A DIFFERENCE OF OPINION
Jeff, I can't believe the shit you wrote
in your coverage of the U.S. Funny Car Nats
at Gateway, you must have spent way too much
time at the Cooler before you went, and slept
through the event. That was one of the most
entertaining events there has been in drag
racing for quite some time, and it will probably
continue to grow from here. I understand
that not every car laid down a John Force
half track burnout, and no, the cars didn't
make the flames a modern fuel car does (and
they won't with limited fuel pump sizes,
or even the smaller pumps the outlaw cars
are running compared to a modern car) but
what a show!!.
You are the only negative article or coment
(sic) I have seen or heard from the event,
so again I am sure you must have been in
one of your drunken stupers (sic) during
the event. I hope you will attent (sic) future
nostalgia funny car events with a more open
mind and realize these cars don't have the
fuel burning capability of a modern fuel
car and will only produce probably half (if
that) the header flames of a modern fuel
car. The crowd that came for the event sure
seemed to enjoy themselves, and I saw many
good quality burnouts. A few of these cars
were running for the first time and many
with very few laps, I still was impressed
with the event. I guess you are one opinion,
and you are entitled to it, but I hope you
watch the show next time and stay away from
the beer venders, maybe you will see what
you missed at the first event.
Kenny Bonnell
A DIFFERENT OPINION 2
Don't know where you were standing but I
have a very different version of the FCN
at St. Louis. To see a fleet of classic funny
cars all together, make clean runs for the
most part, breaking several records and the
reaction from the fans, it was indeed a great
show. I should follow you to some races to
see what a good race really looks like because
if this was not up to par than the good races
you go to must really be something!!! Let
me know when your up to par races are. I
will be there with you. If you don't call,
then I guess I will never know.
John Denski
A DIFFERENT OPINION 3
I can't believe what you wrote in your coverage
of the F/C Nationals at St.Louis, The
first thing to understand is NHRA is totally
against the Nostalgia Funny Car movement;
they sent Byron Edwards into St. Louis
to oversee what was going on. They told him
not to tech any car and not to sign anything,
putting all liability totally on the track.
Anyone with a NFC is walking on thin ice
as far as NHRA is concerned. So most of the
guys are not trying to go out and set records
and burn their stuff to the ground, that's
just what NHRA wants us to do so they can
say NO to the NFC's.
A year ago just before the FCR in Englishtown
a statement by NHRA was made, that a Nostalgia
Funny Car could not run on an NHRA member
track. That statement had to be retracted
because there was nothing in the rule book
to keep us out as long as the racer followed
the rules.
NHRA has had us under the microscope for
quite awhile and are waiting for someone
to do something stupid.
You want big header flames? Then the cars
would have to run the exotic fuel systems
which are not allowed. Funny Cars in the
early '70s didn't have big header flames
just go review some of the old films like
Funny Car Summer during the night runs. Most
of the early '70s nitro F/Cs barely got into
the 6-second zone and How many burnt to the
ground doing it? And How many were destroyed?
Not only that but during a '64 car show back
at OCIR in the '70s several of the cars ran
off pace, but you only heard about the good
runs.
You want dry hops? the cars would have to
run Crowerglide clutches which are not available,
you can't do a dry hop with a pedal clutch
and a modern day multi-disc clutch
is not designed to do dry hops, that's why
John Force or anyone else don't do them.
When it comes down to it, the guys that
are running the NFC's are mostly newcomers
to F/C racing, no big names except Pulde,
these guys built their cars with a desire
for old funny cars and some run pretty good
and put on a decent show and the others will
get better with time.
These guys are trying hard to do something
that at today's costs is almost impossible.
Back in the early 70s gas was .35 cents a
gallon, motels were $20.00 a night and nitro
was cheap and an all-out competitive funny
car would cost only about $20,000.00. Today
just about any one of the NFC's would run
twice that, and travel costs with gas at $2.00
a gallon and $80.00 a night for a motel ...
it's a wonder anybody can or even wants to
do it at all.
If a fan is expecting big header flames
then he needs to go to NHRA's shows and pay
$60.00 at the gate for one day and $10.00
to park and $3.00 for a Coke and $9.00 for
a BBQ sandwich and $26.00 for a T-shirt ...
do all of that and you get header flames
and oil downs to boot and you get to sit
in the grandstands and watch the Safety Safari
clean up the track run after run, and they
can be told they're not allowed past the
rope in the pit or that the primadonna driver
is too good to talk.
No one is asking you to write a fantasy
story about what we do, just don't try to
kill off everything we're trying so hard
to bring back.
Bob Gibson
"Hang'Em High"
Funny Car
WE'LL BE BACK NEXT YEAR
Thank you for the article on The Inaugural
Teen ArriveAlive Funny Car Nationals in St.
Louis. My thoughts on the article are that
it was concise, and pretty well organized.
To a small extent I somewhat agree with
your conclusion. I feel on the grounds that
with this being the first time the East and
West Coast guys had all gotten together in
one place that the event was successful.
On the other hand we also have to work with
what VRA and what will ultimately be NHRA
will deal us as far as rules. With this group
we should never see anything below 6.0 seconds
so showmanship is essential. Good side by
side runs are important without oil downs.
Inspite of popping a couple of superchargers
we completed that task without a drop of
oil.
On your conclusion, give the group some
time. Performance, showmanship, tuneups,
and reliability will all improve with runs
completed. The promoter will improve with
time as well. (You won't see me try another
Friday night for a while!). It is somewhat
unfair to prematurely judge the program.
Thank you for your interest and we are working
behind the scenes to improve the program
for next year.
Ron Bradshaw
VP Operations
S. S. Promotions
