Funny Happenings in Funny Car

So i'm sitting at home watching the us nationals pro session on tv and watching the alky classes closely on the computer. As soon as I hear tony pedragon call the "smoke the tires" issue and I cant help myself from looking ahead to to see what happens sure enough force loses. hmm Controversy heck yea. Plus the Force girls didnt seem to FREAK OUT to bad when their dad headed toward the wall in fact they were smiling. Will this affect force's credibility not to mention tony pedragon with his 8 years under force "told on" the team. What do yall think?? I'm new to the sport but love the NHRA as a whole especially alky. Hopefully this wont hurt our sport. All opinions are welcome state your mind.

 

looked fishy to me. i guess hes paying the bills.

 

no biggie

So, John tanked a pass so Hight could make it into the countdown. Would prefer a heads up race but under the circumstances he did what he had to for his organization. They race for 40k (100k) this race which pays for very little in way of parts, cars, people etc. They are in the advertising & entertainment business and need to feed their beast. No surprise except the Pedergon's brothers whining like sisters, they knew what was going to happen. I know they went heads up awhile ago, but if it was down to today and it was win or no countdown; i think the outcome would be similar to this race.

 

fishy?? i think it comes back to the "old golden rule saying"....."He who has the gold(John Force) makes the rules"
it's really a shame that our sport is following suit with so many others. it seems that there are "team orders" in every sport. i know that you have to do what will pay the bills......but that still doesn't make it right. i think Mike Dunn hit the nail on the head when he said that they( NHRA) are not going to find anything to make it look like John threw the race. it's alot easier to drive the car out of the groove a little. and how about that reaction time?
i don't think there was anyone who, deep down didn't know that one way or another Robert Hight was going to get in the countdown. i am just sorry to see that our sport has become a BUSINESS 1st, and a sport 2nd.
Darren Russell

 

This was an interesting situation to say the least. But I have to wonder one thing: what if we had the exact same scenario with one exception. Instead of John Force we replace him with Whit Bazemore. I would imagine it would have been even worse than what we saw.

What do you think?

 

either way I like and know them both...........BUT what happened after didn't look very good..Dave

 

The only reason we get to see these Big Dogs race is the sponsor money,so its understandable in this economy that any other team would do the same thing.

 

sad sad sad

I understand the $$$ thing. But, the reason they are there is due to the fans paying that $$$. No fan appeal.... no racing. So, they (Force in particular) are cutting their own throats. BTW just for the record. If you saw the view from the blimp, Force was lined up so far left that there was no way in hell he could have gotten traction. Hell, my bracket car woud have gotten loose where he was staged. Just my .02

 

It all boils down to this, its a business and john did it to get all four of his cars in the count down.in nascar they call this blocking. I would bet if you paid the bills at john force racing you would see the need to keep all four cars in the count down, money , money, money lets face it we all want to race to win but if theres no money from sponsors theres no money to race . Keeping sponsors happy is not only winning but keeping the cars on tv and in the spot light you cant do that if your not in the count down. If we didn't have the countdown then this would not be an issue but then again why do we have a count down better excitement for fans not for the racer, its because of the count down that ron capps didnt become a national champion a few years ago.

 

Thanks

Thanks everybody for the input I can see where it is just entertainment to them and the money is what they're after. I'm just disappointed that mr. force the legend himself talks (all the time) about coming up the hard way doing it right and working to get where he is today. I know this sort of thing goes on but for one its force and 2 it was so obvious and he got so offended (when he said he was going to stay out of it). will this smudge his credibility on those 14 maybe, maybe not. This is why sportsman racing is the best Thanks everyone.

 

I can't believe Graham said that race manipulation will not be tolereted and then goes on to say that there was nothing fishy going on. What a joke. Force takes the shitty right lane then tells Robert not to go until he sees green and that he, (Force), will go even later so there is no chance for a red light for Robert. He drives the car out of the groove. The front wheels never left the ground so he did drive it. He smokes the tires. What a frickin joke. CHEATERS!!!!!!!!!!

