|
Over the years HH has been very fortunate to have been be able to work with some fabulous musicians who have helped make our production videos so successful. Here are links to those who have web sites, please visit them to see and hear some great stuff, and while you're at it feel free to thank them via e-mail for their contributions to the HH video collection. Casey Binz |
The exclusive WA state
HH video dealer!
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who
points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could
have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the
arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives
valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there
is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms,
the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at
the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who,
at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so
that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew
neither victory nor defeat."
-Theodore Roosevelt
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who
points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could
have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the
arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives
valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there
is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms,
the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at
the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who,
at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so
that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew
neither victory nor defeat."
-Theodore Roosevelt
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who
points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could
have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the
arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives
valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there
is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms,
the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at
the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who,
at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so
that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew
neither victory nor defeat."
-Theodore Roosevelt
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who
points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could
have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the
arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives
valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there
is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms,
the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at
the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who,
at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so
that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew
neither victory nor defeat."
-Theodore Roosevelt
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who
points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could
have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the
arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives
valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there
is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms,
the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at
the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who,
at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so
that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew
neither victory nor defeat."
-Theodore Roosevelt
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who
points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could
have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the
arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives
valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there
is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms,
the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at
the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who,
at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so
that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew
neither victory nor defeat."
-Theodore Roosevelt
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who
points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could
have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the
arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives
valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there
is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms,
the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at
the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who,
at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so
that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew
neither victory nor defeat."
-Theodore Roosevelt
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who
points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could
have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the
arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives
valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there
is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms,
the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at
the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who,
at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so
that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew
neither victory nor defeat."
-Theodore Roosevelte with those cold and timid souls who knew neither
victory nor defeat."
-Theodore Roosevelt
|
Wednesday
December 31, 2008
|
Because of the many still outstanding custom video orders there will not be any kind of 'of the year' feature on HH. I thought about it a few weeks ago, but made the rather easy decision to take care of my paying customers. I thought about it again a few days ago, then came my back thing...
Though my back injury is not getting much better I am getting back into editing today and hope to once again be shipping them out as of next Monday.
The two outstanding feature videos - Mega Ford Weekend and possibly something on the Calgary Nitro Nostalgia meet will commence in a few weeks when the individual vids are done. At this time I do not have a completion date on either. Once that info becomes clear to me I will post it here immediately.
If you have any other questions please e-mail me any time.
The track formerly known as Race City has been
added to our Snow Strip feature
thanks to Jim Ramsay.
Yet more sad news as we learn of the passing of long time NHRA/National Dragster photographer Bill Crites. I was fortunate enough to have been able to shoot some national events that Crites attended and to say we have lost one of the all-time 'characters' is an understatement. (link)
Please note I will also be working on posting the D6 banquet video asap. Because it includes a memorial feature there are a number of additions I feel I must include. It will take a bit more time than usual for me to find what I need to do this, so please be patient.
|
Monday
December 29, 2008
|
Sorry for the lack of updates. Been kinda flat on my back in bed after doing something to my back a few days ago. Can't sit up too long so not sure when I'll post again.
It is being reported that the father of Duane Shields, Lee, passed away this morning. (link)
So sorry to hear just this morning of the loss of a really great guy Brian Murphy on Christmas. Please go to the Eagle and Thunder Mountain sites/forums for more. I'll have something here when I can.
LP
|
Wednesday
December 24, 2008
|
It's Christmas Eve and across the Pacific Northwest we're dealing with the biggest snow fall in 40 years...that's scheduled to turn to rain tomorrow so if you think it's ugly now...
A couple more Snow Strip pics including some dedicated work currently being done out at Pacific... Keep those pics coming in folks, looks like if the power stays on we'll have plenty of time to post - between trips out to re-shovel the driveway.
