{"id":25289,"date":"2016-03-18T10:22:19","date_gmt":"2016-03-18T17:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=25289"},"modified":"2018-08-16T12:37:15","modified_gmt":"2018-08-16T19:37:15","slug":"changes-at-nhra-starting-to-pay-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/changes-at-nhra-starting-to-pay-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Changes at NHRA Starting to Pay Off"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Richie<\/a>
Lucas Oil Top Fuel pilot Richie Crampton is looking to score and earn valuable points at the NHRA Gatornationals this weekend at Florida’s Gainesville Raceway.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I don\u2019t know about you, but I definitely like what I\u2019m seeing so far about the \u201cnew\u201d NHRA.\u00a0Since he took office as the sanctioning body\u2019s president and chief leader last June, Peter Clifford has been on a whirlwind ride of change and improvement.\u00a0There\u2019s no question that now, nine months later, Clifford has significantly reworked the organization in an effort to make it a bigger, more relevant and more popular racing entity.<\/p>\n

Clifford has made significant changes within the corporate structure, with several veteran leaders either released or have left of their own volition. \u00a0In turn, Clifford has brought in new personnel \u2013 particularly on the TV, digital and marketing sides \u2013 to bolster what had been sagging efforts to attract new fans and to retain veteran fans. \u00a0That includes folks like TV\/digital VP Ken Adelson, PR VP Terry Blount and, most recently, VP of Sales\/Development Brad Gerber.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no question Clifford wanted his own team after replacing the now-retired Tom Compton, and he has done just that.<\/p>\n

The results speak for themselves. Not only has NHRA forged a new relationship with Fox Sports for television broadcasts, ratings have made a 25 percent jump already, particularly in the crucial 18-49 male age group, the most important and coveted demographic. \u00a0There is a new look in Pro Stock, new technical rules and other changes that continue to keep the sanctioning body moving forward.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s interesting is Clifford is not new to NHRA. He\u2019s been a loyal soldier there for two decades. He came in near the end of Dallas Gardner\u2019s reign as president, and then became one of Compton\u2019s most trusted confidants and, essentially, Compton\u2019s right-hand man.<\/p>\n

But there was only so much Clifford could do. However, now that he\u2019s in charge, he\u2019s made so many changes \u2013 and good changes, I might add \u2013 in less than a year that what had seemed like a rudderless NHRA the last several years is now suddenly going full steam ahead.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s likely NHRA will never return to its greatest glory days in the 1980s and 1990s, that\u2019s still not stopping Clifford and his team from making the effort to try and do so. While speed and elapsed time are the most significant aspects of NHRA on the drag strip, increasing attendance, TV ratings and attracting new, deep-pocketed sponsors is Job No. 1 for Clifford and Co.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s kind of a similar situation faced by NASCAR. It likely will never return to its best days in the 1990s on up to about 2006, yet that\u2019s also not stopping Brian France, Mike Helton and the rest of the organization in its attempts to try and gain back as much ground that it has lost in the last decade.<\/p>\n

IndyCar is also in the same boat. It\u2019s almost as if NHRA, NASCAR and IndyCar and other smaller motorsport sanctioning bodies in the U.S. are all starting to pull from the same playbook. And that\u2019s a good thing for race fans and teams that compete in each series.<\/p>\n

For too long, there\u2019s been a reluctance or hesitancy from major motorsport sanctioning bodies to listen to its fans, particularly the diehard fans that have lived and died with the sport and their favorite teams.<\/p>\n

\"NHRA<\/a>
Shane Gray and his crew have been “testing the wheels off” their sleek Valvoline\/Nova Services Chevy Camaro and are more than ready to have a big showing this weekend at the Gatornationals<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Also for too long, many (but not necessarily all) sanctioning bodies have had what I like to call a supremacy syndrome, that just because its officials are in their respective jobs, that makes them the most qualified to make changes both on and off the racetrack, with fan input being inconsequential.<\/p>\n

But NHRA has bucked that trend of late. It knows that without fans, it would likely suffer further financial, attendance and viewing losses. So, Clifford has gone to the fans, asked what they liked and didn\u2019t like, and has responded in kind.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not been afraid to make changes based upon what fans have wanted. And now, the proof is in the pudding: fans are responding in kind by returning to the sport either at the track or in front of their TVs. \u00a0Some might say that it\u2019s too early to fully believe that the increased ratings, fan attendance and attention are permanent \u2013 and potentially will continue to trend upward.<\/p>\n

But as far as I\u2019m concerned, all the gains NHRA has made under Clifford\u2019s watch thus far are just the tip of the iceberg. I see even greater gains going forward.<\/p>\n

I like Clifford\u2019s managerial style: quiet and subtle. But don\u2019t let that fool you. He\u2019s also a man of action and results. When he parted company with some individuals that had been with NHRA for 20, 30 or more years, it\u2019s because Clifford felt change was needed, change was good \u2026 and change was going to happen. \u00a0Those changes will likely continue to happen, and that\u2019s a good and positive thing for the sport, the teams, the sanctioning body and the fans.<\/p>\n

While I had my doubts a few years ago that NHRA would continue to suffer declines in almost every significant area, now I\u2019m very bullish on the future. \u00a0And the reason being is kind of along the same lines: when he assumed his new role, Clifford wasted little time by taking the bull by the horns, wrestled it, roped it and showed it who was boss.<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s the boss who has the horns, and he\u2019s showing he\u2019s a man of action \u2013 and that\u2019s no bull.<\/p>\n

Follow me on Twitter @JerryBonkowski<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New NHRA President Peter Clifford has been making some noteworthy changes.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":25292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3465,17,3470,3399],"tags":[3815,593,218,7,3006],"class_list":["post-25289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-guest-column","category-news","category-nhra","tag-2016-nhra-mello-yello-drag-racing-series","tag-gatornationals","tag-guest-columns","tag-nhra","tag-peter-clifford"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/featured7.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-6zT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25289"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25293,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25289\/revisions\/25293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}