Ihra...worst shape ever...!!! (1 Viewer)

[kd]

...Having the circus boys buy up the "ihra-edited*"...truly was the kiss of death to all faithful ihra'ers...Kill the Floppers...Kill the Fans...

To pick the diggers who can't fill a field in the "big leagues"...sounds like the "circus monkey" got hung-up on the "king of the sport" moniker...

...Bet there is a few who wish BILLY bought it back....

PS: ...did it only scare me when KEN FELD said he loved the monster truck "entertainment"- he just bought....and was "DYING" to go to Rockingham to see what Drag Racing WAS..First Hand...!!!

PPS-...AND the all new countdown to ZILCH...!!!...ask Seve Earwood...

 

[jackass]

While i would be the first one to agree the IHRA isn't looking good one bit... i can't blame the FELD people yet...... right now i blame the current leaders taking advantage of Felds lack of insight...with piss poor planning...

the bad part is the IHRA was quick to boast about the Street & Smith Sports Busines Journal saying the IHRA has great growth potential... and using it to justify the new changes... problem is .. it was bassed on the past couple years of events... With all the pro classes running at National events...

Like him or not... like the way it happened or not... Evan Knolls funds.. where ever they came from is what got the IHRA this "potential" listing.. it showed what the IHRA could be or become with funding.. the problem lays with the heads of the IHRA .. not WORKING toward maintaining that potential by persuing funds to continue as they were or even grow.. no matter what they were told or saw coming with the loss of Knoll funds....


Billy

 

[kd]

While i would be the first one to agree the IHRA isn't looking good one bit... i can't blame the FELD people yet...... right now i blame the current leaders taking advantage of Felds lack of insight...with piss poor planning...

the bad part is the IHRA was quick to boast about the Street & Smith Sports Busines Journal saying the IHRA has great growth potential... and using it to justify the new changes... problem is .. it was bassed on the past couple years of events... With all the pro classes running at National events...

Like him or not... like the way it happened or not... Evan Knolls funds.. where ever they came from is what got the IHRA this "potential" listing.. it showed what the IHRA could be or become with funding.. the problem lays with the heads of the IHRA .. not WORKING toward maintaining that potential by persuing funds to continue as they were or even grow.. no matter what they were told or saw coming with the loss of Knoll funds....


Billy

Hey Billy!...awesome posts on bothsides by the way...!

Truly great comments...gawddamn Evan....he luved us and the sport in a way we will never see again....MOST of of us would have gone on a holiday...Evan gave it to fuel teams and ihra...."so..."...where did the ihra president ....who'se makin' ALL these desisions come from...???????????

 

[James]

I'm not sure we can lay all the blame at the IHRA's prezzes feet, he serves corperate masters. Corperate masters who don't understand the sport and just see things in profit and loss. The best thing that could happen to the IHRA would be for Drag Racing folk to buy the association, maybe a consortium of aftermarket companies who might realize profits not directly from the IHRA but through using it as a marketing medium. Truth is in the current economy we'll be lucky to have an IHRA after next year. As I said in another post ...... it ain't looking good.

 

[kd]

I'm not sure we can lay all the blame at the IHRA's prezzes feet, he serves corperate masters. Corperate masters who don't understand the sport and just see things in profit and loss. The best thing that could happen to the IHRA would be for Drag Racing folk to buy the association, maybe a consortium of aftermarket companies who might realize profits not directly from the IHRA but through using it as a marketing medium. Truth is in the current economy we'll be lucky to have an IHRA after next year. As I said in another post ...... it ain't looking good.

... The "F" group bought "ihra" as part of an entertainment pkg...

Q:...HOW DO THEY FELL ABOUT THEIR PURCHASE....KENNY....?

 

[luxexpress]

[QUOTE=Kevin Dreher;188346
...Bet there is a few who wish BILLY bought it back....


Sure, bring back Bill who sold them out so corporate bean counters could pull their strings. Bring back Bill who decided to spread the series out away from its roots and away from the racers who helped build and support the series. Bring back Bill who sold off the series crown jewel to the competition. Bring back Bill who decided to charge the Pros to play. Now Bill Bader saved the IHRA from what were possibly even worse conditions when he bought the organization several years ago, and for that he deserves a lot of credit. However, it was a lot of his decisions which have also lead it to the situation it finds itself in now. Polburn gets a lot of blame, and perhaps much of it is earned, but never forget that he was left with a lot of baggage from Bader leaving and has always had to answer to corporate bigwigs who likely don't care a whit about drag racing other than what it brings to their bottom line.

Billy, you are exactly right that Evan Knoll and Torco showed what kind of potential the IHRA had with the right funding behind it. I hope that someday someone will come in and follow his lead and help make the IHRA the organization it can be.

 

[jackass]

Kevin...realisticly yes all blame falls unto the Prez's lap....

the IHRA is no different than any other major company... the President of a company is responsable for all aspects of the company.... weither doing the work himself... or following up on his underlings to make sure they are doing their jobs.... If the company is owned by a larger group as the IHRA was and is.. it is his responsability to report any current or forceable problems for the company in the near or distant future. IMO.. Aaron P failed to do so.

the situation with TORCO/Knoll Gas was very obvious to many on the inside of the drag community as well as many outsiders back to the end of 2007. It was ultimitly the Presidents obligation to dig deeper into the situation beyond what he was told by Knoll himself or his workers at the time. report it to Livenation and begin to prepare then for the demise of the sponsorship. its is very aparent now that no proper action was taken. which ended up costing Livenation and the IHRA a ton of funds out of pocket.

I have been to a ton of drag races over the years and i have always enjoied the IHRA much more than any other... just some thing about the events...

