4-Wide in NASCAR Country

I always anticipate the next race on my schedule, but I think I’m most excited for the upcoming 4-Wide Nationals at zMax Dragway in Charlotte. I’ve always wanted to see the most unique race in person, as its future existence was unknown for its first couple years. It seems like the 4-Wide race will be locked into the schedule for the next few years at least.

Though many hardcore fans think 4-wide racing is a joke, I think it’s a great thing for the marketability of the sport. For decades, drag racing has been two cars going down a track with one car moving on. The four-wide concept injected a dose of excitement into an already exciting sport. Even three years after its inception, the 4-Wide Nationals still attract the attention of local and national media.

I’m looking forward to this race for many reasons, not just the opportunity to see the race in person. This will be my first race where I’ll have three NVW Motorsports Promotion clients in competition; Blake Alexander in Funny Car, Doug Foley in Top Alcohol Dragster, and Cassie Simonton in Top Alcohol Funny Car. I should be plenty busy keeping up with them all, but I certainly won’t be complaining. I’m so fortunate to have the support of my family and clients to be doing this all at my age. I’m very proud of the position that I’m in, and it wouldn’t be possible without their support.

I’m also ready to meet a lot of the fans that I’ve interacted with on Twitter. Social media is a very powerful tool that connects race fans from across the country. The amount of followers that are coming in from out of state for this race proves that it’s still a draw for hardcore fans.

One of the largest gatherings of drag racing tweeters will take place on Saturday night after qualifying wraps up. Nitro John and the Nitro Twitter Group will hold their second annual tweet up at Dave and Busters, with even more drivers in attendance. Blake, Terry McMillen, Doug Herbert, Hillary Will, and Alexis DeJoria will represent the nitro ranks. Pro Mod drivers Dina and Andrew Parise will also be there. It’s a great idea and I have to thank Nitro John for taking the time to put it together. Head to his blog for the details.

For the first time, I'm going to try to do a video blog for the race. I might tie it into TAN or it might just be its own seperate thing. I know a lot of race fans that love behind the scenes stuff, so I think it will go over well.

I'll try to do a few posts throughout the weekend, but I'm not sure what my set up will be. In the mean time, follow me on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/nitronate1320 and follow NVW Motorsports Promotion http://www.twitter.com/nvwpromotion for updates from Blake, Doug and Cassie. If you're headed to zMax, have a safe trip and stop by to see us!

The Growth of NVW Motorsports Promotion

Now that we're in the offseason, I have time to reflect on the past and build for the future of NVW Motorsports Promotion. I spent a lot of the last half of the season working on the launch of Top Alcohol News. TAN is somewhat established and on its way to becoming a legitimate media outlet, so now I'll be putting more effort in the growth of NVW Motorsports Promotion.

I started NVW Motorsports Promotion in the middle of the 2010 season. In around a few months time, I was already writing for eventual 2012 Division 1 TAD champion Darren Nicholson, along with Brandon Booher and Dave Hill. I have to give a lot of credit to Brandon, as he was the one that suggested that I start doing PR work.

My goal when I started was to eventually do PR for a professional driver. After several conversations with Blake Alexander, that goal turned into a reality. We both made our professional debuts at the Auto Plus Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway; Blake as a driver and I as a publicist. I'm really looking forward to writing for Blake in 2012.

I continued to write for Brandon Booher and Dave Hill in 2011, while adding Doug Foley Jr. to the team. I can't thank Doug enough for helping to promote the Team NVW brand. We're both working to bring a few sponsors onto the side of his Super Comp car.

Team NVW drivers enjoyed success on several occasions in 2011. Brandon reached his first final round at a national event (Norwalk), qualified and reached the semifinals at the U.S. Nationals, and recorded the quickest and fastest converter-equipped TAD pass in history at Reading. Trevor Wilson put his Tenneco Automotive ADRL Jr. Dragster in the Winner's Circle at two ADRL races and finished 2nd in the world standings. Blake Alexander qualified in his pro debut at his sponsor's race, the Auto Plus Nationals.

I'd like to thank all of the drivers that have picked NVW Motorsports Promotion to promote their racing ventures. They took a risk when they chose me, mostly because of my age. Their support means a lot to me and it's really what keeps me going.

