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Digging Dean
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Despite the headaches, Dean Skuza
holds his own against the giants
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By Bobby Bennett, Jr. Photos by Roger Richards |
Drag racing fans dig Dean Skuza because he’s a cool guy. The longtime Funny Car driver has over a decade’s worth of experience behind the wheel nitro burning Funny Cars and in that time has developed the reputation as one that really loves his fans and is turned on by the finely tuned shriek of a finely-tuned electric guitar. He’s equally excited by the lure of a nitro-burning engine and the thrill of pushing a Funny Car to 4.8-second laps at over 300-miles per hour Skuza is a modern day throwback to the Seventies floppers drivers because of his attitude and determination. He very well could have fit in well with the colorful celebrities of that era like “Jungle Jim” Liberman and Raymond Beadle, just to name a few. While Skuza wasn’t old enough to participate in those early days, he was observant enough to take note that Funny Car drivers are a breed apart from the average drag racer. After all these years, his opinion hasn’t changed.
“I think they are several qualities that a driver must possess to qualify as a Funny Car driver,” Skuza said. “You will find all kinds of characters in drag racing, but when it comes to Funny Car, you see a group of drivers that share some of the same qualities. It’s not only the drivers, but also the tuners. They’re just sore losers and sometimes you have to be that way. You have to be a real competitive individual or it will just eat you up.” So what’s eating at Skuza these days? “Nothing,” he says. Anyone else might have easily rambled off a list of negatives that has them dogged down. Skuza refuses bitterness when it comes to the misfortunes that led him into the 2003 tour without a major sponsor. Only because Skuza insists on being straightforward and honest does he even discuss anything related to losing Mopar as his major sponsorship and their subsequent lawsuit as well as other teams undercutting his deals. He doesn’t offer his opinion, but if you ask, you get it. It’s all a part of being Dean Skuza. Skuza lost the Mopar deal at the end of the 2002 season and sadly enough; he admits he was informed via a cell phone. He never let grass grow under his feet. He immediately returned to the sport. Adding insult to injury, the decision was handed down in October and he had remaining years left.
“The way I look at it, every contract has a clause with a way out of it,” explained Skuza. “That’s just business and I understand business. That’s what we are. We are a business. To wait that long, I felt was really wrong. I didn’t feel that way alone. I think the whole racing community felt that way too. Almost every fan that I told to felt that I got screwed and that Mopar should have let me know in the spring. “Mopar said that they didn’t know at that time. I find that hard to believe when Mary Reid said on television that he heard it. I don’t think Marty would say something like that on television.” Skuza went on to say that the comments were made in the spring and attributed to an unnamed source.
“He told me later that it was the same guy that went all over me to make sure that he retracted the statement. He just didn’t want to get his ass in a sling for letting the cat out of the bag early. That was something that made it clear to me that they knew about it already. To wait until the last hour was not very professional. It really put us behind.” When the call came to a cell phone from another cell phone, it was something that still has Skuza scratching his head. “You would think it would be something a little more formal, huh?” Skuza asked. “A company is only as good as its people. I understand that a lot of those people aren’t there any more.” The call reportedly came from Brett Fischer, then the Motorsports Manager for Team Mopar. According to Skuza, Fischer called David Nickens first. Nickens in turn called Dean’s father Don Skuza. The call from Fischer reportedly came 25 minutes later. Ironically, Fischer is no longer employed with the company.
Skuza never sweated the decision, although it clearly bothered him. He returned to a General Motors bodied car even though he had Dodge bodies on hand. He abandoned the Mopar cloak because of the factory’s lack of support and the general feeling that it wasn’t worthwhile to continue development. Skuza was welcomed with open arms at GM. “The guys at GM were great and any time you have a problem, they are only a phone call away,” Skuza explained. “Sometimes, it is not what the hottest commodity out is at the time, it is what has the most potential in the future. GM will be coming out with a new body and they should be making an announcement. It will be the best body out there, I’m convinced. I know I’ve seen the specs.” As if the premature withdrawal of the sponsorship wasn’t insult enough, Skuza confirmed that Mopar filed a lawsuit against his team citing a performance clause. Skuza pointed out that Mopar wrote the contract, not him. One might draw the conclusion that it is just a case of a big company trying to kick a man while he is down.
