Regardless of which side of the spectrum you sit I believe we can all agree that politics at every level could use fewer career-politican types and more average joes in office who work for the people and understand the plight of the typical citizen. Which is really what government is supposed to be about. Now, odds are, we’ll never see such a thing actually play out in Washington, but we certainly witness it in motorsports and in drag racing in particular. And it’s that kind of selfless drive by individuals with nothing more to gain than to do right by their fellow comrades that embodies all that’s great about our sport.

The fall of the ADRL and the X-DRL last season was well documented, and when the dust cleared it was a collection of racers—businessmen, yes, but racers first—who stepped in to take the reigns and attempt to right the ship for professional doorslammer racing. 

The four principles in the PDRA: Jason and Mitchell Scruggs, Gene Hector, Roger Henson, and Tommy Franklin—all of them self-made businessmen by day—teamed up with Rick Moore and Bob Harris to deliver a fresh new start for the popular genre of drag racing. They did so with a mission of maintaining integrity and a cannot-fail attitude, because they believed just such an approach was the path so success. 

Said Moore; “My dad taught me that you had to be a man of your word. Your word is your bond. That’s just such a hard trait to come by these days. But I can tell you, these people – the Scruggses, the Franklins, the Hensons, the Hectors, these guys are extremely successful business people. I just can’t tell you how successful they are. They became that way by being honorable. If they hadn’t, they wouldn’t be where they are.”

With their first three races in the books, the leaders of the PDRA aren’t likely to call the new organization a financial success just yet, but they have placed doorslammer racing in a more professional, more transparent, and better all-around situation headed into the future than what existed a year ago. And it’s all because a group of racers combined their efforts and invested their money and their time into something they believed in without any expectation of fame or riches from doing so. They were simply looking out for the best interest of the the sport they love and one can surmise that even if the PDRA does reach a level of popularity and finances that the NHRA enjoys, little will change in their mission statement–to do it for the love of the sport, putting the racer and the fan first.

We see the same type of resiliency by racers looking out for their fellow brethren all throughout the sport. Many do it with the hope of simply breaking even at the of the day with enough left in the coffer to open the gate for the next scheduled race. There are no high-paid board of director salaries and no bonuses with a bunch of zeroes at the end of the year for their tireless efforts. And most of them will tell you, that’s perfectly okay. 

Another recent case in point was the Northern Class Nationals, a follow-up to the infamous Class Nationals held more than a decade ago, that was in the works for years under the guidance of Anthony Walton and standout sportsman racer, Michael Beard. The pair, disenchanted with the current state of class racing and it’s position in the HRA’s, set out to do the very same thing that class racer Alex Denysynko did in 2001–they staged a Stock and Super Stock-only event, where the class racers were the stars and received the royal treatment, void of “North 40” parking spaces, sky-high entry fees, and bottom-of-the-totem-pole, we’ll-run-you-when-we-can status. Whether they made a few bucks after the checks were divvied out or not wasn’t the point–it was to stage a drag race by and for the racer and to prove tat it can be done.

I’m convinced–and I think many of you reading this are on the same page—that only the people know and understand what the collective citizenry truly need to prosper, not those in powerful positions exercising said power who never have to abide with the consequences. And in that same regard, only a racer, who spends their hard-earned disposable income to build a race car, get to the track, pay their entry fees, and make the sacrifices to complete and to keep the sport they love alive, understand what it takes to stage a successful and entertaining drag race, the right way. If you look elsewhere in big-time auto racing, you see organizations run with a corporate mentality by business school-types who know very little about the sport for which they govern, often ruling with an iron fist without regard for the plight of those competing. It’s profit at all cost.

Though we may take them for granted from time to time, the sport of drag racing is quite fortunate to be in the company of many intrepid individuals who have the wherewithal and the resources to step out on a limb and take the lead, and we all owe them a debt of gratitude for accepting the challenge and taking the risk.

Now, if we could only get a racer in the White House…