Staging light

The 2003 NHRA racing season is in full swing now, as evidenced by the weekend of April 5-6. Racing was contested on at least a half-dozen levels of NHRA racing, including, of course, the scores of weekly bracket racing events at NHRA member tracks. While the Pros of the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series were slugging it out for the big jackpot at the NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals in Las Vegas, Division 2's warriors were in Alabama, running their third race of the 2003 NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event at Montgomery Motorsports Park. South of MMP, racers in the NHRA Summit Sport Compact Drag Racing Series were competing in the second event of their series, the BFGoodrich Tires NHRA Sport Compact Nationals, at Moroso Motorsports Park in West Palm Beach, Fla. Meanwhile, Division 3's best were competing in Madison at the NHRA Spring Sportsman Challenge XI National Open at Gateway Int'l Raceway, which also was hosting the opening round of the Jeg's Super Quick Series.

During all of this frantic on-track action, the ol' editor's notebook has begun to overflow with tidbits gleaned from across our many sources. Enjoy.

Speaking of Gateway Int'l Raceway, one of its bracket racers, Hank Endzelis, a retired Illinois state trooper who races his '69 Camaro with his son, Joe, missed the first half of last season on duty with the Air Force making bombs for Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, including one that he "dedicated" to his fellow Gateway racers. Endzelis figures that some of the bombs he built late in his tour last year are among those now being used in Iraq.

Speaking of armed conflicts, did ya know that the U.S. interstate highway system requires that one mile in every five must be straight? These sections can be used as airstrips in a time of war or other emergencies. Hmm, I can think of at least one other use.

Still on the war front, make sure you catch NHRA fan Christopher Titus' USO comedy special on Comedy Central. Our favorite comedian performs that show in his very own National DRAGSTER staff shirt NHRA Publications VP Adriane Ridder gave him the shirt to wear on his weekly show, on which he routinely had NHRA logos in the background, before it was canceled.

A few weeks ago, I related some interesting quotes by racers to the straight press. Here's one 1 missed: Dwight Drum of Zoomster.com asked John Force: "Let me take you to a forest where the trees don't know John Force . . . what does the world need to know about John Force that's important to John?" To which Force responded, "That the tree that has my type of personality is a weeping willow, because if there was nobody there to see me - no fans - I'd be a weeping willow."

The NHRA Media Department hosts national teleconferences with the media and our top racers, during which some interesting nuggets are unearthed. For example:

Brandon Bernstein, when asked where his competitive spirit comes from, replied, "I grew up in Dallas being competitive playing soccer. I just absolutely hated to lose on the soccer field. I think that is also part of my upbringing. I wanted to be a winner. I think it [also] has a lot to do with heredity. My father is very competitive; as everybody knows I get a lot of that from him. We are extremely competitive together."

All-star nitro crew chief Austin Coil was asked, "Are you a better tuner than John Force is a driver, or is he a better driver than you are a tuner?" The ever-eloquent Coil responded, "That is a good question, but it is kind of like asking if red wine is better than white wine. They are two different things. Obviously we are both very good at what we do. The only thing I have to admit is that when the drivers are out there on the starting line racing, getting ready to run, John is all alone. When we are here in the pits, I have Bernie and John Medlen and Jimmy Prock and Dickie Venables to consult with. For that, I would have to give John a nod on the level of difficulty. He has to do his job all alone." The complete interview with Coil will be presented next week.

Bernstein and Coil were part of NHRA.com's April Fools' stories April 1. The lead story, titled "Rookie driver Brandon Bernstein very close to running out of hats," made good sport of the Bernstein family tradition of saying "hats off" to its crew. ("I'm new at this," Bernstein said, "so I'm still learning. Hats off to my dad for teaching me everything he has so far but he never mentioned this problem before. Oh shoot, there goes another hat. See, it's not so easy.")

Another was an unlikely tale of Coil sending Force to the minor leagues. ("Following the lead of bigleague sports teams, Team Castrol coaches, citing his inconsistent play at the season's start, are weighing the possibility of sending struggling slugger John Force to the bracket racing leagues for a "conditioning stint.") Just as unlikely were the tale of Craig Treble heading the fan club for bitter rival Angelle Savoie and a story on Ron Capps being featured on the cover of prestigious Modern Knitting magazine, complete with a faux cover ("Macrame at 325 mph!"). You can find them online in the NHRA.com April news archive.