Since this "What's New" page debuted 8 months ago, it's interesting (to
me at least) to look back at how my 'editorials' have evolved over time. Starting
out with a "strictly the facts, ma'am" style, my writing has slowly changed
into the cynical, hyperbolic, hard-edged style of a drag racing Matt Drudge.
I'm not really sure why or how this has happened; there hasn't been one big
event happen in my life to cause such a radical change, more like a series of
small incidents building up inside until I just had to start letting loose with
my true feelings about many of the issues affecting me and many other racers.
The past six weeks especially have seen me aiming my "thunder" at
Seattle International Raceway, aka 'The Rockpit', the NHRA (No Hot Rods
Allowed), Mission Raceway Park and the B.C. Kustom Kar Association, among
others. Sometimes the attacks have been overblown and possibly even unfair,
but I stand behind my words and invite any feedback or criticism from both
the guilty and the innocent. I'm still receiving my copies of National Dragster
(aka Pravda), still am allowed into the pits at Mission Raceway and have yet
to receive any letter bombs (or worse) from Glendora or Seattle.
The feedback I am receiving indicates that my writing is being taken
seriously by some officials and is generally well-received by the racing "public".
So, until the process servers start knocking on the door or I find that my
web host has pulled the plug on Northern Thunder, I will continue to "call
'em as I see 'em" and keep writing the truth. When the days come (and let's
hope it never does) that I feel compelled to report anything less than the
truth, then it will be the end of this website. Now that we've got all that
noble crap out of the way, let's throw some more rocks at a few easy targets.
Dateline....Sunday, September 6, 1998...Mission Raceway Park....
Reports from the trenches indicate some serious attitude problems being
displayed by an employee at the West Coast Pro Mod Association show on
this date. At one point, the entire crew of an American Pro Mod car was told
very loudly and profanely to leave the area and was threatened with immediate
explusion from the event. Not sure if the threat was carried through, but when
the crewchief of the team in question asked for a ruling from another official,
he was told "all decisions by employees of this track are final -- no appeals !"
Why is that when someone is given a very small amount of authority that
it immediately goes to their (already swelled) head and they turn into the
proverbial "official from hell". The hiring of emotionally unstable, immature
and socially challenged invididuals for positions requiring patience, tact and
diplomacy is a sure recipe for disaster. The track manager should stop the
hiring of friends and friends of friends and put people in place who are capable
of doing a job properly and professionally.
This incident is just another example of why Mission Raceway will never
come within a lightyear of achieving what it is capable of. A complete lack
of marketing and promotional skills, coupled with incompetence in many areas
of track operations, combined with the burden of pleasing the "old boys" in
the BCCCA guarantees that the track will never progress any further than
it already has. In the seven years the new track has been in operation, there
have been improvements made in the facility, but the operation has been going
steadily downhill.
Attendance and racer participation has fallen and unless some major
changes are made for 1999, the situation will continue to deteriorate. The
track must be run as a business, not as a play-toy for club members. As we
near the new millenium it seems that some of the major players at Mission are
still stuck in the 1970's way of thinking. Wake up and smell the goddamn tire
smoke before it's too late, guys!!!
Another incident to come out of the Pro Mod weekend was the alleged
"mis-interpretation" of the rules governing the race. The IHRA allows their
Pro Mod cars the option of running either a high-helix blower on methanol, or
nitrous oxide with gasoline, carburetors and unlimited cubic inches. Another
Pro Mod association allows a third option: up to 30% nitromethane with
a standard blower. The West Coast association doesn't allow the nitro option,
but it seems that one of their members forgot this rule and was running
"horsepower in a can".
When confronted by association officials who demanded a fuel check, the
racer in question allegedly threw his firesuit into a bucket containing the
suspect fuel, preventing the sampling of the contents for testing. He was still
allowed to compete, but mysteriously ?!? slowed down nearly two tenths of a
second from his earlier times. As I was not there to witness the incident,
there is no way I'm going to report any names, but rest assured, it wasn't a
local racer.
Final item for this report concerns the NHRA Federal-Mogul Series. It
was very hard for me to even use the full title, as I feel the renaming of
the Top Alcohol classes due to the F-M sponsorship was one of the single worst
actions by the association in the last few years. F-M has bought the rights
to two eliminator category titles and the divisional series events for what
has been reported to be a very large (and increasing yearly) amount of money.
And just what has happened to all that money?!? The racers will receive the
grand total of $400,250 from F-M in 1998. The breakdown is as follows:
$122,000 in National Championship award bonuses (to a total of 14 drivers)
and $278,500 in Divisional Championship award bonuses (to a total of
168 drivers). Sounds like a lot of money, doesn't it?
But when it's broken down to the individual payouts, the amounts represent
just a drop in the bucket for the Top Alcohol classes, with a maximum possible
of $28,500 for the National Champion, who must also win a Division Championship
to earn that amount. When you contrast these numbers with the budget required
to win those championships, the ratio of expense to return is almost laughable.
The total payout to each alcohol class is $108,750, and remember that
is split up to 23 ways! Again, I've got to ask the question: Where the
hell did all the money go!?! It hasn't gone to the racers, other than
the aforementioned token amounts; has it paid more than one full salary for
an office spud in Glendora, or has it simply gone into that great black hole
where all the association's money seems to disappear?
My next project will be to dig through the mountain of back issues of
National Dragster (25 years worth!) and write something about how the NHRA
changed from a non-profit association to a for-profit corporation in the 1980's.
My memory on the events surrounding the change are rather hazy, but I do
remember receiving a ballot on the change -- yes, there actually was some
demcoracy being practiced back then -- but the arguments for and against the
move are not really clear in my mind now.
Stay tuned in the coming weeks, as we present a history lesson on how and
why the NHRA has become what it has. Whether the changes in the last fifteen
or twenty years have been for the good of the sport (or not) is up to YOU
to decide. . . As always, stay tuned for more news as it happens.