"Insulating" to reduce exterior vibration while in the judging lane. The Extreme Class — anything goes. Team Baldman Creations and their 50,000-watt Dodge Caravan.

Q: What's your relationship with the car stereo industry.

A: Right now we're pretty tied to them, since it's the local retailers setting up and hosting the shows. We want to become less dependent on the car stereo community as a whole because with the way it is now, the number of shows we're able to have is dependent on the strength of the local retailers. With the current economic conditions a lot of them can't afford to put on the shows, and we're missing out on a lot of opportunities there. Eventually we'd like to do fewer events that are better attended and are of a better quality, so you're going to see dB Drag Racing become more and more of a show promoter. We've already started integrating with car shows on our own, and you'll be seeing more of that.

And we're going to continue to expand internationally. Right now our biggest growth area is in Europe — we're huge in Germany, with 150 events there last year. And a strong international presence is important for us because the rest of the world can be good when the economy in the US isn't doing well. We need to be self-sufficient if we want to continue to grow.
Q: What's the next step for dB Drag Racing?

A: We're always trying to find new ways to get new people involved, so that's our big push right now. One thing that turns people off when they first get started in the sport is coming out to a competition and getting blown away by someone with more experience. That discourages them and they usually don't come back. One of the big things that we've done this past year to encourage novice participation is establish a "mini street" division that's focused entirely on local and first-time competitors. That way, people can come out and compete against similar local systems with a realistic chance of doing well.

We've also started doing some live web broadcasting of our events with meter readings, photo updates, and current standings, all in real time. Next year we hope to tie the meters into one another so that people in different geographic locations can compete against each other in real time. So you can be in a parking lot in Texas competing against someone in Germany; it's really going to expand what we can do with the competitions.

With the growing interest in car audio competition and dB Drag Racing's success overseas, we're sure to be hearing more from Harris and Co. in the near future. Those interested in learning more about the dB Drag Racing Association, viewing competition photos, and printing event calendars should check out their web site at www.dBdrag.com.