Drag Racing Story of the Day!
The Original Big Mac Attack
By Bill Pratt
Tod Mack vs. Leroy Dewdney in Division 1 alky FC
action. Photo by James Morgan
Here’s a neat James Morgan photo of Tod
Mack racing against Leroy Dewdney in the Fly 'N' High Mustang II. Tod was
the owner of MIR along with partner Larry Clayton for many years. They
sold the track to Royce Miller in 1990. I met Tod and Roberta (Schultz)
Mack in June 1986 at the Division One points meet there. Actually, they
were just "together" at that time. I had just printed up my
first or second edition of the Drag Racing List stats booklet. I went to
the tower and asked if I could sell them by walking up and down the
grandstands. Greg Xakellis (spelling?) said, "You gotta go talk to
Tod" and sent me to the pits.
Tod and Roberta were sitting on the back of
their duallie, eating track burgers. Tod had replaced this Challenger with
a Corvette by then and Roberta raced a Plymouth Laser. I showed Tod and
Roberta a Draglist, in which they were both listed, of course. Tod told me,
"Don't walk up and down the stands. Go up to the tower and have them
make several announcements for you. Then you stay at the bottom of the
tower and sell them!" This day began a good friendship with the
Macks, who have always been very good to my little project and me.
That weekend or shortly thereafter, Tod
took several stacks of DRLs and sold them out of the back of his trailer
all along the Division One match race trail. He gave me all the bucks. He
then asked me to start writing MIR match race stories and sending them to
National Dragster for $25 a story -- much better money than many track
reporters get for the same thing now, 14 years later. I also got my
announcing chops at MIR, actually running down to take photos of the cars
for the stories, then running back up to the tower to announce them (with
Lewis Bloom, with whom I still do most MIR special events).
When Tod sold MIR to Royce Miller in 1990,
he recommended me to Royce as an announcer. I have been doing that ever
since. The morning after Tod, Larry, Jim Yates, Carlton Phillips, and
others bought the IHRA, Tod called and asked me to be the editor of Drag
Review. I would have loved to, but at that point, my growing family and
information systems career beat out the gamble of a move to Bristol and
total immersion in drag racing. In retrospect it turns out I made the
right move, but it sure was nice to have been asked! As you can tell, Tod
Mack did a lot to get me credibility in drag racing.
Right now Tod and Roberta are retired and
enjoying their family and yacht in Annapolis, Maryland. Tod is also
kicking off a new web enterprise called HotRodZone.com.
He promises it will be a whole new concept. Knowing Tod Mack, it will be
all that and more.
Bill Pratt
bilden@draglist.com
