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Return Of Top Fuel Among Plans For IHRA
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The addition of Mike Dunn as president of the International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) is just one step in a larger plan to restructure the once-prominent drag racing sanctioning body.
That was the message during a media conference call Tuesday with Dunn and other IHRA and IRG Sports + Entertainment executives.
Dunn, a veteran drag racer and a television analyst for NHRA broadcasts on ESPN the last 13 years, was announced as the newest president of the IHRA Tuesday morning. He said the plan and business model presented to him by Chris Lencheski, the IRG Sports + Entertainment vice chairman of the board and CEO, is what convinced him to take the job.
“When Chris called me up and wanted me to be president of the company I kind of wondered why he wanted me to be president,” Dunn said. “Then he laid out his plan, the business model for the company, and I kind of looked at it. The key thing I liked about it was he had a plan to actually get more eyes on the product from a global standpoint and nationally. When I read about it, I said: ‘This has a pretty good chance of working.’
“We never talked money,” Dunn added. “It wasn’t about money. If I didn’t buy into what they were doing, then it wouldn’t matter what the money was going to be.”
Lencheski pulled no punches during the conference call, stating that IHRA has lost a great deal of money over the last few years and that the entire organization knew it was time for a change. IRG has owned and operated IHRA since 2013.
“To be clear, and to work from a position of keeping it real, this company lost millions of dollars,” said Lencheski, who was named IRG’s CEO in November. “Not just last year and not just in this year, but millions of dollars for the last several years. That definition of insanity where you’re effectively doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome was something that myself and the other members of the board looked at.”
That has led to a new mentality within IHRA and IRG Sports + Entertainment, a mentality Lencheski called the “racer first mentality.” Lencheski said he believes Dunn shares that mentality and is the perfect person to lead the IHRA into the future.
“Having Mike Dunn come in here, whom by every definition knows every part of the sport, from a racer first mentality, beyond what he did at ESPN and beyond what he did at NHRA, knowing the tracks and the teams and the sponsors and the licensees, was critically important,” Lencheski said. “Not institutional knowledge, we can go out and buy more tracks. That’s easy when you’re sitting with the check book we’ve got.”
Chief among the projects Dunn and the other members if the IHRA and IRGSE executive team are working on is a plan to bring Top Fuel back into the fold on a full-time basis in time for the 2017 season as part of what is being called the D1 program.
“D1, or dragster one, is an IP (intellectual property) product owned by IRGSE and the IHRA specifically and it will be the new premier class of racing under the IHRA sanctioning agreement,” Lencheski said.
“We’re going to bring Top Fuel in in a little bit of a different format,” Dunn added. “We’re going to bring that back in 2017. We’re going to keep for sure the Funny Car format as it is right now in 2016 and Top Fuel Motorcycles, Pro Mods and the Pro Stocks. We’re going to be evaluating everything. Obviously we’re going to be making some pretty good changes bringing the D1 series into the show. It is going to be pretty interesting.”
Specifics surrounding the return of Top Fuel are still being discussed, but it was noted during the conference call that the purse for Top Fuel will be on the same level as other competitive series when it returns to the IHRA fold in 2017.
The decision to bring back Top Fuel had a lot to do with its popularity on an international level according to Dunn.
“Once you get outside the U.S. and Canada, Top Fuel has always been the No. 1 car,” Dunn said. “I’ve gone to Australia and Funny Car has never really had a foot hold—the same thing in Europe. It’s not that they aren’t popular. There has always been Top Fuel and Top Fuel, like we’ve always said, is the king of the sport.”
In addition, plans are currently in motion for the IHRA to field as many as two in-house Top Fuel teams with big-name drivers in an effort to bolster the division upon its return.
“We’re also looking at doing in-house cars,” Dunn noted. “The IHRA is going to have its own Top Fuel D1 series race cars to where we can actually maybe bring in a Larry Dixon or a Whit Bazemore or Melanie Troxel or something. Not to run the whole series, but certainly to maybe give us a pop at the beginning.”
It was also mentioned during that call that part of the Top Fuel structure will be what amounts to a revenue-sharing program.
“If you’re in our Top Fuel structure, you are part of the future revenue growth of television and licensing. That is from day one,” Dunn said. “If you are spending that sum to invest in us and running the amount of races that are required and participating in our contingency program, yes, you should be a partner and to be a partner you need a share of that licensing and television revenue going forward.”
Another program being developed is a combine for aspiring drag racers that could help identify up-and-coming talent.
“We want to do a combine toward the end of the year where we bring up-and-coming young drivers and give them an opportunity in Jr. Dragsters and Super Comp dragsters to go through a series of tests depending on the amount of experience they have,” Dunn said. “We’ll have the opportunity for other cars that they can jump in and test them. We’ll hopefully get some crew chiefs and car owners to come down and look at them and see them with the possibility of moving them into our D1 series … That’s the plan. Obviously we’ve got to work out all the details.”
Dunn acknowledged there will be speed bumps along the way, but he believes in the plan and intends to see it through.
“I’m not the brightest guy in the world, but I’m not dumb,” Dunn continued. “I realize—and this is from racing all these years—you have to have a good team behind you. You have to have a plan and you have to be willing to execute that plan and realize that at certain points you’re going to hit a snug and you’re going to have to readjust that, which is what is going to happen here. It is a good plan, but it’s not going to be perfect and it is going to be tough to get to certain points.
