Sustainable Autoculture

2008-03-23T08:55:00.000-07:00

75 Posts and a G-free Zone....................................

Following the lead of the conscience that Catholic Worker Press inspires (ie, they've been around forever and, like me, are only accountable to the Creator....) ---I'm moving this kit over to open-source http://racersforcoffee.wordpress.com

Away from corporate shills and towards village-level commerce, community and egalitarian journalistic traditions......

2008-02-03T10:01:00.000-08:00

Changing Our Relationship..............The person or persons who gave Richard Heath a new lease on publishing life with his Full Throttle News business have apparently flown..... the coupe'. Without naming names (as they have committed treachery in my eyes- and are nameless to me....), some bodies think they can run a nostalgia-industry rag without Richard's heart and soul- and mean to do so. The recent FTN was closer to Drag Strip Illustrated than anything else. Amazing first-hand accounts from people like Don "We Did It For Love" Ewald and the fueler families that inhabited the halcyon days at Lions gave content and credibility to a magazine that, even with a new generation of cub reporters, struggled against the cooperative sponsorship that racers' associations have used to leverage opinion towards their pet agendas. That nostalgia drag racing has a legendary back-biting reputation is part of its' culture-one documented since the late '80's.
Whatever....whatever prompted this change has left a nice, if battle-weary, silverhaired journalist more options. His editorial stance of trying to be friends with everyone in the southland needs to be applauded. Advertisers voting the direction of Heath and his legacy (a regular magazine dedicated to preserving what was left of So Cal dragstrip culture took monstrous godlike gonads in 1995.....) will add streetcred to them....more than Heath-who doesn't need to prove his talent to anyone, anymore.

It may be time to bring Full Throttle News online. Cole Coonce was not the only drone in the FTN hive with ahead-of-the-curve talents in that area. As an avowed luddite, I would miss a written page FTN more than most; but, then, I also miss the Holy Goof asthetic: that hairstylist Hollywood gossip girl , the first days of a bright-eyed schoolage reporter named Ellen-growing up in the sport, Professor Ginz's rhetoric, Tom Hunnicutt's light-is-right eyeball engineering, Steve Parker's straight world scene, Coonce's Twin Peaks tome's and "Racers And Fans"-featuring the previous few months at the Brotherhood Raceway--always priorities with The People.

That last part.....the grass roots part of a grass roots publication seems like history now. The notion of low buck racers running for fun and personal glory has as much to do with current drag racing business models as has a working cowboy with pro rodeo bullriding. If you're old enough to remember Paul Newman in "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean", the last half-hour of that comic-drama comes to mind......

2008-01-22T05:42:00.000-08:00

A Little Ray Of Sunshine illuminated one of my usual haunts at Dawn, today. Bud Deboer kept Drag News a truely national force for informative results for years. Without DN, how could I have known that the Ohio Modified Production and S/S scenes were actually more energetic...and vital...than the local fluff I venerated as weekly sportsman events in the early '70's? Who could have facilitated the White Suit and cheap cigar southern charm of promoter/PR doozy Jimmy "Herculeas" Boyd? The mysticism of the AHRA Grand American's annual swoop down upon Green Valley Race City? Bud has started his new career of sharing historical perspective (and, thus, telling truth to marketing...) at (yay!) the Draglist. Here's hoping we don't bore him with self-serving homogeneric posts.

2008-01-20T04:21:00.000-08:00

I am usually dubious about any major attempt outside the entrapeneural workshop to renew the face of manufactoring. My suspicions weren't thinly veiled last year when reviewing "Who Killed The Electric Car?"---and I seem to be joined in this by an old masthead mate http://thecarnut.typepad.com/steve_parker_the_car_nut_/2008/01/tesla-sackings.html

While there, feel free to key in the Jesse James commentary written recently by Steve. Absorb truths on racial (and horribly misogynistic) ignorance in the retroauto industry (that are, also, thinly veiled by the balance of a 'nostalgia'/'tatt'/rustrod neuvo-greaser richkid movement which is selling a bucketload of magazines) from Mr. Parker-an old school inclusivist who, unlike this post-apocalyptic luddite here, believes the future progress of autoculture can still be tooled-up within our current economic framework. I love his idealism. (Mine is more spiritual, less about faith in new materials...) Reusing old materials for results Steve and I both want-a future free from dependence upon death industries- is where I look..and we still have plenty 'nuf uncrushed parts to dabble with on the left coast.

Props for a new direction in '08 to: a couple of mainstreamer writers- Top Fuel Handbook author and former National Dragster editor Chris Martin, who is going public on his health n' selfcare challenges.......and Ian Tocher, senior dispatcher for the Drag Racing Online crew-leaving to do what he's really doing anyway: PR for the ADRL. Attention DRO: you can't have an indie press when your major sponsors include a SANCTIONING body...and I know I'm hardly the only punter out here seein' this.........

2008-01-06T10:59:00.000-08:00

The Holiday Season in America has evolved in a positive direction, in my opinion. Never before have I witnessed so many people willing to accept different directions and personal rituals in marking the transition of the year, as humankind has done in one manner or another for thousands of years...

A longtime celebratory event gets my annual vote for best indie promotion of the year. The Snowbird National Open featured a great eclectic open 'procomp'-style mix of open altereds, TD and alky floppers. While we are priviledged to see such a salad tossed together on an index on the left coast, it is not often that a no-rules combo eliminator is allowed...much less encouraged.

Another factor that struck me as healthy symptoms of diversity was provisioning for as many doorslammers as possible: 10.5 on up to unlimited with a refreshing lack of fencing-in which we have suffered way too much of this past year in both 'pro street'/outlaw and Pro Mod-style southern promotions. This race was truly independent. Recognizing which sorts of entrants would show....THEN providing avenues for those eager runners to play within...showed promotional maturity. I could easily see how an unlimited field expanded to 16 cars could have accomodated a budget weights-out team capable of lighting up our world.
(BTW...Any promotion/psuedo-sanctioning org that demands pledges of allegience to series sponsors or acronyms is doing a disservice to themselves...and proving how little faith they have in the free market of ideas to attract a quality show...)

The Snowbirds Pro Mod field did give old flopper sensibilities reminders of ancient Miami-style winter events; those monthly FC two-day blasts that would attract .....snowbirders. This year's 'slammer show had only one 'northerner' I recognized: #4 qualifier Scott Braskett out of Ohio- a mid pack 6.41 qualifier..and first round duck. The finals were dominated by the only real "star" of this event: Quain Stott. His savin-it-for-the-final 6-oh ET outran another Stott stable 'Vette.
Unlike those Funny shows of yesteryear, there seemed to be no 'hitters' to book-in, ala the Blue Max, Chi-Town, etc. My suspicions that there are none available....no killer cars at all in the midwest who will venture outside the national/Chevy events...seem confirmed. It cannot be healthy to have all the PM stars sucked into a couple circuits and the occasional Snowbirds or World Street Florida show. Promotional genetics points out this is inbreeding the innovation and free spirit of competition out of the top end of the sport. Supporting the local single-event features and looking for teams who can parlay their resources into a small-biz supported entry of note should keep us busy in '08.

A quick mention of another holiday celebration on the west coast that is being 'handled' internally: Christmas in Compton attracted a reported thousand 'tators onto a street in South Central. A Solid Brotherhood oversight of a scene still forced off-track, due to lack of suitable drag strip outlets, was disrupted by....squirrels. By and large, things were OK, til supposed 'street racers' started doing dog-nuts on the asphalt. Cripe! Proved we desperately need to educate a new generation not clear on concepts like responsibility to community. Over the xmas weekend, a kid slammed into a pole at high speed in a side-by-side run on Marineview Drive, near my crib. These deaths are racking up a hideous bodycount. My recent exchange in the local daily on the subject did not shed new light, nor impress me those authorities interviewed are interested in anything but whitewashing and NIMBY. Kudos...kudos to the LAPD and Los Angeles County Sherriffs for a mature response to an ugly reality. Street racing is happening now....and needs venues to contain the carnage- drag strips, not jail cells.

2007-12-23T08:13:00.000-08:00

Final Spoke in the Wheel of 2007

.......I seem to find renewal in little things every ten years on the button. '67, when I opened my wide eyes to the sport....'77, the death of Drag News--yet, when Quick Rod began the fast bracket march to todays independent promotions....'87....ah, '87. Dejected at the blatent commercialization and cultural pillaging of my sport, I found renewal, passion and.....especially, humor with Gromer, DeFeo and the Brunt Bros. in CARS mag.- encouraging me to return, once again, to bracket, grudge and *other* straight-line participation. '97 found me in the midst of morphing from chronic pain in the letters to the editor within SS and DI into a Full Throttle News and NR 'Varmit' celebrating the retro-fitting and pomo renewal of independent thought on paper....and shooting the curl within the first 'net venue for the sport. Cole Coonce became our generations' Terry Cook.

2007 has been a plain search for a truth that could 'resonate' (how's THAT for a 2007 term? Ranks right up there with 'Boogie'!) with a needful decentalizing and return of focus to small town strips and neighborhood 'stars' who could work their way to prominance without a marketing firm molding them (----yuk! .....and they wonder why I can't take the commercial sport seriously, anymore.....) .
A year-long prediction that 2007 would find house-mortgaged racing operations sounding a death-rattle is coming to pass--of course, those same marketing geniuses are being paid to paper over this situation, as well. Word from the other end of the coast is the new car construction we are accustomed to during the 'silly season' has crawled to more of a mud wallow.
Dissent is limited to those like me who don't try to make a living at racing. Dissenters are labeled "trolls" on the internet, today. Evidence we are, indeed, headed for a corporatist republic. But some of the biggest names in commercial media have been open-minded and willing to have another viewpoint within their walls. I feel as welcome on boards as I ever have. We have been throwing the term 'fellowship' around rather liberally, lately, to describe this net-friendship phenom.
As dire as 'things' appear, wonderful racers filled with passion and more sense than money are rebuilding old S/P cars, giving pro streeters new life, looking for ways to run Q8 while breaking even, and finding something of interest often even commercial enough for Speed-esque TV. Bracket bashers are rediscovering home-finished race cars. Nostalgia racers are, once again, taking their legacy into their own hands...a dearth of Cali strips to celebrate upon seems to be just a speedbump in the NE ranks and their march into the land of fulfillment and friendly events.
I've left this year behind with a desire to leap onto asphalt and concrete on the first dry weekend the temps hit the 50 degree mark. That's called taking my emotional barometer. The forcast is for long-term storm damage with smiles in the short-term.

