So it has been announced that two time funny car champion Tony Pedregon will take the place of Mike Dunn in the booth next year as the color analysis of the Mello Yello NHRA Drag Racing telecast in 2016. This coincides with the announce changes broadcast partners from ESPN to FOX Sports. It appears that show host Dave Rieff  will retain his duties.

This might prove to be an interesting hire for Fox, as Pedregon is a two time champion in funny car. Is a team owner, therefore he can speak to the audience from those capacities. It might be a rough first year as he is not trained in television, so there will be a learning curve. But Pedregon has not been bashful in letting his thoughts and opinions be known. The biggest unknown is that of chemistry. Can Rieff and Pedregon develop and maintain that chemistry that a good booth dual needs to have to make a good broadcast. Time will tell.

There are rumors also of who might take Gary Gerald's place in the broadcast as a pit reporter. The most interesting one to reach the surface here in beautiful Boise, Idaho, is that of veteran journalist and broadcaster Robin Miller.

Now for those who do not know Robin Miller, he was a very noted motorsports writer for the Indianapolis Star for many years, also a writer for Auto Week, Car and Driver, and is the senior for RACER Magazine.  Miller also has a great deal of TV experience with both ESPN and NBC. His core competency is open wheel racing and INDY Car.

Miller is not one to swallow his opinions either. He was a huge burr under the saddle of the IRL and its president Tony George. Miller lets his opinions fly and cares not care what others think.

Here is the sixty thousand dollar question? Will the Gang in Glendora allow two very opinionated broadcasters to be the face of their self produced television show, which is supposedly going to be done live next year.  Will TP be given free reign to speak his mind?

We will have to buckle up and hang on for the ride.

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September Blog

It has been far too long since I wrote in this blog and for all four of you who have hung in there and read it. I thank you sincerely.

In writing about the sport I have a deep affection for, there are sometimes when one has to go out on a limb and stick their necks out, to say what is honest and true.  It is not done to intentionally cause harm, but it is done to tell the truth.

There are times when none of us, really do not want to hear the truth, but alias.

There have been plenty of instances when I have gotten emails, or phone calls about what I have written. Either in this blog, in my column, Getting Nostalgic, or in race reports for Drag Racing Online.com.

Therefore, as I embark on this literary journey I realize there might be some push back, but that’s ok. God love the first amendment.

This past weekend at ZMAX Dragway in Charlotte, the Big Show had its kick off to “The Countdown to the Championship”, the NHRA’s version of NASCAR’s Chase.

The one thing that got everybody’s attention was V. Gaines simply horrifying crash in the first round of Pro Stock.

Primarily V was able to walk away from this crash. In the interview with ESPN’s Gary Gerald V was calm, cool and collected holding his ever present trade mark stogie.  

Two things bother me about V’s crash.

One, about half way through his crash a very vital piece of safety equipement failed. The window net, which is designed to keep drivers’ arms inside the car in the event of a roll over, became dislodged, and V’s arm can be seen going outside the car on the last roll.

USA Today Sports Images Photographer Mark Rebilas has images of V’s arms outside the car prior to the net dislodging.

Gaines is very fortunate not to have suffered a very severe arm injury, like the one Rich Hough did in Gainesville years ago when his hand was crushed in a roll over accident. Hough lost his hand.

Pro Stock teams and the NHRA might want to revisit how window nets are attached to the cars. Arm restraints might not work in a Pro Stock due to possibility of the strap becoming lodged in the shifter mechanism.

 The second item that bothers me about this crash is going to foggier.

The Pro Stock contingent has had issues at this track before. Shane Gray’s crash two years ago comes to mind, and the numerous other incidents where Pro Stock cars to use a NASCAR adage “wrecked without hitting anything”.

  Why is this happening, especially at a place like ZMAX?  Is it weather, or track surface construction or track prep? Alternatively, is it little of all three elements? On the other hand, a general lack of down force on Pro Stock cars.

Many Pro Stock drivers and team will tell you that there is enough down force in the cars, that adding more wing will only prove to slow the cars down and not give any more down force.

