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Sections News
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In the Fast Lane with Phil Hutchison 02/06/03 It’s the dead of winter and it can’t get much worse. The Northeast has been in what could be described as a frozen tundra for over a month. I haven’t got a National Dragster for what seems like days, check that, months. The only drag racing fix I get is watching old Diamond P Videos, bench racing on Nitromater.com and the occasional sound of my neighbor’s kid doing burnouts in his souped up Honda Civic. This kid is the target audience for the Summit Import Series. He thinks a V8 is a drink that comes in a can. But there is a bright spot in my winter of discontent and pseudo Quarter Mile fixes. All is not lost. The Northeast gets a slight reprieve. The second weekend of each New Year brings the annual Motorsports show to the Fort Washington Expo Center outside Philadelphia. The show focuses mainly on circle track racing and NASCAR, but the drag racing community is represented, well represented in the weakest sense of the word. But hey, a few drag cars are better than no drag cars at all. And each year the Bud Girls are there to sign posters and pose for photos. A few years ago at the show Bruce Larson had his USA-1 ’68 Camaro and ’67 Chevelle Funny Cars on display and another year the Miller Dragster that Dick LaHaie drove was there. So there is a drag racing presence. In addition to having booths dedicated to hawking speed parts, the Bud Girls signing posters, and anything else associated with the world of auto racing, there are plenty of vendors selling memorabilia, paraphernalia, and racing cornucopia. You want a John Force jacket, you got it. You need an Action or Racing Champions Die Cast car or two to fill in your collection, count on it. My first year at the show there was a young lady from New York State etching custom glassware. Pretty cool stuff. I still have my personalized beer stein with the NHRA logo on one side with my name misspelled on the other. I also have an autographed poster from the Bud Girls. At least they got my name right. I leave the show with a armful of Action Die Cast and a poster or two from, have I mentioned it yet, the Bud Girls. On the same weekend about fifty miles to the west right off the Harrisburg exit of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, there was another gathering of tribes. This gig was the annual NHRA Northeast Division Awards Banquet. For the third year in a row the Northeast Division has held their party at the Hershey Lodge and Convention Center. Division Director Bob Lang asked Dave Bishop, his people at Competition Photos, and me to help out with the photography and music. Bob’s offer was too good to pass up. NHRA überannouncer Bob Frey was once again the emcee for the banquet and as usual did a super job. Bob is a walking encyclopedia of drag racing and bad jokes. And while Bob is not opening in Las Vegas anytime soon, his brand of humor and knowledge of the sport was perfect for the party. I wouldn’t trade him for the world. It usually takes a few drinks to get the NHRA crowd up and dancing but once they get up they won’t sit down. At the end of the party people were begging me to keep playing (well at least they seemed to) but the banquet manager was giving me the evil eye and I pulled the plug. A good portion of the guests went over to the hotel bar for a nightcap, unfortunately the place was already packed and the partygoers were turned away at the door. I think they just took the party to the hotel lobby. I felt sorry for the hotel staff. Oh yeah, the awards ceremony, I nearly forgot. NED Champions from Junior Dragster (Nine year old Amanda Smith) to Top Alcohol Funny Car (Fifty year old Frank Manzo) got their chance to thank the folks who helped them get were they are today. The Champions also snagged an NHRA Gold Card, a little cash, and best of all, a “Wally”. In between Amanda’s Junior Dragster and Frank’s Top Alcohol Funny Car award, the winners were announced for Distinguished Service, Image of Youth, Best Hairdo, Worst Drag Strip Food, and a host of other categories too long to list here. The Division Champions from the Summit, National Open, Jeg’s All Stars, and the Divisional series all got paraded up on stage. Once behind the podium they thanked people that I never heard of, posed for pictures with Division Director Bob Lang, Services Coordinator Dave Mohn, and Charlotte Lucas (Lucas Oil). And if that was not enough the winners were then dragged backstage where Competition Photo took hundreds, literally thousands of pictures that you and I will never see. But for your pleasure, I have provided a few pictures from the party. Some of the awards are secret. In other words for those who do not know what secret means, the recipient has no idea that he or she is going to be called up on stage. It can be entertaining. One such winner was 2002 Super Street Division Champ Mike Sawyer winner of the Image of Youth Award. The award is presented for exemplary achievement by a second-generation racer. Mike’s entire family was on hand and although Mom and Dad knew that Mike was getting the award, they kept the secret from Mike. Sawyer, who usually is not at a loss for words, was awestruck and kept his acceptance speech kept to just a few mumbled thank you’s and Mike thankfully sat down. Late in the 2002 season, right around the Keystone Nationals, it looked like that the Northeast Division had a good chance for not just one or two NHRA Lucas Oil National Championships, but maybe six or seven World Championships would go to the Land of NED. It look good. Well a funny thing happened on the way to the podium in Los Angeles. In Comp Eliminator Don Stratton lost to Mike Saye by seven points. Peter Biondo lost Super Stock to Anthony Bertozzi by 22 points. Over in Stock Bryan Valentine got beat out by Kevin Helms by just 42 tallies. Kent