2007-11-25T13:52:00.000-08:00

A new book documenting the halcyon daze of drag racing is out and about....Tom Madigan, best known to me for his terse comment about most racers at the top of the food chain possessing "criminal minds" has documented local SoCal fuel culture well in: http://www.fastmachines.com/archives/nhra/004640.php

In other silly season buzz, sources have told me of the likelihood the NHRA "Pro" sale is in escrow for now.....rumors of curtailed new car construction among those who attempt to make a living off the sport continue....

2007-11-17T13:57:00.000-08:00

Unified Title..............which, to me smacks of the ol' WCW/WWF frackus in a way....

Lemme guess....people want more cable television (even the Brotherhood of Street Racers can get that these days!!), sponsorship and opportunities to ...yes....soak the racers and fans for more cash to get in the gate. Sorry. Unified rules and records are no excuse. I can get the all-time ET's from draglist. Given that, here tis the "press release" for everyone's ingestion. Consider this a coffee tasting, however; the cuspodor is on the left.......

Press Release to all media outlets for Immediate Release The President Matt Jones of the Texas Based outlaw Racing Organization KOTH entered into an agreement Today with The Owners Jack Barfield, Mike Hill and Johnny Fenn of the Southern based Racing Organization ORSCA and the Owner Dave Hance of the Northern Based Racing organization NSRA To Enter into negotiations to form a racing series that will crown a true outlaw world champion. Negotiations are now in place for races to be done separately from their current organization Based on an outlaw format. These races will be done Two in Texas. Two in the Southeast and Two in the North East. With a 7th Race being held to crown a single world champion from all around the country in every class. The 7th Race being the largest outlaw heads up event in History in cars and in Cash. The ultimate in Heads up racing. Having the three Largest outlaw racing organizations join together to put on a true one of a kind racing experience is what the outlaw racing world has been needing and wanting for a long time. We will all work together to Try and make this Happen Stated Dave Hance In an official press release today The Owners of ORSCA could not find better people that have worked endlessly for the sport of outlaw racing Than Matt Jones and Dave Hance . Now Having us all joined working together will only unify records and create even more cars around the country to race in all our organizations. Stated Johnny Fenn Matt Jones stated Today to have the KOTH organization branch out and now have the people behind the Koth Organization from around the country to put some its own races on has been a wish for his organization for a long time and will put his full effort in making this come true. Much work still needs to be done . We would like to invite anyone interested in being a part of the negotiations for the seven tracks we are seeking around the country and any companies wanting be involved to please send email to. Matt Jones KOTH Texas matt@texaskingofthehill.net Dave Hance Northern Street Racing association DHance1@aol.com JOHNNY FENN / ORSCA Director Johnny@outlawracing.comom Jack Barfield / ORSCA administrater Jack@outlawracing.com Mike Hill / ORSCA administrater Mike@outlawracing.com We look forward to working with everyone to make this happen.

2007-11-15T06:29:00.000-08:00

RFC as BBS..................................................

I'm monitering the most recent wave of doom regarding Tribe.net--a freakshow of Burning Man participants and pundits....which also hosts my discussion board-not that many peeps ever discuss anything I post on http://tribes.tribe.net/racersforcoffee . The photo-friendly situation there has made for willingness to post lil postcards from our sports' history and topical stuff; cuz I wanna WRITE....not code....(besides, my brain is max'd out just differentiating shots by Eddie Meeks from those of Fabian "EKF" Arroyo). Posts are "photo" or "topic"--and you know whatch'y'gonna get! Google is reputed to be sucking Tribe into their huge pan-social network....something I am totally apathetic about. Tribe is used by those of us who have something they want to talk about....besides their profile pics....(I abhor mymurdoch).

IF Tribe goes away, this blog will likely increase in activity from a glorified extention of my old Full Throttle News columns. I remain determined to keep this a vehicle for the pictures I can help create in the mind's eye of the reader...power of the printed word. The glut and wholesale substitution of photo images for written content is not flat very exciting. Anytime someone posts an interesting sounding topic....I click..and end up invited to "youboob/watch"...it leaves me cold.

The posts by EKF to promote the Brotherhood's working relationships in promoting the mission of the BSR through Speed channel and small auto biz sponsorship are rampant. The Arizona road trip is this weekend for the taping of Pinks. Grabbing a few more associate sponsorships--which translate into potential all-time exposures per dollar-----is a high priority. Hope some small companies figure out they'll never have this opportunity in motorsports marketing again.

2007-10-20T10:17:00.000-07:00

Microthink...............................................

Eventually, we will realize the only possible way to continue our obsession with individualized transportation is to visualize ourselves in lil motorcycles with wraparound fairings. This is a microcar---it is European (as our N. American captains of industry caved on this concept....) and makes sense if you drive it like a sensible European surrounded by others grounded in some antithesis of road rage. Tho' I'm social science-oriented, I can't see an imminent solution to THAT problem on the left coast. So....back to the cars! http://www.microcarmuseum.com/what-a-find/index.html

I was originally impressed by the Dixie Pro Stocks precicely because they weren't that rather 'blow'-fueled mindset of the '70's-'80's. Small-scaled circuit riders have been a comfort to me ever since.
The Dixie Pro Mods continue to this day. I use them as a barometer to measure the sustainability of local creature features. The old pro stockers with 'Big Daddy' Kane had a roster of some 30 cars---mostly what peeps these days would ID as T/S class vehicles i.e., as good as good gets for a good time Sunday. The latest version boasts 20 teams who have entered photo profiles within their PR efforts. Follow them at the promodsource.com site. Celebrate their obscurity, the obscure, sustainable southeast tracks they play at....the possibilities they didn't have to put together more than the magic economic formula of 'three people with good jobs' to pay for it all .....

2007-10-18T07:05:00.000-07:00

Barefoot Perididdle..............Tribe.net continues to be down for an extensive thrash; Instead of my usual hour on that social network for freaks, I'll make overdue time to throw some spiel: I continue to luddite myself through life with decade-old Compaq, Gateway and other frankenstein'd tower stacks. The only exception is my recent Verizon doohickey with three bajillionpixies of expression. Consequently, my short stack of nostalgia photos will join cameraphone shots(!) on http://www.flickr.com/people/15337822@N02/ I also opened a community webshots stills-site, inspired by EthelKilledFred's work there for the BSR. Gives any downtime this winter an outlet--not that I'm expecting much of THAT, enroute this AM to get my SEIU card.....

EKF is chasing down any possible remaining written code of conduct the Brotherhood of Street Racers might possess. Why I brought it up to him in the first place is beyond me; the recent death of Slick Rick---Mr. Motorcycle Show and Go of the BSR--was disconcerting and seemed preventable....at the time. Further retrospect tells me a power greater than....blahblahblah...well, that knows more about it than me..was orchestrating at that moment. Telling anyone anything about the Brotherhood is passing along oral history at this point. While I'm doing that, I'll toss in Safety Safari tales of Wally Parks. Now that the Abner Doubleday of Drag Racing is not available to gently lead, my generation (oh, gawd!) has some responsibility for getting this right. Wally and Big Willie had essentially the same goals-and both were colors-wearing Brotherhood members......

2007-09-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

Angel Nieves, founder of the Street Legal program, just posted within this past half-hour to confirm progress-from his catbird's seat within the LA govt. catacombs. The Mayor seems somewhat convinced, yet not-in Angel's words- in "Love" with the concept as presented. What is fer-sure is no "flying saucer" (Jets- a regular attraction at the old Terminal Island) or nostalgia Top Fuel (sorry, Richard Heath...). Here's hopeing this next week inches the new Long Beach Brotherhood track forward s'more........

2007-09-28T06:30:00.000-07:00

An official Brotherhood Newsletter is active, as of this month. Major media sore thumb (in that he operates in major media while serving the entire spectrum of his potential reader/listenership....and how often do you find THAT these daze??) Steve "the Car Nut" Parker is hosting Big Willie....in both internet and chivalric terms. http://thecarnut.typepad.com/international_brotherhood/

Another expat from Full Throttle News, "Nitro Dave" Kerr, knocked on my door at Four Freakin' Thirty this morning to let me know he's unearthed back issues from those thrilling 1990's--as well as more reels of 16mm he shot at the So. Cal citadels of drag racing. I sense reconstructive surgery on that film will be scheduled for this winter......

2007-09-23T10:39:00.000-07:00

Three Seventy is a pretty intense indicator of how far the slammer obsession has flown downrange. The Scruggs ADRL ET leap jumps the ProMod game into the same paradigm shift that match race Pro Stocks took circa '74 when backdoor supported Hemi Colts began pounding into the 8.60 zone at midwest tracks. Never again will we be able to look upon ProMod local shows with the same set of eyes. The previously mentioned mason-dixon eastern seaboard scene-while $pending much energy.....the 10.5 scene.....all the indie doorslammer activity running heads-up in N. America....all of it will start to have a lil asterick in the back of our collective mindset.

Meanwhile, the innocent enthusiasm of racing occasionally spills into the cable glut of marketing. Great reports that the Pinks unleashed...whatever that sweet 16 thing is they do....set to air Turkey Day weekend had a wonderful vibe at the crass Strip in Lost Wages. "The People, United, Will Never Be Defeated", as we used to put it in the '80's. A who's who of Brotherhood Alley cats convened for the taping-and the Brotherhood should get more pos. national attention than the last time Peterson Pubs. tried to 'splain the concept. A nice touch: prize money was diverted to the family of the late Ed Conrad-killed at Irwindale a couple weeks back......

While this balm sooths the outer-limits shock of slammer finances and sustainable culture, we still have Cliff Gromer and the Mopar Action people as the sole holdout of humor in autoculture magazines (Krass and Bernie, notwithstanding....). The latest ish provides total irony in the events section, coupled with a good argument against my assertion that hunting down blocks and heads from junkyards still has value these days. Gromer's gang puts 500HP as the small-block rule of thumb beyond which your Iron becomes pretzels. The recommendation we all suck it up and buy Batton blocks is-still- diffused in real world post-mortgage meltdown 'merica. There has to be a better option-what I've seen in applications up to and including loads of nitro in Altered truck motors leads me to hold out for alcohol fuel-fed Mopar, Chevy and Ford castoffs. We haven't ventilated them ALL, yet......

2007-08-26T08:59:00.000-07:00

Indie Promotional Energies are pumping along this summer. The glut-and that's a good thing- of Top Sportsman-based creature features in the East are keeping folks surrounded by progressive slammer science and amused in what is turning out to be a deadly heat season. My remarks on mortgage money outlooks earlier this year do not deserve much of a self-serving pat on the back (tho I am unabashedly Vain.....) so much as acknowledgement that I, too, have been stating the obvious. I dig macroeconomics. I'm sad so many peeps have staked their racing.....and personal futures on real estate...but the free market of ideas will turn things.
In the new Hot Rod, Gene Fultons' interview and dissection of that massive 870 inch broad-use weapon of his (Six inch barrels! Five stages-obstensively to manage the "first 200 feet" of a strip surface....) pretty much put me over the edge. This motor is the hot tip for bottomless budget 10.5 tire racers and Q8 killer cars running for 1500 dollars in the Virginias.
We also have pickapart outlets with truck motors and literature to help us put them together. Personally, I love grinding heads myself-and would love to place my sweat equity into more modest proposals.....
http://www.draglist.com/artman2/publish/daily_stories/Chuck_Etchells_And_The_Fate_Of_The_Underdogs.shtml
is a great indie fuel confessional by a draglist senior editor. Read it and weep...I did.

