Why We Need To Move Away From 400 Thunder

Why We Need To Move Away From 400 Thunder

By Mark Humphrey

Well, where do we start with 400 Thunder? Plenty of fronts we could question including the recent series round reversal at Calder Park Raceway, but we won’t.

From my point of view and it is exactly that, I would like to demonstrate why we don’t need 400Thunder at any of our ANDRA sanctioned tracks and just so everybody is clear on the subject, I don’t care if 400 Thunder are still around in 10 years’ time, just not on our tracks.

Personally, I don’t think the emergence of 400 Thunder has improved the sport in any shape or form outside of normal progression. Yes, Top Fuel has gone 4.40 and the Top Doorslammer bracket is as tough as ever, but this surely is just a progression of the sport and race teams. You can’t tell me that Top Fuel hasn’t been trying to develop their tune-ups to go 4.40 and please don’t tell me that Zappia dipped into the 60’s as a result of 400 Thunder. Not on your life. They are race drivers and race teams that just want to go faster regardless of who is the sanctioning body.

After 2 ½ years, the organisation still does not have a “Naming Rights Sponsor” or even a major sponsor. Where is all this support and sponsorship that 400 Thunder boasted about in their initial video promo? They even said they recruited the best PR media people in the land to get the message out. Well, it has only been in recent times that the media has got on par with what’s expected of a major sporting organisation/competition. Quite frankly, the media coverage was a joke for the first year or so.

One thing they have got right is the live streaming provided by OVO. Fantastic product that is showcasing the sport now entirely free of charge. So OVO provides some sort of sponsorship by providing the live stream but that’s it. We have seen stars like Victor Bray secure good sponsorship deals through Gulf Western Oils which has flowed on to other racers and to naming rights of individual events but still no naming rights partner for the series or the organisation.

On the other side of the coin, ANDRA has just secured a sponsorship extension for its sportsman series with Summit Racing Equipment inking a multiyear extension. I have it on good authority that there are some US sponsors that may be interested in becoming a naming rights sponsor for ANDRA if and when all this rubbish is put to bed over here.

So, when we run a championship round we have the ANDRA and Summit branding strategically placed all around the venue which all contributes towards branding the product and organisation. When we allow 400 Thunder to run a round on an ANDRA sanctioned track we lose that identity which is like 2 steps forward and 1 step back although in this case we are also giving 400 Thunder full access to further brand their product.

When it’s a 400 Thunder round what do ANDRA sportsman get out of it? Initially, a lot higher entry fee to cover the cost of the GP1 circus, a race schedule that is usually altered several times on the day to accommodate GP1 and a complete ignorance of sportsman racers in general by the 400 Thunder officials. I think we have gone past the presentation scenario where ANDRA was banished to the pits, but not by much. On a positive, 400 Thunder attract a crowd which could be argued that an ANDRA GP1 Series would do the same. And of course, 400 Thunder has the OVO live stream.

I made a comment today with regards to product branding. As mentioned above, when we allow 400 Thunder to run on an ANDRA sanctioned track, we are effectively supporting the branding of that organisation. To give an example of how absurd it is, it would be like Coca-Cola letting Pepsi run events on Coca-Cola land with all branding/advertising/promotion going Pepsi’s way. It just sounds too unrealistic to be true and in the example given, it would never eventuate, but for some reason our, as in ANDRA representatives deem this to be ok. What sort of decision makers have we got if this is anything to go on. I dare anyone to nominate 2 rival organisations and play out this scenario. I can tell you now, I don’t think it would happen anywhere in the world so why is it happening with ANDRA?

The next issue I see is with the 7Mate deal that 400 Thunder has paid for. That’s right, they have to pay for it. No big deal, ANDRA could do exactly the same for our sportsman racers and put them up on nearly prime time tv. Gee, I could even organise a 7Mate deal in conjunction with the Sporting Scribe Muscle live stream but where would I recoup the cost from. The way 400 Thunder recoup the cost of providing 7Mate vision is to slug the promoter or track. I believe Nitro Up North had to shell out more than 50k and I do know first hand that Alice Springs Inland Dragway had to cough up $40,000 if they wanted a 400 Thunder event. Calder, Perth and the AIR will also be required to pay the tv levy if they want 400 Thunder at their events. So where does the promoter recoup the tv levy? (starting to sound familiar). Either he/they slug the fans coming through the gate as part of the entry fee although that could be a bit hard considering the Nationals was $40 to get in on finals day last year, or they slug the sportsman racer with a fee absorbed within their entry fee. No way would the GP1 teams be slugged the tv levy which brings me to the next issue. The recent East Coast Nationals had the 7Mate coverage and although weather intervened they only aired GP1. There was plenty of qualifying done by the sportsman classes and some of the brackets got to the 2^nd round of eliminations but still no vision. So, the scenario could look like this, sportsman racers may subsidise vision that covered GP 1 racing without a single second of sportsman vision. How’s that for having 400 Thunder at our tracks?

ANDRA ran a GP1 Series for years with lots of success. The Winternationals had their highest ever competitor entry lists in roughly 2013 & 2015 and I believe record crowds at the time whilst still under ANDRA. The Nitro Up North shattered all records the first time out under an ANDRA banner and I’m quite sure that if ANDRA was still running GP1 that we may have seen a stack of special moments and landmarks in the sport.

There are plenty of other issues with hosting 400Thunder at our tracks but for me, the main issues are the ones listed above.

We don’t want to stop 400 Thunder or any GP1 racers who want to support the organisation, we just want exclusive access to the tracks we have sanctioned and assisted over years and years of blood, sweat and tears. Right now, there are people lined up to take a cheap shot at ANDRA for the most minuscule of issues. What about we put it to the ANDRA board and management, that we the members want to take back control of our organisation and sport and make the changes necessary to rebuild the culture around ANDRA Championship Drag Racing and an organisation that is prepared to sit down and listen to its members. We don't want to re-invent the wheel, we just want our own identity again, one that we can nurtcher and build with our own resources and time.

It starts right now with our Divisional Councils representing the members and instructing the DD’s to take the message to the board that we want our identity back so we can start over again without any form of alliance or partnership with 400 Thunder. Come on DC’s, it all starts at ground level.

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