North Carolina’s Fayetteville Observer newspaper served as an unlikely source for the confirmation of the rumor that Kenny Knowling, the man who founded the ADRL and then launched it to great heights on the back of a free ticket program, bought the organization back and will be steering the ship again. Just a week or so ago we learned that the ADRL was for sale to the highest bidder and some speculation arose over who would be interested in scooping up the once vibrant sanctioning body. Rockingham Dragway’s Steve Earwood confirmed the rumor that Knowling (and a group we guess)bought the company by telling the paper, “The ADRL has gone through some changes. Now it’s back in the hands of ‘Champagne Kenny’ Nowling, who started the whole thing, and we’re expecting big things from it.”
The second part of the Knowling-as-owner rumor is that his plan is to return the ADRL to the “free admission” program it was on during the height of its popularity a few years ago. Earwood’s track was famously so overrun with people during that era of the ADRL that he was forced to close the gates early on several occasions because he physically couldn’t jam any more people into the facility. The question remains though, can lightning strike twice?
It has been no secret that the ADRL’s ability to fill race tracks has certainly waned over the last couple of seasons, especially in 2012 when the organization went back to a traditional paid ticket program. Having attended the Bristol event, there was no hiding the fact that the place was starkly empty. That scene was repeated at many of the 2012 tour stops. Will dispersing hundreds of thousands of free tickets reignite the fire that drove ADRL to those wild heights in the first decade of the 2000s? The momentum that was carrying the ADRL during those salad days is long gone. Knowling built the organization from virtually nothing so he understands what it takes to get something off the ground, but is that the same knowledge necessary to restart something that has stalled? Time will tell.
Make no mistake, a healthy ADRL is a good thing for drag racing as a whole. Without some maverick moves, cash infusion, and gutsy leadership, the ADRL will be relegated to the history books of drag racing along with the AHRA, which had a similar maverick streak before falling prey to the changing environment of the sport in the 1970s and early 1980s.
We’ll be at the ADRL press conference at PRI on Friday, live blogging everything that is being said. If Knowling can pull off the resurrection of the ADRL he’ll etch a very unique spot for himself in drag racing history. It isn’t often someone births an organization, is ousted, and then regains control when it needs saving.
The 2013 season in drag racing just got a hell of a lot more interesting. Stay tuned, this is going to be good!
so glad the man ,KENNY, is back .last year was off.wished charlotte was still on schedule but the home of PRO MOD is THE ROCK.welcome back KENNY.