DRO: Is it true that the IHRA Summit Super Series will also involve weekly contingency payouts? Did Summit have anything to do with getting this long-overdue idea turned into a reality?

JH: The IHRA Summit Super Series will pay out contingency money on a weekly basis. Each member track will have a cash contingency program to offer their racers. We got together with IHRA’s contingency director, Karen Raffa, and she took the idea and ran with it to the IHRA family of contingency sponsors. Now the program will post over $2 million to weekly IHRA racers in 2000!

DRO: The Summit Racing Series will offer the chance for each division to send its champions to a special Summit race that will crown a World Champion. How will this be implemented and will Summit help with travel expenses?

JH: The NHRA divisional directors will run the Summit Finals events, then crown individual Summit Racing Series Champions. With our financial commitment, we are able to pay each overall divisional champion who shows up at Pomona $3,500 in travel money. They will then run for a winner-take-all $5,000 cash award and Summit National Sportsman Championship honors.

DRO: With Summit taking a more visible and financial role in support of bracket racing at almost every track in the country, what changes and improvements can we expect to see in Summit Racing in 2000 and beyond?

JH: We’re all a bunch of racers at heart and we’re always trying to improve. Just like a racer tries to get a little better, we’re always trying to improve our customer service, our website, our shipping, our catalog, everything. We pride ourselves on listening to the customer so whatever our customer tells us we need to improve on, we will!

DRO: Summit has always been a leader in keeping us "Internet racing junkies" abreast of what is happening in drag racing. Any news on changes we might see on Summit’s website?

JH: First, let me say how saddened we all were when Ed Dykes was killed in a plane crash a few weeks back. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family. He’ll be missed by many people. "Fast Eddie" was a true pioneer in on-line drag race reporting, and we had just partnered with Ed and the FastNews Network for several years. Ed spent two days at Summit Racing just before his accident, where he had worked on some improvements to the Drag Race Center section of our website.

We’re committed to the best in on-line drag racing results. Rick Green, Larry Sullivan and the rest of the FastNews Network are committed to continuing what we’re all calling "Ed’s vision." It’s a difficult time, but we’re all working hard to pick up where Ed left off. We’ll have a new design and some new features for Drag Race Central that Ed helped design.

DRO: Is there anything else you would like to tell our readers before I head off to my computer to get this to Drag Racing Online?

JH: Please tell your readers if they ever have any comments, ideas, complaints, or suggestions, don’t hesitate to let us know. We read every e-mail and letter we get. Sportsman racers can contact Kirk directly at kheinbuch@summitracing.com.

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