Media Matters: Moon over Ohio?
Phillip Gary Smith, go2geiger Media Columnist
Tuesday, 29 June 2010
A memorable scene above the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals Friday night dressed the qualifying stage: a mega full moon offered the proverbial moon shot to those able to capture the lure of its orb. Often thought that magical and spiritual phenomena emanates from its power, this moon certainly oversaw mysterious if not downright strange effects at the Norwalk weekend. Some even thought they had come up against a blue moon.
What about a daylight moon? That was no moon -- that was the Goodyear blimp! Just its presence confirms Norwalk is a happening event. ESPN announcer, Paul Page, characterized it as a big deal when this airship shows up. As a broadcaster who has been at the biggest of racing venues, he would know.
Sparkles lit the stands when Ashley Force Hood made her qualifying run under the moonshine, an entirely different take on the word from the lore of mountains surrounding the Bristol track of last week. Cameras flashed with fanatical intensity just as her headers did, too. Ashley clocked past every aisle popping flash bulbs on her way to a popular No. 1 atop the Funny Car field once again. Her ET record humbled Poppa John as he squeezed in the field, just barely, in the rain shortened fourth session just to race her.
His Friday night session went up in smoke, but ESPN’s Mike Dunn suspected the Castrol team just overshot the mark in going for top qualifier glory, that the Ford was very strong. Ashley was a happy recipient of that data, though, when she ran her scorching lap two pair later.
That combo again, father versus daughter, meeting in the first round of eliminations created enough anticipation to keep all fans stuck in their seats perhaps aided by the stifling humidity. The upcoming Force Hood-Force duo was enough to delay more runs to the track’s ice cream store selling those one-pound-in-a-cup treats for a single dollar. Is there a better buy at any venue? Here’s betting someone asked for five dollars worth with nitro sprinkles.
John Force, erroneously thinking he was the royalty of drag racing, discovered the underlying adoration of Queen Ashley when he tried to dis her -- but in a fatherly way. As was described by the interviewers, he was only trash talking, though fans must have thought he went over the line. John found himself in a vat of trouble.
When he said conditions were brutal on Sunday morning’s ESPN “RaceDay” show, little did he know the description was his own circumstance. At every turn, Force tried explaining himself, digging himself deeper in cow pies, and finally apologizing. Down on his knees, he begged forgiveness -- makes you wonder when was the last time he had to do THAT -- of Ashley in front of the expectant crowd at driver introductions. ESPN replayed this theater for the television audience, pure vaudeville, an entertaining piece of showmanship.
The broadcast caringly spares viewers the tedium of watching all of that prerace stuff. Give this ESPN crew credit -- the race broadcast comes on, the racing begins. We don’t need the prerace prayer. Why? We’re going to get that anyway from Reverend Force. He said he prayed behind the trailer, “You know, I’m screwed up … but please let me stay in The Countdown.” All of those teams bouncing around either side of the No. 10 cutoff in the points are invited to use their own version of this message. It is working for him, Mr. No. 1-in-Points, so why the need to be original? Go ahead, and recite it. This prayer is like a pre-tested engine … weathered, ready to glow.
If you lost in eliminations, or in the finals as John Force did, you are about to learn why. Competitors can now understand with more clarity what really is happening on the track. It has nothing to do with engineering, oil, or anything racing related. Here is how Force described Mike Edwards losing once-in-a-blue-moon like today: “The only time Edwards loses is when God says move that money over here” to Greg Anderson. And we thought it was about staging, lights, crews, racecars, and all of those things.
This stuff is so real at these drag races, entertainment with the cast and circumstances always changing, it puts so-called reality programming to shame. That’s made-up life -- this is authentic. Gary Gerould, Dave Rieff, and John Kernan were out there grabbing these players, bringing the heat, which needed no help. They nailed some delightfully entertaining quips and downright great gibberish. Kardashians, pay attention; even you can learn something. Come to think of it, maybe that’s why they were on the line earlier this year.