2007-08-19T08:55:00.000-07:00

I'm linking http://www.dragracingonline.com/columns/utterback/ix_8-1.html the most recent by fellow NR alumnus "Jefty"-----mainly because he's been a lot funnier lately than I've felt. Speaking of funny, I continue to want to get up on my toes so I can look around and past the local NFC fad many west coast fans are patiently waiting out.....as I told draglist 'friends' this week, I seek out 7.99 and quicker Top/Adv ET category cars for kicks as a 'tator. Can't get my head around people who race on a 10:1 financial diminishment- even Bucky must have lost money running at Spokane.....
As far as racing................

Solution oriented as I am, I've been a bit more adament about digging down through the marketing to find a clean patch of pure racing. The stupid violence the program mitigates, aside, I'll continue to affiliate with BSR- and harp about no one having found a viable alternative...and will crush trolls who diss the Brotherhood on the 'net- wherever I may roam.......

2007-07-22T09:12:00.000-07:00

Anger, Denial, Bargaining, Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth.......

Moldy Marvin has updated the www.savelacr.org site to express acceptance of the wreckin' ball that will shortly remove that asphalt n' grandstand cap sitting on top of all that lovely granite so needful for overdevelopment in the south end of our nation. Last night's Rat Fink party was promoted as the big 'tator fond farewell- MM contends next weekend will be racer-focused; ie, without flame throwing circus performers, peeps won't come out? Hmmmm.

'Marv' is already cheerleading a replacement- he points out the reclaiming rights are recreational in nature and contends that permitting a new track would be cake, as a result. All I can say is consult your attorney, kids! This 'amphitheater' and multiuse facility located adjecent the current, doomed track sounds pretty ambitious. What the city movers in Palmdale would think of another motorsports business interests me. Meanwhile, I would strongly urge the movers behind the blatent capitalism of using such a facility to look carefully at available resources and....if street racing prevention truly is the priority....just get something set aside to race on...and let Big Willie run it. The Brotherhood has been supportive of Palmdale, knows how to run a street race track and won't get in the way while plans foment to expand into a new "International" venue. Give it a couple of years as Brotherhood Raceway and let your market define itself.

2007-07-21T08:04:00.000-07:00

I grabbed some airtime this morning on Seattle's KVI AM- a station notable for broadcasting George Noory's Coast to Coast...and Tom Turner's Sat. A.M. "Auto Show". Tom fielded my pet NHRA concern- one for which NHRA itself has declined to respond. Tom, a longtime sportsman class godhead, appears confident that by the end of the Pro Series sale, we can have our "original premise of the NHRA" back.

We can finally kiss Noah goodbye, step off this damn ark, return to the natural world and not have to interact with the blowemup circus of multimillion dollar Pro series strife and PR; we can apply for an actual NHRA membership in a non profit NHRA focused on the values of sport and safety. Jeez, for that I'd actually agree to wearing standardized uniforms in the pits- as long as I get to wear pressed white chinos ala the Bean Bandits.......

2007-07-14T09:31:00.000-07:00

".....On A July Morning.....with the day, came a resolution....."- Ken Hensley

Spending bench racing and observational time between personal gruntwork this past month. Of note, I have a neat stack of photos stemming from last weekends' Shelton reenactment meet. I have chosen not to post photos on this blog; saving that method of telling a story for other places in my life. I need to put some to disc and will link to a board. What I have noticed is a strong presence of what has been termed "greybeards bench racing how fast they once were". I actually think this is not only a good....but a nesessary thing. Remember: NHRA's official history is now officially for sale.......
These car club reunions, once primarily a product of Lions/Irwindale/Puyallup etc. reunions are now becoming monthly luncheons and mocktail hours composed of research and reenactment projects and bs sessions that often bring forth needful historical facts out from under the proverbial rock.

Residential development is on many lips this month, as LACR prepares to shut down. The noted former Ceder Falls Raceway operator, Joc H., comments in his warm, if sometimes naive voce' within the July '07 dragracingonline.com. Joc doesn't see the connections his local business sponsors have in common with developers...their bankers and lenders. If a financial institution has to make a loyalty choice between a major developer involved in statewide projects.....vs. a small dragstrip and its' sponsor network of transmission shops and towing services.....

2007-06-17T08:34:00.000-07:00

The Troy Critchley tragedy instantly reminds me of Jim Dunn's Boise stunt a couple decades ago, when the Long Beach firefighter/flopper match racer burned tires into a crowd gathered near the water box. Yesterday's burnout on a parade route will, in all likelihood, give marketing and promo experts pause to clearly demarcate possible hazards- this was a special risk insurance nightmare come-to-life. AMS has got to be re-examining the entire PM series promotion and repurcussions. They got more 'signage' yesterday than the last 3 years combined. I do really feel for them.
I mostly feel for Mr. Troy, traditionally at the top of the organized PM pack, who has weight upon him this morning I don't wish on my worst enemy. Prayers and forgiveness, helping him to forgive himself...any tools Dunn used to get past his similar dark episode would be useful right now.

On another topic, long-term energy stores continue to be problematic and elusive, as I alluded to, yesterday. A real possible breakthrough.....http://www.vivoleum.com/event/>

2007-06-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

The Commuter's Footprint................Gentrification has forced working class people, as a whole, into commutes from rural and (ick..) suburban environs. Getting to work in America is getting to be more and more uneconomical and contrary to the ideals many road warriors carry, regarding environmental footprint. I've readily undertaken 170mi. round trips on a daily basis to get to a job site- 100 miles is not considered that bizarre to someone in Central Cali., runners from Banning to San Berdoo, or Ellensburg WA. contactors scooting over to the Microsoft plant in Redmond.

Engineering funding streams (read: multinational automotive corporations...) appear to be dropping out of development and distribution of the hybrid car. Stockholder pressure is creating short-term thinking that bleeds innovation dry. The dominant Hybrid out there neither addresses gas mileage nor minimizes enviornmental impact. Period. When the electric motor kicks out in favor of the liquid fuel power source at speeds over 15mph, the notion of interstate highway-dependent commutes renders the Hybrid moot. Battery reliablility is suspect- Mayor Nichols, of Seattle, has gone through parts n' parts trying to do the right thing by City Hall. The expense for those of us on a real budget is simply a killer. The nominal MPG, batteries that are more expensive than a gently-used car and the prospect of resale value of such a vehicle at a hundred thousand miles...when those batteries are near their fail safe point....point to an early landfill addition. But......how can we continue to rethink the concept when R&D budgets are threatened?

Fingers continue to point towards liquid fuel alternatives--the more recycled the better.

2007-06-03T08:56:00.000-07:00

An electric-powered drag bike running 8.15 at 155mph is to be commended. Before I link it, there is the little matter of exactly how this machine gets credited with a sub-3.60 1/8th mile clocking. Researching this....

Obviously, the NHRA sale of its' "professional" assets overrides drag racing news this week....this month....this year.....decade....
I may actually have balanced and interactive correspondance on the topic occur between Glendora and myself before all is said and done. I expect to be posting here as the situation begins to settle. As many cultures do, I've let 3 days of death and resurrection pass before even mentioning it; some respect is warrented.....

2007-05-20T08:33:00.000-07:00

Statrat Soiree'---an account of the pinnacle of perfection, literally, in the very geographic and performance heart of the sport. http://www.draglist.com/artman2/publish/press_releases/GARDNER_AND_SCHUTTE_MAKE_DRAG_RACING_HISTORY_AT_GATEWAY_INTERNATIONAL_RACEWAY.shtmlng

2007-04-28T07:05:00.000-07:00

Karefully Kraffted promotions are upcoming in the midrust. Route 66, the ubervenue outside Chicago, is filling in the calander on 5/19 with a verigated match racing 'show' presented by fuel alt. vet Rick Krafft. Krafft also has a similar deal forthcoming at Beech Bend. The "show" aspect does bring in an exercise in nostalgia with a rare Jim Fuerer vs. Arnie Beswick exhibition match. The whole feel of the bought in program seems booked sans the free range element that gives spontaneous summit meetings their drama. An entire pre-packaged caravan of match racers in a variety of classes can best serve those who have, perhaps, never witnessed a representation of the participants; ie Gassers, AA/FA, the rare doorslammer match racing thinger Farmer and Animal have goin on. Even the Coke circuit with Roger Lindamood in the early '70's looked less scripted than this. Control, in the name of a well-regulated and predictable show for promoters, seems to be the primary goal. Which seems to speak more to the corporate pressures put upon track promoters, than anything.....

Car counts go up...car counts go down.....
IHRA PM is running a hair UNDER two dozen entries for 16 car open national circuit events. Meanwhile, Top slammer and digger/alt. local entries are popping up all over the country with the remains of the subprime mortgage money available to them. A near-swamp of slammers will provide small tracks with high mph feature fodder this summer...at the expense of a nearly empty field of personalities standing out that can capture the imagination and provide a career-length focal point. Enjoy the machines; those drivers that do manage some ink will be too busy pushing sponsor products to define themselves....

2007-04-21T08:41:00.000-07:00

Steamy Images...................

http://hotrodsandstreetrods.tribe.net has a fun build-up of a Metro motor engine swap that will( we hope with no 2nd degree burns) end up as a Steam-powered skateboard-sized machine. The Steam motor guy..with limited fossil fuel experince..is not ashamed to ask for help..nor to laugh a little through the process. I'm tickled to follow this along....

California Dragway's imminent restriction on all nitro AND alcohol action (June 1st) is just a symptom of a local community allowing big biz to wallow-in, throw the citizenry a bone, and orchestrate deliberate-failure into the equation, so as to allow developers to coexist and collaborate alongside the corporate takeover of all gofaster sports. No one relocates a drag strip by a few hundred feet and has no idea of all outcomes..social, as well as engineering. LA, you were lied to from the start.....

