If you're any kind of a "serious" drag racer, you're probably doing most of your running under the aegis of either AHRA or NHRA, or perhaps both. But, in any case, what are you getting for that healthy entry fee? Are you getting your fair share of the pot? Where do the gate receipts go? And what steps are the national organizations taking toward betterment of the sport? We don't have all the answers yet, but here's a look at what we've found out to date.

Drag racing is sorely in need of the wisdom of King Solomon. As the tale goes, two women came before the king with one baby. Each claimed the child and appealed to the ruler for a decision as to which was the rightful mother. Unable to decide, the wise monarch ordered one of his swordsmen to cut the baby in half and give each woman her share. Upon hearing this, one of the women cried, "Do not cut the baby, It is not mine; give it to the other woman." Solomon said, "You take him, for only a mother's true love would prompt you to save the child's life at the risk of losing the child."

Drag racing is hardly a baby. It's nearly two decades old, but it's being cut up, an arm here, a leg there, by two powerful organizations. A hardy creature, the sport has been able to withstand this treatment and continues a seemingly healthy growth. But where would it be if these attempts at "infanticide" never occurred, if the competition was infused with the spirit of the true mother?

The National Hot Rod Association and the American Hot Rod Association have been growing and prospering along nearly parallel lines in spite of each other. Their philosophies and methods have been similar as often as they've been different, but their histories have always been marked by an inability to agree with each other on many matters of importance to drag racers.

Will this state of affairs be a permanent one or will there be some accomodation? The real future of the sport could hang on this point. While Car Craft continually refers editorially to both associations, we have never, until now, compared them. For this reason let's now examine the two bodies and see if there any grounds for optimism.

The older and more prestigious group is the National Hot Rod Association. It came to life shortly after drag racing, as we know it, did. From the early Fifties, NHRA has exerted its inexorable force and influence on every facet of the sport. Headquartered in Los Angeles with a relatively large support staff, NHRA spreads its tentacles across the country in the form of its seven Division Directors and their innumerable contacts. It's an experienced body that meets periodically at the big national meets to show its virtuosity in concert, digging into the depths of expertise to produce some of the best run events in the sport.

The American Hot Rod Association on the other hand, is about ten years younger, and has its roots, and power, sunk deeply into the Midwest. Its small staff makes forays into the hinterlands from centrally located Kansas City. Often, because of small size and reliance on local track workers as support troops, their events lack the Teutonic efficiency of NHRA's. But their size allows for faster decision making and flexibility, since there are fewer bureaucratic binds to befuddle an issue. AHRA's staff does not yet have the depth, and credibility of NHRA's well-seasoned senior staffers and, as a result, often suffers because of it.

In their respective house organs, National Dragster and Drag World, NHRA and AHRA enumerate their various fiefdoms. The "senior circuit" lists 153 strips in 39 states, Puerto Rico, Canada and Germany. AHRA claims 95 strips in 32 states and Canada. In twenty-eight states the two groups have concurrent jurisdiction. NHRA has an exclusive on strips within 12 boundaries, including one each in Germany, Alaska and Puerto Rico. AHRA has staked "sole claims" on five states. This comparison gives an indication of the relative size of the two bodies, although both listings tend to be somewhat misleading.

Many of the listed strips run highly abbreviated seasons, some only one meet a year. Some don't even operate any longer. NHRA's Riverside International Raceway hasn't had a meet in over a year. AHRA's Minnesota International Dragway and NHRA's Empire Dragway in New York State haven't even been built, and in the case of Eureka Drag Strip (or Dragway, you pick it) in California, both associations claim it.

Although it is difficult to make a solid comparison or deduction from the published lists, it is not difficult to do so on the basis of well-known, major meets staged by the two groups. Without a doubt, NHRA hosts the bigger meets. Their Winternationals and Nationals are the best known, most widely publicized and attended drag races in the country. They each have long, successful histories, and if any drag events can be called "classic," these can.

To bolster its schedule, NHRA has also included five other races in this year's major meet "Super Season" schedule. In addition to the established Springnationals and World Finals (both to be held at the same track in Dallas, incidentally), they've added the Summernationals at York, Pennsylvania, the Supernationals at the nearly completed Ontario supertrack in California and the Gatornationals in Florida.

Whether these meets will achieve the acceptance and status of the Nationals and Winternationals depends on several factors. Not the least among these is stability. To build an event to "classic" status, more is needed than public relations pronouncements. Ideally, it should be held in the same place each year, be successful, and establish an image for itself that doesn't require excess ballyhoo.

This is one of the problems with AHRA's Grand American Series. They incorporated their big meets of last season with some new meets and rolled the whole thing up into a series. All of the events are tied together by a points system. Order of finish determines the awarding of these points and the high scorers split $90,000 in non-contingent money at the end of the year.

