Drag Illustrated Issue 114, October 2016 | Page 89

PHOTOS: SEMA, KEVIN COX D R AG ILLUS TR ATED RO UNDTA BL E You only have to look at some of the marquee events and the excitement around those events is just incredible. When I look at different types of motorsports and market segments, that’s one that jumps out at me. I get excited about Valdosta and races like that, and there’s definitely some energy there.  You see a similar growth trend on some of the off-road market. They’ve been abl e to have a pretty good over the last five or so years, so I see some energy and excitement.  It’s certainly a controversial topic, but I would tend to be on the pro side of the whole street outlaws thing. Here’s kind of the way I look at it: I don’t know that anybody who watches that and says those guys are really out on the street. A lot of people like to make that argument that they’re promoting street racing and I’m not going to say there’s no substance to that, but I think the good that they’re doing far outweighs the isolated bad incident that may come from it. They’re reaching believe that the passion is still there, we just have to give them the outlet to kind of cultivate that passion as they grow. We’re going to have to be smarter as an industry. We certainly have to be better marketers. Quite frankly, our industry has not been very good as marketers over the years. an audience that probably doesn’t know much about our industry and they’re getting them excited about cars, and going fast and just personalizing the vehicle. I think that’s what it is going to take, times about 10, to keep our industry growing well into the future. What are the major issues facing drag racing and the industry in general, and what needs improvement? CD: Not to be a homer here, because I know he talks a lot about it, but Wes does a great job bridging the next generation. If that’s not the No. 1 challenge in our industry, it’s 1-B. I would probably put legislative issues at 1-A right now and 1-B being, ‘How do we engage with the next generation?’ How do we get them to drag races? I HEALTHY SPOT While there are a handful of pressing issues that will continue to present challenges and tough decisions, both Douglas and Fickler agreed that the overall state of drag racing seems to be in a good place. Both, however, are anxious to see the sport continue to take steps forward in attracting the younger generation. The same way you and I probably got hooked is you got to experience it, so that’s the biggest thing. You can watch YouTube videos all day long, and that’s interesting and entertainment, but until you actually feel it and experience it at an event, feel like your chest is going to cave in at the starting line, I don’t know that you can ever really be hooked until that point. So I think we have to work really hard to let people experience it. As manufacturers, we focus a lot on making the cash register ring because that’s what business is all about and by doing that we often find ourselves talking about features and benefits, ‘Why is our X,Y,Z better than the next one?’ Sometimes we forget to talk about the results of that product, and that is you’re able to personalize the performance of your car exactly like you want it. I think from an industry standpoint we really need to start focusing on ‘what’s in it for them’ angle, and that is performance, customization, personalization. Whether a guy is putting decals on his car, a wing on the back of it or putting a camshaft in the engine, it really comes down to the same thing: he’s personalizing it to his vision.  Lastly, what would you consider to be your top priority in your role as a SEMA board member? KF: The RPM act (and) anything we can do on that side is definitely a priority.  And this is an area that SEMA has just started to touch on, but our Washington office did a survey of the 50 states just looking at length and width restrictions, and things like that. I think we were all surprised with how inconsistent they were from state to state. That’s, once again, just a first step on that.  I’ve heard enough stories about just recreational enthusiasts getting stopped by DOT on open-bed trailers and things like that. They’re not competing for money and they’re facing the same scrutiny that a motorsports enthusiast is. That’s just in its infancy from a SEMA perspective and certainly an interest from a personal level as well. From what we’re doing with the RPM act, there’s a lot of fingers that shoot off that, just in terms of what we’ve been able to do from the SEMA garage with our emissions lab, continuing to help develop better products and move the industry forward.” CD: I would go back to the challenges that face us. Because of my age, I hope to be a bridge kind of between the older guard that’s terming out of SEMA and, quite frankly, they own a lot of companies, they’re going to be handed over to the next generation. So the youth engagement, and not just from the consumer side, the leaders are going to power this industry into the next generation, so youth engagement is something I put at the top of my priority list.  And we have to find some sort of compromise with the latest pressure. We have to kind of head it off before it gets that far along in the future. DI DI DI DI DI DI DI DI DI DI October 2016 DragIllustrated.com | D r a g I l l u s t r a t e d | 89