A BODY OF WORK

Did I not see empty seats in this greatest of great events at least judging by what the photos showed -comment?

On the PLUS side, in spite of being a hard core fan of and former builder of DRAGSTERS, it looks to yours truly that the great unwashed public would RATHER see racecars that look a LITTLE bit like what they drive or have driven. ADRA's format and the large amount of enthusiasm for Nostalgia Funny Cars the examples.

I'm thinkin' the wave of the future might the fan turning away from the "oil derrick" TF cars and the absolutely ridiculous shapes of today's Funny Cars and flock to the Nostalgia/ADRA-type shows instead.

And I see nothing wrong with the 1/8 mile. Just my two cents.

Norm Porter
SoCal

GIVE THEM TIME

I've never been to an ADRL event, and most likely won't ever attend one (whole other letter) so I can't say anything about the relative safety of the cars and the program. But Burk's point that "the ADRL is the only one I know of that hasn't had a crash that killed a driver or required long hospitalization of a driver" was an apples to oranges comparison and probably a veiled (or maybe even unveiled) cheap shot at both the HRAs. ADRL has been in business for what? Three or four years? NHRA for 50+, IHRA for 40 or so. They simply don't have the same odds pool. ADRL's fastest cars have half the horsepower, if that, of the fastest fuel classes, which is where the majority of the major injuries and deaths have occurred in last ten years or better.

When was the last HRA injury or death in a Pro Stock or Pro Mod type car at either sanction (outside the freak testing accident or parade incident)? I can think of the Bruce Allen/Kenny Koretsky one and that's about it as far as somebody being injured badly....

ADRL gets plenty of knob-polishing here and elsewhere, and I'm sure a lot of it is warranted, but the fact is, as reported by your mag (e-zine, whatever you call it) and other media, they DO have a lot of crashes at their events and that nobody has been hurt or worse is simply a matter of dumb luck.

Charlie Nichols
Imperial, California

DIAMOND P AND ME

Why doesn’t ESPN do something really smart to make their coverage of NHRA drag racing more enjoyable? Like find the individuals from Diamond P sports that covered drag racing on the station that used to be TNN.  Their coverage mad crews were a lot better than what ESPN has to offer. Boy what a wonderful thing it would be to have Steve Evans back.

Karl Wortman
Akron, Ohio

PERSONAL ADVICE

It's Saturday the 31st of October. National Dragster playdates says the Las Vegas race is to be broadcast at 7:00 pm pacific time. It's only qualifying, but it starts at 8:30 pm. Ruled out again by something else!!! Once the racing got started, it was the same old thing! Very boring! I went back to the AC/DC DVD set I was watching.

One added note, I saw that Steven Christman is entered in the Vegas event. He made a comment about not getting any coverage when he races some events. Hey Steve! Try not being such an asshole! Try and be civil to your low end customers! Then maybe you will get some good ink!

Craig Hintz