The IHRA has done good things recently with the "No Entry" for the PS and PM classes.. but they have cut the purses.. which is understandable with the lack of funds coming in with no series sponsorship... but the effect it will have on car counts has yet to be seen....it still cost the same to run one of these two classes..

The Sportsman racers new deal appears to be good for the sportsman racers..but how will it effect the tracks that hold the events bottom line since cars don't have to attend as many events to gain the points needed... only time will tell.....

Its going to be a very rough year on the IHRA... the nationals.. the teams.. the tracks... and the fans.... some of which probably could have been avoided. Yes times are tough now and will be next year..but alot of these problems arose before the current economic situation.


Billy

 

[Dave]

Over the last few years I have noticed a real down-turn with IHRA. I have nothing against them personally, there are just some things I have to question.

First, what the hell is a "Nitro Jam"? To me, it sounds like a stopped up fuel nozzle. In my opinion, if you are trying to promote your Drag Racing series you should call it what it is. If you are a company looking to support a Drag Racing series, what are you more likely to support; "NHRA Championship Drag Racing" or "IHRA Nitro Jam"?

I let my IHRA license and membership run out so I don't get their paper anymore but when I did, it sure as hell didn't look like an all out Drag Racing publication. IHRA used to call their paper, "Drag Review". OK, very simple, fairly easy to understand it has something to do with Drag Racing. Now they just call it "DRM". Drag Review Magazine appears in very small letters under the DRM. Unless you are an IHRA member, you probably wouldn't know what DRM was. As far as what was in it, the race coverage was pretty good and so was the photography. However, I began to doubt the seriousness of the IHRA when they ran a column in DRM about who to vote for on "American Idol". Granted, it's a popular show (I've never watched it) but what does that have to do with Drag Racing? The president of IHRA wrote one time in his column about how he reorganized the video game rack at Sam's Club so the IHRA Video Game was at the front of the rack. He went on to explain how he hid all of the NHRA video games so nobody would ever find them. Is this really what the president of IHRA needs to be doing? I know a lot of people question the management of NHRA, but I'd bet Mr. Compton has more important things to do. They continued to run more pointless columns and articles and eventually I just tossed it when it showed up in the mail box.

The Torco fiasco obviously was a huge blow to IHRA but all that teaches you is to not put all of your eggs in one basket. Hindsight is 20/20, but there had to be somebody at IHRA that could foresee the eventual end of the Torco dream.

I think if IHRA is going to survive (and I hope they do) they are going to have to do some major restructuring and house cleaning. IHRA has it's product and NHRA has theirs. I am convinced that IHRA will never be as big as NHRA so I think they should stop trying to be and stop trying to sell the same thing. They need to create interest so why not sell something different? How about a Fuel Altered class? I don't think NHRA would do that. How about Nostalgia Dragster and Funny Car classes? NHRA doesn't have that. IHRA has the Pro Mods that seem to be popular and it's a real class that runs at every event. NHRA only has an exhibition Pro Mod class. Stop trying to imitate NHRA and do your own thing. NHRA Drag Racing has a place but so does IHRA, if they can make it survive.

Dave

 

[kd]

Over the last few years I have noticed a real down-turn with IHRA. I have nothing against them personally, there are just some things I have to question.

First, what the hell is a "Nitro Jam"? To me, it sounds like a stopped up fuel nozzle. In my opinion, if you are trying to promote your Drag Racing series you should call it what it is. If you are a company looking to support a Drag Racing series, what are you more likely to support; "NHRA Championship Drag Racing" or "IHRA Nitro Jam"?

I let my IHRA license and membership run out so I don't get their paper anymore but when I did, it sure as hell didn't look like an all out Drag Racing publication. IHRA used to call their paper, "Drag Review". OK, very simple, fairly easy to understand it has something to do with Drag Racing. Now they just call it "DRM". Drag Review Magazine appears in very small letters under the DRM. Unless you are an IHRA member, you probably wouldn't know what DRM was. As far as what was in it, the race coverage was pretty good and so was the photography. However, I began to doubt the seriousness of the IHRA when they ran a column in DRM about who to vote for on "American Idol". Granted, it's a popular show (I've never watched it) but what does that have to do with Drag Racing? The president of IHRA wrote one time in his column about how he reorganized the video game rack at Sam's Club so the IHRA Video Game was at the front of the rack. He went on to explain how he hid all of the NHRA video games so nobody would ever find them. Is this really what the president of IHRA needs to be doing? I know a lot of people question the management of NHRA, but I'd bet Mr. Compton has more important things to do. They continued to run more pointless columns and articles and eventually I just tossed it when it showed up in the mail box.

The Torco fiasco obviously was a huge blow to IHRA but all that teaches you is to not put all of your eggs in one basket. Hindsight is 20/20, but there had to be somebody at IHRA that could foresee the eventual end of the Torco dream.

I think if IHRA is going to survive (and I hope they do) they are going to have to do some major restructuring and house cleaning. IHRA has it's product and NHRA has theirs. I am convinced that IHRA will never be as big as NHRA so I think they should stop trying to be and stop trying to sell the same thing. They need to create interest so why not sell something different? How about a Fuel Altered class? I don't think NHRA would do that. How about Nostalgia Dragster and Funny Car classes? NHRA doesn't have that. IHRA has the Pro Mods that seem to be popular and it's a real class that runs at every event. NHRA only has an exhibition Pro Mod class. Stop trying to imitate NHRA and do your own thing. NHRA Drag Racing has a place but so does IHRA, if they can make it survive.

Dave

...Excellent Comments Dave...Everything you said was bang-on!!!...from nitro jamming to looking at other options!!!...I guess start with everything the nhra is snubbing its nose at, ie: nostelgia FC, fuel altereds etc....Intresting to see what shakes down after PRI show...BADER was makin' noise again...!