Jon Asher

[Huge]

Jon...you never told me!!!!!!!!!!! at least that I remember.......that you were at Old Gator in 64. Jerry Baltes (you were correct) and I talk about that all the time....to my knowledge, it was the only NHRA race, National or Divisional that was decided on single runs. Jerry had low e.t. thus, he was first, 2nd quickest R.U. etc.

In addition to the fresh asphalt and it's oil problems, the builder ran out of funds before the pits got paved...so he used oiled dirt. Mixed together then rolled with a BIG roller, it was quite hard...almost like paving...TILL IT GOT HOT!!! The oil came to the surface, and along with the dirt, stuck to the tires coming up to the paved staging lanes. They tried everything to get it clean...but nothing worked.

Add to those problems, an underground spring showed up when they put the roller on the asphalt to compact the racing surface during construction. When the multi ton roller hit the section with the subsurface spring, the asphalt sank...making a perfect ski jump at about half track.

Combine no traction, with the serious bump, and you had cars going everywhere. Rather than pull the plug, Div. 4 Director Dale Ham made the call for singles only.

It was an interested couple of days to say the least...and the problem with the track never did get totally resolved. They came back in and dug very deep into the spring area...packed in new soil brought in from another location...packed it some more and finally repaved. Guess what happened when the roller hit it...the bump was back, though much less severe. Just part of the problems building and running race tracks. And it looks so easy!!!!!!!!!!!

This track lasted for a few more years, fell into disrepair and the racing surface is currently used as a pipe yard for the oil industry. I saw it personally about 4 years ago and was flooded with memories.

There is a public road, Stagecoach Road, that was used as a drag strip prior to the building of Old Gator. It was O.G. 1...closed down to the public on race days...and complete with flagman and no clocks at the start, street cars in side by side action over a few hundred feet. Just another example of racing at something other than a quarter mile. You can see both the street and the racing surface if you go to Google Earth and search for Stagecoach Rd. I think that will get you there. The race track crosses the street in the shutdown area, near the railroad tracks. I have some old footage I took (I was a TV newsman at the time) and you would not believe what took place. Fortunately, tragedy was avoided!!! My good friend Jere Grice, "Lefty", retired from the NHRA Safety Safari, was at the original Old Gator track numerous times. He and I have been friends since 1957.

This tale is, of course, done by memory and I fully expect a host of folks pointing out my errors...but you have to agree, it makes for great story telling!!!!!!!!!!

MaC

Thank's to Lefty and his crew, a lot of drivers lived to race another day.

 

[Rat]

So MAC, may I personally ask you what would you suggest for espn and their coverage difficulties?

 

[willy]

So MAC, may I personally ask you what would you suggest for espn and their coverage difficulties?

Personally, I've enjoyed the broadcasts.

 

[MaC]

Patrick, I have made it a policy since stepping out of the picture that I don't participate in the discussions, pro or con. I have not seen a reason to get into a discussion concerning technology, content, personnel...that was then, this is now. Thanks for the invite but I respectfully will decline. MaC

 

[.]

.....When I was at Car Craft Magazine we'd regularly do features on the obscure cars, and we'd turn to freelancers for the photos. I will never forget Tim Marshall bringing in shots of (I couldn't make this up!) the "30-Below Vega." I'm certainly not trying to insult whoever owned that car, but I do know not many people ever saw it outside of its home territory (somewhere in the northern regions of Division V, I think). There were many, MANY of those cars around.....


Jon Asher

The 30 Below Vega was driven by Byron Nelson.

Byron and his son Bob just finished building the new "SHOWTIME" Corvette chassis owned by Doc Halladay. Bob is the car chief on both the SHOWTIME and TELSTAR nostalgia nitro funny cars. Those two guys can fabricate anything!

 

[Bubba]

From the Keystone/Bison Dragways site:

There's a few more pics of "30 Below" at the following link:
keystone bison dragways

 

[Rat]

Patrick, I have made it a policy since stepping out of the picture that I don't participate in the discussions, pro or con. I have not seen a reason to get into a discussion concerning technology, content, personnel...that was then, this is now. Thanks for the invite but I respectfully will decline. MaC

I understand completely. I think the problem is there's nobody like you.

 

[Huge]

I understand completely. I think the problem is there's nobody like you.

Now that I agree with for sure. There will never be anyone like MaC. Thank's for all the great memories.

 

[HEMI6point1]

Actually, I resigned from the ESPN crew at the end of the 2004 season because of some philosophical differences with the producer (who has since been replaced) and there were some issues at home that were being intensified by my travel schedule.

BTW, a the new season of NHRA's Greatest Races will begin in the late fall on HD Theater, which is changing its name to Velocity. I'll let everyone know the days and times it will be airing.

I know this is kinda late but thanks for the clear-up. I knew that had to be BS when I heard it.

BTW - this is a great thread. Always great to hear from Mac. I miss Steve Evans.

 

[I was NITRO BREATH]

The ESPN3 webcast has been a godsend.

I don't have to suffer through ESPN2's biased love affair with Force, don't have to wait for college softball to finish extra innings, and I get to watch all the sportsman racing.

I haven't seen the ESPN2 TV broadcasts since Pomona.

I love the espn3 broadcast sitting in front of my laptop

 

[Jon Asher]

Regarding Mitch Johnson's comment about Ft. Polk, I have an answer: During my tenure at Ft. Polk the base was not attacked or overrun by enemy forces from the Evil Empire. You decide what that means, as I'm not sure.

