Not a shot was fired, no blood was shed, and there were no adoring crowds lining the sidewalks when Kenneth Feld, leader of the family owned Feld Entertainment empire agreed to sell the International Hot Rod Association to a group of four businessmen after two years of negotiations. Confetti did not fly from the IHRA office windows in Norwalk, Ohio but conversations with IHRA president Aaron Polburn and Jason Rittenberry of the new IHRA Entertainment LLC indicate that this was a positive development for a company that has been a major part of drag racing in North America since its inception in 1970.

(Full disclosure alert: I have worked as a race announcer for the IHRA in years past, so I have some familiarity with both the company and a few of the players in this deal. It is only fair that I disclose that to you, the reader.)

It is fair to say that rightly or wrongly that the image of the IHRA has changed substantially over the last several years. The company’s decision to abandon the “traditional” drag racing program and institute a direction that is concentrated on providing an entertainment experience at their Nitro Jam series rather than a “normal” national event style weekend has been polarizing. While sportsman racers compete with the familiar qualifying and eliminations rounds of a national event, the professional categories (which have varied somewhat from event to event depending on what the track operator would like to see) have a couple rounds of competition each of the two days with a separate winner being crowned on both days of the event. It has been argued that the benefit to the fan is that they get to see a race completed with a definitive winner each day and that the package is designed to fit into a reasonable (4-5 hour) time window from start to finish. The downside to this has been the fact that the motorsports media has not been attentive to the IHRA in some time and lots of racers believe that “real racing” is no longer part of the program (although personal experience showed that the racers at these events are certainly racing hard and fast against one another). In short, the IHRA has lost a lot of the hardcore drag racing fan base it once had.

What it doesn’t mean is that the IHRA is failing. In fact, the company’s adoption of the current format probably kept it from being a casualty of the tough economic circumstances of the last several years. With the ability to closely control costs, the company survived the roughest patches and the series continues to draw strong crowds at tracks from Tuscon, to Alberta, Canada to Florida. There have been high profile dissenters though. New England Dragway which was a long time IHRA national event facility switched to NHRA sanction and will host an NHRA national event this year. Maryland International Raceway and Rockingham Dragway, two of the best known and largest IHRA tracks in the country are still under their sanction but do not host Nitro Jam events at this time.

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For several years up until 2010, the IHRA was part of LiveNation Motorsports. That group of properties was purchased by Feld Entertainment in 2010 and it was clear to outsiders from the very start that drag racing was not very high on the list of priorities for Kenneth Feld and his management team. Along with IHRA came the massive Monster Jam series, Monster Energy AMA Supercross, AMA arena cross, and other properties that were a lot less messy to operate than a drag racing sanctioning body. IHRA president Aaron Polburn reflected on that with us when he said, “We just could never get Mr. Feld as into this as he was into some of the other properties,” Polburn said. “One of the reasons I see this newest acquisition as a positive thing is because we’re the primary focus. It is like moving from the kids table to sitting with the adults at Thanksgiving. We were well treated as part of Feld Entertainment and we learned a lot as part of a global entertainment company, but there are things we can do now with less layers and fewer hurdles to implement ideas that will be very good for the future of the IHRA. We’ve been told very clearly that if we approach the group with a solid plan and that makes good business sense, they will fund it.”

Obviously that question begat another, which was regarding the future of the current format of the Nitro Jam series. Would there be wholesale changes in the near future? Maybe a change back to the old style of format with traditional classes and competition a management shake up? Jason Rittenberry who is one of the managing partners and the president of Palm Beach International Raceway said, “With respect to management, Aaron Polburn and Skooter Peaco both have agreements in place through the 2014 season. After that point we’ll evaluate where we are and go from there.” He continued, “Over the next 6-9 months we’re going to do a lot of work and evaluate the direction of the Nitro Jam series. Will we continue with the current format or change into something else? That’s what we’re going to be spending our time working on. Ideally we wanted to have this deal closed in October so we could work on changes and updates for 2013, but the fact is that it is far too late for that now. Track operators have signed contracts, we have talent booked, etc. Making changes to that now is just not possible so we are going to continue on with this season as planned. We are working on some additional dates with a race at PBIR already confirmed. We are 60/40 on getting one or two more venues added for this year.”

We were interested in Polburn’s take on what possible changes could be coming and his response was interesting. “In the back of my mind I am always trying to figure out what the next big thing is going to be,” he said. ” I want to dream it up and make it happen. Our package works and I think we have proved that. We deliver better returns with a lot less risk. There are others out there proving that the old model doesn’t work.” Polburn was not receptive when we asked if he could ever see small tire racing as part of the IHRA fold. “I don’t think the masses understand it,” he said. “The next thing that comes along will be to do with the ability to touch people’s emotions. It is going to be something that can be marketed to a huge audience.”

