Just What We Need!

[boostedf22c]

I forgot we live in a time where you can't have an opinion.

[Rich Biebel]

I have raced at tracks many times that had jr dragsters racing. Lots of them and other than an occasional issue there is rarely a problem...


Once in a while some parents get into some sort of argument over something that happened and it winds up in a fracus of some sort....Just like when my son was in little league and some over zealous parents did the same thing.

about the only "accidents" I have ever heard of is when a kid turned to sharply to exit the track and turned a car over once or twice...No kid that I can recall was ever hurt and no full size car was ever involved in any kind of accident with a Jr....

I was at Maple Grove last year for a weekend race and they had a huge filed of Jr's running along with their regular program.....on the same track....NO issues...

Englishtown has a separate 1/8th mile track form the big track...so there is no issues...

Numidia runs a pretty good Jr program on regular race days and there are no problems that I know of or saw when I was there...

Island dragway used to have a pretty good jr program on regular race days....other than the time they use up....and the occasional fracus as I mentioned between parents....that got handled by track management or security...no big deal.....No worse than any altercation over some foolish issue....

The sport needs any new people it can get.....

[Shaun Quill]

It's a lot better than a drug problem.

[KennyAnderson]

Originally Posted by Jim Wahl

Mr. Anderson & Mr. Snowball, if you chose not to run the SSSSA Races because I voice the questionable decision to let five year olds race, then so be it. That's some pretty silly reasoning if you ask me. You really aren't hurting anyone but yourselves.

My whole point for starting this thread was to make it known about NHRA's decision to allow five year olds to race in Jr. Dragster and to voice my opinion (yes I am allowed to have one as are you) in regard to said decision. Both of you being veterans of the Jr. Dragster program are aware of the many problems associated with the decision making capabilities of drivers of the younger groups in the program. I have see three Jr. Dragster accidents and almost been involved in one on the return road. Not every kid is a rocket scientist or a John Force at age five no matter what you think. All it will take is for ONE kid to make the wrong decision one time and they could be killed or badly hurt. And that is my point. Five years old is TOO young to give a kid an 60 or 80 mph rocket and allow them to drive or tow through the pits with no adult supervision. We all know they do both so don't say they don't. Our sport is dangerous enough with some of the idiot adults we race with. Why compound it and risk our babies to a situation that could risk their life?

I'm glad to say I met Dan Young and his family and he has done very well racing with the SSSSA and I think he is a talented driver. He will do well as an adult racer. My prediction is you will hear more about him in the future.

This thread has nothing to do with the SSSSA. To infer that it does, as I stated before, is just silly. If either of you would like to discuss this with me in person, please feel free to. You both know how to get ahold of me. Jim


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You COMPLETELY missed my point. I somewhat agree with you about the 5-7 year olds. What got me fired up is YOUR BLANKET STATEMENTS REGUARDING JR RACERS AND PARENTS IN GENERAL. My guess is you really dis-like the JR program and this topic is your chance to air out your distain.

Like it or not YOU ARE THE PRESIDENT OF THE SSSSA and its MOUTHPIECE! How well do you think you are motivating todays JR racers to come race with the SSSSA?

60-80 mph rockets?!? You really have NO clue do you? 12.90 cars go upper 40 mph and maybe 50 mph MAX! Kids cant go faster till the age of 10. The 5-7 year olds will be slower.

Towing/driving through the pits? Once again its right in the rulebook. The car is shutoff at the exit from the track and the car is towed back to the pits. If its not being done at any race you attend AND you feel like its a safety issue, PLEASE feel free to report it to a race official. Since YOU are a sanctioning body official yourself I'm sure you bring these safety issues to the managements attention, don't you???

Oh you'll see plenty of me. I'll be finishing the season in stock then jr takes over. I'm going back to my "real" race car. I do plan on attending as many SSSSA races as possible. I need the cash. You see being one of "those" JR parents, its EXPENSIVE running my lil John Forces all over the country! LOL!

PS; My 13yo lil John Force spent this evening dis-assembling his motor (broken crank). Both my kids do all their own maintenance and at race track servicing. Pretty impressive even to me. They both can put together .00something packages with their two feet and a lawnmower engine. Just wait..........

PPS: We are very good friends and BIG FANS of the Young family. I know you wont believe it but there is a majority of families, like the Youngs, the Snowballs, the Ferraros, the Bouldrys, the Tolisanos, the Brannons, the Miles, the Penningtons, etc, etc. These people are the NORM. Are there problem JR parents?? ABSOFRIGGINLUTELY!!!! BUT they are the exception! NOT the NORM.

PPPS! One REALLY good thing is going to come out of this thread Jim. Snowball says he is putting the yellow car back together and he is sending Bradley up to follow you to the lanes every race!! LMAO!!

