A Bad Day Racing

5/5/05

Jeff Burk Photo

ou know those cute bumper stickers you get at the mall in the cheapo sticker store? The one’s that say “A bad day racing is better than a good day at work” You know the ones, right? Well, guess what? They’re wrong. A bad day racing is just that - a bad day racing. My latest bad day of racing happened at the 17th edition of the Nitro Nationals, held at Infineon Raceway and presented by the Goodguys Rod and Custom Association.

Stop, I know what you are about to say “Oh gee, another spoiled nitro racer is going to complain about how the Goodguys screwed him… blah, blah ,blah.” No, this time I’m down on Mother Nature and the other nitro guy’s who have a wheel base longer than 125”.

Why am I so bitter? We [Jeff Gaynor’s nitro Funny Car] didn’t qualify. Why? For one, qualifying was shortened to one pass for all classes. Why? Two reasons: first, Mother Nature decided to rain on our parade Friday night and into Saturday morning. Second, nostalgia Top Fuel decided to keep the OPEC nations fat and happy for at least another year, or until we get to Pomona in August. Of course, our not qualifying has nothing to do with me not being able to drive a hot poker up a snowman’s ass. No, I’m blaming Top Fuel and all the delays due to oildowns. Hey, it’s my column!

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Ok, I’m done whining and no, I actually don’t think it’s Top Fuel’s fault after all. I know Larry Westerfelt the VRA Tech Director was going to have a meeting with the representatives of the Top Fuel owners group, the All-American Fuel Dragster Association, to brainstorm on what can be done in the future to try and reduce the number of oildowns.

I, for one, think they should look into a belly pan under the motor area much like the NHRA fuelers. Funny Cars should have those also, before they start to throw their stuff on the ground.

Of course, people will complain about the cost which could be about $500.00 to $1000.00 to have one built and mounted. Not all of us work in a chassis shop like I do, but, all of us nitro guys are rich, right? Something will come from the meeting I’m sure and you’ll get the dirt here when I get it. I do think that the Goodguys are thinking long and hard about the logistics of running 300 plus race cars in a span of two days. And two days of sunshine, not rain like we had at Sonoma. In fact rumors abound of no two day races next year.

I applaud the Goodguys for thinking in this direction and with the current health of the nostalgia movement see no reason why this wouldn’t actually be cost effective for the Association. Hopefully more cars and fans will show up to offset the additional cost of one more day of track rental, safety crew, etc.

Hey, there has been a lot of talk on some internet message boards about how the Goodguys could have run the race more efficiently and what not, however, I think that the people who actually survived the ordeal, went rounds and maybe won the thing have been over shadowed and deserve our recognition and a big round of applause!

With no further ado… the final round contestants of the 17th running of the Nitro Nationals!