Top Alcohol classes

[Jim Kalb]

My hats off to the Alky boys + girls.

especially for only Peanuts too.


Raise the bar, where IS the series sponsor MONEY

....bigger payouts,,,BIGGER payouts

hahahaha,thank's vic yeah bigger purse would be nice.and more recognition would be nice to.NHRA feel's that the pro stock bikes are more inportant than us.

[jed5161]

would you say top alky funny car is the best stepping stone to get into nitro funny car?

[Lippy]

I would say the best steppingstone to a nitro F/C would be a nitro F/C. JMO. If you already have driving experience as you do. Lippy.

[jed5161]

i agree with ya but who the heck can afford one of those!! haha at least without major sponsorships

[WildcatOne]

There aren't many, that's for sure...Rod Fuller ran unsponsored for about half the tour this year until CAT came onboard at Indy...DPM had the bucks to keep it going...the only one who comes to mind that races the whole tour year-in and year-out, gets in the show and might go some rounds, maybe even win one every so often is Jim Head. He's got a lot of money...there's a 12-story building down the street that Head Engineering & Construction built...he's had major sponsorships in the past...in Top Fuel, I think he had Smokin' Joe's, and he had a long-distance phone company's major sponsorship for a year or two...he was also teamed with Jerry Toliver in a Toyota FC when they had Schick sponsoring them...but for the most part he's been "independent", using his own money to race. Helps to have his bud Alan Johnson drop in and make some calls on the tuneup when he's in a final, too (as long as he's not racing against a DSR car)...I always liked Jim Head, but he is an exceptional example of an independent racer running at the top level of the sport. Head's also been pretty safe. He hasn't had a terrible crash that I can recall. His TF car's chassis broke in half a while back but the car stayed in one piece, arched way up between the cockpit and the engine...he needed a Lippy Lifter to get out of the car after the run...Kalitta just had his logo on the side of his and Scott's car for a long time, but the guy owns an airline...I suppose it's OK to be independent, but in order to compete, you'll have to spend YOUR money instead of someone else's. Ouch! But to those guys, money probably doesn't matter. They just love to race. I remember when Jeb Allen had to quit. It hurt. He just couldn't afford to race anymore...and the money he was talking about then is less than what a competitive TA/FC operation would run nowadays...Cheers, WC1

[Iowa Al]

Would you folks consider Morgan Lucas independent? He races on his Dad's money. If you read National Dragster, you see that lots of folks in all the eliminators own a company or work for a parent that does. That allows both the time off work and the money to race on a national level.
And then there are the sportsman and bracket racers that are good enough to make a living racing.
Moats used to tell me, "You can become moderatly rich drag racing, if you are very rich to start with."
IA Al

[WildcatOne]

Good point, Al, I think I personally would consider Morgan Lucas independent if they just had one car, but they're all over the place; they have their own series in sportsman, (do they still have that A/FD? What about TA/FC?) they have their own national events, they have PSB, PS, FC, TF (Bruce Litton, too), and they're associates on some cars (Bernstein) and so forth...if it was just him, I guess I'd at least think of him as independent...they have done extremely well...Cheers, WC1

[Zappy]

would you say top alky funny car is the best stepping stone to get into nitro funny car?

JMO, but I would say yes, alky F/C is the best step to nitro F/C. - F/C's and dragsters are two Way different animals.

[WildcatOne]

Heck, I guess it comes down to however you can get there, ya know...Look at Rapid. He's been coming up through the ranks, getting more and more gigs (on fuel!) and one of these days I can see him getting the call to run the "big" show. He's already got the talent, knowledge and ability; a lot of it is being given the opportunity and being in the right place at the right time, I suppose. That's not to say that what he's already doing isn't world-class stuff, because it IS...By the way, I went to the Lucas Oil website...they have TA/FC (Manzo), The A/FD with Morgan driving, major associate level sponsorships for Bernstein, Dixon, TJ, and they sponsor Litton and Lucas...Hector Arana in PSB, Larry Morgan in PS, Tony Bartone in FC, they also are into circle track racing, Tractor Pulls, monster trucks, Baja, Doorslammers in Australia, as well as England and Europe...they have their own tracks, too...would seem to me they'd be broke with all that going on, but they're going great guns, man...good luck to all. WC1

[F/C Girl]

This is an interesting post.

I'm not sure that anything really prepares you for the N/FC except the seat time.

The launch is the same and then the clutch kicks in. About the only thing the same is the wheel base at that point.

I'm supposed to test in a car around April of 08 (the 07 deal was best to not persue under the circumstances) so I'll find out for sure. Too bad for all the rule changes though, because I'll be an IHRA Licensed driver first since this is a very small team and it's only to get used to everything without a clutch and going on the high side, etc...........