Drag Illustrated Issue 146, July 2019

ow do we change the pat- tern? What can we do to break the cycle? That’s the question I’ve been asking myself a lot in recent years. What pattern, you ask? Which cycle exactly? Honestly, all of them. In recent years, as we’ve added what ba- sically amounts to an events and promotion division to our operation here at Drag Illustrat- ed with the World Series of Pro Mod and our lit- tering of parties across the country, I’ve invested a lot of time and energy in personal growth – hoping that it coincides with the growth of our business. It’s not the most comfortable thing to talk about as it brings to light a litany of my shortcomings and faults, but it’s been a transfor- mative experience and I can’t ignore the parallels that exist in the drag racing community. For me, personally, it’s been all about learning to delegate and empower people around me, it’s been about taking time to plan, it’s been about seeing an issue on the horizon and taking immediate action, it’s been about identifying the aforementioned pat- terns and cycles that exist in my life – at home and in business – and taking deliberate action to avoid simply replicating the same old tired situations again and again. Headed into the midway point of the 2019 race season, I can’t help but see a serious need for our sport to change some patterns and break some cycles that, at least in my opinion, are painfully obvious. Front and center would most certainly be this us- versus-them situation that exists with racers – both sportsman and professional – and the “evil empire” that we’ve all worked to turn the NHRA into. That’s not to say that the fine folks in Glendora haven’t earned a good bit of that reputation, but it’s been a group effort to create and maintain such dissension that I myself have to admit have participated in. As car counts in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series professional eliminators float around numbers that simply provide a full 16-car field, it’s been a steady stream of finger-pointing social media posts and stories in the racing media as to all that NHRA is doing wrong – primarily in terms of marketing themselves to corporate America and attracting new sponsors. The points being made by and large are valid. The validity of these thoughts and feel- ings isn’t really the issue. It’s just that this whole rigmarole is well-worn; it’s tired. We’ve been do- ing this dance for years, and the end result is an ever-widening gap between the racers and the sanction. What I see the need for is open dialogue, real conversation. Obviously, I’ve not been silent as to the places I see room for improvement or a need for blatant change in the sport of drag rac- ing, but I pride myself in offering these thoughts and opinions openly and all the while being willing and able to see situations from both sides. Any time I offer my thoughts on things I believe NHRA should embrace, experiment with or change entirely mov- ing forward, I don’t send them across the bow as an attack. What I’d like for them to serve as is a call to action; a spark, perhaps – a spark that sets into motion a genuine effort to bridge the gap, break the cycle and create real change that could impact and possibly improve the future of drag racing. The conversation need not be confrontational. We – the racers, the manufacturers and the sanc- tion – must accept that until we share a common goal and begin swimming in the same direction, will continue to serve only our individual goals. Unfortunately, that’s how it works, and it takes concentrated effort to not only create a vision and an ultimate goal, but achieve buy-in from all par- ties involved. What’s the vision? That’s a question that needs to be answered in the very near future. Where do we want the sport to be in five years, or 20? More questions, right? Yep. And questions that we have to explore and answer as a group. For as long as we are over here and they are over there is as long as these problems that get talked about and talked about for years in our sport will con- tinue to exist. Someone will have to make the final decision – that’s for sure. We all know that there’s no quicker way to a cluster than decisions made by committee, but we’ll never get to that point until we have a solid understanding of everyone involved’s wants and needs. Here’s hoping we can break the cycle before it’s too late. Wesley R. Buck Founder & Editorial Director 8 | Drag I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com I invite you to email me at wes@dragillustrated.com and follow me at facebook.com/wbuck and wesbuckinc on Instagram. 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Mudd, Tommy D’Aprile, Will Hanna, Sadie Glenn PHOTO DEPARTMENT: John Fore III, Van Abernethy, Rick Belden, Tara Bowker, Shawn Crose, Jason Dunn, Paul Grant, Chris Graves, Ron Lewis, Will McDougle, Joe McHugh, Gary Nastase, Mark J. Rebilas, Roger Richards, Cole Rokosky, Chris Sears, Jason Sharp, James Sisk, Ian Tocher ADVERTISING SALES: 615.478.5275 SUBSCRIPTIONS & CUSTOMER SERVICE: 660.988.2313 customerservice@dragillustrated.com DRAG ILLUSTRATED MEDIA, LLC 902 Kings Road, Kirksville, MO 63501 P: 660.988.2313 F: 660.665.1636 www.dragillustrated.com Copyright © 2019 by Drag Illustrated Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Drag Illustrated is a registered trademark of Drag Illustrated Media, LLC. Printed and mailed by Publication Printers in Denver, CO. All statements, including product claims, are those of the person or organization making the statement or claim. The publisher does not adopt any such statement or claims as its own, and any such statement or claim does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the publisher. Issue 146 H FOUNDER’S LETTER

Drag Illustrated Issue 146, July 2019 | Page 8