Nitro Funny Cars returning to IHRA? 10/17/05
Nitro Funny cars haven’t been a part of the IHRA scene since the 1992 when Del Worsham won the IHRA World championship, running a truncated four-race schedule. At that time the purses for the eight-car fuel Funny Car field and eight-car Top Fuel field were around $80,000 each. The IHRA was having attendance and money problems at the time and was changing owners regularly. The owners at that time, which I remember as being an ownership group made up mostly of Pro Stock team owners, got together with their track owners and came to the conclusion that they couldn’t afford both Top Fuel and Nitro Funny Car fields. So, after the 1992 season Nitro Funny Cars were gone from the sanctioning body that had been naming a Nitro Fuel Funny Car champion since 1971. The IHRA management at that time put forth the theory that the sanctioning body’s fledgling Pro Modified class would fill the void left by Nitro Funny Cars with fans and sponsors, especially since the NHRA didn’t recognize the Pro Mod class. Later, the IHRA management decided that if they made the Alky Funny Car class a Pro class, those cars would satisfy their fans' need for Funny Cars. Neither of those ideas ever worked. All that dropping the Nitro Funny class accomplished was to save the sanctioning body and national event tracks about $40,000 each and reinforce the idea in most sponsors', fans' and racers' minds that the IHRA wasn’t on the same level as the NHRA. Almost from the moment the fuel coupes were dropped there have been numerous conversations among fans, racers and promoters concerning the possibility and feasibility of bringing the nitro funny car class back to the IHRA. The conversation always ended up at the same point: Can the IHRA afford to add another fuel class, and will the spectators buy enough tickets to offset the expense? The obvious answer is that IHRA promoters know that nitro cars are what cause a majority of their fans to buy tickets. The Pro Mod and Pro Stock classes have their fans, but 300-mph, flame-throwing nitro burners are what bring the crowds in, and right now IHRA has just one nitro class to offer. The fact that Norwalk Raceway Park gets thirty or forty thousand spectators to spend a rumored $1,000,000 on tickets every year for a one-night, eight-car fuel funny car extravaganza isn’t lost on the IHRA’s other track owners, most of whom aren’t selling that many tickets for a three-day national event. So, the appearance of nitro floppers at Steve Earwood’s Rockingham Dragway for the last IHRA national event of the year has caused a pretty good buzz in the industry. Rockingham used to host the Winston All-Star races and Earwood certainly knows the appeal of nitro funny cars. He’s quietly lobbied behind the scenes for years to at least consider the return of nitro funnies to IHRA but apparently without the support of his fellow track owners. (You might make a case that the Bader family doesn’t look favorably at Nitro Funny Cars at their IHRA national event as that might dilute the ticket sales for their “million dollar gate” race, although, since their race showcases John Force, I doubt it.) Now enter drag racing philanthropist, racer, sponsor and long-time supporter of the IHRA, Evan Knoll. This year his company is backing both Mike Ashley’s Pro Modified and Fuel Funny car rides. He also sponsors at least a half-dozen other Top Fuel and Funny Cars on both the IHRA and NHRA tours, and has driven his own IHRA Top Fueler, so you know he has more than a passing interest in nitro racing. There is no doubt that the relationship between Knoll and the NHRA has been rocky at best. There can also be no doubt that Knoll and his companies have enjoyed a very long and friendly relationship with the IHRA and its president Aaron Polburn. Polburn would probably like to see FC return to the IHRA. All of which brings us back to Funny Cars at the Rock on Halloween. There is little question that Mr. Knoll is responsible for bringing the two nitro-burning Funny Cars his companies sponsor to Rockingham. Don’t think for a moment that Rockingham Dragway owner Steve Earwood isn’t going to put a full court press on the Carolina/Virginia/Charlotte media to hype the return of the last IHRA Funny Car champ (Del Worsham) to the Rock. If Rockingham has full grandstands or anything close on Friday and Saturday it will heavily influence the IHRA and its track owners to seriously consider putting the fuel coupes back on the IHRA schedule. Mr. Knoll’s PR department is already saying that he is lobbying IHRA to add fuel coupes to their act. I think there is more than a good chance of it happening. I believe the sanctioning body’s Canadian tracks will jump at the chance to have Funny Cars as will the tracks in Martin and Milan, Michigan and San Antonio. Nitro Funny Cars bring fans. Although the IHRA has scheduled five of their 11 races in 2006 on top of the NHRA dates, that still leaves open the possibility of seeing some of the NHRA’s stars at IHRA events. I'm convinced that in the end Evan Knoll and his companies will make IHRA and the track owners an offer to sponsor a Fuel Funny Car class that they won’t be able to refuse. Many of IHRA’s track owners today weren’t around 15 years ago when IHRA folded its hand and ceded Fuel Funny Cars to the NHRA. I think the new owners are not only ready to gamble that Funny Cars will pay for themselves by bringing more fans and money to their races, but they are also tired of being looked at as a “minor league” circuit, and are ready to make a statement to potential fans, sponsors and racers. One thing is sure: Until the IHRA at least offers all of the pro nitro classes that the NHRA does so that there is at least a chance those stars could appear at IHRA event, then the mainstream press, casual fans, and perhaps even potential sponsors, are going to perceive them as drag racing’s version of NASCAR’s Busch Series. Maybe, thanks to Evan Knoll, Steve Earwood, and nitro floppers
at the Rock, we can see a big change in how the IHRA is perceived.
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he
recent announcement of the return of Nitro Funny Cars to the IHRA,
even just as a two-car match race between the fuel coupes of Mike
Ashley and Del Worsham, at the upcoming World Finals at Rockingham
possibly heralds a big change in philosophy for that Ohio-based
sanctioning body. 
