ASHER'S NORWALK NOTEBOOK
If you’re attending the Summit Nationals we
have a hint for you on Sunday: Arrive early. The traffic on Saturday
was pretty intense, with even NHRA president Tom Compton being a
“victim” of arriving a little later than he’d planned. He neared the
track around 10:00 AM, and then sat largely unmoving for quite a
while. “I’ll be heading out a lot earlier tomorrow,” he told us, a
sentiment that was echoed by many others.It’s that kind of race. Walk the pits and you’re going to bump into people you haven’t seen for a while. Case in point, former IHRA Top Fuel World Champion Paul Romine, cruising around with 1974 IHRA Spring Nationals champ Dale Funk (I remember because he beat our car, the Jade Grenade, in the finale. They shut us off with an oil and fuel leak, and Funk ran Low E.T. and Top Speed of the Meet on a single!).
We asked Romine what he’s been up to, and he told us, “I’m workin’ more than I have in a long time. I’m fishing a little bit, I’m buildin’ a couple of airplanes, one of which is a float plane so I can go fishing in Canada next summer. I’ve also just finished building a Harley, and I’m here in Norwalk just to see how much nicer this facility is today than it was when I was racing.”
Romine admitted he’d race again “in a heartbeat,” and also admitted that he’s working on a program for an A/Fuel Dragster, or, as he put it, “a fuel car without a top!”
SATURDAY NOTEBOOK - MORE RANDOM NOTES ON THE SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT NATIONALS AT NORWALK
If you’re attending the Summit Nationals we have a hint for you on Sunday: Arrive early. The traffic on Saturday was pretty intense, with even NHRA president Tom Compton being a “victim” of arriving a little later than he’d planned. He neared the track around 10:00 AM, and then sat largely unmoving for quite a while. “I’ll be heading out a lot earlier tomorrow,” he told us, a sentiment that was echoed by many others.
It’s that kind of race. Walk the pits and you’re going to bump into people you haven’t seen for a while. Case in point, former IHRA Top Fuel World Champion Paul Romine, cruising around with 1974 IHRA Spring Nationals champ Dale Funk (I remember because he beat our car, the Jade Grenade, in the finale. They shut us off with an oil and fuel leak, and Funk ran Low E.T. and Top Speed of the Meet on a single!).
We asked Romine what he’s been up to, and he told us, “I’m workin’ more than I have in a long time. I’m fishing a little bit, I’m buildin’ a couple of airplanes, one of which is a float plane so I can go fishing in Canada next summer. I’ve also just finished building a Harley, and I’m here in Norwalk just to see how much nicer this facility is today than it was when I was racing.”
Romine admitted he’d race again “in a heartbeat,” and also admitted that he’s working on a program for an A/Fuel Dragster, or, as he put it, “a fuel car without a top!”
V. Gaines admitted that he’d never raced at SREMP before this weekend, but had tested here a few weeks ago. “This is a great track, and the improvements are just wonderful,” he told us. “This is the best pit parking I’ve ever seen. This place is right at the top of the best tracks on the circuit.”
Mike Edwards seconded those sentiments when he said, “Norwalk’s beautiful. I like it. We’ve never been at a race track where some elderly lady came by and offered me donuts and lemonade every day, and I know it wasn’t ‘cause of my good looks. These people really know how to treat you right.”
You simply can’t get “lost” at SREMP. There are directional signs everywhere. They may not be as big as an Interstate overhead, but they’re there if you look, as were Frank and Cindy Carpinelli of Canton when we saw them.
Hey, we even bumped into former Top Fuel driver Don Lampus, who told us he still misses the sport and has actually dabbled in some sponsorship efforts for a possible comeback, which he readily admitted won’t be 2008. “I’m working for my dad in Pittsburgh,” he said, “but man, I’d love to be back out here.”
It’s the proverbial “family track” we always hear about, as evidenced by things like Mike Woodyard and his five-year-old son Nicholas watching and listening to Tony Pedregon warm the engine in his Quaker State Chevrolet Funny Car and yes, it’s even “problems” like the one Manny Massi of Ashtabula had: Two pounds of ice cream and no free hand to eat it with!
