RICHARD FREEMAN NEVER WANTED IHRA
“I didn’t go try to buy the IHRA. It wasn’t even in my mirror,” Freeman said. “I went over there to meet with Darryl to buy some of his rolling assets. Only after I left did the IHRA deal come up because I had an interested party. But I was never buying the IHRA.”
Freeman said the speculation became enough of a problem that racers began contacting him about unpaid purse money. That was when he decided the distinction needed to become public.
“And I tried to make that clear after I started getting phone calls from people wanting me to pay the purse,” Freeman said. “So that’s the reason I wanted to make sure that everybody understood that. Yeah, that deal’s a total cluster f****.”
“So I feel bad for the people that did go over there and not get paid,” Freeman said. “But in the same voice, I could tell you that they’re a little bit culpable as well because anybody thought that was real was crazy.”
Forget for a moment that Freeman says he never intended to buy it. Suppose the trucks and trailers had somehow turned into the whole operation and Richard Freeman suddenly owned IHRA.
What was he going to do with it?
“Nothing,” Freeman said. “You can’t ever come back from that. Nothing you can do can you come back from that so I don’t… Again, you know what it’s done? It’s created more work for myself. The NHRA and any of these other series, the Midwest series, the PDRA. The people that thought they sold a track and didn’t sell their track.”
For Freeman, the fallout extends beyond the people who raced there. He believes the collapse left other sanctioning bodies, series and track operators dealing with problems they didn’t create.
“All it’s done is create us a lot more s**** to do,” Freeman said. “That’s what it’s done.”
Freeman's position leaves little doubt about which side of drag racing's sanctioning-body fence he occupies. His investment, his cars and his people are tied
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