The latest update as of March 18, 2025
Busy few weeks coming up
This coming weekend sees the second of 20 events on the 2025 NHRA national event schedule. The 39th annual NHRA Arizona Nationals will be running at Chandler, AZ's Firebird Motorsports Park. With three of the four PRO classes (no Pro Stock Bike) in competition, plus the Pro Mods and six sportsman categories, it's bound to be a great show. Then it's a few hundred miles west to one of the most iconic facilities on the tour, the In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip, site of the 65th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals. While we won't have a presence at Pomona, our Southwest photographer, BIG Bob Snyder will be on hand for the entire Arizona event, providing us with all the action photos we can use.
And a week later, it's the season opener for the Funny Car Chaos and Nitro Chaos groups. The 5th annual Funny Car Chaos Classic at the Texas Motorplex (Ennis, TX). We'll have Bob Snyder, plus our Denver correspondent, Dale Fackler, and while he won't be working with us, our good friend Larry Pfister of Horsepower Heaven fame, currently shooting for Competition Plus. Larry's appearance will be the second stop on his 50th anniversary "Pfister Pfoto" tour around North America, as part of a major bucket - heck, call it a barrel - list. Stay tuned for all the photos - and more - that we can handle from The FCC event.
What in the heck is going on at IHRA ???
Less than two weeks ago, the biggest announcement in quite a few years from the International Hot Rod Association blasted through cyberspace, announcing the PURCHASE of seven race tracks, a number of which were sanctioned by the NHRA. Only a day before, their 2025 schedule was released, which included events at a number of those tracks, titled IHRA Delivers on Promise to Revive Professional Racing in 2025. Leading up to the big schedule announcement, one day before that release, was the relatively low-key announcement of IHRA President's Cup Nationals Returns to Maryland International Raceway.
While the first two announcements were plausible and welcomed by the racing community, the "IHRA and Owner Darryl Cuttell Announce Groundbreaking Acquisition of Seven Premier Drag Racing Tracks" announcement brought immediate fallout and denials, and an air of almost total disbelief by the drag racing community. At least those that were outside the ever-widening orbit of the "new" IHRA. A demand for a retraction of the purchase announcement came almost immediately from MIR (Maryland International Raceway), followed by denials of purchase agreements from several of the other properties quoted in the release.
Four days later, Competition Plus did a followup story on the IHRA, titled Regardless of what's on social media, IHRA is sticking to its statement. Then things quieted down for a full week with nothing emanating from the IHRA headquarters, before the latest Competition Plus article detailed in an article titled Don't be surprised if rejuvenated IHRA leans more into an entertainment approach.
The article is filled with direct quotes from IHRA CEO Christian Byrd that detail some "novel" approaches to the question(s) of how to improve the sport of drag racing. Unfortunately, most of them have very little to do with traditional drag racing. When the conversation touches on "We'll diversify into other forms of motorsports. I'll show that, whether it be on water or on snow, or snowmobiles on asphalt or dirt, we're looking at taking our facilities and turning them into playgrounds for car enthusiasts."
Hold on, he's just getting started. In the next paragraph, he goes worldwide with "We're definitely looking closely at international expansion from our sanctioning body side to do more of the better tracks, whether we look to Australia, to Europe, Canada, and Mexico," Byrd explained. "All these things are on the table. So we're really looking at a global perspective, eventually, and being a world leader in racing." You'll have to go to Competition Plus to read the whole article as it does go on quite a bit after the quotes presented here. Just take much, if not all that you read with a grain or possibly a shaker full of salt.
From this point on, let's just wait until the first "scheduled" national event actually takes place. It's on the IHRA calendar as happening on June 13-14 at a TBA location, with the type of event TBA, and the event title.... TBA. Then, two weeks later, the IHRA Night of Fire at Galot Motorsports Park (Dunn-Benson, NC) is next on their agenda. The countdown clock is ticking......