HEY- Okay, you knuckleheads have been at this a little while. Only Chris Martin seems to know the rules are different here, and stories need CONTENT, and appeasing the layout director and Perry White wannabee in the corner office is like, the LAST thing you need to do. How about writing columns because you've got something to SAY, insteada you've got space to fill?

SHEESH, you sound like a bunch of whiny old women...WAKE UP!

And on a lighter note, I GUESS the pic of the guy who took wally's place on Garlit's drag museum monument woulda been too much for your potential ADVERTIZERS...here's something more mainstream for ya...could even use it for a CONTEST...just have your millions of readers tell ya:

WHO are these people?

WHOSE car is that?

WHERE was the picture taken?

OR, just make it a caption contest...

AND, ask Rick Moroso WHEN he's gonna have even a LITTLE bit of TRACTION installed at the drag strip with his name over the door... Citusnationals was like he invited folks over for dinner and fed 'em dog food... Dorthy Hamill coulda been doin' triple toe loops at half track...

Ski
Editor at Large-Large Editor
Nitronic Research- Drag Racing's definitive website
www.nitronic.com

Just for the record, Ski, it’s "Dorothy," "Citrus Nationals,"and "advertisers."

—One of the whiny old women

BRACKET RACING OR PACKAGE RACING

Whatever happened to the proposal to bracket race to the best package, over or under dial-in and reaction time? I can’t remember the fellow’s name, (somebody) Taylor, I think? I hope he is still developing the software to do this. Bracket racing is long overdue for some changes. All everyone talks about is how good the "package" was anyway, well let’s "package" race.

It will end red lights; it will end break outs; it will end top end games and accidents (no more jammin’ the brakes on); the best driver/tuner will usually win, not the luckiest; and it will be so much easier to explain to an uneducated fan or wanna-be racer. All of the racers I have talked to about this said they would like to try it in gambler’s races, test and tune, etc. before full competition. If you lose by .002 package against package that was a good race. Lose by .002 because of a red light or break out, that sucks. If you win because of a red light or break out, you didn’t win, he made a mistake. In package racing, win or lose it’s equal, no excuses. I hope this system gets developed so we can at least try it. I’m sure it’s not the perfect system to race by, but it’s probably a step in the right direction for the racers and the fans.

Richard "Desi" Desjardins

I know there was mention by some Pro drivers that the Pro classes should have separate event coverage. I agree with this entirely. I like Top Fuel and Funny Car, but I dislike watching two rounds of them to see one round (the second) of Pro Stock. The Truck class has gotten so big so quick it’s incredible, but it may be possible that these truck drivers are not getting the exposure they need to get a sponsor with just their final round coverage that they get. These cars are so intricate that the Motorheads out there love them to death, but the class needs more media support and I don’t mean Shelly Anderson.

Wayne Roatche

After finishing up my summer-long "How I spent my summer vacation money tour," I’m busy rebuilding my websites and checking up on what goes on in the outside world. So, in the process of updating and creating the links pages, I ran back across the Drag Racing Online site. I’m pretty jacked about where you guys are coming from, because from March until October I attended eight fairly major drag race events. Not one had Pro Stock anything. All had Fuelers with the engine in the proper spot, in FRONT of the driver. And two of ‘em had night eliminations! One race, three nights straight!

So, I find it interesting that you guys seem to be swerving towards that aspect of drag racing. I mean I had a choice to make the first weekend of August, I either could stay home and attend the NW Nationals at Seattle Int’l Raceway, or fly to Pomona for the GoodGuys Hot Rod Happening. Well, in my mind there was no choice…plane ticket in hand, I was off to sunny Southern California.

I realize that my viewpoint is probably a fairly small percentage of the drag racing fans out there. But I’ll never attend another race where the Fuelers run their engines in the back. Too fast, too fragile and who the heck are the drivers? Haven’t seen a nickname in the bunch! Not a decent paint scheme!

Keep up the good work and I’ll check back soon!

Jim Sorenson
Ringleader, Mysterion Screenprint

Awful Awful Fuel Altered website: www.mysterion.net/AAFA

The Funny Car Years website: www.mysterion.net/funnys

PS. Glad you’re giving the Wallace boys a place to put their scribblin’! They do it well.

Jeff:

Great stuff. You are saying what I have thought for many years and you have stated the FACTS. You are a wordsmith of the first order.

Frank Oglesby

GOOD JOB GUYS

I really enjoyed your site. It is refreshing to see someone stand up, face Glendora and ask, "What the f---??" The NHRA hierarchy are just like my 95 year old grandfather; he means well, he just gets a little confused sometimes. I am also pleased to see someone finally get the facts right. A new writer for the NHRA online, who will remain nameless, wrote a story about the points chase a month back. He made a statement about Bernstein in ‘96 "running away" with the points chase that year. When I asked him, "What about Blaine Johnson?" his reply was, "Who?" His 9 months in the sport was showing. I value the insight and opinions of your collective experience (notice how I refrained from the use of the words old, age or dinosaur in the phrase). My only suggestion would be to update the site more often. At this time of year, the gossip changes very quickly and is just too good not to pass on.

