YEAH -- AND NOBODY FINES PAULIE

Enjoyed your new article on the dull and boring way drivers have to act. There's NO excitement on TV. If the NHRA suits are correct, then why are shows like "American Chopper" so popular?

Speedy Lee

LONG-TIME READER, FIRST-TIME WRITER

GREAT write up on Hunter. I don't ever write in to a mag, but this was appropriate. I'm 31, and still think he was a literary genius. Keep up the good work.

Take care,

Matt Davis

KEEPING 'DANGEROUS'

Great article - right on the money. Now all we have to do is figure out a way to can PC and get things back where they belong.

Bill Chatfield

CHANGE IS NOT ALWAYS FOR THE BETTER

I want to comment on the sorry state of drag racing coverage. I guess that because I am a 40-year follower of the sport, I have become jaded. I have, basically, seen it all. I watched drag racing grow up, as it were. I've seen it approach terminal velocity. It is almost impossible to convey the speed and fury of today's cars. It doesn't work. It is so hard to show 'speed' on tv and 'feel' a pair of modern funnies passing by. I confess I don't have an answer. It will take creative camera angles, and other ideas.

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As I said I am a jaded veteran. I can identify, and love the first and second generation of drag racers. Nothing against the current group, who are also great, but lack the charisma of the older racers. The older racers were on the ragged edge of technology. They tuned their cars by the seat of their pants. I loved these guys. They did it their way. No political correctness. No B.S. They were, and the same time; inventors, greasers, gunslingers. Guys I looked up to. They were fearless, cool, smart. They were rock and roll. Kind of like John Milner in 'American Grafitti'.

But today, the cars are the stars, and the racers have been neutered. At least publicly on tv. I see no 'Rebel Without A Cause' on NHRA Today. I see blandness. Maybe these guys are edgy, but we'll never know. Television has sanitized the product, made it predictable and, to me, boring.

I love the sights of wheelies, gonzo runs, etc., where the appearance of speed is overshadowed by a lump in the throat run. This can be conveyed on tv, I think. As a geezer, I loved seeing a AA/FA, or a Competition coupe weaving down the strip, slicks ablaze. I hate to say it, but for me, maybe the best runs have already been run, the best races history.

The current tv coverage is bland at best. It could be the same race every week. As one race looks like the last race, which looks like the next race. Nothing new: same cars, same drivers, same classes. They all look the same, sorry to say. We see the big tower, same manicured grounds, same white concrete guard rails. You know what, I miss the old D&A tower at Indy, I miss seeing the races at Ontario Speedway, Unique. Sunday Niagara, New York National, even the old Bristol Dragway. Those were drag strips. Earthy, oily. Perfect. Gassers doing wheelies, Max Wedge Mopars, Competition Coupes, A/SR, push starts for dragsters, even a flagman.

Told you I was a geezer. Unless you can identify with my musings, don't think I'm crazy. Put me out to pasture. How 'bout near York, Pa., Circa 1965 with an old dog-eared copy of Super Stock and Drag Illustrated.

Jeff Hayes
Lyons, NY