[chris3racing]

Well it's Sunday morning, I have my coffee and my cigarettes and I find this post at the top of the list.

First of I am over 65 years old and I have been drag racing since I was 13. I have been racing Stock, Super Stock and Modified Production for most of those year even though I started out at 13 as a crew member for a B/G car. I was racing almost every other night somewhere on the East Coast back in the days of SuperStock Match Racing "Sunday, Sunday." I have raced on a Wednesday night somewhere on the East Coast with the stands and the fence jam packed to see and Eight Car SuperStock Match Race. And Yes I have a 72 Duster which I work on almost every day and am ready to go racing any time. But yes it is completely different now, just read this site anytime you turn on your computer. There is so much argueing and complaining. I remember days when a car broke everyone pitched in got him running even though you knew before the day was over you might have to line up beside of him.

If you don't think NHRA will pull the plug talk to racers who raced Modified Production or Pro Stock Truck. The biggest crowd pleaser "back in the day" was a pair of modified production cars paired up with those high winding small blocks with the wheels so high the bumper was almost ground off. How many in North Carolina can remember the Gas and Modified races on Sunday at Kinston Dragway. If you were not there early you parked in the field. How long before there will be a parade of the last standing stock/Superstockers at the last race before it ends?

BRACKET RACING, sorry but this and TEST-N-TUNE is what is keeping many of the drag strips open. I just heard a Track Owner tell a group of racer that his biggest money making night is TEST-N-TUNE. The stands are full and the pits are full. There is no fighting, argueing and complaining on TEST-N-TUNE. That is only because they don't have to advertise and racers who want to run their cars will show up anyway and bring all their friends with them to watch. No BRACKET RACER, be in the Stock and SuperStock pits before eliminations and watch the marker bottles come out before they even get in the cars. When we went away from pulling into the pits with B/S, C/SS, E/MP, B/G on the windshield and pull to the starting line and the tower put in what ever the National Record was on that date, as published every week in National Dragster, then it became a Bracket RACE. In those days, Lord help you if guys like Bobby Warren and Haywood Register out of Clinton, North Carolina had been racing the week before. Look back at the old Dragsters in Stock in those days and see how quick your National Record could change.

CAR SHOWS, I am local and I have so many requests to display my race car at Car Shows. I and my sponsors have to thank Pinks All Out 2009 at Z-Max Dragway to thank for that. I probably give away 40 or 50 photos cards at some car shows of the photo taken at Pinks All Out at Z-Max. I have made this comment in post over and over, We as racers have to promote the sport of drag racing. The tracks don't do it any more. They seem to think that everyone will get up, turn on the computer, and go see where there is a drag race that week-end. Well let me tell you a secret. There are people here in North Carolina who don't even know that there are still drag strips operating in North Carolina. I had the race car on display yesterday at a car show for the Children's Miracle Network Charity. I had a gentleman come up and look at the car, looked at the poster of photos and then saw the names of the tracks we run at. His comment was I use to drag race years ago and remember all of those old tracks. Most of his racing was at Piedmont and some times at Person County, now does that tell you how old he was. He said and I quote " I heard that Piedmont had been sold years ago and had been closed up." This is not a one time thing, this happens almost every time we have this car on display at a CAR SHOW. The thing I like most other than talking to people about the car and drag racing is the young people and children that come up and want to talk about drag racing and drag race cars. I have a bad habit of making show car owners mad because I will open the door, take down the window net and put a young person inside the car to see what it's like. Parents and grandparents will take pictures and the last thing those smiling faces ask before they walk away is " when and where are you going to race again."

Okay three cups of coffee, don't know how many cigarettes, and I know I have stepped on enought toes to keep this board going for weeks. But I for one will be drag racing and around drag racing events until there is and ad in the news paper to bring flowers. I have three generations working on and racing a car as a family. The only way the type of car you want to race will survive is if you as a racer and a spectator promote the sport, attend the races you can afford, and when you are put out of the race stay and support your friends and fellow racers to the end. Don't put your car on the trailer and leave. You have already spent your money, stay and enjoy the race.

Don't turn down some charity in your area when asked to display your car or better yet you go to them and offer your car for display, WE are the future of the sport that we all love. "Inside this car is a blood borne disease for which there is no know cure, DRAG RACING."