Fuel Dragster and Funny Car champs each get $20,000 and the winner of Super Stock (a division which is identical in theory and, in fact, preceded, NHRA's Pro Stock) gets $10,000. In the "Pro" bracket, money is awarded down to fourth place, and in the "Pro-Am" (GT, Competition, Street and Top Stock), winners and runners-up each get $2000 and $500, respectively.

AHRA has contracted eight top cars in each Pro Division. This assures a good show but has caused some problems. These cars are guaranteed the first eight positions and therefore don't have to qualify. There has been some resentment from other racers because of this and the fields have suffered somewhat. But the big money at the end of the series is not reserved for those under contract. Ronnie Sox, for example, who is not "seeded" and has to qualify, is at the moment leading in the Super Stock division.

NHRA has also had a points program run in conjunction with their World Championship series for several years, but has never approached it like AHRA, and the theory behind their series is much different. The lesser money awarded at the season's end, plus AHRA's employment of contracted drivers, makes the comparison difficult, if not invalid.

But none of the AHRA events can realistically be compared with the giant scope of NHRA's Nationals or Winternationals. AHRA has not established the kind of image that NHRA has which can make a race stand on its own without a promised guarantee to "name" racers. AHRA, of course, has not had the time to really develop their system, since they just started their Grand American series this year, and some of the facilities they are using are not the top strips in the nation. Until all the diferent facets of their program improve considerably and the concept has a few years to gell, the series will lack classic status. But the potential merit of it is there.

We can also deduce some other basic differences between the two associations by examining a pair of roughly comparable races that were held earlier this year. Although both sites had hosted meets in the past, NHRA's Gatornationals at Gainesville, Florida, and AHRA's Grand American at Rockingham, North Carolina, were both "premiere" events -- each was held early in the season, both were in the South and both were, according to the sponsors, successful.

In actual cash from their own coffers, NHRA put up $29,950 and AHRA chipped in with $22,450. The spread between the two figures is attributable to a basic difference in the philosophies of the two groups. When we look at the amount of money awarded to the "professional" brackets, the discrepancy is less.

For Top Fuel, Funny Car, Top Gas and Pro Stock, NHRA awarded $19,350. AHRA gave $18,850 to the winners of Top Fuel, Fuel Funny and Super Stock. AHRA does not have a Top Gas bracket, and their awarded prize money in Top Fuel and Super/Pro Stock is comparable (though slightly less) to NHRA's. AHRA split $9,400 among 16 Funny Car while NHRA fielded eight for $4,600. On the other end of the scale, NHRA put up $10,600 for all of their other brackets (Competition, Modified, etc.), compared to AHRA's lower $3,600.

We can deduce from this that AHRA is, as they've often stated, oriented almost entirely toward the totals at the turnstile. They pay the largest percentage of their purses to the most popular cars (in this case the Funnys). NHRA, on the other hand, spreads its money out through their whole framework of classes. For this reason, many "little guys" fly the NHRA banner and many "pros" have become advocates of AHRA's system.

Another readily apparent difference in the races in question was the contingency money purse. This is money pledged by manufacturers and awarded to winners, and in some cases runners-up; it is contingent upon the racer using the donor's product and the displaying of the manufacturer's decal on the car.

When advertising a purse for a race, it is customary to include all of the contingency money pledged. NHRA announced $102,875 in awards for the Gatornationals and AHRA managed to gather $39,400, a difference of some $63,475. Of course, all of this money is not given out. If, for instance, three tire manufacturers each offer $500 for Top Fuel, only one of them will have to pay, yet the association advertises $1500 in prize money.

NHRA is the acknowledged master at persuading manufacturers to shell out money for contingencies. They've been at it for a long time and are selling a proven product. Their track record for the big meets, as far as attendance, prestige and general excellence goes, is outstanding. Their major sponsors posted $20,000 each to be distributed at the 1970 Super Season races. They must award only $4,000 of that sum by the time the World Championship rolls around (so you can see all of the money is not used). If, for instance, a sponsor awarded only $3,000, the remaining $1,000 would go into a fund that is divvied up among the WCS winners.

AHRA's major sponsor program is a little different, and though growing dramatically, remains smaller than NHRA's. Currently, they have 18 major sponsors (compared to NHRA's 31). Each sponsor puts up a minimum of $16,500 for the season. Of this, $5,000 is automatically earmarked as non-contingent money for the ultimate points winners. The remainder, at the rate of $1,150 per race, is spread throughout the rest of the season.

In return for their participation, sponsors get choice spots to hang their banners at the races, numerous plugs by the announcers, display areas for their exhibits in the pits and continuous mention throughout the year in the association news media. By posting contingency money they also encourage would-be winners to run their products. As a consequence of the sponsor program, the associations can advertise large total purses while actually putting up only a percentage of the money.

The question of money payouts is as highly debatable in drag racing as it is in other comparable industries (and there are several). Are the associations distributing a fair amount of non-contingent money to the racer?

