THE LENNY FACTOR

1/7/05

As you may or may not have noticed, my column has been missing from the electronic pages of Drag Racing Online for some time now. Chalk it up to a crisis of confidence, an abortive search through the American job market, hard times in tough places, fear and loathing in the White House - take your pick! Whatever the reason, whatever the motivation (or lack of it), yours truly is back, and ready to burden you, the faithful reader with unsolicited opinions and news bits from the drag racing scene.

But rather than spout opinions, I plan to make "observations" regarding the news of the day in drag racing. For better or worse, I spent a lot of time watching the run up to the 2004 Presidential Election, and one thing about the whole process really bugged me. That was the network talking heads insistence on telling me what "IT" meant. As if I was too stupid to figure "IT" out for myself! Now, if I don't like being talked down to, I'm sure ya'll don't much care for it either. So I'll do my best to avoid excess opinionating.

Other plans for this space include bringing you more personality-driven material. I don't know of a sport that has more personality than drag racing, and those personalities tend to be a diverse and colorful lot! So why not bring a few of them to the forefront? That goes for racing events as well. There is an awful lot of drag racing action out there that has nothing to do with NHRA / IHRA national events. And ya know what? Most of it is pretty darn exciting, and come to think of it, a lot less predictable that what you see on the TV side of the sport. As I learn of events worth noting, I'll bring them to your attention. Everybody loves a road trip -- you just need to know where to go!

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So much for the mission statement. Now, on to An Observation. Hey, did you see the Invite List to the NHRA / AMS Pro Mod shootouts? Of course you did! Everybody has by now! Good thing, bad thing? What say you? I haven't got a dog in that fight, so the by-invitation-only scenario doesn't bother me. But it does bring to mind some interesting parallels, past and present. Years ago, NHRA spent a lot of time and newsprint casting aspersions on the practice of booking in feature cars, as practiced by their rival, the American Hot Rod Association. Now, NHRA/AMS may not be paying the racers, per se, but a closed-society arrangement amounts to the same thing. If only 20 racers, plus the wild cards have access to a given venue, only they can profit.

But the upside is real, as the fans, promoters and marketing partners have a known entity they can benefit from. It made good business sense when AHRA did it, and the song remains the same today. Besides, judicious use of the wild card provision should go a long way towards righting any "wrongs" re the Invite List. For me, the delicious irony of this setup is NHRA, by association at least, endorsing the booking in cars, or whatever you choose to call it.