The State of Drag Racing in Australia

[falcon_cobra]

Its in a very sad way, with the conflict between IHRA and ANDRA. Only 2 Important Tracks are affiliated with the IHRA, WillowBank and SMP. there are a few State tracks as well.
SMP wanted to Leave the IHRA but it went to court, so now the Top Fuel Championship won't run at either SMP or WillowBank. the Australian Top Doorslammer and Top Bike Championhip is being run at the Perth Motorplex,
the Winter Nationals, what used to be the biggest Drag racing event outside the USA, is getting smaller because the teams that are aligned with ANDRA will not be Competing.

they need to sort out their differences and bring back a united Drag Racing series

[Trevor]

There has been some big money spent at Heathcote in regional Victoria recently, they have the Top Fuellers there soon

[Jetpac013]

Its in a very sad way, with the conflict between IHRA and ANDRA. Only 2 Important Tracks are affiliated with the IHRA, WillowBank and SMP. there are a few State tracks as well.
SMP wanted to Leave the IHRA but it went to court, so now the Top Fuel Championship won't run at either SMP or WillowBank. the Australian Top Doorslammer and Top Bike Championhip is being run at the Perth Motorplex,
the Winter Nationals, what used to be the biggest Drag racing event outside the USA, is getting smaller because the teams that are aligned with ANDRA will not be Competing.

they need to sort out their differences and bring back a united Brag Racing series

it is A LOT more complicated than that.

Sydney Dragway had a wreckless chairman of the board leading the track, and basically with no consultation with the rest of the board members and no real reason as to why they had to change, went and signed a new sanctioning deal with ANDRA with 2 years or so left on the IHRA sanctioning deal.

The breach of contract of IHRA sanctioning is what lead to IHRA taking SD to court. A few board members left in protest as the chairman didn't follow the right process in put the sanctioning contract out to tender etc.

So ANDRA were in which meant a lot of people (me included) had to re tech their cars under ANDRA which mean having to modify cars to comply with the ANDRA tech rules etc as they are different to IHRA.

The board pretty much sacked the chairman who put all of this mess in motion in November last year and appointed a new chairman who settled with IHRA out of court because SD has no money... they are broke. (2 years of lockdowns will do that)

Now what I believe is that one particular top fuel team owner hates IHRA sanctioning and prefers ANDRA for what ever reason, and was pushing this change in the background as he basically refuses to run his top fuel cars at SD because of IHRA... It's too many egos with to much pull wrecking it for people who just want to go and race their cars and couldn't give 2 ****s about top fuel.... as impressive as they are.

[Trevor]

all this ANDRA & IHRA has overtones of CAMS & AASA for circuit racers a few years ago, it was ugly until many realised AASA wasn't too bad, but CAMS is till hurting over it

Not sure if is still the case but Supercars events run under CAMS but some testing is done under AASA

[falcon_cobra]

and Much the same as World Series Cricket and Super League, to much money involved and always ending up going back to the way it was

[falcon_cobra]

Its in a very sad way, with the conflict between IHRA and ANDRA. Only 2 Important Tracks are affiliated with the IHRA, WillowBank and SMP. there are a few State tracks as well.
SMP wanted to Leave the IHRA but it went to court, so now the Top Fuel Championship won't run at either SMP or WillowBank. the Australian Top Doorslammer and Top Bike Championhip is being run at the Perth Motorplex,
the Winter Nationals, what used to be the biggest Drag racing event outside the USA, is getting smaller because the teams that are aligned with ANDRA will not be Competing.

they need to sort out their differences and bring back a united Brag Racing series

it is A LOT more complicated than that.

Sydney Dragway had a wreckless chairman of the board leading the track, and basically with no consultation with the rest of the board members and no real reason as to why they had to change, went and signed a new sanctioning deal with ANDRA with 2 years or so left on the IHRA sanctioning deal.

The breach of contract of IHRA sanctioning is what lead to IHRA taking SD to court. A few board members left in protest as the chairman didn't follow the right process in put the sanctioning contract out to tender etc.

So ANDRA were in which meant a lot of people (me included) had to re tech their cars under ANDRA which mean having to modify cars to comply with the ANDRA tech rules etc as they are different to IHRA.

The board pretty much sacked the chairman who put all of this mess in motion in November last year and appointed a new chairman who settled with IHRA out of court because SD has no money... they are broke. (2 years of lockdowns will do that)

Now what I believe is that one particular top fuel team owner hates IHRA sanctioning and prefers ANDRA for what ever reason, and was pushing this change in the background as he basically refuses to run his top fuel cars at SD because of IHRA... It's too many egos with to much pull wrecking it for people who just want to go and race their cars and couldn't give 2 ****s about top fuel.... as impressive as they are.

i Understand a lot of the background, Did you build your car Under the IHRA rules, or did you rebuild?

[Jetpac013]

Its in a very sad way, with the conflict between IHRA and ANDRA. Only 2 Important Tracks are affiliated with the IHRA, WillowBank and SMP. there are a few State tracks as well.
SMP wanted to Leave the IHRA but it went to court, so now the Top Fuel Championship won't run at either SMP or WillowBank. the Australian Top Doorslammer and Top Bike Championhip is being run at the Perth Motorplex,
the Winter Nationals, what used to be the biggest Drag racing event outside the USA, is getting smaller because the teams that are aligned with ANDRA will not be Competing.

they need to sort out their differences and bring back a united Brag Racing series

it is A LOT more complicated than that.

Sydney Dragway had a wreckless chairman of the board leading the track, and basically with no consultation with the rest of the board members and no real reason as to why they had to change, went and signed a new sanctioning deal with ANDRA with 2 years or so left on the IHRA sanctioning deal.

The breach of contract of IHRA sanctioning is what lead to IHRA taking SD to court. A few board members left in protest as the chairman didn't follow the right process in put the sanctioning contract out to tender etc.

So ANDRA were in which meant a lot of people (me included) had to re tech their cars under ANDRA which mean having to modify cars to comply with the ANDRA tech rules etc as they are different to IHRA.

The board pretty much sacked the chairman who put all of this mess in motion in November last year and appointed a new chairman who settled with IHRA out of court because SD has no money... they are broke. (2 years of lockdowns will do that)

Now what I believe is that one particular top fuel team owner hates IHRA sanctioning and prefers ANDRA for what ever reason, and was pushing this change in the background as he basically refuses to run his top fuel cars at SD because of IHRA... It's too many egos with to much pull wrecking it for people who just want to go and race their cars and couldn't give 2 ****s about top fuel.... as impressive as they are.

i Understand a lot of the background, Did you build your car Under the IHRA rules, or did you rebuild?

My roll cage is built to IHRA rules which allow removable door bars, ANDRA deem removable door bars as a "removable roll cage"... so not only did i need to get the car re tech inspected, but i had to fill all this other paper work out and get my roll cage guy to fill out the material used, thickness etc etc which was a pain....

Lucky for me the track moved back to IHRA in the middle of me doing all this, so therefore i didn't have to deal with ANDRA any more.

I do know of guys having to get roll cages and stuff re done due to different rules and how the ANDRA tech guy felt on the day..... only for the track to go back to IHRA and then guys had to revert cars back.

It was a unnecessary exercise and to add, IHRA fees are much cheaper than ANDRA also.