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Sunday, July 11, 1999
It was a long day at Bristol Dragway yesterday. Just as the opening ceremonies were concluding the rains came and after about an hour of rain the NHRA crew began to dry to dry the track. The track was ready to go at about 4:30 and after Lee Greenwood sang God Bless the USA and the national anthem we were racing. Eight pairs of top fuelers and funny cars made it down the track before more rain came. There were breif times of hope, but finally the rain washed out the evening activities and we were going to head back today. It was back to the track early on Sunday AM and it was again overcast and looking very threatening. I decided to leave Bristol early and offered a ride home to the wives of two SME vice-presidents, who gladly accepted. We were back in Winston-Salem at about 5:00 PM. The eliminations at Bristol did get underway and I checked the results just a few minutes ago and it looks like it's going to be Bob Vandergriff and John Force in the finals...a truce Funny Car vs. Top Fuel Showdown. Check NHRA's website for the Winston No Bull Showdown results.
It must have been my weekend for meeting celebrities. I met WWF wrestler "The Undertaker" on Friday and then on Saturday I met Lee Greenwood. Mr. Greenwood seems like such a down to earth guy. Heck, he even allowed me to be photographed with him. Thanks to Greg Littell for handling the chores with the Mavica digital camera on this one. Maybe I'll post the photo tommorrow.
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And this email from Bob Thompson [thompson@ttgnet.com] with some additional suggestions on how NASCAR Winston Cup racing can be improved:Well, you have to admit that my ideas would make racing more exciting and draw more fans. Someone once observed that the reason the space programhadn't caught the imagination of the American public was that it was too safe and boring. Back in the 20's and 30's, aviation was a big deal. Nearly everyone followed the latest, and those racing and endurance pilots were general heroes. All because it was dangerous.By focusing on safety, Nascar is cutting its own throat. Racing is too safe now, and is getting boring. Safety should be the last consideration ratherthan the first. As a matter of fact, it shouldn't be a consideration at all.
At the root of things, people watch racing because the drivers are doing something dangerous. Dangerous = Thrilling. In fact, driving Winston Cup isn't dangerous and hasn't been for a long time. People are going to start noticing that. Winston Cup isn't a sport any more. It's an exhibition. It more resembles studio wresting than anything.
I've always thought that if TV is looking for a real sport that would catch on big-time, they should bring back the gladiators. Bring back the gladius, the trident and net, the lions, the whole nine yards. They could have a special box for his Imperial Billness, where he could do the thumb-up/thumb-down bit.
This almost reminds me of the early days of 60 Minutes and the piece that James Kilpatrick and Jane whatever her name used to do. I guess I have to respectfully disagree that safety is a bad thing, but do agree that NASCAR Winston Cup racing has become boring. I rather think that NASCAR has made the car makes too equal and has taken the make out of the equation. In other words, a Dodge is no different than a Ford today.
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Are you ready to be amused? Get your dancing shoes on. My sister sent me this link. It'll make you chuckle, I think.
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Later in the evening: Another email exchange between Bob Thompson [thompson@ttgnet.com] and myself on this NASCAR safety thing.
Actually, I'm having you on to some extent, although I'm quite serious in the kernel of what I'm saying. Lindbergh was a hero largely because safety wasn't even on his checklist. The Atlantic had been flown many times before he did it, but each time it was done by a multi-engine aircraft with at least two crew. The oddsmakers were at one point offering 10:1 against him making it.
As far as safety, there are two separate issues. Ideally, driving Winston Cup should be dangerous. That's what draws the spectators, no matter what anyone tells you. Obviously, NASCAR would prefer not to use up the paying customers, so it should be reasonably safe to watch a race. But, as Winston Churchill once said, "there's nothing as exhilarating as to be shot at and missed." and that certainly is an element of attending a race.
Incidentally, another good idea would be to get rid of the damned walls, particularly on the turns. All they do is cause cautions. If there weren't any walls, a driver who lost it would simply fly off the race track, without leaving debris all over the track. That way, the race could continue uninterrupted. They could send out the wreckers and ambulances all at one time after the race ended.
Yes I realize you are busting my chops. Driving a Winston Cup car is dangerous as well as working on the over the wall crew. Most Winston Cup spectators have become complacent about the danger since very rarely is there a fatality or a serious injury accident.
And of course you realize that I do not debate, but has been good fodder to add to the notes page on my site.
And one more NASCAR note from Bob [thompson@ttgnet.com]
Yes, that was my intention. But I do think the points are ridiculous. That year that Gordon won the championship but they gave it to Labonte, for example. They had essentially identical stats for everything listed in the NASCAR yearbook. Labonte won four poles to Gordon’s five. Their Top 5 and Top 10 results were essentially identical. The only difference is that Gordon won 10 races and Labonte 2 races. So which one won the championship? Duh.