Keep up the good work.

Patti Miles

NEED MORE NITRO

I agree with you that the major events need more Nitro. The Nitro Experience is something a fan can’t get anywhere else. He can see non-sensory assault cars on any Saturday night at any dragstrip. The problem for promoters is the cost. More Nitro at a more affordable price is the main reason to have Top Fuel Trucks, with rules and limits that keep costs low and entertainment value high. This can be done.

Our THUNDER TRUCKS are almost like watching Funny Cars at an old AHRA Nat’l event at KCIR or St. Louis. The only problem right now is that there are not enough Top Fuel Thunder Trucks for an open show. Racers won’t build a truck with nowhere to race, and promoters can’t have an eight truck open show without trucks. These trucks would be perfect for IHRA and Bill Bader. He could probably even sell a title rights sponsor similar to the Harley idea. How about a deal where every truck has to run the sponsoring manufacturer’s product (bud deflector, headlight covers, bed rails, etc., etc.)

We didn’t build these trucks just to be different, I actually felt there was a need for a more affordable and more exciting type of Nitro-powered race car. Anyway, off my soapbox.

Brent Fanning
Udder Nonsense Racing

Wishing you the best. Drag racing has needed an independent voice for a long time. I must confess to thirty years of NHRA racing, the last 10 or so in the alcohol classes. That time has now passed though, because in spite of the news that rule changes will not be made in these classes, it comes many years too late. The cost of any alcohol car has gone above the means of anyone who doesn’t either own a large business or has daddy’s wallet to empty.

On a related subject, I had to just shake my head at the new rule for valve cover restraints. NHRA just doesn’t get it. The only way to reduce engine explosions is to motivate racers not to build bombs. My thought: allow each car one cylinder block to be sealed in the car. You could do as much work on that block as you like, but when the block is done, so are you. Tune-ups would change in a hurry. Result: Less track clean up, less down time, and in spite of what manufacturers of race parts might think, more parts sold. The reason for more parts being sold is that if you controlled the amount of blown parts you just might find a lot more people that could afford to race in the nitro classes again.

Racers thank you for your endeavors.

Myke Davidson

515 FMD, FMFC, PST

First, let me say you guys have a good thing here. Keep it up.

At our local tracks there are hardly any spectators. We are actually paying our own purses. The local tracks don’t advertise. The local dirt tracks advertise and have race results in the paper. Nothing on drag racing. When people talk to me about racing, they ask if I race at a certain track. I have to tell them, "No, that is a roundy round dirt track." They have never heard of the dragstrip. Unless track operators advertise they can’t expect spectators. Any advise on getting the ball rolling?

Doug Howard

I really love Drag Racing Online and I am doing a little racing research of my own (and for IHRA) and I would like to know if I could still access past issues of DRO. Specifically, I would like to print out that article that I believe was written by Dave Densmore [Dave Wallace, actually — Ed.] about his encounter with Wally Parks on the plane home from Indy. I was really interested in their discussion about Top Fuel and how to slow it down. But now I can’t see it because I don’t see a link for archives of past issues on the website. If I’m missing it, please help me out and show me how to get there.

From this month’s issue I have printed out the Burk’s Blast column for Bill Bader to see. Great article, and a great magazine. Now that you guys at DRO, Inside Motorsports, and the new IHRA-gear Competition Plus internet magazine are out there, I don’t miss Drag Racing Monthly as much, because you’re keeping the spirit of that magazine alive. I bet it’s cheaper to produce too, huh? This is the wave of the future. Hell, when I get National Dragster and Drag Review now, it’s old news. I just check NHRA and IHRA’s websites a couple times a week and I’m mostly up to date. Technology is cool!

One last question: did any of you DRO guys work for DRM (SS&DI)? And if so, who? I’d appreciate it if you could help me out. Thanks a lot and you guys are doing a great job.

Jeffrey T. Lee

Yes, I must confess I was formerly Editor of Super Stock & Drag Illustrated for a couple of years at the end of the ’80s. Ron Lewis contributed many photos and covers to both magazines.   Tim Marshall  was my Photo Editor, Dave Wallace was my Senior Editor, and in the early years of Super Stock John Raffa was on the Editorial Staff.

I would like to know if you can tell me who are the World Champions of the IHRA from each year from its inception. The classes I would like are Top Fuel, Alcohol Funny Car, Nitro Funny Car (when it was contested), Pro Mod, Pro Stock. I don’t need ’98 or ’99, just the years before.

Adam Gerard

PS. This is one of the best websites I have visited.

