RAHN TOBLER

DRO: Is this hard, these last year races or are you just kind of relieved? How do you feel?

RT: No it's not hard at all. It's a decision we made last Christmas and we both think at this time that it's still the right decision and I think we're probably both ready.

DRO: Are you looking forward to next year?

RT: Absolutely.

DRO: Is it going to be a different kind of work - harder work, easier work?

RT: It's going to be easier. I mean I do all the work here. I'm the only guy during the week. I drive it everywhere, prepare it, I clean everything I build everything. The only time I ever have help is at the race track so it's going to relieve me of a great deal of hard work and it's also going to provide me with a nice income for a change, so for really both of us there's nothing but positives involved and to be able to go out and race for a championship and be on a team like that is a great opportunity and I look forward to it.

DRO: When do you want to retire?

RT: Well, I'm only 49 years old, so I think this is all I've done since I'm 16 so this is it for me, this is where I'm going to work the rest of my life so I don't have any thoughts about retirement yet, I'm still along way away from there.

RON CAPPS

DRO: I'd like to get your perspective on the legends in drag racing like Shirley, who is retiring and Kenny's retiring again, Snake is retired, that there are just some people that are slipping away from the scene.

RC: Yeah and me growing up in the sport and being such a fan as a kid, you know my Dad raced Sportsman, but I was such a huge fan that when I started racing professionally in '95, Snake was already gone and then Bernstein retired and now you got Shirley retiring.

It's a huge hit to the sport because the sport I think was built on what we consider our legends now and the era of the nicknames and just that whole early part, I mean if you look at NASCAR stuff they had their Richard Pettys and they had the Allisons and all that but I mean there's Cha Cha and a movie made and the Snake and the Mongoose and to me that is the sport of Drag Racing. I hate to see things like Bernstein retire and come back to me, I want to remember Kenny, I mean he's won a couple of races here so you can't say he doesn't still drive well, cause he's an awesome driver, but it's not like it used to be, I guess because it's more competitive to a certain extent. But you don't have the Raymond Beadles and all these guys that were just the hitters and now there's such a group of us that nobody really stands out a lot unless you do something. Force has obviously carried the sport I think; I remember when the sport went into a lull and Snake some of the other drivers were out there that carried it through the lull. Definitely over the last 20 years, John Force has been Drag Racing and I'm one of his biggest fans and I hate see, he's talking about getting out of the car and I beat on him saying, you gotta stay in here. I want to kick his butt while he's still racing. For the sport. So when these people start retiring Cha Cha going out - I mean who else we got out here right now?

DRO: Shirley actually sounded somewhat relieved when I was talking to her in the staging lanes -

RC: It's sad to watch because I know how she just kicked the crap out of guys when she raced. A lot of them won't admit it but obviously she, you know - it's sad to see someone like that retire - but they've got to stick around because there's nobody out there right now that - what name can you pull out - Dixon's won a couple of championships right now and Tony. But these guys, as much as Larry being my teammate and all, if I was to win a championship I don't think it would matter. It's not a big deal as it is Force winning it, Snake winning it, Bernstein winning it. To me anyway in my opinion to have these people that have been Legends that bought the sport and kind of been where they've been, you know up to this point.