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Wondering in the summer heat
7/24/06
Notes scribbled on the back of my ATM receipt from Vegas:
Just Wondering…After witnessing all of the pre-event hype and then actually watching the first two episodes of the reality show “Driving Force,” how can anyone at the NHRA, Ford Motor Company, British Petroleum, Auto Club of SoCal or the John Force camp believe a show that a portrays John as a curmudgeon whose wife threw him out of his house seven years ago for cheating on her, who evidently drinks beer during office hours to cope with stress, who doesn’t know his children and apparently doesn’t mind telling a million viewers and his daughters that he really wanted sons instead of daughters and who, given the opportunity, will drop his pants on national TV believe the show is good for drag racing?
Just Wondering… Which is the real John Force? The one who wrote the letter on the backside of the Driving Force cover of the July 14th National Dragster or the one I saw in the wretched “reality” show?
Just Wondering…I’ve been told that John Force gets $100,000 per episode for the show. If the letters we’ve gotten at DRO are any indication of the damage his public image has sustained as a result of that show, I wonder if he shouldn’t have held out for more money?
Just Wondering…How many of the millions of viewers that saw the first two episodes will be watching the races on ESPN2 or buying tickets to a NHRA national event?
Just Wondering… How classy was Doug Herbert’s comment about Wayne Dupuy quitting his team during the Saturday, July 22nd, ESPN broadcast. He could have thrown Dupuy under the bus, but took the high road instead. I salute Herbert for keeping his cool.
Just Wondering…Does anyone ever bother to explain to Wayne Dupuy or any crew chief who is on a team owner’s payroll that being employed means all data and parts you develop while being an employee belong to the employer? As a writer-photographer who has lost the rights to some of my best work because I was on a publishing company’s payroll, I understand that better than most. If Wayne Dupuy did what he was accussed of it was wrong morally and probably legally and he needs to make it right.
Just Wondering…Haven’t the races at Denver and Seattle proven once and for all that record-setting performances no longer mean much (if anything) when it comes to putting on an exciting professional drag race?
Just Wondering… How come in all of the hoopla over J.R. Todd’s great win at Denver and runner-up at Seattle none of the TV journalists or the crew gave any props to crew chief/tuner Jimmy Walsh for his superb tuning job? Or the fact that J.R. got his start in the IHRA? Or a few kind words for his team owner who took a chance by hiring him in the first place? Maybe the team’s PR guy will take care of that in the future.
Just Wondering… From the amount of press J.R. Todd is getting you’d think he was the first racer “of color” to win an event. Did everyone forget about the Pedregon brothers in fuel coupes, bike racer Antron Brown, and Ronnie Hood who won the U.S. Nationals in the Pro Modified class?
Just Wondering… Veteran announcer Paul Page took some hits in the press for his early season performance as the lead announcer and some of that complaining came in this column. His on-air performances at Denver and Seattle were very good and show he has made the adjustments necessary. Will his critics write to praise his work as quickly as they did to blast him? Let me be the first say “Good job,” Mr. Page.
Just Wondering… Did anyone else notice that following the “NHRA Today” program the bull riding event broadcast that followed it was hosted by--you guessed it--Paul Page, the voice of NHRA Drag Racing.
Just Wondering… Since the NHRA’s Sport Compact drag racing series also has at least one drifting exhibition in that series and it has been proven that more people come to see drifting than NHRA Sport Compact drag racing, maybe the NHRA management ought to schedule an exhibition drift event on a Friday during the national events at Gainesville, E-town, Vegas or Dallas and try to get those folks to hang around for a dose of nitro a little later. I wouldn’t mind seeing Capps, Scelzi, Shaun Carlson or other NHRA drivers doing a little drifting.
Just Wondering... After being forwarded a couple of pictures of Fuel Altereds, Funny Cars, Top Fuelers (especially from the Sixties) and Pro Stockers sideways at half-track with the tires smoking, couldn’t we make a case that drag racing invented drifting? We just didn’t give the drivers style points.
Just Wondering…How many bad crowds must the major sanctioning bodies have on Sundays in June, July and August--due in large part to blazing heat--before they figure out that before they build more seats they better think about covered bleachers? At tracks like Gainesville, Memphis, St. Louis, Denver, E-town, Chicago and Sonoma the heat can be brutalizing. I say before building more luxury boxes and seats, provide the masses with a little shade. Build them and they will come!
Just Wondering…Isn’t it time to start write-in campaigns by drag racing fans to the print media to make them aware of the popularity of drag racing by their readers? The reason I ask this is that my own local rag the St. Louis Post-Dispatch almost never carries any results in their auto-racing box, either in the sports section or in the box-score page but when the NHRA circus is in town they do a great job of covering the event. I just believe that the editors either don’t think drag racing fans care about what happens on the NHRA or IHRA tour or if we do care we can’t read. If your local paper carries the NHRA/IHRA box scores or results I’d like to know about it and you should let the Sports Editors know that you are happy to see those results. If they don’t, how about an email showing your displeasure sent to the Sports Editors? Trust me editors (even this one) respond to letters from the readers. I’m probably just tilting at windmills here, but I’m tired of the status that local sports departments assigns to drag racing.
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Just Wondering…Would the NHRA ever have the stones to tell Don Schumacher, Evan Knoll, or Connie Kalitta they have too many teams and to cut back the number?
Just Wondering… Why we never, never get a statement about controversial decisions and issues concerning the NHRA or the IHRA from the sanctioning body's presidents? I mean these guys are supposed to be in control and they do have tens of thousands of members, racers, and fans they supposedly are responsible to.
Just Wondering… Has the window of opportunity for Pro Mod to ever be a professional NHRA class closed? We don’t get the number of letters we used to concerning the class and the NHRA basically continues to just tolerate the “exhibition” racers. It’s sad because the future looked so bright for the class just five years ago.
