THREE DAYS IN VEGAS AND A TWO-DAY
"LAX"-ATIVE

2/8/05

Jeff Burk Photo

Since 1984, I have always dug going to what are in a general sweeping sense referred to as the "January Test Sessions." For a number of years, well until the time the Strip at Las Vegas was constructed, these sessions were run almost exclusively at Charlie Allen's sandbox in Arizona. These tests are where the pros give the fans a sneak preview of "whaddup" for the new season by making test runs with their new horses. To me, it's always been one of the great bargains in drag racing: Three to four days with the top pros in the sport under much less stressful conditions than say, mid-July in the turbulent PowerADE punch bowl.

This year it was a little different for me. Instead of three days of backstroking through the pro pits in a river of beer and then home on a Southwest cattle car, The Burkster and starting quarterback Darr Hawthorne were gonna take a deep breath for a day after the tests, then head to LAX (Los Angeles International Airport .. and .. environs) for something called the Motorsports Parts Manufacturing Council. This is a get-together for a slew of the manufacturers that juice this sport with valuable product and an opportunity to show it off to interested parties and see what kind of hit they get off it ... at least, that's my guess.

This year, it was held at the Embassy Suites, right off a street that borders LAX's southern flank, and, at least for this confab, provided a visual backdrop of a number of Connie Kalitta's freight planes. More importantly, it provided this non-cashbox kinda guy an

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opportunity to listen in on the mannerisms, language, and wherewithall of a drag racing area that I'm not all that familiar with ... kinda like a Catholic priest in a topless joint.

For this non-sophisticate, this game plan meant a double dip into both realms of a sport I've been tight with for over 40 years. Why the hell not?

The Las Vegas test sessions were run in the second to last weekend of January and I was up for them. The World Finals at Pomona were two months old and I could use the old drag race needle and spoon to turn my engine over. Not like when the "Sweatbox Summer," as in St. Louis et. al., rolls along and you need the hype to run away from it, but enough of these ugly references. It's showtime!

"Showtime?" Well, more like "Slowtime."

While the new year tests are great for ramping up a jones, there are no real deadlines for the racers to make the staging lines: they pretty much run when they damn well feel like it. Okay with me, but that also means the fan can't stray too far from the stands just in case one of the performers feels that now's the time. Basically that leaves him or her at the mercy of the concessionaires and as any drag race fan knows ... there's no mercy behind that little sliding glass window.