Bill Bader, Jr. said it all when he told Torco’s CompetitionPlus that Saturday’s crowd “was the biggest in our history. The one thing we definitely need to work on is our ingress. The traffic was difficult, but my commitment is that we will fix it. I think that with everything we had to deal with this is an absolute out-of-the-park home run. There will be some little things that we’ll have to fix, but that’s the Bader way. We will fix them, and fix them quickly and people will see the improvements. Just don’t give up on us.”
And yeah, we’ll have more of the color and excitement of the Summit Nationals for you tomorrow.
DENSHAM DOINGS - Gary Densham is one of the few regulars on the NHRA POWERade Series trail who also competes at IHRA national events whenever possible. He’s raced at SREMP numerous times, and it showed when he said, “I’m having fun. I’m at Norwalk! It’s an all-new nice race track, and I’m happy to be here. The changes in this track are nothing short of incredible
“They’ve put on great races here with the Night Under Fire and the IHRA races, but this one is something special. What they’ve done with this track since we left here after the World Nationals last August is absolutely phenomenal.
“I would think you’re going to see a bigger crowd here than you ever saw for the World Nationals,” he added. The amount of money and effort the Baders have put into this place is incredible, so I hope they pack the place. The Night Under Fire is the biggest one-day drag race in the country, so they’re used to big crowds here, but this one may make that race look like a small event. What the Baders have been able to bring to the fans in terms of entertainment value is way beyond the norm.
“I wish I were going to be in the Night Under Fire, but we’re probably going to run the IHRA race I Martin, Michigan that weekend because it’s being sponsored by Evan Knoll (one of Densham’s primary backers). We’ve got six races in a row, and we’ve got to turn right around after Sonoma and drive 2,600 miles right back to Martin for that race, and then we’ve got three more in a row after that, so we’re going to be pretty busy.”
Densham ran the two season-opening IHRA national events because of scheduling and location, but acknowledges that the Martin race will be his last for the season on that side of the sanctioning street. “Those IHRA races are great races to run,” he said. I love what we’ve got going out here at NHRA, but it’s also kinda nice to be transported back in time and race the way that we used to where it’s just a bunch of friends instead of the corporate world leaning over our shoulders over here (in NHRA). It’s fun to race over there.”
When asked about the pending sale of NHRA, Densham replied, “It’s probably going to make me very upset. While it’s going to raise the prestige of racing with NHRA, and raise the awareness of the sport to where I think it should be, poor old Densham’s going to be too old to take advantage of it in the next 20 years. Maybe, if things go right, my son could take over and do it.”
MUSINGS WITH (LARRY) MORGAN - Despite his opener of, “It’s the same old crap, just a different day,” Pro Stock Dodge driver Larry Morgan was comfortable in what’s become his new home town track. “I only lived a few minutes from Columbus,” he lamented, “but this place is great, and it’ll have to be my new home track.
“This is an absolutely beautiful facility. I’ve always said it was beautiful. I’ve raced here my whole life, and have always enjoyed the Baders, they’ve been very good to me. I think Summit coming in is great. It’s like it’s in their back yard. If they can make this facility like it needs to be, this will be a great place to race.
“I think this track is goig to be right up on the list of the best place, but I hate the fact that they left Columbus because it was so close to home for me, but this facility is definitely better than the Columbus facility.”
When asked about the potential sale of NHRA, Morgan replied, “First of all, the way I look at it is, and the way the racers perceive it is, let’s get this straight: If it’s good for everybody, then it’s fine. If it’s good for a handful of officials and a handful of racers, then it’s bullshit. When Tom Compton was in that meeting (in Topeka) trying to explain to all the racers what he felt was going to happen is not the way he should have done it because the way it came across was as if you had a big chute full of money and this big pot at the bottom, and they’re all standing around grabbing the money as it comes down and packing their pockets. What we wanted to hear was what this new deal was going to mean to us because we’re all out here struggling to put on their show, and we don’t make near enough money to do this. The bottom line is I wish they could come and operate my show, and show me how to do it and make it better, and I don’t think they can do that. They’re not helping us out in any way, shape or form, and I think that’s the way the rest of the racers look at it, but most of ‘em don’t have the balls to say anything about it, and I think they should stand up to them like men, because if we’re going to do this we’ve got to make it work for everyone, not just a few individuals.