2009 CMDRA western schedule
The Canadian Motorcycle Drag Racing Association's All Bike Drag Series
presented by Drag Specialties/Parts Canada featuring the Screamin'
Eagle Nitro Series:
-
May 23-24 - N'lakapxm Eagle Motorplex, Ashcroft, BC - www.eaglemotorplex.com
-
June 20-21 - Grand Bend Motorplex, Grand Bend, ON - www.grandbendmotorplex.com
-
June 27-28 - Castrol Raceway, Edmonton, AB - www.castrolraceway.com
-
July 18-19 - N'lakapxm Eagle Motorplex, Ashcroft, BC - www.eaglemotorplex.com
-
August 8-9 - MHDRA Drag Strip, Medicine Hat, AB - www.mhdra.com
-
August 22-23 - Mission Raceway Park, Mission, BC - www.missionraceway.com
-
September 12-13 - Castrol Raceway, Edmonton, AB - www.castrolraceway.com
-
September 14 - Year-end Awards Banquet
Larry,
My name is kevin. My father-in-law, John Blanchard used to own a top
fuel dragster called "The Gladiator" driven by Larry Hendrickson.
They ran the car in division 6 most of the time but also ventured
out to other tracks on the west coast. The car ran very strong and
won quite a few races, they even won the division 6 championship in
1967. They set a world speed record in Canada on July 11 1970 when
they broke the 230 mph barrier with a 392 hemi on M&H tires.
Over the past couple of years I have been trying to find pictures
and information on the web but i'm not having much luck. I was hoping
that you might have covered some of the races they were at and had
some photos of the car in action. Most of Johns pictures were stolen
from his moms house where he was storing them back in the 70's and
it would mean a lot to him if we could even replace just a few of
them. We would appreciate any information you can provide on the car.
Thank You, Kevin Caswell
If you can help Kevin click on his name to e-mail
him
|
Tuesday
December 23, 2008
|
More Snow Strip pics coming soon, but for all you waiting for Boxing Day check out all the prerelease flyers from stores such as London Drugs, Future Shop, Best Buy and more here.
|
Sunday
December 21, 2008
|
Click here for 'Snow Strips'
A pretty neat treat thanks to a bunch of of folks who trudged out
in the cold and snow to get us some wonderful pictures of drag strips
in the snow. From Edmonton to Las Vegas you won't see stuff like this
anywhere else.
|
Saturday
December 20, 2008
|
Acton's Ron Omo passes
Passing on sad news is never a good thing and unfortunately doing
so this close to Christmas seems so much sadder.
Ron Omo, the owner and operator of Yellowstone Dragstrip
in Acton Montana passed away on Wednesday. Those of you who were fortunate
enough to meet Ron at the track or spend time with him at his home
know that he was a
straight shooter that truly loved our sport.
Ron and his wife Molly graciously hosted a barbecue and pool party at his home for the Certification Team the past two years during the LODRS event, which were truly great events.
The link below should connect you to more information
as posted in a local Billings newspaper.
http://billingsgazette.net/articles/2008/12/19/sports/local/39-yds.txt
Sincerely,
Dave Schaffel
NHRA Northwest Division Tech Director
HH will be posting some wonderful drag strip snow
pictures starting tomorrow.
|
Thursday
December 18, 2008
|
Never think what I do is not dangerous...
So what might an injected nitro Pro Mod be like? I dubbed the sound of an injected dragster over top of a clip of Keith Korecki's nitrous Shelby to give ya a rough idea. It was also my first test of the new YouTube HD deal. It plays fine in regular def, but the audio is off on the HD version - a problem others are having, so it appears the YT HD gig is maybe not quite ready for prime time yet. That vid is here. Have also put another HD version here.
Time to break open that piggy bank
Thanks to those who have sent in drag strip 'snow' pics. I'll be working to get them up later today. If you have some you've taken this week please send them in.
|
Wednesday
December 17, 2008
|
We're home, the hopefully repaired (ya again) video editing computer is back on line, and we've got a slew of stuff to do before Xmas. For all you wanting to see the banquet video, we have some changes to make on it so plans are to have it up for New Years Eve. More on that as I get to it.
All of the big drag sites have reports of injected nitro Pro Mods coming to the ADRL next year. One rumor is 50% pop in the tank. Hope that one ain't true. They tried blown nitro coupes once before and there was alot of carnage. This could happen.
I think 300 mile races is a GREAT idea...
Spokane County Reaches 25-Year Agreement with Austin Motorsports Management, LLC to Operate Race Track Comes with dollar figures and numbers. When was the last time a deal like this went down with so much monetary info?
