What are the benefits of FIA in european drag racing?
Discussion
Hi,i am well aware that i am setting myself up for a slating but i would really like to know what others feel that we in europe gain from having FIA involvement in the pro classes,given the recent incident involving Tommy Johnson Jnr and the division of opinion? I would point out that this is not a FIA witchhunt but looking for peoples genuine views .. Discussion please
FIA gives credibility to the European Championship. Some people I speak to used to think that drag racing was 1 up from Banger Racing. When they see FIA they realise the quality and status of the sport is much higher. The likes of Marcus Pye in Autosport has also built up the sport to the wider audience in the past on the back of the FIA status and the standards set by the Pro teams.
I think we need to get away from the drug issue because practically every sport is now signed up to the same set of rules. In reality the degree of application is far more stringent in the likes of Athletics, with out of competition testing and declaration of movements by athletes, but the principle is the same.
I think we need to get away from the drug issue because practically every sport is now signed up to the same set of rules. In reality the degree of application is far more stringent in the likes of Athletics, with out of competition testing and declaration of movements by athletes, but the principle is the same.
I believe the hospices of the FIA are the best home for professional classes here in Europe. The NHRA is unheard of outside of the drag racing fraternity. The FIA is seen as the defacto sanctioning body for professional motorsports through most of the globe. There has been no issue of running under the FIA banner the past 10+ years, so this shouldn't be any reason to start talking about doing anything else.
Speedgroup have started to take greater control of the professional classes and are advancing the value of the series, the presentation of it, the value to potential sponsors, the media coverage, the organisation and most importantly has improved the position of the racers within it all. It will only continue to get better I feel.
The drama around TJ is unfortunate, and as close friends I feel badly for the Andersen team. They and TJ are victims of the rules and an accidental oversight of them, but nothing can take away from them the fact that they were unbeaten this season and have been the team to beat for many seasons now. I hope they return to the series sometime and allow all of us more opportunities to try to beat them! In the meantime I hope it serves to highlight the importance of racers being genuinely familiar with the rulebooks. If you drive a car, whether that is in one of the pro classes or as a sportsman, it is your personal responsibility to read and understand the rules, and ensure you are always in compliance. If everyone does this, we can all get on with the business of enjoying our racing and challenging each other without distraction.
Speedgroup have started to take greater control of the professional classes and are advancing the value of the series, the presentation of it, the value to potential sponsors, the media coverage, the organisation and most importantly has improved the position of the racers within it all. It will only continue to get better I feel.
The drama around TJ is unfortunate, and as close friends I feel badly for the Andersen team. They and TJ are victims of the rules and an accidental oversight of them, but nothing can take away from them the fact that they were unbeaten this season and have been the team to beat for many seasons now. I hope they return to the series sometime and allow all of us more opportunities to try to beat them! In the meantime I hope it serves to highlight the importance of racers being genuinely familiar with the rulebooks. If you drive a car, whether that is in one of the pro classes or as a sportsman, it is your personal responsibility to read and understand the rules, and ensure you are always in compliance. If everyone does this, we can all get on with the business of enjoying our racing and challenging each other without distraction.
Look at where we were fifteen years ago
Look at where we are now.
'OK, so, apart from Tierp, full fields in all the pro categories, Pro Mod pits that need their own post-code, racers from as far away from Japan and Australia wanting to come to Europe and race, massively increased fields, greater credibility, interest and involvement from the wider motorsports community, Monaco, not being viewed as somewhere between pond-life and BRISCA, improved attendences and continuous growth despite the prevailing economic climate all over the planet, What have the FIA/FIM/UEM ever done for us?'
Look at where we are now.
'OK, so, apart from Tierp, full fields in all the pro categories, Pro Mod pits that need their own post-code, racers from as far away from Japan and Australia wanting to come to Europe and race, massively increased fields, greater credibility, interest and involvement from the wider motorsports community, Monaco, not being viewed as somewhere between pond-life and BRISCA, improved attendences and continuous growth despite the prevailing economic climate all over the planet, What have the FIA/FIM/UEM ever done for us?'
CRR said:
That's all true Jon, but I don't think that there are any financial benefits at all for any of the Pro racers.
Except there are a lot more racers in the pro-classes. It must be a more attractive proposition for the racers in some way, because more of them are doing it (apart from the Brits, paradoxically)CRR said:
Jon C said:
It must be a more attractive proposition for the racers in some way, because more of them are doing it (apart from the Brits, paradoxically)
Yes, I must admit that I have never been able to understand that!CRR said:
That's all true Jon, but I don't think that there are any financial benefits at all for any of the Pro racers.
Did you read Johns' post and not make the link? Would Andy Carter have raced under Lucas Oil sponsorship without the FIA sanctioning? Would [enter racer here] have got their [enter sponsor here] deal without the FIA sanctioning? There are many racers throughout all pro classes who enjoy financial backing because of the FIA sanctioning?What is it with this anti FIA thing? I just don't understand it.
leffehoegaarden said:
Did you read Johns' post and not make the link? Would Andy Carter have raced under Lucas Oil sponsorship without the FIA sanctioning? Would [enter racer here] have got their [enter sponsor here] deal without the FIA sanctioning? There are many racers throughout all pro classes who enjoy financial backing because of the FIA sanctioning?
