Was that when you decided to switch to the NHRA?
Gardner: No. I thought we had a good conversation and I left there thinking, Okay, I’m staying with IHRA. In the meantime, NHRA started calling -- and they did call, I did not call them. They said, Hey, we would like to meet with you. And I’m thinking, I’ve been there before. When they first approached me years ago about switching sanctioning I wasn’t interested because they just weren’t very good to the track operators; it was their way or the highway and I felt they were kind of hard on the racer. But as a track operator I have an open door policy, so when they wanted to come and pitch me I said okay. The NHRA’s Rob Parks flew into the Quad Cities and we met for a day. He showed me their programs and told me that if we switched NHRA would make licensing easier for my racers, give them membership discounts, things they never offered doing before.
OK, was that when you decided to change?
Gardner: No. Rob Park was very positive and you could tell he was very excited, very looking forward to racing. He was really into the whole deal. I told him that if we did switch, the racetracks would have to be in the same division something they’d never have considered before. He said, Oh, that’s not a problem. I believe that the experience I had with him was the same kind that tracks used to have with the IHRA when Bill Bader was in charge and the IHRA went from sanctioning 38 racetracks to 101. The NHRA lost about 60 racetracks to IHRA during that period. It’s not the sanctioning fee that hurt them, it’s losing all those memberships. They (NHRA) had to change their program and become a better partner with the tracks because of Bill Bader and IHRA. They have become a better NHRA. So it wasn’t the same NHRA that I’d looked at before.
So what finally convinced you to change?
Gardner: We went to the IHRA bracket finals with our racers. The bracket finals made the decision for me. The race was very poorly run to the point of being dangerous for the racers. Myself and other track operators told the track and IHRA management the problems and how to fix them and basically they refused to do anything and basically ignored us. I was on my way to the tower for a showdownwhen a dragster crashed and ended the race. I felt they just didn’t care
about the racers. I left very disappointed in the IHRA and the way they had treated their sportsman racers at that race.
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So, despite what has been written in IHRA press releases, the NHRA didn’t give you financial incentives to change sanction bodies?
Gardner: Now, were there financial incentives from the NHRA? No, we’re paying standard sanctioning fees. The incentives are that I got a division race at Cordova, and, yeah, that’s an incentive, hell yes. Have you looked at an NHRA division race lately? They average about 515 cars. An IHRA division race averages about 250 cars. It didn’t take rocket science to see the benefits from that. When NHRA said we want your track for a division race, I asked, what can you do for Eddyville? They gave Eddyville a national open. I asked, what else can you do? They said, we’ll consider moving the Jr. Regional event to Eddyville. They didn’t offer me $5,000, or offer to waive the sanctioning fee for the next few years. So, the (IHRA) press release that was put out saying that incentives were put forth was true. Yeah, incentives were put forth by offering my tracks opportunities that didn't exist with IHRA.