mike bowers and playing games

if mike bowers wants to play games to win, maybe he should play monopoly. if you run him, dont stage first. lee callaway

 

What happened to the "autostart 7 second protection"?

 

Sounds like the games the Austin's used to play where they would never fire the car first, start the burnout first, stage first...you get the idea.

 

Although Mike Bowers is not one of my favorite racers it would seem to me that the driver is responsible for the DRIVING DUTIES. You got spanked and want to blame Mr. Bowers.

 

F'em, Lee! If Mike wants to play games, play games right back at him.

 

Sounds like a pro funny car driver

 

I think a man should act like a man and stage like they are supposed to and not play games.. I will be watching you Mike and so is NHRA like they watch Bradshaw and others.

 

I remember at Pomona back in 92-93? Pat Austin was racing Wayne Stoelkel, Stoelkel refused to stage first, after about 8-10 Secs. Buster Couch waved them in, still Stoelkel refused to stage first. Finally Pat went in and lost the round. I "Heard" there was a fight in the shutdown over that deal!

 

imjustafan, we got burned down in the 1st round at Joliet 2000. Maybe I should send you the bills. You can make those checks out to BAE, Lenco and Dave Uyehara Race Cars.

 

Sometimes it takes one to make a burn down and sometimes two burn themselves down.

It is total BS that some drivers/crews always start last, burn out last and stage last. It might not be the best solution, but sometimes these types need to left out to dry.

 

my view on this matter is that if you have nothing good to say, say nothing or discuss this in private with Mike, it's not a topic of discussion for everybody. It's between you and Mike

 

Hey bud,

I agree somewhat on your opinion on how to deal with the situation, but I disagree somewhat.

I believe it is beneficial for other teams/drivers to know other drivers tendencies. For instance most teams in a division know how other teams in the division operate, but ones from outside the division might not.

Example: I remember a driver who never staged first or better yet it was very difficult for her to stage first. If you came from out of division you could get seriously frustrated if you did not know of the issue running against this car even in qualifing.

Of course only if the information is true.

In this case actually it only takes one to make the burn down and a pissed off team.

 

Did you notice the reaction times in the second round with Mike? I wonder if the same thing happened again. If it did, it should be discussed, IMHO.

 

We had the Austin's in the finals in Atlanta in 91. We went to the line as our normal deal and when it came time for us to fire under a recomendation from Bob Newberry you just stood there....The Austin's waited for us to fire first and we just waited for them. Finally Buster got fed up with it and made them fire first....We didnt win the round but we made our point.

 

One time we raced the Austin's in the final at Mission in 1999. The previous round we ran a 5.64 to beat Bucky but the blower belt came off, wrapped itself around the crank hub and was swallowed through the front seal and into the pan. It took us a while to fix it because we were short handed and had trouble getting the crank hub off in order to remove the belt and replace the front seal.

Long story short, Walt and Pat parked their funny car behind our trailer and (even though the track officials were telling them to go) they refused to move until we were ready to go. We ended up winning the race in a spectacular fashion as Pat's engine exploded just past half track sending the body off the car in a million pieces while we kicked a head gasket.

Bottom line is, I've always thought they were more than straight up racers as well as good friends. Unless someone can clue me in otherwise, I've never heard of them pulling any crap on the starting line.

[ August 28, 2003, 02:05 PM: Message edited by: Randy G. ]

 

From what I understand, in staging against Callaway, Bowers had been recommended to wait until he heard Callaway's rpms come up before staging, SINCE in a previous round of qualifying, the Bower's clutch had been rendered too hot to make a pass after waiting (as a courtesy) for another driver (Perkins, I think) who'd had difficulty getting back to the line after the burnout.

Unfortunately for Callaway, the rpm increase Bowers responded to was Callaway blipping the throttle to clean out the fuel system prior to roll-in... and not the anticipated rpm increase of staging.

From what I know from being around the Bowers camp, Mike's vision was straight ahead, not at the other lane. Mike has always been one to disapprove of staging games.

Please note: I wasn't there and didn't see it. But I do know Mike, and staging line games are not one of his shortcomings.

David Christy
TAD409

 

Randy that was the first and only time the Austin's had ever raced us so I dont know if that had anything to do with it. This was also back in 91 so that may also make a difference. I am not trying to slander anyone just telling it like it is...or rather was that day.

 

Nitro King and Nick Bell,
I was standing right alongside Randy G.(no fooling here)on the starting line when the infamous Pat Austin/Wayne Stoeckel burndown occured.

Your are correct, it was at the 1992 Winston Finals, and Pat was fined and I do believe, suspended for a short period of time for the altercation that took place afterwards in the shut down area. Many congratulated Wayne Stoekel for standing up to him, because it was always a known fact that Pat wanted his opponents to pre-stage first--(remember Randy) and there was no way Wayne was going to move. It was pretty funy because Wayne did at that very moment get into the head of the best Top Alcohol driver at that time.

However,Randy is correct. After the Austin's came back from their Top Fuel run, they were a much better, and more friendly group of people to run against. I think they were happier to get back to their roots and a much more decent set of people then the one's who are slaves to the fuel classes. Where having fun just really doesn't happen anymore, especially if your not winning.

Andy Guerin
Smiley's Converters
Bell Gardens, California