and get drivers seat time… but it’s not that exciting.  In MotoGP for example we’re seeing the first indications of how good Spies may be and on whether or not Rossi can make the transition to Ducati not to mention the Stoner&Honda parring’s potential for winning.  In Indycar we already know that the Red cars will be fast and as will Justin Wilson and Sebastien Bourdais.  Nothing that surprising… Next year on the other hand… then testing will be interesting.

NASCAR:

Not much happened with the rare off week.  Brian France held a press conference just to say how well things are going (only 3 races Brian, you’ve got plenty of time to ruin it) and Kurt Busch had a very successful race in the NHRA Pro Stock class, qualifying for the main race.  Sure he was eliminated round 1, but for his first NHRA race in one of the top 2 classes that’s pretty good.

???? A Top level driver wins in the 3rd tier series??? How impressive...

Kasey Kahne won the Truck race from Darlington.  How impressive!!!  A Top tier driver wins in the third tier series!  In related news Casey Stoner has asked to be allowed to race in 125cc MotoGP races and Mark Webber want’s to race in the F3 series.  (note the sarcasm)

Top Gear is sponsoring a NASCAR Nationwide series race at Charlotte this May!?!?!?!  Sadly it’s not the real Top Gear, but Top Gear USA…

F1:

Testing continues.  The Red Bull is still incredibly fast, the Ferrari is also competitive, the Mclaren may be in trouble and Mercedes may or may not have some speed depending on who you ask.  Oh… and HRT is still completely pointless.

MotoGP:

The final pre-season test for MotoGP is underway in Qatar, with day 1 and 2 completed.  Honda continues to lead with the Yamaha’s a close second.  One of the main advantages the Honda’s have had so far is their gearbox, which appears to have seamless shift technology.  Yamaha is unsurprisingly attempting to build their own version of it.  David Emmet on MotoMatters broke down day one times and what they mean.  Lorenzo and Stoner appear to have the most true speed followed by Pedrossa and Spies.

Ducati continues to struggle.  Both Rossi and Hayden have struggled to produce competitive times.  Many, myself included had expected good things out of Hayden this year and it’s a bit concerning to see them both struggle.  The bike isn’t turning well… it truly does look like the bike only Casey Stoner can ride.  Stoner led pre season testing last year and the team still struggled… now they can’t even get in the top 5!

Hiroshi Aoyama has been doing well in this test on his satellite Honda.  He had a miserable season last year that was made worse by his mid season injury; but he may be this year’s Ben Spies (best of the non factory riders).  To do that he’ll have to overcome teammate Marco Simoncelli who’s also been strong.

American Le Mans Series/International Le Mans Series Challange:

Highcroft Racing debut their new LMP1 car that will compete in the 12 Hours of Sebring this year… although isn’t likely to be full time in ALMS competition.   All the teams planning to compete in the 12 Hours of Sebring have arrived and are participating in pre season testing today.  Remember that there is no live TV so if you want to watch hope you’re able to view ESPN3 online… otherwise its’ Radio Le Mans for you.

AMA Pro Racing:

The Daytona 200 was a complete nightmare.  Dunlop tire issues forced the race to be red flagged for over two hours.  That caused the only live televised AMA Pro race of the year to get bumped off TV for the Camping World Truck series.  When the race restarted another major wreck caused another Red Flag to be thrown.  The race did have an exciting finish which saw Jason DiSalvo win on a Ducati; the first time that manufacter has won a Daytona 200 (or Daytona 140).

In AMA Superbike Blake Young won both races.  Neither race saw tire issues like the 200 and had pretty exciting finishes.  Young also won the season finale at Barber last year.  I didn’t list him as a darkhorse for the title… but… he made a pretty convincing case to be included.

