Atlanta dragway

[Greg Hill]

The difference between nhra and a true non profit, be it a charity or a non profit business, is that management should have the best interests of the organization as the main goal. The nhra is desperately trying to keep the fuel circus alive so management can continue to draw big salaries from the organization. Nhra should of moved from California to Indy 10 years ago. They have cut expenses at the level that affects sportsman racers much more than they have at the top. You could hire a top notch president in Indy for 200k. The management is living their nice SoCal lifestyle when almost all of their members and customers are east of the Rocky Mountains.

A true non profit business should be transparent to their members. When times are tough they should talk to their members and customers and do the things that would generate more support. Instead they are secretive and condescending. I would tell you that over the years nhra management has done tremendous harm to the organization. Think back. Eliminating Modified eliminator, pro stock truck, cutting the tech staff until there are not enough folks to work a National event or even a points race. My buddy Jim Schacter is right, they have no plan to make drag racing better, or increase participation or just make members and participants happy. They are sucking the *** of the fuel show until it gives out.

[matt82114]

Greg, I'll bite.


"The difference between nhra and a true non profit, be it a charity or a non profit business, is that management should have the best interests of the organization as the main goal" They do Greg. Think about it. If the 'organization' (NHRA) fails, the 'management' loses their jobs.


"The nhra is desperately trying to keep the fuel circus alive so management can continue to draw big salaries from the organization." That 'fuel circus' puts fans in the seats. It's why most fans show up to a National and skip a divisional or regional. Maybe you should buy a fuel car and see how much work this 'circus' demands. I assure you, it's a lot more than you're thinking. And what do you consider a 'big salary'?


"Nhra should of moved from California to Indy 10 years ago." I'm going to agree with you on this one. NHRA should move out of California ........ they already know this. And they already know Indy would be the best move.




"They have cut expenses at the level that affects sportsman racers much more than they have at the top." Please explain further. I don't quite understand what you're saying. I think I do, but I don't want to assume.



"The management is living their nice SoCal lifestyle when almost all of their members and customers are east of the Rocky Mountains." You'd be surprised at how average NHRA management is living in SoCal. Almost all of NHRA's members and customers are East of the Rocky Mountains? Really? Not sure about that one Greg.



"A true non profit business should be transparent to their members." There's zero difference between a 'true non profit' and a 'non profit' business. They're the same thing. But a non profit business is allowed to profit. They're simply not using the profit to pay its members/shareholders. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/n...ganization.asp


"When times are tough they should talk to their members and customers and do the things that would generate more support." They have. To us anyway. We never had conference calls with Glen, Jon, or Josh. Now we have one almost every month.




"Instead they are secretive and condescending." care to elaborate?




"I would tell you that over the years nhra management has done tremendous harm to the organization" You mean like having 4 events in Indy during the heart of the pandemic when nobody else was allowing fans? AND NHRA literally willing to lose BIG TIME on the first 3 of those just to keep the momentum of NHRA going? They lost their shirt on the Indy 1. They lost a ton on Indy 2. They lost some on Indy 3. They knew all of this was going to happen and yet they still did it. Did you happen to attend any of those races and show your support?
Our team did. And we did it knowing we were going to lose money. We did it to show NHRA our support. Because unlike you, we don't have any other sandbox to go play in. We literally don't have another organization offering what NHRA offers us.




"Think back. Eliminating Modified eliminator, pro stock truck" Things change. And it's not like the race cars disappeared. They simply got absorbed into comp eliminator. And some Modified eliminator cars could even race SS. I'm sure you already know this. Did you complain when NHRA added Top Dragster and Top Sportsman? Or the Factory Stock Showdown cars? Look how much better Pro Mod is than 20 years ago.




"cutting the tech staff until there are not enough folks to work a National event or even a points race" I feel like NHRA could have 10 tech officials at every race, and somehow that still wouldn't be enough to appease all the class racers. Maybe it would. I don't know. But you can't possibly think they'd still catch everything. Let's admit it, there's a lot of 'rule bending' and 'rule breaking' in class racing. Which is extremely pathetic in my opinion. NHRA still catches of few here and there. But you can't catch them all.

And why do most complain about there not being enough tech at a National, but not a division or regional?



