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WHAT'S NEW
in the world of drag racing
The latest update as of May 21, 2000
Today's "update" is just going to be a grab-bag of notes, quotes, views
and news, with no particular focus and nothing arranged in any particular
order. As something oozes to the surface in the bubbling caludron of thoughts
heating inside my skull . . . hang on Bob, this is drag racing, not some horror
movie . . . or is it?
Think you've seen/heard/done it all? Not by half, mate. This weekend's
NHRA Matco Tools Spring Super Nationals presented by Racing Champions
is already setting records for downright weirdness. If you haven't been following
the "action" through the official sources, here's a very condensed recap: Let's
start with two pictures that pretty much sum up the highlights of the weekend
-- so far.
That's about all that happened on Thursday. Friday saw a late start, and
several false starts, before qualifying got underway in the afternoon. Cold
temperatures and high humidity conspired to produce a weak show with lots of
tire smoke, the occasional good run and a disjointed, incomplete day. With the
weather and track conditions changing literally by the minute, NHRA was very
hard pressed to present any action and to be fair, did their best.
They managed to get every car that was ready to run, down the track at least
once, until more dampness and an approaching curfew cut the second day short
at 7:30 pm. Saturday saw another late start, an even more scrambled schedule
and the first postponement of the event. The Pro Stock shootout was put off
until the Prestone Nationals at Route 66 Raceway on June 3rd. And then things
went from bad to worse.
The second qualifying session for the fuel cars saw several incidents, the
most serious of which involved Whit Bazemore's funny car. Nearing the finish
line, he lost a rear tire in explosive fashion, literally destroying the body
as the tire tore up the carbon fibre shell. Other victims of the same problem,
but to a much lesser extent, were Frank Pedregon (C-S-K #2 funny car) and
several Top Fuel teams that experienced rear wing damage when chunks of tire
tread hit them.
Another bad batch of Goodyears? Too much tirespin? No, not hardly. In fact,
according to NHRA, the problem was one of too much traction on the top
end of the race track. In their media releases about the situation, they cited
the "immense traction, leading to excessive heat in the tires." Too much traction
on a cold track? Are you serious? Their answer to the situation was to attempt
to "decrease traction near the finish line."
In my opinion, and as you all know, I'm not an expert at anything, except
possibly exposing my ignorance on a regular basis, the tire problems have
nothing to do with too much traction. They have everything to do with a great
difference in the temperature of the tires and the track.
I have personally witnessed a similar phenomenon in the last few years at
the Australian Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway. No exploded tires, thank
goodness, but nearly every fuel car burnt the center out of the tread on each
run. The explanation given downunder was the difference in temperature between
the hot tire tread and the cold asphalt surface of the race track. Apparently,
the difference in temperatures caused the tread to delaminate from the carcass
of the tire. To my knowledge, this weekend's events are the first for an NHRA
race.
So what happened today after their attempts to reduce traction? The first
action was to postpone the Top Fuel and Funny Car eliminations until the weekend
of September 8-9. Pretty radical, eh? They were planning to hold eliminations
for all other categories, some of whom only had two qualifying attempts, today.
They did even get started with Stock eliminator and Super Comp before the rains
came down again and postponed the entire event until the September 8-9 weekend.
At this writing (3:00 pm), no official announcement of a schedule for the
rain date has been made. The postponement of the fuel car racing, announced
earlier today, mentioned that time trials would be held on the Saturday and
eliminations -- only for the already qualified (after two sessions) cars --
would be held on the Sunday.
For several categories, like Top Fuel, Federal-Mogul Dragster and Funny Car,
the lack of further qualifying sessions is not a problem. With less than full
fields, everybody who showed up is in the field. For the Funny Cars, five cars
are on the outside, and probably not too happy that they won't have another
chance to bump into the show. However, that may all be changed before I even
post this update.
One Top Fuel owner, Ralph White, may be more than a little disappointed too.
He's been running this year with Mike Smith driving, but that arrangement dissolved
after their last appearance at Houston's O'Reilly Nationals in April. White
brought his car to Englishtown without a driver confirmed, but with the intention
to put someone in the seat and qualify.
