New IHRA President
 

Re: New IHRA President
 

This will be interesting. Does anyone know of experience or credentials that would qualify or help Mr. Dunn in running the organization?

Re: New IHRA President
 

I'd put more faith in him than in Peter Clifford At least he understands what it's like to be a racer

Re: New IHRA President
 

He does understand what it is to be a racer, however, I sincerely hope he will be thinking about the literally thousands of sportsman racers and not just the "select few" pro racers.

Re: New IHRA President
 

Watch his video on the IHRA website - sounds good at least!

Re: New IHRA President
 

Interesting job cycle. Replaced as "sidekick" by an airbrush artist only to become President of the competing sanctioning organization.

Dale

Re: New IHRA President
 

PERFECT!Mike Dunn has represented drag racing/NHRA for the past fourteen(14) as a broadcaster and in prior years as a racer very professionally.He is articulate,personable and smart.I expect great results from Mike Dunn.This is great news for IHRA and for drag racing in general.Go get em Mike!!

Re: New IHRA President
 

What Bobby said!

Re: New IHRA President
 

Another debacle in the making!!!!!

Re: New IHRA President
 

Guy's & Gal's,

Well , I was beginning to get Real worried about IHRA ??? But this is a Great move to get Mike Dunn ... He is well respected & knows Drag Racing inside & out & was NHRA's Best announcer !!!! As Bobby Rashid says , he is a Perfect Fit for IHRA ... The Best thing about Mike is that he is a Racer & Not a Suit and will get his hands dirty anytime ? When he wasn't announcing , he would always be walking the pits talking to Sportsmen & Pro's
racers all the Time... He will know what is Wrong & will get it Fixed .... Yes, I feel much better about IHRA now .... Let's all get behind Mike Dunn...

Re: New IHRA President
 

I participated in a sponsor "Town Hall" conference call with the folks at IHRA today including Mike Dunn, along with other contingency sponsors. I was impressed with how it went and believe we should think very positive about how they value input from the sportsman racers.

Re: New IHRA President
 

They said this will be a transitional year between the Nitro Jam era and the 2017 program. I think that hiring Dunn hints that they may be bringing back a more traditional competition-based form of racing.

Re: New IHRA President
 

Good news. I like running ihra races. Two races one weekend. Saves racers money. I hope they keep that part. They do need more participants in sportsman particularly super stock. I have no idea why my fellow D4 refuse to go to Ihra races. I talked Ashton Hudson into coming to a Ihra last year and now he's hitting all of them this year. He likes the treatment sportsman racers get and the two for one. I think people should give it a shot.

Re: New IHRA President
 

What IHRA needs is a REAL Pro program. If I remember correctly NHRA forbids their "pro class stars" from racing at any other venue. Maybe it's time for IHRA to sic the lawyers on them and free up the market. I remember when IHRA Mountain Motor was the thing.
Then (why I don't know why) after it went away IHRA started a downward spiral. That and the fact that NHRA started grabbing away tracks all over the country. Maybe I'm wrong, if so someone enlighten me.

Re: New IHRA President
 

Ed: I think there were two things that really hurt IHRA in the past. The first was Bill Bader leaving. Bill was very sharp and had a vision. The second was the Evan Knoll/Torco Race Fuels fiasco. Knoll was pumping a ton of money into both the IHRA and NHRA, and that all "went away" when he got caught by the feds.

Re: New IHRA President
 

I am not a real big fan of the two race per weekend deal. If the car count gets high enough you will be racing well past midnight. That's a real long day. If you have any weather related issues it can push the program into Monday as there is no room in the schedule for anything like that. Plus if you have a problem with your race car you will miss two of your points races at one time. I have been running the div 2 events and they are typically well run. This past weekend in Immokalee there was rain on Saturday afternoon and they attempted to run both races on Sunday simultaneously. I lost first round both races and left the track at 8 pm Sunday. They ran several more rounds that evening but had to complete the race on Monday. Even if u had won several rounds I could not have stayed on Monday due to work commitments. All in all the race was pretty well run.

