"Live" from Indy US Nationals 2017

[Coleydog]

Originally Posted by Ken Miele

Here you go.....

Love that car too. Brings back memories of my first driver in 1967, a 62 white Fury, red interior, 318 poly. The things I did in that car! T-boned a 59 Chevy wagon that ran a stop sign, which led to my 64 Savoy Max-wedge.

[Ken Miele]

I thought these was pretty cool photos. Bob Glidden sitting in Bill Hawk's Shelby, Bob and Bill go way back, I can only imagine the stories they talked about.

[Jared Jordan]

Originally Posted by Ken Miele

I thought these was pretty cool photos. Bob Glidden sitting in Bill Hawk's Shelby, Bob and Bill go way back, I can only imagine the stories they talked about.

I, for one, would LOVE to see Bob Glidden driving that car!

[Coleydog]

Originally Posted by Jared Jordan

I, for one, would LOVE to see Bob Glidden driving that car!

X2, one of my heroes, guarantee he still could!

[Mike Delahanty]

Some more photos

[Mike Delahanty]

The Cook Brothers cooked breakfast courtesy of the Ronzello's. A big part of the Indy experience are things like this.






The John force team equipment to measure and monitor the starting line.













The Sunoco vision large screen TV next to the tower was really convenient to Watch the down track action and pick up all the numbers from the run.

[Mike Delahanty]

After waiting in line 2 or three days and then 3 to 4 more days at the track .............

[GarysZ24]

Originally Posted by Mike Delahanty

The Polhill Cinderella story is over. Wann advances to the final 4.

Steve Polhill, on behalf of us few remaining fwd stocker racers, what you did this past weekend was nothing short of AWESOME!!!! Your worst rt was .035, and you went 5rnds in the big go too!!!! YOU ROCK MAN!!!!! Try as I might to become the first fwd racer since Mark Yacavonne to win Stock with a fwd car at a national event (and this century no less which would be a 1st), I think you're the one that's going to do it....keep it up bud!!!!

Moreover, not since Bill O'Connor back in the mid-90's has anyone won a divisional with a fwd car (and definitely not this century thus far), that's still out there too. If I can't be the one who does it, I sure hope you (or Stan Kopejtka), will be the one who does it! Or Bill as well if he gets his Omni going again???

[Mike Schwartz]

Originally Posted by Paradigm Shift

Time to begin removing seats.

The images suffers, you know?

No need to do that. Just replace Pro Stock with Factory Stock, return TF & FC to 1/4 mile, put nostalgia bodies on FC's, ban wheelie bars, let everyone stand on the starting line, and bring in Drag Radials, 10.5, No-Prep / No Time, Street Outlaws and Pinks. You know, classes that would finally make the US Nationals meaningful.

[Ken Miele]

Hey everyone,

I wanted to post this last week, but with the back to back racing from Indy to Etown, I just did not have the time.

The photo below shows Dan Fletcher with Peter Clifford and Graham Light presenting Dan with the National Dragster cover of his 100th win signed by them. While that was pretty cool and a exclusive photo, the conversation with Graham Light was very enlightening on how NHRA views the sportsman racer.

It was a very positive conversation and it makes me feel pretty good about the future of our sport. When Dan introduced me to Graham I thought, wow this is not going to go good. After expressing my concerns about the stacking and parking issues at Indy on Class Racer, I was thinking that he may not want to talk much about it or to me.

I could have not been more wrong. He was very concerned about our issues after reading the posts on Class Racer. Yes, NHRA does listen to us, even though we may not think they care or read our posts. He was cordial and polite and eager to talk about our concerns.

He told me that they were prepared with extra staff on hand and instructed all staff to get us parked in a timely manner along with keeping the credential line moving fast, which is what happened. The entire NHRA staff did a great job in getting us parked and ready for racing the next day.

When I ask Graham why the change for Indy, he said it was to stream line and make it easier for the racer when attending these racers. They want to cut some of the time racers have to wait to get tech and credentials. If we can eliminate one day, we can save the racer and NHRA some of the cost. He feels if the racer can take one day less off of work and have one day less for the NHRA staff, it can reduce cost for both. He said financial reasons always come into play with these decisions, but he emphasized the sportsman racer is just as important as cost savings. I told him I can understand the reasoning behind this, but not for Indy. At Indy most racers take the whole week off. And many are racing the weekend before Indy. The extra day being parked on Monday gives all of us a chance to work on our cars. Hopefully this can be worked out for next year, they do listen.

I did not have time to ask him the dozens of questions that were in my head, but I came away having a better understanding. I was always taught not judge someone decisions unless you have walked in their shoes. I thought this years Indy was one of the best I have ever attended. Despite some of the negative posts, (I being one of them ) it turned out to be a great race. Tech was alive and well with many cars in the barn. The track was in very good shape with the amount of cars that went down, and most of all no major incidents or anyone getting hurt. I'm already looking forward to next year.

I never got a chance to talk to Peter Clifford as Evan Smith was talking to him about the Factory Stock Showdown cars. Evan did say he came out of the conversation with a positive outlook for the future of that class.