Englishtown Random Thoughts and Shots
Written by David Lamm · June 19, 2006
Each week I watch the NHRA qualifying and eliminations TV shows on ESPN2. I even watch the half-hour magazine show, NHRA 2Day. Every week I formulate little opinions and thoughts but none of them are profound enough to scribe an entire blog. So I decided to put them all down together in one blog and show you what happens when you put a drag racing junkie in front of a big screen, a DVR and fresh batteries in the remote.
Qualifying:
- Who else got chills when David Baca unveiled that special September 11th helmet? It’s been close to five years and it still gets me choked up to think back to that infamous day.
- When Larry Dixon’s parachute did not deploy in time and he made a trip to the sand trap, ESPN’s top end reporter Gary Gerould tried to get a word with him afterward. Dixon walked away with his helmet on obviously upset and angry and told Gerould, you don’t want to talk to me right now. Gerould then said, ‘we understand and respect that’. Who else out there thought that Gerould was too quick to not seek comment from Dixon because he was a little gun shy of all the blue language he has had to endure from John Force’s top end interviews lately?
- ESPN2 has this cool feature called ‘Sounds of the Track’. In the segment they turn up the trackside microphones and for an entire burnout and qualifying run they let the ambient sounds of the crowd and the cars do the talking. It really is cool to get a feel for what it is like to be on site at the race track. I was really enjoying that segment and it dawned on me later why it was so enjoyable. I realized it was a great segment because Paul Page wasn’t talking.
- During her top end interview after failing to qualify for Englishtown, Erica Enders said, ‘we’ll see you guys in St. Louis next week.’ Anyone else think it was weird to hear someone in Englishtown say they would be in St. Louis in a week? I guess I’m still accustomed to Englishtown being run in May and Columbus as the track where the NHRA runs on Father’s day.
- When Bob Vandergriff qualified No. 2 in his UPS dragster, was there anyone else out there hoping he would do well on Sunday so other Fortune 500 companies might take notice and want to bring more sponsorships to NHRA?
- How cool was it that after years of running in the alcohol classes with much success that Tony Bartone get his first professional No. 1 qualifying position at his hometown track of Englishtown, NJ?
Eliminations:
- Regarding the first round tire smoking coast job of Brandon Bernstein over Rit Pustari. Was that not the longest seven seconds of your life? I am sure Brandon and Rit would argue it was for them.
- ‘Hot’ Rod Fuller won his second national event of the season in Top Fuel while Whit Bazemore in Funny Car has yet to win one. Keep in mind Fuller’s crew chief is Lee Beard. Beard was essentially fired from Don Schumacher Racing after turning the wrenches on Bazemore’s car for years. Which event produced the bigger smile for Lee Beard? Was it seeing the win light in the final round of Top Fuel or was it seeing Bazemore get punched out in the first round for the seventh time this season?
- What’s wrong with Tony Schumacher? For ending the 2005 season in such dominating fashion how can he struggle this badly this year? He hasn’t even advanced to a final round in 2006. Did Alan Johnson hit his head and forget how to tune a race car in the off season?
- There was an inordinate amount of red lights in the first round of Pro Stock Motorcycle in Englishtown. The top end interview with a distraught Angelle Sampey made me scratch my head. To paraphrase, Angelle was complaining that the Christmas Tree was unfair to the bikes and that the NHRA needed to do something about it or the fans would not see true racing and at the end of the year there would not be a true champion. Huh? Angelle even said her bike reacts too quickly when she sees amber and the NHRA needs to fix the tree. I have news for Miss Sampey. There are two ways to help you to not red light. One would be tune your bike back to not react so quickly when you see the amber bulbs. Another more obvious idea would be rip the throttle when the light turns green. If you see green, it is impossible to red light. It amazes me that she feels the NHRA needs to fix something to accommodate her problem when there are tons of other racers that run off of a pro tree that have not complained once. Grow up and admit you made a mistake and move on. It amazes me that no one will take responsibility for their actions and it is always someone else’s problem that needs fixing.
- It was nice to see in the Funny Car final that there were no team orders for Gary Scelzi to lay down for the current NHRA POWERade leader, Ron Capps. Scelzi had a better elapsed time but lost on a hole shot because Capps’ reaction time was better. On a hot and greasy race track like Englishtown was yesterday, Scelzi’s team could have easily smoked the tires to give Capps the win and not one person would have raised an eyebrow. Many teams were smoking the tires trying to get a handle on that track. Nice to see that heads up racing prevailed.
That’s all I got for now. Check back after each race for more random thoughts and opinions. They are only opinions, but at least they are all mine.
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You couldn’t have sum up Miss Sampey issues. She is crying like a baby. Gee, sounds like another racer when the day doesn’t go their way.
I watch all the drags on ESPN2, and at a track when I can. I also found it weird that the PSB people are whining about the tree. Let ‘em run a full tree, then, if they’re complainiing about the Pro tree. Don’t get me wrong, I adore Angelle, and think she’s the most sportsmanlike person out there, but the arguments that the PSB’ers are putting up make no sense. I mean, how long have they been doing what they do, to start whining only now?
Oh, and Whit Bazemore is just a whiner and a loser. It blows me away me that Schumacher would keep him and fire Lee Beard! Obviously Lee Beard knows what he’s doing, as evidenced by Rod Fuller’s success since Beard’s been tuning his car. The thing is, Beard and Baze couldn’t get along because Baze wouldn’t drive the car like Beard told him to. Beard always told him not to grab the brake to stop tire-shake, but rather to simply pedal it out, but Baze did it anyway and lost rounds because of it. Bozo!