Rich it was not Glendora's decision, It was the drivers and owners. You have to respect that. There is still 1320 foot alcohol racing. Why am I a fan obsessed with Alcohol racing? To me Alcohol racing is today what the good old days of top fuel and funny car racing used to be back in the day.
I started to attend drag races locally at Englishtown back around 1970. back then almost any service station or other business owner or partners could field a fuel car.(Sam Semchenko for example who owned an American gas station was my home town hero) There was no corporate involvement or sponsorships to speak of The NJ, PA, NY areas alone seemed to have about 16 or more top fuel cars.. Across the country there seems to be almost a hundred or more.
The rigs were small, a suburban and a skinny long tag along. or in the case of Bakersfield's Warren and Coburn a Mister Ed streamlined fiberglass trailer shaped like a slipper towed by a suburban. The guys did it on their dollar. I watched the sport grow. I watched the national record drop year after year. I was a fan of low et. I remember when everyone was appalled when Billy Meyer first pulled into the pits with a semi trailer.
With each new blower or aluminum block or fuel pump the Genie was slipping out of the bottle. Gene Snow shows up at ATCO (then IIHRA at the time) with High gear only and a numerically lower rear gear and sets low et. Soon after Eddie Hill and then snow run fours. I see my favorites drop by the wayside because of rising costs. Even Garlits retires. Bernstein runs 300 at Gainesville. What is happening to my sport?
Soon it becomes a blur. what I am watching may as well be corporate rocket ships. 10 or 15 years ago I started to lose interest in the fuel classes. I could no longer identify with it. Many up in smoke runs punctuated by a blur. I had lost my connection. Teams were being sponsored and pretty much owned by corporations who's products I was unfamiliar with or even had no idea what the products were! What the hell is Zantrex?
What happened to my favorite car names? what happened to 'Rampage" or "the jade Grenade' or 'The Midnight Skulker" or 'Frank Federichis Shark corvette" or 'jungle Jim"??? Even when Barry Setzer gave Pat Foster blank checks to field his funny car, he didn't put some knitting mill on the side of his candy apple red Vega. He just put his name on the side of the car in golden yellow letters.
I remember the night Pat Foster ran that 6:40 quickest run in funny car history at Englishtown. I thought back then I was witness to history. And the funny cars LOOKED like funny cars. You knew when you saw them towing down the fire up road what make and body they were.
I'm sorry did I type Fire up road? Wasn't that in itself exciting? No silent slow tow out from beneath a corporate tower. your Top Fuel heroes burst onto the scene dumping the clutch and hitting the mag right in front of you seemingly yards away. A couple of fire up road drive overs by push trucks and soon even that drama was pulled from us in the name of safety.
There is so much I can write about in this post but I know I'm rambling. Back to my point. To me. Today. the alcohol racers/cars are what the fuel racers/cars used to be. I can still Identify with them. And to top it off they are running 5:40s which is as quick as Gary Beck ran in Larry Minors top fuel car so many years ago. And isn't Frank Manzo running as quick as Raymond Beadle did shortly before Beadle retired? And Alcohol funnys don't have that mason dump truck bed on the back of their bodies.
I remember the promise that drag racing needed to grow out of its roots if it was to survive. Well be careful what you wish for. I lost my sport 10 or 15 years ago. I don't know exactly when I just morphed away from me. Go ahead call me an old fart reminiscing. The Genie is now completely out of the bottle. He can never go back. I watch as my old heroes pass away. Many in the past two years. You cant turn back the clock.
I posted a week or so ago my nostalgia specs for what I think a safe top fuel or funny car should be. But I know anything of the sort will never happen. Drag racing will be whatever the drivers and owners want it to be. Much of what I loved is gone. But I am happy I didn't miss it. I witnessed an awful lot. I consider myself extremely lucky. Like many I can say I witnessd the golden age of something.
I have to tell you years later the cars did NOT seem slow to me. Even when Jungle Jim or Pat Foster were setting Englishtown or even world records in the high sixes. Today in my mind eye I remember them as being fast. It was loud. I saw flames. It was drag racing.
Oh boy I'm just gonna send this. I type too slow to keep from rambling. Forgive this old fart.
