IHRA
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Remaining Three IHRA Hot Rod Classic Races Removed from 2024 Schedule
HOUSE SPRINGS, MO — There was a ton of enthusiasm when the International Hot Rod Association announced plans to bring back class racing with the IHRA Hot Rod Classic in 2023.
It carried over to a solid debut at Xtreme Raceway Park which it was truly a blast from the past. That enthusiasm shown in the months prior to the opening event hasn’t translated into the racers’ support of the other scheduled events with low entries, leading to today’s tough decision to cancel the rest of the 2024 season.
All pre-entries and tickets paid to the scheduled events have been refunded.
The IHRA Hot Rod Classic featured strong guaranteed payouts and fantastic prizes like unique black powder-coated IHRA Ironman trophies and specially designed IHRA medals. IHRA CEO and Owner Larry Jeffers remains committed to the IHRA Hot Rod Classic concept and will revisit another opportunity to bring back the events at a later time when it makes sense.
“It’s truly heartbreaking to make this decision,” Jeffers said. “The feedback we got when we announced the IHRA Hot Rod Classic was overwhelming. We had great tracks scheduled to host these races and some terrific partners who support to the program. We just need more racers to sign up and show up at the track.
“Our team has fully embraced the IHRA Hot Rod Classic and put in the effort to make it work for the racers. We want the IHRA Hot Rod Classic to succeed for our tracks, partners and racers over the long haul.”
On that note, the IHRA is open to suggestions from the racers about what they need to support the Hot Rod Classic and make it a winner for all involved. Email suggestions to info@ihra.com

It will be interesting in 5 years to look back and see where this sanctioning body thing went.

quote:

Originally posted by Bucky:
It will be interesting in 5 years to look back and see where this sanctioning body thing went.

Bucky,

It's not the sanctioning body. To me it started with a lack of manufacturers contingency money's. To counter that IHRA increased the payout. I truly believe IHRA never had a strong person working the contingency side of stuff. Right now I don't know they have anyone in that position, if they do they sure aren't hawking it like they do track signing.
Next issue falls on the racer. I watched participation drop year over year. Number one reason was contingency money, second was the idea IHRA wasn't as good as NHRA even when most racers would admit IHRA had a better program. Like not making one pass and then sitting for 2 days waiting on the race to finish. Not to mention 2 races in one weekend.
Nope, IHRA has always been the better deal and sanctioning body. I guess racers would rather pay double the entries for the same chance to win, and then sit on their azz for 4 days to make one pass after time trials. But dam mit it's NHRA.. LMAO

But you could be right, in 5 years IHRA may be gone and NHRA will hold the monopoly and everyone will wonder at what they will have to do to play in NHRA's sand box.

MY opinion but yours could vary..

Dave

DC:1 I forgot how pizzed off the racers got when we had several races that were 1/8 mile instead of 1/4.
DC:2 Then there was the idea that we allowed all run fields in TS and TD. Several different things that those guy's didn't like that were eventually changed to try to appease them. Didn't work they still jumped ship.

NHRA has always been mostly about the big show and do not care much about bracket racers. In fact NHRA treats Racers, Sponsors and Spectators pretty bad but they are really only game in town and nobody can afford to compete with that. With the future of racing as it is nobody is ever going to invest to try to take that away from NHRA.

IHRA has always been generally geared towards bracket racers.

Both just try to do what they can in their budget. If we support it (them) they will grow. IHRA is in a tough position in several ways. NHRA gets a lot of its money from spectators and sponsors because it is the "Big Show". IHRA is supported mainly by the racers so they can not continue long if class is not supported well by the racers.

Car count is struggling a lot in many smaller races. I believe it is because gas prices, insurance, food, inflation and everything else is so expensive now. For all of us racing is a hobby and for some it is is getting too expensive. Another problem both HRA's suffer is there is not much young racers coming in and the average racers age is getting up there.
When car count goes down then payout is going to have to suffer to. Simple fact, especially when most all of the money comes from racers themselves and not spectators and sponsors.

