yoda
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Isn't that twice now that DPR has been on the short end of the sponsor stick??
Ray Alley relieved of his duties at NHRA (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Rajunz
- Start date
Isn't that twice now that DPR has been on the short end of the sponsor stick??
Jon Asher
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Ray Alley Relieved Of His Duties
I agree with Jerrod Felix that Kenny Bernstein's team could struggle at first because of not only Ray Alley's long absence as a tuner, but also because of Kenny's long absence from behind the wheel of a Funny Car.
Kenny and Ray have been very close friends for more than 40 years, and their mutual trust and respect for each other is apparent to anyone who knows them. Their teaming up appears to be a natural extension of that four decades of working and "playing" together.
Only Ray and/or NHRA can shed effective light on whether or not he'd hoped to finish out the year with the sanctioning body, but the decision to terminate him immediately was the right call.
To suggest that Alley had complete access to everything every team was doing is to overstate his authority. His job was to insure the safety of the drivers and cars, and while he could certainly look at cars in a detailed way it did not mean that if a tuner came up with something special Alley necessarily had visual access to it, and he darn sure never had access to computer readouts and the like.
The rules are quite specific in almost every area of these cars, so there's only so much any tuner can do. Try to use an unapproved cylinder head, for example, and Alley was likely to spot and terminate its use. But, come up with a new fuel delivery curve using accepted equipment and you'd be golden because no one could visibly "see" that curve, and certainly no tuner was going to reveal his new secret to Alley.
In defense of Kenny's retirement tour, that was not Mr. Bernstein's idea, and I believe him. He never lost the desire to drive and compete, but A-B wanted a younger driver as they could already foresee the media and fan successes they were going to score with Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Kenny wanted to simply drive through the season and then announce at the Finals that it was his last race, but Budweiser wanted the publicity a retirement tour was destined to generate.
The reason Kenny didn't want a retirement tour was that he hoped to come up with another sponsor and continue competing. However, it's certainly likely that had he landed a Top Fuel backer it would have created major problems with A-B's sponsorship of Brandon, i.e., they wouldn't want their former driver competing against their current driver when the team owner was both that former driver and the current driver's owner. That helps explain, at least in my opinion, why A-B has no problem whatsoever in Kenny returning with a Funny Car, regardless of Prudhomme's comments.
It was Prudhomme who told me two years before the Final Strike Tour was announced that he was going to quit because "the corporate world doesn't want 60-year-old guys driving these cars." He had then and has now a very valid point, which brings up the question, How is a comany whose products have been totally advertised towards young people going to promote via a driver in his sixth decade?
Mountain Dew, for example, would have the same difficult question to answer if they suddenly signed with Gary Densham.
The "Image Is Everything" motto affixed to that camera Andre Agassi touted for years has some real truth to it.
Here the image and reality are pretty far apart, and may present real marketing problems for Monster, problems every fan of drag racing hopes and believes they'll overcome because let's face it, Kenny Bernstein was always an exceptional driver with thousands of fans, and by mid-2007 he should be right back in the thick of the championship hunt.
Jon Asher
I agree with Jerrod Felix that Kenny Bernstein's team could struggle at first because of not only Ray Alley's long absence as a tuner, but also because of Kenny's long absence from behind the wheel of a Funny Car.
Kenny and Ray have been very close friends for more than 40 years, and their mutual trust and respect for each other is apparent to anyone who knows them. Their teaming up appears to be a natural extension of that four decades of working and "playing" together.
Only Ray and/or NHRA can shed effective light on whether or not he'd hoped to finish out the year with the sanctioning body, but the decision to terminate him immediately was the right call.
To suggest that Alley had complete access to everything every team was doing is to overstate his authority. His job was to insure the safety of the drivers and cars, and while he could certainly look at cars in a detailed way it did not mean that if a tuner came up with something special Alley necessarily had visual access to it, and he darn sure never had access to computer readouts and the like.
