8/11/08

I’m still trying to unscramble my emotions after Sunday.

Let’s see….

Ashley scores her second career No. 1 qualifying spot.

She loses in Round 1 of eliminations.

John wins in the first round by a car-length over Gary Scelzi.

Robert and Mike both lose in the first round.

Robert clinches a spot in the Countdown to 1.

Robert falls from 2^nd to 3^rd in the standings.

All four team drivers are in the top ten with two races to go in the Countdown to 10.

Mike drops from 9^th to 10^th in the standings.

Like I said, I’m still trying to put all of those things together in my head.

Ya’ know what I miss? I miss seeing John crushing everyone at race after race. A lot of us have been around the sport for a long time and we can all remember when seeing John win two, three, or even four races in a row wasn’t that unusual. Now, the wins seem to be spread out a whole lot further and I miss the days when he would bag a national event pretty regularly. It’s been since Topeka that John won his last race and it’s also the last time he went to a final round.

Before you jump to any conclusions, let me quickly say that he is still the undisputed King of All Funny Car Racers and I don’t expect to see that change any time soon. When you combine what he does on the track—even when he isn’t winning—to the exposure and notoriety he brings to the NHRA off the track, nobody comes close (except perhaps Ashley when it comes to off-track promotion). My feeling has always been that when John wins, the whole sport wins and I’d love to see him get back into a dominant groove that resembles some of those great seasons from the 1990’s (1996 in particular) that were instrumental in building John’s legend.

I also miss seeing a driver like Al Hofmann or Whit Bazemore tweaking John from race to race. Right now, there isn’t another driver out there who ramps up the adrenaline when he lines up against John. Hey, I’m not saying there aren’t drivers out there who can’t give John all he can handle on the track, but rather there aren’t any bitter or intense rivalries between John and another driver reflective of the great man-to-man dustups we’ve enjoyed in year’s past.

Hey, Tim Wilkerson! Ron Capps! Jack Beckman! Cruz! Tony! Toliver! Scelzi! How about getting a little attitude out there? Is this the NHRA or the Vienna Boys Choir?! If I wanted a love-in, I’d watch the Goodwill Games for cryin’ out loud! Doesn’t anybody remember how this sport got started? Rodders would challenge each other to bring out their rides and settle who was quickest right on the spot. A little trash talk, finger-pointing, yo-Mama chatter and everyone within 50 miles would come out to see who was going down.

And do you remember the factory Wars in the 1960’s when Detroit was in a red-hot battle for the Muscle Car market? The factory boys would taunt and bash each other in private and in public. The TV and magazine ads would flaunt a new Muscle Car and warn the competition that they were about to become dead meat. Mopar had the Hemi, the “Elephant Motor”. GM had the small-block “Mouse Motor” and the big-block “Rat Motor” because everyone knows elephants are afraid of rodents. The Ford came out with the 429-cube semi-hemi, “Shotgun Motor” because if you want to go hunting for all those animals, you need a gun. Those were very cool times.

Since when did we get so prissy about drag racing? It’s more like the United Nations than the Ultimate Fighting Championship! We need a revolution!

Time to get down off of my soapbox. That’s all the space I have for this week. I’ll share more of what I find “In the Groove” on Monday after the race in Reading, PA. Until then, keep a lane open to your left except when passing slower traffic and help cut down on Road Rage. Fasten that safety belt and I’ll catch you right here next time!