2nd Annual Triple League Racing Awards Coming Soon: Viewer Participation Requested

I’ve been busy, and haven’t been updating as regularly as I’ve wanted to, but I do have some things coming up.  Foremost, the second annual Triple League Racing Awards.  The First Year’s awards can be viewed here. Catagories will include Driver of the Year, Team of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Race of the Year, Worst Driver, Disappointment of the Year, Best New Track of the Year (note, new to a series, not necessarily brand new), Storyline of the year, and possibly more.  This year, though, the awards will be split up into multiple posts, because it’s too big to be one post.

The Awards cover all racing series, especially NASCAR Sprint Cup, NASCAR Nationwide, NASCAR Camping World Trucks, Izod Indycar, MotoGP, WSBK, F1, ALMS, although I’ll consider other series (Moto2, AMA Superbikes, Grand Am).  The awards are planned for the end of November/beginning of December, because I cannot finish the awards until NASCAR and F1 finish.  Some categories(rookie of the year) are closer to completion than others (driver of the year).

Also this year, I’d like to request input from the readers on who/what to nominate and in the end win.  This goes for categories as well, you can request another category, and if I like it, I’ll add it in.  So PLEASE comment and give your nominations!  These awards cover a ton of series, and I may forget something important, plus I haven’t seen every single race in all of these series, so reader input is appreciated.  That said, the final decision on winners is mine.  I’ll also include a fan vote on all categories with the awards.

NASCAR is Falling, but Who’s Taking Advantage of It?

NASCAR is clearly in trouble.  Ratings continue to drop, and as the Chase has started, have actually gotten worse which kind of makes the arguments for the Chase sound a little hollow.  It’s not just the economy, because that excuse may explain the attendance issues, but that doesn’t explain the fall in ratings.  The fall isn’t just a slight downturn, either; it’s become a very significant drop, which hasn’t helped with already cost conscience sponsors.  You’d think this would be the perfect opportunity for the other racing series in the country, especially Indycar, but sadly they seem to be failing to capitalize on this opportunity, in fact, the other series may be in worse shape.

Indycar is theoretically the series that should gain the most out of NASCAR’s struggles.  After all, it’s the only other major pavement oval racing series in the country, (ARCA doesn’t count) and American Open Wheel Racing was as big if not bigger than NASCAR just 15 years ago.  NASCAR falling is about the best thing Indycar could have hoped for after Unification, it gives them the opportunity to get disenfranchised NASCAR fans another form of televised oval racing, and Indycar gives the sponsors a much lower cost way to get involved with racing.  Sounds like everything Indycar could have hoped for, right?  Well… unfortunately it seems Indycar’s letting this opportunity slide by.  The ratings for Indycar on Versus are awful, .1-.2 in 2009 and this year they’ve hovered between .4-.6, which makes selling sponsorship, especially team sponsorship, very tough.  They have added no major sponsors from NASCAR except Version, which was driven out of NASCAR due to being a competitor of Sprint, have increased spending, and Shell may be slightly involved as a package deal from Penske’s NASCAR team, but otherwise, nothing.  Plus, Indy 500 ratings were down this year, and really, the racing hasn’t been very good at Indy since 06, and that’s the main time Indycar get’s to showcase itself to non-Indycar fans!

Plus, to gain more fans, you kinda need to have more than two teams win every race!  And possibly having more than 3 full time Americans, more good ovals, and maybe some passing on the road and street races.  I’m sure fans are lining up to see Mr. Classless (Sebastian Saadevra), the guy who’s name sounds like Bugatti, Adam Carroll, and Takuma Sato… it’s not like there’s any marketable or popular drivers without full time rides…(Rahal, Hildebrand, Tracy, Fisher, Carpenter, Rice).    All of these things tend to help bring in fans, especially fans who already watch racing!  And speaking of bringing in fans… running a parade around Motegi at 2AM doesn’t help either…

Indycar is missing the opportunity most people only could have dreamed of in 2008.  When/if Indycar ever improves itself to the point where it might finally be able to capitalize on this, it’s likely NASCAR will have found some way to fix their issues, and then the opportunity will be lost.  You would think that the much lower costs associated with Indycar would be appealing to sponsors who’re tired of NASCAR spending, but then you look at the fact Indycar is 17 races compared to 38 race weekends in NASCAR, with ratings generally in the .3-.4 range, you sort of see why Indycar’s got so few sponsors, especially for the teams.

