Competition Plus Team
Since our inception, we have been passionately dedicated to delivering the most accurate, timely, and compelling content in the world of drag racing. Our readers depend on us for the latest news, in-depth features, expert analysis, and exclusive interviews that connect you to the sport’s pulse.
BOBBY BENNETT: NOW THAT WAS A GOOD DRAG RACE
The IHRA’s first Triple Crown Series event kicked off over the weekend, and if the Columbus race was any indication of what’s headed to Reading, Pa., then the fans who make their way to Maple Grove Raceway later this summer are going to get their money’s worth.
Before I sat down to write this column, I kept asking myself one question. What exactly made this race so enjoyable to watch?
The easy answers were obvious enough. There was nitro. There were fast doorslammers. There were racers who genuinely looked happy to be there. In other words, all of the ingredients drag racing fans claim they want every weekend were sitting right there in Columbus.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized what I had watched wasn’t some revolutionary new formula or a reinvention of the wheel. In fact, what made it work was how familiar it felt.
It reminded me of the IHRA many of us grew up with.
I’m not talking about ownership groups, logos or corporate structures. I’m talking about the feeling when the cars rolled into the water box and the crowd settled into the grandstands. For a few hours Saturday night, the focus stayed where it belonged, on the race cars.
There wasn’t a PT Barnum production surrounding the event. There wasn’t a DJ trying to convince everyone they were having fun. Nobody seemed interested in manufacturing excitement because the race cars were doing that job just fine on their own.
Somewhere along the way, motorsports promoters started believing every event needed to be a festival. Maybe that’s true in some forms of racing, but drag racing has always been a little different. A pair of nitro cars leaving the starting line at full throttle has never needed a hype man standing next to the speakers.
The crowd wasn’t remotely close to a sellout, and anyone trying to tell you otherwise is selling something. But it was better than many expected and certainly better than some of the critics were predicting when the Triple Crown concept was first announced.
IHRA tried a variety of ticket promotions, including a $40 carload special, and from everything I observed there appeared to be more people in attendance than many recent events have drawn. More importantly, the people who showed up seemed engaged in what was happening on the race track.
That’s an important detail to hold onto.Â
I’ve already seen the social media critiques. No big names. Minor league racing. Bunch of leakers. Blah, blah, blah. The funny thing is many of the same people making those comments are often the first ones complaining there aren’t enough places for racers to compete for meaningful money.
Then someone puts meaningful money on the table and suddenly there is a reason why it doesn’t matter. Tell me I’m wrong.Â
As Del Worsham said during the weekend, “I guess all these teams that didn’t show up don’t need a million dollars.”
It’s hard to argue with his logic.
For all the attention surrounding the million-dollar sweep bonus, Columbus exposed an inconvenient truth that has existed in drag racing for a very long time. Most racers haven’t raced for purses in years, regardless of how often they complain about purses.
If purse money was truly the deciding factor, there would have been transporter rigs lined up outside the gate trying to get into the former National Trail Raceway.
The nitro winners earned $150,000. They did it while making fewer qualifying runs and surviving one less elimination round than they would face at a typical national event. On paper, that’s a pretty attractive business proposition.
Yet many racers who spend their winters talking about the need for opportunities somehow found reasons to stay home.
There are probably a dozen reasons why some teams stayed home. Some believe the rumors. Some probably think the whole thing sounds too good to be true. Others may worry about what happens when they support something outside the traditional structure. And yes, for some teams, three or more consecutive weekends on the road is probably enough all by itself. Pick whichever explanation makes you feel the best.
At the end of the day, the race still happened without them. And before somebody fires off an email explaining how nobody was there, let’s stop pretending the winners were a bunch of unknown racers who accidentally found their way into the winner’s circle. Anybody who follows this sport knows better.
Tripp Tatum can drive and so can Paul Lee. Both have proven they can win on the NHRA level. For goodness sake, Del Worsham has forgotten more about drag racing than most people will ever learn. The same applies to a good portion of the racers competing throughout the program.
