DRIVING THIS IS GONNA BE A 'SNAP'

Creating a natural bridge between drag racing and rock 'n roll, Pro Mod racer Mike Stawicki has signed a new sponsor: the band "Snapcase." The car will make its national event debut at the IHRA ACDelco Canadian Nationals, August 9-11 at Toronto Motorsports Park. The '63 Corvette was built at Jim Salemi's G-Force Race Cars in Tonawanda, NY. Jim's brother, Jon, has been a crew member on the race car team and is also guitarist with the five-man band. Snapcase has toured in Europe, Japan, and the U.S. Their most recent single is "Typecast Modulator" on the Victory Records label. Their next CD is scheduled to be released Sept. 24th.

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"Our music has been lumped into a format called 'hardcore punk.' Now, with the race team joining with the band, I guess you could call it 'supercharged rock 'n roll,'" said Jon Salemi.

The team has come up with a new engine program that they think will allow the blown powerplant to be more competitive in hot weather, where blown cars have historically had a disadvantage. [7-30-2002]

PROMOTING 101: THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS 'SOLD OUT'

Unbelievably, NHRA and the Seattle track badly underestimated the number of drag race fans in the Pacific Northwest. At the Lucas Oil Northwest Nationals evidently they had so many fans wanting in on Saturday that the track ran out of space to park cars and started turning potential ticket buyers away! When the Agent was working at race tracks many years ago he was taught that the cardinal rule of a promoter is "We're never sold out."

Legenday promoters Bill Graham and Jim Tice must be spinning at the thought of a race track turning away potential ticket buyers.

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A tip of the Agent's hat to NHRA, though, for putting the customer first. Their business mantra could be "We don't sell seats we don't have."

Don Smith coming back to IHRA Pro Stock? Don Smith, whose driver Gene Wilson hit the road for the NHRA circuit last year to drive a Mopar, told Agent 1320 at the IHRA race in Martin, Michigan that he should soon take delivery of a new Mustang from the Jerry Haas race car factory and would soon return to the IHRA Pro Stock wars. The Agent wonders if his ex-driver Gene Wilson knows about this. [7-30-2002]

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