HH spoke to track manager Jay Livingston at the NHRA Meetings this past weekend and was THRILLED to hear him talk very positive about the oval. This will not be a case of a bunch of drag strip guys coming in who could care less about the round round people or track. With the big circuit in obvious decline, fast facilities like Spokane could well get very popular again - with not just racers , but fans and sponsors as well.
What it's like to work on PINKS
Sno what
With the snow falling today all over the northwest, I invite any and
all of you to pop over to your local drag strip, take a few 'winter'
pics and send them into
us.
Atchison Racing and Team ACE Racing ink three year
deal
Canada's premiere TAFC driver scheduled to run both Mission
Lucas and National Open in '09
Bittern Lake, Alberta, Canada - Three time IHRA Funny Car Champion
Rob Atchison and ACE Manufacturing have joined forces in a three year
deal that will see the Atchison family funny car compete at races
in Western Canada and United States." It is really exciting being
able to join up with the ACE Racing and Manufacturing family."
states Atchison. "With all of the instability surrounding IHRA
and the Alcohol Funny Car class coupled with the addition of my son
Wyatt I felt it was time for a change. I got a chance to meet Harold
Parfett at the Rocky Mountain Nationals and we hit it off. We have
been talking racing and throwing ideas back and forth since July.
We are very happy to finally be able to announce we will be racing
with them for the next three years and possibly beyond."
Atchison will join the successful Plaizier family at Team ACE Racing.
"Eddy, Casey and Frankie have a history of winning, they are
great racers and I'm very excited to meet them, watch them race and
become a part of their racing family" stated Rob.
This
new racing "Family" is going to take it one step further
as Atchison Machine Service Inc. of London, Ontario will serve as
engine builder for the ACE Manufacturing Pro Nostalgia Funny Car.
"We are eager to get involved with the 7.50 nostalgia funny car
combination. We know that we can apply all of the machining and assembling
techniques we use on our Top Alcohol car and give the IBAA funny car
the longevity and consistency it will need to win races." Also
as Canada's only Lenco transmission dealer Atchison Machine will be
in charge of transmission service and repair for the entire team.
Primary sponsor ACE Manufacturing is a Canadian company
located in Bittern Lake, Alberta. Founded in 1977 ACE is a manufacturer
of high quality electrical, electronic and data enclosures distributing
product all over North America. ACE Manufacturing has design and build
capabilities, that take projects from an idea to a prototype and then
to finished product. ACE works with various metals including mild,
galvanized, and stainless steel as well as various aluminum alloys.
Finishes include in house powder coating, zinc plating, hot dipped
galvanized, anodizing and industrial silk screening.
Flyin's Truck Wash of Edmonton, Alberta has joined the
team as an associate sponsor for 2009 and JET Tools and Equipment
based in Burnaby, British Columbia with branches across Canada has
returned as official tool supplier of the Team ACE/ Atchison Racing
Monte Carlo. For more information on ACE Manufacturing visit their
website at www.acemfg.com, Team
ACE Racing at www.teamaceracing.com,
or Jet Equipment at www.jetequipment.com.
Celebration of John Rowans' life
Terry and Becky's Shop, Saturday January 3 @ 2pm, 1815 Midway Lane,
Bellingham, WA
Many people are aware that one of the awesome things John used to do each winter was to have a shop party that often drew some of the biggest northwest names in the sport. And as Brad Owens puts it:
"Lots of good friends, a keg of beer, a big pot
of chili,and what ever anyone else wants to bring. Please bring pictures,
videos, and lots of good stories. As John would say,
"Be Theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre!!!!!!!!!!"
Please contact Brad if you
have any questions.
2008 NHRA Northwest Division SPECIAL AWARDS
Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Track of the Year - Firebird Raceway
Summit Racing Series Track of the Year - Eagle Motorplex
Most Improved Track - Portland Int’l Raceway
Top Alcohol Driver of the Year - Brian Hough
Sportsman Driver of the Year - Mike Ferderer
Mel Bresaw Memorial ET Driver of the Year - Steve Kelly (Pro Bracket World Champ at Pomona)
Don Rhyne Memorial Jr. Driver of the Year - Casey Tehle
Rod Hoerner Memorial Rookie of the Year - Justin Davis (Pacific High Reach TAD)
Jerry Verheul Memorial Top Alcohol Crew Chief - Joe Severance
Sportsman Crew Chief of the Year - Bill Kondolay
Sponsor of the Year - Lucas Oil Products
Gracious Lady Award - Sharon Henderson (Mike Henderson's mom, who passed away this year)
Ernie Hall Memorial Person of the Year - Gordon
Howell (Bremerton Track Operator)
|
Sunday
December 14, 2008
|
A great night for many, many racers and crew, a so-so night for HH. Between the basically useless wireless live feed we tried to a number of glitches with the dvd player supplied by the hotel we struggled through. With no notes we'll work from memory and fill you in on a few things.
