Just wondering, again.

Just wondering… Are there any fans in drag racing more loyal than those who attend the races at Englishtown’s Raceway Park? Those fans sat through two days of rain, bitter cold, and misinformation at the recent postponed NHRA event and still came out and sat in the cold and rain on Sunday just in case the weather co-operated and allowed a race.

Just wondering… How long will it be before the NHRA Top Fuel class becomes an eight-car field? In the last several races we have seen short fields, or worse yet, fields where the bottom half of Top Fuel field was made up of cars that qualified with double-digit elapsed times and speeds under 100 mph.

Just wondering… Will fans continue to pay the ticket prices to watch Top Fuelers that would be pulled over and ticketed on the Jersey Turnpike for going too slow?

Just wondering… Maybe there ought to be a qualifying minimum elapsed time for Top Fuel and Funny Cars.

Just wondering… Why only 15 Top Fuel cars qualified at E-Town when there were 16 on the grounds. Ralph White had his car at the event and was going to have the 1989 Winston World Champ Fuel Funny car driver Bruce Larson drive the car. Larson reportedly had kept his license current and in fact last drove for none other than Don Garlits in 1994, but the powers that be refused to let Larson drive. C’mon, let him make a squirt and give him just three laps to qualify.

Just wondering… Why NHRA would allow one of its own media employees to work for several NHRA pro teams as their public relations rep. Could there be any conflict of interest in that arraignment?

Just wondering… Am I the only one who thinks that the short fields in NHRA’s top professional and sportsman classes not only make it hard to sell programs to sponsors but also gives our sport a black eye? How bad is it going to have to get before NHRA makes some drastic and instant changes in rules or purses in order to turn the situation around?

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At Englishtown NHRA first announced that there would be a third Fuel session before the race began on Sunday morning, then abruptly cancelled it due to safety concerns but said nothing about canceling the eliminations due to start about an hour later. Just wondering why conditions were unsafe for qualifying but evidently OK for racing.

Just wondering … How would a potential sponsor react if I showed him a copy of the IHRA house organ Drag Review, he turned to the IHRA President’s column and found the face of the man pasted on the body of a neutered bull? Please Bill, stop!!!

Just wondering… If a racer has a bad accident and the sanctioning body ignores it, does that mean it didn’t happen?

Just wondering… If the rumor that Warren Johnson is going to get involved with Derrick Cope and NASCAR is true, does that mean that the elder Johnson is thinking about retirement and turning the fast car over to Kurt?

Just wondering… When are the Street Racing sanctioning organizations going to realize that they have effectively chased all of the kids and their cars that left the street to race at the strip back to the street. And when will they get the clue that legal street fans also originally came to see cars that actually had a chance to be driven on the street.

Just wondering … When will NMCA / NSCA realize that the 25-mile drive that used to be mandatory for Pro Street was what made the class and the cars somewhat unique? That little drive also kept thinly disguised race cars away which in turn kept the cost of competing a little more affordable.

Just wondering… Am I alone in believing that what NHRA really needs is to give Tom Compton dictatorial power so that he can make needed changes without being committeed to death? A study of all successful drag racing and oval track organizations shows that none were or are successful if run democratically.

photo  by Kay Burk

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