Drag Racing Online- "Burk's Blast"


DRAG RACING Online will be published monthly with new stories and features. Some columns will be updated throughout the month. DRAG RACING Online owes allegience to no sanctioning body and will call ’em like we see ’em. We strive for truth, integrity, irreverence, and the betterment of drag racing. We have no agenda other than providing the drag racing public with unbiased information and view points they can’t read anywhere else except in the bathroom


Large Editor/Publisher
	Jeff Burk
Editor at Large
	Chris Martin
Contributing Editors
	David Cook Terry Cook Dave Densmore Don Gillespie Jeff Leonard Jok Nicholson Geoff Stunkard John Raffa Dave Wallace Ian Tocher
Technical Editors
	Wady Hamam Ron Iskenderian Rick Jones Don Kirn Sky Wallace Mike Stewart Don Kirn
Photographers
	Jeff Burk Richard Brady Don Gillespie Ron Lewis Tim Marshall Rollo Tomassi Ian Tocher
Production Manager
	Kay Burk
Advertising Director
	Brett Underwood
Web/Advertising Coordinator
	Casey Araiza

Head Web Wrench
	Nathan Williams
Assistant Wrenches
	The Elves

I'm fond of sayings that relate to my everyday life. Some of the best are ones I have heard from my dad, like: "A working wife is better than a pumping oil well" or "Never drink anything that is diet, light or green." Lately though, one of those old sayings that seems to apply to the sport of drag racing is the one that goes "No good deed goes unpunished!"

It seems to me that little bit of philosophy certainly applies to some of the things that I've seen happen in drag racing recently. Let me share one example with you.

The NHRA, often perceived as the villain in many cases, has decided for a variety of very good reasons to showcase Pro Modified race cars at some of their national events. By anyone's standards this decision should have been viewed by all involved as a great opportunity for the Pro Modified class including the drivers, sponsors, their fans and even IHRA. After all, by running Pro Modified as an exhibition class at five of their events, NHRA will introduce the cars, drivers and sponsors of Pro Modified (and ultimately IHRA) to a much wider audience than they had previously.

NHRA went to great pains to make sure that they accommodated the IHRA organization and Pro Mod racers. They consulted-and I stress the word consulted-with racer/insiders like Bob DeVour, Len Imbrogno, Jim Oddy, and others about the class and how to best showcase it. They set the Pro Mod race schedule so that it would not conflict with the IHRA schedule. They sure didn't have to do that. The previous administration (and maybe some inside the current one) probably would rather have gone head-to-head with IHRA.

The result is a program in which the Pro Mod exhibition races on the NHRA schedule don't conflict with any IHRA events, the purse by all accounts is very fair, IHRA rules for Pro Mods will be enforced, and, in an unprecedented move, NHRA has decided to honor the Pro Mod driver's IHRA licenses and issue them NHRA Pro licenses.

NHRA president, Tom Compton, and VP of Competition, Graham Light, even took the step of telling their story to yours truly, allowing their plans for the class to be known months before official NHRA releases appeared, which allowed the racers time to get ready instead of springing it on them after the first of the year. In a nutshell NHRA bent over backward to ensure that everybody involved would be happy.

This is where the "No good dead goes unpunished" line comes in. Bob DeVour, Len Imbrogno, and Jim Oddy instantly became lightening rods for criticism about NHRA decisions which they had absolutely no control of. Instead of calling NHRA and the officials that make the final decision about everything involved in these matters, racers instead chose to believe drivel they read in chat rooms and used these guys up.

Bobby Bennett, the editor of the internet e-zine Competition Plus.com wrote a scathing editorial unfairly blasting NHRA for how they handled the announcement of the class and by innuendo also suggesting that some racers would get favored treatment by NHRA when it comes to enforcement of the rules. By the way, when you see a statement quoting the president or vice president of a sanctioning body in Drag Racing Online you can be sure they said it!

Then, when the list of invitees was released--not all of whom I agreed with either-some of the same people who blasted NHRA's decision to bring the Pro Mods in blasted them for who they did and didn't invite. Others were probably mad because they weren't on the list. I guess that even though they professed to not want to join the club they still wanted to be invited.

I won't even go into the near-sighted, ill-informed griping from NHRA pro and sportsman racers about the exhibition class. By the way, where were these guys when NHRA added Pro Stock bikes and then Pro Stock trucks?

So, instead of NHRA officials feeling the love for making a gutsy decision that many racers and fans have applauded, those officials are probably wondering why the hell they made the call in the first place. I'm sure some of the guys they consulted feel that way.

I think everyone will understand when they get to Gainesville why they should applaud NHRA's decision, but until then some good people will be punished for doing a good deed.

See you at the races.

photo by James Drew