The IRS and NHRA, you gotta see this.

[Alan Roehrich]

I keep seeing people saying "the complaint was filed because someone thinks Tom Compton makes too much money".

That's a crock. Look, no one would give a damn if there were 10 people on the NHRA board of directors, each one making $1 million a year a piece, if NHRA were truly healthy, and being run properly, for the benefit of ALL of the membership.

[Rick Bailey]

Well said !

[Greg Hill]

The way NHRA operates can be traced back to at least 1981 when they had an illegal vote and took our voting rights as members away. Prior to that time I think a case could be made that they operated in a manner that generally benefited the members. Once they got control with no accountability their primary goal was to maximize revenue. When Dallas Gardner took over it became even more so and when Compton arrived it really got into high gear. In 1987 when they became a 501-C6 non profit according to the by-laws they still had 4 classes of members. Right now according to Linda Louie, their in house lawyer, they are a California mutual benefit corporation with no members. The 501 C6 status was granted in part because the IRS thought they were a membership based organization and were operating in the interests of the members.

I don't think many if any of you think the management of NHRA is operating in the bests interests of it's members. This needs to change. As a non profit company their primary responsibility needs to be doing what's best for the members not what's best for them personally. Until we get our voting rights back I don't see any of this changing.

[Rich Biebel]

Originally Posted by Alan Roehrich

I have to wonder why it is people are so convinced that sportsman racing cannot survive, and even thrive, without the pro circus. You know, to hear some people talk, you'd think that drag racing never even existed before the entire program was taken over by the multi million dollar chinese fire drill that is the professional circus freak show.

If nothing else, the marketing job NHRA has done on the average sportsman racer, selling him on the idea that he is nobody without the traveling pros, ranks right up there with Madoff, and the guys at Enron, you have to give them credit for that.

I mean, where would we be without some guy riding around shooting t-shirts into the stands with an air cannon, and getting people to run around in circles pouring sports drinks all over themselves until they get dizzy and puke? What would we do without that horrendous racket they call music blaring out of the speakers during all that down time, and the "announcer" screaming about the points standings? You know, maybe it would be completely impossible to actually race cars without all that added "mind numbing entertainment".

This is a very accurate post Alan......and I agree 100%

NHRA Drag Racing was started by Wally & Co in an effort to get young kids like myself off the streets and into an organized legitamite form of racing. I for one bought into it immediately in my youth as the street racing scene was not for me. It was more about who could sucker someone into an unfair race and steal whatever you agreed to race for. It also was dangerous and illegal..........

Todays drag racing is nothing more than a 3 ring Circus and I opted out of it a long time ago at the national level for that exact reason......


No matter what happens to NHRA it will never be right untill either we vote on the board of directors or it has racers or former racers running things with input directly from the various categories.


What exactly does Tom Compton do for his compensation package? As far as being a leader and the face of Drag Racing......he is neither to me. Has he been instrumental in the success of the organization?

My thumb goes down on him and his crew.......

[Sean Kennedy]

Originally Posted by Alan Roehrich

I keep seeing people saying "the complaint was filed because someone thinks Tom Compton makes too much money".

That's a crock. Look, no one would give a damn if there were 10 people on the NHRA board of directors, each one making $1 million a year a piece, if NHRA were truly healthy, and being run properly, for the benefit of ALL of the membership.

Completely agree, also with your previous post stating class racing could thrive. I tend to agree with this line of thinking.

Unfortunately, a big chunk of the guys you are trying to tell this to don't even unload their cars unless it's for an NHRA divisional or national event. These guys aren't going to hear anything but the sky is falling. Hopefully, when and if this stuff ever hits the fan, they will see past their own noses and race somewhere else.

[GarysZ24]

Sean,

You and all others who think like you are the reason I was happy and honored to be at the S.I.R. racer meeting/banquet last Saturday (in Tucson, because there racers have a chance to embrace a new option for their sanctioning dollar. If it happens, then NHRA is going to have some competition they haven't had out west here since the old AHRA days, and that will bring about some more focus on us sportsman class racers than we've been getting lately (especially if other tracks follow S.I.R.'s possible lead)? One can only hope.....

[Toby Lang]

Originally Posted by Alan Roehrich

They've also spent plenty of time telling us that we "don't generate a profit", and that we "take up way too much time and space that would be better utilized by the pros".

I'd be interested to know who told you this. I doubt anybody with any real authority has said this. Or is this just what you think they think? I know I haven't heard this from anybody with NHRA. If it were true, why haven't they done away with us already?

Ever since I've been reading internet drag racing forums (1995 Compuserve) people have been saying the same thing: That NHRA is going to do away with the sportsman classes, especially Stock and Super Stock. They don't need us. They could save money by not hiring as many tech officials. No tech. No teardowns etc...

The fact is, when I went to the Jegs all-stars race in 1998 and 2002 Graham Light spoke at the racer's banquet. He said you may have heard rumors that we are going to do away with the sportsman classes. He assured us that was not true and the sportsman classes are a very important part of their program.

Well, guess what? It's 10-15 years later and the sportsman classes are still here.


-Toby

[A100]

How can Scooter influence NHRA S/SS racing from SEMA but can't make it onto the NHRA board of directors?

“Comp Cams has been a strong supporter of Sportsman racing since the early ’70s,” said Scooter Brothers, chairman-elect, SEMA board of directors, and president, Comp Cams. “Class racing was very different than it is today, and contingency support of class racing was on track to diminish to the point of extinction."

[Ed Wright]

Not sure why Scooter would want on NHRA's board. His plate is probably full enough now. LOL
Way too many classes, too many with almost zero car counts (most there say "It's not my fault nobody else runs my class."). Why is there a class almost nobody runs? Guys build for those classes for a reason. It ain't to race heads up. It's to avoid it. Asking mfgrs to put up money for them in hard times is just wrong. Shouldn't get paid for a single run anyway.

Lots of unhappy racers here. Might be good for IHRA's car counts.

I don't care much for costs going up, but I own a business so I know cost to operate are going up. You either eat them or pass them on. You have to look at which would hurt your bottom line the least.

[Alan Roehrich]

Toby, it wasn't that long ago, sometime around the last time all the fees went up, several members here were told by NHRA officials that Stock and Super Stock were not paying their own way, and NHRA was "subsidizing" us.

Now, maybe, if you apply some sort of political correctness filter to that, you get something out of it besides "we don't generate a profit", but as for most of us, we hear NHRA telling us we're not paying the bills.