Straight Talk With IHRA President Leah Martin—Interview No. 2

Just five weeks ago, Leah Martin was named an International Hot Rod Association executive and tasked to spearhead the drag-racing organization’s deep dive into offshore racing. Martin is continuing to be the IHRA’s forward-facing point-person, but now she has a more-precise title—president.

And not just of the IHRA’s offshore racing initiatives—of all its operations, from automobile racing to drag-boat racing and soon to be more.

Leah Martin: “Offshore racing will not change until it has consistency.” Photo by Jeff Helmkamp copyright Helmkamp Photos.

To learn more, I interviewed Martin last Saturday evening, the night before the final contests of the Race World Offshore Key West World Championships. Here’s what she had to say.

Congratulations on your new job and title. What are your responsibilities?

Everything. Offshore racing. Drag racing. Drag boats. All the things we are purchasing. We have a couple of announcements coming on the fifteenth and then at the PRI show with a couple of new series.

New series?

Yes, but I can talk about them now for this interview. (Laughs)

How does your new gig affect your role as executive director of the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout?

I am committed to the Shootout because it is my first love, not ahead of my family obviously. I will step back in that capacity and hire someone. A lot of what I do is working on sponsorshps for the Shootout, so I will step back into more of an administrative, “yes/no” overseeing role and will hire someone for sponsorships.

What is the IHRA operating budget for offshore racing next year?

Over $7 million.

How does it break down?

A million right now is for the racers, for the series purse. I have a Hydro-Fest built in for the Lake Havasu race, which we talked about doing in 2025 season so partnering with F1 and H1 and a couple other classes we have budget built in separately of the million purse. We will have a $650,000 tow-purse payable at the end of the season to racers who participate in a percentage of races. That percentage has yet to be determined.

Is the IHRA deal to buy Powerboat P1/P1 Offshore complete? Has money changed hands?

Yes. Our attorneys went back and forth for a few weeks. There was a final agreement on all the “red line” items marked through by each side and all assets will be transferred.

What exactly did IHRA buy?

We purchased all their assets, their physical assets. They do have some equipment, trucks, trailers, things like that.

But equipment, trucks and trailers and things weren’t what you were after.

(Laughs) No. We wanted their digital assets, their city contracts and their sponsorships. They have a great sponsorship coming in obviously with Monster Energy. That’s valuable to the sport and we wanted to keep that intact and protect that. Working with Thomas Covington (formerly with Powerboat P1/ P1 Offshore) is great for us with the sponsorships we have in place.

Powerboat P1/P1 Offshore already has really great race sites and cities, and they brought on a new one with New Orleans this year. I only heard great things from the racers. The racers were really like, “I don’t want to go to New Orleans” when it was first mentioned and then those who went came and experienced it were like, “Oh my god it was amazing. It was great.” So we’re going back there in April.

The goal is just to unite the sport, so it’s not just P1. We’re having conversations with every promoter to unify it. There is so much division. It’s got to come together with everyone focused on the same mission, vision and goal.

Teams in Key West, Fla., last week competed for a $250,000 purse provided by the International Hot Rod Association.

I really believe offshore racing will not change until it has consistency. Consistency is the main goal. You need consistency for the racers in tech, safety, standardization of what that is going to look like, officiating, all those things. But consistency also for the fans, whether they are watching in person or at home. You can’t go to one race and have a purse and go to another and not have a purse. You can’t have go to one race and have good quality production and go to the next race and have crappy production and expect grow the sport. It just can’t happen.

So there is a million dollar production budget for next year. Because that’s what it takes. Production is very, very expensive. We have a national partnership with Speed Sport, so we will immediately walk into IHRA relationships for national coverage. IHRA is looking a buying prime time syndicated spots for all of its motorsports.

From the outside looking in, it appears it is important IHRA to have complete control over offshore racing venues. Why is that crucial?

If you look at every form of motorsport—or sports in general—that is successful it has sanctioning-body support. Because you create consistency. You can’t do it if one promoter hires one group of techs and the next promoter hires a different group of techs. The racers have to know, every time they come into a race, exactly what to expect, right? We have to create the consistency. We have to create it for the racers the fans. And you can’t control what the officiating team is doing or what the tech team is doing unless the sanctioning body is paying those bills. And we haven’t had that in offshore because the sanctioning body has not had the money. So it was on the backs of the promoters and consistency suffered.

Along those lines, Is the still IHRA working to acquire Race World Offshore? Is that the final piece of the puzzle and is so where are you in negotiations?

You know, all of this has happened really fast. We started working on this five weeks ago to the day. So Larry (Bleil) of Race World Offshore said, “Leah, I just have to get through Key West.” And I think we absolutely owe him the respect and time it takes to get through Key West and wrap his head around all of it. I understand that.

How many times has someone come into the sport and said “I am going to provide money to the racers” and not done it? So when (IHRA head) Darryl Cuttell said he wanted to do offshore racing, I said the only way to do it is to show them support in Key West. He said, “You mean we can run Key West?” And I said, “No. Absolutely not. We are going to support Larry.”

Race World Offshore founder and owner Larry Bleil (right) has significant decisions ahead of him.

So I said let’s do a $100,000 sponsorship to be able host and feed racers on the Outer Mole, just like the IHRA does at all of their drag races—they do full dinners for all teams and their crews and the races. And I said I wanted to do a $250,000 purse for the racers. And Darryl said, “Make it happen.”

Why is Mr. Cuttell doing this? He’s not here to answer for himself but how has he explained it to you?

For his legacy. He’s never been married. He’s never had children. So he feels like this is his legacy. He loves racing. He loves speed. Darryl sees this as his legacy.

Who is on the IHRA leadership team and what are their titles and responsibilities?

We are building that. The IHRA board of directors is currently being staffed. There we will be two members from each racing discipline on the board. So for the boating side it is Randy Scism of MTI and Tyler Miller of M CON Racing.

We are also putting together an advisory committee. We have Billy Shipley, Cole Leibel, Bob Teague, Sean Conner and Win Farnsworth. I am still adding members to that. They are immediately tasked with rules, because the rules are a mess no matter what umbrella you’re running under.

What happens with the World Powerboat Racing Association? Does IHRA absorb it?

It doesn’t get absorbed by IHRA. I think the board of directors will vote to close that down after this race.