A lot of ALMS fans are (or were before the Audi news) feeling pretty good.  After all, ALMS is “relevant” racing and that should bring in more manufacturer support.  Plus, the ratings of ALMS races on Speed equal or beat the Vs. Indycar races, and attendance is fairly strong, especially at Petite and Sebring.  The GT2 class has factory backed cars from Porsche, BMW, Corvette(GM), and Ferrari, plus other cars based off of Jaguar, Ford, and other sportscar makes.  And the new LMP2 rules seem to make it even easier to get more teams and manufactures involved!

But, things aren’t really that great for ALMS, either.  First off, Audi’s not going to enter, and even if Audi had joined, they would then simply have won every race!  What ALMS really needs is 3-4 LMP1 manufactures so that they can have a truly competitive and factory backed LMP1 class.  Secondly, I enjoy ALMS a lot, but it’s not the easiest form of racing for “casual” fans and there’s not much crossover potential with NASCAR.  4 different classes that sometimes running 10-24 hour races isn’t something a non racing fan is likely to understand or enjoy.  I see the biggest potential for growth coming from fans going from NASCAR to Indycar and then to ALMS, but until Indycar starts growing… well, that doesn’t help much.  And, ALMS has too few races spread across too long of time for them to truly become a “major” sport.

And, there’s an even bigger problem.  ALMS lacks any sort of star power.  Indycar (and AMA, Grand Am) struggles with that too, but at least you have potential, you’ve got Danica and Helio and Marco, plus Power, Kannan, Tracy, Wheldon, Rahal, Hunter-Reay, Silvestro, Mann, Hildebrand, Fisher, and Franchitti.  But in ALMS, how many of the drivers have even the recognition that TK or Wheldon?

Grand (Sh)Am and AMA Pro racing have no chance, mainly because they’re owned effectively by NASCAR, so they’re not even going to get a shot at real success.  Out of the two, AMA has a lot more potential.  In fact, were it not for the NASCAR connection, they’d have a lot of potential.  They have some potential for “star power” and the racing is often very good.  But, again, too few races spread across too long of season, and the races are run tape delayed on SpeedTV at Midnight and latter.  Plus, auto racing people may struggle with the switch to 2 wheels.  In the end, though, the NASCAR connection is the real reason they’ll never get off the ground, because NASCAR’s never going to let another series owned by them start to gain any ground on Cup.

F1?  No American teams, drivers, or races…  MotoGP and WSBK have potential, especially MotoGP.  However, I just can’t see MotoGP truly challenging NASCAR.  I’d love to see it, but I just don’t think that’s likely.  I could see MotoGP challenging Indycar and ALMS, maybe even getting ratings in the 1.0 range, but an International Road Racing series probably has a fairly low glass ceiling in America.

World of Outlaws, Lucas Late Models, and other forms of short track and dirt track racing fits very well with what most NASCAR fans are used to.  But, it’s not regularly televised, so while it likely is where the diehard oval fans will go, the casual fans probably won’t move to that.

It seems, and I know a lot less about this than other forms of racing, but it seems NHRA is doing a bit better than the other series at grabbing unhappy NASCAR fans.  The series has a similar “feel” to NASCAR, and has a lot of interesting storylines in it.  Personally, NHRA, or really any kind of drag racing, doesn’t interest me, but it does seem like they’re benefiting from NASCAR troubles more than others.

The elephant in the room is the fact that road racing series have struggled in the US to gain “mainstream” appeal for a sustained period of time.  This puts a cap on the amount of support that’s likely even possible for ALMS, AMA, Grand Am, and in some ways Indycar.  Maybe that attitude can change, and maybe road racing can become more popular in America, but until that happens, road racing series are going to be far behind NASCAR and even farther behind the “stick and ball” and even PBR and UFC!  Which does make you wonder why Indycar’s adding more and more road and street racing… but anyways, let’s not get stuck on tangents.

