Imagine if Whit Bazemore was appointed king of the
world. How would King Bazemore view certain topics?

Bazemore, the teenager who earned his first racing
gig as photographer for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, went on to score a lucrative
career as a few Funny Car driver and sits in the same position as a Top Fuel
driver.

If you ever wondered what the world would be minus
PC (political correctness), you might see that if ‘ole Baze is appointed the
grand poo-pah of all.

There’s never a dull moment. Read at your own
non-PC risk his take on Funny Cars, the leadership of the NHRA, Monday testing safety, the Spotted Owl (he moved to Oregon, remember?) and Government versus Big Tobacco.

Matt Smith believed the
time had come for a new version of the Buell in the NHRA’s Pro Stock Motorcycle
division. The defending POWERade champion said that he sought permission from
the NHRA first, then the manufacturer, and said upon receiving blessings from
both, undertook the financial and physical investment to bring a new Buell
motorcycle configuration project to fruition.

There’s only one problem
with Smith’s scenario: The approving parties involved say there was never a
“deal” in place. A beleaguered Smith is left with a partially developed
motorcycle, and no place to race it, at least not under NHRA auspices.

“We got the approval to do
everything and once we got finished, the project got shot down,” Smith
explained. “We are sitting on it right now.”

“It” for Smith is a brand
new 1125R Buell body style he had hoped would provide an alternative to the
current XB-9. The lure for this change, according to Smith, was a larger
frontal area.

One might say Nancy Matter
is a living, driving contradiction.

The very fact she's in the
cockpit of her Top Alcohol Funny Car on the NHRA circuit is almost an oxymoron
in itself, because of the time involved from her first visit to the strip.  

Careful, now, in using
that term oxymoron, but since her very life and career has been one of huge
contradictions, let's go with it, largely because oxy is the Greek term for
"sharp."

So today, let's just say Nancy is an oxyMatter.

Throughout the fabled first five decades of the National Hot
Rod Association’s existence there have literally been hundreds of historical
moments and monumental “firsts.” As hard as it is to single out any particular
time frame or sequence of events that contributed the most to the NHRA of today,
arguably the years between 1965 and 1975 have to be considered among the most
significant. It was during that ten-year span that the mighty Super Stock
class, propelled along by heavy factory participation, spawned two new classes
which would go on to become mainstays in the professional eliminator category:
Funny Car and Pro Stock.

The evolution of the cars hitting the track in the early
days of these fledgling classes progressed at an amazing rate, changing
literally week by week as the creative minds of the day engineered, built, and
raced machines of all conceivable configurations. This creativity often
outpaced the rulebook, such as it was back then, leaving tech officials in a
constant state of flux as they attempted to bring some semblance of stability
to the new programs.

From Super Stock to Factory Experimental to Experimental
Stock, Funny Car went on its weird and wonderful way, morphing wildly until at
last emerging, somewhat under control, as a stand-alone class in 1969. Its more
sedate, if not any less renegade, half-brother Pro Stock made it to the big
stage one year later. Since we’re discussing one of Pro Stock’s most famous
teams, and most famous cars here, we’ll leave Funny Car at this point to
concentrate on the “factory hot rods.”

On May 30th the National Hot Rod Association, in conjunction
with an entity entitled HD Partners Acquisition Corporation of Santa Monica, CA,
announced the possible sale of NHRA’s Pro racing assets for a reported $100
million-plus. Contrary to the initial wild speculation that followed this
announcement, the world as we know it has not yet come to an end, and is
unlikely to in the foreseeable future. But, there can be little doubt that
major changes are on the way for every aspect of drag racing.

If anyone suspected that drag racing was off the map of the
nation’s consciousness the resulting publicity avalanche should forever put
that notion to rest. Publications ranging from tabloids to respected business
journals had people from board rooms to coffee counters talking about the
endeavor. Some of them were shocked by the revelation that the sport they once
considered the bailiwick of street corner hoodlums with ducktail haircuts had
become a rather impressive major league activity with races in every major
market in the country. Despite there being vehicles in competition called
“Funny Cars,” that misnomer had to be ignored considering that many of those
cars were sporting sponsorship agreements in the seven figure area. Finding out
that drag racing had grown up definitely shocked some in the business
establishment.

The principals of HD Partners include Eddy Hartenstein,
Bruce Lederman, Bob Meyers, Steve Cox and Larry Chapman. The group’s most
impressive business dealings to date surround the formation of DirectTV, which
has become an annual financial behemoth with ten figure revenues. Yes, that
means the big “B” as in billions. If any of these gentlemen has a direct or
even indirect connection to drag racing we’ve been unable to confirm it one way
or the other.

A common misconception suggests
the origin of nitrous-injected doorslammer racing can be traced back to the
International Hot Rod Association’s Top Sportsman division. In fact, the first
organized competition for nitrous-aided door cars dates back to the American
Hot Rod Association's Pro Stock class. During the last four years of the AHRA’s
existence, officials bucked conventional Pro Stock regulations of the day by
allowing the use of nitrous oxide.

