Welcome John. It's great to have a quality reporter such as yourself added to the ESPN crew. I would like to continue to see behind the scenes stories such as what goes on between rounds, team strategies, what goes on between events, and, as already mentioned, a story on complete pit set-up and tear-down.

great stuff! thanks for the ideas. we have a lot of airtime to fill this weekend at the us nationals, so maybe we can cover some of the things you have asked for.

the one thing i have learned in the four events i've done this year is that it's tough to get everything in when we are trying to show all the runs. but, i really like the ideas of a time lapse of a team setting up in the pits. i think we may have done this a few years ago, but i'll have to ask reif about it.

i also like the idea of a complete explanation of the thrash that goes on between rounds, but it is one of the wildest things to watch that i've ever seen and i know i couldn't do the explanation justice. what might be really cool is to see if a team would allow one of our little cameras to be set up right above the engine that could do a time lapse of what happens during the 75 minutes between rounds. but, it may make you dizzy! LOL.

thanks again for the input.

John, Welcome aboard. I too was a great fan of RPM tonight.

I have a couple of general suggestions.

The first is to remember that the best part of drag racing is the people. There are interesting stories everywhere.

The second is to take a tour of the pits perhaps with a a golf car and when you see an interesting car stop and talk with the owner. It wouldn't matter what type of car it was because as you well know there is an amazing amount of different cars around. You could call it "Krusin with Kernan".

Thanks for caring.

jim

Just surprise me! Opps, you already did that by coming to the Mater and asking our opinions! I can't wait to see what you do next! I've been a fan of yours since the rpm2nite days too! You are a great addition the the espn2/NHRA team.

__________________
A.K.A. BobK49

Welcome to the mater John. It's cool that you chose to come here to ask some "hard core" fans. I think the people that are on here are some great examples of fans that are a little more than just your "casual" fan. So this is a great place for you to get some ideas on what the true fans would like to see.

I agree with the "RPM 2night" show. I still miss that. I would record every one in case I worked late and missed it.

I also agree with lots of posts here. I'd love to see a team "NOT one of the big ones" Perhaps Wilkerson or a Stanfield. It would be great to see what they do to get to the races and prepare. Heck Yates drives his own truck. Hit the road with him. Between races. I'll do it......

But never the less it's great seeing you on the NHRA side of things. I'd love to see a Sirus radio show about drag racing.

Did you happen to visit the ZOO while you were at Brainerd? What did you

think?

WELCOME

John - welcome to the Mater - and you're a very pleasant welcome to the NHRA broadcast!

I like Jim Young's suggestion's, but, like he said, they may be borderline hardcore.

I have honestly kind of always wondered about the behind the scenes stuff that nobody (much) gets to see. I am sure its nothing spectacular - but I think it'd be cool bit by bit to see the stuff like up in the broadcast tower over the track and just who exactly is running around where and when.

I know it's amazing sometimes who you see in who's pit, and who is getting information from who, and I am not necessarily talking about spilling that, but just giving some insight on the goings on behind the scenes sort of.

So get it started next week. "Inside Indy - A special behind the scenes look at the Big Go."

DLB

__________________
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.

John, great to see you using the forum this way . I remember you on the trackforum boards (or was it the indystar forums) back when rpm2nite was on.
A great show that I miss by the way....

maybe now that espn is back in the nascar graces that could return?

I saw the 'nascar in prime time' special last week. That's the way to promote a series isnt' it. I have no doubt that our drag racing characters would be just as entertaining. probably more so....Something like that would be killer.


Thanks,
Bob

__________________
I'm still DamnYankee

"A Friday night run in a Funny Car is just really intense" - Whit Bazemore

Hi John, it's wonderful to see that you are a TRUE Drag Fan, and it's great to have you back on the broadcasts.

Jim Head mentioned a few races back how he modified his seat to help his back problems and suggested that others should do the same. Can you perhaps do an interview with him and show us what he did? Also I think it would be great to latch on to a different team for an entire event and report on their weekend. Sort of like the National Dragster Scrapbooks where the sportsman racers post pictures and tell a story on their race weekends.

Thanks again for asking for our input.

-Lance

Great point.

I gained a bunch of respect for Jim Yates at Brainerd as I watched him and most of his family washing the rig in the blazing sun. Here's a guy who is a two-time world champion, had one of the greatest sponsorships ever (Joe Gibbs / McDonalds) and yet he wants it so bad he's doing it without the big bucks, big crews, etc. Remarkable.

And much the same could be said for Stanfield. He and his brother along with Mike Elliott do almost everything - yet are known to knock heads with the teams that have ten times the resources and staff.

Not to take anything away from the teams that are good enough marketers to land a top shelf deal, but the two examples above are the essence of drag racing as far as I'm concerned.

John
Add me to the list of big time RPM Tonight fans. How about a story or series of stories on what goes into a nitro "tuneup". How head gaskets and pistons affect compression. Air and fuel mix. Clutch timing ...... Thanks for being part of the show.

Great work,John. Looking forward to this weekends Indy coverage. What I would like to see is some more interviews with people other than on John Force's team.

John, Welcome aboard and I know that I am probably going to catch some flack for this but I would at least like to know who won the alcohol classes at the end of the pro broadcast cause I dont always get to see the sportsman show. I know us fanatics would still watch the sportman show even if we knew who won.

also more kevin poynter, jr todd cause they're my friends

Hi John
Very nice to have you here. I always enjoyed your work. I appreciate you looking for input.

There are already a lot of great ideas that I would like to see. However I would like to see some of the little details that make drag racing better ... um ... I mean "different" than NASCAR. Information that a typical NASCAR fan or ANY "non" NHRA fan for that matter may not realize. I'm not slamming NASCAR but rather trying to focus on bringing in NEW fans that may not understand what they're missing. Things like decibel readings of 2 fuel cars in comparison to the start of a NASCAR race. The horsepower issue was already mentioned. How about a NASCAR vs Pro Stock run. Again just trying to give a simple perspective for people to see the difference and hopefully peak their interest.

As a reporter, I've discovered this is a great resource for information and ideas, so John I'm happy to see you persist. The payoff should be worth it.

I did a story as an advance on the Seattle race (I work for a little twice-weekly community newspaper that covers the burbs near Pacific Raceways) on Nicky Morse, the team chef for Jeg Coughlin, Jr. (cooks for Dave Connolly and his guys, too) and I tell you the guy is pretty cool. Besides, who doesn't love food? Heh. I've got a link around here somewhere if you're interested.

During the qualifying coverage at Reading I got to wondering about Hot Rod's (left?) knee ... didn't he tear a ligament or something earlier this year? Isn't he supposed to have surgery after the season?

Anyway, I'm looking forward to this weekend's coverage. It's about the only thing that'll keep me sane while my husband is working graveyard shifts.