Is Bob Lang

[David Barton]

Originally Posted by Bill Hawk

David, with all due respect your comment about probably beating Sal is a little premature. The starting line was terrible, but our car has only spun once since is was built. It spun against Gary Richard in the final of the Shootout, we tried to step it up and the track could not handle it.

The track was bad like I said, but against you we added weight and adjusted for the poor traction. Something maybe you should have thought of. There was no way we were going to give it all we had in those conditions. You have a legitimate gripe, but my issue with you is thinking you could out run Sal and blame the track for the loss. Blaming the track for spinning is legitimate, the loss is a stretch.

You showed no performance advantage all week. You may have been saving it for when you needed it, but given the track conditions we were not setup to let it all hang out at this race.

Bill, I'm not looking to pick a fight. You seem to be a little defensive for me stating I thought I had a chance if I had some rubber. You guys won fair and square and I applaud you for that. The bottom line is NHRA did not prep the track to the best of their ability. I really believe if they would drag it more often there would have been less problems.

Mike, I don't even know what to say about your pedal fest comment. That race was far from awesome. I thought it was really sad that Gary Richard, a guy that has provided NHRA with millions of dollars, wasn't provided the track surface he deserves. Same goes for anyone who paid their entry fee.

[Bill Hawk]

David,

I didn't think you were picking a fight or trying to. You said probably, and now you say you thought you had a chance, that's a big difference. I would have never posted if you said thought instead of probably. The track was bad we all agree, lets just leave it at that. You have more issues to deal with, so I will say no more about it, good luck.

[chris ok]

Thank you Jim for what you do sponsoring. As a fan who read about it all it needs to change. I could only go today, Sunday, when the Factory super cars can run in a class to be exposed to fans. Glad I did not take a no pay day from work Thursday now.It was a great day today, but so little sportsman racing. Only semi's and finals. They need to shorten show I guess? for fans attention span? I been here going back to the 80's for the old summer nats in July.
Good luck in all you do. Chris

As a fan since the 80's, I thought today went great. All pro classes were awesome. I did miss more sportsman as they only ran the semis and finals. The show is shortened to acccomidate the newer demographic? shorter attention spans?certainly an easier ride home today After watching telecast rain was a possibility. Still a great day Sunday thank you.
4 points I will make.
1 many drag racers want heads up classes. They are no longer interested in anything brackets to watch or compete. Cecil County had anothershootout Saturday and maybe today too where a lot of locals were. I know that for fact. A few told me. Now NHRA , they included 11.50 index. I like the index classes and they are fun to watch.
2 The young ones today like lowering cars and nice wheels, some graphics and intakes(air filter systems as I would say, they dont) and exhaust are not track kids. They don't like domestics. I work for Lexus, and see it daily with coworkers and customers rides.
3. The economy still stinks and many can't afford this.

4. Alan Reinhart gave the very best heartfelt thank you I've ever seen at the track today. They know people just can't afford the day out, tho June is graduations, proms, bdays month of the year People don't have the disposible income and many are recovering from Sandy and otherstorms also. I was with one today.
I was moved by his speech. Any tape of it?

[Jim D'Amore]

David, I was standing under the tower when they were running factory shoot out. I watched almost everyone spun. I actually thought you broke your transmision. In my opinion the only way to correct the track would to scraped from the burn out box to the 60ft. Then let some big tire cars go down. I watched P.C Richard's Cobra Jet and Holbrook's have a peddle fest. Lord knows NHRA had enough people on the starting line that they could of scraped and had it done in an hour or they could of done it the day before. On Don Fezell's Cobra Jet he didn't want to run the FS class because the weight really disrupts his clutch but by Q2 he was at the FS weight lowered to leave 600 RPM's and took a full turn of base out of the clutch. Still lost a tenth in the 60ft. His first run of class we took another quarter turn of base out of it because there wasn't enough cool down time and the clutch was still hot. Which makes it grab harder. His 60ft. was a 1.49 from a 1.27 in Maple Grove last week. They strength is in numbers well stock was the largest class there and was the run the hardest in the shortest amount of time on Thursday. In the worst track conditions that was NHRA's choice.

Chris, thank you for the kind words. I have always believed in building and sponsoring classes where everybody feels they have a chance. When we had the classes in Fun Ford Weekend we had one starter for ten years. His name was Sammy, every driver trusted him. He had courtesy staging and he got to know the sound of your engine with the RPM launches. He would shut down the starting line to make the track work. In ten years I probably made a thousand passes down his prep track and to be honest with you I don't know if I ever spun. Most of the cars were low ten second to low nine second and they did not have the half the technology NHRA stockers have for suspension. Sammy use to say "spinning will brake parts, piss people off and ruin the show".

