BILL STEPHENS “IN THE GROOVE” 7/13/09

You’ve GOT to be kidding me! Ashley just missed winning again!

Give Ron Capps credit. He qualified No. 1 this weekend and won for the fifth time this year. He’s having one of his best seasons of his career after coming so close to winning his first championship several times in the past (and it was John who would usually go on to win the championship in those instances where Ron appeared to be in position to finally go the distance).

But Ashley is also having a career year, although all of these final rounds without a victory have got to be a bit frustrating for her and the team. The fact that she maintains her Full Throttle points lead is a plus, although as I’ve said in the past, the Countdown system de-emphasizes the importance of leading the points at this stage of the season.

The rain-delayed nitro finals at Bandimere this weekend had me flashing back to 1994, the first year I worked on the NHRA TV crew back when Diamond P Sports produced the national events. That year, the late Scott Kalitta was on a tear. He was without question the hottest Top Fuel driver in the class, and that season would become the first driver in NHRA history to win Top Fuel honors at four consecutive races (Columbus, Topeka, Denver, and Sonoma), eventually locking up the first of his two straight World Championships.

My good friend, Tom Gee, an enormously talented producer, was the lead man at all the Diamond P’s telecasts and made all the production calls—which usually are incalculable in number. Tom is still one of the preeminent motorsports producers in the business and I would consider him one of the most accomplished people I have ever worked with on racing coverage of all kinds.

The NHRA national events were telecast on TNN that year and the Mile-High Nationals final rounds were being shown live, a situation which added even more pressure to every decision Tom would have to make. The Top Fuel final was now coming up late on Sunday afternoon, and as per usual, a typical mid-summer thunderstorm was rolling toward Bandimere Speedway. My ol’ pal Mike Dunn was about to face Scott Kalitta in that memorable T/F showdown and everyone wondered if Mike, driving the LaVictoria Salsa dragster owned by Darrell Gwynn, would be able to put a stop to Scott’s red hot winning streak.

Both cars pulled into the lanes and sat just behind the burnout box. Meanwhile, everyone was looking at the sky toward the west as it grew darker and more threatening. The front was obviously edging closer and everyone was hoping the final race of the event would be completed before the inevitable rainstorm hit Bandimere.

In the production truck, Tom was in a fix. He was committed to breaking back to the network for the final commercial cluster of the race. Just in case you’re not familiar with network television, the commercial breaks are sacrosanct in the business. Regardless of what’s happening at the event, commercials must run within the show that the advertisers are paying for. No if’s, and’s or but’s……the spots had better run or there will be major repercussions—and none of them are fun. Tom had to break away with only a few minutes remaining in the show and seconds after TNN began running the spots, the rain hit.

In the grandstands, nobody could understand why the two dragsters had just been parked there with the rain only moments away. The NHRA had to wait until the spots were over so the final round could be shown live, but unfortunately, the rain drenched the track, the fans, the cars and everything else before the commercial break was over. When it finally became apparent that the TV break had caused the delay and that it would probably be another hour before the track could be dried and the Top Fuel final completed, the fans began chanting, “Diamond P sucks!” over and over again. Even until this very day, Tom recalls that moment as the most demoralizing of his otherwise exceptional career.

Finally, Scott beat Mike when racing could be resumed and the run was taped and slipped into a TNN program later in the evening—certainly NOT the way drag racing fans across the country would have wanted to witness it. So, whenever I hear the words “rain delay” and “Mile-High Nationals” in the same sentence, I experience serious flashbacks to that summer afternoon in 1994.

Enough of the past. It’s on to the second race of this year’s Western Swing in Seattle next weekend. I’ll pull together another edition of “In the Groove” after the race so I hope you’ll slip over here to johnforceracing.com then and see what I’ve got to say. Thanks for coming along for the ride!

Until then, please buckle up and drive safely!