IT'S ALL SAID WITH LOVE

Read (Martin's) editorial on bitching. I have to admit I hate articles/editorials on knocking drag racing and the NHRA (goes back to childhood and parents with degrees who were uneducated and I'm 50+). However, as you said we all must have someone watching out for us, them the racers.

I applaud the article on TF tires. Someone needs to keep the rest of us, the public, informed on the behind the scenes happenings. Keep up the great work, even if we bitch at you!

Lee Sheets

TV TIME

Sports on TV are geared to a three-hour timeframe. Check out stick-and-ball games or NASCAR races. If drag racing has 75-minute oildowns, no amount of pre-recorded fill-ins will keep viewers. The only recourse for drag racing is to offer three-hour summaries and to give up the idea of real time.

Nick Davis

HAWTHORNE, ARE YOU NUTS?

Hawthorne, you must have been joking when you wrote this article--right? No, Bill Stephens is no Steve Evans and Marty Reid will never make us forget Dave Mac and Diamond P had it all-over ESPN, BUT what do you want, the Muppets to do the broadcast? I can't believe you think they are too controversial. What do want them to not say? Dunn is awesome, he "laced them up" and I always learn from him. I hope he never gets another ride and leaves the booth.

Be thankful for what you DO have which is decent coverage and lots of it. I own a sprint car and love anything that races on dirt......we don't have jackshit unless you count that joke delayed broadcast of WoO on something called "The Outdoor Channel".

Man, you need to smell the roses.

John Suggs

TIRES IN EUROPE

I don't know how it is in the States but after we used another track prep (VHT instead of VP Racing) here in Europe we started to have the tire problem as well. We have seen some tire explodings here. Because we are a couple of years behind compared to you we don't have it every race. But we can see when the cars start running over 300 mph the tire gets chunked. See the pictures I sent.

Some racers over here drive tires which have been sold by teams from the States. I know that Tony Schumacher only does 3 runs (before the tire problems) on a set of tires and than they get sold to Europe.

We here in Europe are not able to get the latest spec Goodyear tire they use in the States right now. That makes it even more difficult for us. We are always and I mean always at least one step behind.

Over here we do still run 90% nitro and have not had any wing rule changes.

The tracks we race are old airfields rebuild after World War II into drag strips. The track crew put too much VHT on the track to keep the oil in the track. (When the temp gets up the oil comes to the surface.) That's why the tires get torn apart. I don't want to think what will happen when one of the dragsters here does run 325 mph. The highest speed we had here was 317 mph.

Just to let you know we have tire problems here in Europe as well.

Best Regards,

Gerda Dijkstra
Lex Joon Racing