The rules are quite specific in almost every area of these cars, so there's only so much any tuner can do. Try to use an unapproved cylinder head, for example, and Alley was likely to spot and terminate its use. But, come up with a new fuel delivery curve using accepted equipment and you'd be golden because no one could visibly "see" that curve, and certainly no tuner was going to reveal his new secret to Alley.
In defense of Kenny's retirement tour, that was not Mr. Bernstein's idea, and I believe him. He never lost the desire to drive and compete, but A-B wanted a younger driver as they could already foresee the media and fan successes they were going to score with Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Kenny wanted to simply drive through the season and then announce at the Finals that it was his last race, but Budweiser wanted the publicity a retirement tour was destined to generate.
The reason Kenny didn't want a retirement tour was that he hoped to come up with another sponsor and continue competing. However, it's certainly likely that had he landed a Top Fuel backer it would have created major problems with A-B's sponsorship of Brandon, i.e., they wouldn't want their former driver competing against their current driver when the team owner was both that former driver and the current driver's owner. That helps explain, at least in my opinion, why A-B has no problem whatsoever in Kenny returning with a Funny Car, regardless of Prudhomme's comments.
It was Prudhomme who told me two years before the Final Strike Tour was announced that he was going to quit because "the corporate world doesn't want 60-year-old guys driving these cars." He had then and has now a very valid point, which brings up the question, How is a comany whose products have been totally advertised towards young people going to promote via a driver in his sixth decade?
Mountain Dew, for example, would have the same difficult question to answer if they suddenly signed with Gary Densham.
The "Image Is Everything" motto affixed to that camera Andre Agassi touted for years has some real truth to it.
Here the image and reality are pretty far apart, and may present real marketing problems for Monster, problems every fan of drag racing hopes and believes they'll overcome because let's face it, Kenny Bernstein was always an exceptional driver with thousands of fans, and by mid-2007 he should be right back in the thick of the championship hunt.
Jon Asher
willy
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Just like reading one of your articles, Jon..hehe.
Thanks..love it.
Thanks..love it.
d'kid
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Bitchin' Ash....
oh, I'm datin' myself... sorry.
Like I said, Garden Grove Racing Lives!!!!
And not surprising, for turnin' 52 today, out of all the Energy drinks out there, I do like Monster best, the stuff in the blue can... and believe me, us 'older' folks need all the energy we can get... maybe KB and Ray are opening a new market for Monster.... works great with Jagger...
Now Jon, when are you goin' to Re-new your flopper ticket???? I can see the article now.... 'I drove a Funny Car at 330 MPH.... ON FIRE!!!"
oh, I'm datin' myself... sorry.
Like I said, Garden Grove Racing Lives!!!!
And not surprising, for turnin' 52 today, out of all the Energy drinks out there, I do like Monster best, the stuff in the blue can... and believe me, us 'older' folks need all the energy we can get... maybe KB and Ray are opening a new market for Monster.... works great with Jagger...
Now Jon, when are you goin' to Re-new your flopper ticket???? I can see the article now.... 'I drove a Funny Car at 330 MPH.... ON FIRE!!!"
90-percent
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Jon
Thanks for your input, Jon. A respectable piece of responsible journalism. Maybe Ray doesn't have intimate knowledge of everybody's speed secrets after all?
And the only way he could make it work is to lift a whole combination from some team, which would take a hell of a lot of work and the winning team would have to open up everything so it could be copied.
So, maybe not so bad after all. Let's see how the team does next year and I think it will take them a season to get into the Top Five.
I take it back, Ray. Maybe banning you for a year is a bit harsh.
-85% Jimmy
Thanks for your input, Jon. A respectable piece of responsible journalism. Maybe Ray doesn't have intimate knowledge of everybody's speed secrets after all?
And the only way he could make it work is to lift a whole combination from some team, which would take a hell of a lot of work and the winning team would have to open up everything so it could be copied.
So, maybe not so bad after all. Let's see how the team does next year and I think it will take them a season to get into the Top Five.
I take it back, Ray. Maybe banning you for a year is a bit harsh.
-85% Jimmy
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