Pro Street was indexed for many reasons, many of which have already been discussed here. But let me add a couple of things.
The entire year of 2006, Pro Street never had more than two rounds of competition at a race. We had 10 trucks at Indy which was our best turn-out which got rained out, but we would have only had 3 rounds. We had a total of 35 trucks for the year in Pro Street. We had trucks as quick as 9.90 and some that never qualified.
All of us enjoy watching these guys go as fast as they can but if we expect to grow this class, Pro Street needs spectators/fans, competitors, and sponsors. How do we get them?
Sponsors want a crowd and they want trucks going rounds. Sponsors put their money into the sport for advertisement. Having a truck make a few passes down the track, or break before eliminations begin is not what they are looking for. They don't get exposure from a truck that is not going down the track on a regular basis.
How do we get spectators/fans? Create some competition between the racers and provide them with rounds of competition to watch.
So lets look at the new rules.
Weight can be removed. Should enable quicker times with a reduced failure rate. Less weight also will provide for a safer race vehicle.
Indexed. Provides for a performance goal that everyone knows they need to achieve to be competitive. If in testing you can run the index then a racer can travel to a race knowing they have a chance to win. It also stabilizes the amount of money required to be competitive. This should help bring more racers into the class.
More racers mean more rounds. Last year Pro Street made a total of 7 rounds of eliminations. That is not what we need to create more interest in this sport. We need rounds of action.
With a field of 16 trucks, if none break, we have 8 rounds of racing. More than the entire season last year. With an Index, more racers are competitive, more racers have a chance to win, which means more excitement for those of us watching. More rounds means sponsors see the opportunity to get more exposure in front of larger crowds. So let me ask a question. Do we even know if these trucks can make 8 rounds of competition without breaking? I personally think it will be tough.
Everyone I have talked to wants to see this sport grow. Right now for many in the industry, it is very new and very much a novelty. Just being the novelty will attract attention to us (which it has done) but eventually the novelty of diesel racing will go away. When it does, we need a solid foundation of great competition so our sport doesn't die.
Everyone at DHRA wants to have Pro Street as a heads up class. But quite frankly, if we don't control the growth of this class and generate some excitement outside of these web pages, it will never grow to reach it's potential. All we are seeking at DHRA is to stabilize this class until it can once again be made heads up or we can introduce another class to fill the gap.
The Quick 4 was asked for by the racers and DHRA agreed to include it. There is a small purse awarded to the winner. The trucks on N20 or electronics should be able to adjust power if they want to compete in the quick 4. The fuel only p-pump crowd will have a harder time but it's still possible and very doable.
But it all comes down to numbers. Having met with many representatives from companies looking at our sport, they need to be able to justify to their bosses the benefit of advertising dollars with DHRA. That simply means they look at attendance and competitors. If we want to see this sport grow to something larger than a few events around the country with a mostly internet base of competitors/spectators, we need to attract the sponsors. We attract the sponsors with competitors and spectators.
So here is the challenge. Are each of you going to make the difference?
We have so many of the pieces in place to make the next step, it now depends on the support DHRA receives from the racers and spectators/fans.
We have the audience of some very large companies, media, and even potential racers looking to see where we go this year.
DHRA has dedicated a large portion of it's budget to advertising focused to hit the masses. We will not only be advertising our races, but our racers as well. That advertisement will also help the racers secure sponsors.
DHRA will have races in the western part of the US providing the same opportunities to our friends that can't travel 2 days to make an eastern event. Two separate points series (each with it's own National Event) with a National finals held at the Texas Nationals.
We will have a bracket class, QD class, PS class, and two new classes for the Pro level vehicles (Top Diesel, Pro Diesel). We have also decided that for 2007, at the 3 National events, we will have a complete competition of these vehicles with purse provided. We just need to know who is planning on racing Top or Pro Diesel.
To complete the puzzle? We need more people at the events and more rounds of competition.
Are you with us? If so, join DHRA, come out to watch and/or compete at the events this year. We'd love to see ya at them and help grow this sport to the next level.
Sorry for the long post... $.02