2007-04-14T06:41:00.000-07:00

One year ago, on one of the west coast 'jalopy' boards, a general cry for "somewhere that is not Sears Point or Sacramento" went out. Indie strips are not, apparently, simply defined as not sanctioned by NHRA or IHRA. It is an attitude...inclusive, open to car club funsters, open to the definition of 'family' as family-of-choice; certainly, many car clubbers are closer than nuke family in actuality. Redding and Somoa seem to fit the bill. Redding's tenuous existance seems to be threatened by the very attitude that a non-corporate drag strip is superfluous in the 21st century..and is, therefore, expendable. Many people who mutter such spew under their collective breath are the very same suits who claim so loudly in the marketing motorsports spot interviews and columns how many great ideas they have to 'save' our sport. They remind me of people who visit auction houses to buy livestock from failing farms and, promptly, ship to slaughter. Corporate marketing wags are a danger to the sport. Unlike 'happy wappy' AJ, we cannot afford to turn a blind eye......

This is the 50th posting on Sustainable Autoculture. I am not suggesting anything I do has more than subjective purpose from a street-level culture vulture. The lack of objective reporting and journal-ism in the sport of drag racing and general progressive (ie alt fuels) racing scene this year is ....frightening. I started out just writing about what I wasn't reading in the big trade publications. How horrible to be floating out on a drag racing ice flow that seems to get smaller each year..........

2007-04-12T22:31:00.000-07:00

A horrible, horrible turn of events http://draglist.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1564

As I posted all too recently, a minor child has not the legal decision-making capacity to engage in certain hazards with nothing but the peer pressure of her parents' group of friends and biz partners to drive her forward. I am seething..and glad I am a couple thousand miles away this evening. Anger does not begin to describe my outrage......

2007-04-08T08:07:00.000-07:00

Tire Shake, Censorship and Wisdom of Elders

Animal brings up the not unfamiliar corruption predominant in the highest levels of atmosphere when major motorsport$ comes up http://draglist.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=37356#37356

I note moral outrage is suddenly tempered by those who realize dissent can keep them from racing with OPM. This is an old tale, told on a new day...
As I point out, fear of retribution in the form of lawsuit, ostracization from one's trade community and not-lookin-cool in suburbia are all threats to truth seeking-even at the point when lives could be saved and quality of life is at stake. This speaks more to the state of Amerikan groupthink than the reputation for giving of themselves that drag racers project by tradition-an attitude that was a key factor in attracting me to the sport in my wonder years.
This is both a spiritual and political skirmish. Political, in that many lay people with experience are not being encouraged to anty-in and contribute to what should be a Wiki on tire shake and vibration-related failures. We have the commtech to do so; now, we need the fortitude.

2007-03-22T04:27:00.000-07:00

Searching For Sustainability..............

From an era of basically homemade racecars that you and your friends invested your time, welding skills, modified parts and backyard ingenuity to compete at the top levels of the sport, we’ve now got a sport that is way too expensive to sustain and absolutely impossible for the average guy to do anything but watch. Drag racing has evolved into a high-dollar parts ordering system of higher technology, supplied by one high-tech innovator or another.--Darr Hawthorne

We continue to ramp up a new season, pray for Eric Medlin, ponder how much 10.5 in tires can sustain in terms of HP...and local promoter momentum...and sit in confusion as the obvious solution of footbreak bracket racing declines in the scheduling of big tracks.....

2007-03-04T09:52:00.000-08:00

Self-Insurance to circumvent sanctioning body powergrabbin' is the primary weapon available to small promoters. The business model on how to actually accomplish this has largely eluded me...until..possibly..this weekends' ADRL Houston meet-wrapping up as I write this. The NHRA has failed to shut er down, as the Texan's would put it, by refusing the Glendora 'HRA' policy as it would apply to ...well...the balance of the program, I'd expect. Kenny "the Gerbil" Nowling has done fahr'd the shot heard 'round the creature feature world by gettin' his own durn insurance rider to cover the no weight min. /no cube max./up to 50% in the tank "extreme" (gawd I hate that cliche'--and he makes his racers use it, instead of PM!) headliners. The ADRL www.adrl.us is, IMO, just another semi-worthless powergrabbin form. Same tired marketing attitude (primary sponsor, just announced, is....a stock trading outfit..sigh..) with autocratic and fully upfront 'discretion' by minions to rule on everything on the spot..Jim Tice wannabees without the humor.
Nowling going toe-to-toe with NHRA..and stockpiling legal plasma bags for the inevitable bloodletting (so we don't have to...) allows us to note the results and get the precedents established now...it makes me feel like an officer in Batu Kahn's easter Euro. campaign observing the tragic mechenasions of rival princes spreading their resources around in search of short-term gain...with no regard for the long-term. We bide our time....

2007-02-25T10:58:00.000-08:00

More signs that drag racing concrete' can work in '07 continue to appear

I've been....petting the NHRA Div. 7 site the last few months...wherein the addendum for Top Sportsman is laid out neat as a pin. What's nice about this rulebook synopsis is what it doesn't say. It doesn't demand restrictions on innovation, delays on getting through tech--nor anything to immediately concern afficianados of doorslammer fusion racing: that postmod form of T/S-Pro Street-Pro Mod creature that seems to offer the most for the least, whether bleacher bum or bastard stepchild of racing's lineage. Unlimited doorslammers continuing to maintain the abstract energtic lineage stemming from early FX/XS late '60's approaches in both handicapped brackets and heads up circuits. The Dept. of Weights and Measures reports only 2100 lbs. at the scales is needful in TS trim...making a lower HP combo feasible for sub 8 second activity on some kind of budget. Can't help but smile at this.....
The Bible of unlimited HP; the Dr. Robert Post monument that so many of us have used to grasp reality in the face of corporatist lies and propaganda, cites a kindly, paternal Wally Parks alluding to the examples set out by Samoa/Eureka, CA. and Summerduck, VA. as places the sport can really maintain 'purity of tone' and celebrate the reason we orig. embraced drag racing: that theater of machines thing I repeatedly refer to. I interrupted my '89 honeymoon for a few hours just so I could drive through the burnout box on the sanddunes strip of Somoa (and other words that begin with the letter 'S'). Summerduck (hee!) has unveiled their '07 schedule...and I'm in happyland at the prospect of regular 16 car Top brackets, regional 'outlaw' PM shows...and a Pat Musi-headlined 2 car match race. Plenty of potential south of WA. DC for action that defies the abilities for this colorful venue vis a vis the shutoff available. Holy Cow! Holy Creek coming up quickly! Holy S***!.........

2007-02-18T15:17:00.000-08:00

This is......as the 'kids' say..How I Roll...........................................

I came away with some treasures from the annual Early Times Model-T club swap meet yesterday. Don't be fooled by the low-profile event moniker..this is now THE huge "Luddite Winter Olympics", as I've dubbed it. The swap meet drew a Sat. crowd to rival a lot of Div. points meets-elbow to elbow at the Puyallup Fairgrounds.

As I empty my JC Taylor Ins. comp shoppin' bag, I find the '71 Garlits March Meet win HR mag. issue to go with my '65 Garlits win ish...which means I only have to get that famous 5.37 ET Bakersfield appearance issue to feel complete...cuz dats how I roll....econo.

I also have a good repro. from Past Lane- my fave Lions decal...the "Giant of the West" logo with the words on the left side that everyone who claims to love our sport should meditate upon:

ALL PROCEEDS TO CHARITY

We need less delusional thinking and corporate rewriting of history. We need to discuss how the Lions clubs and Mickey Thompson developed a business-savvy that focused upon a mutually beneficial arrangement to promote and grow our sport AROUND a sense of community and responsibility.... ethics too many racers and their sponsors have actively sought to destroy. The darkness their souls carry is its' own reward for greedy usurpation. I can be expected to call bull to more people face-to-face as industrially amoral reps try to scrub the slate of my culture and market their own alternative story to bury how drag racing, lakes and land speed events and honorable participants nourished our sport during the first 20 or so years. Much has been written how Wally Parks had opportunism as motivation in no less a manner than the Jim Tice's and Larry Carrier's of the sport. Control issues related to keeping his 'well-heeled amateur' friends in control of the pits and cockpits aside, Wally did seem to grasp how culture and local/regional continuity could not be derailed by money interests without karmic retribution. He certainly understood the need to respond to the needs of the little guy for the sport to survive. Early Hot Rod editorials made this very clear. Many shiny happy faces in suits are aware..and deliberately throwing ad and promo energy directly in the face of the original premise of the NHRA. May they rot.

2007-01-28T07:32:00.000-08:00

Bench racing about Top Fuel is a silly season activity I hadn't participated in much, of late. For some reason, this winter has had more than it's share of bumping into fans and former racers who want to talk the sport aspect of..the sport. While PR peeps grind out lowest common eliminator publicity, others of us tend to look at the Ron Smith's and D.A. Sanducci's of the sport..the Spokane factor, if you like.
Bottom line, if you and your friends spent quality time developing something in your own shop, it has more of an energy bond...a magical one..than store bought cookies, maaann.

I have been enjoying www.hemihunter.com for the above reason. There were a short handful of Eastern holdouts into the mid-'70's who would bring a rail to Englishtown any 'open' competition Sunday and solo, if nessesary, for the glory of winning Top. A throwback to what I refer to as the AAU days of our sport. Read and learn.

2007-01-10T22:05:00.000-08:00

Whiteout Snow conditions outside my Kitchen window prompt 'nesting' instincts...which quickly evoke my preferences for "Royal ET Brackets"--the form of run watcha brung racing that outlasts everything else. As it is January, I reprint Flyin' Phil Elliott's "I Have A Dream":
http://www.draglist.com/artman/publish/phil_elliott/article_001569.shtml

Our grassroots journalist/track promoter buddy from Iowa, Jok Nicholson, has a new for '07 column examining the sustainable bracket racer purse payout-as a Bracket 1/ Top Sportsman racer might envision it, week to week. www.dragracingonline.com.

2006-12-22T05:58:00.000-08:00

Winter Solstice is upon us. As I write this, I am completing a vigil to lasso the Sun King back into our lives. Test and Tune will be upon us before we know it...as well as a new season of subtle changes. Til then, a recap of more NR happenings ten years time ago...http://web.archive.org/web/19990220114120/www.nitronic.com/research/rev.html

2006-12-16T00:55:00.000-08:00

Nitronic Research was the pioneer drag racing website. Before I ever tapped a key on an internet discussion, Cole Coonce was placing his visage out there, between placing microphones artfully upon the decollage' of Vanna White fer a livin'. Recently, I've snagged a few archival pages from that daze of the past century of neocultural revolution. http://web.archive.org/web/19980129225443/nitronic.com/research/rfc.html

I'm still in awe of the whole Nitronic Windtunnel mind-of-it's-own that I am grateful to have been a part of...that I attempt to keep trimmed and burnin'.

2006-12-10T06:46:00.000-08:00

"The Day The Other Shoe Dropped" was given Dec. 8th, 1995- as the Grateful Dead announced their expected retirement. Dec. 8th, 2006 will be given equal onimous billing with the "final column" by the undefeated champion of Drag Racing hardcore fandom, Dave Wallace. Citing the points circus Glendora adopted, which I mentioned here earlier this year, Dave goes on to bend a few earshttp://www.dragracingonline.com/nowthen/viii_12-1.html .

