By Susan Wade
NSSN Correspondent
TOPEKA, Kan. — National Hot Rod Ass’n drivers had been idle since May 6, and they weren’t sure what they were returning to at the start of this past weekend’s O’Reilly Summer Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka.
President Tom Compton met with Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock teams Friday to explain the agreed-upon deal for HD Partners Acquisition Corporation to acquire all of NHRA’s professional racing assets. He described how a group of mostly familiar officials will administer the POWERade Drag Racing series through a wholly owned subsidiary named NHRA Pro Racing.
Still, the consensus was that the competitors don’t fully grasp the concept — or the motive.
Part of the Catch-22 situation is that Compton and company understandably can’t share any more information because of legal reasons. So, the drivers don’t have all the facts necessary to form an educated opinion.
 “All they’ve agreed to do is agree,” said Ken Black, team owner of the Summit Racing twin Pontiacs of Greg Anderson and Jason Line and the Top Fuel dragster that Hillary Will drives. “It looks like they’re looking at five to seven months.
“I had a hard time figuring why HD Partners would buy NHRA,” Black said. “Supposedly they haven’t made a profit in x-amount of years. Any time you have a purchase for assets, these acquisition companies, their idea is to sell it off. Anything’s possible, I guess. It gives people something to talk about. We’re not privy to all their negotiations.”
Tim Wilkerson, one of the few independent Funny Car owner/drivers, said he read the press release announcing the proposed deal, but said, “I don’t know what it means. I have no clue. It doesn’t look like it’s a bad thing, but if you ask me if I understand it, no.”
Joe Hartley, the dark horse No. 1 qualifier in the Top Fuel class this past weekend, represents the small-budget underdog who’s always looking for a sponsorship opportunity. And he said this sale agreement might mean positive steps for racing teams.
“I really don’t think it’ll take us backwards. The sport is growing. At worst, we’ll grow at the same rate we’re growing, but I really don’t think so. They’re bringing in people who’ll open a lot of doors, bring us into a lot of other places,” he said. “It’ll probably bring some more money out here, at least for each event, which then eventually will spill out, hopefully, to the cars.
“If the sport grows big enough and you get more people out here interested in sponsoring cars, eventually you’ll get to a point where you won’t have a lack of cars. So, it makes it easier to pick up that sponsor. I hope that’s where it can grow,” Hartley said.
Black said that his sponsorship-search experience is that potential investors tell him, “Our motorsports marketing dollars are directed towards NASCAR. It’s like they all read from the same script. It’s possible that when these people speak, marketing people are going to listen.”
No matter what the buzz in the pits is, the negotiators and lawyers and principals will continue to hammer out details behind closed doors and the racers will race.