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.

Media and Law Enforcement Give Drag Racing another Black Eye.

Media and Law Enforcement Give Drag Racing another Black Eye

Last Saturday evening I was sitting in a media room with other photographers  at a local university, covering a college football game for USA Today, when one of the other photographers who was monitoring a social media site said with shock and sadness that Paul Walker had died.

My response was” Who?”  He looked at me like I had three nipples and said “ Paul Walker…. You know The Fast and the Furious.” 

Now with all honesty I can say that I have never seen an entire one of these Fast and the Furious movies. I watched about twenty minutes of the first one and then changed the channel to the Discovery or something.

Movies and reality shows that depict illegal street acceleration activities are not something I tend not to watch or give credence to. Then when compared to a legitimate sport such as drag racing, it pains me even more.

            Furthermore, I feel that those knuckleheads in Oklahoma with their reality show have done more harm to the motorsports industry than help it. Even though some racetrack promoters have felt it is OK to bring these people in as celebrities and such to heir events. Nevertheless, I digress.

The mainstream media and the law enforcement community have also done a great disservice to the sport of drag racing when they file reports on situations such as what happened last Saturday afternoon. “There was a possibility that Mr. Walker was drag racing when he was killed.”

Having my undergraduate degree in media studies, I understand why the mainstream media, and law enforcement officials are comfortable with using drag racing as a way to describe the illegal street acceleration activities, when these activities go aria.

The term is laziness.  It is easier to write drag racing than it is to write, illegal street acceleration activities. Two fewer words to write by the author.

The shame is, mainstream media types and some in law enforcement don’t understand that incorrectly using the term “drag racing” in these negative connotations can do to irreparable harm to half billion dollar dollar industry.

These reports are in a sense putting a legal, legitimate sporting activity and business in the same light as an illegal criminal enterprise. 

These erroneous reports can affect how a potential sponsor might look at the sport of drag racing, if that potential sponsor is new to the sport. It will make it harder to convince a potential sponsor to become involve if they see the sport in such a negative light.

However, to many of these uninformed people in law enforcement and the media, they don’t get it or worse yet don’t care.  Case in point.

About ten years ago, I was part of a fledgling all sports newspaper here in Southern Idaho, and there was an accident on a rural road where two cars were engaged in an illegal street acceleration activity. A gravel truck happen to  pull onto the road from a side street and the three kids in one of the cars involved were killed when the car and gravel truck collided.

The local law enforcement put out a report which was picked up by the local print and electronic  media and stated that the kids were killed while drag racing. I tracked down the officer who wrote the report and was doing a story on this tragedy.

My first question to him was “How did the gravel truck get on to the drag strip?” He looked at me with a puzzled look, and I followed up with, “Your report stated that the 3 occupants in the car were drag racing when they collided with the gravel truck and were killed, so how did the gravel truck get on the race track?” His response was “They were drag racing on the street.”

I tried to explain to him that drag racing is legal activity done at a drag strip and illegal street acceleration activities are not legal, and done on the street.  His response was “It’s all the same to us.”

Therefore, I asked him if that is the case then private security guards are the same as police officers.  His response was a very stern “NO”

 I said “Sure you are. You both drive cars with flashing lights on top, both have badges, both carry guns, Billy clubs, and handcuffs etc. All the same to us, right?” 

If he would have had a tazer, his facial expressions pretty much said he would have tazed me right then and there. Rather he spun round on his heels and got in his patrol car and left.

Now I am not trying to make light of what has happened this past Saturday.  It is tragic. Two families have lost a father, a son, a brother. Many others have lost two dear friends. Moreover, many have lost an entertainer who brought them enjoyment.

However, let’s not drag (no pun intended) an entire industry down where many people are employed and many positive things occur, just because somebody in the mainstream media or law enforcement official is too lazy to give a proper description to actually what happened when people engage in illegal street acceleration activities by calling it drag racing.

So when these instances occur where media and or law enforcement take the easy road and use the term drag racing when these illegal street acceleration activities take place. It puzzles me why the leading sanctioning body in the sport of drag racing the National Hot Rod Association sitting on their hands and not coming out with a statement refuting the description of the activities that caused Mr. Walker or others to lose their lives in illegal street acceleration activities.

Because you know damn good and well the next time some high profile individual is killed or seriously injured in an illegal street acceleration activity, and it will happen, if a reporter in the mainstream media or law enforcement office puts in the report, that the victim was involved in stock car racing on the street.  NASCAR would mobilize its legal and communications department in order to contain and redirect those comments so fast it would make one’s head spin.

One last thing is that racing is a legal sport done at sanctioned facilities throughout the world. Where there are safety measures in place and rules to govern the activities.

 When people get out on the street and drive fast it is not racing.  In addition, when there are two or more knuckleheads out driving fast on the streets, it still is not racing; it is illegal street acceleration activity. Alternatively, use the term wreck less driving.  

Either way my message to those in the media and law enforcement don’t take the easy way out when describing a tragedy like what happened on Saturday by just throwing out the term drag racing. It is not fair moreover, it is not an accurate description.

Just to see if anybody notices.

Rumors about NHRA going to quarter mile racing for T/F and F/C, and what I think must be done to accomplish that.

