Since the conclusion of the NHRA AAA Finals in Pomona the management of CompetitionPlus.com has received a number of complaints and accusations from some of our readers regarding our coverage of that event. While I’m aware of the fact that Editor/Publisher Bobby Bennett has personally responded to a number of those missives, I think it’s time we clear the air on this topic, and state our position once and for all.

The complaints and accusations surround a suspicion on the part of some readers that one of the pro teams may have actively worked to tip the competitive scales in favor of the ultimate Funny Car champion, Matt Hagan. What’s most bothersome about this situation is the direction these complaints have taken, which is to accuse CompetitionPlus.com of covering up what took place on the track. Not only were these accusations directed at those journalists who filled our Pomona Notebook with exceptional, detailed reportage, but were also directed at my Asher’s Pomona Insider feature stories, so let’s be crystal clear right from the start. At no point did anyone working for CompetitionPlus.com cover up anything that took place at the Finals. If we knew about it, and could prove it, we reported about it.

What those readers who complained fail to realize is exactly what our responsibilities are as reporters, and they’re really quite simple. If we can’t confirm a rumor, we don’t write about it, and “confirmation” can’t come from someone who says he was walking by So-And-So’s pits and heard them say they were going to do this or that in the next round. That is anything but confirmation from a reliable source.

Since the conclusion of the NHRA AAA Finals in Pomona the management of CompetitionPlus.com has received a number of complaints and accusations from some of our readers regarding our coverage of that event. While I’m aware of the fact that Editor/Publisher Bobby Bennett has personally responded to a number of those missives, I think it’s time we clear the air on this topic, and state our position once and for all.

The complaints and accusations surround a suspicion on the part of some readers that one of the pro teams may have actively worked to tip the competitive scales in favor of the ultimate Funny Car champion, Matt Hagan. What’s most bothersome about this situation is the direction these complaints have taken, which is to accuse CompetitionPlus.com of covering up what took place on the track. Not only were these accusations directed at those journalists who filled our Pomona Notebook with exceptional, detailed reportage, but were also directed at my Asher’s Pomona Insider feature stories, so let’s be crystal clear right from the start. At no point did anyone working for CompetitionPlus.com cover up anything that took place at the Finals. If we knew about it, and could prove it, we reported about it.

What those readers who complained fail to realize is exactly what our responsibilities are as reporters, and they’re really quite simple. If we can’t confirm a rumor, we don’t write about it, and “confirmation” can’t come from someone who says he was walking by So-And-So’s pits and heard them say they were going to do this or that in the next round. That is anything but confirmation from a reliable source.

Okay, what’s a reliable source? Someone who, in the past, has told us something that’s come to pass, and not just once. For example, a reliable source is someone who tipped us well in advance that a certain tuner was about to be replaced, or a team was losing or acquiring a sponsor, or a driver was retiring or something of equal note that came true.

Think back to the film All The President’s Men, a fact-based movie that succinctly outlined President Nixon’s direct involvement in the Watergate break-in, an incident that ultimately resulted in his resignation. In the real world – which both the book and film covered very effectively – the highly esteemed editor of the Washington Post newspaper, the late Ben Bradlee, refused to run the story without more facts provided by reporters Woodward and Bernstein. In both the book and film it was evident that the two reporters really did have the complete story well in advance of publication, but the newspaper correctly declined to publish without additional confirmation.

CompetitionPlus.com is not the Washington Post nor are we the New York Times, The Guardian or any other publication noted for its thoroughness in reporting – but in our own little world of drag racing we try our very best to operate in the same manner. We will not publish what we think, only what we know, and what we can prove. If we can’t confirm it from additional sources, or prove it some other way, you’re not going to read about it here. Yes, you’ll undoubtedly read the kind of salacious “reporting” some seem to crave on other sites, but not here. And when they read those stories, and believe them, only to find out later that there was no truth whatsoever to what was published, we’d like to think that maybe, just maybe, they’ll be at least a little sorry in falling for the hype rather than the reality.

Right now I’ll wager top dollar that inside the newsroom at the Post – as well as at numerous other publications --there’s more than one story bubbling away in the cauldron that hasn’t yet seen the light of day because the reporters can’t prove the veracity of those stories. Some of them will never be published, while a very few might be.

Astounding as it may seem to you, here at CompetitionPlus.com we’re in the same position. We’re working on a number of stories you might never read – because we can’t prove them to be true. Those that we can ascertain are true will appear on these pages, but not before they’ve been thoroughly vetted.

In our reporting on Pro Stock at the Finals we outlined a couple of potential situations involving teammates of Jason Line, emphasis on the word potential. Those scenarios never came to pass because of first round losses by Greg Anderson and Vincent Nobile. We reported on those potential scenarios on both Saturday and Sunday without ever suggesting that either Anderson or Nobile would have taken a dive for Line because we had no confirmation that they would have done so had the situations arisen. Yes, we definitely reported on Nobile’s attempts to remain 16th with Ms. Enders-Stevens first, but that wasn’t about diving, it was about Nobile’s hope to assist Line by defeating her in the first round. Not only was it obvious that Nobile wasn’t running all out, everyone involved readily admitted they were trying to position themselves specifically to help – but it never happened because of Line’s jumping up to the Number 1 spot.

So, let’s talk Funny Car, because that’s the category which elicited the most egregious assaults on our credibility. Those who complained uniformly bashed us because we didn’t “report” on the diving they alleged took place. Let’s forget “alleged,” because many of those who wrote “knew” that the diving took place. First, to report means to write about or somehow disseminate true, factual information. We had no facts to report. None, zero, nada. Without facts we had nothing to write about. Facts are what drive legitimate news outlets, and that most assuredly includes CompetitionPlus.com. Without facts – confirmed facts – there is no story.

Do we have a single reader who believes any employee of Don Schumacher Racing was about to admit that diving took place? Would we take the word of a lone employee who claimed it happened and run with it? We would not. We would need confirmation from at least one other source, one with more credibility than the show truck driver who, we’d probably find out later, had been let go on Sunday morning.

Can anyone state with total certainty exactly what takes place behind the wheel of the Traxxas Mustang when Ms. Force mashes the throttle? Can anyone state, without hesitation, what Ms. Force feels inside the car as it leaves the line and heads down track? Only Ms. Force really knows, and despite what you might think, the onboard computer can only do so much. The driver remains the key ingredient to any run.

So, do we know what Ron Capps experienced in his run against Matt Hagan? We do not. Do we know that his tuner set the car up to smoke the tires? We do not. Do we know what Tommy Johnson, Jr. experienced in the semifinal against Hagan? We do not. More importantly, we will not speculate on what may or may not have taken place. To do so is anything but factual reporting.

The appropriate forum for such speculation is in an editorial – which is solely the opinion of the writer and is therefore held to a completely different standard than is a news story – and frankly, you’re not going to be reading anything like that in a future Up Front because I refuse to speculate on such doings.

So please. Continue to bash us whenever the mood strikes, but remember this. If you’re accusing us of covering up a story, or failing to report the “facts” as you see them, you’re wasting your time and bandwidth. We’re going to continue doing our jobs, and that means reporting thoroughly and accurately on the stories that we can prove are true.