It’s not completely the other series fault for not capitalizing on NASCAR’s struggles; after all, the economic problems have hurt them, too.  But for Indycar especially, this is/was the perfect opportunity that could only have been dreamed about 4 years ago.  This might have been Indycar’s best window to regain it’s strength, and if anything, things have been getting worse, not better.  ALMS, AMA, MotoGP, and WSBK are great forms of racing, and with luck, not to mention promotion by the series and their fans, hopefully they’ll start/continue to grow, but I can’t see any of them really being able to break out of the “niche” sport market, or challenge NASCAR, either.  That said, if they could get ratings to equal PBR (1.3ish) that would be a very positive thing.  Indycar should be taking advantage of this opportunity, but they’re not.  NHRA seems to be doing alright, and getting a few of the NASCAR people to tune in, and the dirt track/short track series are probably getting some of the really hardcore NASCAR people to attend some of their races, but really, no one’s capitalizing on this opportunity to the point where it’s anything more than a dream that they’ll ever challenge NASCAR for supremacy.  And really, that’s the scary as a racing fan.  What happens if NASCAR continues to fall and becomes a complete niche sport again and none of the others step it up?  Will racing then completely fall off the “mainstream” US radar and become like MLS and WNBA?  That is what should worry all American racing fans, whether they like NASCAR or not, if NASCAR implodes and there’s no racing series there to take it’s place (as NASCAR did to Indycar in the 90’s) then what happens?  I don’t know, but I doubt it’s something any racing fans are going to want to find out.

WTF: NHRA Drivers and Teams Against Four Wide?

  Why are the NHRA drivers and teams against the Four Wide Racing at Charlotte?  The PRO organization, the similar to FOTA/GPDA, sent a letter to the NHRA and Bruton Smith stating they will not run another four wide race for points. 

  In their letter they state four concerns.  1st was safety.  2nd was confusion. 3rd was sponsorship identification, and 4th was a circus like atmosphere, similar to WWE.  They actually said that. 

  The only point that is somewhat legitimate is safety.  Safety is important, and needs to be looked at, and yet overall I don’t see four wide as that dangerous.  The only issue would be a wreck could involve  up to four cars.  But still, I’m not sure how it’s much more dangerous than usual drag racing.

  On the other points, well, confusion is an issue.  For teams and drivers, thats the name of the game.  When somethings different, you have to prepare for it and be ready.  As Ryan McGee said, John Force actually studied the track and watched all of the other races that happened over the weekend, and thus prepared himself and his team for the event.  Fans were confused, according to PRO.  Well, I find that hard to believe. 

  Onto the Sponsorship identification, that’s stupid.  They looked like “toy cars” according to Pro on TV, and “sponsor identification was virtually non existant”.  Really?  So the fact that more non NHRA heard about the event just doesn’t matter, does it? 

   And my favorite point, that it creates a “circus like atmosphere”.  Now, I’ll say that sometimes Bruton Smith and the SMI corporations promotion/pre race programs are a little over the top, in my opinion.  But at least they try and entertain fans.  How four wide racing makes it “WWE like” is beyond me.  It’s not like Bernie Eccolstone’s insane idea of track shortcuts.  It’s just normal drag racing expanded.  How it’s circus like I don’t know, I guess I just can’t comprehend on the same level as PRO. 

  While I do think the safety issues, if they exist, need to be addressed, this makes PRO sound whinny and against the fans.  I believe teams and drivers should have some say in the sanctioning, but this is exactly what people didn’t like about CART.  It’s the teams/drivers coming across as elitist and whinny, and being against the fans interest.  Four wide caught the attention of a lot of people who don’t follow NHRA.  And PRO’s complaint is the first time I’ve ever covered NHRA on my site.  Guess what, though.  It’s not positive coverage.