NHRA FUEL SUPPLIER – “THERE’S A SHORTAGE OUT THERE”
A nitro crisis exists and
executives at the NHRA aren't talking. They don’t have to because the parties
involved are speaking out in their absence.
CompetitionPlus.com
attempted to speak to the NHRA regarding the apparent nitromethane shortage
only to be told by Vice President Graham Light, “We have no comment on any
nitromethane issues and we’re not going to speculate on anything that hasn’t
happened.”
Essentially the NHRA didn’t deny a problem exists but they didn’t confirm one either.
Does the NHRA have a contingency plan?
A nitro crisis exists and
executives at the NHRA aren't talking. They don’t have to because the parties
involved are speaking out in their absence.
CompetitionPlus.com
attempted to speak to the NHRA regarding the apparent nitromethane shortage
only to be told by Vice President Graham Light, “We have no comment on any
nitromethane issues and we’re not going to speculate on anything that hasn’t
happened.”
Essentially the NHRA
didn’t deny a problem exists but they didn’t confirm one either.
Wade Gray of VP Race
Fuels, the official fuel distributor for the NHRA, spoke with
CompetitionPlus.com on Monday afternoon, confirming a supply and demand issue
exists with nitromethane. Gray alleges team owner and former nitromethane
distributor Don Schumacher has an active role in the crisis.
Schumacher sold his
ProNitro business to Wego Chemical in January of 2008, yet still owns and
imports a substantial amount of nitromethane.
“There is a shortage out
there,” Gray confirmed. “Don Schumacher says he’s got 300 drums out there and
if he would sell to me, there wouldn’t be a problem. We’d get right on through
this year with no problem when combined with what I’ve got coming.
“Don Schumacher is holding
all of drag racing hostage. He will not sell it to me. I have begged him and
pleaded with him to sell me the nitromethane. He just won’t sell and there’s no
reason to be that way. None.”
Sources indicate the
reason Don Schumacher won’t sell is largely because he fears the depletion of
his supply will enable a large price increase passed on to the racers by VP
Race Fuels. Speculation abounds Schumacher has imported and retains the large
supply of fuel as leverage.
Schumacher confirmed he got into the nitromethane business in 2004 out of concern for the expense-laden nitro racers. He denies using the stockpile of nitromethane as leverage and refused to discuss any details of his pending fine for unapproved fuel possession in his pit area during the NHRA Summitracing.com Nationals.
They wanted rules and organization so you could track the nitromethane and behave with it. Don showed them he didn’t have to abide by any rules. He could import it or do whatever he wanted to. Anybody could get nitromethane and that’s when Dow- Angus agreed. They decided then they didn’t want to be involved. [Dow-Angus said] If it’s that easy to get this dangerous stuff, then we don’t want to be involved. Don cost us Angus and now he f%^$#*& up the deal again. - VP Race Fuels' Wade Gray on why U.S. drag racing lost its domestic nitro source
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“The NHRA has told me that my nitromethane is legal in NHRA. We’ll
see how that develops (within) the NHRA.”
“I know VP is in a tough situation with the supply of nitromethane,”
Schumacher said. “I’ve never supplied VP with nitromethane on a direct basis.
Wego did buy a container from me and moved it to VP. VP did distribute it at
the races. That’s the only nitromethane VP has ever received that I brought
into the United States.
“I didn’t sell it to them. I have nothing against the people at
VP. I believe the sport needs to have competitors out there. When there are
competitors in the marketplace, there’s a more level pricing scenario.”
What is Schumacher’s take on the allegations of him holding the
sport hostage?
“I find that comical,” Schumacher mused.
Because there is an
exclusive distributorship with VP Race Fuels, no other nitro companies can sell
to the professional nitro racers for use at NHRA events. A racer who brings to
the track, for use during an NHRA-sanctioned event, their own nitromethane,
purchased outside of the official distributor, is in violation of the NHRA’s
rules.
In the NHRA’s professional
categories, two of the four classes run spec fuel, Pro Stock car and Pro Stock
Bike, and are fueled in the staging lanes to prevent additives. The nitro
racers are challenged to mix their fuel to the proper percentage as allowed by
the rule book and instead of the fuel declared spec, the mandate is the drivers
must purchase the nitro from the official distributor.
The nitro these teams must
purchase could be in short supply according to multiple sources by the time the
tour reaches the NHRA SuperNationals in Englishtown, NJ. While Gray wouldn’t
pinpoint a date, he confirmed that he’s notified the NHRA of the situation.
“Their response to me is
that we need to get this handled,” Gray admitted. “The appropriate people are
doing everything they can to secure nitromethane. But, we have people like Wego
chemical running around and stirring things up. Jim MacMonagle is stirring
things up but Don Schumacher is the No. 1 problem.”
Gray said he’s pleaded
with Schumacher to help them in the situation and forwarded an email to
CompetitionPlus.com confirming his claim. Schumacher confirmed he received the
email.
Dear Mr. Schumacher,
10-4
I have guest coming over to go off
roading. I will be in and out of cell range: Cell number XXX-XXX-XXXX.
Thank
you very much for time the other day. I must say you are quite the guy.
Sorry that You and I could not come together on the purchase of your
nitromethane. I had really hoped that you and I could come to an agreement the
other day. Please, don't do this, just sell me the nitro and let's
go down the road. Everyone loses and for why? You are already the man.
Please, you have nothing else to gain,
you're the man.
Please, a lot of people look up to you as
a role model. Be the generous person you can be.
Please, sell me the nitro and for heavens
sake do it NOW!
Thanks
Wade L. Gray
VP Racing Fuels, Inc.
“You just can’t get any more a^&-kissing, begging and pleading
than that,” Gray added. “That man is saying ‘no, I don’t give a f#@% about drag
racing.”
