IDBL out, XDA in: Sanction chess anyone?

On November 22, 2017, the inevitable happened and the Pied Piper of motorcycle drag racing, Jason Miller, announced his return to the sport. A message in the form of a press release was circulated to all media outlets that a new sanction, the Xtreme Dragbike Association (XDA) would begin hosting all-motorcycle drag racing competitions during the 2018 season. Jason Miller and his brother Chris Miller, who comprise Miller Brothers Productions (MBP), have announced they will head up the XDA, run the events and the IDBL as a sanction is now dissolved and has evolved into the new XDA.

Jack Korpela, veteran journalist who owns and operates the website “Cycledrag” did his best to serve the sanction IDBL when he was recruited to do so and he did his best to serve the racers and IRGSE. The former President of the IDBL for the last two years is out of the new series and MBP has taken the reins of power.

Jack was asked about this development and he replied, “I would like to thank all of the great racers, sponsors and fans for making 2017 an outstanding year of motorcycle drag racing."

During a recent phone interview, Jason Miller revealed “There will be nine classes with the XDA, the only professional classes will be Pro Street and Real Street.”

A breakdown of the classes looks like this at the time of publication: P/St, R/St, Grudge, 4.60, 5.60, Crazy 8’s, Top Sportsman, Pro ET and Street ET. The focus of the XDA will be sharply on the sportsman racers.

MDIR prep is a great attraction to XDA racers. When the Miller Brothers prep a race track, it's a tight one that can hold all the horsepower that can be thrown at it.  (Tom McCarthy photo)

The inaugural 2018 season for the XDA has six races slated to go, all on the East Coast. The home track of Maryland International Raceway, long the bedrock of the series, will kick off the season on April 27-29 at MDIR. Then one event a month, spaced well apart, will follow, May 18-20 at Atco NJ, June 22-24 at Virginia Motorsports Park, July 27-29 at MDIR, August 24-26 at Virginia Motorsports Park, and September 21-23 at MDIR, to close out their season.

Jason Miller and his brother Chris own the series and will be putting their hearts into it, “It’s great to be back,” commented Jason. “Motorcycle drag racing is a passion for us and we look forward to that first event; can’t wait really.”

In other important sanction news, Jay Regan of the Man Cup series has announced that in 2018 the Man Cup sanction will be following the NHRA lead of not requiring a 1% back up of record runs. Both the Man Cup leadership and NHRA Tech department feel that with new-era technology, it’s rock solid to look at relevant data from a run, compare it to the time slip of record, and if the numbers dove-tale with the run data, then the run will stand as an official record. A “Tech Department review” and post-run Tech rules still apply, but the 1% rule will not be in effect in 2018. Racers are encouraged to keep an eye on the Man Cup home page for an official announcement with full details in early 2018.

Also points for Man Cup will be different in the new year in more than one way. Jay Regan stated recently, “We are looking at changing the points structure next year so that we can better serve our racers and not only reward the loyal racers, but keep it interesting. We will also have a dedicated statistician in 2018 whose sole job will be to tabulate points and get them up quickly after each event.”

Jay further commented, “I want to thank all our racers and series sponsors and supporters for a great 2017 season. We ended it on a high note with the World Finals. That was definitely one of the greatest motorcycle drag races in the history of the sport.”