Because of the massive amounts of drama generated by the ouster of ADRL founder Kenny Nowling and many of his staff, and their replacement by now ADRL president/CEO Tim McAmis and a host of new employees, the first race of the 2011 ADRL season was much anticipated by the drag racing community.

The first ADRL U.S. race went off at Houston Raceway Park March 25-26 without any real bad drama on or off the track. As NHRA commentator Mike Dunn would say, it was just “a good old drag race.”

About 90 ADRL teams showed for the season’s first race, with the only “short” field being the Extreme Ten-Five class. That class had only ten entries and the ADRL management followed their own rules that call for reducing any field to eight cars if twelve or fewer cars are entered. All of the other classes had more than the minimum in attendance.