Both Johnny Gray and Warren Johnson along with other Pro Stock drivers have both been on television giving their opinions on track prep.  Warren has stated, in an ESPN interview that the “NHRA preps the track for the fuel cars which make up less than one tenth of one   percent of the (drag race) cars in the country.” 

On a different occasion in an ESPN interview Greg Anderson stated “We cant raise the (rear) wing and make that much difference.” Anderson also states that the complete 1320 needs to have traction compound spray on it for the Pro Stock cars.

At Charlotte, photos have documented that the track surface from 1000 feet on to the 1320 mark, the track appeared to be chunking up. Where rubber and concrete were being ripped from the track surface.

This is where a double edge sword comes into play.

If the NHRA preps the track the full way to accommodate the Pro Stock cars it has adverse effects on the fuel cars.

Fuel cars at speed make eight thousand pounds of down force and have approximately ten thousand brake horsepower, which when a driver steps off the throttle at a 1000 feet the combination of down force and the chassis unloading literally flattens the rear tires, which increases the foot print.  This pressure on a sticky surface has two affects. One it will pull the rubber out of the center of the tire, or it will pull the rubber and a portion of the surface off the racetrack as what happened at Charlotte.

The fuel cars had pulled up the rubber and some of the concrete, effectively reducing the rubber on racing surface in some estimation by nearly forty percent.

This then forces the NHRA to spray less traction compound for the final 320 feet, which can have adverse effects like those that we saw on Sunday with V. Gaines.

One other question can be asked, is the sanctioning body communicating with the Pro Stock teams about their decisions to spray less on the top end prior to Pro Stock coming out for their next qualifying runs or elimination runs?

This is not just something that occurs at just Charlotte. It has happened at many different tracks on the tour. So what should the NHRA do?  Give the Pro Stock cars more and or a different wing, or slow the fuel cars down.

From this vantage point, the answer is clear.  Slow the fuel cars down and run all classes to 1320 feet.

 I have spoken to fuel car crew chiefs, and some have stated that a 60 , gallon a minute pump, and a four disc limit would slow the cars down. Other tuners have stated a much simpler plan. Follow NASCAR’s lead and run a restrictor plate on the engines. Cut down the amount of air let into the engine. Less air in, less power!

Either way from my perspective, the root problem is the professional cars racing on two different surfaces on the same track. If the balance isn’t just right there are going to be issues, as was seen at Charlotte.

Speaking of Charlotte, it is awesome that the NHRA has two races at ZMAX. However not so awesome to see the place about half full for the first race in “The Countdown”. 

Now it is common knowledge that Bruton Smith and his son Marcus run an excellent facility at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Should Charlotte be the first stop of the Countdown? That is a tough question.

However, it is going to be tough to draw a great crowd for the first race in NHRA’s “Countdown”, at ZMAX in Charlotte, when NASCAR’s first race for the Chase is the same weekend in Chicago. Why?

Charlotte is the home base to about 90 percent of the NASCAR teams. So honestly many of those folks who might go the drags, are either watching Cup on ESPN, or in Chicago at the race?

Two.  The NFL’s Carolina Panthers were in town against Detroit. Cam Newton or John Force? Think big picture here folks.

Three.  Rain in Charlotte in September.  Shocker.

Now if all parties concerned are happy with the turnout at ZMAX, then all the above points are moot.  Be that as it may, personally, I don’t see Bruton Smith happy unless the grandstands at his venues are full. I could be wrong, but…

Nostalgia Racing Continues to Grow

There are times when big brothers can get caught up in themselves. They become so focused on their own life situations that they forget to take a look around and notice that their kid brother, has grown almost as big as they are, or have started to become as strong as the big brother is.

I feel this is what is happening with the nostalgia drag racing scene, represented by the NHRA Heritage Series , IHRA Nitro Jam, and the DRO Series.

For the past couple of years nostalgia racing has been filling the stands at the venues these different series run at.  It was SRO at Bakersfield for the March Meet.  The stands were full at Tucson and San Antonio for the first two IHRA races. Boise will be full for both of their Heritage Series events, as will Salt Lake City.

Now I can already hear the naysayers screaming about “you can’t compare the different venues.”

