2000 In The Rear-View Mirror & Where Are We Headed In 2001?

Now is the time of year when everyone has some spare time to reflect back on the race season. The first thing that comes to my mind that had everyone talking all last winter was "cheating." The talk was about the "dirty dozen," a group of racers that were banned from IHRA for "supposedly" using illegal electronics. It got pretty ugly and confusing and I am glad nothing like that flared up this season.

Ralph Abrahams expanded his vision from his own drag strip, Hub-City Dragway, to include a series of three-day $10,000 to win each day events across the southern part of the country called the Southern Super 10s. This brought big money bracket racing to new drag strips and to new racers. George Howard is still operating the most successful independent race series, the B&M Racer Appreciation Series, and is expanding it in 2001. Final details on each of these series will be released soon and DRO will let you know as soon as the official word and 2001 schedules are released.

A lot of local tracks struggled to stay afloat due to shrinking race car attendance. I feel it was due in part to rising fuel costs and the cost to field a competitive car which is escalating every year. I urge you all to support your local track as much as you can. How many tracks have you ever seen close and re-open again? Not many, I'm sure. Every track we lose means the ones that remain have more power to make us race on their terms because they have less competition.

IHRA started the season off with a big move by announcing an aggressive schedule and signing up dozens of new tracks. I feel the IHRA really faltered, as they just didn't seem to be ready for the growth and inherent problems that come with more participants waiting at the gates. Did they hurt themselves in the long term? I don't think so. Growth in a competitive market like drag racing is not easy. Did the IHRA learn from their mistakes? You'll have to wait until 2001 to know for sure.

NHRA continues to dominate in racer and fan attendance, but the grumbling from Sportsman racers is getting louder all the time and there appear to be a lot of empty seats on race day. The NHRA races are becoming "plastic." By that I mean they are completely predictable and boring to watch. The real Pro battles are nothing more than seeing who drives through the tire smoke first. Their fuel classes struggle to get quality sixteen-car fields yet Sportsman racers are paired up early in the weekend and most are headed home before the race fans even get seated for the "big race." The television coverage is boring and repetitive. What does the future hold for NHRA? I am not sure, but if they don't add some people to management that have actually been involved in drag racing I think IHRA can move right past them in fan appeal.

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