STIRRING UP TROUBLE?
One can't help but notice the glaring absence of Huntsville Dragway from the ADRL 2008 calendar after a successful 2-year run at the fabled 1/8-mile concrete facility. Also, less than 24 hours after the end of the 2007 season the head honcho at Huntsville, one Jim Howard, was transferred to George's premier track Montgomery Motorsports Park.
Does this 1-2 blow forecast the demise of Huntsville Dragway? It's no secret that the Madison County Commission and a greedy land developer have been drooling over the prospects of getting their hands on that magnificent parcel of land. Is this the first sign that George Howard is planning on rolling over and sacrificing the track so he can concentrate on his other ventures? Only time will tell, but it sure looks fishy from my vantage point.
Charles McCarthy
Huntsville, Alabama
YOU’RE WELCOME
Thank you for your coverage of my Top Alcohol Funny Car at the recent Snowbirds. Also thanks to Adam or Steve for the nice starting line shot. I appreciate the ink.
John Alberigi III
TA/FC 292
IT’S AN ART
A great piece that hits many nails on the head, all are what set this sport apart from any other. I have one more "favorite moment" to add. That’s the final two cars of the day... especially Top Fuel... lighting off and going through the whole pre-race routine. It usually takes place when the sun is low on the horizon, casting long shadows and casting a soothing orange tent on the stage. Watching the start-ups, burnouts... usually backlit by the setting sun... the slow deliberate backups and then the orchestrated steps taking by the crew/crew chiefs to get them ready to send down the well worn track. It’s the drama combined with the realization of what it has taken the near exhausted crews to get their cars to this point, and just the finality of it all, knowing that there will be a definitive winner and loser.
Those brief, yet profound moments are unforgettable, for I still remember the first time I experienced them on a cold December night in 1963 at Lions watching the final pair do their thing... it hit me between the eyes then and still does now. To steal a line from the movie "Patton"...God help me, but I do love it so.
Mark A Wales
Scottsdale, Arizona
ASK PEGGY
Michael Lovell is correct when he wrote, "There is something more to this that's not being said." You have to ask Peggy Llewellyn. Was she required to bring money to the team to keep the ride? Many drivers do nowadays. Were there other factors having to do with the drag racing business, personal issues, a regular job interfering? Many things happen to make these things occur.
Al Booton
CHECK YOUR BOXES OF OLD MAGAZINES
I am looking for a vintage issue of Drag Racing Magazine from 1972 that has a feature story of Walter Orr of Stockton who drove a car called "The Fossil" The car featured was actually was a Chevy Vega which he called Fossil 2. His first Fossil was an Anglia he raced.
Thank you for your help.
Greg Artlip
Stockton, California
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Just wondering... if someone in Glendora had a "top to bottom liability claim review" meeting with someone at HD Partners in the past few weeks as part of the closing work for an acquisition, where all incurred claims from, say, generator carbon monoxide poisoning, people hit in the pits by racers with windshields taped up, etc. in the past few years were discussed?
In a due diligence, the expected future value of claims like these would be capitalized into (or out of) the sale price, so that say, HD Partners would pay more if the NHRA Association successfully argued that future claims experience from Sportsman racers at national events will be better than past experience IF a bunch of new rules were implemented at the close of the deal?
Just wondering if all the seemingly unrelated unusual rules changes for 2008 are actually conditions of a deal at the original sale price?