 This is true to a point the big show races are at larger venues such as Las Vegas, Pomona,  and Charlotte. However, many times these venues are only half to three quarters of capacity. Aesthetically I will take a smaller venue, which is at capacity, over a large facility that may be ¾ full, so will marketing partners. If there are big empty gaps in the crowd some venues use advertising, banners in an attempt to hide the fact there are empty seats. Pomona comes to mind.

The IHRA is doing a great job of this, filling these smaller facilities and putting on an excellent show that the fans are enjoying and the IHRA is reinvesting those resources into compensating their competitors a much larger scale than the NHRA.

I spoke with IHRA President Scott Gardner about their new business model for Nitro Jam.

As many of you already know, the IHRA has a field of six seated cars that have committed to run their entire schedule for the year. Then six more regional cars to make up the qualifying field then augment these six cars. The quickest eight cars then make up the race field.

The seated cars given no special treatment they all must qualify for the show and must win rounds to win the event. Their reward for being a seated car is a slightly larger non-qualifier stipend if they do not make the eight-car field.

The rationale behind this was according to Gardner “We wanted to bring competitive racing back IHRA and to have the best cars in the country running our events.” 

In order to accomplish this feat the IHRA put out a big carrot to lure those top competitors to their events.  Ten thousand dollars to win per event and 100,000.00 dollars points fund at the end of the year, with 50 grand going to the winner.

Gardner also stated “We are not dealing with the John Forces’ of the world, Kalitta’s, or Schumacher Racing.  Our guys have jobs or businesses which fund their racing. So we needed to make it feasible for them to travel the schedule, so that’s why we put the big carrot on the stick.”

Gardner shies away from using the term nostalgia. He feels “When fans watch these cars run 5.70’s at 260 miles per hour on a full quarter mile, it is obvious that these car make a lot of power, and a lot of fun to watch. They are not like their brethren in the other series if it (the run) isn’t perfect the drivers click them off. Our guys will pedal the car, so our racing is more enjoyable for the fans.”

Another facet  of the IHRA business plan Gardner said was crucial, was to make sure that ticket prices were balanced to show value and be reasonable enough for a family of four to attend their events “without breaking the bank” as he stated. “We want the family to come out, smell the nitro feel the ground pound and see the header flames.”

Gardner feels the prices are balanced for the ticket demand, and there is a great deal of value to the tickets.  With the series, having the seated cars that represent champions in all three flopper series it plus the top cars in the country, it is a good entertainment value.

Gardner however is not resting on his laurels. He wants to expand and grow the series. “We are constantly looking for more and bigger markets to help grow the series.”  Gardner feel’s that twelve races are just not enough but is not willing to go to twenty four races either.  Therefore, Gardner is looking for that balance of numbers there as well.

However, with future expansion he feels there would have to be more content to the show, which lead to the question would the IHRA entertain running front motored top fuel cars in the future. “Yea Im not saying we would not consider that because these (front engine) cars can be more entertaining that their brethren top fuel cars in the NHRA.”  Nevertheless, it would have to be affordable to the racers to make the tour, because Gardner does not want to go down the path that the cars cost so much to run of having to charge in ticket prices more to pay more to another class.

“So if we could make it work with the front engine top fuel cars, our current funny cars we are running, a door class like the Unlimited Mountain Motored Pro Stocks, throw in some fuel altereds and some jets and you have one heluva show, and as we expand into new and larger markets we are going to need more presence of classes and that (top fuel) would be a natural choice.”

Gardner is also looking outside the box when it comes to a television package. Rather than run the traditional same day tape delay, or one-week tape delay show, Gardner is looking to build a hybrid type of reality show.  It will include racing but will be more behind the scenes with the teams and racers as they navigate their way through a race weekend.

The DRO Series has matured into the most prominent independent series in the country. DRO’s races fill the needs of drag racers in the mid-west. Champions like John Hale, Shawn Bowen, and front-runners Ronnie Young, and Frank Ousley just to name a few racers that run this series. These are all very tough competitors and are in the upper echelon of the sport.

