HAZY HISTORY?
Cole Coonce talking about pioneer Barnstormer Funny Car racers in the Vegas Heritage race report... Two or three guys carried drugs and didn't bathe and now all the past racers are thrown into the same... it is like all surfers say "Hey Duuude". I don't say that and I surf...
Cole, you shouldn't have painted everyone with a broad paint brush. It is wrong to rewrite history. It is not like the guy (Cole) I remember.
Your friend,
Frank Kunkel
Southern Ontario, Canada
COONCE WAS STIRRING THE POT
CC's "race report" should have been labeled an editorial. I don't much care about the NFCA (represented as the bad guys/union) vs. NHRA (good guys/union busters), although I doubt the issue is that clear cut. The slur against the original touring funny car racers (which Cole had posted previously on a private board) was a sorry piece of journalism. Cole made Frank Oglesby and professional racers like him sound like they were two steps below carnival workers and should be corrected. But it probably "sells", so there you are.
John E. Wilson
Seabrook, Texas
NOT IMPRESSED
425 mile round trip, $80 for gas, $80 for tickets and food, $30 for souvenirs. Seven nostalgia funny cars, bullcrap. I did this on Sat, May 3, 2008. Thanks for nothing.
Andrew Cowdery Sr.
Ontario, California
LOVIN’ THE OLD DAYS
Re: Rocky’s Road
You almost had to be there to understand the atmosphere of this race ('74). Trying to get back in the pits after the pre-race "motor-fire-up" on the track was almost impossible. What a great memory, for those that missed, too bad, it will never happen again.
David Ray
Texas
YAY DANICA!
To all the Danica Nay-Sayers... I've said it before (in DRO) AND I'll say it again... "Danica is not only HOT!, but she can drive the hell out of a race-car!" Hats off to her for causing the front-page, above-the-fold coverage of Ashley's historic win. May we see many, many more out of these two remarkable ladies! As a life-long fan of both series, they have put the fun back into watching for me!
Rik Chidester
Poulsbo, Washington
SOME ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS?
In response to the letter from S. Graham this week am one of those who is not a big fan of JF, but I find his yammering very entertaining. I do respect he is the best at back-pedaling (14 time champ for a reason). My problem is the obvious game playing within team and (DSR problem also) 4-car team (NASCAR blockers) A laundry list of obvious stunts to make it appear things were on the up and up when JF races heads up against his teammates. T-ped crossing centerline for no reason (Mike Dunn got called onto the carpet for that one by NHRA for mentioning so during commentary) Densham’s so-called broke $3.00 part during a semi-final years ago. How about the new rule "no carbon fiber parts due to financial advantages to the big teams" by NHRA after a rule was changed so after JF switched to Ford bodies could be as slippery as the GM bodies he abandoned to get paid more for sponsorships by Ford. What ever happened to picking your parts due to function? That JF spent over $150,000 developing the mustang to specs not even permitted Yet (reported in National Dragster) I have 100% respect for Coil but I think JF gets away with things due to his popularity that other teams get grilled over regularly...
I haven't seen any explanation at all (internet or NHRA) about the firing of Whit Bazemore from Fuller Racing. A. Brown is a great racer, good luck to him but when W.B. switched to TF and Matco went with him stating the 12-year history with Whit has been great... it seems he got the shaft or P.Oed someone.(Yes, I know Baze can be gruff, I'm talking the "real" reason.)
Jon Mikola
Dayton, Ohio
THE SPORT NEED MORE BILL BADERS
I too lament the lack of potential of record setting runs. I fully understand the desire for safety, and the steps taken to harness the performances to fulfill that desire...but for me, part of the magical attraction to the sport has been the fascination of seeing someone lay down an "earth rotating" run that makes you drop your jaw in amazement and awe. For me the major factor in keeping things "detuned" are the tires… and although I understand the reasoning, I still find it hard to believe that Goodyear has not been able to find a middle ground between safety and performance...which I feel screams for encouraging other tire manufacturers to enter the fray and come up with something that will again allow performance to progress towards busting records.
A side note... I just got done reading a blog on NHRA.com by the Kalitta race team about Bill Bader... the owner of Norwalk, Ohio's Summit Motorsports Park that documents his efforts to fix a "soft spot" in the track that has been a flaw for many years and after several attempts to fix it, they decided to dig it up and resurface it right. We also get to see someone who truly cares about the sport when he expresses his basic, bottom line philosophy of "every fan deserves the best show I can give them."
We need to clone him, and send one of each to every track in the country to instill that spirit of integrity. It's a refreshing look into what can be done to preserve this sport's quality, and I recommend everyone check out the article...it just might restore some faith. Amen!
Mark A Wales
Scottsdale, Arizona