Dirt
The Complex World of NHRA ’ s Graham Light
By Bobby Bennett / CompetitionPlus . com
Imagine a job where you go into your office , and you have a multitude of people in public forums , many of whom you ’ ve never met , screaming for your head on a platter , demanding you retire from your job . And for what ? You enforced the rulebook as it is written . It ’ s not all doom and gloom , as you have many private supporters and your team respects your challenging position . This doesn ’ t make for good media fodder or social media banter .
Welcome to Graham Light ’ s world , NHRA ’ s VP of Operations . He ’ s the man in the NHRA with the thickest skin of them all .
“ When you ’ re doing something that was your hobby , that you have a passion for , then the time you invest in doing it doesn ’ t matter ,” Light said . “ I don ’ t think everybody disagrees with my decisions all the time . We ’ re in a sport where we have two cars side by side , one winner , and one loser . One person ’ s unhappy , and one ’ s happy . And when you make a decision on a competition issue , one competitor ’ s happy and one ’ s not .
“ That ’ s just the role we ’ re in . The government ’ s the same way . The media spends four years trying to elect a president ; then they spend the next four years tearing them apart . We ’ re in that same boat ; we ’ re the governing body .”
Truth be known , Light hates confrontation . “ There are so many good people out there , and I hate to get into confrontations with anybody ,” Light said . “ Really when you look at it , we have races with four , five , six hundred cars . And throughout the weekend , you may have one or two confrontations . The odds are pretty good . A lot of people are out there enjoying the sport .”
There was a time when Light enjoyed the sport in a different role . He started as a Competition Eliminator racer and as a determined competitor , worked his way into a Top Fuel ride , with his most famous performance being a runner-up finish at the 1977 NHRA World Finals in Ontario , California .
“ I think any racer tries to interpret the rules , and play the rules to their advantage ,” Light said . “ That doesn ’ t mean they ’ re cheating or doing anything illegal ; it would be worse [ to have the old rulebook ] than it is today because the rules were vaguer . Now we try to spell it out as clear as possible so that it reduces confrontations . I think that 99-percent of the racers out there play by the rules , they do . Sometimes something maybe gets by them , or it ’ s interpreted a little bit different , and there ’ s an infraction . “ We played by the rules , maybe that ’ s why we didn ’ t win a lot of races .” Light ’ s rules enforcement sometimes transcends the black and white of mechanical regulations and jumps over into the totally gray area of race procedure and politics . More times than not , Light ends up walking a fine line of the gray area ; the kind of ruling which puts one in a “ damned if I do , and damned if I don ’ t ” scenario .
Light has no one to blame for his role but himself ; it ’ s the life he chose for himself once he stepped away from driving . He first took over as manager for Edmonton Raceway in the late-1970s where , in a twist of fate , ended up with an acting role in the low-budget drag racing movie Fast Company . Even in this role , the one-time card-carrying member of the Screen Actors Guild was put in a no-win , controversial situation . In his case , sometimes art depicts life .
“ Well , my acting career was real short ,” Light admitted with a smile . “ I never got on the Academy Awards stage . I think they gave me a token part just because they used my racetrack all summer to make the movie . So they felt sorry for me , so we ’ ll give you a little speaking part .
“ You know , you never know what the future ’ s going to hold . You look back at some of the tracks you take in life , and we end up where we are today . There are lots of factors when you look back as to what caused you to go down that path . If you get lucky , you meet a lot of good people ; you ’ re in the right place at the right time . I love doing what I ’ m doing . I love this sport ; I love the people . Yeah , it gets tense at times , and it ’ s sometimes frustrating .”
Light has been with the NHRA a total of 33 years , first taking over as Director of Operations as the legendary Steve Gibbs stepped out of the role in 1998 .
The toughest part of the job is to remain void of emotion and be an impartial judge , even at the sight of a racer who has struggled to reach the pinnacle and then see them reach the peak .
“ You always like to see that ,” Light said . “ It takes a lot of money to be out here , and it ’ s a lot of work , and when somebody does break through , you ’ re happy for that person . We ’ re neutral , we ’ ve got to play that role , and we do , all our people do . That doesn ’ t mean that inside you ’ re not happy as heck for the guy .
“ I don ’ t think it ’ s tough to be unemotional . I think when you ’ ve done it as long as I have , and some other people , you just adapt to the situation you ’ re in . I think if you took somebody out of college and put them in this role that there would be a tremendous emotional learning curve . I ’ ve been a racetrack operator before , and it is not easy at times either . And I raced for a few years . You kind of just learn to adapt and go with the punches and understand it is what it is sometimes .”
Light doesn ’ t deny the reality he ’ s closer to the end of his career than the start and one day he ’ ll give up the hustle and bustle of a 24-race schedule intermingled with dozens of company appearances .
For a man who prefers to be behind the scenes , how does he wish to be remembered when he finally hangs up the VP of Operations role ?
“ I really don ’ t even think about that ,” Light said . “ I ’ m just here doing the job . It ’ s not just me ; it ’ s a team of very qualified , experienced people . Whether it be starting line , or racer registration , the tower , Safety Safari , tech ; those are dedicated people . And they ’ re the ones that make this happen . And I don ’ t think I need to be remembered for anything .”
Those who know him differ in opinion , as they will choose to consider him the man who made the tough decisions no one else wanted to . After all , someone has to be the bad guy from time to time .
PHOTO : MARK J . REBILAS
36 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated . com Issue 120