2012 looks to be even better. There are a few new Team NVW drivers that will be announced in the coming weeks. Check in at http://www.nitronate.com/ for more information on all of the NVW Motorsports Promotion-represented drivers. I wish you all a healthy and successful 2012! Thanks for reading.

The Divisional-Regional Debacle....Promotion

Easily the biggest topic in the alcohol racing world is the possibility of going to a regional series instead of divisions. Basically instead of the 7 divisions, there will be two or three regions; West, Midwest (in the 3-region format) and East. The hope is that with the consolidation of the divisions, there will be higher car counts at regional events. Another goal of the new format is to take alcohol racing away from tracks that either do not want to host the alcohol cars or do not have safe facilities to do so.

These changes are being made because no one is truly happy with the current situation. There are several contributing problems that ultimately have a domino effect. One that I like to focus on is the promotion side of it. Specifically, the promotion that one track does for their divisional race.

Aside from my hometrack, Norwalk, none of the tracks that host divisional races promote said races. They go out of their way to make their divisional race, known as the Cavalcade of Stars, one of the biggest and most successful events in a) the track's history, b) the division's history, and c) the NHRA Divisional history. The 2010 Cavalcade of Stars marked the first time that they actually had to refuse spectators from entering the gates. I don't remember the stat, but it was one of the most attended divisional races in NHRA history, if not THE most attended. The stands were absolutely packed, which is something that you never see it a divisional race.

Racer attendance is also high for the Cavalcade. There have always been full fields at the race, with at least a couple cars not making the field. D3 does have a large amount of alcohol racers compared to other divisions, but the features of the event must be a contributing factor of the event's alcohol car counts. After all, the track treats the alcohol teams like pros, compared to how other divisional tracks treat alky teams. I mean, how many times will you see an autograph session where the alcohol racers are the stars? Only at Cavalcade...

Track co-owner Bill Bader Jr. and his staff do bring in "talent" acts like wheelstanders and jets, along with fireworks, but that's part of putting on an event that will bring fans back year after year. They also provide a facility that racers, fans and their families feel comfortable going to. I've been to several tracks in the eastern U.S. and none of them even come close to Norwalk's grounds. The same has not been said about the actual track surface at times, but that has nothing to do with fan attendance.

I live within 30 minutes of the track, so I see their promotional efforts in the local community firsthand. Whether its radio and TV ads or stories in the local papers, the race is promoted in a way that such an event should be. Fans come from as far as Michigan and Pennsylvania to go to the Cavalcade, but many of them are local fans. That could partially be because there is simply nothing to do in northern Ohio (I'm allowed to say that, I live here), but the efforts of the Bader team are the #1 reason that fans come out in droves.

Ticket distribution is the last contributing factor that I'm going to go over. Tickets to the Cavalcade of Stars are passed out to attendees of prior races at SMP and to those that order tickets to the track's national event or Night Under Fire. Local radio stations, auto parts stores, gas stations, and other business receive free tickets to give away to listeners and customers. They end up making that money back in concessions and souvenir sales.

If you think about all the touches that they put in to the Cavalcade of Stars, its no surprise that the race is attended by so many fans and racers. NHRA, it's divisions, and it's tracks can't expect piles of fans if they don't promote the events. Until drag racing has the prominence that NASCAR and other major sports have, we have to do more to bring fans out to the races. Let's kick the title of "Best kept secret in sports".

A fantastic weekend at Maple Grove

I finally have enough time to sit down and right an entry for my own personal blog. After returning from Reading, I had so much to do, between school, Top Alcohol News stories, and press releases for clients. It's now Friday and the work has slowed down a bit.

One of the most exciting parts of the weekend was that it was Blake Alexander's first race competing in NHRA Fuel Funny Car. I honestly think I was anticipating it more than he was. He really impressed everyone when he went out in qualifying and ran 4.18 and 4.19, putting him at #14 (FYI-if they ever start a bracket-only Funny Car class, call up Paul Smith. He had that car consistent!). John Force came up to the car in the lanes to introduce himself and welcome Blake to the class, then congratulated Blake once he was locked in to the super-quick field. What a guy. The track couldn't hold their tune-up in the first round of eliminations, so Blake suffered a tire-smoking loss to Matt Hagan. It was still a great debut. I'm really looking forward to what he does next year. As for this year, Blake will run A/Fuel Dragster for the rest of the races; Vegas and Pomona.

