Queensland drag racing school operator and fuel system whiz Ken Lowe ponders on what drag racing has to do to keep its spectators around. If drag racing were a bus, then I am a passenger on that bus. I don’t get to steer or even flick the turn signals but I can talk to other passengers (all of you) and complain to the driver. As usual I have more questions than I have answers. Often, I find as soon as I do find an answer, it only makes another half dozen questions. I hope this does not wander about too much, because the questions and subsequent answers often take us different places. Please bear with me. Complex situations seldom have simple answers. Something that has been on my mind for a while now, is where do new racers come from? As a motor sport, is drag racing growing or shrinking? This concerns me for at least two reasons, first since I have spent my life drag racing it is important to me and second my business supplies drag racers so is my client base growing or shrinking? And once you have the answer, the second part of that question is why? And lastly if it is growing then good, how can we grow it faster? But if it is shrinking, how can we reverse the direction? These are not rhetorical questions but things we need to answer if we are to ensure we are still around in the future. Let me qualify one point here before we go any further. Profit drives us all. Drag racing is no different. A drag racing event takes two groups of customers, brings them together and the result is more at night than you had in the morning. Spectators pay to attend the race, consume food and drink and are entertained for a price. Racers pay entry fees to attend the event, consume food and drink and work their butts off. If the racer does well on the day, the idea is that with his winnings he will go home with more money than it cost them to survive the day. If it was really about making money they would make more working at McDonalds for the day (probably less work too). So if it is not about making money then it has to be about respect. I will cover more on this later, but consider that point – respect. Drag racing is an entertainment medium. Drag racing is a participation medium. Both are true statements, but I believe it has shifted from a participation medium of yesterday to an entertainment medium of today. Make it an event Historically, at one point many spectators were interested parties that had a desire to potentially participate and their attendance at the track was to learn about how to do something that they aspired to, but I think that is changing. Big events such as the Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway only confirm this. There are many races where there are a lot of quality race cars with few spectators yet those cars are at the Winternationals and the place is packed, by comparison, albeit less packed than it has been before. People attend the Winternationals because it has grown from just a race to an event. Maybe I should capitalise that – an EVENT. If most of the spectators came to a race to learn about something they wanted to participate in then attendance at smaller events would be strong, and it isn’t. The Winternationals is a large event that appeals to spectators expecting to be entertained. Make it entertaining The declining spectator attendance at major races confirms my theory about the changing composition of the spectator crowd. Now they are here for a show, a spectacular if you will, and the declining attendance also confirms that maybe we are not as good at the show stuff as we should be, or maybe we don’t treat our drag race spectator-customers with the respect they demand and deserve. No shade on hot days, oil downs and a slow show, all contribute to taking a good show and ruining it for the drag race spectator. We need to give them a good show and do it for them in comfort. Because that is what our competitors in the entertainment business are doing. I understand that pro categories take more start up time, which is okay as that is part of the show, building anticipation. This is not the case with the sportsman categories though. If you look at a brick home, most will call it a brick home but in fact it is a brick and mortar home. They bricks won’t stand by themselves as the pro categories can’t stand by themselves. The pro categories need the sportsman categories to fill in the spaces between the pro shows. I have both pro cars and sportsman cars and understand the different dynamic. Having said that, if I was running a drag race show during a sportsman category I would stand on the opposite side of the track to the stands (bleachers) and watch the crowd. If their heads weren’t swivelling back and forth like they were watching a tennis match I reckon they would be getting bored and a bored spectator is not a happy spectator. People have a short attention span. To ramp up the show I would want two cars staged up on the start line, two in the water ready to start the burn out and two running behind ready to pull into the water. As soon as the pair on the start line leave, next pair to start the burn out and by the time they are completed and rolling into stage the first pair are close to making the turn at the end. The show has to be faster. Reduce the stoppages Don’t even get me started on oil downs. They are a show killer. Watch what happens to the spectators in the stands when the tractor comes out.