7/9/04

Jeff, A great column! I wanted to fire this off to you as something that has stuck in my mind for a number of years. I remember reading this in an interview with Leo Mehl when he was retiring from Goodyear back in the mid-90's. The interviewer asked Leo what has been the biggest challenge of his career; and his reply was so surprising - that's why it lasted with me.

Out of all the years he had been involved in motorsports, his toughest challenge has been trying to develop a top fuel tire that would withstand the forces exerted going 300 miles per hour.

That alone should speak volumes that these guys have been outpacing the engineering of the parts that make the sum vehicle, the facilities, etc., for some time.

Jeff, I used to work at the NHRA (7+ years in the marketing dept.). And I sat in the board room once while there was a brainstorming session about how to grow and promote the sport. And one of the points I tried to stress vigorously...and this was almost 8 years ago now...is that we (the NHRA) needed to think how we were going to package, present, and promote this sport when the cars have gone as fast as they possibly can...that we couldn't live forever on promoting "record breaking performances", etc. But instead, what is this sport going to be when fast becomes fast enough. That it needed to be about exciting and Close competition...not (at the time) sub-4.7 second runs at 315.

And this isn't just a drag racing issue, look around - all motorsports are having to deal with the issue of speed.

I think I was looked at as being a pessimist or a Chicken Little, but I think that time has come. I prefer to think that I was being a realist.

Thanks again for all your great work.

Best regards,

Mitch Cooper

Plain and simple -- if you want to slow these things down, take away 1 magneto. The Russells are VERY good friends of mine and the racing community CANNOT let something like this go unchallenged.

Your column just started to touch on the problem. Thanks for listening.

Denny Hummel

I rarely agree with (Burk), but I value all opinions, and believe that you can learn as much or more from someone with whom you disagree than a yes-man. That being said, sometimes you say things that make 100% sense to me, and your article on T/F and F/C is one of the times where I could not agree more. I hope something is done to help, and I hope is it done immediately, if not sooner.

Tim McCain

Jeff, Please have the comment removed from Susan's story which states some members of the crew "defected". They did not defect and this comment is just hurtful to them. I can tell you this was NOT the case. Those guys were friends to Darrell also.

Thanks.

Steve Metzger