DRO biggest race is at Cordova, Illinois, for the World Series of Drag Racing.  This event will rival any of the other series major events in both car count and attendance.  There is talk that there could be as many as 20 funny cars could be coming to Cordova for an eight-car show.  Qualifying itself will be worth a full event ticket price.

This has the potential of being a huge year for nostalgia racing. No matter what you call it, people love to see funny cars that make full pulls down the track and have bodies on them they can recognize from sight. In addition, if IHRA can find a place in its lineup for front engine top fuel cars in the future.  Well then, the sky is the limit for both classes.

This could help both sanctioning bodies in a sense, by increasing car counts in funny car and top fuel. That is music to a racetrack promoters ears, and brings joy to the hearts of the fans.

As I started out this column big brother (NHRA Mello Yellow Series) might want to take a look over its shoulder as “little” brother is not so little anymore. Nostalgia racing is growing bigger and bigger every day. The proof is in the close racing and full grand stands.

I write this every month, just to see who notices.

Brian

Boychuk and Leong Reunite for 2014

For the 2014 Nostalgia Funny Car series and IHRA Funny Car season, there will be a force reunited, as Tim Boychuk will have long time crew chief Roland Leong back after a nearly two year hiatus. Leong who spoke with DRO's Nostalgia Editor Brian Losness via phone Sunday evening, said that "The deal was finalized on Wednesday, and that Leong is positive that new parts for a new tune up will arrive in time for the race in Bakersfield." 

Leong will be working on the car at Boychuk's Arizona residence, The Hogensen Boychuk team  is one of many NHRA Nostalgia funny car teams that will run the March Meet and then switch their focus to IHRA tour and their Nitro Funny Car class.

 This duo made serious runs at the NHRA Nostalgia Funny Car titles in the past, and now will even be more of threat with Leong back in the fold.

Thank you Justin Bieber...

REALLY!!!!   Here we go again. Another friggin’ knucklehead going out being stupid, getting caught by the cops and it is reported in the news that he was involved in “drag racing”.

Justin Bieber last night (1/22/14) was caught in Florida participating  an illegal street acceleration contest, while being under the influence of alcohol and illegal drugs. All the while driving a” yellow Lamborghini at the time cops spotted him in a residential neighborhood” according to TMZ.com. TMZ also states “Justin's people (including his father) actually blocked the street off so Bieber could drag race.”

So not only did dear old dad take his 19 year old to the strip club, he let him get high, get drunk and drive a rented Lamborghini. In addition to he helped his son get involved in an illegal street acceleration contest. No wonder this kid is screwed up.

So of course, the Main Stream Media reports it as “Justin Bieber arrested for Drag Racing and DUI.”

Well hell, this is a boost to our sport. It is bad enough to have the two terms DUI and Drag Racing linked together, let’s just pile on and throw this bozo’s name in there too for good measure.

It is just super cool to see a mug shot of this kid who looks like an anorexic q-tip with a pair of oversized sunglasses on and below the photo the words “Charged with DUI and Drag Racing.”  AWESOME!!!!!

I have written about this before, cops and MSM using the term drag racing cause it is “simple and concise”.  In fact a local newspaper photojournalist Joe Jaszewski responded to one of my tweets by saying, “@nitrophoto Drag race definition: merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dra… makes no mention of legality.” I will have to site that Mr. Jaszewski is correct that in Websters there is no mention of legality, however, I replied to him by stating that Websters does not state the legality of war, either. Moreover, if I were to kill someone in war there is a big difference over if I murdered someone.

I would have to say that my outrage is still at the MSM, but it is also starting to grow with the two major sanctioning bodies, the NHRA and the IHRA. Where in the world are your people in legal and communications on this. Why are these two sanctioning bodies not pounding down the doors of the MSM outlets?

The NHRA put out one tweet and I have not seen anything on the IHRA twitter feed concerning the Bieber deal.  

Conversely, many fans of the sport have taken to social media to voice their opinion, and support for the sport.

It appears from this perspective that the fans are more concern about the branding of the sport than the sanctioning bodies are. Come on drag racing leaders, it is time to let you voices be heard long and loud on this issue. You are the ones who are entrusted with protecting the brand but the sport as a whole. Do your jobs.

