Grudge is King

Well now that I am certain to have your attention, let's take about the real state of drag racing. Lets talk about the bland BS that is drag racing on not only on a Professional level at the NHRA but as well as the sportsman level. You may ask, how I dare state that Grudge is King, and in just a minute I'm gonna tell you something that is going to hurt the feelings of many. 

As an outsider that doesn't have the depth of knowledge about the Grudge as some others do, I can tell you that it fascinates me. The events that happen in the south are talked about long after the racing happens, and long before the racing happens for that matter. Promoters like Mike "Hitman" Hill, Da Rule, Jacob Harper, Bobby Cole, and others put butts in the seats and have some of the best reality drama out there.

Now that you are done rolling your eyes, let me explain why this is a good thing. I can honestly admit, with the exception of Stevie Jackson, I don't know the real name of a single grudge racer out there. What I do know are cars like "Shadow", "Rambo", "BumbleBee", "Candy Crush", "Punisher", "Hannibal", "Jekyll', "Hyde" and many others. With that said, how many car names do you know outside of Grudge?  We know that Keith Haney has two new cars, "Enigma" & "Notorious", but other than that...who else? That folks is the problem!

What happened to the greatness of car names & driver nicknames? Now you go to a race and it's another Mustang, another Camaro, another Corvette. Would you rather say to your friends that you are a Keith Haney fan or and you an "Enigma" fan? I will take the latter (No offense Keith). Look at what is going on in the PDRA with the Nitrous Wars over there. Best thing to happen in a long time for that type of racing! Would you rather have a Keith Haney vs. Jay Cox rivalry or "Notorious" vs "Pumpkin".

Let the drivers be actual people and not politically correct robots. This is drag racing folks, not rocket science. We are a bunch of gear heads busting knuckles in the garage to make it to the race on Saturday. Let the personality shine though. You'd be amazed how much more interest you would see in our sport. So next time you get the idea that grudge has got it wrong, you may want to rethink that idea. 

Make things fun for the fans. Make them want to root for a car. Look at sports like Tractor Pulling & Monster Trucks. The kids are the future of the sport as well, so if you get them interested they will be hooked. Kids like characters though, they like Grave Digger, Harvester, etc. 

So in closing, next time you are at a race and a 4 second jet black Camaro pulls to the line and they say "Joe Smith" driving the 2015 Camaro, think to yourself how much better it would be if it sounded like this..."Pulling into the box now...watch out fans, hide the kids, it's the GRIM REAPER"