Bill Bader Jr. understands the biggest challenge he faces in his newest venture will be tempering enthusiasm. But not necessarily his.
Those in drag racing who have clamored for the second-generation promoter to buy or start a sanctioning body will finally get their wish, as the Norwalk, Ohio, drag strip owner follows in the footsteps of his father, Bill Sr., and takes charge of a sanctioning organization.
It’s those folks whose enthusiasm Bader may have his work cut out for him tempering. His reputation for big ideas won’t make that easy.
“This is going to be a crawl, walk, run approach, but we are not going to start on the fifth floor of the building,” Bader said. “We are going to start in the basement and we are going to work our way up in a way that makes sense, in a way that God allows us to do it.”
Bader announced the formation of the Sportsman Racing League, an independent sanctioning organization built around grassroots racers and the tracks that serve them. SRL has acquired the rights to approximately 80 sanction agreements previously held by the International Hot Rod Association, although Bader is quick to explain what that does and doesn’t mean.
“I didn’t buy the IHRA,” Bader said. “The IHRA, to be very honest with you, cannot be purchased. The IHRA is tied up in all kinds of things that I don’t even understand.”
What SRL acquired were sanction agreements, not IHRA’s other assets or intellectual property, and Bader says the tracks involved aren’t obligated to embrace his new organization without being convinced. He knows the tracks can say no.
“That would be arrogant,” Bader said. “I have to add value, I have to demonstrate worth. So I don’t take those assignments for granted. I still have to earn that business, and that’s what I’m fully intending on doing.”
He won’t be making the pitch alone. Skooter Peaco brings experience in track relations and administration, Jon O’Neal brings technical expertise, and Donna Harper brings 25 years of membership-service experience to the SRL leadership group.
The organization is promising marketing assistance, legislative advocacy, cost-saving initiatives and programs intended to help tracks operate profitably. A rainy Saturday can erase a track’s anticipated income.
Bader knows their circumstances because his education began at a racetrack, not in a corporate office. In 1977, he was 10 years old, working around the Norwalk facility his father was building into a destination for drag racers.
“And we didn’t have glamorous spectator events, we didn’t have national events, what we had was a pit area filled with sportsman racers,” Bader said. “And that’s what built Norwalk Dragway, later Norwalk Raceway Park and now Summit Motorsports Park.”
Those racers built the family business before the crowds arrived. Bader says the industry often overlooks their investment and skill, even in races decided by ten-thousandths of a second.
“It’s what they do, but they do it in the dark,” Bader said. “And I want to bring some of that expertise and some of that skill and bring it into the light.”
Recognition, however, won’t pay a track’s electric bill or replace a worn racing surface and he’s very much aware of this reality. Bader’s larger undertaking involves helping operators who depend on weekly racing rather than national events, and who face expenses whether 200 cars show up or 20.
“Tracks are closing almost yearly,” Bader said. “It’s like, okay, who are we going to lose in the off-season? And we have casualties this year, just like every other year.”
He wants SRL to help operators exchange ideas, improve promotions and find ways to keep their facilities open. It won’t produce the glamour of a nitro show.
And that brings up the question certain to follow any announcement involving a new sanctioning organization: What does NHRA think? Bader isn’t looking for a fight with the association that sanctions his own Norwalk facility, where he hopes to maintain its existing NHRA events.
“I’m hopeful that NHRA views this as a complimentary entity, because the reality of it is that what we do will in some respects create opportunities for people that want to take their racing skill to the next level,” Bader said. “Keep in mind, there are drag strips all over this country. Every one of those racetracks has an opportunity to create new fans.”
His argument is that local tracks introduce people to drag racing, and some of those racers eventually move into NHRA regional and national competition. He isn’t interested in building another professional racing empire.
Bader isn’t pretending he knows how to turn every bracket race into a front-gate attraction, either. He wants programs capable of surviving beyond next weekend.
“I’m not going to profess today that I know how to sell tickets to a sportsman race,” Bader said. “What I can profess today, is that sportsman racing is an invaluable asset and a foundationary block to the long-term health and sustainability of our sport.”
His confidence comes from experience, not from having every answer. He’s approaching his 50th year in a sport he never expected to make his career.
“Dad always had a saying, when you play another man’s game, you pay their price,” Bader said. “And I mean, this is who I am, this is what I am, this is what I do, and I’m good at it. So while I didn’t imagine it, here I am.”
The recent Sportsman World Finals at Norwalk, a program aimed at helping displaced IHRA racers when the series folded, helped convince him that his next undertaking should center on the racers who built his family’s business. The championship had been in doubt earlier in the season.
“Being the host facility to the Sportsman World Finals is a top five moment in my career, and not because I made any money with it, it was just good,” Bader said. “And track owners and racers and sponsors were so appreciative.”
For a promoter accustomed to major spectator events, the reaction stayed with him. So did the driver’s meeting and winner’s circle celebration.
“It probably did light a fire under me, but it opened my eyes to the importance of that event and it opened my eyes to the importance of sportsman racing,” Bader said. “I knew it was important. I mean, it’s where I come from, of course I knew it was important.”
The timing also brought him closer to a decision his father once made. Bill Bader Sr. operated the IHRA during an earlier chapter of its history, and his son now finds himself considering how to serve tracks and racers from the other side of the sanctioning agreement.
“My father has been an extraordinary mentor and teacher and that continues to this day, even though he’s no longer with us,” Bader said. “I still hear him in the back of my head when I’m going through the decision-making process. I still reference quotes that my father shared with me throughout my career.”
It wasn’t until Bader sat down to write his first letter to track operators that his father’s influence really hit home. He signed his name, added SRL, and then remembered the words Bill Sr. used to close his IHRA letters.
Bill Sr. used to close his IHRA letters with “IHRA and damn proud of it.” Before putting his own spin on those words, Bader Jr. called Deb Bader to make sure she was OK with it.
“I paused for a second and then I wrote, ‘And damn proud of it,’” Bader said. “And it just all came together at that point. And I just sat back and smiled and, I don’t know, that was a meaningful moment for me.”
SRL still has tracks to convince and promises to deliver. But that letter connected Bader’s next undertaking to the man who taught him the business.
“I thought that was a great way to honor him and continue the Bader legacy in just a little, small way, but it was a really big way to me,” Bader said.