Re: New IHRA President
 

Hello All.
I Hope Mike can bring IHRA back to its Glory days. Real Pro & Class Racing.
Only time will tel, but I'm going along for the ride.

Keep the doubles, it happens to singles to.

Weather is something none of us can do anything about.
IHRA did the best they could under the circumstances.

I have been at a ____ event that it started raining Thursday night, cleared up and everybody got 1 time run Friday afternoon and it poured again. Everybody got 1 time run Saturday and it rained again. They held us all over to Sunday, even though there was a 80% chance of raining. finally calling the race at noon on Sunday. Then we all got to come back 2 weeks later.

Mother Nature LUV'S Drag Racers
Cal S/ST HR 1177

Re: New IHRA President
 

To get the spectators back they need to bring back the fast door cars i.e. pro mods and mountain motor pro stock. to get the racers back get the contingency money back if they get the contingency money back where it was I'll come back. Oh and bring Back the printed version of Drag review I think its great Mike Dunn is now in charge I hope he can turn this ship around!

Re: New IHRA President
 

Ummm...since you obviously don't pay any attention to their program, you should probably be informed Pro Modified and Mountain Motor Pro Stock have both been back in IHRA's line-up for a while now.

Re: New IHRA President
 

It's official; you do NOT remember correctly, Ed. LOL! Obviously, the NHRA has never forbidden Pro racers to race "at any other venue".

Re: New IHRA President
 

You must not of been to a national lately, I would not call 2-3 pairs of cars a race!
And after the contingency money dropped to near laughable numbers, you are correct, I obviously didn't pay them any more attention!

Re: New IHRA President
 

That's semantics Brett. Not sure if they still do it but the nitro teams were limited to 4 one day test sessions. Spun in a way that it will save all the teams money. Any run down any track on any day used up a test session. That may not prohibit them from attending an event but it would make it impossible to run both series. That was back in 2009/2010. Maybe it has changed.

Ed's memory isn't that far off.

Jim McBean

Re: New IHRA President
 

I think Bruce Litton chased points in IHRA and made NHRA appearnces because of Lucas oil Sponsorship

Re: New IHRA President
 

Well shut my mouth..................

Re: New IHRA President
 

Second that thought !
Don Turk

Re: New IHRA President
 

Several years ago in the Knoll gas era I went to a race in San Antonio. There were 43 pro mods for 16 spots. Its nothing like that now. That's where it needs to get back to. I hope Mike can do it.

Re: New IHRA President
 

I don't post opinions. I post facts. Just because somebody thinks the IHRA needs forty-three cars to have a race or the IHRA's current car count is less than what somebody "expects" doesn't mean the IHRA does not run Pro Modified or Pro Stock Eliminators. The classes are there. Take up your grievances with the association.

I'm willing to bet nobody replying to this thread realizes the IHRA PS and PM programs are "pay to play" in the same format as NHRA Pro Modified Eliminator. In fact, that’s the ONLY reason the classes returned to IHRA’s roster.

In reference to the NHRA's short-lived fuel car "testing moratorium" of 2008, it was instituted because of a worldwide lack of nitromethane. The purpose was not to prevent racers from running other events. In fact, they were banned from testing only at NHRA facilities. The NHRA could hardly stop the racers from competing outside the NHRA's jurisdiction.

The 2008 season was also the final year the IHRA conducted qualified eight-car fields in Top Fuel and Funny Car Eliminators and the IHRA series included quite a few teams which raced with the NHRA. John Force and others continued to compete at Norwalk's "Night Under Fire" and Cordova's World Series of Drag Racing. Why? Because they were the only events outside the NHRA and IHRA National Event series which included those vehicles.

The NHRA maintained the testing ban in 2009. However, the IHRA was unaffected by it since they switched to a four-car, booked-in field of modern Top Fuel Dragsters for their feature attraction. Through 2008, the association lost so much money at every event due to the $185,000 fuel purses, (per race), for their open-qualified eight-car fields, they opted for a smaller, cheaper shows with the four TF teams along with their Pro Stock and Pro Modified Eliminators. Also in 2009, the IHRA dropped both Fuel and Alcohol Funny Car Eliminators from their schedule.

