7/9/04

IT'S ALL RELATIVE

Note to "The Agent" -- Gary Beck is not Canadian. His ex-wife Penny is Canadian.

Keep up the STUFF!!!!!

Later - "Ace"

Ed McCulloch

RIP VAN BURK

ADVERTISEMENT

Hi Jeff, Good article on a difficult topic. I think it is a difficult topic because passions run deep. You have a few years on me as a drag racer, but I too was drawn in by similar responses to that which made up the core of drag racing. As the years have gone by I think if you look between the lines some of that still exists. I still cannot get into all the electronics and timer b.s. though. For the fuelers, I think we should have stopped with the manually operated clutch button on the butterfly steering handle. Do you remember that?

There is another aspect of drag racing that, in most respects, continues to draw me back and that is the ability to cruise the pits. Standing next to a fuel motor when being warmed is heaven on earth.

Most of us have mellowed somewhat over the past 4 decades, but the fire that Connie Kalitta still brings to the SPORT, for me keeps those passions of 34 years ago kindled.

His run what you brung old school approach breathes the life of the past to this somewhat passion-less present.

Brett Porter

PARITY SUCKS

I agree wholeheartedly with your editorial. That is why I have become a fan of the Mustang racing organizations and the street car racing. They don't have nitro but they do have lots of heads up, the fast car wins classes.

I too am an old fart. I never asked for a break when I couldn't beat the fast car in my class (back when we ran for class at the local tracks) and I do not respect the modern class racer who sets his car up to win the bracket race.

Racing is all about my car is faster than yours. The suits who run modern racing are not racers, they are merchants who only care about money.

I hear "bracket racing saved drag racing" all the time. I think it destroyed it.

John Quinn

AS GOOD AS IT GETS?

Hello Jeff; I usually find your commentaries right on the mark, but I think that given the present state of affairs in the NHRA, the Pro show is as almost as good as it could be. I am not a racer, merely a fan that attends 4 or 5 National Events a year. I do not want to see the Top Fuelers and Funny Cars turned loose. I think the NHRA is right in slowing the vehicles down and keeping some semblance of parity. The NHRA is smart enough to realize if they implement measures that will take 2 tenths and 15 MPH out of the car, that the racers will get it back by the end of the next season. The tuners/engineers will always be ahead of the rules, as they are in all forms of motorsports.

I think if it was truly unlimited in rules structure, the cost of running a fuel car would go through the roof. Someone like Connie Kalitta or Kenny Bernstein would very quickly be spending 15-20 million per car. There are very few sponsors out there willing to pay that kind of dough for a "fringe sport" such as drag racing. The size of the field would also quickly dwindle to 8 cars. You think we see the same guys giving top-end interviews on TV every week now?

Another side effect of turning a fuel car loose would be oil downs, lots of oil downs. Whether it's a big team like Kalitta's experimenting, or the little guy trying to "run a number" to keep up with the big teams, parts are going to get broken more than they would now. I don't really care about oil downs affect on TV coverage, but I don't want 1 qualifying session to last 4 or 5 hours or eliminations to run 10-12 hours when I am at the track. That is too long to stand/sit in the sun whilst being held hostage for $5 hot dogs and $6 beers. To most of the fans in the stands, there is not much difference between a run at 4.60/315 and run at 4.48/325. The cars make the same amount of noise, throw the same amount of header flames and the same guy that runs either number usually wins. More importantly to the paying spectator, they fire the next pair right up and run 'em right away.

So, the question is, what can be done to improve the show? I say qualify sportsmen racers on Wednesday and Thursday, and run their brackets on Friday and Saturday. No offense to those guys who are the backbone of the sport, but no one but their wives want to see them run on Sunday. I say give Pro Stock EFI and Traction Control. If the NHRA fears they can't police it, then legalize it. If traction control is good enough to get Michael Schumacher through Eau Rouge flat out, then why can't it help WJ get through low gear? Besides Burkster, it gets the cars closer to their theoretical peak performance, which is what you want to see.

