Wolf’s Word: Thoughts Of Another Racing Season In the Books

Yet another racing season has, for all intents and purposes, come and gone, with only a handful of big races remaining on the calendar before we officially close the book and begin making preparations for a new year. If there’s any one certainty, it’s that the older you get, the faster these seasons go by.

It seems like only yesterday we were dusting the snow off for NHRA professional testing in Florida, hanging the hoops at Lights Out IV in South Georgia, and filling the air with the essence of nitromethane at the March Meet, but here we are already, putting away our ghosts and goblins, tossing out our rotting pumpkins, and preparing for a feast. It’s been another spectacular year of straight-line racing, with it’s share of highlights and low-lights, glory and agony, record-breaking and parts-breaking, but through it all, our sport is alive and well and will live to see another turn of the calendar, and that’s all that truly matters.

With the season largely in the rearview mirror, we thought we’d take this opportunity to look back at some of the top stories of the season, so without further ado…

One could easily look at John Force’s back-breaking run to an unprecedented sixteenth NHRA Funny Car crown as a, “how do you like me now?” statement to the brass at Castrol and Ford, both of whom announced over the summer that they would be departing his operation after impressively lengthy tenures of 29 years (Castrol) and Ford (16 years). Looking at the situation from a marketing perspective in today’s economy, however, likely tells a different story.

In this day and age, winning a championship won’t provide any more returns on a sponsor’s investment than not winning it…it’s not the 60’s or 70’s anymore, as much we wish it were. That’s not to say one mustn’t be competitive, because a car that doesn’t qualify misses out on splashing their sponsor logos on the Sunday ESPN2 broadcasts for a few fleeting moments, and the more rounds a car goes, the more face-time it receives. Every company wants to be associated with a winner, but whether that adds up to dollars and cents in return is questionable. But given how much television time Force and his daughters already command, the championship is unlikely to have any effect, and it would be hard to imagine the marketing execs at Castrol or Ford are having any sleepless second-guessing their decision. It’s the sad truth of motorsports marketing today.

On the topic of championships, has there ever been a more collectively dominant last third of the season in the NHRA than in 2013? It’s certainly a rare anomaly in the Countdown era, with three of the four titles decided or all-but decided at the penultimate race, and the other a little short on the drama we’ve come to expect when the tour rolls into Pomona for the season-ender.

Both Force and Matt Smith won three straight races in the first fives stops of the Countdown. Shawn Langdon went to the final in Dallas and won at Reading, and while not dominant on paper, entered as the top seed and amassed enough points over his rivals to seemingly make the title his even when he briefly dropped to second. Now, he and the Al-Anabi team simply have to make a qualifying run to seal the deal in Pomona. Only the Pro Stock title remains, where Jeg Coughlin enjoys a four-round edge (or less, figuring in qualifying points). If Jeggie loses early, it could be interesting, but if he remains true to form, the yellow and black gang are champions.

Even the Pro Modified title was decided with little drama, as Rickie Smith laid the smack down on the class in his final hurrah, putting the title our of reach in St. Louis so he could relax at the final stop in Las Vegas.

Speaking of Pro Stock, it will be interesting to see what the NHRA technical department opts to do regarding the struggling eliminator in the off season, or if they’ll do anything at all. If the racers lobby to leave it alone – and given how much time and money they have invested in their current programs, they very well could – we may really see the class unravel before our very eyes next season. There were between 15-20 cars at most events in 2013, propped up by a number of part-time racers on a largely non-competitive budget. The last thing the class needs is for those racers to concede.

When the X-DRL was announced last winter, we were cautiously optimistic that the series could be viable and successful. We were in attendance at the coming-out party at the IMIS Show in Indy, and eagerly watched on during those first races, even running a feature story on series frontman Jeff Mitchell, who touted marketing initiatives he believed would put the series on the map. However, by the time we attended our first X-DRL race in St. Louis in June, the wheels were already beginning to fall off. Rumors of racers going unpaid were gradual but growing on the internet, and that event at the Gateway Motorsports Park featured a crowd so small in number that you truly couldn’t help but feel bad for Mitchell and company.

The writing was on the wall, and a couple months later, it all unraveled for the X-DRL. After canceling – or having two of its late-season events cancelled – in Indy and Montgomery, the series still fully intended to contest its final race of the year in Charlotte. This, in spite of a public approval rating even lower than Barack Obama’s. But the weekend of October 25-26 came and went, and the silence out of X-DRL headquarters has been deafening.

No one wanted to see the X-DRL fail, but a combination of bad business and an upside down economy made the task of starting a new drag racing series an uphill battle on the scale of Everest.

Our sport will say goodbye to a number of great racers and crew chiefs when 2013 comes to a close, and while they certainly won’t be far away from their former offices, they will be missed in competition. These include Johnny Gray, Michael Ray, Morgan Lucas (who will still compete on a part-time basis), Lee Beard, Rickie Smith, and newly-crowned and record-setting 17-time champion Frank Manzo. Interestingly, Manzo, Smith, and Jim Whiteley (Top Alcohol Dragster) are stepping out of their classes after winning national championships. What a way to go out, right?

Looking ahead, the loss of one of our favorite classes, Pro Nitrous, could pave the way for a big year in legal Pro Modified racing in 2014. The ADRL has already been seeing stellar participation in the class, and with a healthy number of nitrous-fed cars dropping down (and hopefully not out), it should give the class a real boost. If those racers jump over to the NHRA, where there’s been come chatter about a possible television package, it’s all the better.

At the close of each year, we line all of the biggest and baddest runs of the year up and try our best to determine one single, undeniable performance that tops all the rest. It’s never an easy task, and 2013 is no different. There’s Keith Berry’s stunning 4.19 in his twin-turbo, LSX-powered Drag Radial Corvette at Holly Springs. There’s Shane Fisher’s 4.52 in X275, Jason Scruggs’ mammoth 219 MPH blast in Pro Extreme, Bob Curran’s 7.61 in NMCA Xtreme Street, and Doug Sikora’s 6.17-second blast in Outlaw 10.5, along with countless others. Who’s No. 1?

With so many great moments and stories in the year that was, it’s hard to break it all down into single editorial of which I’ve already run over my allotted word count on. Perhaps you’ll see some more musings here in the Wolf’s Word archives, but until then, enjoy the racing (and the weather) as long as you can, because soon it will all be over, we’ll be stuffing our faces, hanging our christmas lights, and prepping for another season that will come almost as quickly as it’ll go.