[Pistol Pete]

I thought the Run Schedule was Just Plain Awful !!!!!!

I was at fuel check after my 1st time shot & i hear them say " Stock To The Lanes"

I didn't even get back to my trailer yet to cool down, charge the battery, ect.....

I didn't even bother with the 2nd time run.

" Just Plain Awful."

[442OLDS]

Originally Posted by Pistol Pete

I thought the Run Schedule was Just Plain Awful !!!!!!

I was at fuel check after my 1st time shot & i hear them say " Stock To The Lanes"

I didn't even get back to my trailer yet to cool down, charge the battery, ect.....

I didn't even bother with the 2nd time run.

" Just Plain Awful."

I am not defending the schedule by any means,but what do you think it is like when you win the semi-finals and they are already calling the finals?

Sometimes,you have to get back up there with the car not cooled down and the battery not fully charged up.

[Jim D'Amore]

Pistol Pete,

At events where they have class, I do not think they should throw in another special class like the Factory Shoot out. The stock guys will have to make decisions wether they want to run class or support the factory shoot out. I thought most of the NHRA officials are Racers or Ex-Racers, No Racer wants to turn his car around in anywhere from 5-14 minutes for 6 rounds in a Row. That is what they did on Thursday. Just like a clutch car when the clutches get to extreme temperatures because they are designed to slip, a loose Torque converter can also generate a massive amount of heat. This will lead to hurting the transmission or over heating the fluid and pushing it out onto the track. It was an extremely unsafe decision on NHRA's part to have two rounds of qualifying then 4 rounds of class and four rounds of factory shoot out.


442 Olds,

That is uncalled for too. Races should have at least 45 minute cool down time to prepare, in most cases a car will make it down the track fine back to back passes. But it will struggle to make 6 back to back runs in a row.


1320 Racer,

I agree with you the track prep should have started a day before the race was scheduled. as far as racing in the NHRA series they are the only ball game in town. If you dont play by their rules in their ball park they will punish you. The problem here is that stock eliminator is their largest class, that means there are thousands of stocker racers that want to race. So they are willing to accept the schedule and track prep. This time was the NHRA's choice to leave the schedule as is and the track as is. Like I said before alot of the new stockers that come from Ford, GM, and Dodge have as much torque as a prostock car does. I know they know this. You dont see them calling a Pro Stock back to the lanes in under 5 minutes. They allow these new cars in NHRA so they should make it fair for them too.


Larry Hill,

In every series that I have sponsored Track prep fell under the starters responsibilities. Maybe NHRA should take some of the sportsman entry money and higher a starter just for the Sportsman classes. That Starter works directly with the Sportsman racers.


Bruce Nolan,

Our company has worked with many of the NHRA advertisers and sponsors already in other series. Advertisers are very important to the series as they are to the Racer. Most Racers want to perform as well for their sponsors as they do for themselves. It is important to keep everyone happy, this is a very ego driven sport and its not good to bruise egos. Because bruised ego's typically walk away. We had a class in Fun Ford weekend where we gave away a brand new Truck to the class champion and a free two year lease to the runner up. This was because we worked with the advertising company and the Ford Virginia Truck Plant. We brought them to an event and got them involved going to the event a day early, sitting them in our vehicles, let them start the race vehicles and gave them all team shirts. I know alot of racers this weekend spent extra time with their sponsors and people that helped them out and get to the event. So you want to perform well for these sponsors/people. The NHRA just made it impossible with the schedule and track prep.



I wonder if it is possible If Bob Lang would jump in on here and explain the Division 1 side of the story. Maybe Bob has no say at national events. It would be nice to interact with one of NHRA's top guys on this matter. I know I spoke to an official that was mixing the traction compound he said sometimes it takes a while to get the mix right. Then he said the only thing they need to do is take more clutch out of the cars. Which 90% of the cars there were probably Automatics! I spoke to him long before the Pros ran and infact it was a day before they ran. I hope Bob will help all the racers in this situation after all this is Division 1 and we dont want other divisions making fun of us do we?

[Bob Bender]

Originally Posted by Pistol Pete

I thought the Run Schedule was Just Plain Awful !!!!!!

I was at fuel check after my 1st time shot & i hear them say " Stock To The Lanes"

I didn't even get back to my trailer yet to cool down, charge the battery, ect.....

I didn't even bother with the 2nd time run.

" Just Plain Awful."

Pete, go up early and have time. I do.