Jack Beckman races in the National Hot Rod Association, not the International Hot Rod Association.
 
But the newly crowned Funny Car champion said he would be delighted if the NHRA returned to Canada for the first time since late June 1992 and even scheduled a race in Mexico.
 
"I'd actually like to see one [race] north and south of the border," Beckman said.
 
"I think to truly make it international, it would behoove us to spread out a little bit, and I think the potential audiences on both sides of the U.S. borders would take this sport to a higher level," he said.
 
"I'd love to get Canada back on the schedule. I've never been there," the Don Schumacher Racing driver said. "And I'd also like to get something in Mexico on the schedule. I think the appeal would be tremendous both sides of the border."

Jack Beckman races in the National Hot Rod Association, not the International Hot Rod Association.
 
But the newly crowned Funny Car champion said he would be delighted if the NHRA returned to Canada for the first time since late June 1992 and even scheduled a race in Mexico.
 
"I'd actually like to see one [race] north and south of the border," Beckman said.
 
"I think to truly make it international, it would behoove us to spread out a little bit, and I think the potential audiences on both sides of the U.S. borders would take this sport to a higher level," he said.
 
"I'd love to get Canada back on the schedule. I've never been there," the Don Schumacher Racing driver said. "And I'd also like to get something in Mexico on the schedule. I think the appeal would be tremendous both sides of the border."
 
Well documented is the fact that drag racing is an American sport that has caught on globally, spreading to nearly every continent and gaining strength in Australia, Europe, Asia, and South America. But Beckman wasn't suggesting the NHRA go the way of the IZOD IndyCar Series, which has raced in Australia, Brazil, Canada, and Japan and includes events at Toronto and São Paulo, Brazil, on its 2013 schedule.
 
"Traveling overseas is a little bit more difficult to put all of our stuff in containers and go over there," Beckman said. "And these crew guys are already away from home so many days a year. I think that's too high of a demand to put on them."
 
That doesn’t mean Beckman wouldn’t enjoy trying new national-event venues or even revisiting ones that the NHRA has dropped.
 
"I would love going to new racetracks and bringing them on tour. I hate losing racetracks to the tour. We don't go to Memphis anymore. We don't go to Richmond," he said. "But next year we'll be in Epping, New Hampshire."
 
The NHRA sanctions seven member tracks in Canada, from Mission Raceway Park in British Columbia to Luskville and Napierville drag ways in Quebec. They include MHDRA Dragstrip in Medicine Hat, Alberta; Saskatchewan International Raceway at Saskatoon; and Ontario's St. Thomas Dragway Park at Sparta and Toronto Motorsports Park at Cayuga.
 
U.S. Territory Puerto Rico has Puerto Rico International Speedway at Salinas.
 
Yas Drag Racing Centre in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Kingdom of Bahrain, also are part of the NHRA Worldwide Network that began in 2010 to enable drag racing facilities around the world to conduct events under the NHRA banner. Those international facilities follow NHRA rules, have access to the NHRA's Technical Department and training (in tech, safety, and emergency response), and are able to use the NHRA logo for promotional purposes.
 
Graham Light, NHRA senior vice-president of racing operations, chairs the FIA Drag Racing Commission. The FIA is considered the world governing body for motorsports, but NHRA Vice-President of Public Relations and Communications Jerry Archambeault told John Katz in a Performance Racing Industry magazine article that the American influence is pervasive.
 
"A lot of what they do mirrors what we do in the U.S.," Aerchambeault said. "We have the history and the experience . . . And the FIA takes advantage of that."
 
That same PRI magazine article mentioned, as well, that teams in Australia and Brazil, for example, import U.S.-manufactured parts and sometimes even the race cars.
 
Light identified France, China, Italy, the Ukraine, and the Middle East as emerging drag-racing markets. That doesn’t mean the NHRA, as American fans think of it, will schedule events there.
 
But that doesn’t stop Jack Beckman from dreaming.

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