Monday, September 3

I'm sorry for the delay, I have no excuse except for the fact that all my notes are hand written or in my head. Neither are too reliable. I do not have a lap top computer. I use a Mac at home and for the price of one of their portables I could buy a Super Gasser. And Trailer.

So this is the wrap up of my trip to Indy 2001. After the rain on Friday, the weather was great. Not too hot, a little cloud cover and no rain.

Sunday started out great. I met some of my old buddies in the pits for a little early bench racing before going up to the starting line for the Big Bud intros. One of the guys, Bruce Gregg from Baltimore, Maryland, has been going to the Nationals since the late sixties. Ditto for hometown Indy boy Jim Crampton.

Between the both of them they forgot more about drag racing than I will ever know. Bruce and I often play "Name that Winner". I'll give him the year and the eliminator and he will guess who won. He is unbelievable; he's never wrong. I can't remember who won Indy last year and he can tell me who won at the Cajun's in 1979 in Competition Eliminator.

The Big Bud intros are fabulous, colossal, stupendous even. Each team and car are in formation four by four. There are at least 100 crewmembers per team. This is the day before the final cut and everybody is in uniform. I need my widest lens to shoot the entire scene.

Even John Force is barely in the picture. John as usual is in a introspective mood. The Force we see on ESPN2 for sure is a real part of the John Force persona, but after the race is over or between rounds I'll see John in a subdued mood reading a bit of poetry or often he will be relaxing in a Lotus position.... Yeah that's gonna happen.

Maybe one of the reasons John is so laid back is that Whit Bazemore put eveyone's you know what in the street. Bazemore in Don Schumacher's Stealth Bodied, Primered, SuperSpoilered (is that a word?) Matco Firebird Finny Car ran a best on the planet 4.756 at 325.69 in Saturday Night qualifying. You know I should give top end interviews, don't you?

If it wasn't for Force's teammate Gary Densham running an unbelievable 4.797 later in the weekend, Whit would have had a half a tenth on the field. And it was a quick field. The Funny Car bump was a 4.905 held by everybody's favorite big softie Al Hofmann in former winner Big Jim Dunn's Mooneyes MAC Tools Pontiac Firebird. Damn, I should be giving them top end quotes we all love to hear.

Anyway, the cars and teams are finished having their pictures taken by thousands of photographers and everybody goes back to the staging lanes to get ready for round one. If I was back in the lanes before the round, the first thing I would tell Austin, Bernie, Roland and the rest of the crew chiefs is, back it down, take some clutch out, run it on straight alcohol, idle down the race track. Do anything but smoke the tires.

I don't like to talk bad about anything or anybody, but this year's edition of the Big Bud could be kindly be called "The Big Dud". There were absolutely no side by side races at this year's Big Bud. Not one. Nada, zilch. The cars that could run 4.80's with ease in the cool night, could not get the power to the ground in the sunshine.

All of em. Ron Capps, Bruce Sarver, Del Worsham, Dean Skuza, Force, Tony Pedregon, and eventually Bazemore all fell to too much power and not enough track. Frank Pedregon was lucky and good and reverent and lucky and did not blaze the Goodyears in the final against "the NHRA will be looking into that rear spoiler" Bazemore. This time it was Whit's turn to turn the tires. Frankie pocketed $100,000 for his troubles. His troubles will begin when John Force comes looking for his cut of the action.

The crowd cheered the whole day and had no idea it was one of the worst races in Big Bud history. Why don't they run this race at night? It was packed wall to wall on both Friday and Saturday nights. I know, let's run one round Friday, and the semis and finals on Saturday under the stars. And then fireworks, lots of fireworks... you could charge a fortune.. Nah, it would take too much imagination on someone's part...

But lets move on, any man, woman or child who would bother reading about the 47th edition of the US Nationals saw the race on TV and know what I am blabbering about so lets get to more important things.

To me there were two big stories on Sunday. Never mind who won the shootout, Big Daddy Don Garlits not only ran his first four at over 300 with a 4.72 at 303, but qualified 15th for the Monday show. As Bob Frey would say: The Crowd Went Wild... and they did... Plus, Big was racing against none other than Chris "the Greek" Karamesines who, unfortunately for him and his fans, went up in smoke and did not qualify.

The Pro Mods ran late Sunday and they were flying. The eight car field stretched from eventual runner up Dan Rowe's 6.31 all the way to Fred Hahn's low ET of the meet 6.17. All in all, 16 cars, no make that 17, Pro Mods ran 6.378 or better in qualifying. I don't know if that is a record and I have no idea what the fastest IHRA field is but it must be close. Anybody know? I loved it.

Monday did not disappoint. You had to have seen it on TV. Dixon, Bazemore, Greg Anderson, Savoie, and Coughlin were on the podium with their "Wallys". Supporting players were: Manzo, Stark, Volpe, Biondo, Waldo, Edmoundson, Hood and last, but not least, Damon Dabbs, who will go down in history as one of the strangest named winners at Indy.

Dixon stretched his lead over Bernstein. Bazemore got two full races closer to Force... and Warren Johnson went out early again and Jim Yates is nipping at his heals only 80 points back.

I thought it was great that Peter Biondo, Santo Volpe, and Frank Manzo won their eliminators at Indy. Both Frank and Peter are 2000 World Champs and are looking good this year. Frank is the best and I cannot say enough about the man. Peter is cool too and has a girlfriend to die for... You aren't reading this, are you honey?

Big Daddy and Shirley had their problems for sure, but so did Force and a whole lot of NHRA regulars. I don't think either Shirley or Don look at this weekend as a bust. They both qualified at the "Big Go East". The faithful at Indy in 2001 showed "Cha Cha" and the "Swamp Rat" that they would always be winners. The two of them at this year's race will be a memory I will cherish always... jeez he's getting weepy. Time to go.

Sorry again for the delay in photos and text. Look for a giant photo recap of Indy 2001 in a few days. I leave for Englishtown Friday to shoot the Federal Mogul race and then go to New Hampshire Saturday and Sunday for the IHRA North American Nationals. See you at the races.