Apparently, one Q & A segment begets more questions (Q's) which then beget more answers (A's). It's like throwing a little bait out there and watching the fish swim up, so I'm full of material for today, and days to come, just 48 hours after my last installment. Some good stuff, too!

So, it's 10:32 in the morning, here in rapidly changing Woodbury (we're looking at about a 30-degree shift in temperatures from yesterday afternoon to tomorrow evening, and I don't mean in the upward direction) and I'm waiting to see if that new feature story I sorta kinda half-way referenced the other day will pop up on NHRA.com in the next half-hour. I almost wish I could post this blog in real time, like a chat session, because then I might be able to write "There it is!" at precisely the exact the second the story appears. Instead, I'm probably not going to get this whole blog written before the story "goes live" and I'll have to take a break from writing this right after it does pop up, to spread the word a little. You'll just have to imagine the fact that, as I'm typing these words, the story hasn't appeared yet, and waiting for your work to show up is a bit like waiting for Santa...

Let's get right to the questions, though, starting with this great one from Tom M., who lives pretty much directly south of here, in Magnolia, Ark. Tom sent me this original query: "I was at the Dallas race several years ago, and after the final pair I decided to take a shortcut to the parking lot by walking acorss the starting line area of the track. First thing I noticed was that my shoes weren't tied real tight, because I proceeded to step right out of one of them. That traction compound is like tacky glue! No big deal, I just put it back on and finished my walk back to the car. Then, a few days later, I was at the gym and found that my good shoes no longer had any grip while I was playing volleyball. It really didn't effect my game much, since I basically stink, but it begs the question: Do you have a pair of shoes that you wear only at the track, so that you don't screw up your street shoes? My gym shoes were never the same and always felt "odd" after just those 20 steps across the starting line..."

For the record, I do have a pair of shoes I wear only at the track. I usually go through two or three pairs a year, actually, and those shoes never even come out of my suitcase. The reason for that is because leaving them in there means I won't ever arrive at a race and realize I forgot to pack them. My black belt and my black shoes, therefore, live in my suitcase. They're even in there right now, on December 2.

Yes, the track is amazingly sticky, and I doubt that 99 percent of people who have never walked on it would even be able to imagine just how tacky and "tight" it is. Even standing behind the car, to shoot the video, I'm constantly picking up and setting down my feet as I wait for the cars to get staged, just because the longer you stand in one place, the more stuck to that place you become.

However, I've never noticed that my track shoes become "odd" or lose their grip off the track. Here's my uneducated guess as to what happened to Mark's shoes. The parking lots in Dallas are grass fields, and usually they are very dusty. Once you've walked on the track, the soles of your shoes pick up some of the traction compound, and if you then walk around on dirt and gravel, you're going to bring a layer of that along with you, on the soles of your shoes. Even after they look clean, there's still a layer of material stuck to your shoes, and that would definitely change how they feel on the gym floor. If this ever happens to anyone else, I'd advise trying to thoroughly clean the soles of your shoes after you get home, perhaps even using some rubbing alcohol on them, just to get the sole cleaned off and "grippy" again. If your shoes still feel "odd" well... I have no idea. Great question, though, Mark and a fun story to boot.

Our next inquiry comes all the way from Fort Myers, Fla. (spring training home of YOUR Minnesota Twins) and it's from Catherine H., who wrote: "I'm pretty new to drag racing, but have fallen in love with it thanks to my boyfriend's interest. I know these are stupid questions, and I'm probably the only one to not understand this, but is there a simple way for you to explain to me how the Friday qualifying works, and why some teams don't have their times count? Also, I think I understand how holeshots work, but if I'm trying to explain it to someone else I'm basically just lost and have no clue as to how it all really works. Can you give me a holeshot explanation for dummies?"

First of all, Catherine, welcome to the sport. We're a bunch of good folks here, so enjoy the fun. Secondly, there are no dumb questions. The only dumb thing would be to not ask when you don't understand something. So, knowing that I'm fully capable of taking a four-word answer and turning it into four paragraphs (with eight sets of parentheses) I'll try to simplify. That's hard for me, but I'll try.

The Friday "Top 12" thing was instituted in response to a problem we'd regularly run into at any race that featured only one session "under the lights" on Friday night. We call those the "home-run sessions" because the times can be so much quicker then, and it used to make the other three sessions almost irrelevant, to the point where if anything went wrong on Friday night (even something outside your control, like the guy in the other lane crossing the line and negating your time) you could often find it impossible to get qualified on a hot and sunny Saturday. This way, only the top 12 times are counted, and for everyone else it's just as if they chose not to run on Friday.

