Guys & great friends I go to breakfast or lunch with here in sunny Arizona:
Kip Martin holds the SS/L record. He's been #1 qualifier several times this year. He's set and reset the record a few times in the last couple of years. He just received a weight penalty of 4 #'s on his 289. Some were mad at him. He says he's sorry but he's 64 and this could be his last hurah in a very respectable tenure in both Stock and SuperStock. He also builds his own engines and has won one NHRA national events. He raised two boys who are respectable engine builders for Reher Morrison pro-stock division.
Neil Smedley. He's had several record setting, #1 qualifying cars also in his outstanding tenure in NHRA drag racing. Most notably he has been very successful in his path with turbo stockers in the last few years. He also has won an NHRA national event after being #1 qualifier and winning class. I probably owe more to being involved in class racing to him than anyone else. He once lived a few blocks from me. He's about 16 years my elder and taught me a lot. Mostly about NHRA politics (nothing has really changed over the years).
Don Kennedy. Probably the worlds fastest Pontiac SS (NHRA verified that is). He's taken a combo and refined it with more testing on a yearly basis than most racers do in 5 years (or more). He's goal on every pass: "rotate the earth" as he puts it. He's also traveled the country racing and can prove to the doubters that altitude corrections are factored correctly.
Dana House. Has taken the 402/350 Nova from "it won't work" to top contender in D/SA after years of heavily budgeted sweat.
Dwight Southerland. He'd go to lunch with us but Arkansas is a little way's away. But we talk on the phone a lot.
Al Corda. He's a nice guy. Really. The rest of you just don't know it yet!
What do we all have in common? We all race to the finish line under full throttle. We look for the last ounce of performance. We would never sandbag to get a better average for the AHFS. And if we get hit with HP, looks like we did a good job. Well...maybe Al lifts a little. We're not sure about him...
I'll betch that our round table discussions are a lot more interesting about racing than who's selected as the "lay down" of the week. We're kinda proud of what we do...