Did Long, Crossnoe, & Mikho save heads-up drag racing 10 years ago?
/I know that there are going to be some that feel left out of this conversation, and that happens anytime we discuss something like this. So put your feels back in your pocket and relax.
A little bit of a history lesson before going into this exact topic. During the early 2000’s everything was great with drag racing. We saw new heights in series like NMRA, NMCA, FFW, ADRL, etc. We had amazing events like World Street Nationals, World Cup Finals, World Ford Challenge, Shakedown at Etown, and more. For years we all were completely inundated with amazing racing, great racers, and some solid promoters. Ignorant bliss is what I look back and call it.
Many may not realize that a lot of racers have a day job. If you look around the pits you will see men and women that work in many different fields. A lot of those fields are tied in some way shape or for to the housing industry though. From a time period around mid 2007 until 2010 is when we saw the United States take a downward spiral due to many factors that most of you don’t want to read about on a drag racing site. Just understand that the perils that we faced as a country, they also put a huge dampening on drag racing and the ability for racers to have disposable income for drag racing.
Gas prices went through the roof, and so did diesel fuel prices. Fewer people were going to the race track, and the shiftiness of some promoters came to the forefront. Purse cutting, backstepping, and even downright lies were all floating everywhere within the industry. The status quo needed to change and that is exactly what happened when we rolled into the 20teens.
Quite some years ago, Monty Mikho had started a no holds barred website called YellowBullet. It was a place that racers, fans, promoters, and pretty much everyone in the industry could go and discuss everything that was drag racing. For you young ones, this was a time before social media, when forums were the true kings of the internet. If you were a promoter that was screwing people, this is where it got dealt with. If you were a chassis shop or engine builder that was scamming people, this is where it all came out.
Donald Long had been having some races in Florida dating back to about 2008, but by 2010 is when everything really starting coming to fruition. You have to remember, at the time there were very few legitimate organizations in the world of drag racing. ORSCA, NMRA, NMCA, NHRA, IHRA, and some others. Along with that were a few big races that made it through the downturn of the late 2000s. So when Donald decided to ramp things up, and Monty decided to ramp things up, a lot of us saw a light at the end of a very dark tunnel.
Gradually ORSCA faded away, along with some other series. The only places you could run Outlaw 10.5 was really in the south and upper east coast. By this time, the only places running radial were NMRA, and a couple of larger events. The drag racing world had become stale, the same stuff all the time, with very few exceptions to that. There were very, and I mean very few things to get excited about in heads-up drag racing.
Along comes this new breed of promoter, the brash, in your face ones that are going to do it their way, and you either get on board or get left behind! Donald with his outlandish videos, getting underneath everyone’s skin and having less of a filter than I do. Monty, with the tremendous following from the forums and then turning that into another SUPER RACE of such. All of a sudden there were things to look forward to again. There were new races that everyone was talking about. New classes that racers could build cars for. The excitement was coming back, and back in a major way.
In walks this young kid who most had only seen with a camera in his hand. Who the hell is this soft spoken kid from Tennessee and what does he think he is doing? He’s too young to be able to put on a race. His races will never work. He hasn’t been around long enough to know what he’s doing. No one will go to Mississippi and race at this kids event. Those were all phrases used at the time when it came to the kid. The kid that the entire world now knows as Tyler Crossnoe has become one of the most well-respected people in our industry.
There were four photographers at that kid’s Holly Springs race, James Sisk, Jason Nubs, Justin Frank, and myself. Along with Sean Melton from Urban Hillbilly. Then the chatter became that the kid was a one hit wonder. Through it all he grew and so did his intelligence for the sport, and his understanding along with appreciation for drag racing. Now that same kid is managing Virginia Motorsports Park, helping run the PDRA, hosts Shakedown, and is bringing Outlaw Street Car Reunion back this year.
If you want to talk about the people that saved heads-up drag racing from an uncertain future, and helped build the industry to the point that it is at today, these three are at the forefront of that and continue to be. They haven’t become complacent, and they are always looking for ways to improve the racer and fan experience. You aren’t going to seeing scamming and purse cutting. We as fans have races to look forward to.
Listen, many of you may not agree with me, and many may think that I have lost my damn mind. I have seen promoters come and go, track owners come and go, classes come and go, but the need for true talent when it comes to putting on a race is something that we truly need in the industry. We need more promoters that are doing it for the right reasons, and understand how to provide value for the consumer dollar. I look into the future and see track owners like Todd Martin & Keith Haney at Tulsa, Victor at Bradenton, and many more doing great things. These are the great things that will keep the next generation of drag racers wanting to keep coming back, and it will keep fans clamoring for more every day of the year.
Who are going to be the next crop of superstar promoters that take it to an even higher level? Where do we go from here? What is the next plateau that we can reach as an industry and sport? These are all things that need to be looked at moving forward. Complacency will be the death of our hopes and dreams folks. Let us never become content with something and let us always continue to strive for bigger and greater things for our industry and the motorsports industry as a whole.