“That being said, I still believe we’re going to be able to do it.”
That was the message during a media conference call Tuesday with Dunn and other IHRA and IRG Sports + Entertainment executives.
Dunn, a veteran drag racer and a television analyst for NHRA broadcasts on ESPN the last 13 years, was announced as the newest president of the IHRA Tuesday morning. He said the plan and business model presented to him by Chris Lencheski, the IRG Sports + Entertainment vice chairman of the board and CEO, is what convinced him to take the job.
“When Chris called me up and wanted me to be president of the company I kind of wondered why he wanted me to be president,” Dunn said. “Then he laid out his plan, the business model for the company, and I kind of looked at it. The key thing I liked about it was he had a plan to actually get more eyes on the product from a global standpoint and nationally. When I read about it, I said: ‘This has a pretty good chance of working.’
“We never talked money,” Dunn added. “It wasn’t about money. If I didn’t buy into what they were doing, then it wouldn’t matter what the money was going to be.”
Lencheski pulled no punches during the conference call, stating that IHRA has lost a great deal of money over the last few years and that the entire organization knew it was time for a change. IRG has owned and operated IHRA since 2013.
“To be clear, and to work from a position of keeping it real, this company lost millions of dollars,” said Lencheski, who was named IRG’s CEO in November. “Not just last year and not just in this year, but millions of dollars for the last several years. That definition of insanity where you’re effectively doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome was something that myself and the other members of the board looked at.”
That has led to a new mentality within IHRA and IRG Sports + Entertainment, a mentality Lencheski called the “racer first mentality.” Lencheski said he believes Dunn shares that mentality and is the perfect person to lead the IHRA into the future.
“Having Mike Dunn come in here, whom by every definition knows every part of the sport, from a racer first mentality, beyond what he did at ESPN and beyond what he did at NHRA, knowing the tracks and the teams and the sponsors and the licensees, was critically important,” Lencheski said. “Not institutional knowledge, we can go out and buy more tracks. That’s easy when you’re sitting with the check book we’ve got.”
Chief among the projects Dunn and the other members if the IHRA and IRGSE executive team are working on is a plan to bring Top Fuel back into the fold on a full-time basis in time for the 2017 season as part of what is being called the D1 program.
“D1, or dragster one, is an IP (intellectual property) product owned by IRGSE and the IHRA specifically and it will be the new premier class of racing under the IHRA sanctioning agreement,” Lencheski said.
“We’re going to bring Top Fuel in in a little bit of a different format,” Dunn added. “We’re going to bring that back in 2017. We’re going to keep for sure the Funny Car format as it is right now in 2016 and Top Fuel Motorcycles, Pro Mods and the Pro Stocks. We’re going to be evaluating everything. Obviously we’re going to be making some pretty good changes bringing the D1 series into the show. It is going to be pretty interesting.”
Specifics surrounding the return of Top Fuel are still being discussed, but it was noted during the conference call that the purse for Top Fuel will be on the same level as other competitive series when it returns to the IHRA fold in 2017.
The decision to bring back Top Fuel had a lot to do with its popularity on an international level according to Dunn.
“Once you get outside the U.S. and Canada, Top Fuel has always been the No. 1 car,” Dunn said. “I’ve gone to Australia and Funny Car has never really had a foot hold—the same thing in Europe. It’s not that they aren’t popular. There has always been Top Fuel and Top Fuel, like we’ve always said, is the king of the sport.”
In addition, plans are currently in motion for the IHRA to field as many as two in-house Top Fuel teams with big-name drivers in an effort to bolster the division upon its return.
“We’re also looking at doing in-house cars,” Dunn noted. “The IHRA is going to have its own Top Fuel D1 series race cars to where we can actually maybe bring in a Larry Dixon or a Whit Bazemore or Melanie Troxel or something. Not to run the whole series, but certainly to maybe give us a pop at the beginning.”
It was also mentioned during that call that part of the Top Fuel structure will be what amounts to a revenue-sharing program.
“If you’re in our Top Fuel structure, you are part of the future revenue growth of television and licensing. That is from day one,” Dunn said. “If you are spending that sum to invest in us and running the amount of races that are required and participating in our contingency program, yes, you should be a partner and to be a partner you need a share of that licensing and television revenue going forward.”
Another program being developed is a combine for aspiring drag racers that could help identify up-and-coming talent.
“We want to do a combine toward the end of the year where we bring up-and-coming young drivers and give them an opportunity in Jr. Dragsters and Super Comp dragsters to go through a series of tests depending on the amount of experience they have,” Dunn said. “We’ll have the opportunity for other cars that they can jump in and test them. We’ll hopefully get some crew chiefs and car owners to come down and look at them and see them with the possibility of moving them into our D1 series … That’s the plan. Obviously we’ve got to work out all the details.”
Dunn acknowledged there will be speed bumps along the way, but he believes in the plan and intends to see it through.
“I’m not the brightest guy in the world, but I’m not dumb,” Dunn continued. “I realize—and this is from racing all these years—you have to have a good team behind you. You have to have a plan and you have to be willing to execute that plan and realize that at certain points you’re going to hit a snug and you’re going to have to readjust that, which is what is going to happen here. It is a good plan, but it’s not going to be perfect and it is going to be tough to get to certain points.
“That being said, I still believe we’re going to be able to do it.”