The second most exciting part was seeing Brandon Booher finally get his sub-5.40 pass. Its been a goal of his since the beginning of 2010 to run a 5.399 or better. He did just that, making a 5.397 pass in the second round against Duane Shields. Though the win light wasn't on in our lane, Brandon was still very excited when we told him what it ran. He now can claim that he is the driver of the first converter-equipped car to break into the 5.30 range. Next goal-win a Wally!

I got to meet some of my Twitter followers, as well as see some that I hadn't seen since Indy. Mark (@NHRAforlife) and Mitzi (@gottagoracing) both stopped by to introduce themselves. Mitzi even brought the team a plate of lucky brownies, which quickly disappeared. Alan (@SFCSKI) and Steve (@sremerson) are a couple of my Twitter pals that I met at Indy. They're east coast-based, so they stopped by as well. Steve and his son, Steven, are huge Tony Schumacher fans. They got a pretty cool experience on Saturday, as they drove Shoe back to his hotel, then went to dinner with the multi-time Top Fuel champion. Check out Steve's blog for more on his weekend at the Auto Plus NHRA Nationals. Its always nice to meet face-to-face with some of the greatest drag racing fans out there, people that I tweet with almost daily.

My site, Top Alcohol News, has some exciting things going on. We're starting to introduce a series of Driver Blogs, written by a wide variety of Top Alcohol competitors. The first driver is Marie Ferriolo, who drives a TAFC in Division 1. Her first post is an introduction, with lots of good info on her racing career. Another new feature that we'll be launching soon is the Reader's Choice Awards. Upon the completion of the 2011 season (which is sadly coming closer), readers will vote on nominees in a variety of categories, from Driver of the Year, to Best Run of the Year. Check out Top Alcohol News for these features and more!

Well that just about wraps up all that I wanted to say in this post. Catch me on Facebook or Twitter. Thanks for reading!

Winning is Fun Pt. 2

It's been a while since my last post, I've been so busy with school and my site, Top Alcohol News. I have a lot to go over in this post, so here it goes.

It's amazing what a small world it is. It turns out that one of the A/Fuel drivers that I write for, Dave Hill, knows a team that races Pro Junior Dragster on the ADRL circuit. It also turns out that that team is 3rd in national points. Well, they were before the ADRL Ohio Drags this past weekend. The said team, Trevor Wilson's Tenneco team, invited me to stop by their pit at the race, so they could get my decals on the car and we could meet.

So I get to the track and find their pit area. We talked for a bit, Trevor put the NVW Motorsports Promotion decals on the car, then threw on his Team NVW t-shirt. Little did I know that he'd drive right into the winner's circel by the end of the night.

After two qualifying sessions, Trevor was #4. He started off elims in first round, beating Shannon Bell. He'd then run Kyle Dvorak and Kendall Thiesse, before lining up against Kaley Allen. In the end, the win light came on in our lane. After celebrating a bit on the starting line, we headed to pick up Trevor, the car, and the team's second Minuteman of the year. Once we got them, we headed down the return road, where we watched the Extreme 10.5, Pro Nitrous, and Pro Extreme finals. We also got to watch the BigFoot monster truck make a huge wheelstanding pass down the 1320.

Next was the Winner's Circle celebration for Team Tenneco. ADRL announcer Brian Olsen interviewed Trevor, before Roger Richards took some shots of the winning car and driver. T-Dog (Trevor's nickname) motioned us to join him for a couple team winner's circle photos. It was so cool to experience the whole WC deal, they really do it right in ADRL.

Trevor Wilson is now sitting atop the ADRL Pro Junior Dragster points, which means he has the #1 seed heading into the Battle for the Belts race in Texas in a month. I wish Trevor and his parents the best of luck, I can't wait to see how they do at the World Finals/BFTB race. Huge thanks to them for representing NVW Motorsports Promotion on the ADRL side!


