Barnstormin': As Go the Rivalries, So Goes Drag Racing

[cjforumadmin]

http://www.bangshift.com/blog/Barnstormin-As-Go-the-Rivalries-So-Goes-Drag-Racing.html

[studemax]

Re: Barnstormin': As Go the Rivalries, So Goes Drag Racing

On the button!

[Not A Duster]

Re: Barnstormin': As Go the Rivalries, So Goes Drag Racing

Pretty much sums it up for me.

Used to live for my Diamond P Sundays...

Now................ *

[Mr4Speed]

Re: Barnstormin': As Go the Rivalries, So Goes Drag Racing

You hit that one dead solid perfect Brian. How is it that people who don't understand this have come to be in charge of all modern big-time racing?

[RCR]

Re: Barnstormin': As Go the Rivalries, So Goes Drag Racing

Very good article!! I totally agree !!!!!!

ROB

[38P]

Re: Barnstormin': As Go the Rivalries, So Goes Drag Racing

"Drag racing is the most bombastically confrontational motorsport on Earth. It is the UFC of racing. Two in, one out. Either knock them out or make them submit. No make up laps, no "lucky dogs." Hit that guy before he hits you and keep hitting him until he fails to get up. People are drawn to sports like the UFC because of the intimacy of the competition."

Tom Wolfe wrote one of the definitive analyses of this phenomenon in an excellent chapter of The Right Stuff entitled "In Single Combat" or some such.

According to Wolfe, people have projected their hopes, dreams and fears on heroic indivduals engaged in representative "mano y mano" contests for centuries. During the Mercury space program, Americans personally identified with the seven men selected to pilot our first single-seat spacecraft ("in single combat" against a backdrop of unknown "demons" -- not the least of which was fiery, public death) in part because it deeply resonated in these time-worn cultural patterns of individual heroics.

"People root for people, not companies, sponsors, or neat paint jobs. Win on Sunday, sell on Monday is 100 percent in the ground with respect to drag racing. It's not Hemis versus small-blocks anymore. Those days are done and serve as happy memories when the domestic auto makers were among the greatest industrial giants the world has ever seen."

It's true that all of the "star system"/big sponsor coddling, inconsistent factory support, and turf protecting has totally destroyed the professional racing of stock-based vehicles in America and reduced "Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday" to a cynical canard.

But I'm one who doesn't care who is in a Ford . . . or which Ford wins as long as one does. And in my thirst for witnessing Blue Oval "dust and glory,"** I can even hold my nose and abide "Fords" such as John Force's Mustang and the upcoming non-production FRPP Pro Stock engine.

The lack of personal rivalries in modern racing is the fault of image-conscious corporations. Most corporations (other than some media outfits) try to avoid controversy and "buy off" special interest groups. For example, instead of telling people THE TRUTH -- that buying a mostly-imported, foreign-designed Toyota puts Ford employees and suppliers out-of-work, obliterates our industrial base, and hurts Ford's efforts to comply with a crushing burden of government regulations -- Ford "pussyfoots" around with tepid, non-threatening "happy face" ads, avoiding any controversy and, consequently, engendering little loyalty.

Nearly every other multinational corporation in the automotive business, if not the Fortune 500 does the same boring thing. The neutered racing drivers merely are serving up the homogenized "product" that their corporate handlers (and the beholden sanctioning bodies) are buying.

**See Leo Levine, Ford, the Dust and the Glory: A Racing History, 1901-1967 and Ford: The Dust and The Glory (A Racing History, Vol. 2: 1968-2000)http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0768006635/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lp o-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B0009XT8C4&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX 0DER&pf_rd_r=0T0CWVJEX5DA96DHBN18

[Monster]

Re: Barnstormin': As Go the Rivalries, So Goes Drag Racing

Brian, you nailed it dude.