Both Rittenberry and Polburn reported that their respective phone lines had blown up since the deal was announced. “We have gotten a ton of calls from people asking about the series and about venues and formats,” Rittenberry said. “Lots of people have been asking us about going back to that traditional format that they remember from IHRA and the fact is we have to work on setting our direction. A return to that traditional format would require sponsor dollars. Gate money from racers and spectators won’t cover those costs. We’re in business to make a profit, so as much as we respect the calls and wishes of people to make that change, we need to make sure whatever direction we go, we do it in the best manner for the company to be successful.” Polburn said that the IHRA offices in Norwalk had been run over with calls as well, “It has been a truly overwhelming response. I told everyone in the office to get ready when the press release went out because we’d be hearing from people who see the big picture and think this is positive, those who will call and want us to change back, and those who think we suck.” Polburn believed the split to be about 90-95% positive, 3% wanting change, and 2% (or so) who thought that they suck. He laughed, “Those people have always thought we sucked and this didn’t change their minds.”

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So why did a group of four men with a collective worth well into the billions of dollars purchase a drag race sanctioning body that’s based in Norwalk, Ohio. The quick answer? To make money. The long answer is far more interesting.

Michael Dezer, Joseph Lubeck, and Ed Kobel have all made literal fortunes in the real estate world. They know property. They are also the men who own Palm Beach International Raceway and have invested upwards of $30-million of their own money into the facility to bring it up to the standard that it is in today. They are road racing enthusiasts and Dezer famously has a car collection that consists of nearly 2,000 vehicles. These are guys who get stuff done and they’re guys who love cars, although they love cars that turn more than straight liners, they love cars. That’s a marked improvement over a company that loves monster trucks and elephants in our book, anyway.

The fourth man in the mix is Jason Rittenberry, the president of Palm Beach International Raceway, the former operator of Memphis Motorsports Park and a decade long employee of race track holding company Dover Motorsports before that company experienced a severe downturn that led to the closure of the Memphis track and his relocation to PBIR to work with this group. Rittenberry’s knowledge and experience at operating racing facilities is a very big part of the larger plan that the new owners of the IHRA want to execute. These guys are in the market to buy race tracks.

“The vision of the company is to consolidate all aspects of racing into one business from the track content, to the merchandise, and to the concessions,” Rittenberry explained. “The goal from day one has been to operate tracks and acquire good content to put on those tracks. That’s what led the group to the IHRA and that’s the larger direction we’re moving in. We do not plan to have this as a closed series that only runs on properties we own, hosting events at other tracks will always be a part of our business.” According to both Rittenberry and Polburn, the company is actively evaluating properties to purchase. Rittenberry said, “There are several tracks currently available and we’re evaluating them to grow the track count.” Polburn was more specific with his answer when he said, ” We’re working on a major project studying several facilities in Canada right now. We have been very successful in Canada but we aren’t in the Toronto or Montreal markets at this point. We’re paying attention to what is available and going from there.” It is not a stretch after seeing these two quotes to believe that we’ll be seeing acquisition news coming from this company at some point in the future. Neither of the men intimated whether or not there was a magic number of facilities the group was interested in owning or what their limitations were. Stay tuned on that front. The NHRA only owns a couple of their facilities. Those tracks are Pomona, Atlanta, Indy, Columbus and Gainesville. The IHRA currently owns two tracks. There will certainly be some irony if in the not too distant future, the IHRA controls more of their own major event tracks than the NHRA does.

Lastly, we were curious to know how serious this group is about this venture. Was it a billionaire’s recreational purchase? IHRA has been through the hands of several companies and people sine 1970 so there is always a bit of a stigma attached to a new ownership group. That’s mainly concerning how long they’ll last as the ownership group and how serious they are about the company and its success. All indications point to a group that wanted this entity badly to implement their larger vision. “Believe it or not, the IHRA was never actually for sale,” Polburn told us. “This group approached Feld two years ago and had been working on them ever since to sell us. These guys were dedicated to making this purchase and all of the indications I have had with my consultations with Jason and Michael have reinforced that idea with me.” Rittenberry added, “This was a determined group of business people that worked for two years to get this deal done. We came very close to the finish line twice over the two year period but couldn’t close it up until now.” He continued, “Make no mistake about it, this was a business decision. The idea here is to take the existing product, make it better, and take it to a new level as a business. This isn’t a game to anyone.”

The two year process to reach an agreement had typical ups and downs, a couple of near misses on closing the deal and periods of distance between the two parties. “I was the only person with direct working knowledge  of the deal and a direct connection to the drag racing community,” Rittenberry said when explaining how the secret of the purchase was so well kept for years. “Frankly, if there was a leak it could only have come from me and I was not about to do that,” he said with a laugh.

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There are lots of interesting story lines in drag racing as we head into the 2013 season. The ADRL/XDRL battle that’s forming up, the new pro modified owners association and their dealings with the NHRA, new teams and sponsors, etc. In our opinion this story is the biggest of the bunch. We’re going to see what happens to a drag race sanctioning body when it is run by highly successful business people who are interested in expanding it and turning a profit. They have the  money to take some measured risks. They have had the fortitude to chase this deal for two years before signing it. They have the ability to do something that we’ve never seen happen in modern drag racing which is to take the two existing playbooks and come up with something that may be better. NHRA is one one side of the spectrum and IHRA is currently on the  other. That area in the middle remains largely unexplored. Not for long we suspect.