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I can’t expect the casual Thursday night street legal
fan to be up on drag racing trivia, but what this showed to
me is a complete disconnect between NHRA POWERade Drag Racing
and the local guy. The guy who’s out with his girlfriend
or with the kids for a night at the drags; these fans are
the backbone of today’s Irwindale Dragstrip.
Very few of NHRA’s management have been to any SoCal
drag strips. Graham Light and Wally Parks were at the Irwindale
groundbreaking. Wally waved the ceremonial green flag at the
pre-opening of California Dragway and earlier this year at
the GM Sport Compact team introduction, one of the veteran
media people from NHRA asked of Fontana’s strip, “Isn’t
this an 1/8 mile strip?”
It's easy to chuckle at Graham’s completely out of
touch quote sitting prominently on the Drag-City website,
“The undertaking that they have achieved is amazing.
From what I have seen, I believe that we will see a first
class facility here in Banning.” Yeah right, but Graham
used to drive nitro cars.
The point is there’s a “purchased passion”
currently running the show in today’s NHRA POWERade
show. “Legendary” SoCal strips like Pomona Raceway
use the word legendary as an adverb to fit into advertising
promotional copy, when only a handful of current management
ever drove down the Fairplex strip in anything but a late
model Pontiac on Media Day.
I remember in 2004 when I had the opportunity to race my
son in his ’64 Chevy II down that strip, it was like
a million ghostly memories came rushing back. The current
NHRA management has virtually none of that first-hand passion;
none of that background that would give many of us chills
when feeling the history of a place like Pomona.
Look for a moment at NASCAR, there’s still a direct
descendant of Bill France, Sr., running the show, Brian France,
and NASCAR has prospered beyond “Big” Bill’s
wildest dreams. With all the changes that have come about
in the Modern-era of stock car racing, the genuine passion
is still there; it didn’t come from any available MBA-type
who could market anything to anybody.
Get out and mingle with the spectators at Irwindale, California
Dragway, Barona or the new strip at Perris. Like it or not,
these ticket purchasers are the future of drag racing in this
country. It’s not only the Neo-drag fan that only knows
of Tony Schumacher and Ron Capps because of being invited
into a corporate hospitality center, they probably won’t
buy a ticket next time.
Wally Parks knew he needed to be inclusive, but he also came
to local events as an enthusiast. Steve Gibbs was a hands-on
race director who could run a local bracket show, 64 Funny
Cars, a Divisional or National event. Former Division 7 Director
Bernie Partridge showed up for divisional races and announced
just about everywhere. That’s the passionate leadership
I’m looking for, not marketing people who can land the
next big-league sponsor to benefit the sanctioning body. 
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