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Proverbs 17:27 Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding. 28 Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.

Bruce, what is your issue with Jack. You are not serving yourself well buy running a guy down like you are. When you only have negative crap to say, and when it is from "a good source", it doesn't paint a good picture of you.

The fact of the matter is Jack has busted his ass to go racing. He has made the sacrifices to go racing, he has worked at building a network on the business side to do it, and now he has his shot. Now if you don't like the way things have fell into place by the way Shoe is running his operation, then say so, but don't throw Jack under the truck in the process.

You might want to do yourself a favor and go meet up with Jack and get to know the guy you are running down; you might find yourself retracting much of how you feel.

I'm not going to say that this situation isn't awkward, or that it doesn't look good. But the fact is this, the activity is business, and the racing is just incidental. In business you will have good things and bad things happen. Decisions can be made and they either look great, or they look bad. But the fact is, this is business first, racing second.

I would imagine that anyone that is in Jack's position would be doing the same thing. When an oportunity comes up, you get in on it. Don't fault Jack because a company is backing him and helping him land a full time ride. We would all like the same. And the fact is this, Jack is more like the Rod Fuller's, where he isn't from the lucky sperm club, and wasn't shot in the ass with diamonds.

And while we are at it, lets have a little history review. Remember when Dean Skuza was sponsored by Matco? Remember when Whit was struggling to stay out there and had a deal to drive for Chuck Etchels? Whit had a relationship with the folks at Matco, and they were an associate supporter when he was driving for Chuck. When Shoe decided to add a funny car to his operation, the matco deal ended with Skuza, went to Shoe, and because of the relationship Whit had with Matco, it put him in the running as the driver, and the seat became his. And in the process, Skuza was left looking for another deal.

This is business, and deals come and go.

Not knowing all the details, I can't really understand the deal. It just seems like DSR is not a very secure place to work right now. Maybe Don S. needs to take a step back and re-evaluate the size of his program. It seems like running more than two cars in a class is not as easy as we'd all like to think.
Just look at Kalitta and Force. And running just one pro stock is alot more than even the best can handle.

P.S. I'd really like to see Whit run a second funny car at Snake Racing.

This news sucks. I understand business and all, but I feel horrible about the way this went down. Whit should have been able to finish out the season. Guess we shall see how it all shakes out for next season, but Whit will always have a fan in me no matter what he drives or for whom.

like some others on this thread i am not a big whit fan, but i think this sucks! if this is the way to get a ride now days , when i win the lotto i am going to buy me a ride on DSR or JFR or better yet put a 2 car team togather with whit and skuza . now that would be a hell of a deal! mikey

Wow. Do we really want to dig up old rumor bones? The ones I heard about Whit Bazemore but have always kept my mouth shut about have to do with parts missing from a previous employer and someone leaving in the middle of the night. The person I heard it from (and know very well) says it came to them directly from the owners. I'd rather lose more parts via driving mistakes than fewer through thievery. If anyone sees the need to delete this post I'd only ask that you delete both of these.

Yeah, they left out driving in CIFCA in his list of accomplishments at the beginning of this thread. I do believe that's an "alcohol funny car."

I've never met Jack, but from everything I've seen of him he seems like a nice guy who doesn't go around personally disrespecting people. I don't think you'll see him on probation or getting punched in the mouth by operation-mates anytime soon. Or is the ugly only supposed to go one way here? I don't see anyone suggesting that this is the culmination of all the incidents caused by Mr. Bazemore over the last few years.

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I'm an optimist. My glass is 1/4 full, not 3/4 empty!

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"We marvel at our own magnificence"

No it hasn't... people are just hot under the collar. Let's be respectful people.

It seems to depend on which direction events happen in, doesn't it? Maybe they should change the name to Bazemater.

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I'm an optimist. My glass is 1/4 full, not 3/4 empty!

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Nazgul
JFR Infinity

Not to quote a famous line here. "You Dont Know Jack"

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Oakley Old School Division

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Nazgul
JFR Infinity

o.k. let me say this and then i will leave this topic. no i don't know jack beckman. but, it seems that this arangement has been going on behind closed doors for a while and to me that sounds like backstabing. whit bazemore has given blood sweat and tears for the sport of funny cars. he has worked on ,owned and driven for others. i had a brief discussion on the phone with whit several years ago about some parts when he was selling his team off and he spoke to me like a human! some of you think he is an a$$ for the way he conducts himself , but to me he is showing how determined he is in this sport , and i feel he got the ultimate screwing that someone could get. its obvious that a contract and comitment means NOTHING to some team owners. it also seems to me mr. beckman and his deep pocketed friend have no morals or problem skeeming into a seat by waving money. if this happened during the off season it would be different because matco won't be on the car after this year. thats it. if you don't like my opinion sorry but these message boards are for everyone and i will post mine.

I'll resist the temptation to pick the whole post apart. I was simply repeating a rumor, as you say you were. I didn't see any calls for decency until a post went the other way.

However, you did just now say that YOU think that someone has no morals. That's a pretty strong statement about someone I'm sure you don't know.

I'm sure Don is legally able to do this. Like everyone says, business is business. If Whit is going to be contractually paid for the rest of the year without even driving, that tells me that this might be as much about getting someone out of the car as it is getting someone in.

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I'm an optimist. My glass is 1/4 full, not 3/4 empty!

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'If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.' -Ronald Reagan