If you've ever wanted to sponsor a successful NHRA team, but you don't own an oil operation or your dad isn't the king of a Middle Eastern country, here's a great opportunity. Brandon Booher and the AB Construction Top Alcohol Dragster team is now doing a fan sponsorship program to help get them to the Auto Plus Nationals in Reading this weekend. Basically, if you contribute $20 or more, you'll receive a used part from the car, signed by Brandon. The first person to donate $200 or more will receive one of my busted blower belts, signed by the Force sisters, Manzo, Reichert, Fast Jack Beckman, Greg Anderson, and several others. If you have a PayPal account, send your contribution to brian(at)booherconstruction. You'll receive an email on how to claim your reward. Shipping is extra if you will not be attending the Reading race.

Some more big news for me is that I'll be writing for newly licensed fuel Funny Car driver Blake Alexander. After success in the sportsman ranks, mainly Comp and A/Fuel, he's making the big move to nitro with the help of Uni-Select Auto Plus, Exide, and several other fine automotive companies. He'll be making his Pro debut this weekend at the Auto Plus Nationals, so if you're attending, be sure to stop by and see him at the Paul Smith Racing hauler. I'm so blessed to have the opportunity to do Public Relations for a Pro driver, especially at my age.

I'm planning on being in Reading this weekend, so I probably won't post until I get home on Monday or Tuesday. In the mean time, check out my news site, http://www.topalcoholnews.com/. We have some big things planned for the next week.

Thanks for reading, see you in Reading!

Another Great Year at the U.S. Nationals

It's been awhile since I've done a personal blog on here. The main reason is, well, I haven't had much to talk about. I had about a month off of races, so there wasn't much of interest for the readers of this blog. I just got back from Indy, so now I have a ton to write about!

I've been looking forward to this year's U.S. Nationals since I pulled out of O'Reilly Raceway Park last year. It really is the biggest, most competitive, most fun race in the country, maybe even the world. The car counts are huge and there are always legends and usually a few celebrities in attendance.

Thursday morning and afternoon was spent in the car, as I had a 6 hour drive to Indianapolis. When I got to the track, I spent most of the time hanging out and helping to get everything ready for the race weekend. The Big Go was my sixth race working with Brandon Booher and the AB Construction Top Alcohol Dragster team. They've been doing really well this year, so I was expecting another great finish.

The schedule for Indy is not the same as all the other NHRA national events. For TAD, we get 1 qualifying pass on Friday, 2 on Saturday, another on Sunday morning, then 1st round of eliminations on Sunday evening. There weren't really any highlights or lowlights during qualifying, so I'll skip over that. The real excitement came when we found out who we would be facing first round: Marty Thacker. If you're not familiar with the name, he's a two-time Indy winner, the defending event champion, and a multi-time Division 3 champion. Oh yeah, he's also the guy we lost to in the Norwalk final round.

To make a long story short, we got the win over Marty, 5.45 to Thacker's 5.48. The fact that a relatively new team can beat a driver that's been driving and winning since the 90's is a statement. The car shut off right after the 1,000ft mark, so Brandon could hear Marty on his tail. We had won the battle, with hopes to win the war. As the team headed down the return road back to the pits, we stopped to watch the Chase Copeland-Matt Cummings matchup. Copeland ran 5.27 in qualifying and Cummings ran in the 5.60s. The winner of this matchup would be the next victim of the Booher Racing machine. Fortunately for us, Chase dropped cylinders and lost, so we would race Matt in E2.

The reason for the car shutting off in E1 was still elusive, so our goal for the night was to find out why. The crew was up until 4:30 am on Monday morning, making changes and trying to to find the problem. They were back at it at 8 am and continued working until just before E2. We had lots of help, including the Cantrell Brothers. guys from the Peen-Rite/Maddern Racing team, and even a couple Top Fuel crew chiefs. Their help was very important to us and was appreciated very much.

We got the car started and were pretty confident about our chances in the next round. We rolled up to the lanes, prepared to be moving on to the semifinals. As Brandon pulled through the waterbox and began his burnout, Matt Cummings just sat with the car running. He didn't start his burnout until Brandon started backing up. Once he was backed up, he didn't pre-stage until after Brandon fully staged. In my opinion, Matt was either being rude and unsportsman-like, or he's a bad driver. He finally staged, the tree dropped, and they were off. When the scoreboards lit up, the win light was in our lane! Brandon ran 5.44 to Matt's 5.46, which was a big shock. We got the car hooked up to the tow vehicle and headed back to the pits to get ready for the semifinals against Duane Shields.

