Salt Lake City-

Well it is raining off and on. However, the pro do not run till eight oclock tonight therefore it appears we will soldier on.


7:17pm MDT  We are racing, Well bracket racing decision was made to forego the Heritage Series for the evening and pile it on tomorrow.

NHRA Heritage Series Event- Rocky Mountain Raceway- Salt Lake City, Utah

Just arrived on site, and the sky's are overcast and dark.  The wind is blowing like crazy, teams are looking to find ways to secure awning, and the like. I will make a walk through the pit area.

2013 Pepsi Nightfire Nationals

The Pepsi Nightfire Nationals- Day One watch for updates through out the day.

Drag Racing Needs to Get into the Lemonade Business

Drag Racing Needs to Get into the Lemonade Business

This last week the NHRA and professional drag racing felt the blow when out of the blue, Ford decided that it would terminate their contract with the NHRA as the provider of service vehicles and stop the support of professional drag racers in the Funny Car and Pro Stock Classes. However, Ford is not getting out of drag racing completely.

In a statement released by the Dearborn, Michigan-based company stated, “Ford is not getting out of drag racing. We are fully committed to continue our support of grassroots sportsman drag racing with our Mustang Cobra Jet, parts support and contingency programs.”

It can be analyzed that Ford was not seeing a Return on Investment with the professional side of the NHRA.

 Ford is aligned with John Force Racing arguably the most powerful team in NHRA racing; Bob Tasca Racing, a mega-Ford dealer in New England, and Tim Wilkerson, and unofficial teammate  to Tasca.

These teams have won races over the past five years and garner  a good deal of airtime on the ESPN coverage, especially Force, who gets a lion’s share of it.

So why would Ford pull these deals from the funny car team?  From this perspective, the bodies on the funny cars don’t look like Mustangs.  They do not resemble the Mustang setting in the show room of the local  Ford dealership.  Why do these companies get into racing? “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday”. 

Therefore, if Tasca’s “Mustang” wins at Seattle, a fan cannot go to Kendall Ford and buy one that looks like Tasca’s. There seems to be a lack of product identity with the funny cars.  But fans can buy a Mustang which is just like the stock or super stock  on Monday morning.

Sound familiar from another major motorsport a couple of years ago.

Here the lemonade comes into play.  This is a terrible situation for these teams; however, they have time to react and as my mother is fond of saying, “when you get handed lemons, make lemonade “.

There are two suggestions for the Gang from Glendora and for team of JFR and BTR/TWR to turn this situation from a negative into a positive.

x One, the NHRA needs to look at this as NASCAR did a few years ago, make a bold change. In 2015, all funny car bodies will have to resemble the streetcars the bodies are based on.  This will accomplish two things. A) This will give product identity back to the cars for those manufactures still supporting the teams and possible bring other including Ford back to drag racing.

 B) This would slow the cars down and make them safer because of the the lack of aerodynamic enhancements allowed on present-day funny car bodies. Eliminate the shovelnoses and reduce the size of those dump truck style rear deck spoilers.

Suggestion Two: The NHRA and the teams need to start getting serious and propose working with other manufactures such as Honda/Acura and Hyundai.

 Why you ask?  Simple. These companies build cars here in America. These cars are what the younger generation is driving, and this will start to bring new younger fans to the sport.  Both Honda/Acura and Hyundai are progressive, forward thinking companies.

Hyundai has the Genesis Coupe and Acura is getting set to rerelease the vaunted NSX. 

Both of these cars would make excellent flopper bodies.  The cars are already swoopy without making it look like a giant bubble. 

Making the bodies more stock appearing would help Toyota, and Dodge as well, in getting product identity back into the funny car class.

From this perspective, this could be the best thing to happen to the NHRA if they handle it correctly.

 This is an excellent opportunity for the sport, if the NHRA and these professional team leaders and managers would take a few moments and read John Kotter’s book “A Sense of Urgency.” Then apply the principals involved.

From behind the lens

Brian Losness

For Charlie Leffler

There is nothing that hurts our community of motorsports more than when we lose a driver to a crash or fire.  Last night in New Jersey we lost one of our stars Jason Leffler in a sprint car crash.

If I said I knew Jason Leffler, that would be a lie, although I did get a chance to meet him once.  He was polite,kind, and very much a gentlemen.

Lefturn as he was know by his friends seemed to be on the fast track several years ago to rank of Sprint Cup racing, coming from the ranks of open wheel racing, the same way Stewart, Gordon, and Newman made their way into the sport. Leffler had made it to cup in the FedEx ride for Joe Gibbs, however that deal went south just after 21 races.

But never daunted he continued on driving in the Nationwide series for Braun Racing as well as Kyle Busch Motorsports, however, bad luck seemed plagued him in those ventures.

Leffler persevered and continued to race going back to his roots in open wheel, where his career and life were cut short last night.

