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.
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October 2016
DragIllustrated.com
| D r a g I l l u s t r a t e d | 89