My worry is that IHRA itself is rapidly becoming a not-viable series for professional and sportsman racers. Maybe I’m just panicking a little, and I’ll bet my prized ’67 El Camino Nitrouso that the IHRA management reaction to this editorial will be to assure all of us that the IHRA as a drag racing sanctioning body and promoter of races is in no danger.

I began getting a little nervous about the series when Aaron Polburn and his crew first changed the names of the events to “Nitro Jams” under the ownership of Clear Channel.  I really got concerned when the sanctioning body couldn’t secure a title rights sponsor for the series or their Top Fuel class and have just minor support for the Pro Stock and Pro Mod classes.

The fact is that a track operator has to gamble a lot more up-front and back-end money promoting and staging a traditional drag racing national event than they do for a one- or two-night jet car, wheelstander and fireworks race, plus they don’t have to deal with track prep, ticked off pro and sportsman racers, and high-maintenance sponsors.

I’m not saying that what is happening at Rockingham’s national event is the end of the IHRA but I am saying that if this Monster Jam/Nitro Jam battle of the trucks should be a great money-maker, it could be the beginning of a very new and different IHRA. One where actual racing plays second banana to “entertainment.”. The circus is coming, the circus is coming!

Now let’ s turn our attention to those good folks running the NHRA.

They’re having financial difficulties like the rest of the business world; that’s just a fact. NHRA had a horrible opening race at Pomona and lost their ass financially. They’ve lost some sponsors and sponsor revenue in 2009. The number of ads in National Dragster which has long been a “cash cow” for them is way down and ND has cut way back on the number of staff they send to a race. 

Tom Compton was forced to give all NHRA salaried employees a 10 percent paycut. The signs of financial woe is everywhere and Tom Compton, to his credit, is doing whatever he can to try and stop the bleeding. Ever since his announcement of the pay cut for salaried NHRA workers, many of us have been waiting for the other shoe to drop. Well, it has and it dropped squarely on all NHRA competitors but especially the sportsman racers.
If you go to the NHRA web site the lead story is a notice that says, “Effective immediately, NHRA is increasing all competition fees, including license, permanent numbers, and chassis inspection…. NHRA has not raised fees in more than a decade, and, given the current economic environment, NHRA needs to adjust fees to help offset some of the increased costs for these services. In addition, and at national events, NHRA will increase the insurance surcharge.” 
Then comes the blockbuster:
“It should be noted that these fees, even as increased, do not cover the costs for sportsman programs. NHRA will continue to subsidize costs to provide these programs. NHRA remains committed to sportsman racing, and these increases will assist us in being able to continue to provide premier racing programs at the national, divisional, and local level.”

I suspect that most of the people working on Tom Compton’s management team are bright, college-educated professionals. However, they must think the NHRA members are a bunch of morons that can’t do basic math.

The NHRA has cut their operating cost by cutting the payroll 10 percent. They’ve cut travel, the number of staff at the races, and they released Don Taylor from his job in the tech department, saving that salary. Yet with the cuts in expenses and the revenue generated from the competitors, and sponsors the NHRA says they still have to dip into the general fund to support the sportsman division. Evidently when they sold the title rights for the sportsman series to Lucas Oil they didn’t get enough to fund the program.

So now they are going to make the racers pay more for everything to race with the NHRA to make up the sanctioning body’s cash shortfall. All of this despite the fact that there apparently are fewer and fewer sportsman racers at national and divisional meets.
 
The strange thing about this situation is that the NHRA, for at least the last 10 years, has made it harder and harder for sportsman racers to compete at national events. They’ve raised the number of grade points required and cut back the number of sportsman classes at many events. And now they say the sportsman program isn’t supporting itself and their solution is to make the racers they do have support the program by paying even more to race. Brilliant.

What really steams me about this whole deal is that for years the current NHRA management has spent money hand over fist building new towers, new track buildings, VIP seating, hiring more high-powered marketing firms, adding VP positions and increasing salaries for their executives. I’m damned if I can see the benefits from any of that to their rank and file “members”.
Even as the NHRA announced this increase costs for the sportsman racers to compete because of a shortfall of revenue, they also announced on the NHRA website they were adding expensive  permanent seating to Indy. Great timing and PR, guys. Maybe NHRA could have forgone the expense of the new seating and cut their sportsman racers a little slack.