John Edwin Mason: Racing Photography

IHRA Nitro Jam @ Rockingham Dragway, 30 April-2 May

Desperate times call for desperate measures.  Over the last few years, it's been clear to everyone in the biz that the International Hot Rod Association [IHRA] has been in trouble.

For as long as anyone cares to remember, the IHRA has been content to be a sometimes vigorous, sometimes lethargic number two drag racing sanctioning body to the National Hot Rod Association's [NHRA] number one.  Recently, however, attendance at its events has been falling rapidly, and the organization has seen its number two position snatched away by the upstart American Drag Racing League [ADRL].

The jet trucks Shock Wave and Super Shock Wave prepare to make an exhibition run at Rockingham Dragway, 2 May 2010.  (All photos copyright John Edwin Mason, 2010.  Click directly on any of the images to see larger versions.)

After last season, the IHRA's new owners, Feld Entertainment -- which owns the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, Disney On Ice, and monster truck shows, among other things -- decided that big changes would have to be made.

The newly reinvented Nitro Jam series made its first trip to Rockingham Dragway, last weekend, and I was there to cover the event.  While the IHRA is clearly trying to achieve a balance between spectacle and racing, it seemed to me that the organization is betting that sheer spectacle is what fans really want.

In Top Fuel, Bruce Litton, event winner, left lane, runner-up Bobby Lagana, Jr., right lane, Rockingham Dragway, 2 May 2010..

It would be a real shame if the circus aspects of the new Nitro Jam series eclipse the racing.  The history of the IHRA is studded with some of the biggest names in drag racing -- Don Garlits, Bunny Burkett, Bob Glidden, Kenny Bernstein, Ronnie Sox, Warren Johnson, and Scotty Cannon, to name just a few.  They've all raced extensively in IHRA events and have won many times.  The organization's strong sportsman (amateur) series rivals the NHRA's.

But the signs, for now, are worrying.

In Top Fuel, Bobby Lagana, Jr., left lane, and Spencer Massey, right lane, Rockingham Dragway, 2 May 2010.

Take Top Fuel, for instance.  These 300 miles per hour beasts are there for show, not primarily to race.  Sure, when they're lined up  on the track, it looks like they're racing.  But they're not.

The four Top Fuel cars (down from eight last season) are there by invitation.  They don't have to make qualifying runs to make the race.  In the first round of competition, they're racing the clock, not the car next to them.  The two quickest elapsed times will make it into the finals, so a car can lose the race in the first round and still make it into the final round.  The essence of drag racing, however, is head-to-head competition between two drivers who a lined up against each other.

The Top Fuel cars are still the most spectacular machines in motorsports.  But the absence of real competition takes some the edge off the fun.

In Prostalgia Funny Car, Mike McIntire.

The Prostalgia Funny Cars (called simply Nostalgia Funny Cars, elsewhere) are a new IHRA class this year.  They've got a lot to offer and put on a heck of a show.  Burning nitromethane as fuel, they're loud, fast, belch flames out their exhaust headers, and have cartoonish body styles that fans really go for.

In Prostalgia Funny Car, runner-up Steve Nichols, Rockingham Dragway, 2 May 2010.

But as in Top Fuel, the cars are at the track by invitation only and don't have to qualify to make the field.  Once again, cars make it into the final round on their basis of their quickest elapsed time, not by winning their rounds.

In Prostalgia Funny Car, Greg Jacobsmeyer, Rockingham Dragway, 2 May 2010.

It would be wrong to dismiss Prostalgia Funny Cars, however.  They're one of the hottest new items in drag racing.  If a way can be found to make the each round more of a race and less of an exhibition, there's a lot of potential here.

In Pro Fuel, event winner Michael Manners, Rockingham Dragway, 2 May 2010.

I have to admit that I just don't get Pro Fuel.  They're essentially watered-down Top Fuel cars, burning nitromethane, but, being without superchargers, they're slower and less entertaining.  That is, they do what Top Fuel cars do, only not as well.  It's also a class that doesn't exist in any other major sanctioning body.  My sense is that fans have a hard time relating to them.

In Elite 8 Top Sportsman, Stacy Hall, Rockingham Dragway, 2 May 2010.

Instead of Pro Fuel, the IHRA would be better off presenting a class (or two) that's distinctly different from both Top Fuel and Prostalgia Funny Car and that has great fan appeal.  That means fast doorslammers (literally, cars with doors through which the driver enters).

Ironically, the IHRA nurtured, for many years, and then cast aside, last fall, two classes of the fastest doorslammers on the planet -- Pro Mods and Mountain Motor Pro Stocks.  They look like Stacy Hall's Top Sportsman Corvette, above, but are considerably faster.  Fans love the look, the sound, and the spectacle.  In fact, the ADRL has risen to prominence on the shoulders of its Pro Mod teams.

