Drag Illustrated Issue 113, September 2016 | Page 12

Counterweight THE INTERVIEW ISSUE dragillustrated.com THE DRAG ILLUSTRATED INTERVIEW SCOTT PALMER JAY COX BOB MOTZ JIM HALSEY TODD VENEY ERICA ENDERS TOMMY JOHNSON JR. STEVE TORRENCE TODD MOYER ROY JOHNSON TIM WILKERSON ALEX LAUGHLIN Top Fuel’s Unsung Hero There is NO ONE who deserves the cover of Drag Illustrated more than Scott Palmer. I think it’s safe to say that many of us old school nitro junkies kind of live vicariously through Scott Palmer. He’s proof that you can still do it on a shoestring budget; he’s proof that it’s possible to go nitro racing without being under the John Force or Don Schumacher Racing umbrella. Are you going to go out and dominate? No. Clearly not. But you can go and be a part of it, you can go out and burn nitro with the best of ‘em, and I have to thank Scott Palmer for reminding me of that. Harry Faber, Via the Internet Good show, Scott Palmer. It’s about time that someone saw the light. I had a similar fantasy for Pro Mod racing since 1990 when I tried to get funding to put a Top Fuel combination in a full-size 1957 Mercury (to mimic my first drag car “The Big Animal”). The whole drivetrain! Most thought I was deranged. My friend Bill Kuhlmann grooved on the idea; we still do. In 1988 at the IHRA Nationals in Dallas, we were running the second-ever IHRA Top Sportsman Quick 8 – Bill, Robbie Vandergriff, Mike Thermos, and a few others hot for a class for our doorslammers from hell – and had a meeting with Billy Meyer and the IHRA competition director. Bill feared the alcohol-burning blower cars would take over and it’d quickly become just another alky class. A 12 | D r a g few years later, at the IHRA Spring Nationals in Bristol, I stayed over a few days after the race to do a photo shoot with my new Rick Jones-built Ford Probe Pro Mod for a magazine article. In Don Gillespie’s article, toward the end, he asked me what I saw for the future. I told him, “Kuhlmann and I with Top Fuel nitro engines in these cars.” I never came up with the funding for a caper like that, though. Bill was obligated to Summit Racing and had to be more conventional (if you could ever call Kuhlmann conventional). Regardless, I envy Scott Palmer. You have panache like Kuhlmann and I had in the late ‘80s and most of the ‘90s. Good luck, Scott, and do not allow anyone to discourage you. This will be a new chapter in Pro Mod. “Animal” Jim Feurer, Lacon, Illinois Feedback, Friendly Notes, & Hate Mail make it mandatory because it’s a big part of the show for me, and I know the crowd gathered around his pits feels the same way. Joe Shaw, Via the Internet State of Drag Just finished the “State of Drag” special issue, and was surprised that there wasn’t a drawing of IHRA president Mike Dunn on the cover to go along with the others. For a lot of us the IHRA is a pretty big deal . Emil Prisco, Via the Internet Radio Stations Matter I go to a couple NHRA national meets every year without fail, and always base that decision off of whether or not Scott Palmer’s name is on the entry list. There’s a few tracks within relative driving distance and I quite literally make As a radio sales person and drag strip announcer, I can’t let a comment in interview with Jim Halsey on the success of Cecil County Dragway [DI #112, “Cecil County’s Success”] go unchecked. It is common to think that “everyone” is on Facebook, listening to Pandora or Spotify and that no one listens to sure to attend the races Scott is going to be at. I first saw him race in Rogersville, Missouri, during a Street Machine Shootout event at Ozark International Raceway. If I’m not going to witness one of his now-famous clutch-seating sessions, well, I don’t really care to go to a big national event. I think they should local radio anymore. Nothing can be further from the truth. 93-percent of all Americans are reached by radio every week. When it comes to Facebook, 226-million in the United States and Canada use Facebook per month. In the U.S. alone, 306-million listen to the radio in a week. We have had empirical evidence here I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com when a race is promoted only on Facebook and one is promoted only on radio the stark difference. Radio done right with the right message puts more butts in the seats. Radio out delivers and out performs Facebook. More millenniums listen to the radio (93-percent) than watch TV (76-percent). When it comes to Pandora and Spotify, the AM/FM radio share is nine-times more than Pandora and 17-times larger than Spotify. I understand limited budgets and Facebook being perceived as “free”, but I will always put radio against Facebook and win. Likes don’t mean butts in the seats. Tom Sheldon, Grand Junction, Colorado Personality Play I was just reading an article from last year with Justin “Big Chief ” Shearer, and I have to agree that I think NHRA has lost the roots of its popularity. It all started on the streets; I remember when my heroes were the trash-talking, selfpromoting drivers like Don “The Snake” Prudhomme and Tom “The Mongoose” McEwen. I realize that they wanted it to be about the purity of the racing, but the people that they were and the way racing was a part of their everyday life is what sucked us all in. We fell in the love with the people that they are and what they represented. I don’t think it’s ever been more difficult to relate to the drivers of these cars than it is today, at least on the NHRA pro level, and I believe that’s why shows like Street Outlaws and people like “Big Chief ” have such a following – it’s relatable. Jeff Wedge, Via the Internet Contact Us LETTERS to Drag Illustrated, 902 Kings Rd., Kirksville, MO, 63501. 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