[Jason Oldfield]

I wouldn't be surprised to see the HQ moved, especially now that they're owned by Feld. I don't know where Feld's HQs are, but it can't possibly be any worse locale-wise for IHRA than Norwalk is now. Other than the hardships of the current IHRA staffers having to move their families (which can be traumatic), I'm sure guys like Skooter and Aaron would appreciate the reduced travel to their races (and their families would probably appreciate them being around more). As it stands now, there isn't an IHRA national event within 200 miles of Norwalk (Grand Bend and Martin are both about 225 miles away).

What I don't understand with IHRA is, why do they NEED to run at their own sanctioned tracks? ADRL doesn't. NMCA / NMRA doesn't. The Hot Rod Power Tour doesn't. So, why does IHRA only need to run at IHRA sanctioned tracks? Why can't they simply lease the track for 4 days like these other sanctioning bodies do? By not doing so, they're missing out on HUGE markets because they don't have tracks that are up to national event standards in many parts of the country. Drag racing is simply not a big enough sport to be able to support 2 national event caliber race tracks in every major metropolitan area (a track can't survive simply on the revenue from one national event per year, as it needs other shows / bracket racing to be able make it).

Granted, knowing NHRA, they probably have it written into their contracts with their sanctioned tracks that no IHRA races can compete there. But, could NHRA and IHRA really not come to some type of agreement? Why not lease Columbus to IHRA for one national event per year? There's got to be other decent NHRA tracks that could support an IHRA national event that wouldn't directly compete with NHRA's events (i.e. in the exact same location), aren't there? Columbus was the first that came to mind.

All I know is that by losing Milan, IHRA has probably lost racers in the Cleveland, Columbus, and Pittsburgh areas that previously were going to attend that race. Sure, Martin and Grand Bend are somewhat close, but I'm sure that extra 100 miles will simply push many over the edge (especially with the border crossing issues with Grand Bend).