His first choice, Melanie Troxel, arrived at the track, but without her
firesuit. (The car she drove earlier this year, the former In-n-Out Burger
car of Jerry Darien, is currently parked due to the usual lack of funds). Hmm,
a bit of miscommunication between Troxel and White, or what? Second choice,
Bruce Larson (of Sentry Funny Car and Don Garlits' Swamp Rat fame) did have
a current license, but NHRA ruled that he was an "inactive" driver.
Sidenote: When it comes to a fuel "license", NHRA seems to have so
many secret blackbook rules and regulations, that I'm sure they just make them
up as they go along. It all seems to depend on the particular racer and the
particular official that makes the decision. Need we rehash the controversy
that "erupted" at last year's Mission Raceway nitro funny car match race? No,
I didn't think so.
Back to Ralph White. Two down and one (or is that two?) to go. Next on the
list was Joe Amato employee, Bill Walsh, who, despite testing in Joe's car on
a seemingly regular basis, was currently unlicensed. Rapidly running out of
options, the word on Saturday night was that Mike Dunn was being contacted in
a last-ditch attempt to at least grab the $9000 first-round money that was
going begging. Then came the Sunday postponement and the announcement that only
qualified cars would be allowed to run at the rain date. End of story? We'll
see, won't we?
What about all the action in the Federal-Mogul categories, Bob? Like what?
Like the 12 funny cars? Like the 16 dragsters (yes, sports fans, a full field)
with a bubble of 9.38? Yes, there were some great runs, like David Hirata's
low ET and top speed (so far) pass of 5.40 at 268 mph. Or the decent laps
turned in by the other A/Fuel cars; four out of the top five qualifiers were
injected nitro cars. Or we could talk about Steve Harker's (Brisbane, Australia)
first round, top qualifying position. But then he slipped down to fifth on
the final, after two rounds, list.
No, there really wasn't much to write home about, or write a report about,
from Englishtown this weekend. Of course that didn't stop me from filling a
few pages with a lot of words about not much action, did it? From here, it's
onward and onward, with the Castrol Nationals at the Texas Motorplex next
weekend and the Prestone Nationals at Route 66 Raceway on the following weekend.
Time for some better weather eh, NHRA? With their luck, the next two events
will either experience record rainfall or temperatures so high that the asphalt
melts.
So what's happening elsewhere today? There was a Formula One race from Germany
on the tube earlier today, with the usual suspects winning. Some German guy
in a red car and a Finn in a grey car took the top two spots. Since the producers,
German of course, only trained the cameras on their countryman, I didn't see
too much of the rest of the field. Of course, with only ten out of twenty-one
starters completing the rain-soaked race, there wasn't a lot to watch.
Today was also the final day of qualifying for the "fabled" Indianapolis
500. Remember that race? The single largest one-day sporting event in the world
is what they once called it. Is it just me, or is the Indy 500 pretty much
irrelevant these days? Since Tony George broke away from the CART crowd and
set up his own Indy Racing League, the stature of the event has gone steadily
downhill.
It once attracted major television coverage of virtually everything that
moved or breathed at the Brickyard. Now what we do get? This morning, there
was sixty minutes of absolutely nothing, other than replays of earlier action
and the de-rigeur driver interviews and lots of gossip about who was trying
to buy their way into a car to make a last-ditch attempt for glory. In the
past, they had some real names to focus on: A.J. Foyt, the Unsers, the Andrettis,
etc., etc. and now who do they have? Lyn St. James, Billy Boat and some 19-year-old
girl. Tradition sure isn't worth what it used to be, eh?
For the last hour, I've been channel surfing, trying to find some station
covering the final hour of qualifying. No luck and the TV guide doesn't list
anything, even on a tape-delayed basis. Informercials, a hockey game (okay,
that IS important, at least in Canada), a basketball game, golf and an old
Rambo movie are about all I can find. Except on the Canadian sports network
(TSN), that is. You see, in Canada we have a national sports network with
slightly different priorities: two-and-a-half hours of .... hang on for this
one .... A DOG SHOW.