Agreed. But the point I am making is that there is very little direct financial gain to the racers from participating in the FIA/UEM series. If you don't believe me then just go to Ian King's site and see the correspondance from Eric Teboul and his stance on the UEM series.BTW, I am certainly not anti FIA.
CRR said:
Agreed. But the point I am making is that there is very little direct financial gain to the racers from participating in the FIA/UEM series. If you don't believe me then just go to Ian King's site and see the correspondance from Eric Teboul and his stance on the UEM series.
BTW, I am certainly not anti FIA.
Eric Teboul, the last person to take heed of when it comes to dragracing politics. BTW, I am certainly not anti FIA.
If you don't think that sponsorship = direct financial gain, then what does. Do you think that the FIA should pay racers to race?
What do you think the FIA is for exactly?
CRR said:
Agreed. But the point I am making is that there is very little direct financial gain to the racers from participating in the FIA/UEM series. If you don't believe me then just go to Ian King's site and see the correspondance from Eric Teboul and his stance on the UEM series.
BTW, I am certainly not anti FIA.
The FIA are not there to hand our prize money in any motorsport they sanction. In F1, Formula One Management handle the commercial side of the racing series, for example. In FIA dragracing, that is now with Speedgroup finally, and they have already made some good steps with contingency sponsorship in certain classes. In the US, it is not NHRA who come up with the money to pay the racers on the whole... It's the series sponsors, like Powerade, Full Throttle, Bud, etc.BTW, I am certainly not anti FIA.
RobKarloff said:
The FIA are not there to hand our prize money in any motorsport they sanction. In FIA dragracing, that is now with Speedgroup finally, and they have already made some good steps with contingency sponsorship in certain classes. In the US, it is not NHRA who come up with the money to pay the racers on the whole... It's the series sponsors, like Powerade, Full Throttle, Bud, etc.
I didn't say that the FIA are there to hand out prize money. I'm glad to hear that there is finally some contingency sponsorship appearing. What has surprised me over the years is that the FIA/UEM series has not attracted a major title sponsor who is willing to put some money into European drag racing because I firmly believe that the FIA/UEM series offers a lot in return. CRR said:
I didn't say that the FIA are there to hand out prize money. I'm glad to hear that there is finally some contingency sponsorship appearing. What has surprised me over the years is that the FIA/UEM series has not attracted a major title sponsor who is willing to put some money into European drag racing because I firmly believe that the FIA/UEM series offers a lot in return.
I do not think I have heard of any FIA motorsport that has a title sponsor. I suspect that each of the different motorsports must be known as "FIA" and then the name of the class.I don't think the FIA banner can be used to explain all of the growth in the sport. In almost all sports and businesses there has been growth over the last 15 years because of the growth generally across the global economy.
In some FIA sports we are still seeing growth, but it will be over the next few years that we will see if the FIA tag has any real "value". Currently we have seen sponsors being much harder to come by and Tierp has shown that sensibly many Swedish racers will stay at home on a good track and race, the championship is worth nothing to most racers. There are now fewer racers completing the whole tour I would say.
Burndown said:
Currently we have seen sponsors being much harder to come by and Tierp has shown that sensibly many Swedish racers will stay at home on a good track and race, the championship is worth nothing to most racers. There are now fewer racers completing the whole tour I would say.
I think it's more down to the NDRS series and Top Doorslammer. Top Doorslammer is huge there, and many of the Pro Mod guys run in that. Fast Freddy was absent from the Pod this year because his finances meant he could do several NDRS meetings in TD with the truck for the same or less cost as trucking everything over to the Pod.RobKarloff said:
Burndown said:
Currently we have seen sponsors being much harder to come by and Tierp has shown that sensibly many Swedish racers will stay at home on a good track and race, the championship is worth nothing to most racers. There are now fewer racers completing the whole tour I would say.
I think it's more down to the NDRS series and Top Doorslammer. Top Doorslammer is huge there, and many of the Pro Mod guys run in that. Fast Freddy was absent from the Pod this year because his finances meant he could do several NDRS meetings in TD with the truck for the same or less cost as trucking everything over to the Pod.RobKarloff said:
Fast Freddy was absent from the Pod this year because his finances meant he could do several NDRS meetings in TD with the truck for the same or less cost as trucking everything over to the Pod.
This is a very good thread. Just have to throw in a li'l but important correction: The Swedish Top Doorslammer class has no affiliation with NDRS whatsoever, quite the contrary.OK, "back to the regular scheduled programming".
Regards
PiPPi
http://HarleyDrags.com
Burndown said:
Top doorslammer is not new this year.
No, but that has always been the focus for most of the Scandinavians. Increased travel costs to come to the Pod and bigger more competative Pro Mod fields there mean that for many it just makes more sense to give the Pod a miss for now. They can do more meetings around Scandinavia and still have a good time. The Lindberg Bros were TD runners before they stepped up more and concentrated on Pro Mod. And in that respect, TD will continue to encourage those that can secure the funding to step up and run in FIA Pro Mod. TD is a great training and feeder ground for Pro Mod in that respect. I'm not saying that Tierp isn't a factor at all, but I'm saying it's not just a case of "We have Tierp and can run more/better there, why bother going to England".Gassing Station | Drag Racing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff