To: Austin Ford From: Bill Hawk

[Duane Eiskant II]

Originally Posted by Austin Ford

Bill, first off i do want to apologize for calling you egotistical. I shouldn't have gone that far. However, I do think that what you did was wrong, selfish, and a complete abuse of the system. Getting a combo HP in class or a race is one thing, what you did is completely different! Because of your stunt I have had to completely overhaul my car. And since as you know, I am a college student, that overhaul is difficult to say the least. I would like to stay friends with you, however this event has put a huge damper in our friendship.

P.S. I think you should appoint Lil' Duane to the head of your fan club...he's superb!!

Not that im tring to stir anything up here but if your car is so fast (going -1.42 under so u lifted) why would you have to completely overhaul your car. Take 200 pounds out and go to C, if you were going that far under in D, you can go that far under in C. How did you know you were going that far under in the car at that time? Counter? Maybe? BTW, where do i send the autographed shirt from Mr. Hawk?

[Charlie Ford]

Duane, I was going to stay out of this, but since you insinuated we might be doing something illegal with your reference to a "Counter", I now take it personal. You don't want to get into a battle of wits with Austin concerning racing abilities anyway. It's like the old saying of "Bringing a Knife to a Gun Fight". You being the one with the knife. First off, if you'll read Austin's post on the other topic, you'll see that he said Adam Davis was on a -1.42 under pass, not him. Now as far as calculating ET, at NHRA events we have 1000' times. Most good racers can use that info and tell you what they would have gone. Austin is very good at it. On the run against Adam he said that, with all the changes (weight, oil, etc.), he could go 1.20 under. If it had been a close race, he never would have lifted. It wasn't, so he did. He calculated that he would have gone -1.17 under.

While I'm posting, I'll give you my feelings on what Bill did. First off, I like Bill. We had a great time when he came down here a couple of years ago. Him and Austin developed a great freindship. He's helped us, and I've helped him. Ask him how he got his aluminum heads. However, what he did was wrong in my book. It all started, as Bill said, awhile ago. After getting his combo hit a couple of times, he decided that he needed to move to A instead of B. Now this is probably over your head since a lot racers don't know or understand it, but NHRA decided after giving the Edelbrock heads to the FE's that it would be a "weight only" penalty regarding the HP to shipping weight calculation. In other words, if you had Edlebrock heads, no matter how fast you went, your original weight break didn't change. Therefore Bill was stuck in B. He tried to run A a couple of times, but was corrected on his assumptions by NHRA. I think this is when Bill decided to label it the "Bill Hawk" rule. We indeed discussed this scenario a lot. He informed me of his plans to borrow a set of cast heads, go out and run fast enough to get it hit, then go back to his combo to now run A. I told him at the time that it wasn't right. If he had said that he couldn't compete with his combo anymore and was going to our's then I would have accepted that. That's racing. I campaigned very hard to get NHRA to change their "weight only" ruling on this. Honestly, I did it because I thought it was wrong. Not just because of Bill. I wrote letters and talked extensively with NHRA people, including our Sportsman reps regarding this scenario. One of the things I found out was that most of them didn't know what I was talking about until I explained it. Although at the time the ruling only affected Bill (hence his labeling it the Bill Hawk Rule), it actually effects all FE Fords. Certain NHRA reps, along with the Committee reps agreed with me on this. However, the powers to be at NHRA saw otherwise, and declined to change it, so that was the end of that. I won't get into why they wouldn't, but it had nothing to do with Bill personally no matter what he thinks. So Bill went ahead, borrowed a set of cast heads, and got our combo hit 8 hp so he could put his aluminum head combo into A. Now why would he do that. Is he not dominate in B? Why the determination to run A. In my opinion it's ego!! Funny how after all our conversations, he hasn't once called me or Austin regarding this before or after he did it.

As far as our car, we run on a very limited budget. In fact,if it wasn't for sponsor money to cover expenses, we would already have parked it. However, I'm proud of what Austin has accomplished. We race to win races. We ran our car in D because, for the most part, we could run with all the D cars down here in Div.4, and could beat most of 'em. Now we pick up 8 hp and have to change class so that Bill can run A!! That means gears, suspension, etc. have to be changed. All of Austin's info sheets are worthless now, not to mention the competition in B & C. We'll be at a disadvantage now. Make no mistake, he's not hanging his head. He'll do just fine. I think this whole thing upset him mostly because he liked Bill and cherished his friendship.

I'll say this too, Duane. Your right, we don't spend the money that Bill does on our car. We need it so we can go to the races. However, I don't care how much you spend, you can't BUY sportsmanship or class.


PS. Bill has my address for the shirts just don't send them C.O.D.

[Mickey Whaley]

Can't we all just get along? DWA

[Chris Hill]

..

[Austin Ford]

I agree with Mickey! Come give Big Austin a hug Lil Duane!! Rest your head on my shoulder and tell me all about how you've been hurt

[chlngr73]

Now that there's sum funny *****! I don't care who ya r.....

[treessavoy]

I'm sorry, I think I'm missing something.

I thought the object of the sport was to race as fast as you can to get to the other end and win...I didn't realize that we were just racing 1000 feet and then coasting so that someone won't get mad because you ran faster than "they" wanted you to.....in other words I thought we were supposed race to the stripe...dare I say...."all out"!

JimR

[Ryan Horensky]

Tree Savoy....Apparently you do not know much about sportsman racing in stock eliminator in this era. I am friends with Bill Hawk, but have never had the opportunity to meet the Ford's due to our geographic location in the country. People try to save their combinations at every race. The horsepower system makes that even more difficult. For instance: my father runs a 68 Shelby in A/SA currently. If we go 1.15 under and do not attend another national event we can get horsepower on our combo, because there are no other 68 Shelbys racing in the entire country with our combination to dilute the average. Its pretty disheartening to have to put weight in your car because you made one fast run during the season at a big race and do not attend another race during normal conditions to run average ET's. Especially if you put up a huge run during extreme conditions, but do not have the opportunity to go that fast at any race during the course of the season. Bill had no other choice but to get the combo hit if he wanted to run A/SA. I can see why the Ford's may be upset by what happened, but I can also see Bill's perspective on the situation. I myself am finishing up graduate school like Austin and do not have the funding to travel to races the way I want to. I think this is just part of racing.....and disagreements come with it. Hopefully both parties can make up and still be friends after what has transpired. I'm not trying to play mediator....just trying to state to tree savoy that stock elimator is not balls to the wall first one to the finish line wins type of racing. I don't think it has ever been with the exception of class elimations and heads up races. Besides that we all have to put dials on our windows and go bracket racing 95% of the time

Ryan Horensky
1273 C/SA

[Bob Bender]

Bill, you are the man !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!: