Wolf’s Word: The ‘DRL’s Go Head-To-Head

In a period of less than one week back in early December, the entire landscape of outlaw doorslammer racing was turned on its head. Shiek Khalid Al Thani, the money man behind the American Drag Racing League and the Al-Anabi Racing empire, had in the weeks prior, opted to sell the 1/8-mile outlaw drag racing series that was struggling to draw in the fans as it once had during its peak years. And of all people, it was the original co-founder of the organization, the former President and CEO prior to being ousted two years earlier, the man who put organized outlaw doorslammer racing on the map, and who once had the NHRA looking over their shoulders — Kenny Nowling — who spearheaded the winning bid.

Even before the transaction moved from the rumor stage to the official stage, people on the inside were already talking and concepts were already being discussed. By the time Nowling made official the acquisition of the ADRL by his FightMe MMA organization with a press conference at the PRI Show in Orlando, talk of a competing series known as the X-DRL was already in full swing in the aisles of the Orange County Convention Center. One week later, the faces behind this new organization stepped on stage at the International Motorsports Industry Show in Indianapolis and presented the new drag racing series to the world. They had a race schedule, they had a logo, staff, and a growing list of supporters. These guys weren’t kidding…this was happening.

Before all of this went down in November, it appeared that Nowling and his former cohort Bubba Corzine were hashing out plans to re-enter the sport with a competing organization to the ADRL. I wrote a Wolf’s Word column regarding the possible existence of two very similar doorslammer organizations competing with one another. Taking a positive stance on the situation, I believed (and still believe) that two organizations can work given the right circumstances. But the primary caveat in all of that was that the two series cannot go head-to-head with one another on the same weekend and split things down the middle, at best

Sure enough, they did.

To be honest, it was all but inevitable. When the news became official, there were tracks that preferred the pay-for-a-ticket model that opted to move to the X-DRL. The X-DRL, meanwhile, was building partnerships with tracks and creating a schedule virtually from scratch. It was almost a blank slate for both organizations. And when you take into account that there are only so many race weekends in a year and consider all of the variables that track promoters have to wager, from annual events with set dates to regional conflicts and more, the chances that these two series could contest a total of 17 races and completely avoid one another were slim.

And there it was in black and white when the two series released their schedules: on the third weekend of May, the ADRL would be in Cordova, Ill. and the X-DRL would travel to Belle Rose, La.

Now, it’s highly unlikely (in this writer’s opinion) that this was about either organization thumping its chest and intentionally setting up a head-to-head battle royale cage match, complete with tables, chairs, and tacks, for “extreme” drag racing supremacy. This was circumstance. Sh*t happens.

Regardless of the how and the why, though, the racers had to pick, and with only so many competitors to go around amongst two organizations with very similar class lineups, it was anybody’s guess what the fields would look like. In the end, the ADRL’s Spring Drags IV featured a total of 107 cars in nine classes, and the X-DRL’s Bash on the Bayou drew 98 cars in the same number of categories. Both events featured short field in some eliminators, and the smallest such was the X-DRL’s Pro Turbo class with just two entrants. Neither show was so short on entrants that they could’ve been classified as a dud but it certainly wasn’t the scenario of a year prior when all 1/8-mile outlaw racing was under one umbrella. Open wheel racing fans: tell us where you’ve heard this one before.

Conflicting date aside, the two organizations have largely played nice with one another thus far. That is, with the exception of some clear one-upsmanship in the form of financial incentives for racers, one of which was targeted specifically at the overlapping race weekend to sway the teams’ decisions.

Now, we get it. These are businesses and businesses must compete to stay alive. Survival of the fittest. But politics and warfare doesn’t do anyone any good.

On May 1 the X-DRL revealed the X-Treme Shootout – a special race-within-a-race bonus event for racers in Pro X-Treme, X-Treme Pro Stock, and Pro Nitrous to be held at the series’ Thunder in the Heartland event in Indianapolis in September. The bonus event is worth $25,000 to the winner. And the qualifying event for the X-Treme Shootout? How about the Bash on the Bayou in Belle Rose.

Just 48 hours later, the ADRL issued its own press release revealing new world championship bonuses for winning both the American and Arabian series titles along with a return of the popular and lucrative “Battle for the Belts” contest. Oh, and they added Pro Drag Radial for good measure, as well.

Can we say “neener, neener?”

Now, we get it. These are businesses and businesses must compete to stay alive. Survival of the fittest. But politics and warfare doesn’t do anyone any good. Need we look any further than the open wheel racing split in 1995, when the world renowned CART series was splintered in two, with half the racers staying put and the other half moving over to the newly formed Indy Racing League? As most auto racing fans know the split all but destroyed open wheel racing and reduced motorsports’ crown jewel, the Indianapolis 500, to second tier status behind NASCAR’s Daytona 500.

As if the situation wasn’t bad enough the two sides let their egos go wild in that first season in 1996, as CART deliberately held it’s U.S. 500 race at the Michigan International Speedway on the same day at the same time that the Indy 500 was being held just a few hours down the road in Indianapolis. The two sides didn’t want to co-exist and there was little in the way of peace until serious talks of a merger became more evident in the late 2000’s. Of course by that time, IndyCar racing was back page material in the sports section, if it even made it in the news at all.

There are plenty of cases throughout sports where this has rung true, as Major League Baseball, the NBA, and the NFL were all at one time part of two or more organizations or strong rivals to another that simply didn’t survive the competitive landscape.

This isn’t to say there’s not a place for both the X-DRL and the ADRL in our sport, and sure there’s going to be a natural competitive spirit that drives each one to top the other, but there’s no room for any of the political shenanigans of the CART/IRL saga. Let’s all hope there can be more peace and co-existence here, because as history has shown us, while one side may win, they both lose.