I realize, as I read..and reread the master's voice, I am not quite as ready to throw in the towel on the current choices straight-line acceleration offers 'allfus'. The DRO site of Jeff Burk still continues to increase the coverage of primarily Southern and Midwest slammer shows which document the organic growth of 10.5 in.tire racers; add the T/S automatic tranny scene out of the Ronnie Hood-ruled Carolinas, more Texas circuits than one can count (a constant in our sport since Garlits first rode west..) and the rise of Chicago/Joliet action that reminds me of Englishtown: a track that stays busy merely by locating in such a huge metro area...and there to serve a rather broad clientele.
I recently concluded Union Grove to be the all-time 2nd best strip, based on these same factors. Despite recently publicized decline of rustbelt cityscapes, heartland drag strips continue to offer opportunities for invention and independence. If 'they' can keep up with the needs of service industry workers doing staggered shifts and building with whatever's available out there for classes not invented yet, 'we' will keep paying entry fees for multiple nights-weekly sessions. I've often felt drag strips should model their operations closer to...bingo parlors. Tight Tune and Bracket programs several times a week give more racers more opportunities to be loyal patrons.
My sense of the sport over the past 10 years has maintained some continuity. My decision not to give all my cash to all willing vendors has ostracized me less than I predicted; my selective participation in this sport has kept me from being flushed down over-ambitious organizational ratholes of all types....and kept me more resilient for change.
I also continue to predict all sanctioning bodies and circuits which cannot sustain themselves without Fortune 500 money are doomed. The implosion of 'shows' cast by 20th century marketing studies in a 21st century world will be sad, angry at times and a series of major life perception- altering events for those of us who grew up thinking drag racing had to evolve naturally, by its' very nature. Of course, Mickey Thompson also said the sport had to remain amateur for the same reasons...and we saw that unravel some 50 years ago.
The VRA may have been syptomatic of what is to come. Who will choose to redefine themselves and survive? Where will they choose to display such reinvention? Where will ANRA race without Los Angeles County Raceway(- due to hold a final Hangover Nats., with a Last Drag Race scheduled for, roughly, this coming Easter)? Will the Nostalgia racing movement go down in history as noted more for infighting than historical research and reenactment? Can we do such reenactment without these orgs...and still purchase insurance for safe event promotion?
Can a uniform, safety-based set of rules for financially sustainable classes ever be put together?

2006-11-28T20:18:00.000-08:00

Top Sportsman in '93...Neo-TS in 2007------Lineage has a steady hold on the West Coast, in spite of Barbie and Bratboy corporatism. The arguably outstanding run of the season in feature creature classes hails from Northern California. The '55 Bowtie of Bob Bunker made thousands of fans for years before the ProMod phenom met greedy overextended marketers. Bob Jr. is now at the wheel of a shoebox which captured grassroots attention while appearing in a series of match races against Wayne Torkelson. Consistant loyalty to those fans, in the form of a sustainable schedule based out of Sacto and Redding, keeps the "Folsom Flash" an affordable passion which can capture and keep moderate sponsorship support-allowing the Bunkers to define their own personalities and vision. Participation in the West Coast T/S series keeps camp followers regularly trooping from Southern Oregon and the Bay Area to see the Beast. The numbers coming from the Blown Alky machine confirm just as much "pro street" competitiveness as John Scapli demonstrates in his similarly shoebox'd "Wappado": 6.43ET at a stunning 221mph at the Sacto Govenator's Cup.....

I now understand the slow, "Caj" perculation of a discussion board on alt. drag racing on www.tribe.net is now better known, thanks to the Drag Racing List www.dragblog.com.
.......so joining the freaks, lefties, punx and redux at http://tribes.tribe.net/racersforcoffee
is an open invite for the clubbers who can cope. The SF based Tribe deal does not edit, other than for porn and hate..much as myself.

2006-11-21T07:51:00.000-08:00

Somewhere in Riverside County is thought to be some guy named Greg. Why I am being obtuse here is beyond me; his last name is sprinkled over the hardcore drag sites as I write this. No matter. The person in discussion has apparently made off (can't think of a better term for it..) with the final, beautiful Bel-Air of the late, heavily-mourned Dyno Don Nicholson. Cindy Nicholson has beseeched the "NHRA" community for anyone knowing the whereabouts of "Greg" and the car...which Mr. G. had supposedly kept in storage- incurring costs for Dyno's car in lieu of payments on a 7,000.00 promissory note Dyno had agreed upon prior to Mr. Nicholson's slide into his protracted disease.
Exactly what the details precisely are will come out in court..prelim. investigators already declined to press embezzeling charges. Wally Bell (no relation to Wally Booth...or Art Bell..) tells me: "..there are two sides to this. Trust me."
What brought it to our attention was an attempt to unload the car on EBay for a tidy 99,999.00.
Brazen! I reinterate my opinion posted on the Drag Racing List yesterday. I am outraged. The Nicholson family deserved better than this petty shell game. The car belongs, ultimately, to the ages- the Nicholson Brothers were akin to starting lineup in the orig. Cinci Red Stockings..they were present at the beginning of ALL TIME AND SPACE. Genesis had nothin' on Don and Harold Nicholson.

2006-11-08T19:52:00.000-08:00

Shameless me.......... I've just been in, on and around Draglist openly ribbing and baiting Animal Jim Fuerer to take up Duane Nichols' offer for a full meal deal if he can put together a bowtie package for the Super Chevy Nitro Coupe circuit. Animal has been in the midst of a well-deserved online lovefest, of late; many of us credit Fuerer for leading the UDRA doorslammer stars into an alliance with the east coasters in the Nichols-booked USSC and creating the alt. universe of feature creatures we enjoy today.

2006-10-29T08:13:00.000-08:00

Much as Democracy seems the best system able to handle society, the Cackle appears to be the most accessible arena for showcasing research and reenactment of drag racing history and its finest surviving historical pieces. The coolest event I attended this past year-now-ending was the Northwest Hot Rod Reunion at Bremerton Raceway. My thanks to Barbara Howell for the humbling experience of MC'ing the afternoon Pro Street/Nostalgia bracket runs and hawking local services on the PA sys. What a friendly zoo in a sport that loses its' focus so often out of fear of having the technology we wrap around ourselves taken away. Nice crowd; Nice human-sized gathering that could access hero drivers, tuners and vehicles, alike..

A 10 buck skettifest was the magnet for an autograph session that featured a kindly, elder-statesmen gathering of mostly Top Elim. stars. Ruth, Peterson, Bruins, Wayne King, Randy Bradford and his AA/FA coupe, Dick Kalivoda..guys I've been following since kinderhood.

Jerry Ruth has begun a new leadership role by setting up tuning for Donovan/Firepower based fuel engines...85 percent in the tank and, I've been told, 18-22 degrees of spark keeping these CACKLE engines lit and fascinating as a highlight to nostalgia-based meets..large and small. His advise and motivation is bringing Jim Green (427 Ford showcase digger) and others out for a final bow in the Northwest.

The ability to tailor such a static event to public sidewalk and drag strip alike is doing more to appease folks like me who tire of the corporatization of all aspects of the sport..and, finally, giving the straight press something to write about they can cover on their lunch hour in LA. At the strip, the whole meal can be consumed with the likes of Peterson and Fritz starring in an extended idle down the track, into the box and chirpped to the line...in the dark...! Brings out the weepy in each of us. I can relate to Wally Parks calling such reenactments "the outstanding event" in what should otherwise be gatherings to decide champions. BTW, the NWHHR featured great AA blown methanol coupe and quick prostalgia (6.00-7.99 bracket..) activity, as well.

2006-10-26T07:56:00.000-07:00

The Monster-sized Electric controllers (300 volts n' up) driving the 100mph club membeship upwards are essentially the result of one shop in Corvallis OR.- the Zilla boxes are being marketed towards multiuse, with street applications part of their program. Not backyarding, by any stretch- consistant manufact. standards to baseline with makes it digestible. Dunno; having electric car high performance going on as an In-House industry doesn't ring true for me. More networking of individual efforts and trading notes in the pits is more my cupatea. The NEDRA people have the Cafe' contacts..and blog, which I'll be checking from T to T...

2006-10-13T06:41:00.000-07:00

I can be mature about this. I really will try for a paragraph or so. I've been disciplining myself not to blow up on this blog until I have a chance to process and let the dust settle on motorsnorts issues. I really wonder how much snorting..or returning to snorting.. some of the drag racing world has been doing this year. As the season for racing is leaving and the one for retrospective returning, I'll neatly sidestep the analogies to Jeb Allen as a 17 yr. old, surrounded by love n' support at LIONS...and just avoid the whole kid in the jet car day from hell in Canada. I'm sure everyone had totally pure motives and no marketing avarice was involved. She was Shelly Anderson-and-more..and the Barbie-i-zation of the sport is now a distant, disturbing part of our history at the end of the last century. Whew. What a relief. Right........

A group of former Tacoma Timing Association members n' friends are reputed to meet once a month for lunch and bench racing. Out of this circle, which seems to include Walt Austin's orig. gang, are reports the vehicle Bob Haines brought out ( for what is well documented by Dr. Post as one of the first full-on tours by a Top Fuel op. from the left side of the country into the midwest) in 1959 with Jack Cross is being readied for well-researched reenactment. If anyone can find the famous "anguished" DRAG NEWS letter JoAnn Haines wrote Doris Herbert in the summer of '60, it would make a great feature in lieu of the usual framed "this car set a record at Desert Drag Strip and was Mr. Match Race #4 overall that year.." stat sheet we usually enjoy at such static resto displays.

2006-09-30T10:02:00.000-07:00

I notice well over 9 outa 10 freaks (and I count myself in this..) I rub up against who strive for a minimal footprint on Gaia are adament 'bout the need for motorpower to facilitate personal goals. That oblique enough? Urban guerillas notwithstanding, there is a finite level within which we can bike/walk/bus/pool within the current left coast econosocietal paradigm.

Amtrak is bitchin'- I've used it for thousands of miles over the years. Even the Dog is going more upscale--read: comfy at the long-term forecast of less affordability for those who need their service. Neither of these dealies has a great future assured. Sometimes, for example when I wanna drive to a dragstrip*, personal automotive transportation just works best.

