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NHRA's National DRAGSTER was swollen to somewhere between 80 and 100 pages every week, reporting race results from 75 to 100 member race tracks, divisional points races and national events. Their ad revenue dwarfed AHRA's, as they had accounts with virtually every major aftermarket manufacturer. AHRA had almost none. NHRA's paper had a circulation of about 40- to 50,000 back then, while AHRA's was about a fifth that size. When NHRA trumpeted a coming event, and IHRA to a certain degree, it made AHRA's efforts almost like a state fair. NHRA looked like the WWF in comparison.
To the good size of the ledger, AHRA did have a solid coterie of race tracks that had become traditional association event sites. Fans in the areas around Tulsa, Oklahoma; St. Louis, Missouri; Kansas City, Missouri; West Salem; and Spokane, Washington knew that once a year they could look forward to a big time drag race in much the same way that NHRA did with its Pomona, Calif., Gainesville, Fla., and Indianapolis sites or IHRA with its sanctioned spots at Atlanta, Ga., Bristol, Tenn., and Rockingham, N.C. For the most part, AHRA's sites were a lot older than those of the other two bodies, but they were still considered decent places where a profit-making show could be produced. The intricacies of putting on an AHRA national event were shared by the organization and the host track, and were probably conducted in a far less complicated way that the manner in which NHRA and IHRA did with their corporate backers.
From roughly 1973 until 1984, St. Louis Int'l Raceway was run by Jody Trover, the president of the locally headquartered Landshire Sandwiches. He said that putting on an AHRA national event was a pretty much cut and dried deal. "The bottom line was that we were partners," Trover said. "We had a 50-50 partnership, we split the costs and the profits, and I was given all of the concessions, which in my case was a pretty good deal. I figured a dollar per head on food and we probably averaged 20,000 fans at the AHRA shows, so that was a decent profit in those days. "Jim and I would get together months before the race and we'd first get the television and radio ad air time secured. That was the most important thing to be handled when we would host a Grand American. The stars, the Garlits, the Shirleys, they were all handled by Jim because they were competing for the association championship. The advertisements cost a lot back then as it does now. I figured that we spent anywhere from $50- to $75,000 on these and we split the tab. "I enjoyed my relationship with the Tices, the two Jims and Ruth, and never had any trouble with them. The only time I ever had to make a concession I didn't want was when [Spokane Raceway Park] came in the picture in 1974. It was brand new and Jim talked me into getting off my August date in 1975, so AHRA could run its World Finals there. I, in turn, would run in June, which had its drawbacks. It was almost always hot and muggy in St. Louis at that time of year, plus you had baseball season, amusement parks, water sports, and all sorts of other things to compete with. Still, we made money on those races, although I might've been able to make a little more had we gotten the August dates."
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Copyright 1999-2001, Drag Racing Online and Racing Net Source |
AHRA
national events may have been out of television eyesight, but they did
get exposed well in the monthly magazines. However, in weekly newsprint,
AHRA trailed NHRA and IHRA's house organs by quite a bit. AHRA's Drag
World (and for awhile Motor Racing News) newspaper from the mid-1970's
to its demise covered only its national event of the month and filtered
that coverage through a few full-page AHRA national event ads and a
records page. The book was seldom more than a couple dozen pages long
and as thin as a placemat.
