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DRO: And why is it that Nostalgia Top Fuel
rules allow for Ford single overhead cam motors,
392 Chryslers, Donovans, Chevys, Pontiacs and
not the Chrysler 426?
M: Well, I
can go ahead and put that on the NHRA. They
banned the 426 in the front engine slingshot
style dragster, that was their call. It's been
in our rules since day one; it's a road we didn't
want to go down. Everybody that came to our
races had 392's, 417 Donovans, there were no
426's so that wasn't a question and a lot of
guys said, "Oh, I'd build one if you allowed
one". Basically these are guys that don't have
cars or are on the Internet writing stuff, so
there's really no basis, I have yet to see front
engine 426 Top Fuel dragster to be honest.
DRO: What are your current venues for Goodguys
VRA Drag Racing?
M: Bakersfield
in March, we're going to head back to Vegas
for a Friday night and Saturday night deal in
April, first of May. We will be at Indy of course,
in June, we're in Pomona at the end of June,
and then back at Famoso in November. We've got
four on the West Coast, we got Indy and then
we do a couple of Friday night drags that don't
have any Nitro classes, they're just local in
conjunction with our car show events.
DRO: You used to have a lot more races and
you've cut back to where you are now. Are these
just the profitable ones?
M: No. There's
only one profitable one and that's the March
meet. Everyone else feeds off the March meet.
We're comfortable with four venues. We feel
obligated to all these racers who have built
cars and race in our series. We feel obligated
to keep the thing
alive, keep it going, we've been doing this
for a long time. It's not profitable, but like
I say, it gives us a different spin, keeps us
in the Nostalgia Drag Racing theme. We've seen
these guys and other organizations come and
go. Week in - week out, it seems like they're
going to make a million dollars doing this and
it's definitely not the case, but we're comfortable
with our five events. We've got rules, we're
a sanctioned deal so that's about that. Four
seems comfortable. If our racers had to race
every month, they couldn't do it, they couldn't
afford to do it, they wouldn't want to do it.
You don't have to travel too far to go to any
of the races, it depends on where you're from.
We could add them all over the place, but I
don't know. As soon as you head into the east,
it breaks up the classes that we have designed
here on the West Coast. The cars there just
don't conform to the classes we have, like at
Indy we have to change the whole program around
for the cars that are out there in the Midwest,
it's just kind of phenomenon on the West Coast.
DRO: Is there anything in the future as far
as television coverage for the Goodguys VRA
racing?
M: We got something
in the works as far as Hot Rod events and a
little flavor of the VRA and everything else.
When we go to do something, we want to do it
right. We don't want to do what's currently
being done for sportsmen drag racing, we don't
feel like that's how we want it to be portrayed.
We want it to be first class and on national
TV or as close as we can get to it ESPN.
DRO: Marc,
thanks for taking the time.
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