 |
| Picture courtesy of Justin Van Vierson |
Last year Simon and myself attempted building a car with the end game of getting a birth in Street Machines Drag Challenge. What is Drag Challenge? A 5 day tour of 4 different drag strips covering around 1500kms in between.
In 2018 Street Machines Drag Challenge will be starting from Calder Park in Melbourne before heading up to Swan Hill Dragway, followed by Mildura's eighth-mile Sunset Strip, then back to Swan Hill and finally Calder Park for the finish.
As it would happen we were plagued with dramas and quite frankly took the build down the wrong path and by the time we took the build back to where we wanted to be, we missed the Drag Challenge 2017 deadline.
That said we watched the action from afar as the Street Machine crew posted some great content every evening literally only hours after the racing was completed. The cars are quick with some very serious contenders sending these street driven vehicles well into the 8 second zone then driving them for over 600kms that evening to the next track.
I don't think there is any disputing that Drag Challenge is more of a participant event. Most of the people attending the event are the actual racers, crew members and other extended members of the race teams. While there are spectators that attend the event I would suggest that their presense would not equate to a large number. However this type of event does not require the 1000's in the stands. I think this event has a much greater marketing value over the net or as the industry now calls it Over The Top (OTT).
To a certain extent Drag Challenge already does this via Street Machine site and their Youtube channel. They also release a Free DVD copy of the event in a subsequent Magazine issue months later which is an excellent production and touches on many of the racers and how they are progressing day on day.
While Drag Racing nationally is going through it own personal turmoil through the 400 Thunder and ANDRA entities, the victim of this stand off has been the marketing of the sport (plus numerous others). That said the fresh appearance of these DC racers in street driven 8 second cars is -
a) Cool
b) Appealing to the under 40 year old demographic
c) Enticing to uninitiated of drag racing
While Drag Challenge does not follow an elimination format with the loosing car exiting the competition, it's own "challenge" (pardon the pun) is continuing on to the next track and that in itself is it's attraction. Capturing that spirited competition and over coming adversity as they make their way through 1500kms of Australia's regional landscape is the essence that in my mind is very marketable.
Regards
Nick Dicembre
info@torquenpower.net
No comments:
Post a Comment