In 1980, Pro Stock was a class
in transition. On the National Hot Rod Association side, Pro Stock cars were
running on a pounds-per-cubic-inch basis with special weight breaks and/or
handicaps based on the make of car. The IHRA took advantage of their rival’s
complicated and rather unpopular structure and countered with a simplified
unlimited cubic-inch format. As a result, the first Pro Stock car to break into
the seven-second zone was racing under IHRA sanction

So where does AHRA Pro
Stock fit into the equation? At the start of the 1980 season, the AHRA was
mired in the same quagmire as the NHRA, struggling to maintain a level playing
field through the use of a cumbersome rules package. To their credit, those in
charge of the AHRA recognized the quandary they were in, and they reacted
accordingly, making sweeping rules changes. 

The 1980 AHRA Pro Stock season had gotten off to a lackluster start, but that
was soon to change. The organization decided that implementing a Mountain Motor
format was the best way to give the class the publicity it deserved, and inject
new life into it.

There was a major problem,
however.

The restoration of the
legendary “Northwind” Top Fuel Dragster continues at a feverish pace as Team
Northwind scratches one item after another off their long list. With the debut
in Seattle set for the weekend of July 20-22 at Pacific Raceways, the
continuing efforts of a large group of people have helped to chip away at the
once-long to-do list. Painting and lettering the car while keeping it all
original took a lot of time. A lot of things have changed since the mid-60s, so
plenty of planning needed to take place at each stage of the project to get it
right.

I can’t say enough about
Dave Jacobus at CarStar Auto Body and his crew in Vancouver, Washington. They
took on the project of painting the legendary Northwind exactly like it was
back in 1965. It seems as though gold metalflake paint is made a lot
differently now than it was 40 years ago. Dave consulted with folks from the
House of Kolor on how to accomplish the task at hand. Lots of mixing, testing,
and more searching took place before the right ‘brew’ was concocted that would
make the car glitter in the sun just as it did way back when.

The car has already been
preassembled to make sure that everything fits where it needs to. After fuel
lines, brake lines, and a fuel shutoff were mounted and installed, a fire-up of
the Jim Albrich Chrysler was in order. A small, permanent starter motor has
been installed well out of sight, making the fire-up procedure a lot easier
than with the heavy old style portable unit that hung on the blower drive. A
special aftermarket starter fit perfectly along side of the frame rails and
then bolted to the bell housing so a simple plug in and 18 volts will allow for
easier firing of the awesome Chrysler. (As we get up in years, easier is a lot
better!) Besides making it easier to fire the motor up, it sure is a lot easier
than having some goofy 22-year-old crash the push car into the beautiful, gold
flake tail section of the body. Hey, I’m all for that!!

Drag racing is a cutthroat
sport. It always has been. That's not to say that it isn't filled with
wonderful, honest, hard working people. There are plenty of folks like that in
drag racing. But come race day, everyone becomes chum in the water waiting for
the shark to come and feast. And you better be ready to race. It doesn't matter
what class you're in. You race to win. You win to survive.

There is a man from Florida who has survived
over 40 years of wear and tear chasing the 'quarter-mile circus' from coast to
coast. He's quietly become one of the most brilliant mechanics to ever turn a
wrench on a race car, yet he's also a loving husband, father and grandfather,
as well as, a tuner, crew chief, race car owner, driver and teacher. He's the
man 'everyone' turns to if they're really serious about learning to drive a
7,000 horsepower nitro-burning beast.

Paul Smith is a racing
legend in the southeast. He's a proud member of the NHRA Southeast Division 2
Hall of Fame; having driven Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars down almost every
track on the east coast. He's won in Top Fuel and Funny Car as a driver and a
crew chief.  That's what makes the savvy
tuner, who is a master of not abusing his equipment, so dangerous to other
competitors. Smith's years of experience along with his ability to negotiate
the trickiest of racing surfaces always makes him a threat to win.

What possibly can motivate a man who
has dominated his division for so long, so emphatically?

Just set the bar even higher.

In Frank Manzo’s case, he doesn’t have
to look far to face a tough crowd. His own neighborhood is filled with drivers
looking to knock off the perennial national Top Alcohol Funny Car king.

But try catching him if you can.

Few have.

There is always the need to run quicker
laps at greater speeds for the Manzo Machine. The frequent wins, it seems, come
with the territory. 

“Competition is the best thing for
anybody because it definitely makes you work harder,” said Manzo, while taking
a brief break from his hectic schedule of running his own construction business
in New Jersey
and preparing his Lucas Oil Monte Carlo for another weekend race. “Competition
makes you better, makes you push harder.”

Pat Musi
hadn’t intended to do any Pro
Street racing this season. After all, the man who
won eight championships between 1997 and 2005 really doesn’t have anything to
prove, and the growth his engine-building business has experienced recently has
imposed serious restrictions on his time.

But the
National Street Car Association (NSCA) was holding an event at Atco Raceway,
close to Musi’s Carteret, New Jersey, shop, and he couldn’t resist the
opportunity to remind some people that he had always been the man to beat.

And he still
is. Musi, driving a 2007 Pontiac GTO owned by Khalil Toorani, qualified No. 2
behind New York’s
Vinny Budano, and won the event on Sunday with a record-setting pass of 6.352
seconds at 224 mph. His victim in the final round was Budano, who ironically
had set the previous record just one day earlier.

“I wasn’t planning to run in Pro Street this year, but it was close to
home, and we want to test the new car as much as possible, so we figured we’d
go do it,” Musi said. “It was a good news, bad news kind of deal. We built a
new 737 cubic-inch Chevy Hemi for the car - Sonny Leonard helped us with the
heads and the intake - but the whole combination ended up being heavier than we
really wanted. We just had to add 80 pounds to go to Atco.”