[Jim Wahl]

Originally Posted by Jim Bailey

I'm gonna review my post, and clarify it, just encase there's any stupid racers out there that wish to put their own negative opinions, or words in my mouth.... #1... I like the Jr. Dragster Program, I think it's great, and in a different time, I woulda been involved with my son.. #2 ... I never called any racer(s) or parent(s) stupid. What I have personally, witnessed, are several situations ( with Jrs. ) that were pure stupidity, and could have, or will result in injury. I love kids, especially ones that are interested in racing! I don't want to see any of them injured. #3. ... recently, we've seen the result of pit accidents between full size racecars. ie: Indy/Montegomery. Can you imagine the result between a Jr. Dragster and a Stocker, or worse yet a child in the Jr. being run over by a full size racecar ( keep in mind parents, you signed the release). The rule books are written in blood! It is my PERSONAL opinion that the sanctioning bodies have not been proactive enough with regulating the Jr. Dragsters, namely, making it a safer environment for them to compete. Just imagine a kid getting killed in the pits by a full size car! Do you have any idea what the todays media would do with that!? The insurance companys!? -OMG- It's the last thing Drag Racing needs right now. Unfortunately, not until someone gets hurt will anything be done. Until then we all must be cautious - including the Jrs. - to minimize the danger. As far as stupid racers go, anyone that knows me personally, will tell you, I have no problem calling you stupid to you face, if it's deserved.

Hands down the best post of this thread! Some people would do well to read and reread this post and let it sink in! Jim


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[Jim Wahl]

Originally Posted by KennyAnderson

You COMPLETELY missed my point. I somewhat agree with you about the 5-7 year olds. What got me fired up is YOUR BLANKET STATEMENTS REGUARDING JR RACERS AND PARENTS IN GENERAL. My guess is you really dis-like the JR program and this topic is your chance to air out your distain.

Like it or not YOU ARE THE PRESIDENT OF THE SSSSA and its MOUTHPIECE! How well do you think you are motivating todays JR racers to come race with the SSSSA?

60-80 mph rockets?!? You really have NO clue do you? 12.90 cars go upper 40 mph and maybe 50 mph MAX! Kids cant go faster till the age of 10. The 5-7 year olds will be slower.

Towing/driving through the pits? Once again its right in the rulebook. The car is shutoff at the exit from the track and the car is towed back to the pits. If its not being done at any race you attend AND you feel like its a safety issue, PLEASE feel free to report it to a race official. Since YOU are a sanctioning body official yourself I'm sure you bring these safety issues to the managements attention, don't you???

Oh you'll see plenty of me. I'll be finishing the season in stock then jr takes over. I'm going back to my "real" race car. I do plan on attending as many SSSSA races as possible. I need the cash. You see being one of "those" JR parents, its EXPENSIVE running my lil John Forces all over the country! LOL!

PS; My 13yo lil John Force spent this evening dis-assembling his motor (broken crank). Both my kids do all their own maintenance and at race track servicing. Pretty impressive even to me. They both can put together .00something packages with their two feet and a lawnmower engine. Just wait..........

PPS: We are very good friends and BIG FANS of the Young family. I know you wont believe it but there is a majority of families, like the Youngs, the Snowballs, the Ferraros, the Bouldrys, the Tolisanos, the Brannons, the Miles, the Penningtons, etc, etc. These people are the NORM. Are there problem JR parents?? ABSOFRIGGINLUTELY!!!! BUT they are the exception! NOT the NORM.

PPPS! One REALLY good thing is going to come out of this thread Jim. Snowball says he is putting the yellow car back together and he is sending Bradley up to follow you to the lanes every race!! LMAO!!

I'm going to try to take this and answer you statement by statement if I can so please bear with me.

I think the Jr. Dragster program is a great concept if done correctly and safely. Someone once said "I love the human race, it's the people I can't stand". If you can follow my analogy then maybe you can better see where I'm coming from with this whole thing. I have two kids who I considered putting in one of these things back in the day but the interest just wasn't there on their part so I didn't want to waist the money.

Yep, at this present time I am the President of the SSSSA. Until someone else wants to step up and put up with the constant crap I have to put up with or I keel over that probably won't change. However, when I became President I didn't relinquish my right to make an opinion or ask a question the same as you. I am very opinionated, you should know that by now. I really don't think any of the Jr. Dragster pilots give two hoots what I have to say about anything! I do think its kind of funny that several other racers have pretty much said almost exactly what I said and you didn't jumped in their feces the way you did me. Maybe I worded things poorly and it hit you differently.

OK, obviously I am no expert on the MPH of the various classes of Jr. Dragsters, You and several others here are certainly in a better position to school me on that. For that I thank you. I learned something! I can't say as my eyes are glued to the score boards when they run so I had to pretty much guess on that. It's sort of like the guy on the street who says the Fire Truck was doing 100 MPH when it went by, when actually it was doing 45.

