BAYTOWN, TX (Mar. 20, 2010) – In another example of unorthodox problem solving, American Drag Racing League (ADRL) President and CEO Kenny Nowling announced the creation of a brand-new, double-header event in response to the rainout today of the ADRL’s season-opening Universal Technical Institute Dragpalooza VI presented by Safety-Kleen.
The ADRL will return July 23-24, to Houston Raceway Park (HRP), where Dragpalooza VI will be completed in its entirety that Friday, with an all-new, yet-to-be-named ADRL national event now scheduled for the same weekend.
“We feel this is the fairest way to deal with this for our fans, our sponsors, our track partner and most importantly, our race teams. We wanted to create an incentive for all our teams to return and participate, rather than just those that were already qualified,” Nowling explained. “(HRP Vice President and General Manager) Seth Angel and I are close friends and business partners so we looked at our schedules and were able to reach this decision very quickly.”
Four of the ADRL’s five professional classes had completed their fourth and final rounds of qualifying for Dragpalooza VI and Pro Extreme had just taken the track when the heavy rain arrived. With wet weather, high winds and dropping temperatures predicted for the rest of the day and into Sunday, ADRL and track officials decided to postpone the event and let competitors and fans head for home.
The July weekend will open with the completion of the final round of Pro Extreme qualifying for Dragpalooza VI, followed by Dragpalooza VI eliminations for all classes run simultaneously within qualifying for the new event.
“This format will be very similar to our Speedtech Battle for the Belts, which determines our year-end champions on the first day of our LenMar Motorsports ADRL World Finals at the Texas Motorplex each October. And just like that event, I think this is going to create a very unique and exciting race weekend for everyone in July,” Nowling said.
Nowling is no stranger to outside-the-box thinking when it comes to getting an event completed. After an electrical storm atMartin, Michigan, knocked out the track’s scoreboards and timing system in 2008, he resorted to personally signaling each pair of 3,000-horspower cars with old-fashioned, arm-drop starts.
“Everyone thought we were crazy back then, but that turned out to be one of our most memorable events,” he recalled. “I have every reason to believe that this solution will turn out to be every bit as popular as the Arm-Drop Drags were.”
The addition of the July event restores a 10-race series for the ADRL in 2010 after it initially lost one event due to the unexpected closure of Memphis Motorsports Park. Both the rescheduled Dragpalooza VI and the new event will pay full points and purses to all qualifiers and race winners, making it a true double-header weekend of competition for racers and fans alike.
All tickets for the Universal Technical Institute Dragpalooza VI presented by Safety-Kleen will be honored in July, but tickets will also be printed and distributed for the new event. Fans with any questions about the rescheduled or new event are encouraged to call the track at (281) 383-7223.
PHOTO:
Surrounded by ADRL drivers and team owners as they huddled beneath the Houston Raceway Park tower to remain dry, ADRL President and CEO Kenny Nowling laid out plans to reschedule the Universal Technical Institute Dragpalooza VI presented by Safety-Kleen to July 23-24, within a completely new event that same weekend at the Baytown, Texas, drag strip.
No comments:
Post a Comment