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Retro
Race Tracks Nostalgia sells! NHRA’s
marketing team evidently got the message during the retro-themed 50th U.S.
Nationals, which drew the largest crowd in at least a decade. “Cacklefests,” Fuel Altered exhibitions,
slingshot-dragster matches, and static historic displays have since been
added to other national events. Three
years after the organization reached the half-century mark, NHRA is
finally capitalizing on its “50 Years” campaign.
Now that promoters
everywhere are realizing that retro is cool — and, more importantly,
bringing lots of graybeards back to ticket windows — let’s extend that
nostalgic ambiance to the facilities themselves.
Instead of mimicking every concrete-and-steel NASCAR
“innovation,” why not follow baseball into cozier, retro-themed parks
that put the public closer to the action?
Beginning with the Baltimore Orioles’ occupation of Camden Yards,
every major- or minor-league team that’s moved into a “new/old”
stadium has enjoyed increased attendance. Closer to home,
let’s examine what happened when NHRA first attempted to hold a reunion
outside of California. That
Columbus, Ohio, experiment was a total disaster:
Racers outnumbered spectators, and there weren’t that many
racers. Among the causes that
may have been overlooked, at the time, was an absence of period-correct
ambiance. No drag strip of
the 1950s or ’60s had a huge, industrial-appearing tower complex, nor
giant scoreboards, nor concrete guard walls taller than a slingshot
dragster. Making matters
worse was the eighth-mile course that NHRA chose to set up, instead of
utilizing the existing 1320 feet. a
d v e r t i s e m e n t
Several years
later, the savvy staff of the NHRA Motorsports Museum, which produces
Bakersfield’s successful California Hot Rod Reunion, corrected all of
those shortcomings with a simple, brilliant move — to funky Beech Bend
Raceway Park. Beech Bend’s
first NHRA Hot Rod Reunion was a smash success, as was the subsequent
edition. Noting a growth curve that exceeds Bakersfield’s, some
insiders predict that the Kentucky show will soon surpass the California
original. Reunion-promoters
Steve Gibbs and Greg Sharp obviously valued the key roles that Famoso
Raceway’s history and environment have played in the continuing success
of their Bakersfield Reunion (not to mention two annual Goodguys events).
Until recently, this former military facility, which has hosted
organized drag racing for more than half a century, was thought to be the
only track on the planet that could make serious money on nostalgia racing.
Not
coincidentally, both Famoso and Beech Bend retain the look and feel of a
traditional drag strip. So
does Sacramento (Calif.) Raceway Park, a 1960s-vintage track that features
front-motored fuelers and alcohol-burning blown “gassers” three or
four times a year. At these
ancient venues, fans don’t seem to be scared away by plywood timing
towers or splintered bleachers. I’ve
yet to hear one of them wish aloud for skydivers, or fireworks, or
big-screen commercials, or those Powerade clowns who shoot T-shirts into
the stands. a
d v e r t i s e m e n t Maybe it’s time
to build some of that retro flavor into brand-new facilities, and to
“de-modernize” existing tracks that can’t seem to fill their
aluminum seats. Because Billy
Meyer gets the credit/blame for the “Plex” design that started all
this cookie-cutter sterility, let’s begin by bulldozing the original
Motorplex in Ennis, then rebuilding it as a large-scale version of those
infamous backwoods-Texas strips that originated as two-lane rural
highways. Now that Bruton
Smith is making drag strips look like NASCAR superspeedways, let’s nuke
his California Speedway, then erect a replica of Mickey Thompson’s old
Fontana Drag City (where four jet cars ran side by side by side by side,
back in the Sixties).
I really miss the
distinctive backgrounds of tracks that I only dreamed of visiting as a
young Drag News reader. No
high-resolution, digital, full-color image will ever match the impact of a
black-and-white “half-tone,” printed on the cheapest paper available
to the cheapest publishers the world has ever known.
Remember those tall, skinny evergreens behind every top-end shot
from Pomona? How about the
circular towers at Tulsa, Sears Point and OCIR?
Long Beach had its lion’s-head sign and impossibly-close
bleachers. Indy had the Hurst bridge.
Northeastern tracks had a look all their own, distinguished by
those odd-looking, outhouse-sized, wooden structures just behind the
starting line. Indiana’s
U.S. 30 used that funky Fosdick starting system.
Fremont’s next-door neighbor was a drive-in theater.
Each track was instantly identifiable from almost any angle, thanks
to its unique environment.
Baseball is
demonstrating that getting patrons back to the ballpark requires more than
big numbers and tacky promotions, anymore.
Now that once-unlimited fuel dragsters are burdened by performance
restrictions, the age-old attraction of possibly witnessing history in the
making is itself becoming history. Multicar
teams with multimillion-dollar payrolls have eliminated any chance of
seeing the local hero knock off the touring superstars.
Grandstands are constructed too far from the action.
Gawd help the poor kid who wants to hang on the fence, but can’t
see over the wall. Baltimore and
other cities are proving that a retro-themed site will draw fans even when
the home team isn’t enjoying a record-breaking season.
The first track builder to follow suit could cash in big at the box
office. His patrons and
racers are sure to appreciate modern amenities and safety features
integrated into nostalgic surroundings.
The payoff for the
rest of us will be better backgrounds in photographs and television shots.
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© Competitionplus 2005
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