At select NHRA national events, NHRA members get to enjoy a place of their own, the NHRA Member Hospitality tent, where they can get out of the sun (or rain), buy some snacks, watch the races on closed-circuit TV, and, best of all, be selected the NHRA VIP Member of the Race on raceday. All NHRA members are eligible to sign up for that and other prizes, which are drawn throughout the weekend with The Big Deal of the Day picked Monday.

The VIP Member of the Race not only gets a ticket upgrade to the Top Eliminator Club but also gets to stand on the starting line between the first pair of Top Fuelers in round one. Sweet! Plus, before the round, they get to take part in a racer meet-n-greet before pre-race, getting "backstage passes" to the area behind the introduction stage where the racers mill and chat for a half hour or more prior to pre-race. It's the ultimate autograph and photo op adventure. They then get introduced to the crowd themselves. This event's winners are Ray and Brenda Quinn, 20-year NHRA members.

I dropped by the member tent this morning to watch National DRAGSTER Advertising Director Jeff Morton do his thing, engaging the packed house of members with his friendly and funny style as he drew names for the VIP member and various door prizes, including diecast cars, portable radios, books, tickets to future events, and tickets to the National DRAGSTER suite in the Parks Tower.

I cruised around the gathering, answering questions from the members about everything from the old Daily DRAGSTER newspapers we produced here for 20 years to questions about possible digital editions of ND and the well-being of Austin Coil. I made sure to thank everyone for their continued support of NHRA through their membership. We know in this economy that budgets are tight, and we appreciate their continued support, which is why we offer perks like the member tent, the online audiocast, live timing (coming real soon … I promise!), and more.

From there, I wandered down to the class winner winner's circle to see the plaque that O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis General Manager Ron Anderson helped create with input from the DRAGSTER staff (see Kevin McKenna's blog) to salute our old pal Eric Brooks, who shot class winner pics there for nearly 40 years. We lost Eric earlier this year, but we wanted him to be remembered by those whom he helped make famous. I wrote the line for the plaque that still seems spot on: "He was always as happy to see you are you were to see him."

We miss ya, Eric.