Bieber and R&B singer Khalil Amir Sharieff were arrested in Miami Beach during what police described as an illegal street drag race between a Lamborghini and a Ferrari. Neither has been charged with drag racing. The use of the words “drag racing” in media reports is what CompetitionPlus editor Bobby Bennett took issue with in his commentary published Jan. 28. Bennett wrote: “Two recent high-profile incidents where illegal street racing has been labeled as drag racing has been met with no response from those who promote drag racing in this country. When is someone from the various sanctioning bodies, especially the National Hot Rod Association [NHRA], going to step forward to set the record straight? Why has it been that the drag racing press corps and the drag racing fans have had to stand up to defend our sport?” Character assassination should never be dealt with behind closed doors. Organized drag racing has always clamored for expansive exposure and fallen short many times. We need to be of the mindset that setting the record straight publicity can be used positively.” Graham Light, the NHRA’s senior vice president-racing operations, addressed the actions NHRA took, specifically following Bieber’s arrest. “Every time, including this incident with Justin Bieber, NHRA Communications reaches out to the reporter/publication regarding the mis-use of drag racing to describe an illegal street race,” Light said. “Scott Smiths team sent that note and the reply back from the Miami Herald -- which broke the story that all others used -- was that it was listed in the police report as a drag race so they accurately reported the news. Scotts team communicated to AP, including their main news desk, Miami office, Los Angeles bureau as well as AP Entertainment reporters and their CNN counterparts.” Scott Smith is NHRA’s senior communications manager. Additionally, Light said Brand AMP researched the top 20 outlets covering the story that day and sent a pitch letter making available an NHRA spokesperson and positioning NHRA as the go-to experts for future incidents such as this. “We do have a standard letter of street racing vs. drag racing that went out to AP’s main office in Miami and the bureau in Los Angeles and AP entertainment and CNN and so on,” Light said. “Also, we have under contract an outside agency, Brand AMP, to work us with on some PR efforts and among the outlets they reached out to were USA Today, Reuters, TIME, Huffington Post, CNN, Wall Street Journal, Yahoo! Sports, Fox Sports, New York Daily News, Los Angeles Times, ABC News, Fox News, MTV News, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, NBC News, San Jose Mercury News and Boston Herald.” Light went on to further emphasize his point. “The sanctioning body doesn’t take kindly to illegal street racing being referred to as drag racing and we were on top of it,” Light said. “In this case the police report called it drag racing and that’s how the media reported it. It’s one thing to convince all the media to call it what it is, illegal street racing, but if the authorities show it as drag racing the media is just going to report the facts. It is another challenge and a bigger challenge to try and communicate with all law enforcement agencies around the country. It’s an on-going process.” Light also said “illegal street racing” is at the core of why NHRA racing came into existence. “NHRA was founded on all of this,” Light said. “In 1951, Wally Parks founded NHRA to curb illegal street racing to get kids off the street and on to organized facilities such as abandon runaways and roadways, etc. That mission still exists today. We have all our divisional people and field people in this (NHRA) office who are always working on trying to develop racing facilities and working with prospective track operators, trying to create venues for individuals interested in high performance cars so they can have a viable alternative to street racing. We have worked with multiple police departments around the country on street legal programs. It’s an extremely important part of our business. We also have a PSA that airs onsite on the jumbotron at our national events talking about illegal street racing and encouraging fans to take to the strip through the street-legal program offered by NHRA Member Tracks. ”NHRA has always dedicated, and will continue to dedicate, significant resources to the education of street racing vs drag racing and the development of viable alternatives.” credit competition plus facebook with all gratitude.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 03:57:29 +0000
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