For the last few days, the drag racing rumor mill has been cranking over at about 9,000 RPM on the news that major changes were afoot at the IHRA, again. Scott Gardner who was named president of the company in 2013 “resigned” effective immediately earlier this week. In his stead the IHRA has promoted Skooter Peaco to the position of Interim President while the company has formed a search committee that will go hunting for the next person to lead the IHRA. What’s doubly interesting about that is these lines from the press release:
“improve the performance of the Company and drive long-term growth for the Company upon a newly formed platform that will be announced in the fourth quarter of 2016.”
We get the “improve the performance of the Company” part and we get the “drive long term growth for the Company” part but we’re really interested to hear about the “newly formed platform” part. The IHRA has operated under several “platforms” over the last number of seasons moving from a traditional open style field event series to a booked in event series, to a quasi-mutated version of both. While the company says it will reveal all in the fourth quarter of 2016, the rumors have already started on that front and they range from the abandonment of sportsman drag racing to the addition of top fuel. No one will know for sure until the official word comes out. We’ll be waiting.
Also mentioned and buried at the very bottom of the release, you know, in the place where they hope you have already stopped reading before is the announcement that the 2016 schedule has been reduced by two events. This brings the total number of events for the year to seven races. The events that will no longer be contested at Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Cordova, Illinois. No direct reason was given for either cancellation. The Baton Rouge cancellation is quizzical but the Cordova cancellation is downright juicy. That’s the track that the now former president of IHRA, Scott Garnder owned and sold to the company in a deal when he was brought on as president. Does he still have a stake? Is there an ulterior motive to this cancellation? Again, no one is talking.
Finally there was a non-press release announced piece of news that was apparently mistakenly announced on he Facebook page of Ohio’s Dragway 42. It seems that the Norwalk offices of the IHRA which have served as the core of the business since the days that Bill Bader owned and successfully operated the series will be closed and the work being done there will move to the Florida offices of IRG, the parent of IHRA.
As you can expect, from this point forward, lots of eyes will be watching the IHRA to see what happens next. Ours among them.
Update: Here’s the post that was on the Dragway 42 Facebook page. It gives details into some of the things hinted about in the release:
I was part of a conference call today discussing the future of IHRA. The rumors and speculators have the IHRA done and gone which couldnt be any ****her from the truth.
As one of only 6 tracks invited out of 106 tracks to participate in this call here’s what I found out.
The IHRA has been purchased by a equity firm that is the fourth largest in the world. No money worries here.
The new CEO is a major player and has a plan in place to take the IHRA to heights it’s never been before.
The IHRA recognizes and embraces Sportsman Racers and knows they are the lifeblood of IHRA, they will not be forgotten and in fact will be the focus of TV coverage and sponsor money.
The IHRA has reviewed all there National Event tracks and the profitability of each and have decided to drop a couple of events due to losing money.
The direction that the IHRA is taking is super exciting and there are so many more things they have planned for us the racers it’s incredible.
The purpose of this post is the IHRA is not closing the door’s just being smart business men. They are moving the Norwalk office to Palm Beach, the home of the equity firm so all will be in house.
I will post more news when I am allowed by the IHRA and lastly Dragway 42 will have a National Event this year as per the new CEO.
UPDATE 2: More information has come to light regarding a conference call held by the IHRA with a small number of their tracks. There is apparently a three year plan being put into place starting with the 2017 season to being building a media/television program around the series.
Top Fuel will be contested in 2017 according to those who listened to this call.
The World Series of Drag Racing, which has been run for half a century at Cordova may be turned into a special event for the series after 2016.
|
For Immediate Release
IHRA Announces the Appointment of a New Interim President IHRA Adjusts 2016 National Schedule
|
|
NORWALK, Ohio (January 19, 2016) – The International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) (the “Company”) (www.IHRA.com) announced that the IRG Sports + Entertainment™ (IRGSE) Board of Directors (the “Board”) of the Company has appointed Mr. Skooter Peaco, as Interim President of the Company effective immediately.Mr. Peaco replaces Mr. Scott Gardner who resigned as President of the Company, effective as of the same date in order to pursue other interests.
Mr. Peaco possesses a deep knowledge of the Company’s business and he assumes his responsibilities as Interim President with the full support of the Board. Since 2003, Mr. Peaco has served as the Director of Racing Operations and most recently as the Vice President of Racing Operations at the IHRA. The Board also wishes Mr. Gardner well in his future endeavors and thanks him for his service over the past two years. The Company also announced that a Search Committee within the Board of Directors has been created, which will oversee the process for the identification and selection of a permanent President. The Committee has been charged with selecting an experienced individual to take over as the permanent President, improve the performance of the Company and drive long-term growth for the Company upon a newly formed platform that will be announced in the fourth quarter of 2016. Additionally, the IHRA announced the revision to the 2016 National Schedule by reducing two national events; the current Baton Rouge, Louisiana event on March 18-19 and Cordova, Illinois June 2-4. These are the only schedule changes to the 2016 National Schedule. |
Interesting, glad that the Edmonton, Canada race is still on. In the Dragway 42 post maybe they noted the popularity of Street Outlaws and will focus coverage to more sportsman cars because the personality of the competitors and diversity of vehicles that people can associate with.
