Rocky Mountain Raceways news 2009-02-03

ROCKY MOUNTAIN RACEWAYS TO BECOME NEWEST IHRA MEMBER TRACK

Salt Lake City -- February 3, 2009 - Rocky Mountain Raceways has announced that they will become the next International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) member track.

The raceway moves into this relationship with IHRA after a long-standing relationship with NHRA (National Hot Rod Association).

"While the NHRA was disappointed with the move they wished us continued success in our efforts to strengthen the RMR brand," said Doug Binstock, General Manager at Rocky Mountain Raceways.

Rocky Mountain Raceways sees this as the next step in the progression and growth of auto racing. It also sees this as the next step to bringing larger racing events to Utah with top name drivers from across the country.

"With this move Rocky Mountain Raceways is pushing the envelope. We are bringing higher quality racing events to the Utah market that will have even greater fan appeal," Binstock said.

One of those events will be the IHRA Nitro Nationals to be held at RMR on June 26-27.

"We have wanted to come west and find a base for a long time," said Aaron Polburn, President of IHRA. "We currently have a great event in Alberta and we needed another place in the west to act as a stronghold for IHRA."

According to Polburn the demand for this has been growing for some time.

"We are constantly getting calls asking us when we would be moving out west. RMR is a top notch venue. We are very proud of this new association with Rocky Mountain Raceways and we know that they can be that anchor track for us in the west," Polburn said.

Headquartered in Norwalk, Ohio, the IHRA is a division of Feld Motor Sports and promotes professional, semi-professional and local-level racing consisting of 86 sanctioned tracks. The $21.5 million IHRA Nitro Jam Drag Racing Series is a 10-event North American professional drag racing circuit produced by the IHRA.

"It is our overall objective that over the next few years this event at Rocky Mountain Raceways will turn into one of the IHRA Nitro Jam National events that will help determine our national title," Polburn said.

According to Ron Craft, Drag Strip Manager at Rocky Mountain Raceways, the transition to this new sanctioning body will be a smooth one for the racers and participants.

"The IHRA officials will be here for the racer meetings in March to answer questions and help our racers with the transition," said Craft.

Rocky Mountain Raceways will continue to accept NHRA memberships, licenses and chassis certifications from previous years until they expire. Once the old memberships, licenses and certifications expire Rocky Mountain Raceways will assist the racers to obtain IHRA documents.

In addition to drag racing, Rocky Mountain Raceways hosts oval, motorcross, monster trucks, and drifting.

-credit: rmr