REMEMBERING INDY - THE INDY ARCHIVES
Since 2000, CompetitionPlus.com has provided coverage of the NHRA MAC Tools U.S. Nationals from start to finish. However, those who visit Indy know the experience of the event has little to do with the numbers and win-lights. It's about the people and the plethora of stories that transpire during the five-day event. In the days leading up to Indy, we will bring out some of our finest Indy-related feature stories for your viewing pleasure.
Since 2000, CompetitionPlus.com has provided coverage of the NHRA MAC
Tools U.S. Nationals from start to finish. However, those who visit
Indy know the experience of the event has little to do with the numbers
and win-lights. It's about the people and the plethora of stories that
transpire during the five-day event. In the days leading up to Indy, we
will bring out some of our finest Indy-related feature stories for your
viewing pleasure.
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Originally Published 9-4-2007
When we stop and think
about our lives, even for a moment or two, numbers tend to dominate our
thoughts. Oh, maybe not consciously, but
they’re there nevertheless. Things like,
how many years ago we graduated from high school, how old the kids are, how long
we’ve been drag racing fans, things like that.
This was my 40th NHRA U.S.
Nationals.
I never thought about it
in those terms before, but when I realized that I started coming to Indy in
1967 – and camped in the infamous Lions Campgrounds that first year – I
realized that a lot of my history is somehow tied to this place. But I am not alone. There are thousands of racers, fans and
supporting sponsors who have been coming to what’s become O’Reilly Raceway Park
at
In some respects the
Nationals – and it really is the only race whose name can be shortened to those
two words – the Nationals – and still have everyone know what you’re referring
to –will always be the epitome of drag racing.
As Del Worsham said during an interview on race day Monday, he didn’t
realize how important the race was when he won it the first time around, and
remains almost desperate to win it and experience that euphoria again. A few years back, upon winning, Larry Dixon,
Jr. said to a television reporter he knew had no understanding of the event’s
importance, “You just don’t have any idea what it means to win Indy.”
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Originally Published 1-18-2007
There's nothing more prestigious than winning Top Fuel at
the NHRA U.S. Nationals, and that's exactly what inspired a group of sportsman
racers to use the first round of eliminations as a protest platform. No
sportsman division had dared to stand up to the seemingly invincible
sanctioning body, not to mention during their flagship national event. There's
always a first time for everything, however, and in 1981 a group of disgruntled
sportsman racers took the NHRA to task in front of their paying customers.
This makeshift group of sportsman racers had been rumor fodder in the pits for a few months prior to the event, yet when they confronted the sanctioning body the issue was always sidestepped. On Labor Day weekend in 1981 they took the unprecedented step of airing their concerns before one of the largest crowds of the year. After all, they had nothing to lose.
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Originally published 9-1-2006
On one weekend the careers of Blaine Johnson and Tony Schumacher intersected...
Many
drivers look back on the first elimination-round passes of their
professional careers as a bit surreal. But nothing could come close to
the emotional swing that Tony Schumacher experienced in his first race
in a Top Fuel dragster.
It promised to be intimidating enough for Schumacher because it came at
the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, the National Hot Rod Association's
oldest and most prominent race.
But 10 years ago, that first quarter-mile ride, which should have taken about 4.7 seconds, seemed to take an eternity.
Schumacher was the No. 16 qualifier. As such, he was paired against No.
1. But this time the No. 1 qualifier didn't pull up to the starting
line. He had died two days before of massive head injuries from a
top-end accident during qualifying.
So Schumacher had a single pass instead of getting to race Blaine
Johnson, the 34-year-old sensation who was running away with the Top
Fuel championship, owned the national speed record, and set a
track-record 4.61-second elapsed time on his final run. Gone was the
likeable Californian whom veteran publicist Rick Voegelin called "a
tiger in a race car." But little did anyone know just how much this
rookie Schumacher, this rather overwhelmed 26-year-old from Chicago,
would turn out to be the same kind of driver.
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Originally published 9-6-2006
Remembering the only REAL Nationals...
Years ago highly respected automotive writer Rick
Voegelin titled a story on the U.S. Nationals “Indy Nation” in the pages of
Car Craft Magazine. It was true then, and just as true now. Then Indianapolis
and now O’Reilly Raceway Park becomes almost a country unto itself during the
marathon that is the U.S. Nationals. It’s “citizens” are like no other. They
wear “uniforms” of brightly colored shirts that declare their loyalty to
competitors as diverse as Del Worsham and Dan Fletcher. They whoop and holler
after their favorite Top Fuel driver warms his engine, or stick their fingers
deep into their ears as Steve Johnson does the same with his Suzuki motorcycle.
They stand in silent worship in the Hemi Challenge pit area, ogling quarter
million dollar cars from the 60s, before many of them were born.
They hold
their faces to the skies so that rubber particles from a Tony Schumacher burnout
peppers their skin. They beg for a discarded spark plug from an unknown Super
Gas roadster owner. Looking furtively around they’ll tear a sponsor’s banner
from the fences. They’ll collect hero cards from drivers they detest just to
have them. They come from Indiana and almost every other state in the Union.
They arrive in Muscle Cars, vans, motorhomes and on the back of choppers. They
fly in from Australia and Europe. The empty the airport car rental lots and
fill the hotels and campgrounds.
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