Track-of-the-Year went to Firebird, a track that claimed a number of other awards including the National Dragster prize for best coverage in the NHRA publication - an award that almost has the Boise track's name permanently attached. The New Crew also won the bracket finals team award.
Eagle Motorplex won the Summit Track of the Year.
The Ernie Hall Memorial Person-of-the-Year went to Bremerton's Gordon Howell.
Until we get home and get more info that's all I can recall for the moment.
On the track/race side of things, controversy surrounded a decision to take the Bracket Finals away from a number of smaller tracks. Needless to say a few operators were quite upset, but DD Jonathan Adams said to HH that the decision was near unanimous. "It will be a west-east program alternating each year." The tracks that will get the finals include Seattle, Woodburn, Firebird, Mission and most likely Spokane.
Next year's event originally scheduled to be in Yakima will be at Woodburn. As a consolation, team members for each of the tracks through 2014 that were on the original rotation, and are now not getting a bracket finals, will get get free admission to that year's event.
Because I was obviously not in the room when the decision was made I don't want to post any more information that could be incorrect. If you are concerned you best speak with your won track rep. Regardless, it's a done deal.
On the management front we understand Seattle is seeking new people and has already done some interviews with some pretty high-end folks from the Midwest among others. Expect a decision on that possibly as early as late next week.
Talk of Spokane was everywhere, but since the final contract is not quite signed yet, we will make no further posts on that. We can say we spoke to the new Drag Strip Manager (Jay Livingston is the Track Manager) and they have a very ambitious schedule planned that will put them at the forefront of northwest drag racing.
We will be posting the music videos soon as well as some photos and videos of a couple of the speeches especially that of Pat Austin who had total attention of the entire room as, in his words, spoke from the heart. The Tacoma superstar was very elegant in his NHRA Northwest Division Hall-of-Fame induction speaking only from memory. It was easily the highlight of the night.
Again, we'll have more later this week.
|
Saturday
December 13, 2008
|
We're having some issues keeping signed on so please bear with us. If you are unable to get a picture please keep trying.
HH to broadcast NHRA Division Six awards banquet
live tonight...I hope
HH is in Seattle, we have made a successful test of our live broadcast
system and will be trying it out for real tonight. Not sure on an
exact time at this point, but plan to get it up and running about
6pm today. Please check back anytime after about 5:30 or so for the
broadcast to begin.
PS - there are a ton of updates on various things and people we'll be bringing you soon. Yesterday's track managers meeting was said to be the most intense in quite a few years. We'll have some exclusive interview, photos and more.
|
Friday
December 12, 2008
|
It must be NHRA banquet time in Seattle as the weather dudes are calling for the S word, and like usual they blame it on Canada...oh well, us Canucks will plod through the drifts and be at the NHRA D6 banquet Saturday night. For those of you who will be home and snowbound we are gonna try to see if we can make this live video feed work, so check back again tomorrow. Imagine watching the entire ceremony live on video!
If
we do get this happening the show sponsor is Freeway Trailer in Tacoma.
Speaking of Canadians and snow they've got special 'Canuck' pricing
on sled trailers. Freeway is also happy to announce they will be open
Sundays from 10am - 2pm. They've got some other supers sales on too,
so give em a call or stop by Freeway Trailer!
|
Wednesday
December 10, 2008
|
Customer Video update
Just a quick note to those who are just recently starting to phone
and e-mail me for videos. At this time, unless we have been in contact
this month (Dec.) I will not be able to get anything done for you
as I'm totally booked...and then some. I will return your calls and
e-mails ASAP, which at this time is next week as I am currently consumed
with work for the NHRA banquet this weekend.
