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So you’re the one in
charge? On Tuesday, October 12, 2004, as most offices on the east coast were closing up shop, the International Hot Rod Association issued a press release indicating that IHRA Bill Bader was resigning his post and appointing longtime friend and business associate Aaron Polburn as his successor. After a multitude of tears shed within the IHRA community at the memories shared with Bader, the next chapter of the IHRA’s storied tale will be led by a man that has been known to work the crowd into a full frenzy over the most mundane actions at a drag race. He’s a promoter. He’s a master of the hype. However, he’s a dedicated individual with his sights directly set on taking the sanctioning body to levels it once only dreamed of. Though Polburn is a self-professed individual with lofty goals and a man who is always willing to lead, he is also a realist. He knows that his new job will force him to spend many sleepless nights. CompetitionPlus.com caught up with Polburn in the days following this surprise announcement and talked to him about the new era.
CP - It has been said that it might be nice to be President for a day, but I think you got more than you expected here, didn't you? AP - Yeah...not really... we have a very good company and very good people it's not like in 1998 when essentially this thing was dying and someone had to bring it back to life. This thing has lots of life in it now, so obviously it's a lot greater responsibility. But we're not taking over a disaster or an operation that's in any trouble by any stretch of the imagination. So it's much easier than you might think. CP - Lets go back to last week, how did everything go down in the office basically? How did you automatically assume the presidency? AP - We just called a staff meeting and we got everybody together. Bill took the floor and explained that he was going to step down, smell the roses and take time off. He was going to pass the torch onto me, and it was shocking...I mean I knew it was coming and I was still in shock. That's how it went down and you have to answer questions, and the following day I had a staff meeting with everybody. I set the tone for what I expected and the way we want it, because this is kinda a family and we were in shock but here we are a week later and we're hopping right along...just like normal. a d v e r t i s e m e n t
Click to visit our sponsor's website CP -You mentioned that you knew it was coming. How far in advance did you know? AP - Bill and I had been bantering this around for a year. We talked about it and did so many times, wondering when the day would come. We discussed why he didn't take the position when he was healthy and so forth. We discussed the things he never did and how else he could have possibly sacrificed any more than he had already done. This was an ongoing conversation, and quite honestly when he got out of his knee surgery, which was around September 1st, it was pretty serious at that point and I knew in my heart that he was going to make the decision a week before Maryland.
CP - It's been rumored that Bill possibly
had problems with the AP - Yeah...it's a ridiculous rumor. If you look at how Clear Channel has handled this thing and the things that they've said and how they've said them you’d see differently. Nobody appreciates the fact that here's a guy who basically squeezed every ounce of energy that he had in trying to make this thing successful and it has been a success. Just go back to 1998 and look ahead to 2004 and look what's happened. It doesn't take a genius to figure out a lot of positive things have happened in that this is better now than it was six years ago. That's just the day and age we live in now. Sometimes there are people that thrive on negativity, even when there’s a positive situation. a
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CP - What are some things you're looking to implement right off the bat? AP - I want a winning attitude, not that we ever had a losing attitude. We need to refocus and think about what got us to the dance. I want my team to wrap their arms around what they are doing and take ownership. They need to be 100% responsible for what they do. I'm not here to manage them - I'm here to lead them. I think it's that attitude that everyone is going to be held accountable and responsible for their actions. I'm going try to lead them and let them do what they need to do. We need to continue to grow. We don’t necessarily need to look at the way things have been done and rubberstamp it forward, but look at the right way of doing business and a better way of doing business. We need to continually develop this Night Under Fire property that was a huge, huge success to our bottom line. We're developing the Street Wars Series and that has done well. So now we have two more properties we're going out with and who's to say in five years we might not have six other properties. There are more things out there that we're capable of doing if surround ourselves with the right people.
CP -Well, assuming the presidency has put you on the hot seat just as I'm sure you already experienced. AP - Oh yeah, I told someone I'd really like to be Mr. President for at least the first two weeks because it will soon be turned into Mr. Butthole probably on Day 15. I need to revel in this while it is here. CP - There are some “Hot Seat” topics that come with your new position. We'll touch on them one-by-one and you can throw out your opinions or no comment. CP -Professional entry fees… AP - I don't see any change in the near future. I have my own opinion on them but I'll just kind of keep it to myself here for the time being.
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CP - Complaints about towing to Edmonton… AP - We hear that every year…that's nothing new. I can tell you that especially after the hell that we all went through earlier this year. Hell, I was complaining in Edmonton and I flew, but that was just because of all the things that have transpired there. We have a very good venue there. What you may not know was our track prep guy Jim Weinert was up there a couple of weeks ago. Rob Reeves and the staff at Budweiser Motorsports Park said they were going to make all these changes and they're doing them right now. You could not ask for a better partner. They realized they needed to step up and they have been doing just that. That long tow is caused by the fact that our major constituency is in the east, and we need to grow in the west.
CP -Booked in shows - some fear with Bill Bader gone the IHRA will do away with open competition and promote booked in shows instead. AP - Nah, I'm saving booked in shows for when all the drivers go on strike. <laughs> Here's the thing in a nutshell - our national events have been stagnant for awhile. They're good, but they're not great. The answer is not booked-in shows, however. The answer lies in how we conduct this thing. We have to create a shorter viewing day for the fan and a shorter racing day for the drivers. Our national event structure needs tweaking in my opinion, but booked in shows are not the answer. We're trying to make it better for the sportsman as well as the professional. a
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CP - Does the IHRA have any big announcements forthcoming?
AP - Yes, but I can't squeeze out one in particular. In sportsman racing, we are just working with the good Mr. Gasket program, but we want to make it better. We, obviously, have an excellent Moser program and also Summit. Taking these things and just trying to make them better will help us get many partners in the program. The more marketing partners we can bring to the IHRA means we all win, and if that means there's more notoriety and money for the sportsman and professional racer. IHRA is a for-profit company which makes everybody happy when the bottom line looks good. So we simply have to attract more marketing partners. CP -Anything else you want to add? AP - Just that it's a very exciting time.
It really is. I would like to encourage everyone to step back and offer a
big thanks to Bill Bader for everything he's done. He gave our staff a
chance to spread their wings and do what they’re capable of doing. I
think we'll all get an awful lot accomplished in the years to come.
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