DRAG ILLUSTRATED ROUNDTABLE
PHOTO : NHRA / NATIONAL DRAGSTER
RED & YELLO Shawn Langdon spends most of his weekends driving the Red Fuel Top Fuel dragster for Don Schumacher Racing , but the two-time Super Comp world champion still finds time to compete on the Sportsman level as a driver and car owner .
follow his format . When Anthony Walton and I started with our races , we wanted people to copy what we were doing because obviously the races we put together were the kind of races we wanted to go to . I love having things like Powers ’ Money Tree races and the World Footbrake Challenge and the No Box Nationals and Southern Footbrake Challenges . I ’ m not even running NHRA Super Stock at all this year and I ’ m probably only going to one or two IHRA Super Stock races . I ’ m going big-money bracket racing this year . It ’ s a much better value .
Kyle Seipel : That ’ s a great question and I don ’ t know how to answer . I know for a fact that there are definitely a lot more big-money bracket races coast-to-coast than there ever has been . Are there too many ? I wouldn ’ t say yes or no . From a racer standpoint , it really gives them a lot of options – not so much on the West Coast – but the East Coast for sure . Every racer has a different strategy . A lot of racers like to stay close to home . They like to have a points series . They like to race 15 to 20 times a year and all they want to do is focus on that points series . I ’ ve done that and there ’ s something to be said for that . You can still be home and go to your kids ’ games ; you ’ re not going to miss a lot of things . On the flip side , let ’ s say you chase the NHRA championship points . Well , you ’ ll have to go to a minimum of 14 races to have a chance to win a championship . You can almost guarantee a majority of those 14 races will be one- or two-day trips , so you ’ re going to be gone away from home a lot . Then the middle ground is you have the big dollar bracket races . I think what we find is that most of our clientele are racers that are on the upper echelon at their local
“ I know for a fact that there are definitely a lot more big-money bracket races coast-tocoast than there ever has been . Are there too many ? I wouldn ’ t say yes or no ,” Seipel says . track . They pretty much have done everything they can as far as winning and track championships . You could race against the best bracket racers in the country at our two races . I think a lot of racers want to see how they stack up against the best racers .
The way I look at our business is that we have a very good restaurant and a lot of racers like coming to our restaurant because they feel that the quality of food is great . The location of our restaurant is in a very nice spot . It ’ s kind of along the lines of you only want to go out for a really nice dinner once or twice a year , but when you decide to go there you have a great time . We kind of build our races around that to where we have more racer appreciation giveaways than any of our competitors . We try to pamper our racers the best we can . From a racer ’ s standpoint , the more competition there is the better the races are going to be . It ’ s also going to weed a lot of them out ; it ’ s just like anything else – it will be hard for a lot of them to survive . For racers , I ’ d say there are never enough races , but from the promoter perspective , from my point of view , every race that pops up costs us 10-15 customers .
Bob Brockmeyer and Compulink unveiled the TruSTART system at the Spring Fling Vegas race earlier this year . In the case of a double red light , the new software disqualifies the driver with the worst red light rather than the driver with the first red light . When do you expect that to be utilized at other tracks and events in the future ?
KS : Basically , Brockmeyer built us the software . The bottom line is it ’ s going to be available to the public probably by the end of the year . He has a waiting list for about 30 tracks right now . I think you ’ re going to see a lot of tracks have it by the first of the year and then as far as sanctioning bodies , that ’ s a great question . Quite honestly , I think with the response we ’ ve gotten so far , I would have to say I would see NHRA utilizing it probably within the next year to year and a half . That ’ s pretty much a guess . We haven ’ t talked to NHRA and they haven ’ t talked to Brockmeyer , but they ’ re a smart group of businesspeople – they want to try to do what ’ s best for their customers .
TJ : I ’ d say next year . By spring of next year I think you ’ ll see it at about 40- to 50-percent more tracks than it was just because some people don ’ t understand it or know how it works or are confused by it . If you look at it from a
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