Did you note during “RaceDay,” one driver mingled in the audience, watching the entire program standing there, signing autographs, interacting until his spot came on at the end. This is the one who really doesn’t ‘need’ to do that to have more glow on his moon … yes, it was John Force. For teams who wonder how one becomes a star, implement this great idea -- even if you’re not scheduled for the show’s dais. There are no BP little people in John Force’s world.
Luigi Novelli had his own sparklers spewing from the headers in the Friday night moonlight, providing an early Fourth of July look as they ignited a mega fireball trailing him. His sponsor, National Machine Repair -- Hey, that’s Mr. President Luigi, too -- was put to the test overnight readying the nitro railer for the third qualifying round on Saturday. And what a job the team did, providing a machine capable of running a career best for Luigi ... and under three seconds, too. This group, most with children and long stays with this operation -- Buzz Ols, crew chief, has been in the job since Day 1 -- showed their mettle with this run. Racing finalist Antron Brown in the first round ended their day prematurely. The team can be proud of the show they put on, and the work they did to run their best. In many camps, that is a win.
Now that was weird: One of the most bizarre rounds of racing in recent memory was Robert Hight seemingly asleep at the tree in his semi-final run. At least that was the way it seemed. In the other lane, John Force had wrapped up the lap before Hight got off the line. An exasperated Robert explained, “For some reason something was weird, and it was a quick flash. I don’t know what just took place.” Crew chief Jimmy Prock lost his normal cool, almost using his mythical Prock Rocket as a weapon while punctuating remarks with pointed fingers and a vociferous voice. Now watching from their comfy bus, after Tony had pointed out in Bristol the Pedregons race heads-up, here is betting you can fill in the blanks for what Tony and Cruz thought weird.
Later, Funny Car winner, Tim Wilkerson, helped confirm Hight’s confusion by noting the final round was one of the longest waits at the tree he could remember. Blame it on magical phenomena, compliments of a full moon.
Best Line in a Loss: “It was a big win for him and a bummer for us, but that's drag racing.” Jeg Coughlin lamented after being nipped by Greg Anderson by the distance of an ice cream toss at the finish. Force, losing the finals to Tim Wilkerson, gave his take on the same theme, exclaiming, “I don’t know what happened, and I don’t care. I know my guys fought all day, and that is just way it is.” Therefore, here is the takeaway, a new racing theme explaining everything with ultimate simplicity: That is just the way it is. Try it the next time something goes amiss.
Rainade?: “Skies opened up moments after the win; it was as if Mother Nature was giving Tim Wilkerson the world's biggest Gatorade bath at the end of a hard-fought game,” as team manager, Bob Wilber, described the aftermath of the victory in Funny Car. Reverend Force, trying to clarify again, explaining his loss to Wilk: “I said Edwards can’t be beat by anybody, (and) even though Greg Anderson is a great racer, the good Lord needs to move the money around. I think that the Lord is just moving the money over to Wilkerson.” Note the win secured a hold in the Countdown for the LSK team by spinning their Wild-Cherry like 777 points for the seventh spot.
In a race against the weather, the race management adjusted to the conditions by shuffling the final round order to a “first come, first served” for all classes. What a great deal! When a pair arrived in the lanes, they raced in that order rather than sticking to the traditional run order. That’s why Top Fuel was not in its established ‘last’ pairing. Great idea, it works.
LE: The Tonglet team has one of the easiest accessed sponsor proposals available online. It is colorful, exciting, and provides important data in a good packaged approach. The site importantly provides the answer to a question many have: just what the heck does “LE” stand for? How about something as simple as his name … Louis Earl.
Then what about GT? No, not ‘Gary Tom’ or anything like that. GT stands for plain old Gary Tonglet. Surprised? Team Manager Matthew Gross told me it was never a family tradition to use initials. The use was really just a matter of giving GT a nickname when he was young to eliminate the confusion of having two Garys (with Tonglet Sr.) living under the same roof. “He seemed to like GT better than calling him Junior.” The nickname happened to carry over for LE, “even though there is only one Louis in the house.”
E-mail your favorite initials to PG at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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