Well, first of all, I can't believe that Jeff, Kay and Casey managed to get a bunch as disparate as the staff of DRO is together and committed to anything, much less have them hang with it for a year; but the Burks seem to be very good at what they do - and I know just how hard it is to do and how long it takes to do it - and I can only pause in wonder at their accomplishment. Personally, I congratulate you heartily, and please accept my profound thanks for providing a forum from which I've been allowed to speak my piece, in my language, at my pace with a "no rules" policy not only stated but practiced.

Regarding Burk's call to me, s'matter of fact, ol' Jeff didn't just call. He also called about three or four times other times, to try to shame me into making some marked remarks about the state and quality of dragdom from my perspective. Didn't make a dent in my steely defense.

As partial excuse, I can offer that I've been up to my ears with my one-office business that often houses five or more simultaneous projects, and I just didn't have the time for DRO. But that would be only partially true. The larger truth is that, for me, writing can be a very onerous bitch, and I need to devote an awful lot of energy to doing it to my own satisfaction, energy that I really haven't been able to put together in the last few months because of other commitments.

Because I've been at it for so long in one guise or another, I've occasionally been asked by wanna-be's, something like, "When does it become easy. Ya' know, like dancing gets easier after you've been at it for awhile? So when does writing get like that?"

Well, WB, I can only answer for myself, and that would be, "Not in the first 65 years. After that, I'll let you know."

Maybe Martin and Densmore and the Wallace clan are better qualified than I am to give insight into the pursuit of ease in creative writing, but for me, it's always difficult, no matter what the assignment. You'd think after all this time I might have adopted it as a sort of second nature, but that just ain't the way it is here. I still get butterflies whenever I approach the typewriter (sometimes a computer is just a typewriter, despite what Robin Williams titled one of her very good books about the Mac environment). Of course, the monarchs that hold me at bay are also the moths that attract me to the flame, so, in part at least, that's why I keep coming back. It proves I'm still alive!

God, I've done it again! Made a drag racing column into a Philosophy of Literature discourse! Sorry…

To Dragdom, then, and What I Did On My Summer Vacation

As some of you know, one of the reasons I haven't directed any pithy remarks this way in the last four months (does that make me pithed off ?) is that I've been busy with my new duties as Director of Communications for Norwalk Raceway Park. This venture introduced me to a position in drag racing journalism that I hadn't been privy to previously. Indeed, for a while there, I figured that in one station or another, I'd about done everything there is along those lines; but the past few months have given me some new insights into my profession and allowed me to meet new and memorable people and advance relationships with others I had previously met. These include some remarkable IHRA racers and their families and support groups, and I will try to do them journalistic justice in the future.

While I try to keep clear the separate entities I am involved with in my present work - first, Norwalk Raceway Park, and, secondarily, because of its proximity thematically, geographically and genealogically, the International Hot Rod Association - it's not a simple task, especially the genealogy, which would bring me to the remarkable Bader family and my increased interaction with them since April of this year. They are inseparable from stories about NRP and the IHRA, but theirs is a tale I'll have to tell another day, as the subject matter deserves full time and attention by itself, as do any stories on the racers and their kith and kin mentioned above.

As this is my first column in a while, I'd like to update a story I started in the last column I did, about Chris Holbrook, the 1999 IHRA Pro Stock champ who had his ride pulled out from under him just as the 2000 season was about to get underway.

Holbrook has proved his professionalism in word and deed ever since the incident unfolded, and to my knowledge has never blamed it on anything other than "racing luck." He has picked up the pieces as best he could with a lot of help from friends and from his own ability in the driver's seat, and currently sits in sixteenth place in the 2000 Pro Stock standings, but, as this is written, only three points out of 13th place (talk about a tight race!). With the luck he deserves and four National events to go, it's not unreasonable to expect that he might make it back into the top 10 by season's end. Wherever Holbrook finishes, however, his season has already been a spectacular success in the eyes of many. Good job, pal!

Another story that had its roots earlier in the year is one concerning another 1999 IHRA champ, Jay Turner, the Screamin' Eagle Nitro Harley ace. Journalist Bobby Bennett Jr., released a news note relating to the incident back in April when Jay, at the invitation of NHRA, was scheduled to appear at Richmond Motorsports Park in an exhibition match race with Norbert Kutzera, then was not allowed to run, but no further details were made public at the time.

It stuck in my craw, however, and I talked to Turner; to Graham Light, NHRA Senior Vice President-Racing Operations over whose signature the invitation appeared; and to Pete Lyons at Wisenberg Insurance, insurer of many drag racing venues, the latter telephone call made after Light hinted that it was a question of insurance company policy that caused the disallowance of Turner's participation.