I'll stop being a smartass for a sec. to mention a test-float I did last week of the Mercedes Smart Car. A bubble with a progressively more advanced cage (a mix of suburb lifestyle comfortable access blended with limb-security) encases more knees n' elbows room than my Econo 250! Couldn't believe I could easily factor in room for me, a galpal and a 135lb. newfie.
The performance--acceleration--can be reconfig'd as time goes on-play with the gearing and ratios to utilize the three-cyl. motorscooteresque turbo. At 1500lb. deadweight, this isn't as difficult as it could be. I envision placing these machines within megatowns like Seattle, LA, PDX which already have restricted top end speed needs, due to chronic jamups 24/7. I really like the quoted 8o mpg which I mentally adjusted to 55 mpg for harderscrabble lifestyle. Given that, you can fuel up for 5-600 miles, minimum. Playing with this on the Great Highway on up towards Eureka/Samoa Dragstrip comes to mind....Prices range well under 50K- still too steep for my budget, but attainable for someone who wants to plan for it. A housemate asked how I'd feel in my habitat of I-5 inside a Smart. Reletively (ie, it's not my old Kaw..), I could see it. Without visibility to Semis, there are issues. Maybe better we keep it on good ol US 99 and keep pushing the idea.

*-I pledge allegience to the philosophy...and idealism of the Brotherhood. Still, and yet, the news from the South Bay on the latest "psuedo-presentation" by Big Willie doesn't sound promising for a people's park in LA that street racers can utilize. Nothing new palipatates. Richard Heath will likely do another positive Press report as is his charge within the National and International. What I'd like to see, in writing, is something akin to "If not, then when and HOW"..Facilitating drag racing an hour away from metro areas is one thing...muffled tracks such as Portland Intr. and the Brotherhood Raceway are quite another...local tracks by and for people who can travel mere minutes to enjoy fellowship and scald some tires.

2006-09-17T08:31:00.000-07:00

Given the access of what I write over here to those who live outside any performance interests, I want to document that Chris Karamesines accepted the help of a gaggle of mechanics who 'did it for love' in preparing his dragster for the finals of the major event held at New England Dragway. The mid-70's-yr.-old living godhead took his reassembled motor and made a valient attempt at defeating Bobby Lagana Jr. (another hero of mine for his low-budget ways..). A loose fuel fitting ended the attempt shortly off the starting line, but you non-racers who are reading this need to understand the tears that were shed weren't just from nitromethane fumes. The obvious respect and awe of Karamesines were transperant and a huge leap from the early '60's attitude which dis'd anyone over 30 still in the sport. This riff is about respect for the abilities of people who may be in the last pages of their story. For many, this event put another nail in the coffin of senior discrimination.

I expect fallout over Dave Wallace Jr.'s "I'm Done" remark re: NHRA national tour corporate whoring will continue through the winter 'silly season'. This season will be one of grasping at straws by the suits and a continuation of searching for more alternatives (ala the aformentioned New England meet) for racing in the light of day. I prefer racing safely in the light of day. Emotionally and counting round wins, It works better for me. There continues to be the last and ultimate solution out there..if sancioning bodies won't prioritize the needs of the working grass roots.

2006-09-07T07:30:00.000-07:00

John Thun's memorial will be at the Pierce County Fairgrounds...needing as much space as possible to send this flyboy off in style--this Sat. noonish til 4ish.

Your homework this weekend for your audit of 21st Century Fastfreakin' is to access some returning 'burners'-ie, attendees of Burning Man. They tend to have disposable income to match their lil imaginations. Find out how plans are afoot to take playa concepts and drive them through the neighborhoods with those altvehicles that arrived in Black Rock on trailer...I want to see how burners are going to winter without Chevron Biofuel fillups. I am leaning towards optimism here......

2006-09-05T07:18:00.000-07:00

I wrote a eulogy for John Thun, the pioneer of an airstrip/dragstrip located just south of what later became Puyallup Dragway. The 'maxdownload'upload..I dunno..thinger on Bill Pratt's site isn't running. Rather than try to save and upload it later, suffice it that Thun was a gentleman in how he raised his family and ran a safe place for young people to develop themselves, as well as a fun joint for old flyboys to screw around. He maintained his lust for life right up to the end at age 89.
While on Draglist, however, I ran across a Carl Olson retrospective of his fabled "last drag race" at Lions. It seems he's asked to do this nearly every year. We're at the point where we need him and the firsthand story to preserve our history. All I know is he keeps telling it, I keep reading it and keep being shaken every time. so...Go there and prepare to shed tears.
www.draglist.com

2006-08-30T07:07:00.000-07:00

Maintaining my faith in the organized sport #1:

-ANRA ran a decent Palmdale August meet with sportsman cars as stars- supporting racing on a regional level. This is the kind of meet at which you can get to know outstanding performers and amusing people...and follow their season without a tellie. Southern Cal still has great, legendary racing on a Racer Brown-level. We just need to cut throught the hype and hug the guardrails.

-Danny White reports Pro Mods at Caddo Mills attracted a dozen cars who adapted to conditions and fans who responded to heroic efforts...packing the place, contrary to reported trends of doorslammer featurettes. Corporate Drag Racing STILL can't kill the homemade car and the local star...

2006-08-19T22:34:00.000-07:00

An Idaho columnist made some poignant remarks about stick and ball economics and the growing chasm between tickets n such and the reach of even middle-income 'mericans at www.thenewstribune.com Given the biggest fuel-forced circuits' tributes at the turnstiles, similar complaints regarding Premiere League English Footie, and the reckless emphasis on bigger economics ubber alles, having good reports from Spokane and the Tice Jr. Big Show are a cool breeze. Rich Baily alludes to the show having featured the usual Dead concert good vibes we associated with Orville Moe- so it really WAS the track and not the operator......and at "'80's prices". Will Karamesines become the first octogenerian to run 300mph? Anyone betting against him?

Exchanged missives with Jon at the North American Eagle land speed record attemptin' team this weekend. www.landspeed.com Spanaway, WA.'s LeMay Car Show is next weekend; I plan to meet there with team members to plot further adventures...

2006-08-14T05:27:00.000-07:00

I'm gonna do it. I'm going to give away the ending. www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com I threw a drum of popcorn at Ed Hui and pointed towards the best vantage for both sight lines and note takin'. The Martin Sheen-narrated hollywoodlawn (oops, that was a famous NY drag QUEEN-get it right, Rev..) production pushed open several journalistic and auto industry doors to dig for the answer to the movie's quiery. After judge and jury have decided, the SHOCKER is when the post-preppie industry wag-turned activist joins venture with a former CIA OPERATIVE to put together a new plug and play auto promo firm. AHHHHHHH! The flick ends when neo-cons are threatening to embrace former liberation theology celebs in a big brownout of love..

2006-08-03T20:39:00.000-07:00

Just read astonishing Cole Coonce story and couldn't delay directing towards his LA CITYBEAT front pager from 7/27/06..ohjeezusohgods. CC took a deep plunge and drew upon some post-pomo inner-strength for this one: Fear and Entropy in Los Angeles. Just go to Cole's Kerosene Bomb site and link from thee upper left corner. In addition to whereishenow'ing Doug Kruse, CC....man, just read it. Made me cry over my cold steak and Deep Purple bootlegs. www.kerosenebomb.com one more time, folks. COLE, this is far and away superior to even your best NITRONIC RESEARCH material. Talk about tacklin' and tellin' it like it elfin is.....

2006-08-03T16:00:00.000-07:00

Love Of Sport Weekend could be the punchline for a trying scheduling joke, as we still emotionally process Shelton Airport doing it's long overdue revivin' for one big meet at a time.
Walt Austin putting up the moola keeps this from being taken too seriously as a purest attempt at revisiting the culture the track gave up in '67--the last time dragsters ran amok along the tarmac. Rahn Redman, exec. of the Shelton Dragstrip Assoc. is ambitious about 4-600 entries and upwards of 8000 tators double-stacking up each ditch. We're bracing ourselves: knowing that such an assembly is under a microscope is not guarenteed to bring out the best in people.

Unless stuff happens, the meet will be docudrama'd in Natural Dogfur. A different, perhaps much more predictable soiree is happening about half an hour north on Hwy. 3. Same two days...likely many of the same faces shuttling madly up and down the west sound highway.

My naieve Idealism wants very badly to see the Shelton meet succeed-10,000 folks looking on...the whole deal. It would evident how true-roots racing can draw, self-nuture and make money..for those in the sport who need that sort of reward. It would draw, as if from Mother Earth herself, the elements needed to recreate a true, non-corporate NHRA. We could then proceed to threaten lawsuits..if that's what Glendora insists upon. I want to be proud to be a part of the largest motorsports organization in the world...for all of those 'right reasons'. I'll be waiting for news at a currently esconsed..yet legendary for being 'temporary'..NHRA track.

Full Throttle News is showcasing the increasingly adroit reporting of Darrell Conrad. The man is what Richard would call a 'racer'. A racer, these days, is apparently one who can afford to run it up and down the coast under our current energy budgets. Damn good writer; gave the Luna's a multipage turner on..a rainout! That's the sort of stuff I thought only I had the nerve to do! Glad Cali now has a glorious postcard collection of Pacific Raceways under an inch of rain. The true and tight highlight of the August issue in beautiful black and white (my preference..) is the Walt Stevens/Jack McCloud "Poachers" FETF retrospect..complete with sociological ramifications, ie he told the whole story. Really nice read. Once again, if the top end of the economic scale on our west coast indie scene is your bag..plus midwest alky/nitro AAFA action..grab a subscription. Sat. night Lions wish-you-were- there's will love it. Those of us who also crave Weds. night/Sun. afternoon style are sadder......

2006-07-27T07:34:00.000-07:00

A well seeded-in forest of a Web site and a old grove shooting up new sprouts have updated...
Bill Pratt's www.Draglist.com is balancing a group of, I believe, 11 forums to serve the verigated interests of racers and "the hardcore race fan" that Draglist was famously started for. Bill is, frankly, one of the more mature public figures in our sport. He o'rsees the site with an intent to play tough if needed..but never does. Pratt has earned respect over the years for playing nice, encouraging anecdotal history and doing a lotta footwork to maintain Draglist as a statrat playpen. The "rulebook" for contributing is republished this morning. I intend to be a frequent flyer..and friend in the site.

I consider www.fullthrottlenews.com part of my extended racing haunts...tho I'm not sure the Luna/Heath axis running that refitted ship would agree. The sport is SO hard on anyone doing observational journalism..as opposed to promotional reporting. The Full Throttle News of today is now the "official" vox of a healthy half-dozen circuits--as such, FTN has relinquished the persuit of the "controversial", outside of Richard's personal editorial. The letters to the editor section is deleted in favor of press release print. The rag continues to be the upscale newstalgia choice...but the definition of "grass roots" will not allow such as the Brotherhood, Irwindale's street strip coverage, et al. in the gates. As such, I'm sitting on the sidelines, instead of contributing what I'll be the first to agree was just a blog in print of a monthly column.