Now, I know I am taking the long way around the tree, but here is the point to this blog. All of us, who are around motorsports, no matter what level it is know there is danger involved in being around it.  And we all know that sprint cars can be dangerous even deadly.  Now don't get wound up, I am not calling for Sprint Car racing to be banned.  Far from it.

What I am putting out there, is that it is time to look at how sprint cars are constructed and start bringing some innovation from other forms of motorsports to the table. Drag Racing, NASCAR,  look at how those cars are built. Maybe a hi-bred type of funny car style roll cage along with a variation of a NASCAR type seat, in the drivers area. As a suggestion.

Sprint car chassis for the most part have not changed in 30 years. There are some minor things here and there, however, there has not been a radical change in chassis design since the down bar cars. From the photos I have seen of the car Jason Leffler drove last night, that thing was used up bad after the crash.

I am also not asking to go as far as the Silver Crown cars did years back, those things were hideous.

What I would like to see happen is we take something from Lefturn's accident, and find a positive and make a change to help make drivers safer. It should be done for not only those who race sprints locally but those on the national tours.It should be done for the drivers and for their families.

 After Dale Sr's. accident  at Daytona, NASCAR got on the stick and made changes to the rules, safety equipment, and eventually the cars themselves. It can be done, that is for sure, as long as people are motivated.

 I feel it is what the sport owes a five year old little boy who loved his daddy very much and who's daddy loved him even more to be motivated; to look at making changes in sprint cars in the area of safety so it might keep what happened to Jason and Charlie from possibly happening again.

Jason and Charlie Leffler at Charlotte.

Well, after spending Sunday doing what every other gear head wanted to do, watching three major motorsports events on the tube, it was clear to me that, The F1 race from Monoco  was really nothing more than conveyor belt racing. Two the Coke 600 was more like a super late model race and three surprisingly the Indy Car race was spectacular.

Has the Izod Indy Car promoters hit upon something with this very unique looking car? ( I still can not get used to it, but I am coming around.) Has Formula 1 just out teched themselves? Even though NASCAR has the Gen Six car which is the closest thing to the "stock cars" the sport represents, it appears they still have the same problems as the COT.

The Formula 1 race at the very picturesque circuit in the Principality of Monoco is one of those motor races which are steeped in tradition and pageantry and fanfare. It is a place where people do have more money than God. However, even with all the money the F1 teams spend each year, and that continues to rise, the racing is as I stated earlier, conveyor belt racing. No body passes any body and if you get two cars close together they seem to run into one another, break a one hundred thousand dollar nose piece or bend an upper suspension wish bone, and the car is retired.

The cars are cool, F1 races are a place for beautiful people to be seen, but the racing needs to get more exciting. The venues are in exciting and exodic locations. However,when the on air talent get excited when there are two passes for second place, well then it is time for a make over. Bernie Eccelstone, the Chief Cook and Bottle Washer for Formula One has made is gazillion dollars, and if he can take care of his latest scandal dealing with reporting paying a German banker 28 milliion pounds (British Sterling) in bribes. Maybe he could sit down with the manufactures to look at a way to make the racing a bit more competitive.  Teach the drivers not to run into one another when they get close together. That would be a good place to start.

The NASCAR race The Coke 600 held at Bruton Smith's Charlotte Motor Speedway had action, had drama, but one thing is that stock car racing is still being hampered by phenomenon organic to stock cars. The cars need to be in clean air to be fast on the 1.5 mile tracks which are predominate on the NASCAR schedule. Which means that the lead car has the best operating conditions, cars back in the pack in "dirty" air are not as capable of running fast as the car leading in clean air. We heard many times Sunday night, by drivers who said, I could get so far on restarts but once the cars got up to speed then that was as far as they could go because they could not get into clean air.

It gonna take some more massaging on these Cup cars to get the to be not so aero-dependent. I hope NASCAR does this, especially on the 1.5 mile tracks and larger.

The most exciting event was surprisingly enough was the Indy car race. A third of the field lead the race, and there were sixty-eight lead changes.  Are you kidding me, at an open-wheel Indy Car race. The race was exciting, for the entire event.  The cars still take some getting used to visually moreover, they allow for more close quarters racing. Which at the Brickyard meant just the most exciting Indy 500 in many,many years.

I think that many of us who love motorsports, were absolutely thrilled to see what happened at Indy, and I would hope that both NASCAR and Formula 1 take a page from Indy car and make the racing more competitive.

 

Stuff to get off my chest. Karma and Sportsman Racers

Karma, there are many aspects, and definitions for the word. Basically be nice to people, do good things for people and it will come back around to you.  Another term we hear a great deal is paying forward.  Example, if you see an elderly man or woman buying a few things in a grocery store, offer to pay for them if you have the resources. Don't expect anything in return but a thank you and a smile. You never know when some stranger will help you out some day.  I am a big believer in karma. Many people have done great things for me with out even asking.