Turner, as affable a guy as ever tucked a missile between his legs and went target hunting at over 200 miles per hour, was not outwardly bitter when I talked to him shortly after the day in question; but wise in the ways the drag community works as a result of being a principle, along with his father, at Piedmont Dragway in Greensboro, N.C., he did call into question the professionalism of those involved, stated with what sounded like a smile in his voice.

"(NHRA) invited me, then wouldn't let me run because I didn't have a valid NHRA license. I kind of guessed since I was the IHRA champion, they knew who I was and would honor my IHRA license, as IHRA has often done with NHRA racers."

Turns out Turner was wrong. They didn't know who he was. That came from Light.

"To tell the truth, my involvement was remote. The request for an invitation came from officials at Richmond, and it didn't mention Turner by name, only the Buckley family. I didn't know who their (rider) was."

(Bobby and Scott Buckley own Richmond Trucking in addition to Bulldog Racing, the team for which Turner rides. The other member of the four-man team is Danny Lowe, Turner's crew chief.)

Light went on to say that the incident was "unfortunate," but that the final decision to disallow Turner was made by an NHRA representative on the premises at Richmond when the official found out Turner didn't have an NHRA or valid ProStar license (Turner had let his ProStar license expire), and "it became a question of insurance company policy."

He added, "We offered (the Buckley team) a few bucks to help with their expenses."

It must have been at that point in the fiasco at Richmond that Turner and team began to see some humor in the situation and instigated the creation of a banner that read "NHRA - No Harley Racing Association" and draped it in the team's assigned pit space. We guess that NHRA did not see the humor in the incident, because the Buckley team was quickly asked to vacate the premises, which they did happily and without further incident.

Because insurance companies have so often been named as correspondents in incidents like this, my next move was to call Wisenberg Insurance. I talked to Pete Lyons there, outlining the incident from the facts as I knew them, pointing out that the "blame" in a controversy had been passed on, once again, to an insurance company. My aim was to give Wisenberg a chance to answer for the insurance companies and deny or accept responsibility. But Lyons disclaimed further comment and "any quotes" about the matter "without knowing the contents of the letter Light sent to the Buckleys."

So I read it to him, then and there (Turner had supplied me with a copy of it at my request.) After a pause, Lyons allowed that the situation was a bit vague and the responsibility for the acceptance of Turner under the circumstances was "probably subject to the interpretation of NHRA officials" and that he had no further explanation or comment.

Through the grapevine, I heard a week or so later that Lyons might have had some second thoughts on the matter and might contact me. To date, that hasn't happened.

Thus, where I had actually thought that I might be able to shed some light on the holy of holies - the racing association-insurance company alliance - by presenting the facts to both parties, I was truly no further along than when I started asking questions. I was back to step one of a situation all too familiar in our sport - one in which nobody takes responsibility, and the decision awaited is shuttled back and forth until its feathers fall off and it's left for dead.

After that, I called Burk, whose objectivity I call on often, and reported my progress - or, actually, lack thereof - stating my frustration at being stonewalled. Jeff asked me what I expected: a revelation? And hinted that I "get real." Then he pointed out that what I had done already served its own purpose, to more fully present the Turner/Buckley incident and to fix blame for a screw-up where it should have been - with an organization whose history of insensitivity to racers is legend.

"Write the story as far as you've gone," he advised.

I hadn't heeded that advice until now. And as far as breaking down any barriers, I'm no further along than I was four months ago, but even as I was writing this, an atavistic alarm went off in my head, a Reflection Off of a Green Volkswagen (listen very closely to "Two Heads" by Jefferson Airplane), in a sense a '60s-like flashback.

For you who were along for that trip, or are one who came along a little later and can relate to it spiritually, remember what Love and Peace and Karma are all about? In this instance, especially Karma? And also for those who believe that the K-word was or is just a smoke screen (so to speak), please consider the composite headline in drag journals just a few weeks ago:
RICHMOND CHOOSES IHRA FOR 2001!

So, guess what? Turner and the Buckleys are going to get to run at Richmond anyway - maybe a few months later than originally planned, but this time it'll be in their ballpark. And if any NHRA racers want to come along, IHRA members say you're entirely welcome - and they'll say it with smiles on their faces and mean it. All that's required is a spirit of optimism and perhaps a belief that just maybe, sometimes, Karma is as good an explanation as you need.

Nuff said - I'm outta here!

Write to John Raffa directly at dcdragons@aol.com

Later, and thanks for hangin’!

photo by Karen Raffa

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