This is where someone always pops up "This big race had record attendance" and some have but smaller races and racers are suffering. Our Sport is suffering. Tracks are suffering, they have to pay the people who work there, they have to pay for Ambulance and medical staff, Insurance and try to keep payout large enough to get people to come back. There are several new tracks being built, but we are losing them faster than the new ones are being built.

I think both NHRA and IHRA will both be okay for another 5 years or so. At some point the whole thing will have to go off a cliff. If the economy turns around then that may be extended for a while. Still average age of racers is getting way up there and I suspect in 20 or 30 years few of them will be around and the HRA's will probably die off to.

WDRA? Who knows?

Cant say l blame them. They are in an extremely tight spot. Most class racers wont buy a membership for one race in their area and alot of nhra guys wont run 1/8 mile. Just look at the d2 national open car counts. Agree or disagree nhra is selling the wally. If we looked at pay out we wouldn’t show up. Ihra definitely has a better deal without question. Many things to blame like past leadership wdra splitting ihra tracks economy or whatever you want to pick. I supported the Darlington race and it was embarrassing to say the least. I hope ihra can come up with something that works for everyone involved. Time will tell.

ep

I really hate to hear that they gave up so soon. It appeared that the first "Classic" race they had was a success. However, Darlington was just terrible from what I saw. I know that the weather had a lot to do with that. But also what Pauley said about having to buy a new membership and number (?) just to be able to go to one race. That doesn't make much sense in this day of everything costing so much. It's a tough decision for IHRA for sure and I hope they will try this again. Maybe next time they could "wave" the membership fee for the trial races so that the racer only has to pay the entry fee to race with them.

In this day and age, do sanctioning bodies really have much relevance to bracket racing? Do the big buck bracket events, which draw the huge car counts, have any connection to sanctioning bodies? Do the weekly/monthly local bracket events have a significant connection to sanctioning bodies?

OK. They do have a big connection to class legal drag racing. But hey.... just saying. Take care. Tom Worthington

quote:

Originally posted by Tom396:
In this day and age, do sanctioning bodies really have much relevance to bracket racing? Do the big buck bracket events, which draw the huge car counts, have any connection to sanctioning bodies? Do the weekly/monthly local bracket events have a significant connection to sanctioning bodies?

OK. They do have a big connection to class legal drag racing. But hey.... just saying. Take care. Tom Worthington

YES! With out a Sanctioning body we would not have as good of track standards and safety measures or insurance. Things we take for granted now like Ambulance, insurance and other safety measures may not be there if they were not required by Sanctioning bodies.

Plus with out them there would not be any Bracket finals or Championships.

I dont know how much sanctioning bodies really effect local racing. I think most tracks struggle to field a team for the bracket finals. Back in the day we raced all year just to get to go to the bracket finals. It was a big deal. Now with $50k + races every d@mn weekend nobody cares about the bracket finals. Class racers are still gonna go because that is what they do. They will go spend more than it is worth, get treated like poo, and park in the ch1ttiest parking and show up tuesday to get that ch1tty parking spot and race for nothing. NHRA knows so they dont care. There is plenty of room for IHRA but still not sure how to make it happen. Again i see it from their side for sure. You cant lose $ on every race.

ep

quote:

Originally posted by Curly1:
Plus with out them there would not be any Bracket finals or Championships.

NHRA Bracket Finals have degenerated into a complete excrement show. At least in D2, the entire weekend centers around the gamblers race, where footbrakers can pay a big entry fee for the privilege of getting put in with the box cars (one payout) if they survive all the footbrake elimination rounds. If you choose not to enter the gamblers race, I think you get one time shot on Thursday and then you're not on track again until Saturday. And, with rain in the forecast for the whole weekend, they focus on the gamblers race since (I suppose) that's the money maker.

No thanks - I let my NHRA membership and competition number expire.

quote:

Originally posted by Tom396:
In this day and age, do sanctioning bodies really have much relevance to bracket racing? Do the big buck bracket events, which draw the huge car counts, have any connection to sanctioning bodies? Do the weekly/monthly local bracket events have a significant connection to sanctioning bodies?

