IHRA News,Rumors, Speculation
 

Ok, so Scott Gardner takes the job heading IHRA, he sells his tracks to the Association, and they have two IHRA races in Cordova last season. Union Grove rejoins IHRA with a well placed source telling me of the promise of an IHRA race as a sweetener to the deal. Thoughts of a Div. 5 gain a little hope.
The new IHRA schedule is out. No races at Cordova and none at Union Grove. Now I hear Gartner is gone and Royce Miller and Steve Cole are gone also. Does anybody have any more info on what is going on there? Does anybody care?

Re: IHRA News,Rumors, Speculation
 

That does not sound good.

Re: IHRA News,Rumors, Speculation
 

I sure care, and don't like it. Waiting for information. I was going to run IHRA this year, but that plan can easily be scrapped just like NHRA. I'm already concentrating on big money bracket racing this season. More racing, more coverage, and more money. I can supplement my schedule with S/SS Combos.

IHRA needs to get on the stick and address this.

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Absolutely !!

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Royce Miller might have been the only one left there to stop their downward spiral, so now I assume it will go in the tank faster than you flush a toilet.

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No need to renew my number right now I guess??!! LOL

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We have 3 double Pro Am races here in Fla over the next month so I guess we will see how that goes. Most of the tracks here in Fla and S.GA have gone IHRA. Not a bad thing if they don't go belly up. Jim Woods was said to be back with IHRA. Hopefully we will see him in Immokalee in a few weeks and he can give us the scoop.

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They did put up a partial contingency list on their site.

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I think IHRA has been doing fantastic.

Locking up drag racing markets over NHRA has been amazing.
Well at least on the East Coast.

Would love to know more about IHRA's marketing plans.

Dan

Re: IHRA News,Rumors, Speculation
 

I spoke with Royce Miller when the SSSSA was at West Palm and he said there were changes coming but he felt good about the future of IHRA. I had the feeling he knew he wasn't going to be part of it. Just the way he spoke left me wondering. Jim


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Re: IHRA News,Rumors, Speculation
 

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.

Re: IHRA News,Rumors, Speculation
 

http://www.yellowbullet.com/forum/sh...0&postcount=43
Copy and Paste

"Saw this on FB today.

‎Joe Gambino‎ to Dragway 42
1 hr ·
A letter concerning IHRA
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 farther 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.

Interm president is Scooter Peaco

Keep the faith! "

Re: IHRA News,Rumors, Speculation
 

They could not have made a worse choice than Scooter Peaco. Might as well have chosen Kim Jong Un

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OMG , the fourth largest private equity firm in the world has bought IHRA. What total BS. The fourth largest private equity fund in the world is probably at least 50 billion dollars. They didn't buy IHRA.

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10 largest private equity firms globally (as of May 2014)
Rank---Fund manager---------------------HQ-----------5yr fundraising total ($m)---2013 rank--- Movement
1------The Carlyle Group--------------Washington DC-------$30,650.33----------------2------------ --Up
2------Kohlberg Kravis Roberts--------New York-------------$27,182.33---------------- 4--------------Up
3------The Blackstone Group-----------New York-------------$24,639.84---------------- 3----------- Same
4------Apollo Global Management-----New York------------ $22,298.02----------------8*-------------Up
5-----TPG-----------------------------------Texas------------------ $18,782.59-----------------1----------- Down
6-----CVC Capital Partners-------------London----------------$16,600.00-----------------10------------ Up
7-----General Atlantic-------------------Connecticut------------$16,600.00-----------------12------------ Up
8-----Ares Management-----------------Los Angeles----------$14,113.58-----------------18------------ Up
9-----Clayton Dubilier & Rice------------New York-------------$13,505.00-----------------33------------Up
10----Advent International----------------Boston----------------$13,228.09------------------7------------Down

Source: Private Equity International

Cut and Pasted from Wikipedia:
IHRA was purchased by Palm Beach International Raceway owners in 2013 and was renamed IHRA Motorsports. PBIR also owns and operates Memphis International Raceway. Those companies were integrated into IRG Sports + Entertainment also in 2013.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intern...od_Association

It has been reported in other places that "TPG" purchased the IHRA last summer. I can not confirm this.

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http://www.motorsport.com/drag/news/...a-intertwined/

http://www.dragracingonline.com/colu...polburn-1.html

http://www.tpgspecialtylending.com/tsl_portfolio

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The fact that TPG went from largest private equity firm to fifth largest in one year (per the chart posted above) is a good indicator that they've gotten into drag racing!

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You know the old joke - "How do you make a small fortune in drag racing?"

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Bring in the clowns !

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IHRA just announced that it will no longer offering Drag Review in print, now on-line only. Disappointing decision.

