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Podcast Revival! FastMachines.com Radio Episode #33

After much searching, high and low….we found our motivation to podcast again! Bailey’s baby girl has arrived and Josh and George uhh…I don’t know what their excuse is….but they are back. We talk this week about the big news from F1…Flavio Briatore’s life ban from the sport for race fixing. Not to mention the so called race fixng going on in the NHRA with one John Force. (Pssst….Mark Martin could finally get a championship…..shhhh….don’t jinx him). We also get a nice preview of Petit LeMans from Chris who will be on the scene for the race. And naturally we talk Grand Am vs. ALMS. Check the show notes for all the links and goodies.

Let us know what you think by commenting on this posting, or shoot Chris, George and Josh an email by sending to radio@fastmachines.com. Also check us out on Twitter “@fastmachines.

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John Force Racing-What Would You Do

I had a reader comment on my last article about Ashley Force Hood and the lack of respect she garners as a world class race car driver. The reader proceeded to provide his opinion on a number of topics including the events that took place at the recently completed U.S. Nationals revolving around John Force Racing.

The first point, which is well taken, was that the NHRA needs to revisit the rule of allowing teams to field more than two cars in any one professional division. I have to say that I agree to some degree with the reader about NHRA needing to limit the number of cars per team, per division and I think that would make sense from the standpoint of allowing other, lower budget teams an opportunity to compete for more race wins and potentially the championship. However, what that does in turn is take away a number of sponsored teams that would not be in the sport if it weren’t for the multi-car opportunities that exist. John Force Racing and Don Schumacher Racing can offer those companies exposure across six or more teams making that partnership far more valuable than it would be where they looking at single or two car teams. By minimizing those multi-car teams you then face a crossroads of either not having enough competitors to fill the existing 16 car fields, or filling those 16 spots with inferior teams which will in turn cause increased oil down delays and unhappy spectators. Drag racing fans are some of the most educated in all of motorsports and they know if they are getting what they paid for as far as entertainment value goes and won’t stand for a subpar product very long.

The second point the reader made was in regards to John Force intentionally throwing his semi-final matchup against teammate Robert Hight at the U.S. Nationals. And although we all know Force threw the race in order to get his fourth team car into the Countdown to the Championship, you can’t blame him for playing within the rules that the NHRA has laid out. In all fairness to John he only did what several other teams would have done were they put in the same position. Don Schumacher would most certainly have done that given his savvy with sponsorship relations and the opportunity to move up in the standings in an effort to earn more, albeit not very much, championship money. And I believe that given the same circumstances the Pedregon brothers Tony and Cruz would have opted for the same scenario as Force where dollar signs and long term sustainability far out ruled winning or losing one round of competition. The NHRA rules clearly indicate that if the drivers performance or the tune-up of the car do not directly relate to an obvious attempt on the teams part to fix a race then there is nothing they can do to penalize the team. Yes, John cut a .209 reaction time and Hight made his slowest pass of the weekend, but those two elements combined are not enough to prove that the race was fixed. The NHRA even went so far as to analyze the tune-up data from Force’s pass, which it turns out would have been conducive to a representative run for that team. So how can you hate them or penalize them for playing within the rules?

Yes, the spirit of our sport is competition, and that’s what the fans pay to see, but they also pay to be entertained and there’s no arguing that the drama which ensued directly following that run and which has continued to feed the fire this week is just as exciting for the fans as seeing John and Robert duke it out during the semi-finals at the U.S. Nationals, if not more exciting.

I say stay tuned, this will make for some great sound bites and intriguing matchups for the duration of the championship battle.

Force Hood, Still Not Getting Her Props

When will the sporting world wise up and realize that Danica Patrick is no more than a has-been that never was and start paying attention to the “real” number one female competitor in motorsports in the world, Ashley Force Hood.

Is there any other woman on the planet that can claim she has gone over 300 miles per hour on land and won the most prestigious race that her sport has to offer? Granted, she has been blessed with a father who has the resources necessary to make those things happen, but it still takes a tremendous amount of guts to get behind the wheel of an 8000 horsepower Funny Car, not to mention the skills necessary to have consistent reaction times and a knowledge base extensive enough to convey important and accurate information to your crew chief.