OK. They do have a big connection to class legal drag racing. But hey.... just saying. Take care. Tom Worthington

The insurance part of running a track seems to be one of the reasons to belong to a sanctioning body. The WDRA and their alliance concept talks about group buying and lowering the costs of doing business for tracks which would help with keeping a bracket program. Not a lot of excitement about bracket finals anymore and the 3 closest tracks to are 3 different sanctioning bodies. As far as standards go I don't see too much of that. No ambulances at most tracks just have to have someone that's trained in something. I've seen tracks that have the trained person working the concession stand or the ticket booth as long as they are on property.

I'm heart broken by the news, I really was hoping for a comeback. I miss Rod racing, hell it's what I named myself after on this forum. I bought a membership to try to help them out at Darlington, but looks like I'm now an IHRA member for nothing.

quote:

Originally posted by SlyFox:

quote:

Originally posted by Curly1:
Plus with out them there would not be any Bracket finals or Championships.

NHRA Bracket Finals have degenerated into a complete excrement show. At least in D2, the entire weekend centers around the gamblers race, where footbrakers can pay a big entry fee for the privilege of getting put in with the box cars (one payout) if they survive all the footbrake elimination rounds. If you choose not to enter the gamblers race, I think you get one time shot on Thursday and then you're not on track again until Saturday. And, with rain in the forecast for the whole weekend, they focus on the gamblers race since (I suppose) that's the money maker.

No thanks - I let my NHRA membership and competition number expire.

It is sad how bad it has got. For years we had 75 people or so in No Electronics alone battling it out 23 weeks a year for a spot on the team and there was 19 tracks with teams packed full. Now we have less tracks and many do not have a full team and most tracks around here only run a few bracket races a year for the points.

My guess is we had about 5 times more cares running in 2000 than we do now.

Eman, I was told that WDRA offers insurance at no charge to tracks thanks to a sponsor

quote:

Originally posted by Nim Rod:
I'm heart broken by the news, I really was hoping for a comeback. I miss Rod racing, hell it's what I named myself after on this forum. I bought a membership to try to help them out at Darlington, but looks like I'm now an IHRA member for nothing.

That's why I call you NimboNoRod & now the IHRA is following your lead with NoRod(s).

I was hoping IHRA would make work. Have to give props to at least 2 DRR member's whom tried to support IHRA.

2BKING

quote:

Originally posted by B KING:

quote:

Originally posted by Nim Rod:
I'm heart broken by the news, I really was hoping for a comeback. I miss Rod racing, hell it's what I named myself after on this forum. I bought a membership to try to help them out at Darlington, but looks like I'm now an IHRA member for nothing.

That's why I call you NimboNoRod & now the IHRA is following your lead with NoRod(s).

I was hoping IHRA would make work. Have to give props to at least 2 DRR member's whom tried to support IHRA.

2BKING

quote:

Originally posted by Mike English:
Eman, I was told that WDRA offers insurance at no charge to tracks thanks to a sponsor

Hadn't heard anything like that but it would be a big reason to be a WDRA track if it's in any way true.
With the big scramble to sign up tracks they sure seem to be turning a blind eye as far as safety goes. There are tracks sanctioned now that were actually turned down in the past for safety reasons.
No lack of cars at tracks, just no one cares about points or bracket finals. More interest in travel and big money bracket racing.
Back on topic I thought the IHRA was on to something with bringing back the Rod (index) classes, top dragster and top sportsman and would have gotten more interest. Made more sense than trying to bring back stock or superstock.

some racers feel ihra crapped on them years ago when they folded and will not get fooled twice which is what the regional racing amounted to.....fool me once the sayin goes ...

quote:

Originally posted by 67TSCHEVY2:
some racers feel ihra crapped on them years ago when they folded and will not get fooled twice which is what the regional racing amounted to.....fool me once the sayin goes ...

And NHRA has never crapped on us..........

quote:

Originally posted by Mike English:
Eman, I was told that WDRA offers insurance at no charge to tracks thanks to a sponsor

I read something yesterday that Laris Insurance was the one paying track membership fees. Never saw anything about no charge insurance. I would always be a little leery about an insurance company having control.