Youth and LSR

[RichFox]

Don Strong is exactly right.As long as we are indulging a hobby, or a sport for some, and not enertainment, such as the TV races, LSR will maintain it's reason for being. When it becomes entertainment, packaged for the masses, it develops a new purpose. Making money for people who have nothing to do with the racing.

[Nortonist 592]

I don't think LSR lends itself to TV.  Warching one car run by itself does not make for exciting TV unless, of course, you are part of the crew or some way involved with that car.  I would compare it to chess.  Long interludes followed by a quick move.  Plus the attention span of the average TV viewer doesn't run to the five mile marker.

[PorkPie]

1996 a USA today reporter done an interview with me in Craig Breedlove's SoA pits.

I told him what Speed means:

Speed is a dream - Nascar, Formula One, Cart - this is business, making money.
Speed means, someone got a dream to build a racer and get them to the salt - he is building this dream in his backyard with friends. He brings his dream out on the Bonneville Salt Flats with the help of his family and friends. And he goes home with a record or with experience...and much more friends who all got the same dream....going fast in a racer.

Once you be hooked from the virus of speed there is only one healing....coming back.....if you be old or you be young......there is no different.

This year I saw a lot of young people bringing out a home build racer - and this young people was not the second or third generation from salt racers. This was people who went into this sport by there own, may be the saw the Fastes Indian......but there is a new generation.

The big problem with our sport is that he works not very well on TV - the speed we run looks not fast due to the enviroment......a Nascar with 200 mph on a high bend looks ten times faster than Don Vesco with 450 mph on the salt...there is not the kick behind.
Showing the starting line and the pits......if you like to get a 1 hour program together you have to be very good with cutting the video material that it will be a good show......for non Bonneville visitor....

To get the feeling, spirit and emotion of Bonneville you have to be there.......and than it will be yourself who has to find out if it's boring or excitement...........

[interested bystander]

Can't agree with Nortonist more, and he may be giving the average  TV viewer a compliment on their attention span.

I don't agree with that STAN BY guy about limiting entries/participation as he inferred on a recent post, but those two FRAGILE surfaces that Landspeed racers compete against one another and ma nature on make it difficult to the point IMHOP that scheduling enough time and days for all and anyone that chooses to compete is a mind-boggler.

[Stainless1]

I probably have no business getting involved in this ......... compared to those who have made LSR a lifestyle and devoted decades and dollars, I don't have an experienced opinion to offer ......... but indulge me for a few minutes if you will.
Where else can you leave cash and credit cards on the seat of your open race car and walk away (or overnight) and never think twice about it?
LSR is too pure to modernize and expose to too many people NOT INTERESTED in the RACING!


Don Strong

     

Don, if you are new at this you sure catch on fast, couldn't agree more with your post.

[dwarner]

Don "gets it"

DW

[836dstr]

LSR is not a good spectator attraction, unless you include wandering the Pits and talking with the participants or walking the staging lanes at El Mirage (that's what got me hooked).

If you see the start of the run you don't see the end. If you watch from the Pits you see the cars come and go but by necessity are way back from the action. As a spectator at Bonneville in 2000 I still remember the sound of Al Teague making a run in the morning. It sent chills up my spine!

There are a number of second and third generation "youngsters" involved today because of family. Unless you are good at picking and choosing a soft record to run on, or a new combination of car and drivetrain, it is going to cost a lot to build a competitive car. Some team efforts work, like the young guys racing under the "Bean Bandit" banner.

Growth for growths sake is not good, but we definitely need new blood, not necessarily young blood to keep LSR healthy.

Tom

[Milwaukee Midget]

One of the reasons I'm throwing down my spare time, money and effort to get into this sport (and I consider it a sport as well as a hobby) is because of the fact that it is NOT dominated by advertisers and high-profile personalities.  In fact, most of the sporting events I tend to gravitate toward tend to be of an amateur or semi-pro variety. 

But one of the things that brought me to this sport was seeing Gary Gabelich set his record in 1970, and if I'm not mistaken, it was shown on ABC's Wide World of Sports.  An edited feature, for sure, but to a 10 year old growing up in Eastern Iowa, the whole thing was exciting and very cool.  So mass media did have an impact on my decision. 

It's taken me 37 years of incubation in order to commit to this.  From what I've read and seen on this site, and from talking to some of you at Bonneville and El Mirage, competitive cars take years to complete.  You wait in line for hours for your opportunity to run.  You carve out huge amounts of time working on vehicles, thinking through problems, and sacrificing.  And damned few of us will ever hold a record.  Not only is it the fastest sport on earth, it's also the slowest.  If I'm any example, I suspect the youth will come, it's just that they'll be old by the time they're ready to race.

And unless there is something extraordinary, such as an attempt to break the sound barrier, that just doesn't translate to television.  If you were to change the sport in order to reach a broader television audience, I probably wouldn't be interested in competing.  I'm not interested in being waved over into the Evian Paddock, or having my picture taken in the Boraxo Winners Circle, or competing in the Cingular Wireless Speedweek, brought to you by  -  whoever.

Don't ever lose sight of the fact that this is elemental racing at it's finest, and that we're lucky to have it.  If TV doesn't get it, then TV doesn't get it, and that's just too bad for TV.

[Nortonist 592]

DW wrote "there is no payback".   I have to disagree strongly.  When you finish a run and your crew pull up beside you and screams that you went over the record, thats the PAYBACK.  A check or a trophy has nothing on that moment.  I've been fortunate twice this year to hear the shouts and screams and believe me there is nothing to beat it.

