CLASS RACER FORUM - Thank You and to those that are interested

Mike's post is an example of his character and type of person that he is. It is nice that he has taken the time to express his feelings and speak with those on this forum, with us and with NHRA. Mike is one of the greatest people that you can ever meet in racing and in life. My father and Mike have known each other for 30 years and many of my memories of Mike and his race cars come from the 1990's and later. One of Mike's greatest gifts also is his wife Paula. It is really neat to see how they spend the time together at the track and away and how happy they are whether racing, spending time with others or just having dinner by themselves. I'm sure they feel very blessed to have each other and have the time and resources to enjoy the sport of drag racing and many of the things that come with that. Hopefully there will be many more years of racing, round wins and race wins for Mike and I hope for our family as well. It is a huge accomplishment just to make a final round these days and Mike did a good job and I was thankful to make it that far as well. Racing seems to get a little more competitive and harder each season. Some days we may be able to win some rounds or even an entire race, and then lose the first round the very next day but that is racing, and it is still a blast to have the opportunity to be there.

NHRA management, Chief Starter, Photographers and media folks also spent some time with me in Phoenix and I believe did so with Mike as well as he previously mentioned and sure gave me a peace and understanding on what happened and hopefully Mike got those same feelings. As time goes on and technology improves, hopefully we will see less issues or inconsistencies and I believe that NHRA is always working to improve their processses.

Although certain situations can be frustrating, I am always thankful that NHRA is here to provide a place for all of us to race and make some of the greatest family memories of our lives and live our dreams of winning races or being race car drivers. There are so many negative things going on in our country and in our world but what a wonderful feeling to is to have the opportunity to even go to a race let alone own and drive a race car.

The one sad thing that I do see on this forum is how a few people speak with tones and words of jealousy, anger, justice, judgement and 'karma'; this is shameful and I am ashamed and embarrassed to see how we speak to each other. This forum I believe was made to share ideas and make our sport and categories that we love better, not to tear each other down and bash individuals. Many folks on here even make their living by racing or building and selling race parts. Shouldn't we all be thankful that we can wake up and walk and talk and see and hear and smile. We also are able to own computers and read and type about the sport that we participate in and love so much. If we work together we can surely accomplish more than we do by cutting each other down and speaking negatively about people that perhaps we have never met.

I hope that we can all improve in this area. I'm sure NHRA faces many of the challenges that we all face today personally and in business. I hope that things improve for NHRA and for all of us and that we are all here for many years to come.

Happy 2013 to all as racing in most areas is just getting started.

Jimmy DeFrank