Investment Firm Spins Wheels in Bid to Acquire NHRA

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A Santa Monica investment firm’s plans to buy the National Hot Rod

Association have crashed and burned.

HD Partners Acquisition Corp.’s shareholders voted against the acquisition of Glendora-based NHRA’s professional racing assets, including the Powerade Drag Racing Series.

The proposal didn’t receive the necessary number of votes for completion of the transaction, HD Partners announced Jan. 31.

The investment company planned to take the NHRA public, but it now plans to liquidate and dissolve, pursuant to its charter. It will seek a shareholder vote on approving the dissolution.

HD Partners executives blame a weakening economy for the failed acquisition attempt.

“Unfortunately, in the time since we first announced this transaction in May of 2007, we have witnessed a dramatic shift in both the financial markets and the perceived strength of the U.S. economy, which we believe adversely impacted the final outcome of this transaction,” Eddy Hartenstein, chairman of HD Partners, said in a statement.

HD Partners was formed in 2005 to pursue mergers, capital stock exchanges, asset acquisitions or other comparable business combinations in the media, entertainment or telecommunications industries.

The National Hot Rod Association was founded in 1951 by Wally Parks. It has grown to include 80,000 members and more than 35,000 licensed competitors. There are 140 member tracks across North America that schedule NHRA competitions in seven geographic regions.

Its marquee Powerade series makes 23 stops in 21 cities over the course of nine months. The company also offers weekly grassroots programs at many of its member tracks. One of the most popular is the NHRA Street Legal Drags presented by the Automobile Association of America, which offers the opportunity to compete in drag racing.

The National Hot Rod Association will continue to operate as a non-profit entity.


Worthy Cause

ThinkCure, an organization launched in 2007 by the Los Angeles Dodgers, the McCourt family, City of Hope and Childrens Hospital Los Angeles has named Janet Clayton its first president. The charity is focused on raising funds to support cancer research.

Clayton, a native of Los Angeles, was an executive with the Los Angeles Times. She started as a reporter and eventually became California editor, where she ran the paper’s largest news staff. She was editor of two Pulitzer Prize-winning series.

ThinkCure is modeled after the Jimmy Fund in Boston, which is also dedicated to cancer research. The McCourt family has been associated with the Jimmy Fund since

it started in 1948, when Frank McCourt’s grandfather, Francis McCourt, was an owner of the Boston Braves. Today, the Jimmy Fund is the official charity of the Boston Red Sox.

Fundraising efforts will start during the preseason with a Dodgers-Red Sox exhibition game March 29. The game will be played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Net proceeds of the game will go to ThinkCure. Jamie and Frank McCourt already have announced that they will match donations up to $1 million.


Beijing Ball

The Long Beach Breakers, a team in the semi-pro American Basketball Association, will be traveling to Singapore later this month to play two exhibition matches against the Beijing National Team.

For Breakers owner Carl Williams, the

15-hour flight is a challenge, but he’s accepting it in order to get his team exposure to more than a billion people on the continent.

“I’ve been trying not to go, but now we will take advantage of it and maybe get a few more sponsors,” said Williams.

In order to raise funds for the trip, Williams is looking for sponsors to help offset the cost of the flights. One of his partners is New Line Cinema, which has slated a Feb. 29 release of Will Ferrell film “Semi-Pro,” a comedy about an ABA player in the ’70s. The Breakers will distribute promotional items for the film at their Feb. 18 fundraiser at Smooth’s Sports Grille in Long Beach.

The Breakers is one of a few ABA teams invited to play in China as the nation prepares to host the Olympic Games later this summer. Several players on the Chinese national team will compete in the game.

The Breakers feature younger players who are hoping to make it into the National Basketball Association as well as some retired NBA talent. California State University, Long Beach, alumnus and former Utah Jazz guard Bryon Russell mentors younger players and plays for the team while NBA veteran Olden Polynice coaches. Russell and Polynice will conduct a basketball clinic for kids in China.


Staff reporter David Nusbaum can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 236, or at

[email protected]

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