NHRA sells to holding company
 

Yep... NHRA has sold all of the professional class assets to a damn holding company associated with directv.. i can see this going bad places. from what i've heard, within the deal nhra also sold the 4 tracks that they owned to the company, including Indianapolis Raceway Park, and a long-term lease to Pomona (which they do not own)

here's the full article.

http://www.nhra.com/content/news/20723.htm

yeah they are talking about eliminating the sportsman and other amature classes from the national events.....

correct me if im wrong, but isnt all the amature classes what fill the 90 minutes between each pro round while they are in the pits wrenching?, this may be ok for television, but it seems like it would kill the event for the fans in attendence with nearly an hour downtime between rounds

they fill the 90 minutes between rounds and make up better than 75% of the entries at each stop on the tour.
the plan discussed was to try to market the stocker ranks as their own series more. this is potentially a good idea, as it will make for more TV time for sponsors in those catagories.
the potential down side is that direct TV doesn't seem to have any clear market plan for the NHRA, at least not one that they have announced. so as of right now they have a bunch of ideas and no plans, whcih is scary.
i am pretty sure that the current TV deal goes through the end of next season still, so we all have at least one more year of watching drag racing on basic cable before the satelite people take over.

Perhaps the IHRA will benefit?

IHRA is currently at risk of being out of business with in the next 2 years. about 1/4 of their "national" events lose money for the host track and none of their fuel classes can touch what the NHRA offers. i do like mountain motor prostock though :)

Their plan includes a stupid spin off of orange county jacka$$es -- jz

dont know why but i nearly fell out of my chair laughing. thanks lol