Just when you thought the Muldowney drama was over... (1 Viewer)

[FuelFan13]

When you talk about drag racing there are a handful of legends whose names always come up. Shirley is a part of that elite group. When we had the opportunity to race her in Top Fuel she was probably one of the toughest competitors out there. She knew how to win. Her new column on the internet should make for good reading as she is both knowledgeable and candid.
On a personal note I was very impressed with her at her final race. She really devoted a lot of time to her fans during both a hectic and emotional weekend. Shirley was really nice to my daughter, Kaitlyn, who was about 11-years-old then. Her advice and encouragement was really appreciated and as Kaitlyn ascends the racing ladder her goal is to one day be as successful as her idol. Chris McGee

www.kaitlynmcgeeracing.com

 

[Tim5636sc]

i wonder if someone posts a thread about Big Daddy and there are people that love and people that hate him come on and post. If he gets to work for competition plus too !

I believe that position has been filled

i have always wanted to race Shirley. Now we will be racing to get our column's into Bobby first
I have a great staff of people to learn from! Loved the Hugh Jackman vs Jack Beckman comparison.
Stay tuned folks. And thank you for the continued support.

 

[vegasnitro]

Love the column ... big fan of Shirley's ... glad she is still taking the time to reach out to fans and offer opinions and analysis.

- BUT -

I have to call BS on a driver losing a sponsor because of what was written on internet message boards (commonly mistakenly referred to as a chat room). If that were truly the case, no car anywhere in any form of motorsports would have a sponsor. Have you ever been on a NASCAR message board? Toyota would have headed for the hills if they believed what the 1 percenters were writing on the message boards ... Not to mention Jeff Gordon, the Busch brothers etc.

If a sponsor/potential sponsor tells you they can't sponsor you because of what was written on a message board, particularly a drag racing message board with such a limited number of posters as most drag racing boards have, then you were never gonna get the sponsor no matter what and it was a convenient excuse for the sponsor to blow the driver/team off.

If you don't get a sponsor, it is because your marketing program is weak -or- circumstances beyond your control such as economic slowdown, marketing budget already spent, company moving in a different direction,not interested in motorsports marketing etc. Don't just throw your hands up in the air and blame the internet.

I worked closely with the public affairs department of the 3rd largest cable company in the land, and they were constantly being solicited for sponsorships of everything from hot air balloons to concerts to marathons, and no matter the reason for the denial, they would NEVER come right out and say "We can't sponsor you because of what was written on some relatively obscure message board". It was always a form letter or a "we're sorry, but your program doesn't meet our objectives but thanks for your considerations" phone call.

With all of that being said, and sorry it was a lot, I do not think it is a good thing to personally attack folks on the web ... like a previous poster said, don't write anything that you wouldn't say to that person's face. We all have opinions ... no reason to get nasty with them.

 

[ColeCoonce]

I'm old and I have always admired her gumption.
Now there's a word you won't hear often.

"Gumption" or "grumption"?

(Which may be a word one hears even less...)

 

[None]

If you don't get a sponsor, it is because your marketing program is weak -or- circumstances beyond your control such as economic slowdown, marketing budget already spent, company moving in a different direction,not interested in motorsports marketing etc. Don't just throw your hands up in the air and blame the internet.

Not to mention that many sponsorships reflect the personal interests of the individual owners, boards and/or company philosophy's.

Bernie Little and Miss Busweiser in the old days of corporate and distributor sponsorship dollars was a good example of large amounts of money being poured into a sport with little following. But it was the passion of his and the fact he owned several Bud distributorships that allowed him to do it.

 

[mick]

shirley,
look forward to reading your columns
- thank you.

 

[scsp390]

We all have opinions. Shirley's is refreshing.

I think it is AWESOME to see Shirley involved in drag racing after everything she has been through. We should be happy that she even wants to still talk about the sport and did not turn her back on in and walk away!!! You many never admit it but when Shirley Muldowney speak we all want to listen!!

 

[Mooseman]

When you talk about drag racing there are a handful of legends whose names always come up. Shirley is a part of that elite group. When we had the opportunity to race her in Top Fuel she was probably one of the toughest competitors out there. She knew how to win. Her new column on the internet should make for good reading as she is both knowledgeable and candid.
On a personal note I was very impressed with her at her final race. She really devoted a lot of time to her fans during both a hectic and emotional weekend. Shirley was really nice to my daughter, Kaitlyn, who was about 11-years-old then. Her advice and encouragement was really appreciated and as Kaitlyn ascends the racing ladder her goal is to one day be as successful as her idol. Chris McGee

Kaitlyn McGee Racing

Sorry to go off topic , but what happened to all your guys "big" engines did you guys just stop production when nhra baned them?

 

[FuelFan13]

Sorry to go off topic , but what happened to all your guys "big" engines did you guys just stop production when nhra baned them?

We were blind sided with the rule, that was quietly slipped into the rulebook, banning more than two valves per cylinder and overhead cams.
There had been a cloud hanging over the motor for years. Both potential team sponsors and race teams that were interested in the motor were scared off by threats of handicapping the engine with weight to negate any possible performance advantage.
I would of also liked to have built the engines for the blown alcohol and injected nitro classes and extensive lobbying was done in the early 90’s for that. Steve Harker had successfully run one of the engines on alcohol in Australia and we had vast amounts of data to make the case.
After having the drag racing market taken away from us we were not interested in building them for other types of racing that we were not interested in.
At that time we focused on building other products for the sport. We do have some unfinished business in the nitro classes and will be involved again now that our kids have grown up.

 

[Paul]

We do have some unfinished business in the nitro classes and will be involved again now that our kids have grown up.

That's great to hear, I was always a big fan of both your engines and your teams and would love to see you back in the sport again.

Paul T.

PS - make sure to budget for some sushi for your crew members, that's the hot setup these days in drag racing.

 

[Sean D, shondoo]

We were blind sided with the rule, that was quietly slipped into the rulebook,

That's odd.....................

Sean D

 

[Rich]

I enjoyed Muldowney's article on CP and I'm definitely be looking forward to reading more. Kudo's to Competition Plus for landing Muldowney as a columnist.

 

[Mooseman]

We were blind sided with the rule, that was quietly slipped into the rulebook, banning more than two valves per cylinder and overhead cams.
There had been a cloud hanging over the motor for years. Both potential team sponsors and race teams that were interested in the motor were scared off by threats of handicapping the engine with weight to negate any possible performance advantage.
I would of also liked to have built the engines for the blown alcohol and injected nitro classes and extensive lobbying was done in the early 90’s for that. Steve Harker had successfully run one of the engines on alcohol in Australia and we had vast amounts of data to make the case.
After having the drag racing market taken away from us we were not interested in building them for other types of racing that we were not interested in.
At that time we focused on building other products for the sport. We do have some unfinished business in the nitro classes and will be involved again now that our kids have grown up.

Sorry for having a conversation within a conversation but you wouldn't happen to have any pics of the inner workings of the engine would you . I would very much like to see inside one . Just out of curiosity though .