A STATUE WITH LIMITATIONS

I know it sounds like I just got off this soapbox, but again, I query ... just what is going on at 2035 Financial Way, anyway?

Now what is the provocation for this question, you ask? Well, Agent 1320 received some interesting information and relayed it to me during the weekend of the NHRA Autozone Winternationals that if true, is a little unsettling. Try this on for size. For $100 and a trip to the South Bronx, whose likeness was the man on the NHRA national eliminator trophy modeled after; you know the one that we all used to refer to as the NHRA "Oscar." (Which we can't anymore because "Oscar" is registered to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) The answer: 1969 NHRA Top Gas World Champ and 1968 and 1970 U.S. Nationals Top Gas champ Jack Jones. Common knowledge, right? I mean there are not many fans, say over the age of 40, who don't know this. Apparently, that doesn't hold true at NHRA.

From what I've been told, evidently a couple of years ago Jones received a fax at his Southern California address from one of the NHRA Vice-Presidents requesting that Jones give them the right to the trademark on the trophy. Jones said he would look into it, but he wanted to bounce it off a lawyer. It turned out that Jones had a close personal pal who was a trademark lawyer and they looked up NHRA's application for the trademark to see what was up. They reportedly found out that the likeness used was not that of Jones, but of Wally Parks. The signature on the application that carried the most weight attesting to this fact was none other than that of then NHRA President Dallas Gardner. Wally instead of Jones? Since when? What gives?

Sources say that Jones and his lawyer got together and contacted NHRA and said, in so many words, that they didn't agree with what was on the NHRA trademark application, but they were willing to do some things that would settle the issue. NHRA reportedly intimated, "Go pound sand ... the man on the statue was not Jones."

From their standpoint, would that it were the case, however… In National DRAGSTER's photo library, I have personally held in my hands and seen a number of pictures with Jones posed like the man on the statue, during a photo shoot by the late Les Lovett. Obviously, the purpose of the pictures was to aid the artist/sculptor in making the rendering. The source of that tidbit all came from the photographer himself.

Moreover, I had done a "Where Are They Now?" on Jones years ago in National DRAGSTER (the NHRA house organ), and stated that Jones was the model. I am absolutely positive that no one in the front office called me up to correct this when it was printed. However, according to insiders, this author was described by NHRA reps in court of taking literary license with the facts.

(And by the way, speaking of "facts" ... the Jones/NHRA mambo is a matter of public record. Consultation with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's site on the Internet and the material in the U.S. District Court for the Southern California District - Case CV1577 jm -(CGA) confirms this.)

But back to our saga ... NHRA wanted to go to into mediation, which Jones and his lawyer agreed to. The final day of arbitration consisted of 13 hours, after which NHRA reportedly said, 'Okay, the man on the statue was Jones.' A three-phase settlement took place, ending with Jones saying NHRA could call the trophy anything they want.

Official public consumption verdict? Case settled out of court. That's true, but it's doubtful that court includes the one of public opinion.

Just what is going on at 2035 Financial Way, anyway? I mean, what did Jones reap in residuals from his likeness being handed out to thousands of racers in the last 30 years that seemingly incurred the wrath of NHRA? How much did he sock it to NHRA during this incredible bit of financial good fortune? When he went to Fred Sands Realtors and purchased that big 20-room Tudor mansion overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Pacific Palisades, how much of the seed money came from a lucrative contract from his NHRA benefactors?

Wild-ass guess here, but I'll say ... zero.

Just what in hell are those guys doing? Let's say for the sake of speculation that to preserve NHRA's credibility, its status in the auto racing community, and to present Wally Parks in an even more noble light, the boys decided to lock down the winner's trophy. Make it a total NHRA deal. Jack Jones doesn't exist. Okay, but could it have been handled a little differently? A little different from the "bitch slap" arrogant way that it appears to have been handled?

What would have been wrong with, "Dear Jack, As you know we're coming up on the 50th Anniversary of the NHRA, and while it may seem like a small point, would there be any way to get you to relinquish any legal rights you might have on the trophy, so that we could make it an official NHRA trademark. We'd like to tell the world that the tall man on the trophy was Wally. He's contributed so much to the sport, and while you were a great racer in your own right, could we prevail upon you to think about turning over the rights so we can put Wally and NHRA in a light we think it deserves. Please give it some thought, and we await your response. Sincerely yours, the Board of Dictators, blah, blah ..."

Certainly, that would beat the seeming corporate John Gotti approach that, if I heard right, was used by NHRA. Dallas signing off on an apparent falsehood, the ignorance of your own product, the brilliant Martin article, the treating Jones as if he were an enemy, I mean...

Just what's going on at 2035 Financial Way, anyway?

If the attitude shown by NHRA was an accurate representation from what is virtually an unimpeachable source, what is it in other situations? Situations like the dismissals of 25-year-veteran Carmen De La Rosa in Accounting or another quarter century soldier, General Consul Russ Deane, being told to go pound sand. It all reeks of the siege mentality that gripped the Nixon White House in its final months before it was sucked into the septic tank of history. Hell, I'll bet a dollar that Jones never gets a free ticket to the races again and has had his National DRAGSTER subscription cancelled, the way the thinking seems out West.

Just what's going on at 2035 Financial Way anyway? In some ways, I'm not so sure I want to know.

photo of Chris Martin by Jeff Burk

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