Op-Ed: Luke Bogacki on the Future of Bracket Racing|

What does the future of Eastward.T. bracket racing look like? It's a question that I've heard presented and debated constantly over my iii-plus decades in this sport. It's a topic Jared Pennington and I take spoken on repeatedly on The Sportsman Elevate Racing Podcast.

Admittedly, in many of those conversations, I've painted a bleak moving picture of bracket racing'due south future. Typically, I consider myself a pretty optimistic guy, but I call up information technology's hard to ignore that sportsman drag racing, and specifically bracket racing, faces some meaning hurdles going forward.

[Editor's Note: This story originally appeared in DI #159, the Sportsman Issue, in August of 2020.]

The lack of "graduation" from the Jr. Dragster ranks into subclass competition concerns me. There is inevitable turnover from the Jr. ranks to "big car" competition. Let's face up it: how many of the things that yous're interested in today interested y'all when you were 12? That'southward predictable, possibly unavoidable. What's alarming to me is how few of these racers who do continue in our sport cull to do so behind the bike of a subclass-manner machine.

Then at that place's the constant argument that big-dollar contest is "killing" local bracket racing. I wait at that as a chicken vs. egg argument. While one can argue that the growth of big-money racing has incentivized otherwise "local" racers to forego their regular Sat night events for a regional big-dollar race, I think ane could just every bit easily argue the other side. Perhaps racers were looking for a meliorate option than the average weekly programme, and big-dollar racing but happened to make full the void. Regardless, I think information technology'due south hard to argue that the demise (or at least the diminishing) of local level competition is a proficient thing for bracket racing. Where does the side by side generation of racers come from (I've non met many racers whose outset consequence was a $50,000-to-win bracket race)?

The overwhelming and obvious outcome is that we've allowed the price of competition to skyrocket to a level where it's hard for new, even "entry-level" competitors to get into our sport. Subclass racing has get or is speedily becoming price-prohibitive. And that's a horse that can't easily be led dorsum into the barn.

I've heard it said that ultimately, cost is the undoing of every grade in racing. I estimate it's inevitable. One competitor sees an opportunity to increase his or her chances by outspending the competition. If/when that competitor has success, others see the need to level the playing field; and they invest more in their program every bit well. The bike perpetuates until merely the elite can truly afford to compete.

We've seen this before; in fact, the costs associated with course racing a one-half-century ago is what ultimately led to the nascency of bracket racing in the first identify!

These concerns are reasonable. We demand non ignore them. Just nosotros can ignore my own cynicism, and the pessimism of others. It's going to be OK.

Fifty years ago, class racing became also expensive for the average racer, and bracket racing gained mass popularity. But guess what? Class racing is all the same live…50 years later! And while Stock and Super Stock classes today may not be growing, stats show that they're not diminishing either. You could debate that the age demographic in those categories is older…But that'southward been the case since I started racing 25 years ago. And those classes are still going stiff.

My point is that bracket racing isn't going anywhere. You tin argue that information technology has peaked. And information technology may have. Information technology may non keep to grow. We may wait back on 2022 every bit the "Golden Age" of subclass contest. But information technology's non going abroad. There are too many racers with too much invested (and I don't just mean financially) for bracket racing to fail. I'm confident that subclass racing will await tremendously unlike than it does today 10 years, twenty years, xxx years from now (what it looks like is very much upwards for argue). I'1000 equally confident that in that location will continue to be subclass racing 10 years, xx years, xxx years from today!

Luke Bogacki is one of the nearly accomplished sportsman racers in drag racing history, with two NHRA earth championships and over $2 million in winnings across more 300 event wins, including the 2022 Leap Fling 1000000. He shares his tips and tricks with swain racers on his site, ThisIsBracketRacing.com, and mentors aspiring subclass racers through his subscription-based This Is Subclass Racing Elite society. Bogacki also co-hosts the popular The Sportsman Racing Podcast with Jared Pennington. On as many weekends as possible, he goes racing with his wife Jessica and their two young sons, Gary and Jack.