[Ed Wright]

This just came a Few minutes ago. Hope it's OK to post it here:



To: All IHRA Sportsman Racers



Dear Members:



Since the recent announcement of NHRA raising fees, my phone and e-mail have been going crazy. Evidentially the "internet experts" that populate the message boards have suggested that IHRA will be following suit with price increases to sportsman racers. This is based on the assumption that IHRA does everything NHRA does.



Any sportsman racer who has actually done a burnout at an IHRA event knows we have our own ideas and philosophies on how sportsman racing is to be conducted. This is not a knock on NHRA, it is simply a realization that we handle sportsman racing differently. As an IHRA member you know that, and I would assume you are a member because you enjoy the opportunities and programs IHRA offers sportsman racers. Unfortunately, this bad information is put out by sportsmen who don't actually race with us on a national or divisional level. Normally, we wouldn't even respond to such nonsense, but these are not normal times. Everyone is sensitive to the economic environment right now so I wanted you to hear this from the source.



We are not....have no plans to....and have not even discussed raising fees to sportsman racers. We are in the same position as the rest of the world when it comes to the need to increase the bottom line, but we have been able to reduce spending internally rather than going to the customer to create additional cash flow. In fact, we have been talking a lot about how to reduce costs for racers and spectators, create more value and develop our entertainment offering for both racers and fans. We just finished a national event in Baton Rouge where we added a dash for cash program for the competitors as well as cooked 4,000lbs of crawfish for the racer party. The Spring Nationals at Rockingham in a few weeks just had the dash for cash racing programs added, a sportsman wheelie contest and we booked a southern rock band for a Saturday night racer party. We are trying to give you more for your racing dollar and create ways for you to compete on the pro am and national level without spending your way into financial ruin.



The IHRA staff members have been working on a variety of different ways to reduce costs in their areas of responsibility and have done a great job so far. We have had to make tough decisions to not take as many staff to events. Everyone is pulling double duty somewhere, we're negotiating better deals with suppliers and travel arrangements are tighter than ever. The bottom line is that we certainly need your support at Summit Pro Am and Nitro Jam Nationals events, but we are not going to put extra financial burden on those that continue to compete on these levels.



IHRA will continue to work on adding programs that create value for you. The double Summit Pro Am weekends, the Champion Systems Sportsman Nationals events and the Tournament Of Champions Sportsman World Championship program are just a few ways we've been able to accomplish these goals.



I hope that puts your mind at ease. We look forward to seeing you at an IHRA event this year....and let's have some fun!



Best Regards,





Skooter Peaco

Vice President

IHRA