“Everyone wants to believe that (drag racing) will be better after the sale goes through. I want to believe that. Everyone wants to believe that whatever NHRA does it will be better for the racers, but it never has been, so I don’t know why people think it’s going to change. It costs us a lot more money every day to make their show better, but I don’t think they look at it that way. I told Tom (Compton) after the meeting that if it’s going to be good it has to be good for everybody, and he agreed with me.
“Tom told me he was surprised that nobody asked more questions in that meeting, but I told him that everyone was in shock at hearing the news. I told him that our problem is that no one has enough money to (race) properly, and it’s the truth. I don’t care who you’re talking about; Schumacher, Kalitta, any of those guys, they have to spend their money to make this happen, and at some point they’re going to quit racing. What are we gonna do then?”
MIKE DUNN IS MORE THAN A PRETTY TV FACE! - Mike Dunn was a darn good driver when he was competing in either Top Fuel or Funny Car, but he’s clearly found a home behind the microphones of the ESPN network. His insightful commentary on the POWERade broadcasts has probably expanded the sport’s reach to a new audience. We caught up with him in the pits, figuring if he was interviewing people, we could, like, turn the tables on him for a change.
COMPPLUS: What’s new in the media world?
DUNN: We’re just waiting to see how this new partner thing (with HD Partners) develops. We (ESPN) have a five year contract with NHRA with an option for two more, I believe, that we signed last year. My personal contract coincided with that, so this is my first year on the new deal, so we’re just going along normally, from what I’m hearing. We’ll just wait and see what happens.
COMPPLUS: Would you like to race again?
DUNN: You know, I’m just not sure. Bazemore said to me in Chicago that someone had come up and asked him if I wanted to race again. Bazemore told the guy that ‘Dunn misses driving, but doesn’t want to deal with car owners,’ so the guys says, ‘Then I guess he doesn’t want to drive that badly.’ I told Bazemore the guy was exactly right. I don’t want to deal with car owners and the politics with the sponsors. I got kid of burned out on that on some older deals, and I don’t want to get put in that position again, so basically, I’m pretty much done unless somebody walks and hands me $15 million dollars for five years to run my own fuel deal, which isn’t going to happen, and I’m not looking for it to happen. I’ll just keep doing TV.
COMPPLUS: Is your family happier with you doing TV instead of racing?
DUNN: Well, I’m home more! Even though we work the same races, and even though the TV’s probably more hectic and intense once we start the first production meeting on Friday night until we finish on Sunday night, once we’re done you’re done. I don’t have to do any appearances, which is a good thing. We have to do two appearances a year, one for POWERade in Atlanta and then another one at the awards banquet, but that’s it. That’s what makes it nice. That gives me more time at home, but it’s taken me five years to figure this out. I never had a hobby, never did anything but racing. Now I get to play baseball with my son and stuff, and I’ve gotten to the point where I say, Ya know what, there are other things to do besides drag racing. Don’t get me wrong, I love drag racing and everything I’ve done with it, but I do realize there are other things in life.
COMPPLUS: What do you think of this facility?
DUNN: I’ve been here twice before and it’s always been a first class facility. It’s the cleanest race track on the circuit. We knew coming in this was going to be a great place, because they do it right here. I think Warren Johnson put it best when he said he thinks the Baders and the Banidimeres are the best track operators in the country. They both do everything right. Everybody should be looking at them as examples of how you should do things.
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FRIDAY NOTEBOOK - WELCOME TO THE SHOW AND A FEW STORIES FOR YOU ...