MORE NITRO — MAYBE

To a certain point I agree with you, Mr. Burk. The fuel categories are the main attractions for the NHRA, but the fuel dragsters and coupes can be a disaster for live TV (which drag racing needs). I’ve seen too many times that TNN would have live first round and we would only get to see a few cars go down the track. I would always wonder why not show the first round of Pro Stock first and then the fuel cars, but you are right, the only time the stands are totally full is when the fuel cars run.

Yeah, drag racing is on a verge of a big disaster. A few years ago you would at least see on TV or in publications that the NHRA was one of the "Big Four" in motorsports: (1) NASCAR, (2) Indy Cars (it was called that then) (3) Formula One, (4) NHRA drag racing.

Now, you don’t even hear the mentioning of drag racing. It seems the IRL gets more coverage than drag racing and I certainly get sick and tired of seeing NASCAR all the time. RPM2Night should be called "NASCAR all the time," that’s the amount of coverage they give to NASCAR. We, the drag racing fans, can’t fault NASCAR for the great job they are doing to increase exposure for themselves. We can only hope that the NHRA and IHRA look and learn. The fact of the matter is, the open wheel organizations (CART and IRL) are suffering because of their split. Drag racing should be taking the chance to leapfrog (at least) into the number two slot in motorsports.

Roderick Burke
BurkeMotorsports

MORE NITRO — NO

I disagree with the opinion that Nitro is the savior of organized drag racing. The main objective of putting on an organized drag race is to provide a safe environment for speed freaks like myself to indulge in the thrill of acceleration.

As an NHRA sportsman racer, I pay my own way. I pay those big entry fees, I buy every one of my crew members and family one of those high priced tickets, heck, I even pay to park overnight at some event!s The fact is that I allow a promoter to have the money to maintain a racing facility. Week in and week out, I keep coming back. Why, you may ask? Because I love the sport, that’s why!

Organized drag racing has forgotten its roots. It has become a "sports entertainment industry." The love of the thrill of going fast has been replaced with the love of selling TV, T-shirts, and collectibles.

Fortunately for the sportsman racers, NHRA isn’t NASCAR. Can you imagine telling a spectator that the racing has to stop completely while the track is cleaned between every round of racing? I wonder how many of those seats would continue to be full if it was an all-nitro show. I’ve got nothing against those cars, but you might as well put a blower on the "Exxon Valdez" and drag race it! Maybe you could call an all-nitro show the "GreaseSweep Nationals presented by Brawny Paper Towels."

The simple fact is that drag racing NEVER was designed to be a spectator sport; it has always been a participant sport. Some greedy people have misdirected it to degrade it to the level it is now. Nitro racers may be the straw that stirs the drink, however sportsman racers make up that drink.

The ONLY way that this sport will survive is to take care of the backbone of the sport — the sportsman racer. Bill Bader has been making incredible progress at this and I salute him.

By the way, I happen to know that a famous football player said that he loved the sport so much that he would pay for the opportunity to play; NHRA sportsman racers do too, week in and week out.

Thanks for listening,

Paul Wright

NHRA Sportsman racer

Hey Burk, who is that gay guy at the top of your column?

Yes, NHRA must give up some profit to invest in Fuel purses and support. The NHRA purses are kept secret and are a sad joke. Good mag.

Norman Hechtkoff

As a long time drag racing fan, racer, spectator, official, etc. I want to add my opinion on attendance drop-off. My friends and I usually go to Englishtown, the Gators and the U.S. Nationals. This represents a big chunk of cash and time. I don’t think ticket prices are that high, if you compare them to other sports or entertainment events. However, my big beef is with the NHRA policy of allowing every photographer from any obscure publication on the planet to stand next to the starting line and beyond and block my view of the most exciting part of the show. I have been counting them and the numbers go up every year. At Indy I counted 27 on one side of the track. Many are now using step ladders to further block my paid-for view. I like taking photos myself, but all I see is photographers’ rear ends in my viewfinder. We spectators make it possible for NHRA to make bags of cash. I think that we deserve better treatment, or maybe we should just stay home and watch the drags on TV, unobstructed.

Ray Baril

Great web site!! I have been in a state of depression since I got my last SS&DI issue in the mail. I guess they sent me Hot Rod for the balance of my subscription…how offensive can you get?

I hope you guys address the barriers that have been broken this year such as the Super Eliminator car running a five and Larry McBride going 5.99 at 240-something on two wheels. I feel a bike going in the fives is one of the most interesting stories in drag racing, but I did not see it on any of the sanctioning bodies’ web pages. Please remember that there are some of us drag racing addicts that believe drag racing would survive without John Force (I love him to death, but get tired or seeing his mug and his ugly Mustangs), Winston, or Wally Parks. Bring on some stories about low buck nitro and alcohol cars!

Respectfully,

Christon F. Gerber

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