Somethin' To Fear?

THE MULTIPLICATION TABLES

by Chris Martin

Of late, there has been a lot of talk, nay, dare I say racer concern over multiple car teams on the Pro level in a single eliminator. Recently, the focus of this chatter has been Don and Tony Schumacher's U.S. Army-backed fuel team, which according to some is rumored to be a four-car effort in 2001.

Tony, the 1999 defending Winston Top Fuel champ, would be at the helm of the No. 1 car and Melanie Troxel would put the No. 2 team car through its paces. However, in addition to that, rumor persists that the team will also field two Funny Cars in 2001. In addition, opponents of conglomerates like this say that Schumacher's armada is raiding other teams for tuning and driving talent.

For many less-funded racers that qualifies as bad news, the kind of bad news that created such a furor earlier this year at the NHRA ATSCO Nationals in Arizona where nine-time Winston Funny Car champ John Force was contemplating a third Castrol GTX Funny Car.

Force and his teammate Tony Pedregon, who finished 1-2 in the Winston standings in 1997 and 1999, were to be joined by NHRA Top Fuel and Funny Car winner Tommy Johnson in a third "test car." The fears concerning this union were familiar ones; namely that the number two or three driver would sandbag against the boss and also act as a blocker against other competitors, thus diluting the competition.

Force, of course, has always maintained that he would never have Tony go in the tank for him if they met in eliminations (and he proved to be a man of his word here), and that the only time he would even consider it would be if Tony and he met in the final race of the final year for the world title. Force joked that he would simply go over to Tony before their race, fire him, make a single, claim the title, then re-hire him right after that.

Force's relatively clean nontanking record aside, the racers would have none of it and swung a decision that forced the world champ to step away from the Johnson plan. Force just threw up his hands, said to hell with it, that was that.

Insiders will recall that drag racing history is replete with two car professional teams. In fact, the Schumachers would not be the first team to field four nitro cars. At the 1970 NHRA Winternationals, Mickey Thompson showed with four Funny Cars; three Mustangs (driven by Danny Ongais, Mike Van Sant and Johnny Wright) and a Maverick driven by Arnie Behling.

Thompson's team was never a factor in 1970 and, because they ran so many match races 30 years ago, they showed up en masse (as far as I know) just once or twice that season. Hardly the national-event threat to win that a Force or a Schumacher juggernaut represents.

Obviously things are a lot different today. In Funny Car, there are two Force cars, two WWF race cars, and two Worsham Racing cars that generally qualify for an NHRA field. Six of a16-car field that usually qualify and pretty much determine that the other teams are competing for 10 spots. If the rumored Schumacher deal is realized in 2001, you got half the field with four teams. The more the merrier? Don't bet on it.

One other reason for being a little down on this, is that since there is a 90-percent nitro rule and the cars have slowed, I think fans are going to have to work harder on enthusiasm when they watch four or five monoplies battle it out at reduced speed for event titles.

Sure, these multi-car team efforts go on in NASCAR and IRL and the other roundy-round circuits, and the Jack Roushes and Roger Penskes definitely win their fair share of the races.

The thing that is different, though, is that a two-car (or more) team gets swallowed up a lot easier in a race that starts more than two to nearly three dozen cars. Not so in drag racing.

Not only that, but there are guys like Connie Kalitta in Top Fuel who has the wherewithall to run more than one car (and he does have a spare car set up for son, Scott), and the same applies to Kenny Bernstein. Keep in mind that Doug Herbert runs two cars with Snap-On Tools and there are a few more Top Fuel players who could double up if necessary. You don't think "New York Yankee" Top Fuel dragster owners George Steinbrenner and the Gwynn Family could field two cars if the baseball boss became a drag race fan. Perish the thought.

Leaving actual racing aside, the well-off teams can test and test often. They learn a lot from these sessions at an NHRA track and they put the knowledge to good use at national events. A good single car team can do that very infrequently at best, further exposing the gap between rich and poor and diluting the competition.

Don't misunderstand. John Force and Connie Kalitta were not born with silver spoons in their mouths; they fought for every nickel they ever earned and deserve their success. The problem, though, is that some racers, and they are a minority, are better at representing themselves and their merchandise and consequently move product better than others.

For those that can't, they get the smaller deals and this can translate itself into a good single-car team that if it got some breaks, could win an occasional event. That's not encouraging to this viewer.

What'll it be? Five or six two- to three-car teams battling for 16 spots? This is not 1970 as with Mickey Thompson or 1973 when Don Schumacher ran three Funny Cars. There were double to triple the number of cars there are now and plenty of action for everybody. The Schumacher/ Wonder Bread Barracudas (Don, Bobby Rowe, and Raymond Beadle) were positively lost in the staging lanes at the '73 U.S. Nationals when nearly 50 Funny Cars tried to qualify for 16 spots. That ain't the case today.

Currently, it appears that there are only realistically six or so nitro teams that have a shot at winning Top Fuel or Funny Car and that's a detriment, but I haven't got a clue as to what to do about it. Because pro drag race fields are smaller than roundy-round fields, straight-line fans really get drilled by an advertising onslaught from a smaller number of companies. Let's face it, 2001 could become a 300-mph recruitment poster for the "be all you can be" crowd. However, that could be a real ace-in-the-hole for drag racing's future as unappetizing as it is aesthetically.

However, on the flipside, while the sponsors might like the intensity of exposure their products get, the fans might, MIGHT back off. What if cynicism set in and remarks like, "Oh wow, another U.S. Army versus Budweiser final," took hold? Not good. Like soul singer Barry White said, "Too much of anything, ain't good for 'ya, baby."

I guess the answer lies in some how, some way notching more big sponsorships, so more racers can match the upped ante that is definitely there. Admittedly, not much of a response to what could develop into a genuine future problem.

Whadya you guys think?