WHAT’S NEW WITH DRAW? - The Drag Racing Association of Women (DRAW) continues to be the most unheralded organization dedicated to helping the families of every injured drag racer, yet they continue to do their remarkable work in a sort of media vacuum. Everyone even remotely connected to the sport understands what this remarkable group of volunteers does, yet the media pays very little attention, and racing’s officials, while openly supportive, have long since ceased making their annual $25,000 contribution. Without that support the efforts of the women – and yes, there are a number of men also involved – are more important now than ever before.
We caught up with Rosalee Noble and her husband, Terry, at the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals at SREMP (ah, what the heck, let’s just call it what it is – Norwalk), and got this report. Noble reports that the group took in slightly more than $59,000 at their annual auction that took place during the Joliet race, stating, “We were very pleased with the results.
“We have our DRAW booth at all of the NHRA national events, and some of our area coordinators have booths at their local races and points meets. Most of our NHRA and IHRA members have received their new DRAW-themed mailing labels, and that’s one of our big fund raisers. Our biggest donors also receive a package of Christmas cards later in the year, and that’s also a good fund raiser.
“At the Dallas race in the fall we’ll have another auction, but that one’s strictly a live auction, so it should be a lot of fun.
“We generally pay out about $200,000 annually to help injured racers and their families, so that’s our budgetary goal. Now, this year, with Eric Medlen’s death we’ve received a lot of donations in his memory, and when Scot Geoffrion passed on we also received a lot of donations in his name. More and more people are beginning to remember their friends in drag racing by honoring them through donations to DRAW to help other friends when they’re in need.
“There’s going to be a golf tournament on the Wednesday of the Finals at Pomona, and half the proceeds from that will go to DRAW with the other half going to a charity of the Medlen family’s choice.”
A present DRAW is assisting 20 racers and their families, with three new names added to their list in just the past week. Included among the latest group to receive assistance from DRAW are jet truck driver Bob Motz and his son, Scott. Brandon Murray, injured in a Nostalgia Top Fuel race, is also among those getting some much needed help. Surprisingly, thee are still racers out there who don’t realize DRAW is there to help, ans as Ms. Noble
put it, “Sometimes it takes us a while to track them down, but when we hear someone’s been hurt, we do our best to get I touch and make sure everything’s all right.”
Noble readily admits that DRAW’s best trackside donations come from the Gatornationals and U.S. Nationals simply because of the size and scope of those events. The Nobles personally work 19 of the 23 NHRA races, but also acknowledge that at present the organization has no presence at the IHRA races because, as Ms. Noble put it, “We just don’t have the manpower.”
Is anyone out there listening? The racers need your help, and if you’re a regular competitor or competitor’s companion who races the IHRA series, reach out to the DRAW folks and see how you can help.
TALKIN’ WITH TOBLER -Master tuner Rahn Tobler has had an exceptional career, and in the last couple of seasons had Doug Kalitta in the championship hunt until the last rounds of the last races. But, circumstances change, and Tobler departed the Kalitta Racing operation after the Gatornationals, only to land a short time later (just in time for the Las Vegas race) at Morgan Lucas Racing. However, mere weeks after joining the team he moved on, a decision made by the team owner.
We caught up with him in the pits at SREMP for a few questions.
COMPPLUS: Rahn, do you have any job opportunities on the line right now?
TOBLER:
No, I don’t have anything firm at all right now. I’m probably going to sit back a little bit, certainly through the swing races, and take it easy. Whatever I do this time I’m going to try and make a better decision about where I go and what I do.
COMPPLUS: Have you had serious conversations with any team about a
future job?
TOBLER:
I have had some serious conversations with a couple of teams, but again I’m just not ready to make a decision about that right now. I don’t think this is something I’d want to jump into right in the middle of this six race swing. I’d rather come in and maybe have a weekend off or something to get acclimated to what the team wants to do.
COMPPLUS: Care to mention the teams you’re talking to?
TOBLER:
No, thank you!
COMPPLUS: Are you going to keep going to the races, like Denver, Seattle or Sonoma?
