Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan Fletcher
Well Ken, I was going to let this go as its really no one's business, but seeing as you decided to offer up the facts in only a slightly less vanilla version than offered on NHRA.com, please allow me to paint a more detailed picture.
Yes, we've been having trouble with the car at idle. Thomas always lights the pre-stage bulb and grabs a chunk so it doesn't take forever to stage. He lit both by mistake. Tex is 2 cars away, not even in the frame. Thomas immediately backs out of the stage bulb. Tex now approaches and dump trucks into both and puts it on the mat. Now is when the idle problem comes into play, as it takes Thomas a minute to get the rpm set (true foot braker, no 2 step). And as he is further from the stage bulb than normal, its takes him a bit longer to get in. Yep, he used up most of the auto start. Repeat, auto start. Can't burn anyone down.
Thomas gets to the strip first and in the shutdown at very high speed Tex swerves in front of him, narrowly missing contact and such that Thomas had to slam on the brakes. Tex then proceeds to weave back in forth in front of him like a pissed off road rager on the freeway.
At this point, Thomas still has no inkling of what the eff just happened or why. Then at the scales and fuel check Tex absolutely looses his friggin' mind. Screaming and MF'ing Thomas, nose in his chest, telling him if he ever does that again he'll put him in the effin' wall. Repeatedly and in front of officials. Physically and verbally abused by a sawed off 70+ year old man and had to stand there and take it because, well, there was really no other option.
As Keno pointed out, initially Thomas tried to apologize, explain what took him most of the auto start to stage, and that if he took too long auto start would have red lighted him. Tex wasn't having any of it, instead just screaming "you double bulbed me and backed out and I don't know nothing about auto start". And for long time D1 competitors, you have to love the irony here, Tex Miller complaining about being burned down, lmfao.
This man went absolutely bat **** crazy for no reason, at least no logical reason. This was Q1 on Friday am at a points meet. He swerved in front of his opponent at nearly 100 mph and then went on a mentally imbalanced tirade. Not someone I want in the lane next to me, and apparently he won't be for a while...
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Thanks for the detail Dan.
Reminded me of a recent discussion I was having with a very good friend of mine (he and I both being long time small business owners in retail trade) about our customer demographic; specifically, those who are a pleasure to deal with VS those who we wish would become someone else's customers. We kinda' surprised each other on the latter, agreeing that 'old caucasian men' are unmistakably the quickest tempered, unashamed to make horse's behinds of themselves in public and most difficult to reason with - Demographic.
In this particular case, one question followed by a simple answer (at the end of the run) should have resolved it all. But no, the worse case scenario was
assumed and subsequent behavior ensued. Being on the receiving end of an unwarranted outbust like this takes a little time to get over and for some, makes moving forward a challenge. It's traumatizing, doesn't matter what your age is.
There are certainly plenty of exceptions among this age group, many who are among our drag racing community. Lets hope Tex can reflect, make it good with Thomas and move on.