for my madscientist, well don't know what to say. But a few tidbits.
First off the opinion comment was not aimed at you. Someone else took it upon themselves to state some opinions don't matter to him which is fine and nothing new here. He knows who he is and if you read the previous posts so would you.
We have some mutal acquaintances and they tell me you are not a bad guy. Which I am sure is true. I have learned over the years on here however when people are different in person than the persona here that they do themselves a disservice. Maybe some introspection could be in order, maube not. I did learn however from your reply to me and subsequent replies that it is very easy to push your buttons apparently. Just food for thought.
You can have any opinion you like. Matters not to me. I was stating my opinion on what you posted. You stated with few exceptions no one from .90 stuff moves up, I pointed out a few names off the cuff and you got mad. Whatever. In my opinion I think those classes will not be going anywhere in the near future. Unless the economic model for the NHRA changes we are the wheels that make the bus go. I don't think anyone is under any impression that we ARE the SHOW. However most of us understand our role in the bigger picture. Like it or not it is the way it has been and will likely remain for the foreseeable future. The NHRA has MANY faults and makes MANY poor decisions there is no news there.
You don't "push" my buttons, nor does anyone else.
The fact of the matter is just what I said. Drag racing needs TELEVISION exposure. I can tell you from very limited conversations I have with locals that street racing is picking up around here and is getting back to numbers like they had in the 80's and early 90's. Is that because they went to a National and watched throttle stop classes. I stopped going to my local National because the track is a cesspool (and after at least 3 decades and counting that I know of) they have done little to nothing to fix it, and probably never will, and I stopped encouraging new people to go, because by the time we drove to said cesspool, paid through the nose, parked in bumpuckt Egypt, finally got to the crap stands, over paid for food and beverages (I guess we could have kept food in the car but the HOUR walk one way would have burned up the day) watched a 1 lane, tire smoking pedal fest in fuel, which naturally caused several blowers to unbolt themselves and many rods to vacate the crankshaft and ventilate the block, causing the enivetable 3/4-1 hour clean up, after all that, we watched 8 pairs of Pro Stock, then the alcohol guys provided us with more oil down time, AND AFTER ALL THAT, ALL THAT CRAP, we got S/C, S/G and good old S/ST. WTF? How do you explain THAT to a newbie? Is that drag racing? If it is, I can tell you, from my experience, newbies don't want to see throttle stop racing, even more so after all that. In fact, a friend of mine who had never been to a drag race EVER, and his wife, summed the day up better than I ever could. They said: "I'd rather watch this on TV. The TV cuts out 90% of the crap, and my DVR does the rest for me".
That was when I realized something has to give.
Not surprisingly, I had not been to my local track since October 2007. I was there a couple of weeks ago. It was a (I want to say about 12-15 good old fashioned US Army type swear words here) disgrace. The (more swear words here) CAR SHOW drew more spectators and participants than the weekly drag race did. WTMFingH is going on here? That weekly program was the ENVY of EVERY track on the west cost during the 70's, 80's, and even the early 90's. After that, the big hitters got old, retired, died, just said piss on it (although some are still doing LODRS and a few Nationals with some big bracket races thrown in) and the people who came along to replace them are just not there. Part of that is a societal issue, but part of it is that throttle stop racing kills the concept of drag racing. My wife and I were in the stands watching the few fast cars that were there in the stands. Several of them still ran their T.S. for a bracket race. My wife was stunned (she is NOT a drag racer nor much of a fan, she is just there because I was) and I had to tell he he was working on his "tune up" for a big race. More than likely that was BS but it is what it is. She thought the T.S. deal was way more boring that watching two cars in a bracket race.
At any rate, this all comes down to why Street Outlaws KILLS NHRA on TV ratings. Most non-gear head people who didn't grow up in the sport think drag racing is about two cars lining up, and the fastest one gets the trophy and kisses the girl.
In 2015, that is mostly, not true. And so, unless you cut out the crap at Nationals, get some QUALITY TV coverage, and start encouraging our kids and grandkids that it is not criminal or a sin to work with your hands, that cars and motorsports are NOT killing the earth, then we will see more of the same, with a slow, grisly death of drag racing to follow.
BTW, where are all the "ricers" that were going to be the future of hot rodding I was hearing about in the 80's and 90's? Don't see them flocking to the track either.
