Economy Taking Its Toll on Bristol Dragway

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Drag racing is fueled by a potent mix of courage, nitromethane, high-octane racing fuel – and money.

Big money.

As are other forms of motorsports, the National Hot Rod Association’s Full Throttle Drag Racing Series has been impacted by a poor economy.

Several drag racing teams were forced to suspend operations in the off-season. Fans have trimmed their travel plans, prompting dragway officials to increase their advertising budgets.

Bristol Dragway is feeling the pinch, too.

Ticket sales are down for this weekend’s NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals. For the first time in a decade, the event also lacks a corporate sponsor.

“It’s tough,” said Kevin Triplett, Bristol Motor Speedway vice-president of public affairs. “Obviously having a title sponsor helps with the cost of running an expensive event.

“Companies benefit when they are able to put their name on a high-profile event, but a lot of companies are having to make tough decisions right now. It puts some added challenges on our plate.”

Officials from Food City offered Bristol Dragway a slice of good news last week, agreeing to sponsor the return of Friday night qualifying. Food City and Bristol Motor Speedway have the second-longest sponsorship agreement in NASCAR.

“Having Food City come on board with the dragway for the first time is a really big deal, and we believe they will believe this is something they will want to continue to do,” Triplett said.

Missing faces
One of the primary storylines entering the 2009 NHRA season opener at Pomona, Calif., in February was the absence of several well-known drivers because of team cutbacks.

One of them is defending Thunder Valley Nationals Funny Car winner Melanie Troxel, who has not raced all season because owner Roger Burgess decided to park his two-car team.

Popular Top Fuel competitors Hillary Will, Rod Fuller and Doug Herbert have also been sidelined. Six-time Pro Stock World Champion Warren Johnson lost his long-time sponsor,
GM Performance Parts, but was able to land a sponsor deal with K&N Filters

Even the megateam headed by 14-time NHRA Funny Car champion John Force has been forced to re-examine its bottom line.

“We’re definitely looking at cost-cutting,” said Mike Neff, who drives a Funny Car for the John Force Racing team.

According to Neff, it costs around $8,000 each time Funny Car makes a pass down the dragstrip.

“I feel fortunate to be with a great team like John Force Racing,” Neff said during a press conference in Johnson City last week. “We’ve got to try and make sure that we can weather this storm just like everybody else.”

Helping hand
The leadership of NHRA has made various efforts to control costs for both teams and fans.

“Testing has been cut way back for teams, so that’s one move that has saved us some money,” Neff said.

At NHRA-owned facilities and other participating tracks, a certain allotment of general-admission tickets have been set aside at discounted rate of $20 for adults. The tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Free admission has been offered to children 12 and younger when they’re accompanied by an adult, and active military personnel with identification are admitted free on Fridays.
NHRA officials have also tried to assist teams by limiting rule changes, increasing purses, and keeping the new race distance at 1,000 feet.

Despite rain for the NHRA national events at Pomona and Atlanta, attendance has remained strong through the first seven stops on the NHRA tour.

The racers appreciate the sacrifices fans are making to follow their favorite drivers and fans, Neff said.

“Absolutely, the fans pay our bills, and they are the reason we are all out here racing,” Neff said. “We enjoy seeing all the people come out and having a good time, and I know the
NHRA has been making an effort to knock the ticket prices back a little bit to help accommodate people.”

The news is better for Allen Johnson, a veteran Pro Stock racer from Greeneville, Tenn.

Johnson’s Mopar-backed J&J Racing Team has added a second driver in Johnny Gray and hired Jeff Perley to assist Johnson’s father, Roy, as crew chief. Perley played a key role for the Ken Black Racing team, which won four straight Pro Stock titles from 2003-06.

“We feel real fortunate because I know a lot of teams have had to cut back,” Johnson said. “We are watching every penny, though.”

The average cost of one Pro Stock pass is between $3,500 and $4,000, Johnson said.

“When you add in the all the salaries, travel and everything required to run the whole year, our budget is a couple million dollars per year,” Johnson said.

Johnson pointed to the basic fast of racing: It takes money to go fast.

“As soon as we cut back, the other teams keep going and we’re behind,” Johnson said.

The future
One long-range program that could ease the economic burden on NHRA teams is the development of a spec engine. In fact, Funny Car regular Tim Wilkerson is scheduled to conduct a test of the proposed engine at Bristol Dragway on May 18, the day after the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals.

“They [NHRA] wanted to just try and test things out, but I think they are a long ways away from [a spec engine] ever being possible,” Neff said.

Much like the Car of Tomorrow program in NASCAR, where teams can basically use the same car for tracks of different dimensions, the new, smaller and more restrictive spec engine could theoretically decreased the gap between the big and small teams at the top levels of drag racing. The engine would feature a single fuel pump and a 90-percent nitro mixture, but there would be an initial cost for teams to adopt the new technology.

Nitro cars currently use two fuel pumps, so the basic idea is to slow the cars down.

Fan hope the concept can eventually lead to the Funny Car and Top Fuel classes reverting back to the traditional 1,320 feet for races instead of the current 1,000 feet. NHRA made the switch to 1,000 feet last year after Funny Car driver Scott Kalitta died in a spectacular crash during qualifying for a national event in New Jersey.

“I don’t see any changes happening in the near future,” Neff said.