Re: Tom Compton Interview on DRO
 

empty hat too

Re: Tom Compton Interview on DRO
 

Sounds to me like he got his training at Beatrice Foods in the early '80s. Been there, suffered through that. John Kissel

Re: Tom Compton Interview on DRO
 

Bet his glass is not empty! :)

Ken
Stock 412

Re: Tom Compton Interview on DRO
 

Good 'ol Tom totally forgot to mention ONE word about the NHRA Sportsman racers. Fans, Pro racers, sponsors, television, big money and dog food. Nothing about us, the backbone of the sport. I'm sure we just slipped his mind. To bad he didn't ask him about his driving record or his salary. Jim


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Re: Tom Compton Interview on DRO
 

Glad see that NHRA is getting back to making a profit.I'm sure that will mean a increase in payouts,and maybe even a reduction in entry fees.LOL

Re: Tom Compton Interview on DRO
 

Doubtful

Re: Tom Compton Interview on DRO
 

Sounded to me more of a "fluff" interview where no "hard" questions are asked. In politics the leftwing stations ask the dems questions like this and the rightwing station asks the repub's questions like this. Wouldn't suprise me if the questions were pre-planned or rehersed. Of course this is somewhat disparaging to DRO and I don't mean to offend, but "how did you fix this" and "how did you improve that" are open invitations for blowhards to wax on about themselves.

The one line "no I never raced" says it all. He's got book smarts and that's what he was brought in for, but don't ever confuse him with someone who has eaten baloney sandwiches with greasy fingerprints on them while laying under a car trying to finish before it's completely dark.

No friend of a sportsman...

Re: Tom Compton Interview on DRO
 

He wasn't asked any sportsman-related questions. It was all big-picture stuff. He did give us the "ONE word" mention you sought:
http://www.dragracingonline.com/inne...compton-7.html

Re: Tom Compton Interview on DRO
 

"We serve a lot of stakeholders – very different stakeholders, who have very different angles on this sport. It could a team owner. It could be a sportsman racer. It could be a pro racer. It could be a racetrack [operator]. It could be a fan. We're in the middle of it all, trying to hold it together."

I think this would have to be the hardest part of running an organization like NHRA. There are so many people to please and it's impossible to please them all.

His non-racing background makes him very impartial, in my eyes. His job is to make NHRA sound and he has done a pretty good job of that. It's the job of his vice presidents and staff to run the racing operations. Looks like ole Wally Parks had a lot of vision but not a lot of financial acumen, turning over an entity with $22M of debt. If we had a racer running the helm I think impartiality would go out the door. I can't imagine anyone on this forum trying to manage NHRA and not being biased against the nitro cars! lol

Re: Tom Compton Interview on DRO
 

Well said!