Roger Burgess refuses to take an adversarial role against the NHRA when it comes to Pro Modified and his company’s sponsorship of the series.

There are those who believe he doesn’t need to. They believe the facts speak for him.

Burgess announced on July 1, his intentions to exercise a contract option to no longer fund television coverage of the Get Screened America Pro Modified television series after 2011. In addition, he expressed intent in the same prepared statement, to cease his involvement in the class beyond 2014 if the necessary funding for the television isn’t procured to keep it going next year.

At this point, Burgess doesn’t see this happening.

“I think it’s fair to say that I won’t sponsor the series after 2014,” said Burgess. “But, I will work my butt off between now and then to find a new sponsor.”

Burgess makes it clear his decision had nothing to do with the quality of the show. Ratings made up his mind, or lack thereof. This low popularity, Burgess believes, could be attributed to a lack of promotion and consistency in the broadcast times.

Roger Burgess refuses to take an adversarial role against the NHRA when it comes to Pro Modified and his company’s sponsorship of the series.

There are those who believe he doesn’t need to. They believe the facts speak for him.

Burgess announced on July 1, his intentions to exercise a contract option to no longer fund television coverage of the Get Screened America Pro Modified television series after 2011. In addition, he expressed intent in the same prepared statement, to cease his involvement in the class beyond 2014 if the necessary funding for the television isn’t procured to keep it going next year.

At this point, Burgess doesn’t see this happening.

“I think it’s fair to say that I won’t sponsor the series after 2014,” said Burgess. “But, I will work my butt off between now and then to find a new sponsor.”

Burgess makes it clear his decision had nothing to do with the quality of the show. Ratings made up his mind, or lack thereof. This low popularity, Burgess believes, could be attributed to a lack of promotion and consistency in the broadcast times.

“I love Dave Rieff and Mike Dunn, feel they do an awesome job,” Burgess said. “I don’t like the moving of the schedule. The show was bouncing all over the place. The reason I cancelled is that we didn’t get enough fan support. We were reaching about 150,000 households and no sponsor cares about that. That’s just not enough.

“Unless I want to spend a lot more money and start advertising my television show, which I didn’t sign on for that, unless I did that the TV show was ineffective and there was no ROI [return on investment]. I don’t think our racers were able to use TV as a means to get sponsors because when they saw the numbers, it turned them off. We lost some sponsors after working on them for a while because the TV numbers were so low."

Burgess believes there were some factors which were too apparent to ignore.

“I can’t say whether they are not [promoting as they should], but if you look out there visibly, it appears they aren’t. They didn’t even advertise our show on their website, and if they did it was in some obscure place. If the show got changed and there was no Full Throttle show with it, no one made a big deal out of it. I know they had a limited budget, but some of the simple stuff that could have been done – wasn’t. I don’t have the means. I’m not an advertising agency, nor am I going to go out and hire one.”

BURGE

SAFETY CONSCIOUS BURGESS PUTS DRIVING ON HOLD


Roger Burgess refuses to climb behind the wheel of his Pro Modified car until he has complete data.

The Pro Modified driver, whose Get Screened America company sponsors the NHRA series, recently withdrew his entry from the NHRA U.S. Nationals, and unless he can account for every inconsistency on a racing surface,  could be finished driving this season.

Burgess describes the cause of his June accident during the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals as nothing more than ignorance – his own.

“I have a whole story about what I did wrong that day and it all comes back to me,” Burgess said in an exclusive interview with CompetitionPlus.com. “I’m the guy who screwed up. The reason I screwed up is real simple. I was ignorant. That is the right term, ignorant. I did not know where I was on that race track. I didn't know that I hadn’t cleared those second set of bumps on the race track. I thought I had cleared them all.”

Burgess sustained slight injuries in the first round  accident when he lost control of his turbocharged 1968 Firebird, crashing into the opposite lane retaining wall. He narrowly missed opponent Kenny Lang in the accident.

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“I am a man of my word and I do what I say I am going to do,” said Burgess. “I was trying to accomplish something in the Pro Modified class which is the most popular class worldwide. I really wanted to help the NHRA grow their business by getting involved in other countries and series. I no longer believe I can do this under the agreement I have and the environment I work in. When I determined I could no longer meet my objectives, there comes a time when we all do the same thing.”

The NHRA announced in the fall of 2009, the Pro Modified class would be recognized as a professional series outside of the Full Throttle Series but did little to promote the class in the media or bring in additional funding to supplement Burgess’ investment.

“You set out to do something and when you don’t get the input and cooperation, when the guy on the other side of the table isn’t as committed as you are and isn’t able or willing to put their resources out there, pretty soon you come to an understanding this isn’t a partnership,” Burgess said. “You’re not really going to achieve your objective. I think the objectives I had set out to achieve in Pro Modified are not going to be met under me. Someone else now has to step up.

“I think it should be NHRA. They own the series. I think what I have done motivates them to make a decision. Is this something we [NHRA] are going to push and make it grow? Or, do we not care and let it die out. One of those two will happen. We will find out over the next few years.

“I’m not talking negative towards the NHRA because we know the nitro cars are the stars of the show. That’s why I own one. I get all kinds of sponsor opportunities with the nitro car. Racers cannot afford to race out here with the cost of what it takes to run a car with the purses so low, without sponsorship. It can’t be done unless they have personal wealth. I’m trying to change that and I have come to the conclusion that is above me. It takes more energy than I am willing and able to give right now.

“I thought I chose the best solution long term, where at the end of the day, there would be a lot of value gained by a lot of people at the end of the thing. There was also my own personal satisfaction in competing and making friends out here. I am very disappointed in how this turned out.”