Word: speedway
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...drag night at the New England Speedway and there's nary a feather boa in sight. The only flames in evidence are painted onto the sides of a tricked-up Rambler with its name--Impatience--emblazoned on its sides. Long lines of eager participants inch forward slowly, racing their motors eagerly. After negotiating a path between the bumpers of the cars crowding the waiting ramp, visitors cross a barren patch of dirt to get to the bleachers. Pot-bellied silhouettes with gleaming headphones and walkie-talkies loom ominously from the dark hulk of a conning tower, floodlights throw stark shadows...
Scott M. Jezak, the Speedway's marketing director, explains that not every night is amateur night. "The International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) is the sanctioning body, and we have world class racing here. A lot of the pros come here. We set a lot of world records this year. We reset the top fuel dragster record." Things get a little a hairier those nights, "the cars get up to 300 miles per hour and sometimes we have fire problems explosions, but everyone's wearing fire suits and helmets." Evidently, that's what the crowds like to see; often upwards...
...recent survey, Burns asked advertising creative directors and corporate marketing executives which athletes they would most desire to pitch their wares. Gordon trailed only basketball deity Michael Jordan and golfers Tiger Woods and Arnold Palmer. "Gordon came at the perfect time," notes Charlotte, N.C., Motor Speedway president Humpy Wheeler, "very similar to the mid-'50s for the PGA, when TV finally figured out how to televise a match and Arnold Palmer was sitting right there. Boom, it was all they needed...
...latter, like others in the show, may be familiar to many viewers, despite the "premiere" labeling.) "Fast Driver" parodies "Speed Racer" with results hysterical even for those unfamiliar with the original show's idiotic plotting, redundant dialogue and silly visual effects (here, the usual overhead view of a speedway's race line-up before start includes eight or nine bona fide cars, an airplane and an enormous spermatozoa). "Fast Driver" covers the anime-parody territory far better than "Booby Trap...
...sport has also aggressively encouraged corporations to do business entertaining at the track, whether they rent a box above the speedway or paint their logos across the hoods of 720-h.p. racers. "Things that women are involved in purchasing are showing up a lot more," notes Brown. Traditional sponsors, such as Valvoline and Skoal chewing tobacco, are increasingly sharing side-panel space with such brands as Tide, Maxwell House and the Family Channel...