Wondering out loud 11/8/05
Just Wondering . . . Did NASCAR’s rumored action also fuel the rumors that Ford has a renewed interest in NHRA Pro Stock competition? With the departure of the Coughlin family from the Schumacher camp wouldn’t it make sense that, if Ford does indeed return to NHRA Pro Stock, Bob Glidden and his family would be available to Ford? The Gliddens have a long blue-oval history. Just Wondering . . . If Ford were to return to Pro Stock is there any chance their recently cancelled hemi-engine program that John Force was involved with might be revived? Just Wondering . . . Since Ford is going to announce serious cutbacks at all levels of the company in January of 2006 (I hear 10,000 white collar jobs will be eliminated), could some of their very expensive NASCAR programs be pared down and replaced in part with a more cost-effective NHRA/IHRA program? Just Wondering . . . Will the NHRA try to find an exhibition series to replace Pro Mod? Could this be the opportunity they needed to bring in the Nitro Harley racers? Just Wondering . . . What did Bill Jenkins not do that got him fired as a Pro Stock engine builder? Just Wondering . . . Wouldn’t bracket racing event racer participation increase if the promoters of the big money races followed NASCAR's example and limited the number of entries big money teams can have? Just Wondering . . . Am I alone in being tired of seeing first and second round losers getting back in at big money bracket races? Just Wondering . . . When are the suits that run the SEMA organization going to crackdown on SEMA member companies that take another company’s intellectual property to China or Taiwan and have it duplicated for a fraction of the price it costs U.S. manufacturers, thus allowing them to undercut the original manufacturer's prices by as much as 50 percent or more? Wasn’t SEMA originally founded to protect and promote U.S. speed part manufacturers? Just Wondering . . . How many of the current NHRA management team will have a job if Bruton Smith eventually does gain control of the NHRA? Just Wondering . . . Should Bruton Smith be able to buy the NHRA, doesn’t it make sense that he would probably approach the owners of the IHRA (Clear Channel Entertainment) and try to consolidate the two organizations so that drag racing might really start competing with NASCAR? Just Wondering . . . Wouldn’t it be good for drag racing if, when NASCAR builds its oval track in the New York City area, they also built a state-of-the-art quarter-mile drag strip? E-town can’t hold out forever.
Just Wondering . . . Why doesn’t the NHRA and IHRA add Nostalgia Fuel Funny Cars using VRA rules to their AFC class? Division races at both sanctioning bodies are struggling to attract any fans and I’d bet almost any track could sell spectator tickets to see injected nitro dragsters and blown fuel coupes. The Alky funnies would still dominate. Just Wondering . . . Wouldn’t injected fuel dragsters and Nostalgia Fuel Coupes actually put more fans in the seats at the two NHRA SportsNationals races and make those races more appealing fans, racers, sponsors and the media? Just Wondering . . . If Norwalk
Raceway Park ends up with an NHRA event could we see the return
of an IHRA national event at Ohio’s Dragway 42? Just Wondering . . . Why don’t the IHRA and NHRA move the announcer booths to the top end of the track so the announce teams get a better look at the race?
Just Wondering . . . Did you ever
think you’d live long enough to see Top Fuel legend Conrad
Kalitta on the starting line at a national event wearing a pink
trimmed shirt pimping an anti-wrinkle cream for women? Sponsorships,
like politics, indeed make strange bedfellows. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