I was relatively confident that Brandon would pull out the win, as I should be. In the end, Duane got the win. Brandon tree'd him on the line, leaving earlier by .029. According to announcer Alan Reinhart, Brandon lost by 2-3 feet at the finish line, about a blink of an eye was Duane's margin of victory. When we got to the car in the shut down area, we found that a broken injector nozzle ended our day. The nozzle sprays fuel into the engine. When the engine didn't get that fuel, it leaned out and torched a hole in the #2 cylinder as well as the block. Despite the loss and engine damage, Brandon made racing history. His 5.42 pass was not only his career best, it was also the quickest pass by a converter car. It's so impressive what Brandon and his dad Aaron have done with their car over the past two years.

Bill Reichert ended up getting the U.S. Nationals TAD trophy this year. I had a great time and the team still did a great job. Once we got the car back to the pits and the thrashing slowed down, my dad and I went to watch the finals, really the only spectating that I did over the weekend. After that we packed up and headed back home to Ohio, arriving around midnight.

I really want to thank Brandon Booher for everything that he's done to support and promote me and my ventures. Whether it's NVW Motorsports Promotion or Top Alcohol News, he's always gotten the name out to the racing world. I'm so proud to be a (tiny) part of his team and plan on being there when he hoists his first NHRA Wally.

Thanks for reading my latest blog entry. For complete results from the U.S. Nationals, visit the Top Alcohol News site. We'll have an event wrap-up and probably a few other stories online during the week.

Night Under Fire 2011

As I expected, Night Under Fire 2011 was a huge hit. Despite an iffy forecast for Saturday afternoon and evening, the stands were packed throughout the day. In fact, it was announced during pre-race ceremonies that the Summit side of the track was completely sold out, with the Bud side almost sold out.

In my opinion, this year was the best Night Under Fire in a long time. Though there weren't 8 modern Fuel Funny Cars like in previous years, the variety of "acts" made up for it. The eight Nostalgia cars was a great addition. As a big fan of blown alcohol cars, it was cool to see 4 of the fastest outlaw dragsters race for the trophy, even better that Troy Stone won.

If you live within 250 miles of Summit Motorsports Park, I highly recommend planning on going to next year's Night Under Fire. It's one of the very last match races in the country, and certainly the only that John Force Racing still competes at. I don't know what classes/drivers/cars will be making an appearance at NUF 2012, but I can guarantee it will be a good show and I can almost guarantee that John Force will be there. Will you?

For those of you who were unable to attend this year, check out some of my photos from the race. These are just highlight photos; you can view my whole album in my Photos section on Facebook, if you're friends with me on the 'book.

Robert Hight's crew chiefs, Jimmy Prock and Eric Lane. Robert and the Automobile Club of Southern California team ended up winning the event in the modern Funny Car class.

John Force smokin' the hides before his first "elimination" run of the event. 

Jeff Arend and Robert Hight in round 1. As you can see, I'm no Mark Rebilas

Pretty cool shot of the two wheelstanders, Danny O'Day (near lane) and Richard Hutchins (far lane) in the legendary Chevy Rebellion.

 

This was probably the best part of pre-race ceremonies. John Force got on the mic, letting everyone know how excited he was about witnessing the evening's activities. It's a good thing that the FCC doesn't regulate the PA system at the track, as Force's speech was full of expletives. 

The eventual winner in Outlaw Dragster, owner of Vintage Trailers, Troy Stone. Troy beat out Mike DiDimenico, Sheldon Bissessar (who traveled from Trinidad and Tobago to race), and Paul Molnar to win his second consecutive NUF trophy. Norwalk has to be Troy's favorite track; he won the NHRA National event this year and was runner-up last year. Oh yeah, throw in a couple #1 qualifier awards too. 

Funny Car legend Raymond Beadle (middle) was in attendance with the Blue Max Nostalgia Funny Car team. Ronnie Young (left) was driving.

As always, thanks for reading! While you're here, please check out my new blog, Top Alcohol News for the latest news and points standings in the Top Alcohol categories. We're planning some big stories for the U.S. Nationals in Indy in a couple weeks.