I want to see a control wing (reduced in size) in Top Fuel. I would like to see the same body rules in Funny Car as there are in Pro Stock. That way Force's cars actually look like Mustangs. Or go the NASCAR route, and have a standard body template for all Funny Car bodies, and then let them stick whatever manufacturer badge on them they want. That would, in theory at least, put the honus on the tuner and driver in Funny Car, since they would all have the same body. It should also reduce costs, since you throw expensive wind tunnel time and R&D time right out the window and all bodies come from 1 mould, which should make them less expensive to purchase and manufacture. I want to see Turbos in Pro Mod. I want Goodyear to build a tire that won't lose traction. I want buy 1 get 1 free beers...ok, now I am getting silly.

All in all, I like the show the NHRA puts on. I like that it starts at 11 and is usually done by 5. I like the breaks between rounds to tour the pits, meet the racers, or go back to the RV and drink our own beers (hey, I never said I paid $6 for beer). I like that everyone does everything they possibly can to avoid oil downs. I like that there is stringent penalties if they do spill on the track. I like that someone is putting some thought into improving the show. Granted it is being done for TV's sake, but it will benefit the paying spectator at the track as well. That I can live with.

Chris Cook

DEAD-ON FEEDBACK

Jok, I thought your Dead-on article about why drag racing is boring was "dead-on." I don't see why drag racing can't take a lesson from poker and provide the audience with an inside look at the strategy involved in winning a sportsman class. If they understood dial-ins, indexes and open-comp along with what is required to hit those numbers I think people could be come interested in drag racing. If the audience could "see my cards" by viewing the computer and weight tweaking involved in hitting a number that is now a tenth below my best qualifier. And even though I had a few parameters set to slow me down the day before, a change in the weather now means that I'm pulling my passenger seat and airing up the front tires to try to hit the number.

This kind of coverage would require several cameras and some editing (so no live events) but these kind of strategic insights are what today's viewer has proven he is interested in. I mean, before you could see the hole cards in the world poker tour, poker was probably the most boring game on earth. Now it's a phenomenon. And why are people so interested in it? Because they believe that they could do it themselves. Never mind that it's probably not true.

Thanks,

James Meredith

EAST COAST BRACKET QUESTIONS

ADVERTISEMENT

I had a feeling that I wanted to share about door cars in general. I have a 2750 lb very low 9-second car and enjoy racing of all types (bracket, heads up, nostalgia), but lately with the flock of people selling their door cars for dragsters, it is getting real hard to go rounds; we are within 2-4 thousandths nearly every race and still lose to those damn dragsters. Is there any interest in the East Coast to separate the dragsters from the cars? The calculations us door cars use are a lot more elaborate -- for instance we leave REAL hard at the starting line and at times there are large bald spots creating tire spin and loss of elapsed time. For the dragsters being longer and not leaving with as much force their starting line is smooth.

I also like crowds and heads up racing but recently being uprooted from California to Pennsylvania all there is is either bracket racing or this street car shootout stuff. My solution would be running nostalgia classes as the Goodguys do on the West Coast with 7.80-8.80-9.80 heads up racing that all fans like to watch.

Do you think that these 2 scenarios would ever happen and why hasn't nostalgia type racing been popular on the East Coast as it is sooooooooo popular and growing on the west? I would like to evoke change, as we enjoy going as fast as possible every time we run we enjoy the showmanship, and we definitely like the atmosphere crowds bring.

Ken Becker

INDY MEMORIES

I just want to say thank you for the coverage leading up to this race. I will be attending my 26th straight Nationals this year ( I am only 27) and my daughter will be attending her 6th (she is 7) I hope to see you there. By the way, I'll be sitting near Bret Kepner as I do almost every year. The 1000 Foot Club is still alive and well, only at the 660 now. With the Stock Eliminations on Thursday to Super Stock on Friday most people won't see the best racing of the whole event. Man, I want Labor Day here. Oh wait, I need the summer to keep racing my own car. See ya at the races.