Oddly, that "home run" scenario used to happen so often it was clear we needed this rule to give guys a chance to get in the field on Saturday, but ever since they instituted the rule our weather seems to have changed a lot, and it seems like the big difference between the second Friday run and the other three runs has rarely been a factor. Meteorology is weird.

Also, nobody has ever asked me, but if they did I'd tell them that if any race has at least two night sessions, or if there are 16 cars or fewer there, they ought to drop the Top 12 rule. That's just my 3-cents (inflation!)

BAM!!! There's my story on NHRA.com. Back in a bit...

Okay, I'm back. Lots of people on vacation this week, though, I can tell you that. I sent out a note about the feature story to my full mailing list, and instantaneously my in-box was filled with automatic "I'm out of the office..." replies. It's not the most entertaining feature I've ever written, but it looks really nice and they chose some nice photos to go with it.

Anyway, back to Part Two of Catherine's email... Ah, the hole-shot. The single most common thing at a drag race that produces the question "How can that be?" Just remember, Catherine, that the two lanes are timed independently and the clock in each lane doesn't start until the car in that lane moves. If you understand that, it makes Bob Frey's explanation of a hole-shot really easy to understand. Bob always says "Just imagine the light going green and one car tears off down the track. The other driver is actually asleep in his car, and by the time his crew can wake him up on the radio, the other guy is crossing the finish line, with a 5.00-second e.t. Driver B wakes up, hits the throttle, and runs a 4.80, but he loses because the other guy got there first. That's how a 5.00 beats a 4.80." Okay, I paraphrased that, but Bob's explanation is really similar.

Last question for today... This comes from Frank G., in Springfield, Mass. who asked: "Is Daniel Wilkerson going to drive again, in 2010?"

Answer: We're all doing all we can to make that a big 10-4, but nothing is etched in stone just yet. In terms of Daniel wanting to drive after the big crash, he was ready to do that by the time he got back to the starting line. I think his line was "If there was any way I could've talked my dad into letting me drive his car, I would've jumped right in." No one is worried about Daniel being comfortable in the car. He's as cool as a cucumber. As cool as the other side of the pillow. As cool as, well... Daniel Wilkerson.

We do need to find him some sponsor backing though, and Dave is hard at work quarterbacking that effort. We've got a ton of proposals out there, and we're pretty encouraged by the response from a lot of different companies. Those responses, along with a dollar bill, will get you a copy of today's USA Today, so we're not counting chickens, eggs, or anything else yet. But, it does give you hope when the feedback is along the lines of "This is interesting, let's discuss..." rather than "Our budgets are slashed, we don't do motorsports, and you don't need to call back" followed by a click.

Bottom line: We hope to have Daniel out there, at least for a few more races in 2010. We'll keep working on that until we make it happen.

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BAM! Santa comes early with a headline story.

 

Next up, not a question exactly, but a fine story to tell. I've mentioned and shown Jane and Chris, the irrepressible married couple from Vancouver who always make it to a few races each year. They were in Vegas, of course (if you knew Jane and Chris you'd say "of course" before I could write it) and Jane told me this amazing story about Sunday at the Las Vegas race: "When we left the track, Chris stopped to organize our stuff before we got in the car and then we drove back down to Bellagio. When we got there, no backpack! We knew then that he must have left it in the parking lot. Of course, we drove all the way back out to the track, and at least got there before the whole crowd was exiting. We found our old parking space, but the backpack was gone. I didn't hold out much hope, but we located the Lost & Found and some fabulous, honest, person had actually turned it in. I had my DSR leather jacket, two pairs of brand new jeans, Chris' camera, and a few other things in there that all added up to at least $800 worth of stuff, and it was all still there. I'd really appreciate it if you mentioned this in blog, because I have no way of thanking the honest person who turned it in. Maybe they'll read about it on the blog and know how much we appreciate what they did. This proves there are good people in the world!"

Mission accomplished, Jane. I hope whoever did that reads this, and knows how much their good deed was appreciated. Oh yeah, and "Go Wild, eh!"

There you have it. I've reached my productivity quota for this morning... Whew. That was hard work. :-)

Wilber, out!