News & Analysis

NHRA grew in 2007 with Tom Compton as President

By Jeff Burk

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While 2008 may turn out to be the mother of all financial disasters for the automotive world, that certainly wasn’t the case for the NHRA in 2007 based upon their tax returns for that year.

Under the financial guidance of president Tom Compton and his team, the NHRA gross receipts increased from $114.7 million in 2006 to $121.5 in 2007. The net assets/fund balance of the NHRA increased from $36.8 million to $42.3 million. About the only decrease the returns show is the profit, which dropped from $7 million in 2006 to $5.5 million in 2007.

One of the numbers we always look at is the total of salaries and wages for the year and here is where it gets a little interesting. In 2006 the NHRA employee salaries paid was  $13, 391.477. In 2007 that number went to $13,779,078 -- an increase of just under $400,000. At the same time the NHRA management raises for 2007 amounted to approximately $140,000 with president Tom Compton getting the highest salary at $707,000+ and VP Graham Light the biggest raise with a salary bump of about $49,000.

A quick look at some of the expenses on Line 28 of the return show that total salaries and benefits paid to NHRA employees compared to the 2006 return rose by around $388,000. But there is one really puzzling set of  numbers: Line 25a shows the total compensation for the “officers, directors, key members…: to be $2,241,018 in 2007 but the same line in 2006 shows the number at $2,456,615.

And one more thing -- we have the returns for the Museum and just for the record it lost just over a $500,000 in 2007.

Rather than bore you readers with more numbers crunching, we’re going to print a few of the more important pages and let you take a look for yourselves.

For fans of the tax returns, here is your annual Christmas present from DRO. Enjoy!