CHRIS MARTIN'S GOING SOUTH

You hit home with the article. You forgot Bill Levitt in In his Quickie 2 Mustang against Black Magic Vega with Al Segrini at The Turkey Trots in Gainesville back in the 70's. One year The Quickie Two was so radical and tricked out he could not bearly get it down the track.

You forgot to mention the Citrus Nationals at Moroso, which they have been running about 15 years. Every Thanksgiving weekend they run 2 Days with booked in Top Fuel, Jet Truck, Jet Funny Cars, Wheelstander etc. This year was Josh Starcher vs Marshall Topping in Paul Smith SSS Motorsports car. Best run of weekend was 4.93 by Starcher Sunday on 2nd pass.(What do you want for 20 bucks a ticket?) It was the first time I have seen Topping run since his 97 Gators accident.

Keep up the great work. You brought back some great memories....

Dave Schopp

MARTIN GETS A GEOGRAPHY LESSON

Hey Chris,

I love your articles, but I just wanted to point out something in your Florida vacations article. You have it listed that the Citrus Nationals was/is at Orlando. It is not; it is at Moroso Motorsports Park. Just a quick FYI. Keep up the good work.

Drew Reaves

WHAT'S A TRACK TO DO?

When I moved down to West Palm, the Citrus Nats were actually a decent race. (In all fairness, the race is at Moroso's track here in WPB).

The first time I attended it had a full field for Alky dragster and funny car, Pro stock, Comp, Super stock and Stock. They may also book in a few fuelers as well (along with the basic jet cars too). Unfortunately, the race has dwindled to a shell of what it once was. I can see why this has happened and the blame goes towards the cost of racing, the track

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management, and maybe because this time of the year, there are a bunch who just decided it isn't worth the tow down here on Thanksgiving weekend.

I am hopeful that racing down here will get better as a whole and make this event return to "must attend" status. The nostalgia fueler crowd is growing with more and more cars being built, and this could provide affordable nitro shows for the smaller venues. I don't know what it will take to get the alky cars to come down, other than offering a bunch of money. That won't happen unless they could get a couple of sponsors to underwrite the pay out. Having some heads up street car stuff added might be a plus too. And Bradenton has a class that is heads up outlaw which makes a good show too; if only Moroso would add the same you could have something on a regular basis between both tracks.

I really believe some fresh ideas can make the racing down here more fun to watch. You do that, you get increase butts in the stands. That will make the tracks happy, allow for better payouts that will just entice more cars to show up.

Dale Smith

DIGGIN' THE BIKES

Good afternoon Burkster. I just want to say awesome article on the Fall Schnitz Nationals at Rockingham. It's nice to see some other motorcycle coverage. I read your magazine from start to finish every month and just wanted to tell you, Jok, and the rest of the crew great job.

Thank you,

Michael Klemme

THIS GUY'S A WINNER

Thank you very much for expressing some kind of an interest in our facet of this great sport. I really appreciated the tone in which you wrote your article. One would never know that you got tricked into going to the event. I like the Nitro-Bikes myself as well, but until you have ridden a turbo-charged rice burner that makes you feel like you are the new kid at the rodeo on the BADDEST BULL, you couldn't possibly feel like the nitro guys look.

Thanks again for your article and coverage. BTW Great cover shot of the heavy-hitter blue Busa.

Ronnie Reece
Columbia, MD

ps: I was the winner of the Pro ET category. There was some sort of number mix-up. It was corrected on Dragbike.com, but it doesn't really matter. I have the plaque and the check. Good Luck!

 

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