The other thing people seem to overlook is that the million-dollar bonus isn’t limited to nitro racing. Racers in Pro Modified, Mountain Motor Pro Stock and IHRA Pro Stock have an opportunity to chase something drag racing desperately needs more of these days, a storyline. Oh yeah, and a $1 Million dollar winner. Somewhere out there in New Mexico Jon Asher is raising his hand in the air and saying, “I told you so.”
The sport has always been at its best when people had something meaningful to follow. Whether its championships, rivalries, bonus programs or special events, fans invest in stories long before they invest in statistics.
The Triple Crown has the potential to create those storylines even though their media approach is greatly lacking.
Does this performance mean the IHRA is suddenly fixed? Not even close.
The organization still has work to do, and some of that work has nothing to do with race cars. Stability in the executive offices matters as does credibility and consistency. Those things aren’t built in a weekend and they sure aren’t built through social media posts.
But while everyone was busy arguing about what the IHRA might become, the people in Columbus were busy watching what it actually delivered. Another 7000-plus viewers on the livestream saw it too.
It delivered a pretty good drag race. Maybe Columbus turns out to be a flash in the pan. Maybe Reading tells a different story. Drag racing has a funny way of humbling anyone who likes to read their own press releases or drink their own bathwater.
But if the objective was to remind people what a good IHRA drag race back in the day used to look like, the first Triple Crown race accomplished exactly that.
For one Saturday night, the conversation wasn’t about executive turnover, internet rumors, message-board experts or whether somebody’s cousin heard something from a guy who knows a guy. And it certainly wasn’t about how eighth-mile drag racing sucks.
It was about the racing that took place on the dragstrip. Imagine that concept.
For years, I’ve listened to people tell me all they want is good drag racing. Then someone gives them good drag racing and half of them spend the weekend explaining why it won’t work.
The IHRA doesn’t need everybody to believe. It just needs enough people to show up. Based on what I saw in Columbus, there might be more of those people than some want to admit.
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Competition Plus Team
Since our inception, we have been passionately dedicated to delivering the most accurate, timely, and compelling content in the world of drag racing. Our readers depend on us for the latest news, in-depth features, expert analysis, and exclusive interviews that connect you to the sport’s pulse.
Sign up for our newsletters and email list.
BOBBY BENNETT: NOW THAT WAS A GOOD DRAG RACE
The IHRA’s first Triple Crown Series event kicked off over the weekend, and if the Columbus race was any indication of what’s headed to Reading, Pa., then the fans who make their way to Maple Grove Raceway later this summer are going to get their money’s worth.
Before I sat down to write this column, I kept asking myself one question. What exactly made this race so enjoyable to watch?
The easy answers were obvious enough. There was nitro. There were fast doorslammers. There were racers who genuinely looked happy to be there. In other words, all of the ingredients drag racing fans claim they want every weekend were sitting right there in Columbus.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized what I had watched wasn’t some revolutionary new formula or a reinvention of the wheel. In fact, what made it work was how familiar it felt.
It reminded me of the IHRA many of us grew up with.
I’m not talking about ownership groups, logos or corporate structures. I’m talking about the feeling when the cars rolled into the water box and the crowd settled into the grandstands. For a few hours Saturday night, the focus stayed where it belonged, on the race cars.
There wasn’t a PT Barnum production surrounding the event. There wasn’t a DJ trying to convince everyone they were having fun. Nobody seemed interested in manufacturing excitement because the race cars were doing that job just fine on their own.
Somewhere along the way, motorsports promoters started believing every event needed to be a festival. Maybe that’s true in some forms of racing, but drag racing has always been a little different. A pair of nitro cars leaving the starting line at full throttle has never needed a hype man standing next to the speakers.
The crowd wasn’t remotely close to a sellout, and anyone trying to tell you otherwise is selling something. But it was better than many expected and certainly better than some of the critics were predicting when the Triple Crown concept was first announced.
IHRA tried a variety of ticket promotions, including a $40 carload special, and from everything I observed there appeared to be more people in attendance than many recent events have drawn. More importantly, the people who showed up seemed engaged in what was happening on the race track.
