 |
 IT'S
A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD
What a time to be a drag racing fan, eh? Or a drag racing journalist
or a drag racing anything, for that matter! I just can hardly recall
a time when so much off-track intrigue was intriguing all at once! How
about youse guys?
First off, there's this SFX thing. Talk about your basic sea change!
One minute NHRA is da big Kahuna, da capo de tuti capo, the only real
game in town, and the next thing ya know, there's a new playah in town.
And suddenly, no one knows just who is gonna be doing what, or where,
or with whom. It's been a long time since NHRA has had any serious competition
-- try the mid 1970's when AHRA was every bit as successful as the Cal
guys. Good thing, bad thing? Only time will tell, but it will definitely
do one thing: It opens up the possibility of new and varied alliances
at all levels of the 1320 sport. Got an idea on how to get your spot
at the dance? Make that phone call. They might just be in a mood to
listen!
And continued kudos to the fellas at ESPN, and by extension, NHRA.
The show looks good guys, and Marty is finding his range. And Cruz,
it really isn't that important to demonstrate you know what went wrong
with EVERY car that doesn't rotate the earth on a given pass. Relax,
and let the story play out for you! When all is said and done, we who
love drag racing may owe a big debt to NASCAR. When you think about
it, they did for drag racing the one thing money couldn't buy. They
got out of the way! If they don't sell their soul to Fox, ESPN has no
reason to give drag racing a second thought, much less the air-time
NHRA now enjoys. Chew on that one for a short bit, 1320 media pundits!
And how about that old curmudgeon, Al Hofmann? Went to the finals for
the first time in a long time, and took out Force in the process. Love
him or hate him, Al is no fake. NHRA should probably pay him based on
how in-your-face his post race speeches get. The show could always use
a bit of sass, and Al doesn't exactly shrink from the bad boy role.
I think the theory of NHRA discarding various eliminators in a stampede
to embrace Pro Mod is a bit of wishful thinking on some people's parts,
most of whom have a dollar axe to grind if it all comes to pass. For
one thing, NHRA isn't exactly ushering Pro Mod film clips and results
to the front of the electronic pew, so to speak. Oh, Pro Mod will be
in the mix in 2002 -- heck, it will probably be everywhere next year.
But it will be on NHRA's terms, money-wise. And the other groups won't
be going anywhere, in my opinion. They pay entry fees, ya know. Lots
of entry fees. And with the SFX / IHRA "beast" lurking, I bet NHRA will
be a lot more inclined to keep racers around than to discard them. What
a concept, huh?
Well, I guess that's enough ranting for now. I just can't wait to see
who jumps ship for the NEW DEAL first! They wouldn't do that, would
they?
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