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X2 hard to sell a sponsorship deal when you can't even show them your car in print anymore . very disappointing. Personally I'm just about done with Ihra unless they can find some sponsorship (decal) money. I got runner-up in my other car at Mir national last year and nothing was printed about that class 11.50 index at all

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I used to enjoy Drag Review the most, compared to ND and Drag News (when it was around). Each year, and month it has become less and less.

If they are only going to offer it online now, theoretically a membership should not cost as much anymore. I am sure there is still some membership base who probably does not have online access. How long until they kill the paper rulebooks?

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X3 - I absolutely hate reading any type of articles on line. I like the hard copies. Besides, if I do read anything in Drag Review online, I am going to have to drag my computer into the bathroom LOL.

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Not Smart..
I pass on the Issues to a friends gas station.
Doing it that was is like leaving a Business Card..!
Someone will read it an know who IHRA is..

Dan

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Sounds like a Scooter idea to me.

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I loved the way they tried to make it sound like a positive. Drag review has gone green! Whoopty dooooo Just taking something else away from us, thanks a lot!

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I just saw on Facebook that Galot Motorsports in Dunn Benson was switching to NHRA. Amazing facelift they put on the place.

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What about the IHRA Pro-AM that is scheduled for there on June 3-5?

Their website says they are NHRA, but the pro-am is still on the schedule?

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The Facebook post stated that they would run their bracket series as NHRA but the rest of the schedule would remain unchanged. I really don't see how they could have an IHRA event though, I'm sure there will be more news on the next couple days.

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What can't a track be both?

D

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Galot posted on their page that in place of the IHRA pro am they will now have a NHRA National Open! Usually you get grade points for national opens if I'm not mistaken and there haven't been any in d-2 in several years...Kudo's to the NHRA D-2 office and Galot!

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Because their website is not done in-house, and it will take them time to have it changed.

For the same reason a store can't be both a WalMart and a Target at the same time, despite selling the same kind of goods.

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Daytona in anyone weekend will have several race series. In a year invite NASCAR, Busch, IMSA, SCCA, TransAm, F1, F2, F3, Indy cars, Motocycle, Karts and other sanction racing bodies. None of those sanctioning bodies owns the Daytona raceway or any other sports car or road course or roundly.

Why can't a track pick up both NHRA and IHRA?
They allow other organizations and clubs to race?
It would be interesting if the two drag racing bodies would create matching classes and compete similar to the AFC and NFC.
Already we have independent drag racing organizations drawing huge audiences without ownership of NHRA and IHRA.
Got to be a lesson there.

Then could organize and have a huge bragging rights national shootout.
It would especially help the distance prone western tracks to get more big races.
More revenue would help tracks upgrade facilities.
Especially restrooms and food quality.
Attrack more public even for non racing events.
Though it is mostly a male sport it seems to forget women and kids....
Especially attracting the excitement of kids who are the new racers of the future.

GALOT is not a Box Store...it is a Race Track.
Needs racers and fans...

Having mutual support from both NHRA and IHRA will make this huge investment of a track Rock!

Just my 2 tenths.

Dan

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Dan I don't have any knowledge of the sanctioning bodies contracts but I would think there is something in them that would forbid any thing as such. With that being said some of tracks under I and N have hosted events by PDRA and ADRL over the past few years, so who knows......

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Yeah...you got my drift!
Think you are right about the contracts.
D

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I believe, if memory serves me correctly, that back when the ADRL and maybe some others were becoming popular, NHRA tried to stop sanctioned tracks, especially national event tracks, from running these events under threat of pulling events or even the sanction. Couple of tracks called their bluff and they backed down and agreed to allow these once a year type events.

Can't imagine either organization would allow the other's event. I believe I read N was making guys cover the I stickers on their cars at a recent Reunion race.

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Galot Motorsports Park is VERY impressive. I wouldn't be surprised to see a national event there soon.

http://www.galotmotorsportspark.com/

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Not unless they aquire some more land, it's a 1/8 mile track and no room to expand because they can't get the land at the end to expand. Its unbelievable what the new owner has done to the place.

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I do have knowledge of the contracts. I had tracks back in the 70's and they might be a little different today. I jumped sanctions a couple of times and it had more to do with the insurance cost and coverage back then. The contracts tied you up and they would not amend or change them to suit the track owner. I was always told their Lawyers would not approve it. The insurance companies also had a huge leverage over track owners. You had to pick one or the other or go independent and seek out an insurance company that wanted the risk. It seemed to me these organizations consult their lawyers before they made any decisions. It is just like all these changes in the license deal. It is not about cost or participation. It makes more sense to me that it is about law suits.. Their former licensing requirements were discriminatory. I know of one law suit they lost on the licensing. I was told there was at least one more that was settled quietly. Don't kid yourselves. It's not about the racers. When there are rules changes, esp in policy and procedures, look to the lawyers first.