IHRA cancels some 2026 events (6 Viewers)

[ironpony]

Starting to sound a little like another person I know in about the same financial situation as Darryl..................Gung ho going to change the industry. They spend a whole bunch of money with no return and have zero patience. They then wake up one morning and pull the plug. Sell off what you can and move on. These people did not get where they are by burning cash, there is a point where more going out than coming in gets their attention.
I am hoping not from other things I have seen, read but that is how it sometimes goes. One man, his money, he makes the decisions. We have seen that this past year. This off season and next year will be the deciding factor.

 

[65 Goatboy]

If it's to good to be true..... I hope not I enjoyed Columbus TC but Darryl sure took on a lot with all the other series besides drag racing.

 

[Joe]

I met Darryl at Columbus TC race. He was very attentive and we spoke a few minutes. I'm sticking with him. Maple Grove and Dunn for me.

 

[fueller42]

Right from the start, I kept getting Evan Knoll vibes.......I REALLY hope it was just a case of over-enthusiasm on Darryl's part. I can see the vision, but come on, anyone with ANY common sense knows you gotta walk before you can run. Throwing good money after bad isn't always the answer to getting what you want.
Pick something, grow it to where it's sustainable, THEN, move on to the next piece of the puzzle. This is something that should have been a five to ten year roll-out, not one. I don't care how much money you have, there are way to many outside forces to deal with. Hell, if Bader couldn't keep it afloat, what chance does anyone else have?

 

[Under_Pressure]

Right from the start, I kept getting Evan Knoll vibes.......I REALLY hope it was just a case of over-enthusiasm on Darryl's part. I can see the vision, but come on, anyone with ANY common sense knows you gotta walk before you can run. Throwing good money after bad isn't always the answer to getting what you want.
Pick something, grow it to where it's sustainable, THEN, move on to the next piece of the puzzle. This is something that should have been a five to ten year roll-out, not one. I don't care how much money you have, there are way to many outside forces to deal with. Hell, if Bader couldn't keep it afloat, what chance does anyone else have?

That's been exactly my thoughts. Taking over IHRA and making it a serious, stable series was a huge undertaking by itself. If you do have a lot of money to spend, maybe also purchasing a couple tracks that are strategically located and can start hosting events with minimal work could be a good move also. Especially if they are tracks whose owners are looking to sell and they risk being lost to development. But to take over IHRA, buy as many tracks as he did (in the condition some of them are in), and start or take over like 5 other racing series in different motorsports, all in the span of like a year? For someone with no previous motorsports involvement and a business to run that has to bankroll all this? It's hard to believe that is a serious person.

Then add on operating these series with zero apparent concern for revenue vs expenses- yeah, everyone loves you for rolling out the red carpet and paying massive purses and giving free food and free ice and whatever, but it makes zero business sense. Even if the stands were full it wouldn't pay off in a hundred years. So are you just going to fund it out of the goodness of your heart, forever? That's not a recipe for long term stability.

Finally, and people get really ornery about mentioning this, but looking into Cuttell and Darana Hybrid, I simply do not see a source for the funding of all this. Darana is NOT that big of a company. It's a midsize specialty contractor if the most generous estimates are to be believed. Is Cuttell very wealthy in comparison to 95% of us? Probably. But I work for a mechanical contractor with a national presence. Darana Hybrid is not a major player in construction. As far as I can see they don't even show up in any ENR listings? If you question this, however, certain people start foaming at the mouth and shouting about data centers and Amazon warehouses in the same way they used to insist that Evan Knoll owned oil and gas wells and "you can't imagine how much money he has!!"

It will be interesting to see how this all ends up. Maybe/hopefully I'm missing something and it will all work out. But from a purely logical standpoint based on information available right now, it just doesn't make a ton of sense.