Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Miele
Bill,
If life has taught me one thing, life is not fair. Racing goes hand in hand with things that are not fair. You expect a fair playing field, I just expect to play. If I am out run so what, I'm healthy and have warm place to live, food in my stomach. Racing is just something to do for fun. I do not get worked up at what's fair and what's not in racing, when it stops being fun, I will move on.
Your passion is to be commended, but you take it to seriously. You need to find what's good in the sport, like the friends you race with and try not to let something you have no control over ruin you day.
How many times has a odd ball combo or under factored car put you on the trailer? If I had to race one at every race, I may not be happy, but its not the case.
You can keep on telling us all that's wrong with this sport, me I am having fun.
Hell I do not need the CJ's to beat up on me, John Shaul does it on a regular basis.
How about Daniels Hemi and Caro Dodge SS/BM. Not the same class, but they do run about the same. Old and new, pretty cool.
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Ken,
Thanks for your comments, and again, I DO admire your sportsmanship and attitude.
That, however, doesn't absolve the NHRA of unnecessarily playing favorites with some high-dollar machinery at the expense of some people who surely didn't deserve it.
If they'd put a 475 HP factor on those (CJ) cars, like they needed to, none of this controversy would have happened. I don't see where it's necessary to obsolete everybody else's race car just to satisfy the big dogs at FoMoCo. People would still have bought those cars and raced them, had they been introduced with a reasonable factor.
Your contention that "Life's not fair," is surely true, but in most instances, NHRA has bent over backward to ensure that things are as fair, between cars, as they can be.
Evan Smith, an honorable racer if there ever was one, gets bounced for a rules infraction so tiny that it had no appreciable effect on his car's performance.
The great effort to provide everybody with fuel that is legal, is a well-policed and ongoing effort by NHRA to ensure that nobody has an advantage in their carburetor float bowl. Efforts to police CRANKPIN DIAMETERS have made the news in the last few years.
My point is, NHRA USUALLY mounts what can only be called a monumental effort to keep things as fair as they can be for racers... they don't just say, "Yeah; those 340 Dusters are fast..." and, let it go at that. They develop a program (AHFS) to DEAL WITH cars that are inordinately "fast" for their class... in a serious effort to reign-in the cars that can easily dominate their class... The fact that it doesn't work is unfortunate, but for now, it's there. That's another whole topic...
Because they do all of that, you'd think that "Life's not fair" would not be a part of their psychological makeup; it would seem that they DO CARE.. (about fairness.)
Then, they come along and allow this CJ/factor debacle, which throws all of the above into a cocked hat....
It makes no sense to the casual observer, and I really AM just a :"casual observer," having no dog in this hunt; I run a Bracket car; haven't had a class car for years...
It's like NHRA has a Jeckyll/Hyde rationale; oh-so-concerned about the diameter of Evan's valves (to a couple of thousandths), then turn a blind eye to this overt "factor" business.
By-the-way, I am 100-percent in favor of the ruling on Evan's valves.... no disrespect to Evan, but specs is specs. That kind of attention to detail by NHRA tech is what has made Stock and S/S the best racing going, all these years. It's obvious that he was unaware of their dimensions, but that's no excuse, and he's said so. An accident.
Because I have a Bracket car, and no class racer, I appear to be a poking my nose in where it doesn't belong, but, unless I'm mistaken, this board is for opinions, and for people who don't currently race, so I run my mouth if I have an opinion (and, when didn't I???) LOL!
But the Internet has a way of distorting things, and I almost always come off sounding like some old coot who can only find fault. I'm not really like that; I just want drag racing to be as good as it CAN be.... and sometimes, things happen that torpedo that.
I have fun with my Bracket car, and don't hate anybody!!!! Well, nobody in racing, anyway.
The Challengers/Camaros, and Mustangs are gonna have a battle-royal this coming year, I think!
Let the games begin!!!!!!!!!!
