AS WE SEE IT: THE ADRL AND ITS GROWING PAINS
used to be, then a measure of the Mom & Pop
mentality that helped propel the group is going to have to be brushed
aside.It was impressive to watch the multitude of spectators come and go in multiple waves at the recent event in Dinwiddie (Va). When the ADRL says the crowd was the largest that has ever been at Virginia Motorsports Park that’s not propaganda. It’s the truth.
Having been at the very first ADRL event, even before it was an official series, and watching the excitement of their first event, it’s impressive to see how far the group has come. An even though the lead man, Kenny Nowling, can work a microphone into submission, he was and will always be the right man for the job of leading the ADRL.
If the ADRL is to play on the same level as it aspires to be with the NHRA and where the IHRA used to be, then a measure of the Mom & Pop mentality that helped propel the group is going to have to be brushed aside.
It was impressive to watch the multitude of spectators come and go in multiple waves at the recent event in Dinwiddie (Va). When the ADRL says the crowd was the largest that has ever been at Virginia Motorsports Park that’s not propaganda. It’s the truth.
Having been at the very first ADRL event, even before it was an official series, and watching the excitement of their first event, it’s impressive to see how far the group has come. An even though the lead man, Kenny Nowling, can work a microphone into submission, he was and will always be the right man for the job of leading the ADRL.
Nowling puts forth a positive face, but he’ll honestly admit his group is in the midst of growing pains. He isn’t any different than any leader whose business is on a rapid upward spiral. In this instance, the ADRL is stuck on the ladder, one foot on the rung ahead of the IHRA and the other one just below.
There’s a part of the ADRL that cannot let go of that bottom rung because it is what got them to where they are today. It’s okay to be a racer-friendly organization and still be large.
One only needs to speak to the ADRL’s Race Director, Bubba Corzine, to truly understand the love for the racers which exist in the ADRL's ranks. Racing is their life and they live it to the fullest.
On Friday this writer couldn’t help but see the gleam in Corzine's eye as he proudly proclaimed the ADRL was on the cusp of its largest competitor participated event, ever.
“We keep hearing about doom and gloom. We hear all the stuff we’re supposedly not doing right,” Corzine said. “Obviously we must be doing something right. We just respect the guys and they show up. They take care of us. They are the show and that’s how we treat them.”
And for the most part, Corzine is spot-on.
But then you get to two unrelated incidents on Saturday evening that makes you wonder if that respect isn’t meted out differently.
Nowling puts forth a positive face, but he’ll honestly admit his group is in the midst of growing pains. He isn’t any different than any leader whose business is on a rapid upward spiral. In this instance, the ADRL is stuck on the ladder, one foot on the rung ahead of the IHRA and the other one just below.
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The cars trickled in with no sense of urgency while Corzine and his overworked crew labored to prepare a show for the growing spectator contingent.
No doubt Corzine was already feeling the aftereffects of professional testing where his crew had already been challenged with a crash and the cleanup associated with a car spewing oil like the Exxon Valdez.
That’s why when Corzine ordered his staging personnel to close the Extreme Pro Stock lanes, albeit after repeated pleas to roll to the lanes, he felt that he had been more than fair.
Add in the fact that he’d repeatedly pointed out to the racers in the mandatory driver’s meeting that he was going to start cracking down on stragglers.
Fast forward to Saturday evening, and in an attempt to show the sportsmanship that permeates ADRL competition, Corzine held up competition for nearly 30 to 40 minutes when eventual winner Bubba Stanton declined to fire his car and stage until Jason Scruggs had time to change an engine in order to make the call.
Certainly after the weekend of adversity Scruggs had endured, Stanton’s gesture couldn’t be faulted.
But, for the ADRL, they had an obligation to the fans who had sat in those sun-baked metal bleachers all day to deliver a race in a timely fashion. They owed it to those fans to be as assertive with this quarter-final match as they were with that Extreme Pro Stock session.
Corzine did inform the two teams that their turnaround time would be shortened to 30 minutes to keep on schedule. Still, this incident could establish a dangerous precedent for the future.
You may point out there’s a big difference in the two situations.
You’re exactly right.
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Consider this, three racers didn’t make that first Extreme Pro Stock qualifying session because they were 2 minutes late to the lanes. One of those racers, Morris Johnson Jr., a locally-based legend of years past, had a slew of friends, family and potential sponsors there Friday to witness their hero race.
He’d injured his transmission during one of the non-obligatory open test runs the ADRL affords their racers on Friday. A thrash of largely inexperienced crew members kept the team from a pace that would have easily buttoned the car up in time.
To begin with, Johnson was pitting in the far corner of VMP, at the edge of asphalt or more appropriately, the edge of civilization. He alleges that he had to make a call to get a garbage truck moved (towing a Pro Stocker off of the asphalt can be a complex task) only to encounter a group of skateboarding kids en route.
Traffic control, and a bit of security, Johnson maintains, could have made the difference.
Johnson lost what little chance he had to race for the rest of the season with those two minutes. Certainly the extra backing would have landed some extra parts and pieces as well as a few extra paid hands to provide a little more leeway.
He didn’t need 30 minutes, he just needed two.
The fans needed those extra 30 – 45 minutes to make it home before traffic backed up for nearly two hours.
Clearly the ADRL does more right than wrong and will suffer more growing pains along the way, but if the group sticks to three important traits of being successful such as equality, timeliness and most importantly, preparation, they will be on pace to take another step up that ladder.
It's a step much higher than the one Nowling AND his associates stood on when the ADRL was just getting started.
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