Just Wondering before the Christmas Egg Nog takes effect

Just Wondering... What are they doing or thinking? At this year’s California Hot Rod Reunion (a race totally owned and controlled by the NHRA who rent the track from the Bowser family just for that event), they required racers to pay cash only for any crewmember passes they needed and did not - according to all of the racers I have talked to - give the racers a receipt for the cash! Three pro class racers I talked with told me that they tried to write a check or use a credit card to pay for the tickets and were told that it was a CASH ONLY program. I cannot understand why the NHRA would force its customers to pay cash for pit passes and not give receipts? Doing business this way only reinforces the racers’, fans’, and journalists’ opinion that the NHRA isn’t to be trusted.

Just Wondering... What’s taking them so long? What’s the reason for the NHRA and the NHRA Museum taking a couple of months to pay the racers from the CHRR? I’ve talked to a three racers I know personally that qualified for one of the nitro classes at the CHHR race and they have yet to be paid for that event (as of December 8).

Let’s see, the NHRA wants to be paid on the spot in cash for their contestants to race yet 50 days later at least some of the pro racers have yet to be paid. The NHRA knows ahead of time what they are going to pay every racer at Bakersfield so why can’t they have the checks ready ahead of time and just fillin the name at the event? Nostalgia Nitro racers at the DRO and IHRA events get a check before they leave the track at every race.

By the way if I’m reading it right, NHRA tax returns for 2012 and 2013 (which are the latest available to the public) show the NHRA carries a cash fund of more than $12,000,000 year to year.

Just Wondering... Are saloon singer Tony Bennett and T/F racer Chris Karamesines the two luckiest men who ever lived? Both are in their mid-80s and Bennett is touring the world making a living singing with Lady GaGa and Karamesines still qualifies for the occasional NHRA Top Fuel fields and is a legit threat when he does. If any other men in the history I’ve read has had a better run in life than these two gents I don’t know who it is.

Just Wondering... If Larry Morgan cannot afford to race NHRA Pro Stock in 2015 might he give the NHRA Pro Mod class a shot? Drag racing and especially NHRA drag racing cannot afford to lose a working man’s racer and real “old school” guy like Morgan. Morgan would bring a lot of attention to the NHRA Pro Mod class because of his two decades or more run as an NHRA Pro Stock racer. Might bring some sponsorship to the class too.

Just Wondering... Why pickup truck races, tractor pulls, snowmobile racing, and drag racing from Australia and Europe can get well produced, hour-long shows on the MSNBC Sports channel which claims 75 million households? The IHRA pro show and the NHRA Pro Mods had to work hard to get their shows on MAVTV and Velocity that have far fewer subscribers and are much harder to find. I’m just saying that if I were IHRA’s Jason Rittenberry I’d try to find a way to get a couple of my premier IHRA national events on NBC sports at least a couple of times a year in prime time!