NHRA SOLD?now what ..

I heard today that the NHRA sale went through and will be anounced in a large scale form soon . Anybody else know more details ? I heard a NASCAR guy bought it and a number of changes will go into effect .Making it like a 3 ring circus , also doing away with alot of classes .to concentrate more on pro classes instead .end of an era ?

 

I thought the NHRA was a not-for-profit organization? Who got the money?

 

I've been wrong once or twice before............but I call bullshit.

 

So in other words the NHRA poster boy will be John Force...

 

IHRA will be all the better for it.

NHRA has been choking the life out of racing for a while.

 

All the better for it?

Do you race?

A dog and pony show that it seems as being proposed will choke the life out of drag racing.

Get in line to start something else up...

FWIW, our "local" track, Sacramento Raceway, just went "non NHRA"... I had wondered why.

The thing that will hurt a lot of people is that most other organizations honor competition licences... so, teh NHRA will be charging more money to get one if it is at another track... tech inspections...

Sam.

 

They made an anouncement about an enhanced integration marketing deal with ESPN today. Did not hear about a sale.

 

Look at http:www.dragracingonline.com A bilionare named burton smith is the one who got it , and the non profit status is said to be the first thing he is changing . He owns 3 tracks including vegas .NO BULL .
You can kiss sportsman racing goodbye .The racers i spoke to today say it will be a bigboys game now and alot of them will be heading over to the goodguys format or ihra .There is to be a big anouncement made soon .
I do know they want to run a full bike year , and cut some classes out . other than that , who knows ?the article in drag racing online is almost a week old and i heard from 3 racers today about the sale going through . , Sure hope they do not screw w/ the reunions ..

 

I've seen this before about a month ago. At that time Bruton Smith said he wanted to buy everything but, Wally Parks the apparent owner of NHRA would not talk to him. The usual corporate dodge, I guess. What was the source of your info?

 

That is just sad!!! Hate to see it come to this.

 

IHRA will be better off. Read the fine print!

Yes I race. I have been involved in drag racing since the late eighties. Thats what brought me to the traditional hotrod scene.
NHRA rules made it almost impossible though.
My local track finally dropped its NHRA sanction as well.
We now have the lattitude to build cars as we like (within reason) and are not forced to conform to the strict NHRA guidelines for class cars just to do a little weekend racing. IHRA is much easier and cheaper I might add to conform to. Outlaw is the best way to race but the tracks do so much better insurance wise if they are sanctioned.

 

This sucks! I hate to say it but this is just a quickening to what I've seen happening for some time, The death of grass roots racing. The sport is so expesive already the big sponsor teams are the only ones remotly competative in the pro classes anymore anyway. Pro classes are what I'm refering to. I hope the sportmans classes survive the restructuring or else the dream is dead on this scale.

Drew

 

The NHRA will go the wayy all the crap goes in corporate America,the big guys will get bigger and the lttle guys in the less well known classes will get wiped out. Why does Nascar run a filed of 43 cars at every race-why not 44 or 42 or at some smaller tracks-20? Because some dude calculated the returns-maximum advertising dollars,maximum crashes. Realistically they could field about 10 cars-those are the ones with a real chance to win but nobody wants to see Gordon or Earnhart just drive around for 500 miles to win. How long before the NHRA gets shipped overseas like everything else in the global economy?

 

Bruton Smith wanting NHRA, and Bruton Smith getting NHRA are two different things. How would that not be front page news? Not to mention Bruton owns the Las Vegas track that held a national event 2 days ago. No "buzz" in the pits, or him answering a frenzy of questions. Odd? You think he was at the bank transferring billions of dollars? It must suck going through life with Jeff Burk of DRO as your all mighty guide of drag racing.

Force already is the poster boy. I'm not his biggest fan, but I believe he has paid his dues and deserves it. Drag racing at that level as a hobby has long been dead. It's a business. NHRA is a non-prifit organization, and as oxymoronic as it sounds, it's a fucking cash cow.

I still call bullshit. But I'm stubborn.

 

Soon NHRA's tracks will have nothing but the sound of crickets chirping in the fuckin bleachers

 

I am not trying to be a IHRA spokesman thats for sure ,but thats exactly what I was trying to say above. I just did'nt do it that well I guess.

The small guy can still compete in an IHRA sanctioned event.

 

OK after reading just what are your sources ?
I made 3 phone calls to NHRA people one local , one to the musuem , and one to corprate headquaters . The local person said its just a matter of hashing out the details , the musuem people had no clue what was goin on . And the NHRA HQ people said " THEY WILL NEVER BE SOLD AND ITS ALL RUMORS " .There was 2 people on the line w/ me and also heard alotta calls comming in on the same subject . so TRuth or Rumors ? I just asked what did eveyone else hear and reprted what i heard and was told .somthing is goin on , what who knows ...

 

Oh goody. Maybe they can jazz it up even more, with restrictor plates and oval tracks.

New sanctioning body anyone?

 

I followed your link, and other than an interview with Smith about the possibility of buying it, I can find nothing about the sale....

Mutt

 

H.A.M.B -hra

 

I'm thinkin' that NRA or IHRA or some other organization will be the spot for us low buck guys.

I've been to low dollar to race NHRA for a long time now anyway.

 

Didn't this story start on April 1st? Hmmmmm…

 

most of you guys make it sound like the NHRA just went corporate and will start charging $50 a ticket to get into the stands; as well as starting an advertising campaign for TV.

 

My input was regardless of the truth of the sale.

They suck either way.

 

There is something about the Vegas drag strip that is there ... but not seen unless you know about it.

There are two drag strips side by side!
One of them just isn't paved ... yet.
Even the win/loss board that gives the ET is offset to the East for the 2nd track at the big end.
NHRA would not approve a side by side drag strip, but everything was built (except for paving) for the 2nd strip anyway.
If the sale goes through and me being a Vegas boy.... I'll bet there is going to be 4 fuel cars side by side here someday soon.
Any takers?
Yes, the WWF of drag racing may be here soon!

 

Bruton Smith owns Texas Motor speedway up here in Ft. Worth, Tx also. There was a Nascar event this weekend and no "heard on the street" here either.[/QUOTE]

Bruton Smith also owns Bristol Motor Speedway and the adjoining "Thunder Valley" dragstrip used by both NHRA/IHRA. The buzz at Bristol two weeks ago was he was going after NHRA. Big write-up in the local rag.