Hanley in Super Comp and Tom Stalba Jr. in Super Gas seemed to poised to take it all only to be passed in the last turn. Hey that’s racing. It just looked so promising. Frank Manzo along with Art gallant won the NHRA’s top two Sportsman classes in a great 2002 season. Manzo won his 8th National Funny Car and 13th Divisional title. Is Frank Manzo the best Alcohol Racer of all time or what? Art Gallant the Alcohol Dragster Champ, was on the other end of the spectrum. Art had never won a Divisional Championship let alone a Lucas Oil National title. And Art didn’t have it easy. Alcohol Dragster in 2002 was brutal. Lots of killer cars from every division. Apparently there are racers who are willing to spend more to win a National title than the Championship pays out. Go figure. These drag racers. Jeez. Duane Shields from Las Vegas, NV towed his record setting Alcohol Dragster to the Northeast for two consecutive races to block Art’s potent yet consistent for a A/FD from getting too many points. Duane ended up being one for two. After winning the Englishtown LODRS event Shield’s blown Alcohol Dragster lost to the Pep Boy’s fueler at the Cecil race in a final that would later have major implications in the Alcohol Dragster World Championship. Frank Manzo had it a little easier in Alcohol Funny Car running the table in NED competition and winning enough National events to sew up the Championship way before Pomona. Oh, I forgot, I was talking about the banquet. Well, neither Frank nor Art are fans of long winded speeches and kept their remarks down to a minimum. One last thing before I move on. Our good friend Mike Sawyer did win the Northeast Super Street Title in 2002. Mike’s ’67 Camaro edged out the 1983 Camaro of Jeff Watkins by the unheard amount of one point. One Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Point ladies and gentleman. Mike gets the Gold Card and the number 11 on his window for the 2003 season. Unlike his speech after winning the Image of Youth Award, Mike had his act together for the Divisional Award and had the entire Hershey Chocolate Ballroom crowd agog with his eloquent acceptance speech. Well, except those who were at the bar, in the restrooms, outside smoking, or those asleep at their tables. Congratulations to all the 2002 winners and for those who did not win, better luck next time….. If you would like a complete rundown on the list of winners at Hershey, check out http://www.nhradiv1.com/index.html. The following week I headed up I-95 to the annual Eastern Motorsport Press Association Conference and Awards ceremony at the Radisson in Northeast Philly. The conference includes a photo contest and press conferences from all the major sanctioning groups. Ninety nine point nine percent of the members of EMPA are associated in some way, shape, or form to roundy round, dirt track, or NASCAR type racing. For some reason I felt like I was as welcome as a leper at a dermatologist convention. But it was free food and I got to check out some of the Northeast’s best drag and circle track photographer’s work in the photo competition. As usual, most of the action photo awards went to the dirt track and oval photographers. If you have ever attended or even watched a dirt track race on TV you know a lot of the cars are often sideways, upside down, on fire or maybe all three at once. Pretty exciting stuff. Now at the drags things are a little different. The NHRA safety requirements have kept explosions, and general mayhem down to a minimum. Good if you are a driver. Bad if you are a photographer and want to look good against the roundy round competition. Most of the drag racing photographers at the show had good stuff. Beautiful color, great burnouts, super launches, but if you don’t get Ron Capps blowing the body off his Skoal Camaro at high speed your pics just don’t cut it in the Action Category. EMPA President Ernie Saxton had arranged for NHRA Media Relations Manager Ted Yerzyk to lead off the morning Press talks. Ted showed a neat video of 2002 NHRA action with ‘What a Wonderful World” by the Ramones and Louis Armstrong as the soundtrack. After Ted gave the assembled media a glimpse of what NHRA will have in store for 2003, he invited Summit Sports Compact Pro V8 drive Craig Paisley up to the dais to explain to the group why front wheel cars are converted to rear wheel drive, stuffed with a larger engine and still called an Import. Craig was pretty cool and although I do not attend the Sports Compact races, he made me want to go check out a Summit Sports Compact event although most are run the same weekends as the regular NHRA races and I probably still won’t make one in 2003. Now if they had the Bud Girls at the Summit races, things would be different. After Craig was done fielding questions by the folks who think real race cars turn left, Philadelphia native Reggie Showers who races a Suzuki (and who doesn’t) in Pro Stock Bike took the stage for what was one of the most entertaining and informative talks I have heard in a long time. He put a face on NHRA Pro racers to the crowd and was cool under questioning about who does Angelle Savoie’s hair and other tough questions.. Afterward I spoke with Reggie and Craig Paisley about everything from Philly cheese steaks to the Eagles chances of making the Super Bowl. The day was starting to look up. If only the Bud Girls were there to sign posters. We were scheduled eat at noon but a broken water pipe in the banquet hall pushed lunch back to after 1:00. I wanted to get home and do some much needed housecleaning since I had invited a gang of Eagles faithful over for Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. So I hit the road and headed home. Did I mention that the Eagles lost? I leave for Pomona today for the season opening Winternationals. I will have complete (well somewhat complete) Sportsman and Professional coverage when I return.
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