 |
 |
|||||
 |
|
|||||
 |
|
|||||
|
AH, APRIL ... THE LOVELIEST MONTH OF THE YEARBy Chris Martin Because I was subjected to the gospel of NHRA for 25 years, April calls up images for me of the FRAM Nationals. God, I hope that's what they call the thing now. I swear to the stars, you talk about identity stripping, how far do you go under the corporate desk to agree to strip away a good memorable title for an event like the Southern Nationals. What sense is their in knifing a potential tradition between the shoulder blades? Anyway, my first trip to the 1981 Southern Nationals was my first trip to the Deep South. I loved and still do love Northern Georgia. It was a real eye-opener for me. One of the most beautiful areas of the country I had ever traveled to. I was really geared up for this race because I had heard from very reliable sources that Atlanta Dragway was one of the country's "Big Three" when it came to wild crowds. Rockingham was first, Bristol second, and Atlanta was third when it came to moonshine-pickled, beer-swilling, fist-fighting, riotous fans. I had heard stories about these three tracks that really fired up the felon in me. Atlanta was really outstanding because back then the seats on both sides of the track were right on top of the race cars. You could hit a Funny Car on the roof with a full beer and have it bounce off to a friend on the other side of the track. You talk about up close and personal. On Friday of qualifying, I headed for the cheap seats and parked next to some long-haired, bearded guys in coveralls and University of Georgia t-shirts. In between the igloos of beer, I espied a Mason jar, just like you see in "Deliverance," full of a clear liquid, and I knew what it was. My hair was long back then and that fact, coupled with my being from California, got the area stirred up, stirred up enough where I was offered some of the stuff in the jar. Liquid marijuana and hot as hell. I had shot off my party mouth about some of my hippy drug exploits, and one of the guys said, "Tell me if this doesn't rotate your cap, son?" Blammmoo. I stepped into a parallel universe for 15 minutes. After I regained my eyesight and the session ended, I thanked 'em, said I'd be back, and went walking the pits. It was a good hour before I could carry on a normal conversation, I was so numb. Fun. Later that weekend, an incident occurred involving my pal, the late Les Lovett, who was on the little elevated sidewalk directly in front of the stands. During the late afternoon some of the sun- and booze-warped started getting on him about blocking their view. If you knew Les, that was tantamount to lobbying for the Bush oil pipeline in front of Friends of the National Wildlife Refuge. He got sore and twice turned around and yelled back at them, just fueling the fans' ire. Buster Couch, the unofficial governor of Georgia, at the least the racing side of the populace, saw this. "Leslie," he said. "Leslie Lovett. Lovett looked around, obviously cranked up after the harrassment from the fans, and inquired, "What?" Buster said, "You see them fans by the fence. They ain't your problem. They'll be okay. The ones at the top of the seats, that's different. Don't give 'em no jaw. Those are mountain people." Ah, the South. Incidentally, the race was great. The late (God, there's a lot of 'lates' lately) Tripp Shumake in Johnny Loper's Arrow became the last member of the Cragar Five-Second Funny Car Club with a 5.98 and held low e.t. until the last pair of qualifiers on Saturday night. Raymond Beadle's "Blue Max" with track owner Norman "Moose" Pearah backing him up, staged his Dodge Omni (or Plymouth Horizon, can't remember which, I was drunk) and ran a crowd-pleasing 5.96. Shumake got revenge, though, beat Kenny Bernstein's "Budweiser King" in the final for his first NHRA career win. The Top Fuel final produced a solid finish with Shirley Muldowney whomping Terry Capp's "Wheeler Dealer" in the final. I loved Atlanta and for the next six or seven years didn't fail to
put that on my race itinerary at the White House. |
|||||
|
|
|
|||||
