4/19/04

A MATCH FOR NATIONAL EVENTS

I 100% agree with (Burk) those match races are great. Grand Bend Motorplex has two that are cool Pro Mod meltdown/thunder by the beach. Pro Meltdown that have about 12 pro Mod's, a jet dragster and a jet funny car. TS/TD Thunder by the beach that have fuel altereds, top fuel bikes, nitro coupes. Milan Dragway night of fire jet dragsters/jet funny cars a/fuel dragsters, alcohol funny cars, heads street cars, quick 32 -- all for $20. I think some match races are better then national events. Also Bob Motz jet Kenworth is the most awesome thing you will see on a dragstrip.

Eric Street

'TO' WENT BYE-BYE

Jeff, I love reading your features, I haven't missed one in over a year.

In your latest, you said: "If new fans have to watch bracket racing, at least eliminate stutter boxes and require every car to drive the stripe." Did you mean to say "Drive *TO* the stripe?" The term "Driving the stripe" means TOP END TACTICS! ARGH!

I race in the newly founded "Pro Nostalgia" class here in the Northwest (www.pronostalgia.org). It's a class of oldies type cars of various performance levels that bracket race one another. Most of us have the spirit of the whole thing at heart and really don't like bracket racing too much. It's the only way we can get 16 blown alky or injected nitro cars in one class. None of us can afford to race heads up, and our e.t.'s differ so much, that an index wouldn't work. Electronics are illegal as are most modern gadgets. It is supposed to be nostalgic and affordable. We were tired of running our seven-second FEDs against 10-second Chevelles every weekend!

Anyway...some semi-pro bracket racers enter the event with their radiators and water pumps and all that crap. They are constantly "driving the stripe" or hitting the brakes and backing off way early and it is hurting the popularity of the class. The top end tactics don't make sense to the average fan, and they don't understand how a bunch of fire breathing six- and seven-second cars at an oldies event can possibly lose by going too fast. WTF? "There's no such thing as too fast!" Bracket racing is NOT nostalgic!

Mr. Stripe driver won our points championship last year. He's a very good bracket racer, but does not have the spirit of the thing at heart. His car is self-starting, he doesn't use the chute and drives it back and also up to the lanes. The other cars squirt fuel down the gullet, have a backup guy, the chutes come out, we all tow back and try to make the most of the startup/burnout/staging thing. We try to make it a show! This guy runs Super Comp, etc. and because he is injected (no carbs allowed) and a '23T, he's legal to join our class at the local oldies events.

We'll just have to try and make our cars a little quicker and hope he doesn't qualify, I guess. The fans are pretty much into our class, but several folks I've talked to are bewildered at the top end tactics. They want to see big numbers on the board. I've talked to Mr. Stripe Driver about all this and he just doesn't get it. He says he is giving the fans what they really want by making the races closer. Jeeeez. The nostalgia thing is really lost on this guy. He just can't put himself in our spot.

Eventually, I see that the class will probably go to heads up when there are enough cars to finally qualify and make it interesting. It's a shame the bracket thing can't work here, but there will always be someone who sees easy pickins and decides to slam on the brakes at the end on a regular basis. He is slowly making those of us that are paying attention better racers, but I fear the novelty will wear off because of the handicap starts and the breakout stuff and the tracks will quit asking us back. This is only our third season coming up, and we are still trying to gain credibility and more events on our schedule.

Take a peek at our rules and format on the website above and see what you think. It's fun, but isn't a perfect situation. Any suggestions?

In your statement (quoted above), it sounds like you are in favor of the top end tactics. Using the context, I'm pretty sure that isn't what you meant!

Thanks for listening, and keep up the good work.

Best regards,

Spud Miller
One Hot Chili Pepper Racing

You were right, Spud, I meant to say 'to the stripe.' Sometimes the fingers move faster than the brain, or is it the other way around? -- Jeff Burk