BILL STEPHENS “IN THE GROOVE” 2/23/10

Another outstanding weekend for JFR in Phoenix with John advancing to his second straight final round, beginning the season with a victory and a runner-up, and heading to Gainesville with the Funny Car points lead. It’s been a while since the team has jumped out of the box so strongly, but the sober reality is that you can’t draw any solid conclusions about the campaign ahead simply based on two events.

Of course, it goes without saying that the tragic accident involving Top Fuel’s Antron Brown in the first round of eliminations which took the life of a spectator diminishes whatever significance you could attribute to the race itself. Fortunately, freak accidents such as that one are extremely rare and the NHRA’s safety record as it applies to those in attendance is exemplary. And since the NHRA’s original mission statement which was established in 1951 by our beloved founder, Wally Parks, makes safety its primary focus, you can be sure a complete investigation will determine how the mishap occurred and what steps can be taken to help reduce or eliminate a similar accident in the future.

The great paradox which plagued the race this past weekend was how can a desert location like Phoenix be saturated with rain for the better part of an entire weekend? I can remember when I was a member of the ESPN TV crew that some of the wettest, dampest, most unpleasant weekends I ever spent at a race were at Firebird Raceway. And when rain force a halt to an event or requires massive rescheduling, there are no winners. It costs plenty of money for everyone involved when weather upsets the original schedule, not to mention the frustration and disappointment the fans experience when the race gets postponed.

The TV networks scramble to provide alternative programming, a new time slot must be found to air the rescheduled race—and that’s not always possible, especially at this time of year when college basketball approaches tournament time—and the additional costs to the teams to extend hotel accommodations, change airline tickets, and reconfigure their time management are all costly and time-consuming challenges. We’ve seen seasons in the past—more times that we care to recall—when it seemed almost every race was victimized by bad weather. And not to cast a hex on the upcoming Gatornationals but Gainesville has been one of those places where the tradition of Florida’s sun-drenched climate seems to go into reverse when the NHRA comes to town.

As JFR heads to Gainesville on March 12th, here’s an uplifting stat: the team has 9 wins there—7 by John, 1 by Tony Pedregon when he was with JFR in 2002, and Gary Densham’s win in 2003.

So we have a couple of weeks to regroup, refocus, and trek down to Gator Country just about the time Spring Break will be powering up. Gainesville is the home of the University of Florida so I have a sneaky suspicion that the town will be rockin’ steady when both the NHRA and the student population bust loose simultaneously!

Back with more after the Gators.