2006-07-02T21:10:00.000-07:00

A couple quick links...

www.alternativefueluniverse.blogspot.com is a shockingly well-designed (this opinion coming from a cat who luddites words..) blog started by a pal of this deal who values workers, freedom and progress. Peg it to find postmod news..I will.

www.lacitybeat.com and www.kerosenebomb.com will keep you up to date on Cole Coonce's published works as they perculate from the middleaging Indie pioneer. BTW, other fans of Wrenchski can see his riffs lain down on Kerosene, also......

2006-07-02T18:04:00.000-07:00

Picking and Choosing where to go the final week of June..

I could have attended what, arguably, is this years' smallest organized drag race- the Solar Power purest race over a quarter-kilo in Wenatchee, Wa. (center of the state; famed for Aplets and Cotlets fruit strip pioneers, agrihustling in general..) Total: 3 entries ..Coulda repeated last years' split road trip when we pitterpattered down I5 to Woodburn for two nostalgia meets. This years' first scheduled had a retroflopper show, our buds with the 7.50 second front-engine Top Elim. digger circuit and Howard Anderson uber alles in methanol fueled blown "gasser" elim. which seems to predominate the NW shows, due to heavy emphasis promotion. Good indie show, too; low 7's and 190 mph speeds even in marginal strip conditions.

No, I attended another 2 day meet last weekend. I can't believe I'm writing the words: NHRA National Open. If it hadn't been held at Bremerton, I'd have been VERY resistant. The heat sucked my fluids...and about 2 tenths from the Top Comp cars (named for the now-Tice Jr.-led AHRA lineage..much respect). Top has heated up both in ET's and estim. expenditures. As this blog deals with looking at sustainability, I'm documenting for an expected brief history...at 200g estim. for each 6 sec. operation, the 2nd mort. money alluded to earlier in this site is NOT there as it was the past 4 yrs. That leaves few options beyond legit sponsor funds to keep going......
So, let's go somewhere else! New McAmis chassis (a great '66 replinova) and old TAD chassis missles side-by-side were one great show to co-headline with legit NHRA Class competition in a S/S-Stock combo. The admission (not that I'd bitch with recently-rare press comps..)? Only 10 bucks. 200 MPH (ok, 199 and change...) action for 10 bucks. A good crowd for an ND only promoted show was legit-welcomed by the Handlers Car Club..who acted casual in the impending face of nastymeanrottonroundygoroundprorepublineck (phew!) goings on near the site of our fave Puget Sound strip. It was wonderful to watch Don the Worm Elgin run a full second under his index, keep his sense of humor following a dual early duck sendoff in both S/S and Sportsman
elimination, and load up with his eternal optimism shining down Old Clifton Rd. It was nifty watching long-distance Bonanza strip (Walla Walla!) regulars frantic-grinning into the lanes. I hung Sat. with a trailer full bench racing with Northwest Dragbike clubsters Rex and the eterally looking for his ground-up tuneup Rich Padzus swapping FROGGY tales of John Knox and comparing stories of the NOT RIGHT headspace of exhibition sideshows we'd caught...Captain Jack's Englishtown/ATCO peroxide-rocket skates comes to mind.....There's a reason thousands will focus up on what is, by defin., a bracket show. Quality and class-conciousness...and read into that anything you want.

2006-06-29T08:16:00.000-07:00

An Electric Car barrier has fallen.....

John Wayland has punched a hole through the 100 mph barrier in his STREET LEGAL Datsun 1200. Check out the National Electric Drag Racing Assoc. site for 'ficial details www.nedra.com

The Lectic performance cult has been Portland Orygun-centric for years...the mirth and reverent highlight to their activity may well be best documented in The Death of the Electric Car- the long awaited whistleblow documentary that continues the new fad of taking horrific conspiracy theories..and documenting why they weren't abject hysteria approx. 10 yrs. after the fact(s).
Racers For Coffee WILL be there for a screening this eve.

2006-05-27T09:50:00.000-07:00

S.I.R.----Sorry, It's Raining.....The Goodguys "National" event scheduled for this weekend in Kent, WA. looks to be a total washout. The Memorial Day weekend has no modern-era association with majors- with the weather history a good reason. The Kent track historically uses this weekend to promote SCCA road course usage and perpetuate the owners' appreciation of that form of sport. Given the nature of casual sportie car racing, a little rain is not seen as a disaster; change the tyre and slow it the elf down. The casual attitude is a noted difference between current newstalgia teams and those of ten yrs. ago. I miss those days. The west coast is sweating a thin sheen of sullen, humorless competition that the nostalgia sport was 'sposed to provide an antidote for. The new Pete Jensen film may serve as a documentary of the swan-song to what Scotty Fenn called "a wonderful hobby". I know I harp on this, but when the pits began to remind me of the darkest aspects of circa '81 pro racing, I retreated to the (literal) fringe of the sport-and focused on ANRA and indie "oldies" shows. The relentless emphasis on a percieved right to make money off the sport, right-wing politics, caucasian culture(...yes, a Santa Ana-era Black family of note has returned--their contribution to the sport cannot be ignored...but DON'T tell me racism isn't implicit in nostalgia racing!) and de-emphasis on coverage of sportsman classes reminds me of UDRA-styled ignorance and elitism. What happens when rich white kids hit 60 yrs of age and can't mortgage their homes anymore. Darwin redeux. A legend in Stock Elim. who held national records throughout the '70's agrees with me that the drama (including death threats..) in the hot car ranks amounts to a blip on the radar---I call this Sustainable Autoculture for a reason.....

2006-04-27T07:08:00.000-07:00

I wrote a brief eulogy for Ronnie Sox into the archieves of Drag Racing Underground, out of Etown. It somes up most of what I feel about corporate drag racing today.

Mr. Burk and I have had a toe to toe in the Drag Racing Online pages; he privately chided me for what I felt were peripheral, misunderstood comments. Communication is a very elusive thing.... his discloure of the site's motivation running on surveys revealing a much higher interest in unlimited doorslammer forms and gives me reassurance that his form of profit-seeking from our sport will continue to maintain some fairly high and noble aspirations. He still wastes his...and our time by covering the "national" event circuits- an albatross that was rendered ineffectual over a decade ago.

Now if the local rains would lift.......

2006-03-04T17:22:00.000-08:00

Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere I Choose.....

Cole Coonce, a former publisher of mine (and a mentor in carving out personal space in the alt west coast motorplay world where bohemia and burnouts meet) processed out loud with Drag Racing Online last month. The pre-Pomona rave was increasingly rare coming from a guy who has forsworn anarcho-hotrodding in the 21st cent. Cole pointed out how much Shav Glick's gettin 86'd from the LALA Times staff is another shift in the winds. NHRA really can't use a journalist like Glick...........or Coonce, for that matter, as their marketing stance stands today. What CC points out (between marathon bicycle assaults and drinking really bad aussie beer) is the perilous state NHRA seems to be in. No promo firm (which is what Glendora has regressed to..) can long float upright when the apparent interest in it's outlet(s) is draining fast. How much someone like CocaCola will bear may be forthcoming as early as Indy this year. I still liken this sport to something so basic we can organize that It will prevail just as people will play softball anywhere basepaths and a modicum of outfield can be found. The 'tavern league' model of drag racing....and car clubs which flourish in most of North America will keep side by side acceleration going perpetually. This will transcend petroproblems and business models of people who raped Wally Parks' vision for any (admittedly idealistic) "wholesome" outlet. We created it...we supported it when it went horribly wrong...let's watch it melt like a big freaking candle.

2006-02-14T18:56:00.000-08:00

Pomona..and Valdosta...

..a little Georgia community of legend once spawned a ruff and ready kid I was tending after when TA in my Seattle HS band class. Don't remember his name; just remember how bradaccio didn't become him. Learned lots about competitive marching bands (a phenom unknown in mellow Puget Sound communities), as well as how someone can promote themselves into getting attention..just to disappear a heartbeat later...something I would know about.........Never did see the little trombone one man band after day 3............
Very interested in how the American Drag Racing League are going to handle a "manufacturers meet" sized pre-entry of over 80 unlimited doorslammers this weekend. It WILL be historic..either as the second coming of the Super Stock Nationals...or the'74 New York PDA meet .....for door cars.

Everywhere I went in Portland on Mon. the 13th, it seemed I ran into John Force fans...on the street..cops in coffee houses...the human resources goddess at the agency I was scoping out.
A 4.66 gets one's attention. NHRA lucked out with unusually warm conditions during the early weekend. The fully funded firstoftheseason showcase did it's usual magick on people..like the opening day of baseball. The fifty or so owners of national circuit 'pro' machines now enter the real competition of justifying their presence in front of seven figure financial expectations....an exercise, historically, of diminshing returns.

2006-01-17T18:36:00.000-08:00

Sustainable had better equal durable. To that end, I'm meeting this Thursday with Ed Hui and a familiar face in the photorealm to plot the '06 "season"; i.e., points of interest on the left coast worth documenting in words and pictures. Noted: Goodguys have dropped the Sonoma event for lack of $upport. Will Seattle2 be the finale north of Smokerspatch for the national-level newstalgia runners? I honestly hope so; the most interesting racing of that sort occurs when tracks like Medford and Woodburn ("Gassers") , Sacto (AA/FD) and Boise (Everyone!) finesse a program that closely reflects spectator interest, circuit response and local conditions (read: finances)...and stay flexible enough to sustain the overall Western match race culture.

2005-12-26T12:21:00.000-08:00

St. Stephen's Day rant.........

I'm told it took a couple spatulas and banker boxes to put away the remains of an import racecar which failed to heed the cones and markers in a construction zone along Oregon's Hwy. 26. The apparently impaired import runner slammed into an obvious.... CRANE! Estimates the vehicle was doing 80 at the time. Point to all this? The influence of an anti-substance-impaired racer organization operating in the real world, such as the Brotherhood of Street Racers (STILL the only organization I've run across that gets it right..) is so needful, so obvious and so unappreciated by the profit-oriented motorsports industry which is pushing 50-65 dollar admission to 'street legal" style events in California. That price inflation needs to stop at the Cali-Oregon state line; i.e., not at Medford, Woodburn, Madras or PIR! Not at Bremerton. Not anymore! Stop discouraging legal, safe racing with working people in mind.

2005-12-06T18:36:00.000-08:00

Eating PiePt.1.......

Shamers on me for reading over the shoulder of Large Jim at Woodburn Dragstrip's tower last summer...and assuming just cuz the schedule and surface evidence on his desk didn't explicitly say so, that the National Electric Car drags were MIA this year. The NEDRA schedule proclaimed otherwise. It was damn irresponsible of me to not even ASK, assume and not do my homework. I consider myself a columnist (read blog in print..face it..), not a formal journalist. To not give my column in Full Throttle News my best effort did NEDRA and Woodburn (not to mention Richard Heath) a disservice...maybe costing admissions to an event I'm an admirer of.
I'm of the school: "Don't apologize; change your behavior." I'll leave it with that.

