More Wondering

Just Wondering …Why I never get letters of praise when I occasionally write something positive about NHRA or IHRA drag racing but always get letters both praising and bitching me out when I criticize either of them. 

Just Wondering … Why Competition Plus editor Bobby Bennett never refers to Drag Racing Online when he writes about a subject or article that has appeared in these pages? I don’t have any trouble crediting his magazine when it is warranted.

Just Wondering … Why DRO bothers to obtain and post the NHRA tax returns each year if people don’t take the time to read them? I still meet people who really have no clue as to what the NHRA management makes or what the NHRA spends, when all they have to do is read the returns in DRO.

Just Wondering … If the IHRA Nitro Jam “national event” evolves into  a one- or two-day show with a half-dozen Top Fuelers, a wheelstander, jet car, and match races and the IHRA ceases to exist as we have known it for the last 40 years-- what happens to the IHRA’s sportsman series and championships? 

Just Wondering … Without a major sponsor, will IHRA even support a championship series and/or races for Pro Stock, Pro Mod and Top Fuel in 2010? I’m betting not, unless they find a major backer. I hear that the new owner, Feld Entertainment has committed to the IHRA program the rest of this year but with a major change in the program for 2010.

Just Wondering … Hasn’t the ADRL, with a major sponsor in the National Guard and some pretty large associate sponsors like Flowmaster, Hardees and Pizza Hut, and capacity crowds at its races, already pushed past the IHRA as the second largest sanctioning body?

Just Wondering … Why an established doorslammer series like the NMRA or NMCA doesn’t add Nostalgia AA/FC or AA/FD to their races? Nothing sells spectator tickets like nitro-burning racecars, and the costs aren’t prohibitive. 

Just Wondering … Is it a pretty good bet that major automotive sanctioning bodies like the NHRA and NASCAR will announce more layoffs and cutbacks in staffing and schedules before this year is over? I believe they will have no choice but to do so.

Just Wondering … Does Bruton Smith still have any desire to buy the NHRA and does Tom Compton and his staff wish they had taken the offer Smith says he made a couple of years ago? The answers are No and Yes.

Just Wondering … I hear that even after the recent downsizings at the NHRA there are currently 200 (more or less) folks employed full time at their offices in Glendora. My pal Steve Earwood tells me when he and Dave Densmore first went to work for the NHRA in the 1970s there were about 15 full time employees at the old North Hollyweird offices and that number included a staff of seven at National Dragster. 

Just Wondering … What is the fan attraction of the “Pinks” TV shows? They attracted about 32,000 paying customers to the zMAX Dragway event and packed in paying spectators at St. Louis when they filmed there.