IHRA cancels some 2026 events (3 Viewers)
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sfw1960
Nitro Member
Smells a LOT like Darryl got out-Darryl'd by Elon from here...
Jus' Sayin' ...
As I learned when I was just a wee young lad:
When you F*** with a F*****r. the F****n' ya get is the F****n' you GOT.
It still royally SUX for the racin' community - but I have mentioned before : "Karma is REAL" ~ and racers don't forget very fast, if at all.
Jus' Sayin' ...
As I learned when I was just a wee young lad:
When you F*** with a F*****r. the F****n' ya get is the F****n' you GOT.
It still royally SUX for the racin' community - but I have mentioned before : "Karma is REAL" ~ and racers don't forget very fast, if at all.
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That’s because the windows are nearly falling out of the tower and jet cars would be a bad situation.
Crap.....was really looking forward to this year, since the past several years it was the same weekend as Norwalk and we were already at Norwalk. Last time we got to go was 2019, and that massive storm hit just as the first cars pre-staged for the elimination. 2020 was canceled.
Read in another post the tower is allegedly in not good shape. Shame if true.
Good question - I assume Darana owns it but do they hire a management team to take care of their facilities?
Was thinking that the last year or so at Maple Grove, before KK bought it, that the previous owner brought Mr. Bader in to either manager or be a consultant of sorts for whomever was managing it.
I wonder if the KK group regrets biting the hand that feed them by selling to DC IHRA. Now it's looking like they AREN'T getting anything $$ wise out of the deal.
That offer that was too good to refuse, well remember that saying. IF IT'S TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE IT PROBABLY ISN'T.
That offer that was too good to refuse, well remember that saying. IF IT'S TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE IT PROBABLY ISN'T.
Chili
Nitro Member
Wes and drag illustrated were much more aware of what was going on than most of us. Offering double the money to his staff to leave and join them after they tried to hire Wes Buck. It almost sounded like a vendetta against Drag Illustrated. Mad respect for them though. They kept it all quiet and did not once say anything negative about IHRA while it was running.
MM
Nitro Member
Still wringing my socks out from that event.
Im a huge Wes Buck fan. Real, and genuine.
Leads me to wonder what if, if he had ran the ihra.
Chili
Nitro Member
To be honest he wouldn’t have lasted any longer than anyone else. I’m sure the biggest problem is the president’s told DC the truth and he didn’t want to hear it. $35,000 to rent a Ferris wheel for the weekend? $200,000 for their livestream production? Wes puts on events, knows cost and knnow what is sustainable.
I do think Wes could have had success in the right situation. He does excellent work with his Winter Series races. He knows how to promote a race as well.
Anytime I watched the Winter series, DuckX races. The stands are pretty much empty but...... The starting line is packed with well...racing teams crew. It's successful because the entry fee to enter a car is F'in expensive. That's what covers the enormous purses plus a nice fat wallet for the promoter Not the few fans that actually buy a ticket to sit in the stands. IMO The last IHRA had a way more people in the stands than a WES or DuckX show but Nobody mentions that.
Columbus? Pete Beaumont is running it. Shane Sweigart is running Maple Grove. Both good guys that have been around the sport a while. Shane ran MG for several years with the Koretskys.
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Joe
Nitro Member
And majority stayed after the rain.
Joe
Nitro Member
Been good if he would have focused on maybe how many different nitro drivers had run IHRA, 20 Tf and 21 Fc in 2025. 17 each this year.
none
Nitro Member
Thanks Josh, I knew Shane was in charge at MG, didn't know who had taken the reins at Columbus after Derrick and company left.
Alan
glofria
Nitro Member
I've been on an Alaskan cruise for the last two weeks with limited amount of access to the internet, so I was able to get some information on what has transpired on this matter. One of the items that popped up on my Facebook timeline was this comment by Leah Martin. Not sure if this has been shared here or not, but at least she shares her comments from someone who has been inside the boardroom meetings up until recently.
Facebook
www.facebook.com
I’ve watched a lot of people throw IHRA under the bus over the last few weeks. I understand why. Racers, tracks, sponsors, and staff have every right to be frustrated. Uncertainty is difficult, and people deserve answers.
I’m not here to defend every decision, and I’m not here to defend the situation. I certainly don’t excuse everything that happened.
I was the first female president in motorsports history, and I experienced firsthand how public criticism can become deeply personal. Social media was filled with comments I hope my children never have to read. I was let go in an extremely public way without any explanation—one I still haven’t received. If anyone has a reason to be bitter, it would be me.
But bitterness isn’t how I choose to look at this.
I sat through countless meetings, investment pitches, and hundreds of conversations with racers, track owners, and promoters asking for help. I watched Darryl genuinely want to say yes. If he believed in an idea—or someone convinced him it could make motorsports better—he was all in. There was no stopping him either (trust me, I tried. Ha!) He made decisions quickly, driven by passion, and most times due diligence didn’t keep pace.
Was it challenging? Every single day. Were there mistakes? Absolutely. But there was also an unwavering desire to do more for racers and motorsports than we've seen in a long time.
There are also people in this industry whose motivations are financial gain, power, control, or making a name for themselves at all cost. I witnessed individuals take advantage of generosity and a genuine desire to do more for the sport.
