New Season Brings New Optimism
Written by Jory Elliott · February 10, 2006
Yesterday marked the first professional qualifying session of the 2006 season and along with it the high hopes and expectations of every team and driver out there. The beginning of a new season is a wondrous time for drivers, team owners and fans alike.
For the drivers and team owners it is an opportunity to start fresh, with a clean slate so to speak. Everything you did last year is old news. You lived it, you learned from it and now it is time to take the knowledge gained from those experiences and apply it to making 2006 the best season ever. The first event of the season is traditionally the time to “put up or shut up” and make a statement for the rest of the season that you are going to be a contender and someone to reckon with over the course of the schedule. Everyone is equal for just one event.
This time of the year is equally as involved for the fans. Using the term “like a kid in a candy shop” is the only way to accurately describe the feeling a diehard drag racing fan feels at this time of year. Seeing all of the new sponsorship deals that have cultivated over the off season or in some cases many years, creates a buzz around that first professional qualifying session. Walking through the pits for the first time to get a glimpse of the new body styles and paint schemes being debuted. Hearing that starter turn over and watching the 7,000 horsepower beasts cackle to life. Catching your first whiffs of combusting nitro methane or burning rubber as they heat the hides on those beautiful machines. All of these sights and sounds are a celebration for the senses.
This is an equally exciting time for the sportsman racers and everyone else who competes on the NHRA tour. The first race of the year signifies the start of a new beginning for these weekend warriors who are the backbone of drag racing throughout North America. Whether they are in attendance at that first national event or just following along at home, it increases their feelings of anticipation for the first time they are going to be able to hit the track for the upcoming campaign.
No matter which way you slice it the beginning of a new season gives each and every racer that opportunity to win another race or perhaps taste sweet victory for the first time. It gives every racer the opportunity to be considered a contender for at least their first event. It is an amazing time that so often gets diluted by the fact that we are all so busy and caught up in the tasks at hand. So my advice to you is that throughout the course of that first weekend at the strip, remember to take a second, pull yourself back from the moment, and let your senses fully enjoy everything that the amazing sport of drag racing has to offer.
See it, Smell it, Taste it, Love it!!
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