9/26/03

What's on your mind? Add your opinion to the mix. Send your email for publication to response@dragracingonline.com. Unsigned letters will not be published.

FINE 'EM AND GET 'EM MOVING

Jeff, to respond to your Blast. I admit the performances have become stagnant. But I go to eight or nine races a year and I'll take a pair of 4.60's running clean over a 4.42 Fireball that takes 45 minutes to cleanup any day! I think NHRA's been reading the writing on the wall on the oil-down issue, fans like me don't have the patience for them. And I have to disagree with you that the fines haven't worked. I remember '98-'99 very well, first rounds at some races took over two hours!

Joe Sherwood
Albuquerque, NM

ANNEALING HEALING

Well, another car has broken in half. Luckily no one was hurt except Schumacher's wallet this time!

I still think an annealing process on the chassis after so many cycles down the track would be advisable, and possibly should be mandatory. Of course it could be NHRA likes the excitement of crashes for the crowd, somewhat like NASCAR.

I know if I was running a fuel car, this annealing process would be on my regular schedule and I bet the "pipe" would respond better, and more consistently.

Richard Burbick

A GIRLY MAN?

Is it just me or has John Force became a whinny little girl. I remember pulling for Force when I was a little kid following the sport, and John never had a win. KB was beating up on him every weekend and John would just get out and say he did not bring enough. I really liked Force back then. Fast forward a decade, now Force is dominating everything. Much like I did with KB when I was a kid I started pulling for the underdog. I met Bazemore when I was sitting in the staging lanes getting ready for a round of Super Comp at HPT. Whit came over and petted my dog, and talked to me for a couple of minutes. On that date

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in '93 I started pulling for him. Now every time another car like Whit makes a serious run for the points, Force racing runs to the NHRA screaming and crying. Remember when Force talked them into changing the rules midstream and allowing the Mustang to have a wider roof even though the production one did not.

Now I am watching racing tonight and Force is peeling Beard's butt like some kind of hillbilly wrestler. Then I read on NHRA's web site that they are watching Baze's burnout times. Come on man, I am about tired of Force's camp feeling threatened and the NHRA bending over backwards to do whatever he wants. I realize that Force is a godsend as far as personality and publicly promoting drag racing, but it won't be long until TF/FC is just 16 Force cars all running each other. I love the class but with Force constantly whining and eliminating competitors and sucking up their sponsors maybe the IHRA had the right idea when they got rid of them.

Keith Niemann