Now, I have seen and apparently many others also have seen Jr. Dragsters being driven through the pits. To say they are not is just not true. It might be a rule that they are not supposed to do that but we all know rules are broken all the time by the kids and the adults. And yes safety is and always will be paramount in my mind not just because of my position with the SSSSA but as a 30 year Firefighter and Paramedic/EMT. Safety is the main reason I started this thread! I stated this several times.

I'm glad to hear you say I will be seeing plenty more of you AND your family in the near future. That is what Jim Woods and I envisioned for the Association. Good, safe, family fun! We haven' seen much of the Snowballs lately but it will be nice to see them back again also. I'm also glad to hear your kids are so into racing. You truly are a lucky guy! My boy only went with me a few times to the races and had a couple of pretty fast street cars ( 12 second V6 Firebird and a mid 9 second Supra)but just never got into the Class Racing aspect.

Since writing this post about the Jr. Dragsters I have received many emails and PM's from racers on here who agree with me who for what ever reason don't want to post publically. Maybe they don't want any part of the abuse they have seen me take by some of you for speaking my mind. Only one has been what I would call abusive but I'm really not sure I completely understood all he was saying as he wrote at about the third grade level and had a hard time expressing himself. Maybe he was a third grader! Oh well. I have thick skin.

I think maybe as far as the non-safety aspects of my posts are concerned, I must just attract the rude and disrespectful Jr. Dragster drivers as I have seen way too many situations of thoughtlessness and lack of concern for fellow racers by both kids and parents alike. I have also met a few that give me hope that our sport will do well with them at the wheel.

As parents we are all responsible up to a certain age for their actions and their actions reflect on you as their parent. That said remember that your actions teach them how to act and react to different situations, watching how you act and react is mainly how they learn. If you teach them respect at home they will do fine at the track.

Oh and the main complaint I have fielded from other racers is the obnoxious noise those engines make! Put a muffler on them!!! Jim

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[X-TECH MAN]

Im one who thinks parents should NOT take their kids to a restaurant until the kid turns 30 ! The obnoxious noise they make is worse than the engines without mufflers. Almost ! Jim, has it right.

[KennyAnderson]

"I love the human race, it's the people I can't stand". Yeah I hear ya. Welcome to the game of LIFE

You are 100% entitled to your opinion. However as SSSSA President maybe you could filter it a bit. Here is an anology for ya. Mailroom guy for company XYZ gets on the WWW and shoots his mouth off. 99.9% of the world doesnt even notice. CEO of XYZ does the same and company XYZ goes down the tubes. Not fair but thats the way it is.

I didnt jump in others feces for 2 reasons, (1) I aint got the time, CR aint got the bandwidth. This thread would be doubled in length. (2) most of the other posts are from "faceless" posters. If they dont say who they are they go on auto-ignore.

I AM very LUCKY in many ways. I have created two monsters who are more ate up with this sport than I ever was. Didnt think that was possible! LOL! They both are growing into fine young men and I owe a lot to our extended racing family for helping out with that.

I too have gotten many calls/PM's supporting my/our position.

"As parents we are all responsible up to a certain age for their actions and their actions reflect on you as their parent. That said remember that your actions teach them how to act and react to different situations, watching how you act and react is mainly how they learn. If you teach them respect at home they will do fine at the track."

Agree 100% with this BUT change the last sentence to read in life!

Didnt know you were a FF/Medic. I'm on duty right now. 21 years down. We'll discuss that one more over a cool one. See you at the track soon.

PS; If at the end of this all we have an issue with is noise, I can live with that! LOL!

[KennyAnderson]

Originally Posted by X-TECH MAN

Im one who thinks parents should NOT take their kids to a restaurant until the kid turns 30 ! The obnoxious noise they make is worse than the engines without mufflers. Almost ! Jim, has it right.

I'm guessing you are not a parent? I thought you were joking about running JR's on tues/wed in the middle of the day? I guess not. If you are serious there is nothing I can say.

[buzzinhalfdozen]

After reading thru the posts on this subject I see there are some pretty strong sentiments on both sides. As for me my son raced JR's and went on to become a very successful racer, winning in most everything he's driven (including a motorhome) while gaining the respect and friendship of his fellow racers. Now I have no way of knowing for sure if drag racing was the thing that helped in developing his way of living his life but I do know that I've never had to bail him out of jail, he's never been in any real trouble and he's become a responsible adult and father. This summer my grandson will begin his JR dragster racing and I'm hopeful that he too will develop the same skills and friendships that my son did. That being said my personal opinion on 5 year olds racing is let's wait and see....I'm sure there are some kids that will be just fine, some not so much, no different from the adult racers we all race with today...there's some good ones and well not so good as far as handling themselves.