Thanks for taking the time, please become a follower of the blog, would love to have ya, and if you have a second also like Nitrophoto Motorsports on Facebook along with follow on twitter, and like the DRO Facebook page as well.

Why doesn't the NHRA partner with MAVTV?

Somewhere the NHRA and drag racing in general has lost its footing when it comes to multimedia. Yes, there is a large presence of drag racing on the internet, Dragracingonline.com; Competitionplus.com; nhra.com; and yellowbullet.com to name a few, but it has one outlet for television and that is ESPN. Which, many including myself sometimes curse and other times are grateful for their involvement in the sport.

Conversely, NASCAR has Fox, Fox Sports One, ABC/ESPN and Turner Network Television for television.  In addition, to both the Motor Racing Network and Performance Racing Network on terrestrial radio and Sirius/XM NASCAR radio on satellite radio.

Jayski.com, which is a major internet contact for NASCAR teams and fans, even before the 2013 season ended, Jayski, has images of new paint schemes/wraps for the 2014 teams and new sponsors, and driver line up already posted. In addition Fox Sports 1 will show twelve hours of live preseason testing of NASCAR from Daytona. In three days.

NASCAR knows that this is an important platform for both the sanctioning body and its teams to get momentum going into the 2014 season.

However, there is a television network, which has and organic tie into the sport of drag racing, MAVTV. MAVTV’s parent company is LUCAS Oil. Who as we all know is the longtime supporter of many teams in the sport, and is umbrella sponsor for NHRA sportsman drag racing.

Therefore, my question is this.  An I can be silly like this sometimes, has the NHRA brass been to Forest Lucas’ office with checkbook and hat in hat asking MAVTV to broadcast the testing from Palm Beach, Florida? This would be a wonderful way to provide programming for MAVTV and also do as NASCAR has done, provide a spring board to launch NHRA drag racing into the 2014 season. Show the new paint schemes, and team line ups. Talk to all the drivers and crew chiefs present.

More importantly it would not be the John Force and family show.  Talk to everybody who is down there to test.

MAVTV would also be a wonderful place for drag racing content shows such as a weekly recap and highlights show that could bring news and updates in the sport.

 Now, I know the guys at Bangshift.com are going to be in Palm Beach to cover pre-season testing, and Bryan and Chad do a wonderful job. These two work their behinds off bringing the story of pre-season testing to the fans. Nevertheless, there is a measurable difference between streaming video on the internet and live television production.

The NHRA from my point of view should effort MAVTV to hire either or both Dave Rieff or Alan Reinhart to be the host and maybe some up and coming new television talent to be the pit reporter talent and show a two hour block of testing from Palm Beach on both Saturday and Sunday.

Ok I also understand I am spending other people’s money, and it is a very easy thing to do. But, from my perspective the NHRA leadership team is not putting for the effort to bring the sport back to it prominence.

For the past decade, the NHRA management team has fallen behind in their creativity, and seemly has just mirrored NASCAR when it comes to many different things. Example, NASCAR created “The Chase to the Sprint Cup” The following year NHRA does “The Countdown to One”. Same basic premise, same scheme different types of cars.

So if the NHRA is going to mimic the eight hundred pound gorilla in the room, why not keep going, produce, and air preseason testing from Florida.  Why not talk to Sirius/XM radio and come up with programing for drag racing.  It would have to start small and build up, but it could be done.

Use not only NHRA announcers to host the radio shows, but bring on some of the more prominent  NHRA media members, and former drivers and crew chiefs to host the shows. Take calls from listeners.  

On race days simulcast the internet NHRA tower feed and put it on Sirius XM so fans that are out and about or traveling can listen to the races.

NASCAR has already proven the business model works, so if NHRA is going to copy some of it they might as well go all the way and copy all of it. 

Now for many of you, I know that I might have just been running off with the face, but it pains me to see that the sport that I truly love and love the people in is being casted off and treated like second-class citizens by those in charge of the sport.  Now I might be wrong but it is my perspective.  In addition, if I have this perspective undoubtedly many others feel the same way.