“If he did, he would’ve already sold me the nitromethane.”
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Gray alleges the current situation is the result of a conspiracy
between Schumacher and Wego management to push VP Race Fuels out of the
nitromethane business. He said the parties got together to drive VP’s purchase
price to the point any profit would have been impossible and the racers would
have bore the brunt of the increase.
A source close to Wego said the relationship between their company
and VP Race Fuels has been strained for some time now. Reportedly, Wego will not sell to VP Race
Fuels either.
This reluctance does not mean Wego cannot supply nitromethane.
Wego has owned a manufacturing facility since 1998 [after entering the business in 1991] and according to sources
they are currently increasing their capacity to fill the demand for NHRA drag
racing and other end uses.
The manufacturing facility is the source of great ire for Gray, as
he alleges one doesn’t exist. He accused Wego of fabricating a story of a
manufacturing plant in order to gain favored status with the NHRA as an
approved supplier of nitromethane.
Approved supplier status was bestowed upon Wego and Angus-Dow in
2004 reportedly following a lobbying effort by VP Race Fuels to thwart an
effort by Schumacher to bring a comparable Chinese source into the market.
Schumacher’s first shipment was en route to the U.S. when the NHRA handed down
the edict.
"I must have have some broad shoulders to shoulder the blame VP's throwing on me for problems they created for themselves. - Don Schumacher, on the various allegations by VP Race Fuels regarding the nitro crisis.
Schumacher couldn’t confirm nor deny whether Wego’s manufacturing
plant actually existed, but did point out the management team from his Shanghai-based
battery charger plant was invited over for a tour of the Wego plant. Their
website is at http://www.wegochem.com/
“Why in anyone’s right mind would they do that if they didn’t have
one?” Schumacher asked.
Dow-Angus, an American-based manufacturer, has since left the
industry after reportedly selling off their remaining domestic supply to an
India-based company. Prior to 2007, Dow-Angus ceased racing grade nitromethane
production.
VP Race Fuels tenure as the official race fuel of the NHRA has
been under scrutiny ever since replacing Sunoco Race Fuels at the end of the
2003 season. Reportedly Sunoco wasn’t given the opportunity to bid on their
contract renewal. Gray isn’t sure when this crisis will pass and nitromethane
will return to some semblance of normalcy.
“We don’t know,” Gray said. “We’re going to work our way through
it. I was supposed to talk to Wego today. They’re saying they own the nitro
down at Schumacher’s place and he’s saying he owns it. The bottom line is there
was some hanky-panky going on between the two of them where they were trying to
rig drag racing and fix the market.
“There ain’t no real crisis of nitromethane, we need Schumacher just to sell us the nitro. If he’s really honest to God got three to four hundred drums, then sell it to me. Then it’s all handled. All done. The same for Wego, if it’s really and truly theirs then they need to sell it to me. What you’ve got is two people trying to hold drag racing hostage. They are trying to prevent you from making a living. The fact they got together and agreed on what it would be sold at the track for, I’m thinking that’s a way deeper story.
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“The issues about the Olympics going short and the shipping, not a
problem. That’s the normal course and scope of the chemical business. Things
happen. The weird thing is that we had placed orders before November 15 for the
first half of 2008, January 2008, we never got our nitro. Wego didn’t ship us
and back then, there were no shipping problems.”
Many of the plants in and around Beijing, the site of the 2008
Olympic Games, will suspend production until the completion of the event. The
Shanghai port announced last week that hazardous materials could no longer be
exported from there until the games are over. This represented the second largest port for the country.
A source close to the situation indicates the NHRA has no
contingency plan if the official distributor’s nitromethane supply runs dry.
The same source said the NHRA will then pursue another supplier.
Gray said he is not fearful of VP Race Fuels losing their
exclusive rights.
“I haven’t done anything, I have been interfered with,” Gray said.
“We know there’s nitromethane that’s supposedly available. We’re trying to buy
it from someone and if they want to hold drag racing hostage, what should drag
racing do? Should we forget Bobby Bennett if his printer doesn’t work. We’re
not going to let him remain involved any more? No, we are going to say his
printer didn’t work. There are other sources, but there’s such a supply here in
the United States, if they will turn loose, we will buy from them.”
Does this mean the NHRA will cancel nitro events if VP Race Fuels
cannot deliver? This is a valid question CompetitionPlus.com has asked of the
NHRA but they refuse to answer citing their position not to speculate.
“We’re trying to acquire other sources and we’re trying to work
every angle that we can. What we need to do is be prepared. We need to buy as
much as we can,” Gray said.
Gray confirmed that VP Race Fuels deals with other manufacturers,
but their volumes are small.
“There's 80 drums here and 50 drums there,” Gray said. “We buying
them and we’ll probably be okay. It would just make life easier if we had the
other material. That’s just the way the dudes are being and that ain’t cool. If
they cared about drag racing, they’d put drag racing ahead of their egos and
get us the nitromethane. What are they gonna do?”
Schumacher said if there comes a point and time the official
distributor runs out of nitro, he’ll step in, but only after the NHRA has
revised their exclusive contract for nitromethane.
“I thoroughly enjoy the sport of drag racing and I’m heavily
vested in it, I would certainly hate to see it fall on tough times,” Schumacher
said. “That’s the responsibility of NHRA and VP to handle the situation as it
is currently in place. Until they invite another distributor to come in and
sell nitromethane, they face the possibility if VP Race Fuels runs out of
nitromethane, the sport will be out. At this point, they are the only
distributor to my knowledge. I’m not exactly sure how to define VP’s role since
the NHRA’s rulebook states that the legal suppliers of nitromethane are
Dow-Angus and Wego chemical.”
Stay tuned.
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