I suggest you go back to your roots and embrace Pro Mod, a class that was nurtured and grew under the IHRA banner starting as Top Sportsman through the efforts of Mike Thermos and Sonny Leonard. To distort the existing and established competition rules of the leaders like the ADRL and even the NHRA Pro Mod exhibition series would be a mistake. The system works, the race cars exist, and the result has been more Pro Mod racing than anyone ever could have envisioned all over this country and internationally.

In my opinion, nitro is key, the most important draw for the ticket-buying spectator, and there are plenty of hard running classic-type AA funny cars to choose from across this country. Call them Prostalgia or whatever, but please don’t call them Nostalgia.

It is not likely that the Schumachers, Kalittas and the like will be coming over to run under the IHRA banner, as they are too heavily vested in the NHRA show. Instead, there are other nitro cars like A/Fuel, Fuel Altereds and Nitro Harleys that still race down 1320 feet for the traditionalists to embrace.

Additionally, a healthy Top Dragster/Sportsman, Pro Street, or 7.0 Pro-type show helps to fill out the field between rounds with a limited IHRA-type sportsman program.

My point is, don’t play follow the leader; you don’t have to.  Be unique with nitro shows, jets, fireworks, wheelstanders, independent monster trucks, free uniformed military nights, Hot Wheels toys to the first 1,001 kids, etc.  Think outside the box, embrace customer service, and be promoters. If there is anything to be learned from the Feld era of IHRA, it is to wow the audience with the best show for the dollar, a spectacle for the young family to follow. 

Your competition is not NHRA, as some people seem to think, but the Saturday night movie at the 30-Plex.