"they have no plan to make drag racing better, or increase participation or just make members and participants happy." I 100% disagree with you on this. They're allowing the alcohol guys to go 4 wide in Vegas and Charlotte. Those guys are excited. Participation numbers have been dismal on the West Coast for years, increasing the quota won't do much. The sportman classes filled up in hours for the Gators. I'm sure those guys were 'happy' to go. And you only have so many hours in the day to run cars down the track. This participant is happy. As is many who just want to go race and have fun.



"They are sucking the *** of the fuel show until it gives out" You must have some inside knowledge that I don't know about. Please explain. They're not sucking the *** out of us what so ever. They're literally the ONLY ONES offering us a stage to show off what we can do. We're embracing it. But if the fuel show goes away, what's going to bring fans to the Nationals?





Matt Hanley
Car Chief
Leverich Racing Top Fuel

[Greg Hill]

Matt, it’s easy to see where your perspective comes from. Your signature says it all. What’s best for the few top fuel and funny car teams is not what’s best for the sportsman racers or drag racing in general. What’s the plan to grow drag racing? How is that being communicated? Why are sportsman racers excluded from policy discussions. Management at nhra has no one to hold them accountable. They appoint the board members and the board sets the salaries for management. The board decides on their own pay.

The whole business model is corrupt. No accountability and no consequences for doing things that benefit themselves or a small group or an individual. I’m not saying nhra hasn’t done a lot of good things over the years. The junior dragster program has been very successful and a bunch of youngsters are now adults with nhra race cars,but in the last 10 or 15 years the management has been unwilling to make changes to the sport to benefit most of their members. Purses are the same they were in 1990, and contingency money is a third of what is was then. When nhra received their charter and non profit status, their mission was clear; Safety, growing the sport and regulating drag racing, ie making the rules and regulations.

One last thing. Their job (management), is not just to keep nhra from going out of business but to do what’s in the best interests of members and drag racing in general. I would say that the best interests of the nhra members is what the management should be concerned with. Also the salaries of the top folks are still way too high when nhra has fired or cut back so many lower level people. They are way too top heavy.

[novassdude]

Matt just curios how many members hold top fuel licenses? Vs how many sportsmen members there are. NHRA was not founded to put on national events with nitro burning top fueler's. It was started for safety and to get racers off the streets. I guarantee you the guys they were trying to get off the street where not in top fuel cars.

[matt82114]

Originally Posted by novassdude

Matt just curios how many members hold top fuel licenses? Vs how many sportsmen members there are. NHRA was not founded to put on national events with nitro burning top fueler's. It was started for safety and to get racers off the streets. I guarantee you the guys they were trying to get off the street where not in top fuel cars.

It's been like that since day 1. What's your point?

My post was rebutting several of Greg's points. To which he pretty much ignored. Fair enough I guess. He has opinions that I respectfully disagreed with and gave my reasoning. I even signed my post.

You guys wanna know what the top brass is thinking? Here it is.

The average sportsman Racer wants (fill in the blank) and they'll be happy.

Problem is, they can't figure out what would make them happy. Some want money. Others more tech. Others want to park on concrete. Some want higher quotas.

NHRA knows that just picking one won't really do much. So they just kind of say "screw it" and let the entry numbers do the talking.

You guys really think the NHRA top brass is "clueless"? Think again. They're aware of this site and the comments that are made.

You wanna get their real attention? Don't fill the quotas so dang fast. Don't have 75+ stockers and super stockers at every points race.

Stop claiming "you're done with the NHRA" only to be found 3 weeks later on the Q sheets.

Maybe compliment and thank them. Easier to attract bees with honey.

Be grateful.

Just my 2 cents.


Matt Hanley
Car Chief
Leverich Racing Top Fuel

[GUMP]

Originally Posted by novassdude

Matt just curios how many members hold top fuel licenses? Vs how many sportsmen members there are. NHRA was not founded to put on national events with nitro burning top fueler's. It was started for safety and to get racers off the streets. I guarantee you the guys they were trying to get off the street where not in top fuel cars.

The loss of the fuel cars would be a tragedy for the NHRA. They bring the fans to the show. Without the fans there would be NO National Events. Without the revenue from the Nationals the NHRA would change drastically.

Seems to me that the IHRA had fuel cars and class cars at one time..........