I would like to take a moment to give a heartfelt thank you to everybody who reads this blog, and visiting my blog site.  I would like to invite everybody to become a follower of the blog, Nitrophoto.blogspot.com, and like my Nitrophoto Facebook page, please.

Time to look back on the past year.

As the year of our Lord, 2013 draws to a conclusion, and the Christmas or Holiday season is upon us, it is time for reflection and looking forward for the New Year.

The past year in drag racing has been exciting and somewhat controversial, but for the most part, it has been exciting.

We saw Antron crash test the Schumacher capsule at Pomona, and come out with for the most part all right. He walked away from it, which is all that matters.

The NHRA tried its best to engineer a way to keep funny car bodies on the cars when and engine explosion takes place when both Johnny Gray had a body almost make it to the spectator area, and Robert Hight’s did get into the crowd.

Gray was the Ginny pig for the first version of the tether system.  It nearly concussion from the blast battered the Artesia, New Mexico driver severely.  This incident at Sonoma forced the NHRA to readdress their tether system again. At this time, it appears it is still an ongoing process.

The point’s races in the NHRA “Big Show” had some drama to them. I was glad to see Shawn Langdon win the top fuel title. Having Shawn race his Super Comp car back in the day, it is reassuring to see that there is hope for those with god given talent and not a fat checkbook to be able to make it to the top echelon of the sport, and be successful.

For many people who are either AARP or AMAC members, the sight of seeing 64 year young John Force take his 16^th title in funny car was kinda like “ In your face” to the Gen Xer’s and Milennial’s who are in the sport. For some of us in that AMAC age range we still have a hard time forgetting Indy 2009.

The best emotion of the year goes to first time Pro Stock winner Rickie Jones, who took the win at the final race of the year in Pomona. People who win national events are happy and thrilled. Some it seems may enhance their enthusiasm to make it a better show. However, this was not the case with Rickie Jones, the kid was crying for joy before the car came to stop, and when all the photographers realized what was happening, it was on, to capture that most genuine of moments.

In the nostalgia world of drag racing it too was filled with drama.

Legendary nitro racer and four-time Good Guys top fuel champion Jim Murphy made it one for the thumb with his first ever NHRA points championship this year. Murphy who split up with long time crew chief Tim Beebe took delivery of Frank Ousley’s old/new car, along with a new ingenious oil containment system, developed with the help of another mad scientist Jim Head.  The system was put to use at Boise, where in the semi final round  win, the engine split a piston in half and not one drop of oil hit the track, the system contained it all.  More on that later.

Back to back to back flopper champion Jason Rupert took the 2013 title, in the most dramatic fashion during the final race of the final event of the year.  My perspective  when there are four teams with a chance at the title on the going into the final race, of the year it is dramatic.

What will be interesting in 2014 is what will happen with the IHRA and their infusion of what would be considered huge money 50,000.00 per event with 10K going to the winner and 100,000.00 dollars for the season points fund with 50 large going to the victor.

Will this get the NHRA’s attention?  It should as four of their big name funny car teams either have committed to the “I” or will attempt to work on both sides of the fence, as much as possible.

The Pro Mod world from this perspective is in turmoil. There are so many factions / sanctioning bodies in the world of pro mod racing it looks more like United Nations general assembly.  I do not know if all these different entities will be able to fight for enough racetracks to race on, and find the money to pay the racers.  Alternatively, will the pro mod racers have to start paying the sanctioning body to race at their events? That might just be a very slippery slope.

So time will tell how all this shakes out. As there are some teams who have already started testing for 2014 and it is about time as there are only 48 days until Pomona.

I would like to take a moment to give a heartfelt thank you to everybody who reads this blog, and visiting my blog site.  I would like to invite everybody to become a follower of the blog, Nitrophoto.blogspot.com, and like my Nitrophoto Facebook page, please.

For those of you who are traveling, travel safe and sanely. The Losness’ are headed to Montana.  My in-laws have this wonderful log house in the mountains and their closest neighbors are a quarter mile away.  The house is in the beautiful Stillwater Valley.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year. We will talk more about drag racing in a couple of weeks.