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It sounds like it may not have been the prettiest Winston Drag race of all time, but John Force is man in the Winston No Bull Showdown, answering the question once and for all: "Who is the King of the Hill?" It's Funny Car. Here's a link to NHRA's website for the full rundown from the Winston No Bull Showdown
Monday, July 12, 1999
It's been a dreary rainy day here in Winston-Salem. I promised a link to the photo of Lee Greenwood and myself, so here it is sports fans.
Wednesday, July 14, 1999
There hasn't been much happening in Winston-Salem this week other than continued rain. The weatherman says we have collected more than our normal July share of the wet stuff but that we are still behind for the year. Our neighbors in Greensboro, NC really have a water problem. Their water supply comes from a lake with no river to replenish it supply and were on the verge of major water restrictions until the rains came. The rain hasn't raised the lake's level, but at least has cut down on lawn watering and car washing. Winston-Salem gets it water supply from the Yadkin river.
I wonder what folks in other parts of the world are thinking about the sheriffs in Piedmont North Carolina. Our sheriff, Ron Barker, is continually having to fight the press, mainly because of his nepotism. His family members are always getting him in hot water. And over in neighboring Davidson County we have Buford Pusser reincarnate. Davidson County's no.1 Smokey wears battle fatigues and has his inmates dress in stripes. He features himself on a call-in television show with the inmates and now Court TV is planning a one hour special next week...Live from the Davidson County jail. He's quite the character and loves publicity as you can ascertain from this message.
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Our friends Bob and Barbara Thompson love Border Collies as you well know if you have ever visited their site at TTGNET. A few weeks ago Barbara got herself signed up for in the Border Collie rescue program, which was to mainly serve as shuttling unwanted doggies from one location to another. However, you knew this scene was bound to happen. It appears Bob and Barbara will have a new BC visiting for the weekend. I wonder if dog guests are like human guests...you know how guests are like fish...they both start to stink after about three days. Good luck Bob and Barbara.
There was a story in today's local news about a police officer having to shoot his k-9 assistant because the dog had clamped down on this hand and wouldn't obey the repeated command to turn loose. I'm sorry, but this seems quite extreme. I say there's much more to the story.
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And speaking of Bob [thompson@ttgnet.com], I got this email from him today explaining the name of the newest machine on his network:
The next time you talk to Jeff Gordon, please let him know about this, which I posted on my page today:
Colossus (not its final name—I’ll probably name it gordon after NASCAR’s Jeff Gordon just to annoy my wife) will be built around a PC Power & Cooling Full Tower case, and use an EPoX KP6-BS dual-CPU motherboard, two Intel Pentium III/550 processors, 256 MB of Crucial memory, a Matrox G400 video card, an Intel PRO/100+ fast Ethernet adapter, a Turtle Beach sound card, an Adaptec 2940U2W SCSI host adapter, a Seagate Cheetah U2W 18 GB hard drive, a Plextor U2W 40X CD-ROM drive, a Plextor 8/2/20 SCSI CD burner, and an OnStream ADR50 50 GB SCSI tape drive. The best of everything, in other words.
I was looking for a name that implied "fast". Gordon is the fastest guy on the planet, and this machine will certainly fall in the same category. So, fair is fair...
Maybe you could name it champ as a disguise!
And this message came via the local Linux listserv [Winston-Salem Computer Renaissance [wscr@netunlimited.net]. It's big item junk collection week in Winston-Salem, so I guess they are contributing their faire share. It also gives you an idea of the worth of a PS/2.
We just tossed out a big pile of IBM PS/2 computers and parts. No harddrives RAM or CPU but I assume they all work. There is also a huge IBM PS/2 server sitting out there.
They are behind Computer Renaissance on Jonestown Rd. Get em while they last!!! Im sure they will be gone by morning.
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There was a bit on the local news today annoucing that our local cable provider was announcing Davidson County (yep, Sheriff Hege's county) had gone digital. Of course they were promoting the television service, but you would have to assume that along with this came the fast internet service. Life ain't fair. Maybe Winston-Salem is not far behind.
Friday, July 16, 1999
I am in Denver, Colorado. Spent most of yesterday traveling, but did arrive here in time to take a journey on the highest paved road in the United States. When we have visited Denver as a family back in 1997 we went to Mount Evans on our last day here. We had been to Pike's Peak earlier on the trip, taking the railroad to the top and were then told about Mount Evans and that you could drive all the way to the top on a paved road. We made a quick trip then and I planned to go back there on my next trip. Thankfully my travel to the Winston Drag Racing event here this time allowed such a pleasure. I was traveling with Rick Hauser, the senior manager of the Winston Drag Program who also wanted to make the trip to the summit of Mount Evans. Mark Freidinger, Rick's assistant manager, and his family were with us, so we talked them into making the trip. I also tried to warn them that the temperature would be some 30-40 degrees cooler up the mountain than it was down in Denver. Mark and his wife Betty took hede to my advice, but BJ, their 21 year old son, made the trip in a shorts and a golf shirt. He quickly became a believer about half-way up the mountain as he was borrowing a jacket. Having been there before I took extras.