Most everybody who needs stuff for Xmas (and who have contacted me in the past couple of weeks regarding orders placed long ago) will get their videos. If you are just now contacting me about videos of your race stuff, I will not be able to start it until well into January or early February. That's for new requests, I still have a long list of orders I'll be working on every day. I expect to have them all done no later than about mid-Jan.
In the event you cannot wait any longer and wish to cancel your order please let me know. At this time I am contacting people before I get to their stuff just to ensure they still want it. At this time the cancellations have been zero.
I'm a very lucky guy to have customers who wait months for product and rarely complain. Sure I get a few, but the vast majority of you are just awesome. I wish I could do more. Not a day goes buy that I'm not thinking of ways to streamline my work flow.
Thank you again for your amazing patience, and even more thanks to those who have waited so long and still take the time to personally let me know they like what they get.
|
Sunday
December 7, 2008
|
Goodguys at Seattle in 2009??
HH
buddy Bernie made this great find today.
World's
quickest drag radial car almost tips over in Florida
Yesterday the drag radial world was jawing about Kevin Fiscus' 7.06
in Bradenton Florida, but this morning they have something totally
different to talk about as the twin turbo Mustang goes into a gigantic
wheelstand... in-car
video
Live video here. Click on Video Stream
|
Saturday
December 6, 2008
|
NHRA D6 awards banquet memorial photo requests
I have started work on an annual video I do for the banquet listing
all the people we lost this past year. 2008 has been a particularly
bad one to the point that I do not have head shots of a number of
people. In some cases I have photos of their race cars and will use
those if I have to, in other cases nothing at all. If you can e-mail
me head shots of anybody on the following list I would appreciate
it. I need no later than Tuesday. E-mail
here
Phil Ranks, Dave Saunders, Jim McMahon, Noel Derochers.
Interesting post regarding new 2009 NHRA safety rule changes
Live Snowbird Nationals audio/video feed - if you can get it to work, I can't.
Dubbed 'the funniest raicng accident ever'.
|
Friday
December 5, 2008
|
YouTube now HD This is gonna be fun...
At this time of year I usually have a camera buyer guide, but this time around I'll advise you all on something that if you take pictures or shoot video should simply not be without - backup hard drives.
This past year saw two major drag racing photographer friends of mine loose literally thousands of images because they were not backed up. If you have never gone through the heartache of realizing all those memories and hard work are gone, trust me, you don't want to. Data recovery companies often charge four figures to 'try' and get your stuff back.
Fortunately I have never had this happen, been close, but have never had a major loss yet. Then again I grew up working real jobs that required constant backup, so it was ingrained into my brain to do it regularly. While the nerdly among us say you must make a minimum of three backups of everything and store at least one of them in a different site than the others, take heart, it's not that difficult, expensive or time consuming.
There is also the matter of online storage, but I've never used it so cannot speak on it. From what I understand it is a viable option - albeit one where you give up a lot of control on your stuff.
My personal systems have always had two drives installed that back each other up plus one more separate from the 'box'.
It really does not matter what you back onto, the main thing is to make at least one copy on something that is not actually a permanent part of your home computer. I have come to use small USB drives that do not require a separate plug-in power supply. Stuff like this and this. They (2.5 inch) now come in sized up to 500GB and you can also get the larger full size (3.5 inch) external drives (up to 1.5TB), but these most all require a plug in - something my home office and laptop are in short supply of.
Even if you backup onto DVDs or CDs, just do it. Big drives however make it much easier to deal with many images and video clips as compared to having to deal with dozens of separate DVDs. Some of these drives come with easy-to-use software to backup your entire system automatically. I do it manually, simply by storing all my 'stuff' in 'My Documents" then dragging that folder to the backup drive, waiting a few minutes and it's done.
This could be the best Christmas present you could get somebody who has lots of images and videos saved on that big bulky desktop computer. Even if they have one backup drive, trust me, it'll fill up quickly, so extra unused drives are never sitting around too long.
As for those buying cameras and camcorders this year. Take a second and think about what you are going to do when the disc or card media in your new cam fills up. You'll need a hard drive, especially if you get a video cam that does not use tape.
I prefer to stick with mainstream companies such as Western Digital, Seagate, Maxtor etc. They all make good products that are often as cheap as the no-name brand stuff. And if your person is a total nerd, get them a drive and case separately so they can put it all together as most of the drives I speak of here are not upgradeable to larger drives as they are permanently sealed.
