10/8/04

THANKS A MILLION

Loved (Dale Wilson's) write up on George Howard and the latest installment of the Million! Only wish I lived a little closer so I could participate! I've supported George's efforts on the west coast and know first hand that he puts on one hell of a race weekend. Good luck to all of this year's Million racers.

Greg Stanley

Brentwood, CA

THE COST OF RACING

It is a sad time in the history of drag racing, but when you look at it, the professional teams really haven't been around that long. Nor did anyone expect it to take millions to field a team. In the old days we used to say cubic dollars beats cubic inches over time. Wally Parks and his crowd all became quite wealthy from a not profit organization and off the racer's back. National events were always referred to as Wally's burn downs.

I hate to say it but the NASCAR crowd were a hell of lot smarter than the drag racers, the France family all became billionaires and all the left turning racers made a few bucks. Wally always had his favorite few who got the notoriety. Remember the Garlits-Parks feud? In the past there were 32 cars qualified in T/F, now there have been a few times when there were not 16 cars in the show.

I really don't know much about the new management at NHRA, the president has a substance abuse problem, and it appears that they are driving the racers out. The new group appears to be a want to be WWE, but don't want to step up to buy all the cars to put the show on. NHRA had a real advantage--the racers just wanted race and never cared about the politics. Has NHRA open its books to see where the monies have gone. I am sure that the executive board has not backed off any expenses, if they are losing money it's because of poor management.

I feel the Pro Stock Truck fiasco was due to someone's ego, and if the settlement cost is half of what is reported, a bunch of heads should roll. I see two options: Bader becomes the benevolent leader, or the racers start another organization or take over NHRA. Whatever the case times will change, some good marketing people could take drag racing to a new high, but those in charge today are more concerned with their income and well being.

Jim Kinney

REPORT GOOD NEWS ONLY?

As far as the Nostalgia Funny Cars go, there are no professionals, no Prudhommes no Forces just a bunch of guys with a desire for the old cars and a want to see this thing grow. No one has ever set up any real rules to make a class for us so we'll all be on equal playing fields; VRA has tried but even they don't make a lot of sense, NHRA don't even want to talk about it.

This may be some of the reason for the sub par performance by some cars, another reason is the payout structure, giving minimum payout to a car that shuts off early or makes a slower that normal run is not a good thing, even though it's a small amount of money, too many guys will accept this and not worry about the show.

About five years ago I was contacted by the GoodGuys about getting a group of Nostalgia Funny Cars together for the Indy show. I booked in ten cars for $500.00 each and we did a Chicago style show, both of our finalist ran in the 6's at over 200 mph, not one oil down all weekend by a Funny Car. This was the very first time ever a Nostalgia Funny Car show was put on. Believe me when I say it was difficult to even get ten cars together in one place back then.

Since then... Nostalgia Funny Cars have started showing up quite often, and it's still in its growing stages. What we need is a good set of rules and a promoter that is willing to put up the money for the cars that deserve it ... pay a high purse for eight places so everyone runs his best to get into the money ... then you'll get a show.

Yes, I was (at St. Louis) with my car. I fought an unexpected transmission problem on Friday, we fixed it and came up for Saturday's first run, after a good 1/8 mile burnout, when the car got back to the starting line our transmission problem started again. We didn't get any money and didn't expect to.

I think the bottom line in my disappointment is the negative press we got from your story, but your story made every one of the cars that were there look bad and drivers look like idiots. It would have been better not to cover the show at all. There were several good runs, several good burnouts, and yes there were a few that shouldn't have even tried to run and these are the ones that weaken the show, And I'll agree the show could have been better.

Drag Racing gets enough bad rap from the general public, our dragstrips are closing and being forced to close every year. We all need to promote our sport, even the small shows no matter what.

Bob Gibson