Pro Alcohol Funny Car assoc. Calls it quits

Wow,...that didnt last long...That sucks and sorry to all that was envolved..?????

https://pafca.com/Home_Page_WA3P.html

 

I don't think many people knew the effort Jim Maher put into CIFCA to make it what it was.

The newsletters, the banquets, the bookings, the contingency programs.

Sad ending.

 

When N/FC will run for almost nothing; alcohol cars can't expect something.

Very sad

 

pasca passes

being on the crew of the 2010 pasca champs team this is defenetely what we did not want to happen. bad circumstances mainly due to some tracks playing very dirty pool, namely albequerque and sacramento raceway really put a kick in the nuts for this to happen. we support joe in any decision he makes and saw all the hard work and effort he put out to try and make this work. we fully understand how difficult a job he had untertaken as the previous pres. (not mayer) had let the association spiral down into what joe took over. its sad that a lot of racers let the politics stop them from racing with us and give joe a chance to make cifca/pasca what it once was. not having the funds to run my car or erics in tafc, the cifca/pasca was a great place for us to run our funny cars. sure, its a bracket class of sorts, get over it. the fans made more noise for our show than they do at any national event ive been to for the alky cars, so we had fun (most important), won some races,spent a minimal amount of money to run a 6.90-7.20 index car (the same bearings for 3 solid years) at almost 200 mph. not many can say that about their racing efforts. we will truly miss this circuit to run our cars at. where will all these cars go? im not sure, but hopefully somebody will take this over and keep it going. it is a most unfitting way for this circuit to end after all the hard work everybody has put into it. dan call san diego ca

 

I don’t know who you are but you bad mouthed my track and I am going to respond.

The truth ….

Albuquerque Dragway booked 2 CIFCA shows for the 2010 season. We found out through a friend , not Jamie not Joe, that CIFCA was going belly up and that a new association was being formed. I got on the phone and made some calls. Found out that not many of it’s members were supporting the new organization and didn‘t know what they were going to do. In other words, we were left high and dry. Schedules had been printed and flyers had been distributed. We had no choice in the matter but to scramble. Finally got a call from Jamie and was told that Joe Powell was taking over and they would have a new name. We decided to take a chance on the new organization because Jamie and Joe assured us that we would have 8 teams to put on a show. Jamie had told me that nothing had changed but the name. OBTW … while all of this was going on we knew we had to put on a show for our customers. We could not find a filler show and had to settle on a $12,000.00 Megasorus show. Yep, spending $12,000.00 makes a track owner happy. Add to that the $5600 the new association was getting and that put our show expense at $17,600.00. Advertising cost was another $8000. Now throw in track prep, insurance, track personnel, utilities and so on and so forth and it was apparent we were going to lose money. Not because we did anything wrong but because we were not told about the problems in CIFCA long before we were told thus giving us enough time to book a Jet car or another association. But instead of canceling the FC show we went forward with it and trusted both Jamie and Joe.

It was show time and just as we had feared we get the dreaded email/phone call form Joe. He was not sure how many teams were going to show up and thought that there would only be 5 teams possibly 4. Not the 8 teams I was promised. I was naturally upset at this point and told him that I could have gotten some other teams if I had had enough time to look. I knew of 2 PSI teams who would have matched raced but now I didn’t have enough time to get them. My solution was to run the 5 or 4 cars he had “all out” and that would help the show. He did not seem to like the idea but said he would call around and get back to me. I got tired of waiting and emailed Joe back. If he wanted to cancel then lets cancel it now. Joe told me to cancel. I did what he asked. I made some calls and begged some friends to come and put on a show. We were only able to get 4 cars on such short notice. Unfortunately, we lost one of the 4 and that was that. I really appreciated that the 4 who showed were there to bail me out. If you guys are reading this … thanks again. I owe you big time.

The Megasorus show was a joke and we had a bunch of pissed off customers. Obviously, I was not a happy camper. I canceled the July show right then and there.

PAFCA let us down and you think we should be smiling? You damn straight we told other tracks about how your club did not perform as SOLD …. This was not our fault this was the fault of the club. You all should have supported Joe. This is a business we run, not a hobby. It takes years to build up customer trust. PAFCA hurt our business and cost us money. I am ashamed of nothing we have done. This club was over sold and that’s a fact.

Now again, tell me how we played dirty pool?

 

nothing is as it may seem

well, you did establish many of my thoughts. one was that we needed everybody that was in the association to support joe, in spite of what they felt about the previous president. that didnt happen. the story we got isnt exactly the way you tell it, but ill roll with that. im not 100 percent sure the story we get isnt filtered. a problem we had is that some of our members couldnt race albequerque with us, but ran to your track when you called. no unity. completely our undoing once again. same thing happened at sacramento. again. no unity. some of our teams tried extremely hard to be loyal and trusted things would work out, but not everybody was on board once again. does anyone think we enjoyed a 2 event season? not at all. personally, i think would have liked to think we could have worked this out with your track, but all imformation i got didnt point to that direction. unfortunately i dont have all the answers, but with 100k worth of funny cars and crap in my garage, am i loosing money also? i want to run my car, and have fun doing it also. i am a nobody thats done nothing, but i like to race and have fun, and if i can make some money doing it, thats good also. if i considered my car a business, i would be the stupidest person in the world to think i could be profitable doing this. in this case, everybody lost.

