Jan 21 2009
Village Of The Darned
Leave it to me to read the “trades” of Drag Racing right after viewing a John Carpenter drive-in special. When thumbing through the past 48 hours, however, too much of the teetering stumble towards Pomona appears undead…zombie creatures of a marketing entity inhabiting a corpse of drag racing’s pride. The bluntness of Glendora banning, in effect, match racing any TF or FC “professional” machines makes me happy..for once..that Shirley Muldowney has long since retired. The notion of trying to keep Chris Karamesines away from Spokane, for example, is laughable. Credibility is not at the top of rational rule making, here. More second-tier teams have survived and engineered transitions during dry times by match racing than have been harmed in any way by ‘testing’ budgets. I feel nearly sick knowing barnstorming at the top levels has been legislated out of existance. Lack of sponsorship is not promising any alternatives to the big tour.
The similar limited options on a national open ‘pro’ level are much more mitigated by the circuit riders running coast to coast. News that the West Coast PM circuit is undergoing a revival this year with multiple dates at Sacramento and Medford certainly votes ‘doorslammer’ as a needful creature for those two plants. The nostalgia FC scene will, I continue to maintain, play itself out on the left coast…leaving street-and-up as a small plant matinee show.
The larger plants, I feel, are due to follow the larger investment banks into implosion