In 2010, the NHRA revised the testing ban to allow a maximum of four days at any track during the season, (not counting pre-season or post-season testing). This provision as adopted not as a measure to prevent racers from competing at other venues but to level the playing field for gathering information and to limit the expense of operation for all fuel teams. It had no effect on the IHRA whatsoever since the IHRA continued utilizing four booked-in Top Fuel teams while adding supercharged fuel Nostalgia Funny Cars and injected nitro dragsters to their line-up. At the end of 2010, the IHRA dropped modern Top Fuel dragsters entirely because they were still bleeding money.

Regardless, John Force and others continued to compete at Norwalk's "Night Under Fire" and Cordova's World Series of Drag Racing. Why? Because they were the only events outside the NHRA National Event series which included those vehicles.

The testing limitations were dropped at the end of 2012 because they had virtually no effect on the expense of racing in Top Fuel or Funny Car Eliminators.

These are facts. If you're looking for an argument, you're in the wrong place.

Re: New IHRA President
 

With all due respect Mr. Kepner but that is not exactly how I remember things were. I went back and looked at a few things, you might want to check some of your facts.

Re: New IHRA President
 

I don't post opinions. I post facts. Just because somebody thinks the IHRA needs forty-three cars to have a race.


Bret no where in my post did I say IHRA has to have 43 cars to have a race. I was just pointing out how many participants they had at a race at one time. You need to lighten up dude. One time I posted a pic of a car my dad used to race. It was a Rambler. I said I was something else. You basically called me an idiot for not knowing what kind of car my dad had when I was 10 years old. Lighten up man...

Re: New IHRA President
 

Pick any point you believe to be in error. I'll be more than happy to provide proof. These facts aren't "how I remember things". They're simply facts.

Re: New IHRA President
 

Go back to dragracecentral look at the races in 09, they were still 8 car qualified fields. Look up NHRA's testing ban it says that any runs made at any track regardless of sanction will count towards a test day. The reason they state was because of the poor economy, no mention of anything to do with a shortage of nitromethane.

Re: New IHRA President
 

Well, you definitely nailed me to the wall on that point, Mr. Gardiner. Good job. Somehow, I got the 2009-2010 years swapped but that’s no excuse. I was wrong.

This is correct for the 2009 season. However, the Testing Ban actually began in 2008, (as stated), because of the global shortage of Nitro:

http://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCSt...ilter=Year2008

http://competitionplus.com/drag-raci...d-on-nhra-tour

This was precipitated by the $100,000 fine imposed on Don Schumacher for violating the NHRA’s new rule banning teams from stockpiling nitro fromsources outside the NHRA official supplier:

http://www.dragracingonline.com/anal...umacher-1.html

Concerning the 2009 ban which limited testing to four days during the season, it’s important to remember the penalty from the NHRA for noncompliance was merely the forfeiture of NHRA Full Throttle points. There were no monetary fines nor declined entries; the NHRA had plenty of short fields in 2009 and 2010. Since the Full Throttle fund paid only the Top Ten finishers, this wasn’t a concern to teams outside the elite.

An interesting fact is, of the twenty-two different Top Fuel drivers who competed in the 2009 IHRA series, all but FIVE of them, (Mitch King, Rhonda Hartman-Smith, Smax Smith, Paul Lee and Fred Farndon), competed at NHRA events in the same season. In fact, nine drivers competed in more than eight NHRA races in 2009 while still competing in the IHRA tour.

Re: New IHRA President
 

our 2 cobra jets are coming to IHRA

Re: New IHRA President
 

I appreciate your honesty and knowledge of the sport Mr Kepner. But I believe the reason the other gentleman called it semantics was because NHRA did put out a lot of official reasons for the testing ban, they had ulterior motives on keeping their top teams from crossing over. Now of course I can't provide facts proving that claim, and I don't remember if their actual articles or their were discussions on websites like this one about this subject.