IHRA May 2011 Sportsman Newsletter

Courtesy of IHRA

Norwalk, OH – I hope the May edition of the IHRA Sportsman newsletter finds you well. I know many of you in the North are dealing with record rainfall and our friends in the South are dealing with flooding and other challenges. It has been a tough weather year so far for most of the country, but we remain positive that we will get plenty of opportunity to do what we love this summer.

MORE TRACKS JOIN THE IHRA FAMILY

I believe almost every newsletter has included this headline so far this year. It has been a record year for tracks joining IHRA and even though it is May, tracks are still seeing the benefits of IHRA’s sportsman-focused programs. We are proud to welcome Jackson Dragway in Corinth, MS, Canaan Lonestar Dragway in Lubbock, TX, and next week we will be announcing the signing of the brand new El Paso Motorplex in El Paso, TX. Thirteen tracks have joined IHRA this year, which is an all-time record number for one season.

IHRA currently has the second highest member track count ever at 94 tracks and we still have not developed the Western U.S. Our focus will continue to be on the member tracks that fly the IHRA flag and the sportsman racers that support them. Our growth in the West will be slow and with purpose. There are tracks and racers that would love for IHRA to have a bigger presence in the West right now, but we will not grow until we can logistically handle the expansion and maintain our unmatched level of service to our tracks and sportsman members.

SUMMIT PRO-AM TOUR

The last few weeks have seen action at Palm Beach, Piedmont and the D3 opener at London Dragway just last weekend. Big congratulations to the team at Piedmont and the D9 racers who started the season there. The event was the largest Summit Pro-Am event ever held at Piedmont. It is great to see the D9 gang back in high gear!

This weekend is the third D4 event at Thunder Road http://www.ihra.com/proam/results/2010/ads/ThunderRdPA2011_proof.pdf  and D9 is up again at Farmington http://www.ihra.com/proam/results/2010/ads/FarmingtonPA2011_proof.pdf

Our family of member tracks in Western Canada has reported they are officially dug out from the snow and are up and running now as well. That’s good news considering the D6 opener is next weekend. Eagle Motorplex http://www.ihra.com/proam/results/2010/ads/Eagleproof.pdf kicks off a historic D6 opener and we are very excited to get the newly created D6 up and running.

Just two weekends away, June 3-5, is one of the biggest Summit Pro-Am weekends on the schedule: 

D3 returns to the spectacular US 131 Motorsports Park http://www.ihra.com/proam/results/2010/ads/US131PA2011_proof.pdf

D6 makes its second stop at Castrol Raceway http://www.ihra.com/proam/results/2010/ads/CastrolPA2011.pdf

D9 has the third race of the season at Mooresville Dragway http://www.ihra.com/proam/results/2010/ads/MooresvillePA2011_proof.pdf

PITTSBURGH NITRO JAM

Our first adventure into the Pittsburgh market won’t feature our normal line-up of class cars. We’re saving that for the Summit Pro-Am and TOC qualifier in August. What this will be is a conservative test of the market for Nitro Jam and feature the PRP bracket racers competing in the Summit SuperSeries points program. Why no class racing this time?  Simple. This is a new and more conservative IHRA than in years past. There is no sense in having the facility make a whole bunch of improvements (although Mike Tedesco and his team have done a lot of work to the facility getting ready for his season) and potentially messing up a good thing right away by trying to put everything on the line the first shot out of the box. When it works, it is great. When it doesn’t, we risk not going back to the market and we don’t want to take that chance. We’re going to concentrate on the show first to see if it has long-term potential. If the event is a success and the market embraces Nitro Jam, then we will certainly work on doing a full class event there. PRP is a strong IHRA track on both the Summit Pro-Am and Summit Team Finals tours and our hope is that class racing will come to Nitro Jam at Pittsburgh ASAP. One step at a time.

