Is IHRA a sleeping giant?
The best example is when Billy Meyer decided he could do drag racing better than NHRA and bought the IHRA. He held a press conference at the SEMA Show in 1987 announcing that he was going to take the sport to the next level. The NHRA reacted by putting on a full court press and signing up every track or group who wanted to build a track where a National event might be held. Make no mistake, Meyer got their attention and they over-reacted. Fortunately for them and unfortunately for Billy, he had about a dozen rain-outs his first year and decided that he didn’t need to be in the sanctioning body business. When Bill Bader bought the IHRA everybody with an axe to grind with the High Sheriffs got on the bandwagon and once again the NHRA perceived a threat. Bader got a few California tracks to switch their sanction to IHRA and NHRA again put on the full court press. They eventually got all of their California tracks back. According to what I hear, in order to keep IHRA from getting a foothold in California, Tom Compton approved giving the group trying to build a track in Banning a NHRA sanction despite the fact that there wasn’t (and still isn’t) a track at that location. Yes, the NHRA has pretty much run over any competition they’ve had in the last half century, but now they could be in for a real fight if the re-invigorated IHRA decides to get serious about being the major player in drag racing. How, you may be asking, could IHRA take the champ down when they and everybody else have failed before? The answer is simple -- MONEY! The IHRA now is owned by Clear Channel Entertainment, which is one of the most powerful companies in the world. The company was started by Texans Red McCombs and Lowry Mays. It is the most powerful company in the entertainment business today. They own or control many of the major sports venues in North America. They control the Monster Truck and indoor motocross circuits. The company also happens to own over 1,000 radio stations and other media outlets. They produce concerts and handle recording artists. It is a company that is used to dominating whatever it is involved in and as the owner of the IHRA it is involved in drag racing. Since Bill Bader retired (or was forced out as the president of the IHRA, depending on who you believe) from all accounts things have changed radically at the IHRA. Bader is a grassroots-racer type of promoter who always seemed most interested in how many entries came through the back gate and how many tracks were IHRA sanctioned. The professional entertainment aspect of the IHRA apparently wasn’t the main attraction for him. From what I can see, that isn’t the case now that Aaron Polburn has taken over the reins of the company, and Clear Channel's motor sports division, headed up by Polburn’s pal Charlie Mancuso, has obviously taken more interest in what happens at IHRA. I’ve talked to several national event track owners who attended the track owners meeting at the recent IHRA banquet and they had nothing but good things to say about what’s happened at IHRA since Bader’s departure. The new management team has hired several new key people, and according to those track owners I’ve talked to, IHRA now seem willing to spend the money necessary to bring key people in. IHRA currently has, in my opinion, the best Saturday qualifying and Sunday race show in drag racing. The ticket price is affordable and qualifying is very entertaining. Because they offer eight-car fields in Top Fuel and Pro Funny, and sixteen-car fields for Pro Stock and Pro Mod, and at least twice as many cars trying to qualify than will get in each session, IHRA qualifying is a spectator delight and a war for the competitors. Not only that, but with two eight-car fields the race is virtually assured of being over before 5:00 p.m. on raceday, something the fans and media really appreciate. So, what if Clear Channel decides that drag racing has the potential to be a much bigger profit center for them that it currently is. What if they decided that they should dominate the drag racing market like all others they are in? If they were to decide to do that, NHRA could be in for a long day. You see NHRA’s yearly take is just over $100,000,000 total and they spend about 20 percent of that on advertising and TV. Clear Channel is a multi-billion dollar company and could easily outspend the NHRA in every area. If they wanted to buy tracks at Chicago, Dallas, Houston or Brainerd, IHRA/Clear Channel could easily do it. What’s to stop Billy Meyer, the Angels or any other track owner from selling if the price was right? If they wanted to pay the World Champs in their professional classes a million dollars, they could. If they decided to add Fuel Funny Cars to their show, it wouldn’t be a problem. Wouldn’t a sanctioning body that owns 1,000 radio stations as well as many television stations and dominates every major market be very attractive to major corporate sponsors for race teams or the series itself? And what if Clear Channel decided they wanted to put the IHRA races on ABC, CBS, or NBC by buying the time and production as other motorsports series have? They could afford to do that easily. Now, I’m not saying that any of the stuff I’ve talked about in this column is about to happen. I’m just speculating on what could happen. One thing is for sure: IHRA appears to be taking a new direction and for the first time in its long history the NHRA is dealing with an opponent they can’t outspend or intimidate. Drag racing could get very interesting in the next couple of years.
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For
more than 50 years now, the NHRA of Wally Parks has been the undisputed
leader of the sport of drag racing. Over the years other sanctioning
bodies such as AHRA and IHRA have tried to take the champ down but
none have even come close. Every time anyone has even acted like
they might be a threat, the High Sheriffs of Glendora (as my colleague
Dave Densmore calls them) circle the wagons, bring in the cavalry
and beat up the competition. 
