Well, that didn’t last long…

NOTE: As you should know, Aaron Polburn was a former president of the IHRA.

To the surprise of no one (except Chris Lencheski), Chris Lencheski was shown the IHRA door along with two of his cohorts. That's what happens when you set a new world record for IHRA financial losses.

To be fair, I have never met Chris Lencheski and wouldn't recognize him if we sat at the same table. But the one thing Chris did covet was the opportunity to get his face and thoughts in front of anyone who would listen. That means there is plenty of material available to form an opinion. And it was apparent almost from the beginning that this was going to be a trainwreck of epic proportion.

The first sign had to do with titles. Chris was the CEO. Chris was the Chairman of the Board or something close. I think the only title he missed was Sultan. The second sign was his use of the English language. It was impossible to read a press release without a Webster dictionary nearby. It seemed that it was important to make sure the audience knew their place and that was well below Chris's intellectual level.

OK, I understand you have to possess a certain amount of ego. But what killed the Polish goose for Chris was not ego. It was the plan. There wasn't any. Oh, there was a plan and it was documented in a voluminous manifesto. The problem was there was no shred of solid thinking on how to accomplish the ideas. Here are some examples.

Chris was going to create a global brand. That's great, but you have to have venues and people to run these venues.

Chris was going to create a Formula 1 based Top Fuel program having never talked to the existing teams.

Chris was going to create an international TV platform that in turn would bring in multiple global sponsors.

So, what transpired was a plan where there were no venues to stage an event. There was no viable plan as to "the show." And zero dollars were generated from sponsors. The war cry from the boardroom must have been ‘We will get to that later.” You have got to ask yourself, "Who vets these guys anyway?"

Very predictable. Very sad. So now what happens?

I would imagine the parent company, IRGSE, will hire a crisis CEO and that person will peel back the layers. I hope this person has a cardiologist nearby because a stroke may be looming. Do you sell it or keep it? What is there to sell?

But the IHRA sportsman program has a lot going for it. As a stand-alone company it is profitable. If I was a track owner there is no question I would be an IHRA track. Of course I am biased, but the truth is that IHRA has the best program for the sportsman race track and racer. The issue is that it will not even come close to what the seller believes the value is.

So, what do I hope happens? I hope that Skooter Peaco and Summit Racing form an alliance based entirely on growing sportsman racing. Peaco and a small group would own it. Summit would bless it.

What do I think will happen? Someone will overpay for it and try to establish a National/Divisional format proving once again that the best way to make a million dollars in drag racing is start with three million.

RACE SAFE....GODSPEED