An old drag racing friend died Friday, October 16, 2009.

This friend didn’t die of natural causes, it was a slow and painful death; the result of poisoning caused by poor management and arrogance.

With the announcement that its professional show would adopt the equivalent of a Chicago Style format with a winner on each day of a two-day show, for all intents and purposes, the IHRA as a legitimate sanctioning body ceased to exist.

It should come as no surprise since the death knell for the sanctioning body started last year.

Losing the series sponsor wasn't the death blow. Past IHRA administrations survived the loss of major title sponsorship not because of anything out of the realm of reality. They survived because of the respect of those who came with them to the dance – the racers and gear head race fans.

Instead of turning to the supporters of IHRA-style drag racing, the current IHRA brass spewed arrogance. When one manufacturer rep wrote at the end of the 2008 to IHRA’s Competition Director Scooter Peaco warning that Quain Stott, a dedicated Pro Modified racer, who had raced 144 consecutive events, was going to be the first of many good racers to find another place to race if certain practices weren’t changed, the response was unexpected.

Instead of Peaco responding with appreciation for the warning, the letter writer received correspondence pointing out Stott was disgruntled because his car had performed poorly during the season. The response also pointed out the IHRA supplied tickets and other perks to Stott for his sponsor in an attempt to placate his unhappiness. Stott alleges that he and sponsor LeeBoy Paving Equipment paid for everything. There were, according to Stott, no freebies.

Stott hasn’t raced in another IHRA event since; taking his car and his sponsor over to the ADRL. He also carried along his modest fan following.

There are a dozen of stories just like Stott's that will never see the light of day. Racers simply packed up and left.

The arrogance flowed like a river when anyone dared question the IHRA’s management practices and the prime example was when a group of Pro Stock racers simply decided not to travel 3,000 miles to Edmonton during the 2008 season to compete in a race that many, even if they won the event, would lose money.

Polburn was quoted in the Fayetteville [NC] Observer Times shortly after the incident saying, “If this kind of thing were to come close to happening again, they [Pro Stock drivers] might as well sell their cars on eBay.”

Earlier this year, when revisiting the same subject with the same publication, Polburn added, “Outside of Top Fuel, no class is necessary.”

From 2005 until 2008, the IHRA ship floated along the calm seas of the Torco era with its leadership asleep at the wheel. There was no cultivation of additional sponsorship, it was, “If we’ve got something that needs sponsorship, just ask Evan Knoll.”

There was no contingency plan in place if the Torco well dried up.

 For a smart business man like Kenneth Feld, who stepped in mid-season in 2008, to leave an inept management team in place is puzzling. Pro Modified team owner Paul Trussell looked at the situation and said, “Somebody has blown smoke up his wazzoo like they did ours all year long.”

And, Trussell was exactly right.

Polburn, over the past year, has spent an inordinate amount of time discrediting racers, other sanctioning bodies and established news websites, when in reality that was time and energy which could have been better spent focusing on the health of his organization.

It’s not altogether accurate to say the present administration is a total failure. They've succeeded where Billy Meyer and Prolong, Inc., couldn’t.

They successfully killed the IHRA.