A Little History Lesson

​

The Illinois Girls Barrel Racing Association (IGBRA), now called Illinois Barrel Racing Association (ILBRA).   IGBRA was recognized as a Not For Profit Association on 10/25/1965. We started out with Ladies Barrels and Junior Barrels being the only recognized classes.   In the 70's Poles were added, and then in the 80's and 90’s, Mens and Seniors were added, but not sure which came first.   Finally, the flag and plug classes were added last.   In the beginning, they recognized the Top 10 Ladies and Top 5 Juniors and out of state members were vying for a belt buckle for 1st place only.   They also gave an award for best dressed and best sportsman, which were eliminated in the 70's. Out of state shows were not approved, stop watches were used for timing at many shows, and with the electric eye taking over, came the issue of re-rides due to timer failure.   At different times if the timer failed and you had a clean ride your re-ride would be clean even if you knocked. Or if you knocked on the first ride and timer failed, your re-ride carried the penalty.   Today if the timer fails, your first ride never happened and your time is based on your re-ride. Everyone was required to turn in an award donation and letters were sent to companies asking for donations for our awards.   Awards were then based on what was turned in, and at times there was money available to purchase items.   If you received an award, but had not donated there was a fine applied before you could earn points the following year.   There have been years when the awards were almost non-existent due to lack of funds.   To be able to roll with the times, one of the  founding Ladies Barrels class and the later added Mens Barrels has been eliminated, and replaced with Adult Barrels.   One hurdle we have not found a solution to, is how can we adapt to be able to approve more classes that are nationwide approved and still approve shows using our current age divisions.   The majority of our approvals do have the same ages we do, but times are changing.