PHOTO: NHRA / NATIONAL DRAGSTER
TOP FUEL TITAN
Alan Johnson has been involved in the upper echelon of Top Fuel racing since the
1990s as a crew chief, team owner, and parts manufacturer. While his aggressive tuning
calls have resulted in numerous career-bests for clients Brittany Force and Steve
Torrence this season, his stance on the state of drag racing is reserved and optimistic.
on FOX on a Sunday afternoon. That’s going to
be a game changer.
LP: I believe our spectator base i s growing, but
I’m genuinely concerned with car counts. That’s
July 2016
something that I’ve been working on – trying to
change the rules from only allowing owners to
field four cars in each category and trying to address the cost that is involved with running these
cars. I’m seeing the growth firsthand, though,
because I’m hearing more people than ever tell
me it’s their first time at a drag race. I’ve been
out here for so long, and I swear I’ve never heard
it so much.
JS: Donald Long has done a great job with
the radial stuff. He keeps it fresh and exciting.
He builds rivalries, creates buzz and that’s what
great promoters do. In my opinion, Donald is a
great promoter. That being said, he has two races
a year, and it’s certainly a little easier to promote
two races a year versus 10 or 24. It’s a little bit
different deal.
SJ: I think for sure the NHRA fan base is up.
Part of it is the way they’re hustling the show.
Fans enjoy going to watch NHRA because they
pretty much stick to a schedule. If they say they’re
going to get done at six o’clock, they’re going to be
getting done at six o’clock. I think attendance is
up in a lot of stuff. Donald’s race is unique and I
try not to compare it to other people because he’s
only got two of ‘em a year. He does an awesome,
wonderful job at what he does. He packs the place
and I love it – those are probably my favorite two
races. It’s hard to compare that to any series that
has a lot of races, though. If Donald Long had 12
or 24 races a year, it wouldn’t be like that. I’m not
saying he couldn’t pack it like an NHRA event,
but there can’t be the cars because the people who
run it can’t afford to fix them that often, and the
fans that travel from around the world to come
are not going to come 12 times. That’s a bit of a
rare species. PDRA attendance is struggling right
now, and I don’t know exactly why that is. I think
it’s the best spectator show in drag racing. The
last two races I had in this series were decided
by ten-thousandths-of-a-second combined. You
can’t get better racing. We just have to do a better
job of getting people to come watch.
Where do you think drag racing stands, currently, as a marketing platform for corporate
America? Be it individual team sponsorship,
event sponsorship or series involvement – do
you think the value or return on investment
as a drag racing sponsor is increasing?
AJ: Well, that gets a little bit deeper because
there are so many places for corporations to spend
their advertising dollars right now. You’ve got
companies that utilize highly targeted advertising
through social media – directly targeting the customer they want – versus out here where it’s kind
of a shotgun thing where we’re after this entire
18 to 49 demographic. And although we’re really
strong with that, it’s still that entire demographic
versus a direct marketing strategy. So, we have
a little bit of uphill battle there because I think
we’re a little bit behind in the social media realm.
But the NHRA and its teams are focused on that,
and I think eventually we’ll get caught up. I’m
genuinely excited about where we’re headed.
RC: I think the value has been there, but it’s
getting better. All motorsports series have faced
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