That’s an important detail to hold onto.Â
I’ve already seen the social media critiques. No big names. Minor league racing. Bunch of leakers. Blah, blah, blah. The funny thing is many of the same people making those comments are often the first ones complaining there aren’t enough places for racers to compete for meaningful money.
Then someone puts meaningful money on the table and suddenly there is a reason why it doesn’t matter. Tell me I’m wrong.Â
As Del Worsham said during the weekend, “I guess all these teams that didn’t show up don’t need a million dollars.”
It’s hard to argue with his logic.
For all the attention surrounding the million-dollar sweep bonus, Columbus exposed an inconvenient truth that has existed in drag racing for a very long time. Most racers haven’t raced for purses in years, regardless of how often they complain about purses.
If purse money was truly the deciding factor, there would have been transporter rigs lined up outside the gate trying to get into the former National Trail Raceway.
The nitro winners earned $150,000. They did it while making fewer qualifying runs and surviving one less elimination round than they would face at a typical national event. On paper, that’s a pretty attractive business proposition.
Yet many racers who spend their winters talking about the need for opportunities somehow found reasons to stay home.
There are probably a dozen reasons why some teams stayed home. Some believe the rumors. Some probably think the whole thing sounds too good to be true. Others may worry about what happens when they support something outside the traditional structure. And yes, for some teams, three or more consecutive weekends on the road is probably enough all by itself. Pick whichever explanation makes you feel the best.
At the end of the day, the race still happened without them. And before somebody fires off an email explaining how nobody was there, let’s stop pretending the winners were a bunch of unknown racers who accidentally found their way into the winner’s circle. Anybody who follows this sport knows better.
Tripp Tatum can drive and so can Paul Lee. Both have proven they can win on the NHRA level. For goodness sake, Del Worsham has forgotten more about drag racing than most people will ever learn. The same applies to a good portion of the racers competing throughout the program.
The other thing people seem to overlook is that the million-dollar bonus isn’t limited to nitro racing. Racers in Pro Modified, Mountain Motor Pro Stock and IHRA Pro Stock have an opportunity to chase something drag racing desperately needs more of these days, a storyline. Oh yeah, and a $1 Million dollar winner. Somewhere out there in New Mexico Jon Asher is raising his hand in the air and saying, “I told you so.”
The sport has always been at its best when people had something meaningful to follow. Whether its championships, rivalries, bonus programs or special events, fans invest in stories long before they invest in statistics.
The Triple Crown has the potential to create those storylines even though their media approach is greatly lacking.
Does this performance mean the IHRA is suddenly fixed? Not even close.
The organization still has work to do, and some of that work has nothing to do with race cars. Stability in the executive offices matters as does credibility and consistency. Those things aren’t built in a weekend and they sure aren’t built through social media posts.
But while everyone was busy arguing about what the IHRA might become, the people in Columbus were busy watching what it actually delivered. Another 7000-plus viewers on the livestream saw it too.
It delivered a pretty good drag race. Maybe Columbus turns out to be a flash in the pan. Maybe Reading tells a different story. Drag racing has a funny way of humbling anyone who likes to read their own press releases or drink their own bathwater.
But if the objective was to remind people what a good IHRA drag race back in the day used to look like, the first Triple Crown race accomplished exactly that.
For one Saturday night, the conversation wasn’t about executive turnover, internet rumors, message-board experts or whether somebody’s cousin heard something from a guy who knows a guy. And it certainly wasn’t about how eighth-mile drag racing sucks.
It was about the racing that took place on the dragstrip. Imagine that concept.
For years, I’ve listened to people tell me all they want is good drag racing. Then someone gives them good drag racing and half of them spend the weekend explaining why it won’t work.
The IHRA doesn’t need everybody to believe. It just needs enough people to show up. Based on what I saw in Columbus, there might be more of those people than some want to admit.
John Doe
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BOBBY BENNETT: NOW THAT WAS A GOOD DRAG RACE
The IHRA’s first Triple Crown Series event kicked off over the weekend, and if the Columbus race was any indication of what’s headed to Reading,