Dear new IHRA folks whoever you may be.
Settle this deal down
Support the foundation ( that means sportsman classes ).
And for pete’s sake get a darn track(or two) in the west.
Good points.
They did and none of the Racer’s supported it. Remember Salt Lake, Tuscon and Spokane??
Glad you “grabbed” Joe’s post to Dragway 42 before “instructions” were given to remove it. On Monday I had a conversation with Shayna Keller, IRG’s Director of Communications in which I expressed to her how allowing rumor to explode was bad for drag racing as a whole and they should of came out with a simple press release to announce Gardner was no longer with the group and a detailed press release would follow but all she would say was they had nothing to report. I mentioned to her that this void of information impacts their racers, fans and their corporate marketing partners. That this affects individual racer’s sponsors and sponsorships. This matter could have been handled more swiftly and better for all concerned. Moving forward, we will see if IHRA is better and a stronger group for the sake of the sport.
The World Series anywhere other than Cordova would not be the World Series.. Cordova is the World Series PERIOD. I don’t understand what’s going on here but it seems like they’re killing the IHRA and trying to kill places like my home track Cordova, which is a beautiful drag strip with loyal racers, and a large following of spectators.. One can only hope Scott and Laura Gardner have the chance to take ownership of the place I like to call my home track.. Maybe someone needs to bring back the UDRA.. Those were the good ol days
IHRA, don’t mess with the World Series……it’s the longest running event for a reason.
The world series is the event of the year for Cordova. Has been for many many years. Changing it from what is now would be just plain outright stupid. Leave the world series alone.
Don’t mess with the World Series! If they mess with the World Series I will never attend another IHRA event.
My dad started attending the World Series in 1964 and has only missed a small handful of them (mostly due to weather) in the years since. I was 2 1/2 months old when I went to my first World Series in 1971 and have been attending ever since. Moving it to a different track would be idiotic and make as much sense as moving the US Nationals at Indy to a different track.
Some of you may remember the BangShift article from almost 2 years ago about my dad’s previously unseen pictures from Cordova, Union Grove, and Rockford (Byron). That’s history that shouldn’t be tampered with.
http://bangshift.com/bangshift1320/gallery-never-before-published-1960s-drag-photos-from-great-lakes-cordova-more/
I totally agree with above comments. Please don’t mess with the World Series. It’s obvious the IHRA struggles with running their own program, don’t pass this on to an an event that is an institution in drag racing. Good lord!
Yup, Spokane WA was a IHRA 1 year and done deal. The track is operating under the NHRA again. Given the nefarious history of the place & the equally nefarious operators over the years I think its days are numbered. Spokane County owns the track but with development of housing, the adjacent Casino, the Prison located by the south end pits, I can see the county pulling the plug on trying to own a racetrack & cashing in their chips. Too bad, the IHRA show I saw there was awesome the place was packed for a change. The track however is a dinosaur that doesn’t realize its extinct despite much needed improvements and a cleaning up.
Can anyone fathom the thought that Spokane was the problem and they didn’t dump IHRA but the opposite. The track had to prepped for 4 solid days to get it even remotely acceptable for high horsepower cars – – and then on top of that, they did not meet many points on their side of the event partnership… Yes, NHRA rubbed their backs and asked them back… IHRA just didn’t want to try to retain the poor partnership…. had to be there.
Whenever there is change there is always controvercy, same with the NHRA approval of the pro mod body being approved as a legal Funny Car. Its all about the money. Cordova lost a lot of money due to rain delays and rain outs for many of their special events. As Cordova is OUR home track and many of us have been going since high school, will surely hate to see the World Series held somewhere else. But when it comes to big business and whats best for the IHRA series to make money we can only sit back and wait for whats to come. The talk of bringing in Top Fuel leaves lots of questions as well, is it Nostalgia Top Fuel, big show Top Fuel rear engine dragsters? We all can sit back and wait for word, being on the outside is only speculation. And no doubt rumors and he said she saids will be rampant. No one wants to see a down fall of any series and we can only hope that what the IHRA decides to do in the future they will keep ALL dragracers in mind as well as the fans.
The World Series Of Drag Racing is The worlds OLDEST CONTINUOUS DRAG RACE!!! It should STAY AT CORDOVA!!!!!
TO MOVE THE WORLD SERIES OF DRAG RACING AWAY FROM CORDOVA IS LUDICROUS!!!! WTF???