Greetings to all seven of you who follow my blog and I appreciate your continued support. 

I know it has been sometime since my last post and I apologize for that. Between master’s program, (do not roll your eyes at me) and other things it was necessary to put the blog on the back burner for a while.

Well now that the reason for not updating is out of the way. The subject of this week’s blog is somewhat of a rehash of an earlier topic.

At the world finals in Pomona, the rumor mill was running overtime with the topic of the NHRA going back to quarter mile racing for the nitro classes, top fuel and funny car.

Now if this is true it is a great piece of news for us purist in the sport.  Many drag racing fans are linear thinkers and they see the set distance for drag racing as a quarter of a mile nothing else.

Here is a question, would the return to quarter mile drag racing correct the trend of slumping TV ratings and declining spectator attendance?

Speaking of TV ratings Michael Knight in a recent report stated that NHRA’S television audience had declined for the third straight year.  Since 2011 to 2013, viewer ship is down nearly 11.7 percent. It fell 5.9 percent last year.

Now if the NHRA would go back to quarter mile racing will that improve the rating? Most likely, it would not do much to move the needle. 

So why are the numbers down?  Mr. Knight did not elaborate, but I am going out on a limb here and say the reason for the decline is when the broadcast are shown, or not shown on ESPN which has a contract with the NHRA to broadcast their events.

 It seems the NHRA broadcast is the redheaded stepchild of the “Mother ship”.  It makes it hard to build viewership when qualifying shows frequently air at horrible times such as 3:00 am Eastern time.

Or when then NHRA shows are delayed by broadcasts of “The Iowa High School Girls Junior Varsity Badminton Championships” or some such thing.  

Now I know, I am being facetious, but you get the point.

Even though the NHRA pays ESPN to air their shows, NHRA seems to be kicked around when it comes to showing the events. Maybe a change of tact is in order.

Would it be better to be a big fish in a smaller pond of sports network such as CBS Sports or NBC Sports, or even drag racing supporter Forrest Lucas’ network,  MAVTV, rather than being an afterthought on the Mother ship.

Nevertheless, I digress.  Will going back to quarter-mile racing help those ratings? I do not think so. There must be a solid consistent television package to increase the ratings. In addition, the television rating might just go up if the broadcast would shy away from the John Force Show.

On the other hand, would quarter mile top fuel and funny car racing help attendance at the events? Possibly, it would. Drag race fans, purist equate the sport to quarter mile racing. Drag racing is the quickest sport on the planet, and running a shorter distance makes it almost too quick to derive any enjoyment from.

There is a dilemma with going back to quarter mile racing for the nitro cars.

One, technological advancements have allowed the top fuel cars to exceed 332 miles per hour in a thousand feet and 320 miles per hour for the funny cars.  Now if the cars were simply to return to quarter mile racing you might see top fuel speeds nearly 350 miles per hour and 340 miles per hour in funny car.

From a marketing and promotions aspects this would be fantastic. The NHRA marketing and promotions department if they were aggressive would have a field day with these statistics. Pumping up the fan base to take in the greater excitement of 350 mile per hour race cars.

Conversely, the NHRA like many corporations also have a risk management division.  I could see those people in risk management wanting to have no part of racecars going 350 miles per hour on their tracks.

The NHRA this year dodged a bullet when it comes to having fans seriously injured at when the body from Robert Hight’s funny car blew off at Charlotte and landed on fans in the grand stands.

If there was a 350 mile per hour dragster were not able to stop at Pomona and end up on Fairplex Drive at five o’clock on a Friday night.  Well you could just about write off the sport of NHRA Drag Racing.

Which leads me to part two and there are tracks that have the limited space for the shutdown areas. Pomona and Englishtown are two that come to mind. These facilities are land locked and have no physical ability to be extended to allow a car with a parachute or brake anomaly to stop safely 350 miles per hour without crashing onto a public highway.

Therefore, if the NHRA is looking to go back to quarter mile racing, the sanctioning body must address the speed of the cars and slow them down. As I have stated in earlier blogs, there are two simple ways to slow these cars down.

In talking with various crew chiefs in the sport and consensus is that the NHRA can either take away one of the magnetos from the engine.  Thus, there is no way to burn all the fuel injected by the 100 gallon per minute pump into the combustion chamber.  Therefore, fuel flow rates would be reduced until the magnetos could produce a spark with enough energy to burn the fuel. Moreover, in theory slowing down the cars to a more manageable speed..

The other school of thought is regulating the pump rate to 60 gallons per minute rate rather than 100 gallon per minute, and keeps the two magnetos. The theory is the two magnetos would eliminate dropped cylinders and fire the fuel in the combustion chamber which can a does cause engine damage.

Either way horsepower reduction in a manageable order must be done to slow the cars down.

The long and the short of if it is, if the NHRA does go back to quarter mile racing for the nitro classes,  some due diligence must be done before this can be accomplished.

The NHRA must address these rumors and look at the risk/reward factors of going back to quarter mile racing for top fuel and funny car, and inform the competitors in a timely manner on their decision.

For this fan, I hope the answer is yes, to quarter mile top fuel and funny car racing.

Just to see if anybody notices…