TOBLER:
No, I’m not going to Bristol or Denver. I came to Norwalk because it’s close to home, and Englishtown I already had tickets for, and I had tickets to a Broadway show that I wanted to see, so I wanted to go and do all of those things. So, I’m not going to come out and just sit around. I’m going to come out and talk to some people, and I’ve even had some offers for next year, but whether or not I could sit out until then, I’m just not sure.
COMPPLUS: When you say you’re not sure about sitting out until next year, is that a financial situation, or something else?
TOBLER:
It’s purely from the financial standpoint.
COMPPLUS: Looing back on the Morgan Lucas situation, do you have any regrets about your involvement there?
TOLBER:
Well, most of the things I tried to do I couldn’t do, and that’s kinda where we didn’t see eye to eye on things. They wanted the car to be a duplicate of Melanie (Troxel’s) car and they asked me when I went there if I was willing to do that, and I said sure, I’ll try whatever, it doesn’t matter to me. But, I saw some things that I thought needed some attention and things needed to be different, and they obviously had an opinion that things needed to remain the same regardless of the results, so that’s where the dilemma came from.
COMPPLUS: When you say there was conflict, did that come from Forrest Lucas, Morgan Lucas or somewhere else?
TOBLER:
Looking back on it, and knowing how everyone felt, they feel that you can take two cars and prepare them identically and they’re going to run the same, and I worked with a three-car team, and I know we couldn’t duplicate the results with the three cars we had at Kalitta Motorsports. We all did things a little differently (at Kalitta’s), and that’s why you bring crew chiefs in, to make some decisions that have to be made, and that might mean, perhaps, going down a slightly different road than the rest of the team. You’re doing that for the betterment of your particular car. You know, you bring a guy in who’s had a fairly good track record for the last three years, someone who’s won some races and fought for some championships… I thought you brought someone like that in to make some changes and bring the team up to a performance level they were hoping to achieve.
COMPPLUS: Do you think the sport is facing a crisis of sorts in that there’s a shortage of quality tuners?
TOBLER:
I do, and I also sometimes think the sport is suffering from there being a shortage of quality teams, and I’m not really sure how I want to rate what a quality team is, but there are a lot of teams out here that, on the surface, appear to be one thing (in terms of funding), when you get inside, they’re really not that great. I really haven’t ever had to pay attention to those kinds of things before. When I was with Kalitta it ws obviously one of the finest teams in the sport. What you see on the outside with that team is what’s on the inside, too. It’s all very good. But, there’s a lot of teams out here that kind of hang on and want to be out here, but underneath there’s not really a lot of (financial) depth.
COMPPLUS: Where are we going to look to find more quality tuners?
TOBLER:
Well, if you look, there are guys coming along. Look at Snake’s car and Donnie Bender. They went a long time without winning a race and now they’ve won two in a row. People have to have the opportunity, the chances because some day the Tim Richards and Alan Johnsons of the world aren’t going to be here, and the sport will have no choice but to find people to take their places.
COMPPLUS: In earlier days a lot of the tuners came out of the driver’s seat. They were guys that drove and then became tuners, guys like Frank Bradley, Dick LaHaie and Ed McCulloch. Do you think having been a driver is going to be important in making someone a tuner, or will they just start on the mechanical side and work their way up from there?
TOBLER:
Most of our drivers out here today don’t have a lot of mechaical experience. The people you mentioned were owner/drivers, so they did it all, including driving the rig to the track. Those type of situations really don’t exist any more. I know there are some people out here who want to learn these things, but whether or not it comes from drivers, I just don’t know. If you look at the Top 10 in Top Fuel or Funny Car points I don’t think you’ll find a lot of
tune candidates in that group.
COMPPLUS: What kind of money does a top crew chief command today?
TOBLER:
Well, to be honest, I haven’t been out here in this market very much, so I just don’t know. I’ve only really had three jobs in drag racing, counting Morgan’s. I would say anywhere from a low of $125,000 to a high of, well, I’m not really sure. I’d say maybe from $250,000 to $300,000 per year including bonus and incentive programs. I could imagine that someone like an Austin Coil pretty much writes his own ticket.