2005-12-01T19:01:00.000-08:00

My Ford Dreams: Did Ford cave in to AFA ?

........Joe from New York is a mainline, patriotic, proud union worker who isn't afraid to call BS on homophobes, unionphobes and otherphobes from what I've seen so far. Maybe he doesn't want to be labeled "progressive"; I don't like to be labeled myself- too eclectic. Progressive thought without the drama.............

2005-11-22T19:17:00.000-08:00

The Lucy Baldridge of Drag Racing..........Silly Season seems to have heaved and ebbed in the coarse of a few weeks past the final So. Cal majors ( Bfield/Pomona). While the globe stops all activity (if you believe some of the marketing brahmans disguised as publishers 'round these parts..) to find out if 90-ish Wally Parks will do some weird 'last, defiant act' of selling the NPO roots off to Johnny Farce and the Sandtrap Interphew Arrghestra, I will continue to beat into the tarmac that this IS, REMAINS and perpetuates itself as a SPORT---as such, it has no direct life-support to any particular financial juice, does not find itself beholden and cannot, by nature, be co-opted. Drag racing started as match races between such as trains and horses....a tome' on the reputed roots of our sport in America was covered some months back in that edgy weekly LIFE magazine. Sorry, Wally; the quarter-mile started on the backlanes of major EAST coast towns like New Amserdam with equines side by side running for titles, cash and pride. Substitute cars, bikes, snomobileeez, Brotherhood Wheelchair races et al and as far back as the founding fathers. It's my sport; the NHRA is still a small part of it. Wally's contribution is as the Diplome' of it's 20th century aspects.

2005-10-30T13:55:00.000-08:00

FREE INYOKERN! ....................................................................................................................................As I'm trying to break from backissues of life (housing, work, partners, goats...) I'll take a few minutes to confirm my ulterior motives: corrupt a largely redneck-populated formal sport into the joys of neo left coast 21st cent. alternative fuel-powered drag racing with a pagan twist. HAR!
The imminent demise of a perfect venue for such activity has me bunched. Fifty one years of serene Dust Devil activity on a barely used tarmac is coming to an end. The east Kern county strip is worthy, if anything is, of historical site sanctuary. The blatent bigotry against technical ecstacy by the GMan referenced in the LA Times dated Oct. 10th '05 grates me no end. At the least, a lawsuit and desist order pending examination of the airport's contributions to the community rates. At the most.....but, bracket racers with 40 grand diggers and 120 grand mobilee homes aren't really civil disobedience types....or are they?

2005-10-12T17:34:00.000-07:00

Not much to add, except Jeff Burk published an editorial dated today that shared his freakin' feeeeeeelings about the sport, the politics and the grassroots alts to that expensive high end that gets all the ink. With FTN and any other print zine facing the preverbial wall when deviating from the marketing norms, I give Burk my blessings for remembering and reinterating that this sport started at the roots and will survive there long after the majors have bankrupted their teams and sancioning bodies.

2005-09-27T19:10:00.000-07:00

Quiet in the midst of highly focused activity; not unlike preperation before an important match. I'm averaging a new business a week in order to finance life. I'm convinced thatPre Paid Legal is the working class revenge on oppressive megalawyer influences in little guy rights and freedom in our economic system. I want to carry the message to racers who still suffer. Rain expected all weekend. Funds availability will likely keep me in the puget sound area all weekend. Meetings and study. Thanks to Gypsy for a little cyber hospitality and chivalry 'round my dear Duci. Pro Street at Bremerton scheduled for Sat. would likely offer the same 8 second rides we've seen all season. Dick Ewing has a great purple vette, yet his radial tire class car cannot carry the whole scene. We need more 4 second eighth mile action on at least a monthly basis to add cred. in the pacific northrust.

2005-09-22T17:44:00.000-07:00

Equinox.........

Energy going into finding new homestead site and annoying monetary commitments (financial and personal) that can't help but accompany same. The weekend is looking bleak for Nostalgia drag racing, never mind structured street race events. Oct. weekend Bremerton final is next..and last race on the horizon. Grass roots racing will soon likely be replaced by grass roots entrepanurial activity. Hopefully a little seasonal celebration will also fit in. Feeling like the need for winter season events may be driven into the ground on this site. A little blues-based jamming with other sober musos might quell the frustration. Oh well; if all else fails I can always challenge Manny the Goat to two outa three....

2005-09-20T18:08:00.000-07:00

BIG WILLIE, where are you??? Year round Street-legal style drag racing at Pacific was proposed in the opinion page of the Tacoma-based News Tribune yesterday. A flush club feeling philantropical could facilitate this much as the ol' Emerald City ET bracket assoc. did during the 80's. The Brotherhood would hands-down make this a sane proposition. Spread it to PDX; why stop in Kent?

2005-09-08T16:53:00.000-07:00

PS...I'm coming out of the broom closet. I plan on attenting the Portland Pagan Pride event this Saturday. Racers For Coffee emerged after reading a particulaly annoying column by a very-sure-of-himself midwest minister representing that 'other' RFC. Stacy somebodyorother, I think. Ron Colson would know.. Anyway, I'm always glad to..er...fellowship with christian racers and fans who have some sembalence of tolerance about them. I am, however, tired of avoiding the subject if it's right in front of a 'race bench'. I intent to choose my friendship and fellowship priorities based on love and acceptance..in degrees. Boundaries, maaan.

2005-09-08T16:33:00.000-07:00

Horsepower Heaven Larry has deemed the GGUYS Seattle Labor Day event one of the best meets ever held at the Kent venue dating back to '72. While my assessment is colored by the palatable insular feeling I get every time I drive through the gate, me thinks the magic is somewhat diminished by fewer legends outside the NW showing up, fewer legends from a decade ago involved in "nostalgia" racing and what I feel confident will come to pass: a new generation firmly involved in research and reenactment at these meets; whose accomplishments are not yet celebrated prominantly. Still, Gene Adams! Mousie! Not enough time within the few hours I allowed myself Sat. to firmly appreciate everyone. Great to see Woods. Figure I owe some public appreciation...say a letter via Heath. But the magic...yes, I 'felt' something far more mellow than I expected. The track was pretty durn good for Kent. The AIR was the star.

2005-09-06T18:16:00.000-07:00

Bless your hearts...........

I will periodically spend time lurking on some nostalgia-focused and grass-roots based boards. The emergence in recent weeks of more resources within which to read n' write(..in several cities on the left coast..) promises more activity. This blog, as much of my life does, appears to be fairly hit and run. So be it. I may have a roof over my head, but my heart and perspective is close to the streets and backwoods of my roots. I'm perpetually in search of community...a central domicile to stay proximate to same...and a site to keep my racing interests balanced with my social and human services vocation and Purple Goat Farmer(entertaining brushing clients).
This search for community, not to appear whining, is predicated on tolerance and reasonable sobriety levels within my family of choice. Drag racing is party-hearty in gereral. I never have grasped the connection...thought mechanical trade and creativity would prosper more without booze and blow. Coke heads have no sense of humor. Consequently, I stay away from a LOT of the scene; hang with a handful of aquaintances at the track and let people burn out AND fade away. Makes me too sad to stay on this topic..........WHEN I do return to brackets, this will be a strong determining factor how, when and where I play.......

Thanks to Mousie Marcellus for allowing me to pay back for all he's done for the SPORT (as distiguished from beancounting that Glendora would rather we focus on..). Selling shirts and donkeying for the mouse man was quite an amazing experience. I share a brief dialogue: Mousie: "Hey, Mikey!"
Boyd: "Yeah, Pops?"
Mousie: "Did you know you grab the side of the car at half track?"
Boyd: "..mmm..To get ready to pull the chute.."

Now...do a little theosophical research........

Just heard from the other side of Puget Sound...staying out of racer politics as much as possible; It looks like I might be attending the Woodburn season feature creature finale come Sept. 17.
Plans in Seattle on Sun. keep it from being a full on focus. That darn balanced life again...

2005-08-30T19:13:00.000-07:00

Some Horizontal Bop..........

Jeff Burk keeps pushing an interesting appearing site for a shockingly wide cross-section of fans and racers. His is one of the few sources I can count on for heartland match race coverage and perspective; room for favorite nutsos like a hero of mine, Cliff Gromer-who also sheltered Tony DeFeo in his prime..not to mention the ongoing presence of the Brunt Bros. I read MOPAR ACTION for their writing more than for the car features, themselves. The Brunts can make New Years streamers out of toilet paper. Mr. Burk, however, keeps doing this all things to all fans running commentary on the No Hot Rods Anymore circuit. Does he not see the empty stands at the UnNatural Events? Does he not realize that the midwest combined fan count at pro street, outlaw SS, PM matches, indie shows at Cordova, UDRA etc. outdraws the likely total east of the rockies ticket count of what Glendora continues to sell as da Major Leagues? Note that little unofficial poll at Irwindale a few weeks back where the assembled punters proved they could care less about millionaire multi-car teams with identical uniforms, haircuts and personalities. Drag Racing Online is a wonderful presentation. It continues to be cluttered with an increasingly unaffordable and inconsequential headline act.

To reinterate my request from the upcoming Full Throttle News column---rack your brains for the likely lineage of a car based out of VanPort/Longview WA in the early '80's...a '65 Don Long digger run by Bob Caldwell known, at the time, as Beyond Thunderdome. We need history to properly research and reenact this great black digger.

2005-08-23T18:52:00.000-07:00

Greetings..........

This is the somewhat more spontaneous epilogue for the 21st century of the written appreciation of our sport which I danced around during the daze of Nitronic Research.
I will do my best to pull few punches, while attempting respect for scene and subject.
Drag racing is getting more complicated all the time; possibly more so than any era since
Lions was shut down. There is beauty in this. Also, more form for possibility. More features,
more classes. More, if one looks at the very BIG definition of our sport- not making one
proportionally small interest define it all. I am actively suiting up and showing up at
everything from pro street cars and bikes to Goodguys points meets. I intend to publish
observations with dear "Unk" Richard Heath for as long as his benefactors allow. I am
not deluded into thinking that such a large wallet-laden sport such as which exists for
commercial reembursment today will tolerate much opinion. So many...how the kids
say today?...nuances of the sport are active, however, to keep 'em down on the farmyard
of their minds...until such a time as mind expansion creates such inclusivness that will
encourage simultaneous, interdependence as we've seen in the past when FUN was
overriding.
I'm NOT doing this daily! I DO welcome nonflammable dialogue--face to face and
professionally performed would be preferred. Stay independent--see you at Kent
Sat. at the GGuys meet-------ask for me at the Winged Exress pits.