Historians may recall in motorsports history incidences of racers threatening or enacting event boycotts, typically looking for better payouts, addressing safety concerns, or other issues. Drag racing’s most recent of standoffs, however, is unique.
Weeks back, a group of Nostalgia Top Fuel racers, self-titled the All American Fuel Dragsters (AA/FD), announced its plan to boycott the NHRA’s annual National Hot Rod Reunion, a Heritage Series points event, at the Beech Bend Raceway Park. The disagreement was not due to payout, safety, or anything of the sort, but rather, was because the AA/FD group offered to increase the purse with its own sponsor. In turn, though, it asked the NHRA to expand the field from the typical eight cars to 16.
Bob McLennan, President of AA/FD, explained, “We started to get a lot of interest in the Bowling Green race approximately three years ago. For midwestern cars, this was their California reunion event of sorts. We approached NHRA with an A show and a B show format for the cars that didn’t qualify. Their response was that they would look into it, but at that point, the answer was no.”
McLennan explained the hierarchy of the NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Series. The annual eight-event series has two races controlled by the NHRA, the California Hot Rod Reunion and the National Hot Rod Reunion, which are at issue. McLennan notes that if offered this opportunity, any of the other six dragstrips who primarily produce their own Heritage events would have been likely to accept this offer.
Fellow AA/FD racers such as Jimmy Young invested considerable time and resources in helping fellow front-engine nitro racers become part of the fold, in order to grow the class. “Some had large engines or fuel pumps and magnetos,” McLennan explains. “Jimmy didn’t condone that. If you’re going to race fuel dragster, make it NHRA Heritage rules legal, and I’ll help you.”
We had brought together some additional purse money. Most notable is Young, who came up with a $10,000 sponsorship from Custom Floaters to put into the purse. Even with that, we got no response. – Bob McLennan, AA/FD
So with the Heritage-legal car population growing and talks with the NHRA dormant, efforts to expand the group’s Beech Bend show were also hampered by the passing of key individuals, NHRA management changes, and the pandemic. But with the world emerging from said pandemic, the AA/FD group unveiled an eye-opening proposal to the NHRA.
Frustrated,…
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