Lee was hardly crestfallen. “We’ve got a good team and a good car,” he remarked. “This car and all the parts are Don Prudhomme’s Tommy Johnson Jr. back-up car. They were downsizing their deal, and we got the best equipment we’ve had yet.”
While not saying exactly how much, I was reminded that a new Murf McKinney Funny Car chassis (and that’s what Lee’s is) costs $75,000, the body $18,000 and the mounting of the body another $18,000. Just about what it costs to play in one of those televised poker tournaments – one time.
AND DA WINNAH
Gary Densham, who won the 2004 U.S. Nationals Funny Car title in tandem with the Skoal Funny Car Shootout, seemed to take on that form again in Texas. He clearly was the most consistent Funny Car racer, using consecutive times of 4.874 and 4.844 to boff Terry
Haddock and Cruz Pedregon, and then a splendid Rich Amoral-inspired 4.850/300.20 to trounce Lee for the $23,000.
Densham was obviously on the balls of his feet after this and was asked how he liked the way IHRA had run its first FC show in 14 years.
“I haven’t had this much fun in years,” he beamed. "For once, a race with no hassles. I came in the door and people were glad I was here. Geez, what a change. I didn’t feel like I was a pain in Tom Compton’s or anyone else’s ass. It was just like I was a five semi-trailer kinda guy.”
Asked if he would recommend it to other racers NHRA or otherwise, Densham laughed, “Hell yes!”
NHRA PRO STOCK VS. IHRA PRO STOCK
About every 10 years or at least since there’s been a Pro Stock class, I’ve always felt compelled to ask this question, “Could a successful IHRA Pro Stock mountain motor racer successfully butt heads with the cream of the NHRA crop?"
Brian Gahm’s 6.35 was one of the more impressive passes I’ve seen in a while [Ed. Note: the quickest official Pro Stock pass in IHRA history] and I sought him out. However, he was gone after round one, so I ran over to chassis king Jerry Haas, who qualified second for the show with a 6.374/218.58. As anyone knows, that’s three tenths of a second and about 12 miles per hour faster than the average NHRA Pro Stocker. Could an IHRA guy make the switch, a winning IHRA guy, and hit it right away?
“Well, that’s likely easier said than done,” Haas said. ”You basically have two different scientific approaches here; two similarly appearing but really two different animals. Because you can run 800-plus cubic inches here, that means key changes elsewhere. Different clutches, different rear ends, different four links. . .all kinds of stuff. For example, NHRA allows a 6-inch triple disc clutch and IHRA lets you run an 8-inch clutch. In tires, NHRA goes with a smaller tire than IHRA. And, of course, building power from two different size plants. I would say that most IHRA guys would find it difficult to downsize, so to speak. It’s not all that easy to run like the Greg Andersons of the world. By the same token, fattening up 300 cubes for IHRA might throw some of the less-winning NHRA teams a curve. But IHRA to NHRA – no, you wouldn’t have someone just walk right in and win." 
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