SALT LAKE CITY NITRO JAM

Just a reminder to class racers that Quick Rod, Super Rod, Top Sportsman and Top Dragster as well as a Stock/Super Stock combo will be contested at Rocky Mountain Raceway during the Salt Lake City Nitro Jam. http://www.ihra.com/downloads/ClassProgram_SaltLakeCity.JPG

The track has put together a great program for class racers so if you are anywhere in that region the weekend of June 17-18 be sure to check this event out. You will be hard pressed to find two guys more committed to sportsman racing than RMR’s GM Mike Eames and Drag Manager Ron Craft. You will have a great time at RMR. This event has become one of our favorite stops on the Nitro Jam tour because of these guys.

SPORTSMAN SPECTACULAR….GETS MORE SPECTACULAR

This event continues to capture more attention from sportsman racers and the companies that are committed to supporting them. In case you have been completely out of the IHRA loop, the Sportsman Spectacular http://www.ihra.com/downloads/SportsmanSpectacular_MIR-Program_Schedule.pdf will be our largest-paying IHRA Class race in the 40-year history if IHRA. All the IHRA classes plus two bracket classes and juniors will celebrate 40 years of IHRA sportsman racing at Royce Miller’s Maryland International Raceway July 8-10. If you can only make one race this year, this one should be it. You can be there for the 3-day event or come in and get it done Saturday and Sunday. This event is a Summit TOC qualifying event with national event contingency postings. There are more features and benefits to this race than any other we have ever done.

Speaking of contingency….we recently made an unprecedented offer to every contingency sponsor we’ve ever done business with for the Sportsman Spectacular. In an effort to put more money in your pocket, we have created a way for any manufacturer to post for the two Sportsman Spectacular events free of any fees or charges other than the actual payout. Yes, we will work for them for free as long as they post contingency money for you. If you know of any company or sponsor that would want to take advantage of this, have them contact Kurt Oberholtzer at 419-660-4204 or koberholtzer@feldinc.com.

The list of talent at this event should be unprecedented. Just as the Summit Tournament of Champions brings together the best IHRA racers from the season to run head-to-head, this race should bring together the best of the IHRA and NHRA competitors on the East Coast to do battle. I wonder just how well the NHRA guys will hold up against the IHRA guys.  This should make for some interesting Internet chatter, for sure.

As I look down the list of IHRA’s all-time career national event win leaders, I’d bet most of the top 10 that still race will be at this event. No.1 Anthony Bertozzi, No.2 David Elrod, No.3 Tie: Mike Boyles & Dan Fletcher, No.5 Tie: Monty Bogan, Rusty Cook & Dennis Mitchell, No.8 Bob Marshall, No.9 Tie: Gary Bingham & Curtis Smith. How cool would it be to have all of IHRA’s active top 10 career leaders competing at the same event?   

Adding to the already good news for sportsman racers is that there will be a BIG title sponsor announcement very soon for these events. It is a company that doesn’t just put their name on things. They support sportsman racing and our sportsman racers like no other company on the planet. Stay tuned.

Plan on having some fun on Friday….rumor has it a golf cart race, similar to the ones rumored to take place at the Summit Team Finals, could happen. Then we’ll see just how good of a driver some of you really are. I’ve heard many guys say “I can win in anything”. There may even be a bounty on Mr.No.1 for the first person to take him out in the golf cart race. We’ll see.

I’ve dusted off the race car and am ready to make my first of two or three racing appearances this season myself. Somehow my schedule isn’t very conducive to racing like I used to and that normally makes for a quick exit from eliminations. It is still great to get behind the wheel and forget about everything else (most of the time in my case that includes what I’m doing behind the wheel). I’m lucky to spend time with my parents and family at the track or to see old friends. Most of the between round time is spent generally trying to solve the world’s problems in the course of a day. The competition, the friendships and keeping in touch with grassroots racing is what still does it for me. I hope that you still have the same spark and passion in you today as when you made your first trip down the track. Our sport is too time consuming and too expensive to not love every single minute. I hope when time and money allows you still have just as much fun as I do.

See you at the track!

Skooter