[hawkwind]

I probably have no business getting involved in this ......... compared to those who have made LSR a lifestyle and devoted decades and dollars, I don't have an experienced opinion to offer ......... but indulge me for a few minutes if you will.
I'm sixty years old and grew up in Indianapolis. Cars were an integral part of youth and adolesence.
Drag racing was really cool because of all the obvious reasons but also beacuase it was real heads-up racing and competitor oriented. To make a long story short, expanded media coverage and television coverage turned it into a fan, media, spectator oriented sport and it lost it's personality.
I spent a lot of time at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as a kid too. It was always fun to see the latest from the innovative, free-thinking car builders of the time. No more - all gone. NASCAR is much the same story. These series have turned into carnivals with side-shows, driven by nothing but money and sponsorships, all in the name of putting on a show for the "fans". Formulated, indistinguishable jelly beans advertising Pampers, Kleenex and Kotex.
LSR has not sacrificed it's integrity or it's personality. It's by racers, for racers, with racers and seems to maintain a purity of pupose not found in other venues ....... and (again, from my unqualified point of view) doesn't need to be modernized, aligned with other forms of motorsport, or otherwise tinkered with. Let it evolve at it's own rate, feed and support itself and enjoy it for all it's worth.
Where else can you take any number of entries, line them up and not have any one of them look like another?  Where else can you leave cash and credit cards on the seat of your open race car and walk away (or overnight) and never think twice about it?
LSR is too pure to modernize and expose to too many people NOT INTERESTED in the RACING!

Thanks for your time .......... delete me at will,

Don Strong
Currently residing in Kentucky across the river from Cincinnati Ohio
     

bloody well said mate , I could not put it better myself , I hope and pray that TV and big business stay far away from LSR as east is from west
Gary

[Clay Pitkin]

Very well said Don! You hit the nail right on the head.

[dwarner]

I mentioned in a rsponse to Terry that my "pay vback" comment was pointed to a cash reward. I totally understand the personal satisfaction "pay back", maybe more than most.

Took me 41 years to gain a red hat. I had plenty of sunburned hair because of my refusal to wear a hat at the salt until it was the corrct "red" one.

DW

[aircap]

Folks - I am not a racer, just a fan of LSR. I attended the 1998 Speedweek from Friday to Friday and was never, ever bored.

Remember, it's not just the machinery that makes a TV show, it's the people (someone mentioned drama). Yes - there is enough of both to make a show about Bonneville - maybe not a 26 week series, but a show nonetheless.

A clever producer or director could generate a show about LSR.

[racergeo]

    The original post had to do with taking the pulse of the sport. What pulse, were too old for a pulse!!!! Just kidding. Anyway there have been some good points made here. But every one of the 20 or more people that would have never attended a race at BV except for my participation have loved it. One fellow who races drag boats ands attends several NHRA national events a year took 450 pics and told me it was the most fun he had ever had at a race event. They all love the rods and great variety of race cars,and the sound of cars in top gear laboring on the white dino. I my self had tears in my eyes when Al Tiegh made his last run at 430 mph  in 2003 and consider it the coolest motorsport thing I have seen except for Garlits winning Indy in 84.
    A lot of people that aren't even race fans saw and commented to me how they loved Worlds fastest Indian and the docudrama Worlds Fastest Motorcycle. If presented as a docudrama and with the use of those cool F-1 cameras on the cars at speed and the long shots with the cars along the length of the course as a back drop flashing past in a blur for that speed effect like they do in NASCAR, I think it would work! They would have to feature cars and bikes that were fast, interesting and challenging a record or better yet locked in a battle for a record or fast time.
     The current format would work with just ONE change. And it is a change that those of us that love competition would welcome. Every year make a high participation class in each of the major catagories i.e. roadster, modified coupe, lakester,streamliner, sit up bike, etc. as a feature class with a special reward whether a record is set or not. Three motorcycles created a lot of dama so if announced in advance some of these classes could get several contestants. The SCTA could get sponsors for these catagories much the same as Hotrod sponsors high speed of the meet.  No money just the " carrot " of a little extra competition and a special award without having to beat Tom Burkland. Can the SCTA do this? Of course they can, they create new catagories all the time so one car or bike can get a trophy for being the only one in their class, running on an open record. So they create NO competition classes, why not COMPETITION classes? It would be fun ! And create a little TV drama.
   This should bring out the NAYSAYERS!!!! lol.  

                 Racergeo, your LSR voice of reason!!

[desotoman]

George,

For general information the SCTA already does this (not quite like you describe) at El Mirage. The following is from the El Mirage Procedures:

IX. AWARDS
Awards will be given to participants based on their points as defined in Section VIII of this procedure. Multiple awards may be combined on a single trophy at the highest point of receipt, e.g. a record trophy may list 3% award, 1st place and/or participation. Awards for the season will be given under the following criteria:
A. Top Speed
A trophy will be awarded to the overall fastest car and motorcycle of each meet. A perpetual trophy will be awarded to the overall fastest car and motorcycle of the season. The winners of the perpetual trophy will also receive a trophy for keeping.

B. Records
A record trophy will be awarded for each new record set during the racing season.

C. First Place
A First Place trophy to entrants whose speed is the fastest in class if there were three (3) or more entrants in the class and no entrant’s speed is within 3% of the record.

D. Performance
Performance Recognition Plaques will be awarded as follows:
o Three Percent, to entrants whose speed is within three percent (3%) of the class record at the end of a meet.
o Second Place, to entrants whose speed is the second fastest in class when there are five (5) or more entrants in the class at the same meet.

o Participation, to entrants who entered the same class three (3) or more times during a racing season but did not qualify for a first or second place trophy.

Tom G.