With its announcement Wednesday that longtime Executive Vice-President / General Manager Peter Clifford has replaced the "retiring" Tom Compton as President, the National Hot Rod Association publicly concluded a messy, awkward transition of authority that had dragged on for at least a month.

Dallas Gardner, chairman of the NHRA Board of Directors, indicated the Glendora, Calif.-headquartered organization wasn't interested in "an on-the-job training session" for Compton's replacement. He said in an afternoon teleconference, "It made all the sense in the world" to choose Clifford.

"Peter has had his hands on everything that goes on in NHRA for a period of time and at all levels," Gardner said of the former CEO who has been with the company since 1997.

Clifford's most recent duties were to oversee NHRA-owned racetracks, publications, information technology, national-event business, ticketing, customer service, and human resources.

His promotion comes in the wake of a prolonged absence by rumor-riddled Compton that NHRA officials addressed simply by saying to every media inquiry, "Tom has been away recently on personal and family matters.  We hope you’ll respect his privacy."

Two NHRA spokesmen confirmed to Competition Plus June 5 during the race at Englishtown, N.J., that Compton had taken a leave of absence, but Gardner said Wednesday that Compton's resignation and Clifford's promotion "basically all took place today."

Gardner and Clifford responded with a long pause when asked why NHRA delayed nearly one month to announce what appeared to be the inevitable. Finally, Clifford fielded the question by saying, "I don’t know anything about what happened on June 5, so we certainly can't comment on that. We made the announcement – and I speak for Dallas – as soon as it was available."

Autoweek's Mark Vaughn pressed the pair. He said, "Just want to confirm you guys are not going to be forthcoming with any further information about what actually happened in this change of Presidents." Gardner replied, "There's really nothing more to say. Tom retired." Vaughn shot back, "There's a lot more to say. OK – Tom retired. All right. Just wanted to make sure."

Clifford stuck to the script, deflecting a question about whether Compton would serve on the board, as Gardner and the late NHRA founder Wally Parks had done. "Tom is retired," he said tersely.

Compton did receive the courtesy of contributing a statement regarding his exit, which Gardner told Competition Plus/Arizona Republic reporter Michael Knight was not forced.

Said Compton in a prepared news release, "This decision comes after much thought and careful consideration of my own interests, those of my family and those of the NHRA itself. The more than 22 years I spent helping to build the great team, strong partnerships, and robust operations the NHRA now enjoys makes this decision a difficult one.

"I want to thank everyone, including the NHRA, its partners, sponsors, track owners and operators, and all other NHRA-affiliated individuals and organizations for their generous and much-appreciated contributions to the success we've all enjoyed together. I am honored to have been an integral part of this collective effort, am proud of our collaboration and achievements, and am confident in the continued success of the NHRA in the years ahead."

Gardner said, "Tom really didn’t give a reason. Tom decided to retire."

 He denied the board directly or even indirectly suggested Compton step down or requested Compton's resignation.

"No, no, no," Gardner said. "I would tell you that I was President for 15 years. Motorsports is tough business. Drag racing, I think, particularly is difficult. And Tom had been President for 15 years. It was no surprise to me that Tom decided he wanted to step down."

Surprise, no surprise, certain behind-the-scenes tiptoeing around privacy laws and/or broadcasted embarrassment . . . Whatever the true sequence of events might be, the Compton Era is over officially.

And Clifford wasted no time in assuring that the NHRA "leadership team" is planning some major changes that will unfold in a string of upcoming announcements throughout "the next couple of months" – "exciting announcements – in short order," he even said of the new in-house television coverage package.

"I'd like to lay them out for you right now," Clifford said of the agenda, after voicing the traditional promotion-acceptance niceties.

He outlined the plan as (1) Improved television, (2) Increased sportsman participation and support [of] our member tracks, (3) Expanding marketing partnerships, (4) Expanding media coverage, (5) Improved competition at national events – "and No. 6, which is certainly impacted by the first five, new fan development."  

Clifford denounced false reports that the NHRA will sell all or part of its assets. "We're going forward. We're very excited about the initiatives we have. We're confident about our future. The company is not for sale," he said emphatically, scoffing at scuttlebutt in the past couple of weeks "about us being sold to Bahrain or something like that. These rumors circulated are not true. We're going to be focusing on these initiatives. We looked before about finding a great strategic partner out there to help us with television, and that fell through. But now we're pursuing it on our own, and we're very, very confident about the future."

However, he cautioned not to expect increased purses, pointing instead to a ramped-up effort to bring in more corporate participation.

Jon Asher, raising the possibility of a million-dollar race winner within the next two years, challenged the NHRA brass. "We need a million-dollar winner. Without it, we're considered a third-rate activity," Asher said.

Clifford said that isn't likely to happen anytime soon: "Not if you’re expecting it to come from purse.

"We would want nothing more than to increase purses, but you know that's challenging at this point," he said. "What we're working on, part of the plan, is expanding our marketing partnerships. So we're going to be adding resources for that area. The teams generate a majority of their money from sponsorships. So we'll continue to work with the teams, support the teams, add our marketing and sales support to the teams so they can help sell sponsorships. We see that as our role."

The NHRA did not announce who will replace Clifford in the Executive Vice-President / General Manager position.

The act of cutting and pasting articles from this publication to a message board is a clear copyright violation as is pulling photos to post on social media sites. All articles and photography published in CompetitionPlus.com are protected by United States of America and International copyright laws unless mentioned otherwise. The content on this website is intended for the private use of the reader and may not be published or reposted in any form without the prior written consent of CompetitionPlus.com.