10/7/07

I guess you could call it another “Good news/Bad news” kind of weekend.

Of course, we’re still all very saddened by the passing of Wally Parks. He was truly beloved among the entire drag racing and motorsports community and I’ll miss that friendly handshake, warm smile, and that unbreakable upbeat attitude I could always count on whenever I met up with him at a national event. What a great guy.

I know John had a very special relationship with Wally and it was particularly tough for John to be recuperating in the hospital in Dallas when he first heard the news. A real double-whammy.

We’ll all miss Wally and forever be grateful for the tremendous dedication and commitment he possessed which gave us the sport that drives the engine of so many fans around the world.

Down in Richmond, the good news was that Robert qualified well and looked poised to do some real damage on race day. The bad news was he never got past the first round.

Ordinarily, a first-round loss with only a few races to go in the season in the midst of a tight points race would be a disaster. But thank the new Countdown for taking the curse of that scenario. Robert was already a shoe-in for the Countdown to One and that final piece of the 2007 POWERade championship puzzle will start being slipped into place in three weeks in Las Vegas.

It was really spooky to not have John or Ashley racing in Richmond. The crowds down at the JFR pits were not as massive as they usually are, which in a way was a relief for Robert’s guys. It was a bit easier to get into and out of the pit area and the usual swirl of visitors, media people, and VIP’s was almost non-existent. But I think it was even more unsettling to realize that John would have no chance at his 15th championship this year due to his absence and now it will be a four-way slugfest between Robert, Gary Scelzi, Tony Pedregon, and Ron Capps.

Meanwhile, John’s recovery continues, as does the team’s mission to increase and improve the overall safety of the Funny Cars which have become the most popular racing machines in the POWERade series. When you stop and think about it, there haven’t been really significant giant steps in the last forty years in the area of Funny Car crashworthiness. Sure, we’ve come a long way in the prevention and control of onboard fires, head and neck protection via the HAN device, and tire technology which is much further down the road than it was in the 1960’s when the category was born. But the age-old formula of mounting a blown and injected, fuel burning hemi-head engine into a tube chassis and covering it with a lightweight fiberglass (and now carbon fibre) body is essentially the same way it’s been done since Jack Chrisman, “Dyno” Don Nicholson, and other Funny Car pioneers were first breaking new ground in the NHRA.

John wants to now take a major leap forward and begin looking at the feasibility of a tub-style configuration for F/C’s that would borrow from the race car construction of open-wheel racers which benefit from monocoque construction, thus affording drivers added protection for their lower extremities. Back in the late 1960’s Mickey Thompson attempted to develop a monocoque inspired Funny Car with his radical Mustang Mach I fuel coupe, which both he and Danny Ongais drove during its brief racing history. The car now resides in the NHRA Motorsports Museum at the L.A. Fairplex and it’s unlike any other Funny Car ever built. Mickey eventually gave up on the idea because despite its incredible engineering and clever design, the car was too heavy to be competitive.

But this innovative race car was built years before lightweight materials like carbon fibre and titanium had become available to the drag racing community and a monocoque tub design may be an idea which now has some merit.

If it is, John and the team may be the first to come up with a breakthrough.

In the meantime, we’ll take three weeks off to prepare for the final two races of the season which commence in Las Vegas and wrap up in Pomona. I’m going to be doing quite a bit of traveling before drag racing heats up again as I’ll be on my way to Surfer’s Paradise in Australia next week for the Champ Car World Series event Down Under. I hope you’ll be watching on ESPN2 on October 21 as that series heads into the home stretch and then check back here a week later for more from In the Groove following the action in Vegas.

Until then, please buckle up and drive safely!