As much as most of us are sick of the John Force Racing show that basically is the NHRA broadcasts on ESPN, the PR team at NHRA could stand to take the Ashley Force Hood angle to the media in a more aggressive manner, outside of their own broadcasts.

When I listen to Danica talk I hear a self-centred, childish person who doesn’t appreciate how much exposure she gets for really never having accomplished anything significant in her career other than winning a race where the three drivers in front of her ran out of fuel in the final laps. Ashley is exactly the opposite. Such a good role model for young girls aspiring to be all they can be when they grow up, no matter what they choose to do. It’s never pointed out anymore that she is a woman, and that’s part of what makes NHRA so great, but it’s also the drawback that has relegated Ashley to the background as far as women in motorsports goes.

Here we’ve got the daughter of the 14 time class champion who paid her dues in the sportsman ranks before being handed the keys to one of the baddest hot rods on the planet. And she’s struggled with the steep learning curve when making the transition to the professional ranks, which makes for an even better story when you realize that she has a legitimate chance at becoming the first female NHRA Funny Car champion in the history of drag racing this year and on top of that she just won the most prestigious race our sport has to offer, the U.S. Nationals.

So I say let’s cut the crap within the NHRA broadcasts, we know that most of the people watching are quite aware of John Force and his four car dynasty anyways. Let’s use that time to promote the guys like, Clay Millican, Tim Wilkerson, Rickie Jones and Doug Horne, who all bring great stories and in some cases great sponsors to the sport. Let’s put the NHRA’s media team and the PR firms they have working for them to work and get a real push going behind the fact that Ashley Force Hood is the number one female in professional racing…period!

NHRA Introduces New Point System With Bonuses Awarded

Prior to moving the finish line to 1,000 feet in the wake of Scott Kalitta’s death, the NHRA awarded bonus points for setting a national record for elapsed time. Once the finish line was moved, E.T. records were obsolete and no longer applied to the new finishing distance. Now with over a full year racing to the new, shorter distance, the NHRA will recognize national records in Top Fuel and Funny Car and create a new bonus point system for pro qualifying sessions.

The start of the NHRA Full Throttle Countdown to the Championship at the NHRA Carolinas Nationals at zMAX Dragway in Concord, N.C. will begin the of recognizing national records and the new bonus point structure. NHRA will recognize official national elapsed time and speed records to 1,000 feet for both Top Fuel and Funny Car. Teams that set a national record for elapsed time (E.T.) will be awarded 20 points.  Speed records are not eligible for bonus points. The starting point for the national record will be established using the quickest times and fastest speeds to 1,000-feet that were backed up by another performance within 1 percent during the course of a single event weekend, occurring since 1,000-foot racing started at the midway point of 2008.  Those drivers who currently hold the national records in each category will not retroactively receive the 20 point bonus.

In order for performances to be certified as NHRA national records, the eligible performance must be backed up by another performance within 1 percent during the course of a single event weekend. Only one 20 point bonus will be awarded in each category per event.

The current 1,000-foot E.T. and speed records in Top Fuel and Funny Car are as follows:

Top Fuel
E.T. — Tony Schumacher, 3.771 sec., Richmond, Va. (Oct. 2008)
Speed — Tony Schumacher, 318.92 mph, Las Vegas (Nov. 2008)

Funny Car
E.T. — Ron Capps, 4.023 sec., Phoenix (Feb. 2009)
Speed — Ashley Force Hood, 312.13 mph, Atlanta (April 2009)

In addition, NHRA announced a new bonus points structure that will offer teams opportunities to score critical points during qualifying sessions in all four professional categories: Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle.   The team in each category with the quickest elapsed time during each qualifying session will receive three bonus points.   In all, a team that records the lowest E.T. in all four sessions could receive a total of 12 bonus points during qualifying.  Teams with the second and third quickest elapsed times during each qualifying session will receive 2 and 1 bonus points, respectively.

These changes are designed to enhance the qualifying sessions by encouraging more side-by-side racing and providing an opportunity for all competitors to earn additional points toward their standing in the top 10, as well as their pursuit of NHRA Full Throttle Series world championship titles.

Although records will be recorded to 1,000 feet in the two nitromethane categories, NHRA continues to evaluate and test combinations to reduce power in the Top Fuel and Funny Car categories.  Only after testing and analysis is concluded will a decision be made on whether to remain at 1,000 feet or return to quarter-mile racing in the two classes.