As for cams, there is very little junk out there any more. Any name brand device you feel you like should work just fine. I feel the new 'YouTube' camcorders have a great future for those who are not into editing, and basically any new DSLR will take better photos than most of you will ever be capable of making. In other words, the cams mostly work fine once you learn how to use them. Brand name point-&-shoots are simply foolproof, so good they make pros like me look bad more often than not.
Just make sure you have those great photos and videos around for a long time by backing them up eh!
|
Thursday
December 4, 2008
|
It
is with a heavy heart that I bring the sad news of the passing of
John Rowan. A 'drag racer' by every stretch of the word, John will
be very much missed by his many, many friends. I do not have any more
info at this point, but will pass on anything more I get.
Forever known as the owner/driver of the turquoise and white 'Trickshit' '55 Chevy that, along with the Maverick of Keith Winterbottom, was the last car down the old Mission Raceway and the first officially down the new strip. John suffered a stroke a few years ago that really slowed him down, but earlier this year he was back bracket racing at Pacific.
A couple of years ago he shocked longtime friend Brad Owens (on right in foto below) by giving him the shoebox to race. It could not have been passed on to a better person as Brad has gone on to do very well with this wonderful old ride, leaving it in it's familiar state.
Known for many things, but particularly for his winter 'keg' parties in an old racing barn outside of Mount Vernon WA, that were among the neatest gatherings in the sport. After many, many kegs John would gather everybody around him, stand up on a table, tell amazing stories then go around the crowd having them tell theirs. Nobody but John could do such a thing, but he managed to get people to open up and share memories that would have perhaps never otherwise be told. I managed to get to one (and shot some video) and it was one of the most fascinating nights of bench racing I have ever experienced.
A former school teacher and more John Rowan was one of the really great 'old guys' of northwest drag racing who will never be forgotten. His always positive attitude and constant smile made John a person who could always make you fell better. I'll miss him a lot.
|
Tuesday
December 2, 2008
|
Pat
Austin to be inducted into NHRA Division Six Hall of Fame
The 2008 D6 awards banquet will be the scene when Pat Austin is inducted
into the Divisional HoF. To many this will come as a "why did
it take so long" kinda thing, while others will simply be content
that "it's about time".
There's no doubt Austin deserves induction, the only question pre-ceremony is how the often outspoken Austin will accept it. Past banquet appearances by Pat Austin have often been laced with his (usually very entertaining) personal views, so after a few years of being out of the sport, this could well be a most anticipated part of the evening.
Number 13 on the Top 50 NHRA Drivers list, details on Austin's career are here
NEW Car Clubs Against Street Racing
|
Monday
December 1, 2008
|
We're waiting on MRP banquet pics to post over there, hopefully next day or two, so fer now check out this nice vid of Moran's 6.01/250 in Houston last weekend. There now needs to be a video crew follow him around from here on. He's gonna do it. There's little doubt the Chevrolet will become the first five second turbo door car. Would make a HELL of a film...
And for everybody goin' to the D6 banquet Saturday night December 13 here's the song we're usin' for the HH video. Ryan Warter will be there with one too! Plus we've got some video 'firsts' for the Leaders bash we know yur gonna love!
Links/Tracks/
Contacts /Groups
Indivdual
racer HH/MRP
photo/video price list
|
HH
clip TOPS CLICK HERE
|
|
Drag Race Video Sites |
Life is not
a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty
and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used
up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming -
"Wow! What a ride!"
|
Drag Race Video Sites |
Life is not
a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty
and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used
up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming -
"Wow! What a ride!"
|
Drag Race Video Sites |
Life is not
a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty
and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used
up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming -
"Wow! What a ride!"
|
Drag Race Video Sites |
Life is not
a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty
and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used
up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming -
"Wow! What a ride!"
|
Drag Race Video Sites |
Life is not
a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty
and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used
up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming -
"Wow! What a ride!"
|
Drag Race Video Sites |
Life is not
a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty
and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used
up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming -
"Wow! What a ride!"
|
Drag Race Video Sites |
Life is not
a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty
and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used
up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming -
"Wow! What a ride!"
|
Drag Race Video Sites |
Life is not
a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty
and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used
up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming -
"Wow! What a ride!"