Rick Hauser is quite an accomplished nature photographer and was clicking away with his Nikon at every stop. We made frequent stops heading up and down the mountain. This gave me a chance to snap a few shot with my Sony Mavica digital camera and I have put up a crude Mt. Evans page. I have found that it's much harder to build pages from my notebook on the road vs. sitting at my desktop machine at home, so I will probably refine the Mt. Evans page when I return to Winston-Salem.
I bet I was driving the local cell system crazy from atop the mountain. I am sure I am not the first person to do this either. Suzy and the kids were planning a trip to Sea World down in Florida on this day, so I kept trying to call her car from atop Mount Evans. I am sure this was partly to rub it in since she and the kids had enjoyed our previous trip up the mountain. Anyway, my cell signal was 5x5 and there was not a cell tower in site. From 14,000 I'll bet I was hitting the Denver cell system, which is better than an hour and a half away. Talk about a high-rise antenna.
When we came back down the mountain we stopped in Idaho Springs. On our previous trip here we sorta stumbled across Idaho Springs because we wanted something to eat. This little town is a throwback to a western scene from television. The Main Street looks like a scene from Gunsmoke. I was looking for Matt Dillon and Miss Kitty to walk out at any minute. Anyway, we also stumbled into this restaurant called the Buffalo Bar and Restaurant, which naturally specializes in buffalo burgers. Buffalo Burgers are good . They have a unique taste and some say are better for you than cow burgers (less fat), so I'm being healthy, imagine that. So I took our traveling clan to Idaho Springs and the Buffalo Bar and Restaurant for some Buffalo Burgers. All seemed to enjoy.
Saturday, July 17, 1999
I got a nasty gram from Thunderstone yesterday saying the site index for www.wakeolda.com hasn't been used in five days so it was being removed. Guess I better keep my search engine at pair Networks active, which will mean keeping Front Page extensions. I hope this site doesn't get too large and FP extensions won't cause me any problems. Bob Thompson had trouble with FP extensions at www.ttgnet.com as his site grew in size and ultimately had them removed.
It seems as if the rains are following the Winston Drag Racing circuit. Only a token amount of qualifying was completed on Friday. The Pro Stock motorcycles finally got one round of qualifying in the books after several rain delays. And about half of the Funny Cars made qualifying attempts before the day's/evening's activities was washed out. There had originally been two rounds of qualifying scheduled for Friday and two for Saturday, which means Saturday will be an action packed day for drag racing fans in Denver. Some of us took the opportunity provided by the rain out to race into town and enjoy a delicious meal at Morton's. Rick Hauser decided he had some more film he wanted to shoot on Mount Evans and headed back up the mountain. He said it rained on him most of the way up the mountain, but just after he passed Mt. Goliath Park the rains ceased and sun burnt through the clouds and he witnessed some magnificnet rainbows. He says the best light for photography is just after sunset, so I can't wait to see this round of photos. He seemed quite pleased with what he was seeing through his Nikon viewfinder.
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I can't remember if I have mentioned this. It appears NASCAR and TV Guide may have smoked the peace pipe. When our TV Guide arrived earlier this week there was Jeff Burton prominently on the cover and a banner teaser for the Rising Stars of NASCAR story. I had heard that TV Guide had threatened to pull the four cover set when NASCAR supposedly made Kevin LePage take the graphic of Sable off his car at the Michigan race. Must have been some heavy behind the scenes politicking. The other drivers featured on the covers included Bobby Labonte, Jeremy Mayfield and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Yep, I guss Jeff Gordon is not a rising star. He's already there.
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Having lived in Daytona Beach, Florida earlier in my life (that's where I worked for NASCAR and met Suzy) I couldn't help but me amused by the story on the front page of the business section in yesterday's USA Today that the Daytona Beach airport was now going to be offering frequent flier miles to funeral directors who ship their deceased customers from the Daytona airport rather than trucking them over to competing Orlando.
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As you know rain played havoc with the Winston No Bull Showdown at Bristol last week, washing out the racing and the planned television covereage. It was 24 hours later when the final pair went down the track. However, ESPN plans to put together a one hour show on the Showdown recapping all of the exciting action. The Showdown show will air on ESPN2, Sunday, July 25 at 8:30 PM Winston-Salem time.
Email Steve Tucker