The Ultimate Race Fan: July 2008

Well could be better than spending a 10th anniversary at the track. After all it is where it all started in 1996 with us when we met and then our wedding here in 1998 on the starting line! So why not be fitting that we come down here again and celebrate our anniversary, how many other anniversaries last 3 days?!
So here we are off to Pacific Raceways in Kent Washington in it's awesome setting dwarfed by Mt Rainier and surrounded by mother nature's natural power enhancers the trees. The trees add extra oxygen into the air and the cars really can feel the difference in their speeds and elapsed times. So Friday's qualifying sessions were awesome but the jury i still out on the 1000 foot racetrack rule now for T/F cars. I understand the safety aspect of it all but there has to be a better way to let them go back to quarter mile racing. Anyway somehow the wife talked some security guys into letting us stand on the track in front of the grandsatnd that is situated behind the burnout box. There is a fence along there that people can stand in but I think it is only for VIPS. I guess we kind of are now, been there enough times!. Anyway we got some cool pics from that vantage point. And the concussion when they take of from the starting line is unbelievable from down there rather that from up top in the stands. Of course there was some other cars there as well from other classes in the sportsman ranks all of who still race the quarter mile and so does Pro Stock still by the way!

There was alot of T/A Funny Cars and and a few dragsters from my neck of the woods in the Calgary and Edmonton Ab area. Even Roger Bateman was there and was suppose to retire a few years ago.

Oh well Day 1 was over and it's off for dinner at our favorite watering hole where we met some crazy people, actually the same ones we met last year in there. All down for the race.

Day 2

Well today at breakfast in the hotel we met some crew members from a T/A dragster team and unfortunately they lost in round 1 but was nice meeting them and getting a tour of their pits at the track was cool. We wish them luck for the rest of the year and hope their fortunes turn out better than they did in Seattle.

The wife and got to meet Bob Frey, who remembered us from the our wedding in '98. Those of you who don't know Bob does many tv shows related to NHRA drag racing and sportsman classes and also does the trackside announcing for the Pros at NHRA National events. He also writes columns for National Dragster. Basically he is an icon for NHRA and a major personality for the NHRA.
Thanks Bob for letting us take your pic, would be nice to have had your Volare in the pic though!

So with two rounds of qualifying left on Saturday and the new system for qualifying as the last 4 times are
reset we find John Force in a position rare to Seattle.

He needs to run a good number to qualify and is struggling to do so. So as the drama builds it comes down to the fourth session and John smokes the tires a bit and is out just like that. the only Funny Car to miss the field. I wonder if some teams are struggling with the 1000 foot track and trying to adjust things differently, I don't know I am not a crew chief,but it seems like some teams are.

Is it just me or does it seem like we are signing more memorial banners these days? Darrell Russell a few years ago, Eric Medlen last year and now just a few weeks ago the tragic passing of Scott Kallitta that forced NHRA to temporarily shorten the racing surface until they figure out another solution to make these cars safer. In the Kalitta motorsports pits there was a banner that we signed along with other racing fans.
After another long day at the track and some shopping (I do all my clothes shopping at the track now) it was time to head out back to the hotel. The parking lot traffic jams didn't seem as bad as years past as we have been known to sit there for hours before getting out of there, that's when we used to have the cooler full of beer for the parking lot! Back at out hotel we get freshened up a bit wash off the rubber from my face and head to our favorite watering hole again! Oh by the way it's called Meeker Street Bar and Grill. Awesome service great drinks! And good food, and the price is right to. Some Calgary bars could take a lesson from this.

Day 3

Well the day everyone waits for, the finals on Sunday! we got to the track early enough to be part of the ESPN NHRA Raceday live broadcast. Gary Scelzi was being interviewed on stage and came down to the crowd first to sign autographs and me and the wife got a pic with him.
It was pretty cool to be in the background of that live show even though we don't get that show in Canada unless u have satellite! Ha ha maybe I should get one.
Then the wife wanted to be part of the opening ceremonies as they let the fans be apart of the crowd in front of the stage where driver introductions happen. "The Fan Zone" so we stayed there and wifey took pics of all the drivers who were in the elimination runs for Sunday.

The racing was awesome although the 1000 foot racetrack is still a bit of an issue with although I do understand the safety aspect of it all and the drivers do come first.

At the end of the day when all is said and done all the John Force rave cars went out early and Jim Dunn's race team with driver Tony Bartone was the winner in Funny Car.
Tony Shumacher won the Top Fuel Dragster event and Jason Line won in Pro Stock. We hung around the winner's circle after the race for a few hours to let the crowd die down in the parking lot before leaving and got some pics of the winner's.

Oh yeah and how could I forget that they had a cacklefest in Seattle as well with some of the old dragster from the early days of racing with some of the original racers who drove them!