  However, karma can bite you too and when you willingly venture to the dark side.  I think that is what happened this weekend in Atlanta to the NHRA.  My reason for this is simple. Last weekend the NHRA in Houston at the running of the O'Reilly Auto Parts Spring Nationals. The event was plagued by rain rendering the sportsman pits which are situated in a grassy field impassable.

Houston was the debut of "live" racing. Well kinda live racing, it was the final two rounds of racing which were run live.  Which for drag racing is better than a sharp stick in the eye. So I understand the pressure those at NHRA and ESPN were under when the decision was made to not post-pone, but straight up cancel the event all together for the Sportsman racers (outside the Alcohol cars, which were pitted on asphalt with the pro cars. That was harsh.

Why not just tell the pro cars to pull out Sunday evening after the event,  and move the Sportsman racers to the pro pit locations and run the Sportsman cars?  I know easy to say from 1500 miles away, and I am not saying "Why didn't the NHRA think of that?"  Because I don't know if they did or not. However, it inform the racers and inform the fans.

So the next weekend Mother Nature more than made up for the Sportsman racers when the whole event was washed out in Atlanta. Is that Karma or not.  I'm not sure, it might be.

Speaking about Sportsman racers Bobby Bennett has posted a very interesting story about Sportsman racers and how they are treated by the NHRA, and the perception of two very high profile Sportsman racers. One  spoke about how the NHRA and I am paraphrasing here, treats the Sportsman racer like a red headed step child.

This year at Las Vegas there was the tragic death of Derek Sanchez in his Super Gas car. There is talk that the track was not safe to run on. There was talk he wasn't wearing a HANS device. I don't know about either. I have read where some Sportsman racers had pulled out of line before he ran. At other events Sportsman cars are pulled out of line due to unsafe track conditions.

That is a true statement. I too have seen super comp cars pull out of the staging area and drive back to the pits at Phoenix during a national event.

I can truly understand why the Sportsman racers feel the way they do. There is a double edged sword in my opinion and will try to explain from my perception what it is.
1.  The NHRA for years have used as part of their marking packages. "Come to the XYZ NHRA Nationals over  400 race cars and drivers rocketing down the quarter mile."  There are maybe on a good weekend 48-55 "Professional" teams at the event, the rest are Sportsman Racers. So what sounds better " Come see  48 race cars and drivers or 400.
2. If  National Event were just  "Professional" cars? Well then you think some of the "Professional" teams were bitching about a 50-55 minute turn around, try  15-20 minute turn around in order to keep the crowd entertained. (There needs to be something to run between the "Professional" cars and that is the Sportsman racers.)
3. What does the NHRA do that no other sport, let alone Motorsport do? The allow and encourage the spectators to come into the pits during the running of an event. So when the "Professional finish running what happens? The crowd runs back to the Pro pits to watch the "Professional" teams get their cars ready for the next round. Good and bad. One great for the marketing partners on the Professional teams, Bad there is nobody left in the stands to watch the Sportsman racers compete. What about their sponsors? ( Should the NHRA think about limiting fans accessibility to the pit area to the time before cars go down the track and after the conclusion of the racing for the day?)
4.  Speaking of that, when it comes to Sportsman racers and Divisional events the NHRA in my opinion turns their back on both the title sponsor and the racers.  You go to most Divisional races there is no crowd there. I point fingers at both the tracks and the NHRA.  I have spoken to divisional directors at the NHRA and they basically say that it is up to the track to promote their event. Some track owners I have spoken with say it is an NHRA event and the NHRA should promote it.  So what happens, no body does anything and the Sportsman racers, race in front of  NOBODY.  Now there are tracks who are still owned by promoters and they take the bull by the horns, promote the event and put butts in the seats. However, those promoters are few and far between. (Tracks and the NHRA and the people at Lucas Oil should put their heads together to get more people at these Divisional races.  It is a win-win for everybody.
5. From this perspective in Sportsman racing there is nothing more exciting than watching Stock, Super Stock and Comp Eliminator racing. Wheels up launches very fast cars, lots and lots of technology and innovation. Conversely Super Comp, Super Pro and Super Street, is not quiet as exciting. There are great looking cars in these classes however, there is a great deal of monkey see-monkey do.  For some of us you can only watch so many rear engine big block Chevy dragsters on throttle stop. Or Convertible Corvettes on throttle stops. (Take throttle stops off the "Super" classes and make them run with out the stops. Could make for more entertaining racing.")

So what does all this mean?  Nothing, unless people who have the ability to leverage these issues make it a point to do something about it. It has to come from all perspective and all parties must work together or there will be another Derek Sanchez, or worse. We as a racing community can't let it happen.  Drag Racing needs the Sportsman racers just as much as the Nitro burners.  Both categories are relevant  to the sport. Both need to be treated with respect.

I'm out of breath, and if you took time  to read this small version of War and Peace  God Bless you.