Is the International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) moving too quickly in its efforts to remake straight-line and sportsman racing? New owner Darryl Cuttell has gone out of his way to purchase tracks and attract circuits to his domain (there are more than 100 tracks under IHRA’s umbrella), add series both on land and sea, and hire some of the most widely known promotional professionals in the business.
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Cuttell, apparently, is adept at both hiring and firing. He started his merry-go-round of appointees with former NHRA announcer and historian Alan Reinhart, who was hired as VP of Racing Operations and fired within weeks. Acquiring the services of Drag Illustrated ad maven Brett Underwood seemed a logical choice, as did hiring Scott “Woody” Woodruff as COO of the organization. This week, both of these estimable characters were back on the street.
All of this action brings up the question of whether Cuttell and his organization are growing too quickly and expanding too rapidly? After ridding the group of Woodruff’s services, he promoted Doug Foley Jr. as COO. Foley’s dad is on-site for this weekend’s 57th annual Amalie Motor Oil Gatornationals, the start of the National Hot Rod Association’s (NHRA) 75th anniversary season. The elder Foley intends to race in both series this year and was, himself, surprised by the organization’s rapid change of personnel.
In speaking with IHRA president Leah Martin, competitionplus.com learned: “Often you don’t finish the race with the same team you start with. As IHRA continues to grow, we are building a team focused on transforming and strengthening the sport for the future.”
Same thing some of us were talking about a week or so ago. Could be the demise of IHRA by getting too greedy and buying up all the tracks they can get their hands on ….and then when they can’t pay for them or make the necessary corporate return on investment, folding up just before all the tracks are sold to land developers. Not likely that the lost tracks would be replaced with new ones when they are gone.
Corporate management doesn’t have the same skin in the game as owner operators do. IHRA should be a sanctioning body for promotion of the races, not a bank account whose goal is making the maximum profit.