I've got one more Army-era story. Dave will correct me on this, but I don't think he was the announcer at an NHRA points meet at the old Houston track that same year ('64). One of my Army buddies and I hitched out there after getting a ride part of the way by another buddy heading home on leave. We had money for a cheap motel, and as we walked out the front door the next morning a young guy driving by in a pick-up yelled out, "Going to the track?" He stopped and not only gave us a ride, but when we got to the gate Mrs. Gay was taking tickets. The guy we were with worked at Gay Pontiac. He said to Mrs. Gay, "These guys are with me, okay?" She let us in free, and I've never forgotten that. We did have to pay on Sunday, though, despite our efforts to find our new "friend."

We had to hitch back to Polk and got stuck in western Louisiana with no ride, no food and no money. We were hitching in front of a small rural house, and two or three little kids had been watching us from the front porch. They ultimately called us over and fed us. We never said a word, but they somehow knew we hadn't eaten since early morning.

We went back out on the road and watched traffic going by for another hour or two (very little traffic, by the way). Finally, a guy in a jacked-up 4X4 stopped for us. First thing he said was, "Know why nobody stopped? I'll show ya." Two miles up the road was a state prison.

The guy suddenly turns right onto a dirt road leading through a swamp. We're figuring this must be the Swamp Killer or something like that when we pop out on the other side by a highway. "You shoulda been on this road in the first place," the guy says. "Fort Polk's up thataway about 20 miles." We made it back to the post as they were blowing reveille.

Now, was Mac on the mic at that Houston race?

I have no clue!

Jon Asher

 

[MaC]

Jon, very well could have been. I did a bunch of work for the Gay's through the early and mid 60's...most of all their big races. I know I did at least one points meet there...Glynanna (RIP) and I stood on the door (which was in the floor and swung into the tower to allow access) to keep certain track principals from entering until they calmed down a bit! Oh, the great times I had at the old Houston track...did one race there when they had a funny car race...64-65...all injected nitro cars as I remember. They ran three full races, the first winner and r/u could not run the 2nd race...same thing for the w & r/u in that one....the third one finally ended about 3:00 in the morning. I had a 6 something flight back to Shreveport that morning...so I joined in with the Gay's, Mom, Pop and the boys and crews along with a bunch of the racers including Shirley Shahan and we partied away the rest of the night in the Gay's swimming pool at home. Didn't realize it then...but those truly were THE DAYS!

MaC

 

[Rat]

Did you guys ever work on Long Island? Islip Speedway or Long Island Dragway?

 

[T.Smith]

Hey Mac, this past weekend's coverage included a TV production style tape of Snake's 5.98 run at the 1975 World Finals. I remember talking to you about the TV coverage of that race and it was done by someone other than Diamond P and the footage was lost. That's the first time I've seen tape of that run...and I've seen a lot of drag coverage through the years. I was wondering if anyone noticed that?

 

[Toejam]

Hey Mac, this past weekend's coverage included a TV production style tape of Snake's 5.98 run at the 1975 World Finals. I remember talking to you about the TV coverage of that race and it was done by someone other than Diamond P and the footage was lost. That's the first time I've seen tape of that run...and I've seen a lot of drag coverage through the years. I was wondering if anyone noticed that?

Wasn't that the race Garlits ran his 5.63?

 

[MaC]

Patrick, I never had the chance to do any work up in that area until NHRA started the Natl. events at York, Etown and Maple Grove. Those are the only ones I have worked in the Northeast.

Tony, I just checked the copy (I didn't get to see the clip on Sunday nor do I see any of them when I record the copy) and it noted it was Englishtown in 1975. The SuperNationals name moved around a while after its origination in Ontario...settling in Etown for a time, includin '75.

That program would have been produced by a prominent broadcaster from the Philadelphia area, Tommy Roberts and his production company.
The very first show of the event coverage that led to the current structure was Tommy Roberts production of the 1973 Gatornationals. There were several other shows prior to that, but they were generally one shot deals. I was personally involved in almost all of them...missing only a couple. After the final race of '75, NHRA became involved with Harvey Palash and his production company Diamond P Sports, a prominent producer of radio programs of that era, including the Dick Clark Show, Continental Country, an auto racing program plus several others. For the last couple of years of my full time employment with NHRA were spent at the Diamond P office, handling the clearance (scheduling) of the show at stations around the country. It was a cumbersome method of distribution...but for the era worked as well as any.

With the astonishing growth of the cable/satellite delivery technology, NHRA started with network distribution, sometimes with several networks at the same time, ie: ESPN and TNN and several other combos. That continued through the 2000 season when the signed to have all programs on ESPN and it remains that way to this day.

Hope this hasn't confused anyone...but I sure wouldn't be critical. You should have been there if you wanted a hectic time...but it sure was fun!

MaC

 

[Rat]

It would be interesting to have another network cover a race or two and see what they could do with the coverage. At least we can then judge how well espn does with their package and ratings against another networks. Even the last few TNN NHRA broadcasts. All I remember is Eli Gold hosted them with I forget who else.

 

[sdwarf36]

If you follow Nascar, you'll see that even with 3 different networks covering the races, its still pretty much the same. Just different voices in the booth.
Todays coverage seems to be (and is the same with all sports) the cameras are on while the event is taking place. The old Diamond P stuff was "built"-it was a story of the day of racing. It almost seemed (in no way an insult) like it was built from finish to start- they knew who the winner was-and got the interest shots from earlier in the day-and made sure that if Beadle won, there was coverage to back it up. Not every interview of every round got put on the show--but if the person made rounds there was plenty of coverage of them thru the show--to get you to follow and cheer that person. It built up the excitement well.
I suppose the same could be done today--if we all wanted to wait a week or more to see the race.

And where is Bob Frey? He needs to chime in here--I'll even pay the 1$ entry fee.

 

[Rat]

well nascar is kinda the same boring platform where all the stations due the same, but I think drag racing could be changed up in a network split

 

[Rat]

Remember when the speed channel used to cover IHRA. There platfroms were perfect and ESPN should take a flow lesson from them.