Need I say more? Let's just change the subject and see what's happening
at other racing venues this weekend. Way down south, at the star-crossed Lowe's
Motor Speedway (Charlotte Motor Speedway before they sold the name), the Winston,
one of the premier events on the NASCAR calendar, took place last night. The
usual assortment of crashes, bangs and blow-ups combined to give the fans the
usual close finish, won by Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Intimidator II?) Then the roof,
actually the bridge, caved in.
As the large crowd was leaving the facility, a spectator overpass collapsed,
injuring nearly 100 people, some critically. The pictures in this morning's
newspaper showed a scene of mass confusion, with dozens of rescue vehicles
and hundreds of emergency workers milling about. After last year's fatalities
at the speedway, when a tire flew into the grandstands, this accident has got
to stamp Lowe's as a track with a jinx.
What's next? And how does all this bad publicity go down at Lowe's (home
improvement chain) headquarters? Hey, doesn't that sound like the seed for a
story about the "baggage" that some sponsors can inherit when they sign a marketing
agreement? After all, who can forget the Dan Pastorini - Coors partnership
of the 1980's? Remember the two, count 'em, two drunk driving arrests
that Dan had in the space of six weeks .... about a week before their contract
ended. Major coincidence, eh? Or the K.C. Spurlock - Bob Vandergriff - Fruit
of The Loom deal that started going decidely downhill after a "live - in the
pits" brawl during a national event?
Well, let's leave that subject for another day; just like all the other
"hot" (as in too hot for me to handle) topics that I'd love to write about,
but can't afford to risk writing about. I'm already on the speed dial for
more than one legal firm for past transgressions it seems. Say what? Like I
just said, another day... or two... or so.
Any more racing action that you can report on this weekend, Bob? There
was an NHRA Division Four Federal-Mogul series race scheduled at Hallsville,
Texas. Scheduled, as in the past tense, as Friday's rainout led to Saturday's
thunderstorms and a postponement for a few weeks. There was even a race scheduled
for my local track, Mission Raceway this weekend. Yesterday's action was cut
short with rain in the late afternoon and today's proceedings were probably
a complete wipeout, with heavy rain falling non-stop since yesterday.
Highlight, or more correctly, lowlight of the day was motorcycle racer
Jim Sibley, being struck in the staging lanes, by a .... get ready for this
one.... an out-of-control snowmobile. Only in Canada. Well, not really, but
this does seem just too typical for the land of ice and snow, doesn't it?
Fortunately, there were no serious injuries, other than to Jim's pride, and
after a short trip to the local hospital, he was seen limping around the pits
in search of his favourite adult beverage at last report.
So what about all the other stuff you were going to write about today, Bob?
Like the latest scoop on the "under the table" or "behind the back" or "up
the backside" NHRA rule change on alcohol dragster wing struts? Or the "what's
happened to Jim Grant?" report. Or the latest from Brad Hadman's Progressive
Metalcraft shop? Or the latest news from Australia? Or the latest news about
how much broker I am -- didn't tell you about the $1000 brake (and a few other
pieces that were falling off...) job on my truck this week, did I?
Well, for the answers to all those leading questions, and even more stuff
that you didn't want to know about, you'll just have to come back tomorrow.
Yes, I know it's Monday, and that usually means at least Wednesday before I
resurface. BUT, tomorrow's a holiday here in Canada -- some dead queen's birthday
party or something like that -- and I've got a day off work. So there's just
no excuse for not coming back with all the stuff that I'd orginally planned
to write about today.
And for once, I'll be applying one of the cardinal rules of good journalism:
always keep your readers wanting more. But that's based on the assumption that
they wanted anything in the first place, isn't it? Details, details.... So,
stay tuned to this channel for the all the latest news from the wide, wild,
weird world of drag racing. And the way things are going these days, I don't
even have to make any of it up anymore. The truth really is getting stranger
than fiction.
More news as it happens, and if you wish to provide us with any news or information
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