“They try to break you down, but I cannot discuss the specifics,” Skuza explained. “I think that’s just the way a company handles things. They take the offensive.” Skuza said that Mopar took the same action against Nickens, who had quite a bit more at stake with his program that Skuza. “I couldn’t believe it,” added Skuza. “It was bad enough that we lost our deal, but then we had to go hire lawyers. I had never been involved in a lawsuit in my life. All I know is that it was expensive.” The lawsuit is presently active according to Skuza and should go on for a while. Mopar is reportedly requesting a small financial compensation. Despite the headaches and the aggravations, Skuza carries on. He holds no grudges despite a behind-the-scene feud with a team owner on the tour. Skuza displays no ill-will towards the individual and says that under-cutting sponsorships has become the norm for today’s professional drag racing world. “There are a lot of people out there doing that,” explained Skuza. “The business world is just crooked like that. I don’t care what business you are in. That’s just the way it is. Out here it’s to the point, not only will they call your sponsor…they will also offer to do it for less. That’s not normal business. Companies just can’t do that in the real world because they have to make a profit.”
In a perfect world, Skuza would like to see an unwritten rule among teams of no-undercutting. He also pointed out only in a perfect world could such an ethical standard exist. “People that contacted my sponsors will deny it until the day they die,” Skuza said, with a laugh. “Because of the relationship that I have with some of my sponsors, they even showed me the proposals. That’s just the way things happen out here. I wish it was more like Winston Cup. I’m not a Cup fan. I wish we were more like them where we had a waiting list of sponsors. I talked to someone that does marketing for teams and they actually had a recording saying that all of their sponsorships were filled. Wouldn’t you love to have that problem out here? We have front-running cars that have to park.”
Skuza doesn’t like to consider himself an independent team, but at this point he has no other choice. Even when he did have corporate backing, he admitted that he wasn’t extremely high on the totem pole. Skuza warns that it is never good for a driver’s morale to compare themselves with other teams. He refuses to do that, adding, “You have to do the best you can with what you have got whether it is $10,000 or $10 million.” “When you’re seeking a sponsor it’s doubly hard.”
Skuza’s admitted weakness is the lack of test time. He has only tested once, and that was during the pre-season. The veteran driver refuses to test until he has a sponsorship in place that can support it. “It’s too expensive to test when you’re doing the best you can to make it to the next race. I think it would benefit our performance if we could. But, we don’t have the luxury of buying the latest widgets. We learn how to use them after they are a proven commodity. Those are the things that hurt you.” Earlier this year, Skuza signed rock star “Meat Loaf” to a one-race deal for the NHRA Fram Autolite Nationals in Sonoma, Ca., and ended up reaching the final round. In Memphis, he brought the body out again when his primary body was torched and it was ironic that this was a final round appearance as well. What was even more interesting is the way that his burned-up and destroyed racer returned to the pits only to be greeted with a crowd of various crewmembers from other teams willing to help their fallen comrade in his bid to make it to the final round. Seventy-five minutes of comraderie later, Skuza participated in the final round at Memphis. He may have lost the final, but in the eyes he was a winner simply because he didn’t quit. It’s the never-quit attitude that provided the perfect marketing fit for Meat Loaf.
“I think there’s a good future with cross-marketing with rock and roll bands. I don’t think it could support a full season, but it could be a perfect supporting cast to a major sponsor. I’ve talked with a few sponsors that wouldn’t mind doing two or three race deals and don’t mind taking a back seat for a couple of races. It has a lot of potential.” The bottom line is that Skuza gains gratification out of racing against the major teams and holding his own in an arena rapidly filling up with multi-car teams. “One of our goals is to have a multi-car team,” explained Skuza. “At least, I think it is. Or, I wouldn’t mind being heavily financed with just one car. Two cars would be nice, but I think I would be better served to have one running well before I considered a second.” Skuza is unsure of how close he is to signing a new sponsor for 2004, but adds that several companies are requesting a budget to try and work it into their marketing programs. This month should yield some answers. “I’m pretty sure that we will be back next year. I hope so.”
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