PRO Board Member says organization has been working all along …

NHRA Top Fuel team owner Bill Miller understands the driver’s desire for representation on safety issues but wonders if their efforts are overlapping those of PRO.

Miller is on the Board of Directors of PRO and takes to heart the issues facing drag racing.

Various drivers have told CompetitionPlus.com that the PRO organization has been weak. But for every driver who has been negative, another has been positive of their efforts.

“The drivers felt that some of the issues were not being addressed,” said Miller, who drew the ire of the sanctioning body for voicing opposition to the use of heat treated tubing as an SFI-approved spec for the last two years. PRO Board Member says organization has been working all along …

NHRA Top Fuel team owner Bill Miller understands the driver’s desire for representation on safety issues but wonders if their efforts are overlapping those of PRO.

Miller is on the Board of Directors of PRO and takes to heart the issues facing drag racing.

Various drivers have told CompetitionPlus.com that the PRO organization has been weak. But for every driver who has been negative, another has been positive of their efforts.

“The drivers felt that some of the issues were not being addressed,” said Miller, who drew the ire of the sanctioning body for voicing opposition to the use of heat treated tubing as an SFI-approved spec for the last two years.

Miller’s foremost fear is that too many committees could damage the dialogue currently in place between the sanctioning body and the racers

“The problem with that is that you cannot have the guys that do the rear end, the guys that do the clutch, the guys that do the front end, the guys that do the blowers, drivers, truck drivers, all have their own separate little committees because NHRA will say, ‘We aren’t going to talk to any committees now.”

“The PRO organization has worked long and hard to open dialog with NHRA and NHRA realizes that the PRO organization and NHRA both have the same vested interest. We want safe, successful racing to occur. We all love drag racing, they make their living off of drag racing and we make our living off of drag racing. There's no sense in being at odds with each other.

“If you get too many committees, all of which have their own agenda, throwing rocks at the NHRA, NHRA will do like anybody else, they'll dig their heels in and say we're not talking to anybody.”

Miller said 80-percent of the driver’s committee suggestions were already in dialogue with the NHRA. It’s the other 20-percent that Vandergriff and the driver’s committee hopes will not be forgotten either.

Vandergriff told CompetitionPlus.com that his group has no problem whatsoever in submitting to PRO. The primary goal of the committee in addition to giving further input is communicating to the drivers.

“I am going to be involved with PRO … go to all the meetings and represent the drivers to PRO,” Vandergriff said. “Which can do nothing but help PRO because they have a multitude of things they're working on and sometimes information doesn't get funneled down all the way to the drivers. By me being involved in that they now have an outlet to get the information back to the drivers. I don't think it can do anything but help the relationship between the drivers and PRO.”

Miller confirmed PRO invited the recently formed driver’s committee chairman Bob Vandergriff Jr. to attend the PRO board of directors meetings along with a couple of drivers if he wants to bring them, which could be different drivers at different meetings.

“This way they'll [drivers committee] know first-hand that when you have people like John Force, Connie Kalitta and Doug Herbert … who have all lost people close to them, I can assure you that one of the main parameters for the PRO board of directors, or one of the prime directives, is the safety of everybody that jumps in these cars and drives them 300 miles an hour,” Miller said. “That will never be forgotten.

Miller says PRO has communicated over the years with the drivers, crew chiefs and car owners, whether they are a member of PRO or not, they still benefit. In many situations, he feels; the lack of understanding falls squarely of those who don’t take the time.

“If you don't read those e-mails, if you don't read those directives that we send out, you don't have any legs to stand on and complain because you don't even know what we're doing,” Miller said. “The PRO organization and specifically the PRO board of directors gets a bad rap because all of the constituents, the members of the organization and all of the racers want to see instant change, and it doesn't happen that way. It will never happen that way. Sometimes you make sweeping changes that are really good for the sport. Sometimes you make a mistake, you go back and correct it and you learn by your mistake.

“But there's no business in the world that, if you make a decision that's guaranteed to be 100-percent right, I mean probably a lot of the time they're wrong. You can't expect sweeping changes to be made; it's just not going to happen.”

And that, Miller said, is what the majority of the drivers want.