Especially on the east coast, fans want door cars.  Their absence from the professional ranks at Rockingham -- which can lay claim to being the doorslammer capital of the world -- was glaring.

(By the way, it's worth noting that the most popular drag racing program on TV -- one with more viewers than even NHRA national events -- is the doorslammers-only Pinks All Out.)

In Top Fuel,  Bruce Litton, left lane, and Del Cox,  Jr., right lane, Rockingham Dragway, 2 May 2010.

Where does the IHRA go from here?  It's too soon to tell.  The reinvented Nitro Jam has great potential, so let's hope that the series survives long enough for the organization to tinker with the formula.  My advice is to add fast door cars, make round wins meaningful, and, very crucially, fill in the inevitable downtime with some form of non-racing entertainment -- product give-aways, local celebrities, a rock band, etc.

The Photographer & the Jet Truck: Or Why Motorsports Photographers Put Filters on Their Lenses

Actually, there are lots of reasons that motorsports photographers put clear UV filters on their lenses.  The Shock Wave Jet Truck is just the most spectacular.

(All photos copyright John Edwin Mason, 2010.  Click directly on any of the images to see larger versions.)

I photographed Shock Wave, yesterday, at Rockingham Dragway, in North Carolina, where I was covering the International Hot Rod Association's[IHRA] Spring Nitro Jam.  I was there to cover the event for Drag Racing Online.  Shock Wave was there to entertain the fans, not to race.  (The IHRA reinvented their Nitro Jams for 2010, and I'll have more to say about the new format in a later post.  I'll also show many more photos.)

But let's get back to that jet truck.

Photos really can't do Shock Wave justice.  It's massive -- the same size as the trucks that you see hauling freight on the highway.  Its three -- yes, three -- Pratt and Whitney jet engines produce 18,000 pounds of thrust, which is the equivalent of about 36,000 horsepower.  (That's as much power as 100 Corvettes.)  It's fast, reaching well over 200 mile per hour, on a quarter-mile track, in just over six seconds.

And it's very, very loud.

Any photographer who's covered a race at Rockingham knows that you have very little space to work with, when you're shooting from the left lane.  A three foot high concrete wall separates you from the track.  Behind you is a taller concrete wall that's topped by a 12 foot high chain-link fence.  You are well and truly hemmed in.

So you have to think hard  about where you want to stand when a jet truck goes down the track.  Shooting from the left lane sure seems dumb.  But shooting from the right lane means shooting into the sun and having your sight lines blocked by on-track equipment.

Given that choice, it was a no-brainer.  I did the dumb thing.

And I found out that the noise, the fumes, and the particles of gunk wafting through the in the air aren't the problem.  The problem is the backwash from those Pratt and Whitneys.  Good God Almighty!  Calling it strong and hot doesn't even come close.

That's the first and last time I'll shoot a jet truck from 10 feet away.  Probably.

Mountain Motor Pro Stocks @ Rockingham Dragway

I didn't know what to expect, last Sunday, when I reluctantly tore myself away from the East Coast Timing Association's Maxton Mile land speed race and headed about 40 miles west to Rockingham Dragway.  I was on my way to shoot the inaugural race of the newly formed Mountain Motor Pro Stock Association [MMPSA] for Drag Racing Online magazine.

Pro Stocks can be a lot of fun.  They resemble, in a cartoonish way, the Mustangs, Cobalts, Escorts, and GTOs that you see on the street.  They're powered by the sort of monster-sized engine that you encounter only at the track.  Little cars with big motors always adds up to madness and mayhem, and that's a thoroughly good thing.  But could it top Maxton?

No.  But it came darned close.

John Pluchino performs a burnout, while a crew member jumps out of the way.  Rockingham Dragway, 11 April 2010.  (All photos copyright John Edwin Mason, 2010.  Click directly on any of the photos to see larger versions.)

The MMPSA was formed after the 2010 racing season, when the International Hot Rod Association [IHRA], which had nurtured Mountain Motor Pro Stocks, decided to drop the class from its schedule.  ["Mountain Motor" refers to the fact that these cars have engines that are about 50% larger than National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Pro Stocks, making them considerably faster.]  The IHRA is in the midst of reinventing itself, hoping to draw bigger crowds and return to profitability.  It seems to have felt that Pro Stocks can't provide the kind of spectacle that it believes fans are demanding.

I understand where the IHRA is coming from, but I don't entirely agree.

