The National Hot Rod Association’s dealings with Harley-Davidson eclipse the term reprehensible by a wide margin. In exchange for the naming rights, i.e., the sponsorship, of the Sportsman Motorcycle Series, and an extension of their status as the Official Motorcycle, Harley-Davidson was granted unprecedented “rights” that absolutely, positively and without question resulted in much more than an unfair advantage for a single team. It resulted in a “racing” season that all but destroyed one of NHRA’s core professional categories, all for Harley-Davidson’s dollars. It’s safe to say that corporate greed on the part of NHRA has resulted in a loss of credibility from which they may never recover.
Why, after witnessing what NHRA knowingly allowed Harley-Davidson to do, would any other motorcycle manufacturer even consider getting involved with NHRA? That NHRA is either blind to that, or simply doesn’t care, is evident in their failure to respond, either verbally or in writing, to the letters they’ve received from aftermarket companies and manufacturers seeking involvement in the class and series.
In the 60-plus year history of the NHRA the organization has never allowed a potential sponsor to dictate the “rules” under which they’d participate. Uh, wait a minute. They did exactly that with their exclusivity of name gathering for the Army, and exactly that with their acceptance of Barry Grant’s carburetors for sponsoring the Challenge.
So, by allowing H-D to dictate that they only wanted Vance & Hines to run their exclusive parts NHRA wasn’t setting any precedent, because they’d already sold out at least twice previously that we know about. But one wonders how many more deals like that have been made that we don’t know about.
Almost as offensive as the H-D arrangement was the organized lying about parity in the motorcycle class that NHRA officials perpetrated on anyone foolish enough to question what was going on. Despite the obviousness of the disparity in the class that any moron with a set of eyes could see, NHRA continued to spread the lie that parity existed. That parity did not exist in the real world became evident with two articles that appeared within hours of one another on CompetitionPlus.com. The first (
Competition Plus - Drag Racing Magazine - NHRA DEEMS PSM CLASS TO HAVE PARITY; CONSIDERING RULES CHANGES FOR 2013) quoted NHRA officials stating that parity existed. Five or six hours later NHRA announced a new motorcycle rules package for 2013 (
Competition Plus - Drag Racing Magazine - NHRA ANNOUNCES 2013 ENGINE COMBINATION PACKAGE FOR HARLEY-DAVIDSON AND BUELL) that also included the telling addition of 10 lbs. to the dominant Harley-Davidsons of Vance & Hines. The only possible conclusion that can be drawn from this is that NHRA was well aware of the performance disparities between the Harleys and every other motorcycle, and added the 10 lbs. in the hopes of possibly silencing an ever-growing number of complaints.
Want more proof that NHRA knew the parity story was baloney? How about this quote from the September 19 release: “We have been working on a long-term solution for the Pro Stock Motorcycle class for the last several months.” So, during at least a three-month span NHRA repeatedly and aggressively tried to convince racers, sponsors, fans and the media that there was parity in the class when they knew that was not the case. In other words – and it’s difficult to explain this in any other manner – they were knowingly lying to everyone they tried to convince of the parity that didn’t exist. If that isn’t the truth, why were they still touting parity mere hours before the rules announcement?
The only explanation we can find for NHRA’s organized lying is their desire to protect their financial arrangement with Harley-Davidson at the expense of integrity. The money was more important than their reputation in the world of motorsports. People left with the impression that Harley-Davidson bought and paid for the Pro Stock Motorcycle class and championship have the correct impression, because that’s what’s happened.
In the almost 50 years I’ve been writing about NHRA Drag Racing I can’t remember another single instance where the organization allowed one team access to parts that weren’t readily available to other competitors. There are dozens, maybe hundreds of other Harley-Davidson racers out there, yet there have been none in NHRA competition. Why? Because none of those hopefuls had even a prayer of getting their hands on the exclusive parts that only V&H have access to. From the beginning those parts were only available to Vance & Hines, which was Harley-Davidson’s choice. Worse yet, an NHRA official has been quoted as saying that even if a competitor showed up with a bolt-by-bolt copy of a Vance & Hines Harley they’d never let it get past tech. Nice, level playing field there, eh?
What NHRA enabled H-D to do would be akin to Ford telling NHRA that in exchange for becoming the Official Car they didn’t want anyone but John Force running a Mustang in Funny Car, or anyone in Pro Stock other than Larry Morgan running a Ford. Oh! And both competitors must be allowed to run 600ci engines.
I want to make it clear that I have the utmost respect for both Terry Vance and Byron Hines. The same goes for Eddie Krawiec and Andrew Hines (although Krawiec’s suggestion earlier this year that if others worked as hard as his team does they might be winning instead of whining was ill-advised and backfired badly). Both are excellent riders and racers, and in Vance and Hines they have the best management team in motorcycle racing.
These guys can’t be faulted for what they’re doing, which is taking the tools handed to them by NHRA, “tools” that only they have, and winning with them. Throughout this entire sordid affair I have never heard a single racer or member of the media finding fault with the Screamin’ Eagle team. Every bit of animosity has been aimed directly at 2035 Financial Way in Glendora, Calif., because it’s been NHRA that has put this team in such a superior, virtually untouchable position.
Yes, it would appear that motorcycle racing in 2013 will be markedly different than it’s been since last fall, when the Harleys began their win streak. But despite those changes, the hundreds of racers and aftermarket people who have been negatively impacted by NHRA’s lying and obfuscation of the truth aren’t going to forget how they were treated, talked down to as if they were children, and pretty much ignored.