Scott Inman

2 CENTS ON 2 DAYS

I thought it was interesting that IHRA might put on a two-day show. I remember the old AHRA days and the two-day shows they had (complete with booked-in drivers like Don Garlits and the Greek). Those were good races and they drew good crowds. I think IHRA could benefit from a two-day show. It wouldn't be as costly for the spectator or the racer. Running the race on Sat would be great, especially at night in the summer. Pro classes could qualify Friday evening so folks could get off work and come out to the track. This would also provide racers with the same conditions that they'd race in Sat evening. I think a format like that would work, and bring people out to the track.

Anyhoo, just my 2 cents.

Cliff Morgan
Phoenix, AZ

WEIGHTY ISSUE

I was not surprised with the weight change for the Harleys. Given the performance advantage demonstrated at E-town, nobody should have been surprised. As I remember NHRA had been giving displacement and weight breaks for the v-twin bikes in an effort to get more competition. Now that the Harleys are kicking butt it must be time to get back to the standard weights for the class. At least they didn't change the displacement rules; that could have been disastrous to the Harley program. As it stands now the Suzukis will have a 15-pound weight advantage, but I would suspect that could change if the Suzukis start to take over again.

All in all, Vance and Hines have done a fantastic job in the program and I am sure this set back will not keep the down for long.

Harry Christensen

HEAVY HARLEYS

Seems to me the ONLY way for all the whiners to beat the Harleys, is to cry to NHRA and make them instantly NON-COMPETITIVE. Isn't it amazing how the other non-Harley teams all of a sudden found some NEW horsepower at the Craftsman Nationals?

Greg Anderson said, "It would be like having me add 240 lbs to my Pro Stock car, and I wouldn't even be able to qualify."

I bet that the Harley people are thrilled after spending untold millions developing a competitive package and struggling over the last several years, to have their endeavors become non-competitive (mid-week mind you).

Now I know why a REAL smart guy like Bob Glidden let out the string just enough to be dominant in his heyday. Bet the Suzuki and the Kawasaki guys had a REAL laugh at the resulting VICTORY party.

NHRA is becoming a rudderless sinking political vessel and fans of this sport should e-mail NHRA to show their disdain.

Eugene Wagner

P.S. Won't be seeing me or my family at any overpriced NHRA events in the near future.

IN THE KNOW

On 6-23-04 you wrote Harleys get their reward. Aw too bad. What about 160 inches to 92 inches and how about electronic fuel injection to carbs?

In other words why doesn't NHRA just give the damn Harleys the first place trophies. Oh and why are they even called Harleys? They don't even have to have factory original cases and what's this little deal about 1-inch offset of the cylinders? Is everybody supposed to be stupid about what's going on? The real dragbike owners, builders and drivers know the story.

R. Nichols

BURNDOWN TIMED -- REELY

Enjoyed the story about the burndown between Garlits & Carbone. I have on audiotape the mentioned ABC broadcast, although I haven't been able to hear it for years (still searching the flea markets for a functioning reel to reel). But back then, I did stopwatch the burndown at one minute 45 seconds, and it didn't appear to me that ABC had "messed with" the editing of it. The immortal Keith Jackson's call, "GARLITS UP IN SMOKE!!......CARBONE WINS IT!"

Gentlemen, keep up the good work, I really enjoy your product.

Regards,

Jon T. Hoffman

COST OF RACING

Just read your article on cost of Pro Stock racing. I know it takes money to go racing, but should racing ONLY be about money? It is a sad state of affairs when the "sport" we love turns into just another way of generating HUGE sums of money for a few individuals and cutting the small guy out of the mix altogether. The fans should step back and look at what is happening to their sport. We've gone from guys in dirty t-shirts having a good time all the way to multi-million dollar teams with no personality and not really having much fun from what I see.

Steve S.