A SURE BET IN LAS VEGAS

By Chris Martin
Photos by Zak Hawthorne
4/7/03

"When I am away, you have one order from me -- Listen to Meyer" -- Charlie "Lucky" Luciano to a staff meeting of organized crime members when he was deported in the late 1950s. The "Meyer" he was talking about was Meyer Lansky, maybe the father and organizer of crime. He and Luciano played a huge role in making Las Vegas ... well, Las VEGAS.

I jumped at the prospect. A trip to Las Vegas. Forty dollars of walking-around cash from the corporate hierarchy at Drag Racing Online, and a trip to only one of two NHRA national

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event sites that I'd never been. Shucks, what a deal.

Clear the field, some men are gonna do some reporting, to clumsily paraphrase Jackie Gleason.

My thoughts going into this were that I'd keep a notebook and report to you, the racing fan, how 40 years of experience have helped me size up a facility I'd never been to. You know, sorta say this is what can you expect, this is how you feel, the goods, the bads, the plusses, the minuses, the whores, the saints, all that good shit.

Hey, you might want to go to the Las Vegas race, and after one pro session and one slightly less than four-hour trip, I'm here to say..."Do it." Listen to Meyer, I mean, listen to MARTIN.

FROM THE NOTEBOOK

SATURDAY

- The Calif. Interstate 210 has been completed after a half-century of construction, and according to my host, Darr Hawthorne, it shaves about 40 minutes off the trip from the San Fernando Valley.

- We left at 5:10 a.m. and arrived in Lost Wages at 9:10 am and had we not stopped twice for gas and once for the feed bag we would've made it a half-hour sooner.

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