II can only believe that the most well to do teams are the ones endorsing this silliness. The teams that are getting the best sponsorship deals, which pay regardless of how many times they run, or how well they perform.

Other than the opportunity to win races, teams that want to run IHRA races is to increase the amount of time their car is on the track. That is what the sponsors are paying for, to have their names out in the public eye. If a team can show they are racing and getting the sponsor exposure, the sponsors will pay more, or will continue to sign the teams to future deals. In this day and age, companies are only going to pay for results.

What this will eventually do is drive the smaller teams out, because their on track time will be limited to how many times they can compete. Then these there will be fewer teams, and soon the fields will not be full, and people will get tired of paying big $ to watch fewer cars. The TV people will see the value of the “shows” diminish, followed by the companies that advertise will pull back their ads. Then, there will be no more drag racing on the tube.

The whole professional thing will go in to a death spiral.

What needs to be figured out then is what does that do to you and I. How does it affect your local track? If IHRA folds, what happens to the IHRA tracks?

John