Tire, Tired, Tiredest 6/30/05
NHRA's management suffered major heartburn and a pick-up truck load of bad PR over the recently settled Pro Stock Truck fiasco, but that episode and the bad PR it generated for the sport may be nothing compared to what they could experience in a protracted lawsuit with Julie Russell over the death of her husband. Mrs. Russell's lawyer, John Simpson, unlike the lawyers who represented the Pro Stock Truck owners, is already trying his case in the press. Stories about Darrell Russell's tragic crash a year ago and NHRA's reluctance to release information about it already have appeared in the Los Angeles Times and the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Those stories were basically sympathetic to the widow. The problem NHRA and Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company face here
is I can't for the life of me understand why the NHRA and Goodyear have apparently chosen to fight with the widow of a racer who was killed apparently as a result of a tire failure. Especially when you consider that the tires used on Top Fuel and Funny Cars in the NHRA have had serious, documented, problems that have resulted in crashed and damaged cars for a decade. If this case ever goes to court, which I doubt it ever will, can you imagine the testimony that could be made public as Julie Russell's lawyer deposes and questions Top Fuel and Funny Car drivers, crew, and crew chiefs, not to mention Goodyear engineers and NHRA officials. You talk about a PR disaster for everyone concerned, including the sport's major sponsors. Everyone involved in this case from Wayne Dupuy to Ray Alley to
Jerry VP of racing operations Graham Light has been doing most of the talking for the NHRA on this subject and he has had little to say other than apparently what NHRA's legal department authorizes, notably that if the crew chiefs were worried about the safety of the tires, it was their responsibility to not put the drivers in the cars. In a word, NHRA and Goodyear are "stonewalling" the issue. Friends and neighbors, we now have "TireGate." You can bet that the question that Julie Russell's lawyer is asking is, "What did they know and when did they know it?" In my opinion the management and legal teams at NHRA and Goodyear are mishandling and misjudging this whole deal. What NHRA and Goodyear could have done instead of forcing a lawsuit was to answer the Russell family's questions about the death of their husband and son, admit that there was indeed a tire problem that has been corrected because of the accident, negotiated a settlement, and then sent representatives from the NHRA and Goodyear to Houston to deliver a check and an apology in person. In all probability the fans and press would have taken those actions to signify that the NHRA and Goodyear Tire and Rubber are businesses that sincerely care about their racer/customers and their families. After the PR fiasco at the F-1 race at the Brickyard, tire maker Michelin has announced they will refund money to those who bought tickets. It's about a $12,000,000 hit, but an action they thought was worth the price. Instead of doing something like that, apparently NHRA and Goodyear would rather go to war publicly and privately with a grieving widow. You can bet that both the NHRA and Goodyear will eventually pay, it's just a matter of when and how much. I suspect that before the big payoff happens, Julie Russell and her lawyer are going to continue taking their case to the public, and the NHRA, Goodyear and the sport of drag racing are going to suffer. There is an old vaudeville bit where a guy is arrested for jaywalking and the fine is two dollars. He calls his lawyer to come down and pay the fine. Instead, his lawyer decides to fight the ticket. The punchline is that the guy ends up spending ten years in the slammer, spends his life savings paying the lawyer, and in the end still has to pay the two dollars. My advice to NHRA and Goodyear is: Pay the two dollars; you can't
win this one. |
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he
newest story line for NHRA's continuing public relations soap opera
is that the self-proclaimed world's largest auto racing sanctioning
body will be involved in yet another high-profile lawsuit involving
its professional classes. Reportedly, because the Goodyear Tire
and Rubber Company and the NHRA didn't meet a deadline imposed by
her lawyer to deliver a detailed explanation of the details of her
husband Darrell Russell's tragic death a year ago this month, Julie
Russell is suing Goodyear and the NHRA for a reported 7.3 million
bucks. 