At their 1970 Winternationals, NHRA listed 747 entries in the program. Presumably all of them pre-entered and paid their fees, although not all showed up for the race. It is reasonable to assume that, on the average, each car and driver was accompanied by two crew members. Each crew's entry fee and passes for the meet would then total $60 ($30 for car and driver, $15 for each crew member). In our example, this would be a total of $44,280. NHRA's cash awards for that meet came to $40,250. At Rockingham, AHRA had 458 entries. Their average fee for car and crew came to $50 ($20 for car and driver, $15 for each crew member). This adds up to $24,900 taken in, as opposed to $22,450 given out.

All of the "major" meets can be judged by the same standards. They all have fairly high entry fees and all draw large numbers of participants. It can be said, therefore, that the racers are paying their own prize money, and then some (at least in the illustrated cases). The associations, over and above the sums just mentioned, still take in considerable funds through spectator admissions, pit passes, programs and whatever concessions they can sell or of which they have a "piece."

Out of this money they have to pay their expenses. These range from advertising to renting those noxious portable toilets, and can be considerable. But judging from crowd estimates and admission prices, it would seem that great profits are being made. Is it too much to ask that some of this money be made available to the competitor? Or, at least, that it be accounted for?

Would it be possible, for example, to pay the purse out of the gross gate receipts and add the entry fees to it? If just the entry fee for the car and driver were utilized in this way for the two races we've mentioned, NHRA's cash purse at Pomona would have been $22,410 higher and AHRA's would have been swelled by $9,160.

Money will always be a bone of contention where "labor" and "management" are concerned, but it is just one of the considerations here. The area of rules is another.

NHRA's and AHRA's safety regulations are similar. It is difficult to have any major disagreements in this field. But NHRA's enforcement of their rules appears to be more stringent and thorough than AHRA's. However, neither association can be criticized very harshly in this field, at least as far as they have ventured. It is one of the areas where they could work together without either losing anything, and further development in the area could only benefit the racer.

Class rules are another matter altogether. In the professional categories the differences are minimal enough to allow most racers to run in either association. Pro/Super Stock is the only one with any great variance. AHRA's rules allow more deviation from stock than NHRA's, but this has not prevented most stars from attending NHRA and AHRA events with the same cars.

It's in the non-pro brackets that the major differences lie. To enumerate them and go into any great detail would require more space than is available here, but the important point is that class rules, after all, are rather arbitrary. In some cases the rule came first and people built cars to fit. In other instances rules were formulated to suit cars already competing. At any rate, they are not immutable pronouncements chiseled in stone and brought from some remote mountaintop by a bearded prophet. They can be changed, and in the interests of many factions, perhaps should be.

In some parts of the country racers are obliged to build cars to suit the rules of one of the two asociations. In Maryland, for instance, all the strips are NHRA. In Missouri they're all AHRA. If a racer doesn't want to tow 500 miles every weekend, he is forced to build for whatever strips are in his area. This deprives the sport of a great deal of competition, particularly in the lower echelons.

Standardization of classes would benefit everyone. It would allow racers to compete on a truly national level and would give strip operators a chance to feature and host additional competitors. The professional racers already run for both associations; their allegiance is financial. If it works for them, why not for the "little guy"? Most importantly, it would give the news media one standard as a guideline for all drag racing reportage.

Of course, any consolidations like this would require negotiations and compromise. As things stand now, such interaction between the two groups is almost inconceivable. NHRA and AHRA are essentially in the control of two outspoken and highly individualistic men, Wally Parks and Jim Tice, respectively. If any reforms were to be initiated on a bilateral level, they would have to be with the blessing and cooperation of these two men. This in itself seems presently unlikely.

AHRA's growth has, for the most part, been at the expense of NHRA. Many current strips were once sanctioned by the competition. Years of wheeling and dealing and Byzantine politics have eroded the basis for trust between the two groups. Loyalties among influential members of the drag racing establishment have polarized, and the two men in charge are estranged.

Jim Tice is more willing to discuss mutual problems than is Wally Parks. This is because Parks feels he has been dealt with rather shabbily in the past and does not want it to happen again. There is some justification for his feelings, and Tice's willingness to parley is not without self interest. The question here is one of power; how much is either willing to relinquish?

AHRA would probably stand to gain more through any cooperation. NHRA has worked long and hard to build drag racing into a legitimate sport and has accumulated much prestige and influence in the effort. By openly recognizing AHRA, part of these attributes might rub off on the younger organization. But in the past few years AHRA has also grown and prospered and may have advantages to impart to its elder. In any case, regardless of the adjustments that the associations would have to make, the drag racing participants and the sport as a whole, could benefit.

Competition between the two organizations probably helps the sport, but only if that competition breeds better, more interesting and safer drag racing. If the competition results in bitterness, division and intrigue, it is self destructive. The Republicans and Democrats compete against each other fiercely in their struggle for power and influence, but on many issues they come together in a bipartisan spirit. The American Hot Rod Association and the National Hot Rod Association might do well to follow their example.