COMPPLUS: What do you think it takes, financially, to be competitive out here for a season?
TOBLER:
I would say, right off the top of my head, somewhere close to $2 million dollars at the very least because you have to spend the money on the people. You have to have the right people working on the car or you’re not going to get anywhere. A crew chief is nothing without a good quality crew. To keep good quality people on these teams you have to pay them good money, because they really sacrifice. They spend a lot of time away from their families. The hours are ungodly, as everyone knows who understands this sport. You have to spend a lot on labor costs, to say nothing the parts for the car. There’s far more people who work on these teams than just the
people who go up to the starting line. I think you’ve got to have a minimum of six people working during the week and maybe another two to four at the track. When I first started two or three guys could run one of these cars, but those days are long gone.
COMPPLUS: One more thing. Would you be interested I a consultancy where someone might say, “Come with us to Denver and help out,” something like that?
TOBLER:
It would all depend on what the deal would be. If it was something that might lead to a full time position down the road, I would certainly consider that, but right now I haven’t been offered anything like that.
RANDOM THOUGHTS ON FRIDAY AT NORWALK, ER, SREMP! -
Seldom does a national even site receive across-the-boards praise from the competitors, but such has certainly been the case with the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals at the track bearing the same name. Tuners, drivers, crew people and supporting manufacturers have been falling all over themselves in praise of the facility and the manner in which the Bader family runs the operation.
Dozens of racers stopped us to offer praise of the facility, from the expansive paving that graces the pro pits to the numerous garden areas that, while largely dirt at this point, indicate a gorgeous future for the track.
As mechanic Lance Larsen (Morgan Lucas Racing) put it, “I raced here last August, and the place was nice then. It’s unbelievable now. I’ve heard they put down 26 acres of asphalt to make the pro pits, and the Baders have always kept this track very, very clean. It’s been an absolutely amazing transition. I’ve been here a lot since 1995, when I worked for the Skuzas. And every year the Baders have done something to make this track better, and it shows.”
Not surprisingly, numerous people are already rating the facility as among the best on the tour, but it’s more than amenities that have surprised some, it’s the manner in which they’ve been treated by everyone at the track. When uniformed track workers make the rounds in the morning offering lemonade and donuts you can see the stunned looks on the faces of the recipients, racers more used to track managers seeking payment for everything rather than welcoming them as customers deserving of first rate service. Maybe it’s an indication of how they do things at SREMP, but late Friday evening,
as the sun was beginning to go down, we spotted a uniformed track worker manning a weed whacker on the outside of the fencing, just making sure everything was looking good.
And it’s not every day that you’ll walk up to a gate at a drag strip to find a working wearing a modified tuxedo offering to show you where you need to go.
Yeah, it’s Friday night, and it’s later, but we’re setting that alarm early for Saturday, ‘cause it’s only gonna get better than it was on Friday!
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By the same
token, if we’re following “procedure” we should also be referring to the event
as the NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Nationals at Summit Racing Equipment
Motorsports Park.
That’s in the ideal world. In the real world it’s
going to take years, and maybe even decades before anyone consistently refers to
the facility or the event by its full and complete proper name. Until then
everyone’s going to continue to reference the track as simply “Norwalk.” When
someone talks about the race they’re probably going to call it the “Summit
Nationals,” or maybe something even more simplified, like the “Summit
race.”
This is anything but an isolated problem. It’s somewhat
universal. Management would like us to refer to the Mac Tools NHRA U.S.
Nationals at O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis, but for all eternity those
of us who live and breathe drag racing will continue to just refer to it as
“Indy.” In reality it’s the AC Delco NHRA Gatorationals at Gainesville Raceway,
but to us it’s always going to be either “Gsainesville,” or maybe “the
Gators.”
SREMP is NOT the same Norwalk Raceway Park IHRA fans and competitors have been seeing at the IHRA World Nationals in August of recent years. While the track was already a damn fine facility even then, it’s become nothing short of a supertrack during the ensuing months. As track manager Bill Bader, Jr. put it, the Bader’s family’s investment in track improvements in the last year exceeds $6 million dollars. By anyone’s standards, that’s a ton of money, but it was money well spent.
