New Regime Fuels NHRA Rise

Wally Parks and Dallas Gardner guided the National Hot Rod Assn. through its first 50 years--49, actually--as it evolved from a group of drag racing enthusiasts into the world’s largest motor racing sanctioning body.

Now Tom Compton is poised to lead the Glendora-based organization to even loftier heights.

Compton, 41, became the NHRA’s third president when he took over from Gardner in January 2000. Since that time, he has made dramatic changes in the way NHRA does its business, establishing rule changes that streamlined the professional racing program, hiring a national advertising firm to make the public more aware of drag racing, and securing a five-year television package with ESPN for same-day coverage of all national events.

As usually happens when new administrations move in, feathers were ruffled as personnel was shuffled and new people brought in, but from the reaction of drivers--and they are the show--the changes have been positive.

“I think Tom Compton has been good for us hot rodders, that’s the bottom line,” said John Force, 10-time funny-car champion and the sport’s most dominant personality. “The ESPN package he and his crew corralled should go a long way toward telling people what we’re about. But don’t forget, he has a lot of experience behind him. Wally and Dallas brought us this far, and we should never forget what they did.”

Compton sees the TV package as the hallmark of his first year. “The TV package was a home run,” Compton said during a lengthy interview in his Glendora office. “There are four constituents we must reach out to--racers, sponsors, track promoters and fans--and a solid, easy-to-find TV program is one way to reach all of them.

“It’s a challenge, making decisions that involve all those four because each group has its own self-interest. If you please one or two, it might be negative for one of the others, but all agreed that the new TV schedule is good for all.”

Starting with the season-opening AutoZone Winternationals, which get underway today at Pomona Raceway, each of the 24 national events will be shown, same day, on either ESPN or ESPN2. Final qualifying rounds Saturday will be shown at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN2, with final eliminations Sunday at 5 p.m. on ESPN and 8 p.m. on ESPN2.

Besides race-day TV, a 41-week magazine show, “NHRA Heat,” will be shown Thursday nights on ESPN2 as a lead-in to the popular “RPM2Night” weekly show.

For years, a major problem for TV producers--and spectators--was the unpredictable length of the day’s program. More often than not, there were long delays caused by “oil downs,” the result of broken or blown engines in nitromethane-fueled funny cars and top-fuel dragsters.

Two changes implemented under Compton’s leadership addressed that problem.

First, the nitro in the fuel was cut to 90%, reducing engine failure. That cut down on oil spillage and saved teams money by reducing the number of expensive broken parts. Second, the time interval between elimination runs was shortened from 90 to 75 minutes.

“It had been self-defeating to attract new fans and have them sit through seven or eight hours with car after car oiling down the track,” Compton said. “It also made it easier to sell our TV package to ESPN.

“Being able to make those rule changes was the result of our primary objective, and that was to involve everyone in the decision making. We brought together drivers, crew chiefs and our staff to create a sphere of cooperation. It was something we had to have to grow the sport.”

Compton, as is the case with many in his administration, does not come from a drag-racing background. He joined the NHRA in 1993 as vice president and chief financial officer after working at Kal Kan Foods and Heron Communications Inc., both in the L.A. area.

“The NHRA will always need people from within the sport, but to become a big business, which it is, we needed to bring in bright people from the outside who are specialists in areas such as marketing, advertising and business administration,” he said. “We feel we have the right mix now.”

Don Prudhomme, a four-time funny-car champion turned car owner, said: “Everything we’ve seen from Tom Compton and his staff so far has been positive. The ESPN deal he put together could be the biggest thing that has happened to drag racing for a long time. We’ll see how it plays out.”

Said Kenny Bernstein, the only driver who has won championships in both funny car and top fuel, added: “He’s made great strides in his first year. All credit goes to getting our racing on TV every Sunday at prime time. I know from my own standpoint, that makes the sponsors very happy because it will be easier to build audiences and that’s what sponsors want--exposure. In the past, we never knew what time or what station we’d be on.”

The NHRA, with 85,000 members, nearly 35,000 licensed competitors and 5,000 events on 144 member tracks, is already motor racing’s largest organization. More than 600 cars will be on the grounds at Pomona for the four-day Winternationals.

“Our challenge now is to get drag racing into the mainstream,” Compton said. “We have moved ahead of CART and IRL, behind only NASCAR as the most successful racing bodies, but we know that a lot of people are still not aware of our sport, not aware of the level of excitement it creates.

“We feel if we can get new people to come out a first time, we will make fans of them with our streamlined program. And we feel our TV package will encourage them to see a race in person.”

Complementing the TV package is the NHRA’s first national advertising campaign with its slogan, “We Have Ignition.”

Fans will see another change.

Qualifying on Friday and Saturday for the professional categories--top fuel, funny car, pro stock and pro-stock truck--has been compressed from morning and afternoon sessions into one super session starting at 2 p.m.

“We used to mix up the pros and the sportsmen, with the pro sessions four hours apart,” Compton said. “Now we are having them run back to back. All of the classes will have the same number of runs, just at a different time.”

*

Import racing, a grass-roots competition which has been spilling into illegal street racing, will soon be under the NHRA umbrella. Formation of the Summit Import Drag Racing Series was announced Wednesday.

“There have been a number of groups promoting foreign-car racing, but they are so fragmented that we decided to form our own national series,” Compton said.

The first season will have six races, the final one Sept. 29-30 at Pomona Raceway.

The beginnings of import racing are remarkably similar to the beginnings of hot rod racing in the 1950s, when Parks and a group of friends formed the NHRA with the assistance of the Los Angeles and Pomona police departments, providing a controlled environment for illegal street racers.

“We decided to take it on,” Compton said, “because there has been a lot of support for the NHRA to get involved.”

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The Facts

* What: 41st AutoZone Winternationals, first of 24 events in National Hot Rod Assn.’s Winston Drag Racing Series.

* Where: Pomona Raceway.

* When: Today through Sunday. Today and Friday, pro qualifying 2 p.m.; Saturday, noon. Sunday, final eliminations, 11 a.m.

* Purse: $675,000.

* Television: Saturday, ESPN2, 6:30 p.m. (delayed); Sunday, ESPN, 5 p.m.; and ESPN2, 8 p.m. (delayed).

* Tickets: Today, $15; Friday, $25; Saturday, $45; Sunday, $50. Children (6-12) $10 and $12. Reserved seats, $35-62.

* Defending champions: Gary Scelzi, top fuel; Jerry Tolliver, funny car; Jeg Coughlin Jr., pro stock; Bob Panella, pro stock truck.

On the Net: https://www.nhra.com