Number one qualifier and race winner Cary Goforth performs a burnout.  Rockingham Dragway, 11 April, 2010.

There's no doubt that many race fans do think of Pro Stocks as the plain younger sister in a family of glamorous Top Fuel dragsters, Funny Cars, and Pro Mods.  Nitro-burning dragsters and Funny Cars are enormously louder and faster than Pro Stocks, and they spit out 12 feet long flames of unburned fuel as they rocket down the track.  Frankly, they're the greatest pure spectacle in motorsports.  Serious fans know that louder and faster doesn't necessary mean better racing, but not everyone at the track is a connoisseur.

Semi-finalist Elijah Morton launches his car down track, during third-round competition.  Rockingham Dragway, 11 April, 2010.

Pro Mods are just as much of a problem for the Pro Stock crowd.  They look a lot like Pro Stock cars, but, in addition to being louder and faster, they're more appealing (Camaros and Corvettes, for instance, instead of Cobalts) and even more cartoonish.

In the company of fuel cars and Pro Mods -- that is, in the IHRA, until this season, and in the mostly Pro Mods American Drag Racing League [ADRL] -- Pro Stocks can feel like an afterthought.

Semi-finalist John Montecalvo prepares to scrub some heat into his tires, just prior to second round competition.  Rockingham Dragway, 11 April, 2010.

Taken on their own terms, however, Mountain Motor Pro Stocks put on a heck of a show.

Cale Aronson, doing a burnout.  Rockingham Dragway, 11 April, 2010.

The cars are damn quick.  Slower than the other cars I've mentioned, but "slow," in this context, is still very fast.  In fact, it's hard for anyone who hasn't seen Mountain Motor Pro Stocks race to grasp just how fast they are.  In qualifying number one, for instance, Cary Goforth covered a quarter-mile in 6.258 seconds and reached a speed of 220.84 miles per hour.  That's faster than a NASCAR stock car ever goes, at any race, anywhere.  Goforth's Chevy Cobalt reached that speed in the time that it would take an ordinary Cobalt to reach 45 miles an hour.

Pete Berner, near lane, defeats Trevor Eman, far lane, in first round competition.  Rockingham Dragway, 11 April, 2010.

Pro Stocks are also terrifically competitive.  Despite the fact that Goforth won from the pole, John Montecalvo pushed him hard in the semis and Bob Bertsch gave him a real scare in the finals.

Given that Pro Stocks are tremendously entertaining, when they're on their own, it makes a certain amount of sense for MMPSA to strike out on its own.  The problem will be getting the fans to buy in.

I spoke to several of the people involved with the MMPSA at the race.  They know it won't be easy to build a following, but they're optimistic, as they should be.

I'll give them one piece of unsolicited advice.  Dump the Cobalts and Escorts.  Nobody really wants to see those awful things on the track. Run, instead, only current-body-style Camaros, Mustangs, and Challengers.  It's very do-able.  In the last couple of years, Chevy and Dodge have reintroduced the Camaro and Challenger; the Mustang never went away.  Every Chevy, Ford, and Mopar fan now has a muscle car to root for.  These are cars that many drive on the street and that lots of amateur racers take to the track.

Fiberglass current-body-style Mustang and Camaro bodies are already being raced (you can see a Mustang in one of the photos above).  The Challenger will surely come next, in response to demand from Top Sportman and bracket racers.  Yes, switching bodies will be a burden for some of the teams, but it would pay huge dividends in generating fan interest.

* * *

You can see an entirely different set of my photos from the race and read a complete race report, here, at Drag Racing Online.

2009 Rewind: Drag Racing, the Democracy of Speed

This post is one of a series that I'm calling "2009 Rewind."  I'm marking time until the racing season gets going in my part of the country by looking at some of my favorite stories from last year.  This particular episode, however, is also "2008 Rewind," "2007 Rewind," and even "2003 Rewind."  That's because, for the last few years, I've been working on a book that I'm calling Drag Racing: The Democracy of Speed.

I could just as easily have called it Why I Like Drag Racing.

Eastside Speedway, Waynesboro, Virginia.  (All photos copyright John Edwin Mason, 2002-2009.)

Sure, I like it for some of the same reasons as anyone else -- loud, fast, dangerous cars, driven by men and women who do amazing things with them.

But I also like it because drag racing is -- by race, by ethnicity, and by gender -- the most diverse motor sport in the United States.  It's the most diverse by a lot, not a little.  And it's been that way ever since it's birth in southern California, over 60 years ago.

Eastside Speedway, Waynesboro, Virginia.  (Click directly on any of these photos to see larger versions.)

There are a variety of reasons for drag racing's openness to blacks, Asians, and Latinos, and to women of all races and colors.

