What would follow was six years of some of the most wildly entertaining drag racing the sport would ever see. With very little budget for track prep, our Vice President of Competition, Bubba Corzine, would work tirelessly with our track partners to make the tracks safe, and in my humble opinion they did a remarkable job.

Fast forward to 2010 when my business partners, Dave Wood, Tommy Lipar and myself sold the ADRL and the new owners went crazy with the track prep! I can tell you for a fact that we spent more on track prep in 2010 than we did in the previous six years combined!

We hired one of the sport’s true gentlemen, Larry Crispe, and his sons who are regarded as the absolute best in the business when it comes to prepping a drag strip by most of the industry including yours truly. Combine their incredible talent, unmatched work ethic, an arsenal of equipment -- most of which they designed and built -- and a budget that could fund a small country, and the results were and still are the best prepared dragstrips in history.

Do you think the average fan would rather see side-by-side straight-as-an-arrow 3.50s in Pro Extreme, or two cars so wildly out of control you never knew what was going to happen next? Do an exit poll at the next PDRA race and I bet the answer will surprise you. These days ninety percent of the time the cars and dragsters either go straight down Broadway or shake the tires and coast for what seems like an eternity to the return road.

Now before everybody hits the rev limiter and says “what about safety”, I will remind you that we are talking about drag racing, not badminton. During my time at the ADRL I cannot remember one time that Bubba Corzine sent a pair of racers down an “unsafe” drag strip. I can, however, remember hundreds of times he sent racers down a drag strip that wasn’t prepared within an inch of its life. The result was mind-boggling, hold-your-breath, out-of-control entertainment!

And before you start ranting about safety again, I’ll remind you that during Bubba’s extraordinary run as VP of Competition at the ADRL, not one driver or fan ever lost their life, but, man, did they have a great time!

All the best,