If you’re a Pro Modified racer, team owner, sponsor, or fan, the 2013 season was one that will be long remembered, but it’s not likely to be for any of the right reasons.
Ripe with controversy even before the clock struck midnight and the ball dropped in New York to signify the dawning of a new year, the season was filled with conflict and bumps in the road at every turn that shook the very core of organized doorslammer racing. It also gave the rather niche segment of an already niche sport a reputation it will take years to recover from. And it all stemmed from too many hands reaching for a single piece of pie.
A little more than a year ago, the American Drag Racing League, then under the guidance of renowned chassis builder Tim McAmis, was, in a surprise move, sold to former boss and series founder Kenny Nowling. Almost overnight, a group of displaced former employees of the series formed the X-DRL to go head-to-head with Nowling and the ADRL.
There was no question that this move would, to some extent, create division between the two series and its racers, fracturing the healthy fields the ADRL had enjoyed in previous years and leaving the fans with two halves rather one whole.
We (and so many others) optimistically gave the benefit of the doubt that two competing outlaw doorslammers organizations — operating as almost mirror images of one another — could peacefully coexist. And initially, it seemed that peace may prevail, despite the clear divisions that existed, with racers forced to choose sides or take the journeyman approach and forgo chasing points.
What we all had hoped wouldn’t happen was playing out right before our very eyes.
But by early summer, it all began to unravel.
Jeff Mitchell and his X-DRL group began falling behind on payouts owed to their racers and the ADRL soon followed. In the midst of their financial struggles, the two organizations took off the gloves, beat their chests, and traded blows in an effort to one-up and run the other off for good, doing so with wanton disregard of their own financial means.
What we all had hoped wouldn’t happen was playing out right before our very eyes.
From the addition of new classes to too-good-to-be-true bonus races and pumped-up payouts, it was all beginning to look like a game of poker without any money, any consequences at all, on the line.
The X-DRL sunk under the weight of its battered public image and clearly insurmountable debt, while the ADRL sputtered across the finish line to claim victory as, if nothing else, the lone survivor. Or at least so we thought.
Those that read this or any other drag racing magazine or browse internet forums have certainly read or heard about the debacle that ensued during the month of December, as Nowling came under fire from racers, fans, and fellow race promoters for failing to honor the payout timeline he publicly set months prior. Nowling and silent supporter Al-Anabi Racing then settled their affairs — regarding the whereabouts of a significant sum of money — in the public forum, serving only to further tarnish the image that outlaw doorslammer racing had carved in the previous 12 months.
Now, with the racing community already sour on the ADRL administration but at the same time disenchanted with the idea of fragmenting once again, Rockingham Dragway’s Steve Earwood and a collection of track operators have pulled their support of the ADRL and formed a series of their own for 2014.
The ADRL, likewise, is regrouping and moving forward. A year of struggles, a year of division at a time when our sport needs unity, a year of failure, and a year that countless racers who paid their entry fees never to be paid their winnings would just as soon forget, and seemingly nothing was learned from it.
After watching the season that was play out, it’ll be difficult to convince anyone that today’s market can support two competing organizations, and then even if it could, that it’s healthy for the sport in any way. Direct competition doesn’t work in sports….never has, never will.
The reality is that Earwood and company are only doing what they feel they need to do — protecting what has been a lucrative venture for them by taking the reigns with the intent of turning it’s image around and keeping it viable. But keep in mind, the X-DRL was formed on a similar principle. There’s that deja vu again.
The sooner that Pro Modified racing on an organized level finds solid footing and ends the embarrassing charade that it finds itself in, the better off it will be. The politics of racing have sped out of control, never mind the costs that underlay many of the very problems that have brought the DRL’s to where they are.
Eighth-mile outlaw doorslammer racing has given a lot to our sport over the last decade and change, and we can only hope that better days are ahead once lessons are learned and hard decisions are made, but you have to admit, things sure were a lot simpler when racers were barnstorming quick 8’s and match races across the south.
Ah, the memories.
But really, get it together, folks.