Do Darryl and I align in our management styles? Absolutely not.
But I do believe intention matters. Intent doesn’t erase mistakes or poor decisions, and it doesn’t remove accountability. What it does provide is context. From what I experienced, his intention was never to hurt the sport—it was to invest in it, grow it, and support the racers he cared about. Sometimes those intentions were matched with good decisions, and sometimes they weren’t. Both things can be true at the same time. I honestly believe he will work to pay racers and staff what they are owed.
Would I do it all over again? Absolutely.
Not because everything went right, but because of the relationships I built, the experience I gained, and the people I met along the way.
Leadership isn’t about standing with someone only when things are going well. It’s about being honest when they don’t, acknowledging where mistakes were made, and still having the integrity to recognize good intentions when you believe they existed.
I'm not defending someone. I'm telling the truth as I experienced it. It was hard. It was chaotic. It was also fun, exciting, and insightful. It would have been much easier if those who were/are after personal gain weren't on the prowl daily. (Somedays all I was able to do was to play whack-a-mole.)
The bigger story isn’t just IHRA.
The bigger story is that motorsports as a whole is struggling. Every discipline is fighting for sponsors. Television is shrinking. Tracks are disappearing. Costs continue to rise, and participation is under pressure. We need more people willing to invest, more people willing to build, and more people willing to put the sport ahead of themselves.
You can disagree with how things were handled. You can be disappointed. You can demand accountability. Those things aren’t mutually exclusive.
But I also think it’s fair to recognize that someone was willing to invest significant resources into motorsports when very few others were. Much of that investment went directly back to racers.
History has a way of judging outcomes. Character is revealed by how we treat people while they’re still being written.
I know what I experienced. I know what I witnessed. And I know the truth is almost always more complicated than the loudest voices on social media.
My hope isn’t that everyone agrees with me. My hope is that our industry learns from this, supports the people who continue to invest in it, and finds a way to move forward stronger. That's what I'll be doing.
www.facebook.com
I’ve watched a lot of people throw IHRA under the bus over the last few weeks. I understand why. Racers, tracks, sponsors, and staff have every right to be frustrated. Uncertainty is difficult, and people deserve answers.
I’m not here to defend every decision, and I’m not here to defend the situation. I certainly don’t excuse everything that happened.
I was the first female president in motorsports history, and I experienced firsthand how public criticism can become deeply personal. Social media was filled with comments I hope my children never have to read. I was let go in an extremely public way without any explanation—one I still haven’t received. If anyone has a reason to be bitter, it would be me.
But bitterness isn’t how I choose to look at this.
I sat through countless meetings, investment pitches, and hundreds of conversations with racers, track owners, and promoters asking for help. I watched Darryl genuinely want to say yes. If he believed in an idea—or someone convinced him it could make motorsports better—he was all in. There was no stopping him either (trust me, I tried. Ha!) He made decisions quickly, driven by passion, and most times due diligence didn’t keep pace.
Was it challenging? Every single day. Were there mistakes? Absolutely. But there was also an unwavering desire to do more for racers and motorsports than we've seen in a long time.
There are also people in this industry whose motivations are financial gain, power, control, or making a name for themselves at all cost. I witnessed individuals take advantage of generosity and a genuine desire to do more for the sport.
Do Darryl and I align in our management styles? Absolutely not.
But I do believe intention matters. Intent doesn’t erase mistakes or poor decisions, and it doesn’t remove accountability. What it does provide is context. From what I experienced, his intention was never to hurt the sport—it was to invest in it, grow it, and support the racers he cared about. Sometimes those intentions were matched with good decisions, and sometimes they weren’t. Both things can be true at the same time. I honestly believe he will work to pay racers and staff what they are owed.
Would I do it all over again? Absolutely.
Not because everything went right, but because of the relationships I built, the experience I gained, and the people I met along the way.
Leadership isn’t about standing with someone only when things are going well. It’s about being honest when they don’t, acknowledging where mistakes were made, and still having the integrity to recognize good intentions when you believe they existed.
I'm not defending someone. I'm telling the truth as I experienced it. It was hard. It was chaotic. It was also fun, exciting, and insightful. It would have been much easier if those who were/are after personal gain weren't on the prowl daily. (Somedays all I was able to do was to play whack-a-mole.)
The bigger story isn’t just IHRA.
The bigger story is that motorsports as a whole is struggling. Every discipline is fighting for sponsors. Television is shrinking. Tracks are disappearing. Costs continue to rise, and participation is under pressure. We need more people willing to invest, more people willing to build, and more people willing to put the sport ahead of themselves.
You can disagree with how things were handled. You can be disappointed. You can demand accountability. Those things aren’t mutually exclusive.
But I also think it’s fair to recognize that someone was willing to invest significant resources into motorsports when very few others were. Much of that investment went directly back to racers.
History has a way of judging outcomes. Character is revealed by how we treat people while they’re still being written.
I know what I experienced. I know what I witnessed. And I know the truth is almost always more complicated than the loudest voices on social media.
My hope isn’t that everyone agrees with me. My hope is that our industry learns from this, supports the people who continue to invest in it, and finds a way to move forward stronger. That's what I'll be doing.
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