Early hot-rodders were often rebels, who prided themselves on marching to a different drummer.  If mainstream society in the '40s and '50s thought that the races ought to be segregated and that women were to weak to handle a fast car, that was reason enough for many early drag racers to go in the opposite direction.  After all, what mattered most was the quickness of the car and the skill of the driver.

Eastside Speedway, Waynesboro, Virginia.

The National Hot Rod Association [NHRA], the organization that did by far the most to make drag racing a national sport, also played an important role.  Open-mindedness was a matter of formal NHRA policy.  In 1952, it told its members, in no uncertain terms, that were no color or gender barriers to membership.  It spread its policies through its proselytizing wing, the Drag Safari (later called the Safety Safari).  Beginning in 1954, members of the Safari annually left their home base in southern California and traveled the country, from coast to coast, organizing car clubs and races and spreading its drag racing gospel.

The results of drag racing's gospel of inclusiveness were plain to see.  In the '50s and '60s, at any given event in southern California, you were likely to run into the Bean Bandits -- a popular and highly successful team composed primarily of Latino drivers, but which included Asians and African Americans, as well.  The multi-racial team of Stone, Woods, and Cook might have been on hand with its legendary '41 Willys Gasser.

 

Bunny Burkett, right, in her souvenir stand.  Eastside Speedway, Waynesboro, Virginia.

By the end of the '50s, women drag racers, like Shirley Shahan, were winning major national events.  Many other women followed.  In 1977, Shirley Muldowney won the first of her three NHRA Top Fuel championships (the drag racing equivalent of the heavyweight boxing crown).  By that time, Bunny Burkett, seen above, was one of the most popular -- and one of the most competitive -- racers on the east coast.  In 1986, she won a championship of her own, in the International Hot Rod Association's [IHRA] Alcohol Funny Car class.

Bunny Burkett's team prepares her car for a trip down the track.  Eastside Speedway, Waynesboro, Virginia.

Today, black, Latino, and female racers, such as Antron Brown, Cruz and Tony Pedregon, Ashley Force Hood, and Melanie Troxel, compete at drag racing's highest level.  All have won multiple times.  Both of the Pedragon brothers are former champions.

At the grassroots, drag racing also remains true to its culture of inclusiveness, as you can see in these photos.

No other form of motor sports even comes close to matching this record.  No woman has ever started a race in Formula 1.  Danica Patrick is the only woman to have won a race in IndyCar racing, and she's won only once.  No women have won in any of Nascar's top levels; the last African American to do so was Wendell Scott, in 1963.  (Nascar has historically not been inclusive, to say the least.  Its Drive for Diversity program may be changing things, however.)

You can see many other photos from Democracy of Speed in its photo gallery.  Click here or on the link at the top of the page.

I've written more about diversity in motor sports on my main website.  You can find those thoughts, here.

2009 Rewind: Talking to Bunny Burkett

"Legendary" has got to be one of the most overworked words in the English language.  Overwork and overuse have just about drained it of its meaning.  I'm going to use it as it ought to be used, to describe in one word the status of the legendary Bunny Burkett, one of the very first women to rise to the top of the drag racing world.

One of the greatest thrills that I had last year was to spend five and a half hours talking to Bunny.  I wrote about the experience and about Bunny's amazing career, last July.  What better way to inaugurate my new racing photography blog than by reliving that incredible afternoon.  (You can that report, here, on my main website.)

Bunny Burkett, speaking to Jon Paulette and me, 15 July 2009, Fredericksburg, Virginia.  (Photo copyright John Edwin Mason, 2009.)

Jon Paulette, the motor sports writer, and I interviewed her for an article about her that will appear, later this year, in the Encyclopedia of Virginia.  Bunny is the perfect interview subject -- smart, funny, self-possessed, and a wonderful story-teller.

Bunny earned her legendary status by winning, beginning with her very first race, in 1964, at Old Dominion Dragstrip, in Manassas, Virginia, and continuing through her 1986 International Hot Rod Association Alcohol Funny Car World Championship, the first and only Funny Car championship that has been won by a woman driver.

Bunny also earned the respect of everyone in motorsports for the courage and determination that she showed coming back from a violent crash on the track, in 1995, that almost took her life.

Bunny with the car that she raced in the Miss Universe of Drag Racing tour, in the late '60s and early '70s.  (Publicity photo courtesy of Bunny Burkett.)

I learned a lot that day, about drag racing, about Bunny, and about the price that women drivers sometimes had to pay, if they wanted to go drag racing.

You can read much, much more about what Bunny had to say in the interview and see several photos from various stages in her career by reading my original report.