 

Captian Nemo, AKA John Force, hit the dive button and went down for money. He was pissed because he got called on it. Should have just said I have people that depend on me for their pay check, my choice, end of story. Connie did something like that years ago, Connie still has balls. He isn't letting Ford, Casteroil, ect. hold on to them for him.

 

Force

Was a very sad thing for John and Tony. First John did not need to go roll in the mud. He did what he did and I think we can all agree that he threw the race. So be it! I don't like it and I think it taints the countdown for Robert and makes John look terrible for his antics.

On the other side of the coin...it makes tony and cruz look weak and like cry babies. We all knew what was going to happen. Just take it and be quiet. Making a scene does nothing for any of the parties in this thing.

John should know better then this and so should Tony and Cruz. My 9 year old son sat with me and we watched it and it was a good lesson for him on how to be a good sport. My son got to see how to not act when you win or lose at something. I was ashamed of everyone involved in this thing, but my son got to see how being an Adult doesn't mean that we always act as such. So thanks John, Cruz and Tony. My son got to see first hand how not being a good sport makes you look terrible. A lesson I am sure he will remember. I believe that was the only good that came out of their pre-school arguments!

And poor Ashley, if that were my father at the end of the track they would not have had to worry about NHRA crew being in the middle of it. I would have have hauled my father out of there by his ear like the 3rd grader he is acting like!

Congratulations to Ashley. Our family was thrilled that she won.

Troy Stone

 

I wouldn't be so hard on john, After all he was doing what is best for his business. Keep in mind All the guys had to take a pay cut to keep the whole team intact. Tony and Cruz should have done the same when oportunity arose.

The rule is clear, not tampering with the car setup. It doesn't say about trying to look dumb

On the other hand , the Pedregons have made news on firing people due to money. On top of that is very well know that tony won his championship on a john force car ( synthec) and stole johns oportunity of glory ( and synthec) by taking not just the big #1 but the crew with him to a competitor sponsor (q) .

To me the pedregons where at a lost when they saw their own game backfire cause Tim wilkerson was the man last year ( and we all saw his emotionsin check) and the year before Tony just played the game ....

Anyhow to me John was John , hard , loud amd good or bad fighting for what he believes,

Tony was just a little crying boy trying to get the public to back his sorry ....existence.

My half cent only....

 

John is John, the best spokesman for drag racing ever bar none !!!!!

 

Very Very well written!!!!!

 

It was fun watching him pedal it! From the starting line, you just saw him darting in different directions all the way down the track. Laying down or not, to make it look like he did, you gotta be able to flat out drive one of those things.

 

NHRA is the one who lacks balls

When Connie did that there was no "sorta rule" that you couldn't. It was perfectly legal and therefore he was free to say it how it is. Force had to lie because they made an unfortunate rule that they can't (won't) enforce. They should just stay out of it. Anyone in that position should do the same thing. It is all about a chance to win the championship and just because it might not be the most honorable way to race, I would do the very same thing except I would tell it to Cruz and Tony's crying face not pretend, but cannot do that with a silly unenforceable rule on the "books".
The Pedregon sisters need to just get over it. Cruz won a championship that he couldn't possibly have won without the countdown, this year the countdown format screwed him. What would anyone say if force was taking a dive so Robert could win the championship with the round win? Would it be okay then? I think it is okay either way. If the Pedregons want to they could have a four car team as well, then they would have more chances to win also.

 

We all knew what was going to happen on the track. I was suprised at what happened after the race. Its sad for our sport. To work for NHRA would suck you have to do your best to pretend you are fair to all. When in reality the mega teams do whatever they want and NHRA is left standing there looking stupid. I will say the 12 minute thorough investigation must have had included a quick call to the bank to check there balance. All involved looked stupid in the end, and the wet blanket NHRA stood out above all.

 

I wonder how long they (NHRA) actually looked at the run data from the pass, or were they in there drinking a beer with Bernie???
Probably gave them some pointers for the next dive lesson

Bottom line it's a drag race and that wasnt a race