Article research help, best and worst moments

[robslob]

Best Ever... INDY 1984... Big wins Top Fuel...More emotion from a crowd than I ever thought was possible...

 

[my friends call me Zappy]

Not sure if you could get it down to a specific moment in time, but considering you'd be writing for the basic casual sports fan, that you'd want to mention about the ability for everyday fans to participate in the sport. Most FTDRS tracks allow street cars to be raced at certain times during season. You can go to Indy on a summer night in June, pay a few bucks, and run your 18 second Buick LaSabre on the same track that John Force drives on. You can't do that at Talledaga where Dale Jr. races (I don't think anyways), and you and your son just can't go play catch on the field at Cowboys Stadium, and you and your buddies just can't show up at United Center in Chicago where the Bulls play, for a friendly game of HORSE. Golf is the one sport I can think of that compares to drag racing in this regard.

VERY good point Chris.

 

[James]

Worst moment - 1,000 foot Nitro Racing. Try explaining to a casual fan why there are 2 finish lines and you'll get the same response .... "That's lame!"

 

[PJ]

great thoughts everyone.
Hey James try 3 finish lines. I was at Norwalk for the Night of Fire and they has some adrl type cars there as well. So some went 1/8, the 4 FC went 1000's and the rest 1/4. Everytime a new class came up we weren't sure how far they were racing

 

[Rat]

As some of you know I write for bleacherreport.com (Article Archives - Bleacher Report)

They mainly have me writing for the NHL and Detroit Red Wings. I am trying to get them to increase the drag racing coverage on the site.

They are big on list and best/worst type of stories. I am working on a best and worst moments in NHRA history. They would be in separate articles. A moment can be anything; an entire event, a pass, a deal, behind the scenes..anything.

I have a pretty good list for both but wanted to see if anyone had something to add.
So what do you think are the best or worst in NHRA history?
(and no Paul the countdown isn't #1 on my worst list ) Also the worst isn't meant to be a bash on nhra, bad things happen that are not under their control so think big,

Thanks for the help and insight.

The best moment ever has to be "The Run" by Schumacher. How many times has must collect the full 138 points at the final race decided a championship? The pressure they were under to win a championship and not only did they handle it, they exceeded it. Must of been like, "okay, Alan we're in the final, but we have to win; oh and you also have to tune it to run a national record, no pressure."

The worst moment ever has to be losing Scott Kalitta. Yes his death has made the sport safer with the push for safety, but did an additional death on the track need to happen for NHRA to finally support a push? NHRA was wayyyyy to late in acting on how fast these cars are as I know there were movement to slow these cars down in 1997.

 

[Rat]

Another worst moment for me is the NHRA letting Coke dictate rules like Energy Drinks. They should believe in full thottle enough to let other Energy Drink companies compete against it. Not only are they hindering sponsorships, Did Budweiser or Miller dictate to the NHRA they must kick out the competitor? No they let the fans and teams have the beer wars on the track. Same with Matco, Mac, Craftsman. Yea Matco makes Craftsman, and there was i dont know if they still are, but Mac and Matco had an alliance corporate wise. (look up what Matco stands for)

I want sponsor wars back. Have Full Throttle vs. ROCKSTAR. What Coke, are you afraid that you can't claim some of Rockstar's customers. I do admit tho with energy drinks, it's not the brand it's the taste that usually wins first. I like rockstar and it tastes alot better than full throttle. I would have to say alot of the market has to be people who like the taste and people who don't. Rockstar leads the class and probably because it tastes better, but why is coke afraid to let them compete?

 

[Jon Asher]

Coca-Cola didn't dictate the rules about not allowing competitive brands to be out there. Those things were decided decades ago. Winston sponsored NHRA drag racing for 27 years, and that was the rule from beginning to end.

 

[BaldyLochs]

Best or Worst - LOL.... now I'm not touching that with a 10 foot pole ; but I would think that having 3 predominant male competitors being the first to all sign an application for a woman to obtain a competitor's license would also make the list. (Wasn't it Ivo, Gartlits and Kalitta?)

 

[Butch]

Chris; I thought Pancho Rendon was involved in signing from what she said.

 

[Raconteur]

Yep, if nobody whined about Winston's exclusive, why not keep a rule that restricts competitive sponsorship... it's only a couple of decades later. I understand that Winston paid a lot more $$$ than CocaCola currently pays.

So this is the "tradition" that the NHRA suits retain?

 

[d'kid]

I would Smoke the free packs of Winston... But I'd still would buy other RJR products.
Today, I still smoke RJR products, Dorals or Pall Mall

d'kid

 

[none]

Mods,

Please delete my comment and remove the quotes if possible. It was not my intent to hijack the thread. If anybody really wants to rehash this subject we can start a new one.

Alan

 

[Rat]

Alan that was before my time, I am good on drag racing begining in 1998 and later. I am only 27, and only learned the NHRA existed in 1997.