STILL FURIOUS
Just finished reading (Jeff Leonard's) article
and was especially interested in the 2Fast/2Furious
remarks. Last year our community lost 17,
that's right 17, people to illegal "Street
Racing," so when this movie hit town, the
press hit the movie. Every TV station in San
Diego dedicated prime time to blast this show
and the message it gives the kids that street
race. As if this was not enough, I pick up
a copy of National Dragster and there is a
picture of some Pro Cars advertising the movie
and all I can think is...what the HELL are
they thinking!
Maybe they can explain why making a few dollars
to support their program is more important
than helping to stop this insanity. In one
of the worst PR moves in centuries, these
idiots stepped back into the stone ages and
tried to take Drag Racing with them. Someone
over there had a complete mental failure;
all the work this community has done to separate
legal "Drag Racing" from "Street Racing" went
straight into the toilet. I hope they got
one hell of a lot of money, the families of
those 17 people and the rest of us trying
to identify ourselves with legal racing are
2/Furious for words. What we can do is identify
every other sponsor on those cars and send
THEM a message, they're funding a couple of
idiots! Perhaps being sponsored by a National
Chain of brothels is next! I can see the motto:
Blown.... in more ways than one!
2/Pissed Off For Words
Bob Mendenhall
ANY COMMENTS?
Below is an email I sent to NHRA. I would
like to hear your ideas on this.
Is it time to rethink NHRA drag racing as
we have known it for over the past 50 plus
years?
My idea is simple. Divide all events into
two categories. Those that use gasoline (we
will call this the Coca-Cola series for now)
and those that use fuel, the POWERade series.
The races would be held different weekends,
at various times of the year. All tracks do
not have to run both events. Some events like
Indianapolis would hold both series the same
weekend. Other tracks might hold one series
in the spring and the other in the fall, or
you
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could
run events at consecutive weekends with the
Coca-Cola series building up coverage for
the POWERade series.
The Coca-Cola series would include what is
known today as Pro Stock and Pro Motorcycle
and could include a revived Pro Truck category
and all the sportsmen series plus the sports
compact series. With the additional pit space
now available, all of those that want to participate
would now be able to. As I understand it under
the present format, there are more constants
than space and time available. A hot rod and
custom car shows would be part of this event.
This series would be ideal to bring new sponsors
into drag racing as the cost of participation
would be less. This would be another event
to sell to ESPN/ESPN2. General admission prices
would be lower for the Coca-Cola series as
all costs will be lower for this event.
The POWERade series would include pro dragster
and pro funny car, plus nitro motorcycles,
an expanded pro modified field, alcohol dragster
and funny cars, fuel altered, and newstalgia
cars. A hot rod and custom car show could
also be a part of this event. The total time
of this show would be less than the 5 hours
now and which is all important in competing
for today's entertainment dollar.
I do not have the benefit of seeing the actual
income and expenses of an event, but believe
that my assumption are correct with the information
I have at hand.
Looking forward to your comments.
Ron Pellegrini
