[Bret Kepner]

I don't usually post negative opinions but, in this case, I'll make an exception.

With no offense to chris3 racing, (there's no crime in being young), the hype produced by the press releases from Pinks! surrounding Z-Max being the site of the first four-wide drag race is, at least, embarrasing and, at most, insulting.

In the sixty years of the sport, there have been hundreds, (those of you who know me realize this is not an exaggerated number but factual), yes...HUNDREDS...of dragstrips which ran four cars at once. Initially, wide taxiways and runways permitted it to be done but plenty of purpose-built strips raced in this format on a weekly basis. Many of those tracks were far narrower than current NHRA-spec sixty-feet-wide facilities. Dragway 42 was, indeed, the first to be built with two timing systems and four lanes in mind.

First to be televised? Not even within the last half-century. First with four-lane timers? Nope, although there were only a handful of tracks running four-wide which could give elapsed times and/or speeds for all four lanes. In most instances, only the first to arrive at the stripe in each lane got numbers and, if the opponent was closer then four car lengths, the speeds were goofy.

In fact, the only credit I can give the Pinks! event concerning a "first" in the sport is that, to my knowledge, the new CompULink system installed by Bob Brockmeyer included the first accurate "single win light" for a four-wide race since all four lanes are monitored. Other than that, it was nothing but a lesson in drag racing history.

I have no problem with the four-lane concept and readily admit Z-Max was worth the expense in construction. The press releases by the Pinks! organization, however, would have been hilarious if they weren't so indicative of blatant laziness by a research staff who, obviously, did nothing to verify their claims.




To Scott Kelley: Quit wasting your time arguing the point with these guys. Those of us who are NHRA National Record Holders with anything less than eight cylinders and Rear-Wheel-Drive will always be the bastard children of Stock and Super Stock racing and we've learned to accept it. You're too nice of a guy to get caught up in that argument. LOL!