 

There was nothing to work out. The trust was gone. I feel bad for you guys but there are clubs who are very strong in car count and that is what track owners are looking for. We are in the entertaiment business. Those dollars are hard to get now. You HAVE to hit a home run every time you open the gates or go broke. And we have a lot more than $100,000.00 invested.

Good luck and I truely mean that.

 

thanks

understood. thanks for the track owners prospective. dan

 

PAFCA calls it quits.

That press release was tough to read. CIFCA was an exemplar for racers everywhere and to see its successor struggle is an object lesson. Or, more properly, several object lessons:

1) Miscommunications can kill a good idea, a friendship, or a business relationship.
2) Racers need to appreciate the track's requirements to put on a show. Too often, racers focus on rules disputes, etc. and forget the paying spectator.
3) Track operators need to do, as Lawren does, and promote in order to bring in non-participant fans. The racers can't pay for everything.
4) Sponsors need a return on their investment.
5) The series manager needs support from the racers, too. Racers can't leave the guy hanging. If he can't deliver; there will be no more bookings.

Most of you on this board no better than I what needs to happen. As for us, the word "quit" is not in our lexicon.
Cheers,
Ed
Rocky Mountain Superchargers

 

Robert,

I sure knew and appreciated the effort Jim Maher put into CIFCA to make it what it was. The years I raced with CIFCA are something that my family and I will remember for the rest of our life.

So thank you Jim Maher and all your helpers’ & racers that made CIFCA what it was.

R.I.P CIFCA


Jeff Seraphine

 

Im just woundering did you ever use a contract? us out here in the mid-west at some tracks use a good ol boy hand shake and other tracks use a contract...good luck to drivers and track owners..Dave

 

it was a hand shake deal.

 

What Jeff said!! (good post JBJ!)

 

Sorry all around, now lets move forward.

Thought it was time for me to chime in.

First, thanks to everyone who helped and participated it meant a lot me and the organization. Second, as far as ALBQ goes I didn't like the way things were handled after we discussed the potential low car count (we were being strong armed). That being said "it’s on us" if we would of brought Lawren the 8 cars we promised he would have honored our agreement, paid us what we asked and treated us well. We dropped the ball, period. I advised Lawren the minute I was made aware that some of our teams couldn't make it. I know it was late in the game but it was as soon as I knew. We owe ALBQ an apology. Sac is a completly different story, they are dishonest, liars that are only concerned with making a buck any way they can, but that whole deal is behind us so lets forget about it.

As far as Jamie goes he struggled through it for the last few years but he put his heart and soul, family and money into this group for a number of years and the group that he was given wasn’t in perfect shape either. That’s one of the reasons Jim bowed out.

There is a lot of issues here, economy, lack of sponsorships, racers losing their jobs, corporations downsizing, tracks closing, decreased fan counts, poor concession sales..... and many more.

SO WHAT DOES EVERYONE THINK.....LETS MOVE FORWARD!!!

How do we move our race teams, tracks, organizations forward. There are a lot of good places you can run your cars. Western Fuel Altereds has a great program going, and the Top Eliminator West Folks are great people to race with. The Heritage series is strong and heathly. PAFCA may be back for 2012. Lets spend our time building up our sport, our teams, our tracks, our sponsors and move Drag Racing into the next decade.

Sincerley,

Joe Powell
Owner
Pro Alcohol Funny Car Association

 

Quote "and the group that he was given wasn’t in perfect shape either. That’s one of the reasons Jim bowed out."

Please explain this statement.

 

As a racer, and former race director and former association leader I can only guess.

But the old saying "some times we (racers) cut off our nose to despite our face" probably comes into play.

Blessings.........Ron Clevenger.

 

Jim put together a plan and worked hours that most of us could not comprehend to make CIFCA a well oiled machine. He paid more than his fair share of dues toward this program, and basically was the reason it was as good a place to race as any in the sport.
Jamie performed well and worked hard to keep everything moving. It was certainly more than he originally thought, but worked hard and dedicated much.
Joe also worked hard in his efforts.
I, for one, would like to thank the people that made CIFCA as great as it was for as long as it was. And also the great racers of this group that made Funny-cars run through my blood. The JBJs and family, the Scotts, the Hilsabecks, Rishtons, Irwins, and all the great competitors. I have been frantically running around trying to find the camaraderie that existed in CIFCA, but to no avail. I have been chasing the boat thing, in drags and circles for the last little while, but still can't find anything that even comes close.
There are lots of people and lots of reasons that made this work. There are lots of reasons that made this not work. Rather than throw stones, I just want to thank everyone that made racing with CIFCA for 15 years such a friggin' cool place.

 

The funny car group and anyone with a blown alcohol car sitting in their garage are welcome to run with Top Eliminator West. There will be some good news coming out soon that hopefully will make running with TEW more conducive to the Pro Alcohol funny car racers looking for a new home.

 

Rocky Mountain Superchargers

Racers in the Rockies and on the High Plains may want to check out our programs:
The Pro/Comp Championship Series presented by AMPGraphics.com and our Pro/Supercharged All Stars.
We'll be updating our website soon with all the info. on our improvements and enhancements for 2011. There will be much news.
Happy New Year!
Cheers,
Ed
Rocky Mountain Superchargers