BILL STEPHENS “IN THE GROOVE” 6/15/09

Tony beat Ashley in the final…..AGAIN!!!

Two races in a row. And Ashley looked just as consistent and in command in E-town as she did in that Joliet race last week—until the final against Tony. Yeh, I think we’re all a bit disappointed.

But Ashley did herself some good in the points as she continues to rack up the round wins on Sunday. The same can’t really be said for the rest of the team as Robert (who lost to John in the first round), Mike, and John himself were off the board in the earlier frames. It seems that only Ashley’s tuner, “Guido”, has been able to find a workable tune-up that can get her down the track and get her the win lights in changing conditions, as Austin, Bernie, John M., and Jimmy continue to brainstorm winning combinations for the other three drivers.

And the entire weekend served as a bittersweet reminder of how we lost Scott Kalitta at this race last year. Everyone raced hard—just the way Scott would have wanted it—but it would be impossible to try to convince anyone that Scott’s presence wasn’t felt by all as each pair of cars thundered down the Old Bridge Township racing surface.

Much has been done in the intervening year to improve and enhance the level of safety the sport provides for drivers, crew members, and fans. NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing is safer today than it’s been at any other time in its history and I’m sure we all appreciate the efforts the NHRA has taken to raise the safety bar. Everyone at JFR has also had a hand in researching and implementing more effective safety mandates as the quest for even safer race cars and race tracks continues.

Of course, all you have to do is make a visit to “Big Daddy” Don Garlits’ International Drag Racing Museum in Ocala, Florida and you’ll truly be astonished at how far we’ve come in the safety department since organized drag racing was born. The race cars which the pioneers of the sport such as Art Chrisman,  Jim “Jazzy” Nelson, and ol’ Big Daddy himself drove back in the 1950’s and 60’s were, to put it politely, accidents waiting to happen.

The safety technology (if you can use that term) was primitive to say the least in those days and it’s amazing that more racers weren’t seriously injured or killed before the sport began discovering and deploying effective safety equipment. We look at those machines and marvel as to how anyone in their right mind would venture down a dragstrip in those homebuilt creations, and yet, those cars were built according to the safety rules of the day—when the whole science of crash protection, fire protection, and/or impact protection was essentially unknown.

Over the years, the NHRA has led the way in making the entire sport of drag racing one of the safest motorsports in the world, and a LOT of old timers are grateful to still be around and involved in the sport—or have sons and daughters involved in the sport—because fortunately, those advancements in safety were in place when they needed them.

And the work to improve drag racing safety to an even higher level keeps moving forward.

Well, the three-races-in-three-week frenzy which began on Memorial Day weekend takes a short break before the next race in Norwalk, Ohio on June 25-28. We’ll have to try to get along without any Full Throttle drag racing over this upcoming weekend and look ahead to the next get-together at one of the sport’s most well-maintained and fan-friendly facilities.

And let’s hope Ashley gets the win the next time she and Tony pull to the line.

Until then, everyone at John Force Racing wants you to do YOUR part to increase safety on the highways by buckling your seatbelt and driving safely.

Thanks!