For those of you familiar with the track, the first major change you’ll notice is that the pros are now on the east side of the facility, all of them parked on a new sea of asphalt that stretches the length of the quarter mile. The sportsman are now exclusively on the west side, where conditions are also much improved.
One thing that’s unique to SREMP (at least as far as we know) are the new digital scoreboards – that have readouts on both sides! That means racers pitted beyond the end of the quarter mile racing surface – and there are many at SREMP because of the property configuration – can now see what’s going on on the track without having to constantly have their collective ears pressed to a PA speaker or car’s FM radio. That’s also going to eliminate a lot of those “What’d he run?” questions. Bill Bader, Sr. apparently gets the credit for coming up with that idea.
The employees at SREMP are also somewhat unique – most of them actually seem to enjoy being at work. Track clean-up – and by that we don’t mean the racing surface, we mean the grounds, the grandstands, the bathrooms and even the concession areas – are constantly, and we mean constantly being patrolled by uniformed workers who pounce on a hot dog wrapper as if it were a poisonous snake that must be instantly removed from sight.
Even early Thursday the line at a “buck-a-pound” ice cream stand was long, but nobody seemed overanxious. Seventeen-year-olds Katie Nichols and her buddy, Hershel Wireman, were among those manning the booth. “It gets real busy on weekends like this,” she told us with a big grin. When we asked her if the ice cream was any good we got that “Are-you-from-Mars” look that only teenage heartbreakers are capable of delivering with a smile. And Katie got back to digging out more Moose Tracks ice cream (Torco's CompetitionPlus.com is not responsible for SREMP’s ice cream flavor names!).
Dana Bisbee, who handles electronics for NHRA, is also a first-timer at Norwalk (oops, we meant SREMP), and had this to say: This is a very nice track. Everything seems to be well taken care of. They’ve got a great maintenance program going on here. The staff all seem to be very professional. The place seems to me to b e very much on a level of a Las Vegas or someplace like that.”
“What started out as a $4 million dollar advancement quickly grew into something where we’ve spent right around $6 million in actual dollars. It was actually six-point-something. The main things people (who have been here before) will notice are the new scoreboards, all the new paving, and maybe some of them will notice our tower expansion. We’ve got elevator access to the top of the tower now, so that should make things easier for the race control people.
“We’ve also got brand new Musco Sports Lighting for the pit areas, and new luxury suites that are more along the lines of what you’d see in a major stick and ball facility.
“Our pre-sale (tickets) are completely out of control. I’ve never seen it higher, and that’s not promoter hype. They’re out of control. I think we’re in pretty elite territory with races that have been established for a long time, but I think realistically, based on what I project our walk-up (ticket sales) to be, that we’ll have a very huge crowd. I think this will be the largest inaugural race in NHRA history. I also believe our hardcore IHRA people are going to come out and support this race. How could you walk around this place and not be impressed with what you see here? Based on the huge pre-sale we’ve had I believe our fans are going to support this race in a big way.”
For a different perspective we sought out John Di Bartolomeo, the editor of Drag Racing Action Magazine who also happens to be a Super Comp competitor. In his view, “The changes that (Bader) made here are unbelievable. As much as I like Las Vegas, and Vegas is probably the top notch facility because of where it’s at and the atmosphere that surrounds the place, this place is a close second.”
Don Graham is another local Ohio racer who also happens, in his business life, to sponsor the season-opener at SREMP. The 59-year-old began racing at NRP in the 60s, and has seen the facility go from “stones and a strip of pavement to what they’ve got here now. It’s phenomenal. The weekend program here usually has three or four hundred cars.”
We certainly can’t predict the outcome of the first national event at SREMP, but we can state without hesitation that even at the conclusion of its first day c competition everything about this track is light years ahead of at least a handful of other facilities on the NHRA POWERade circuit.
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