NHRA?

[911pix]

Found this article on the web about the Frogs...either the writer has it totally wrong, or were any of the trucks at the time listed/sanctioned by/associated with the NHRA?

www.antonnews.com/westburytimes/1999/07/23/sports/

[JUSMIK]

If you look in the rule book a lot of the standards we follow for the trucks are NHRA .Well almost all of them

[911pix]

Hmmm...10-4...but I still think I'm going to avoid calling them "NHRA dragster racing trucks" in the book

[unclekevie]

I think what happens when this occurs, is that a journalist is writing about drill teams and has no idea of how to convey to their readers what the trucks are like. If a writer were to write that they are racing fire trucks, most people would think of a fire engine. Therefore not realizing the scope of what the trucks have evolved into over the years. The term most people would associate with is dragster. I have many times heard people having nothing to do with a fire dept., call "C' trucks dragsters. NHRA is so mainstream on television that NHRA and dragster are two terms that go together like peanutbutter and jelly.
If you had no idea of what these trucks were and you were at your first drill what would you call them if you were writing an article for a magazine. What did you call them when you wrote your article in National Fire and Rescue Magazine Mike? I'm going to have to go home and dig that magazine out and take a look. By the way , I am still trying to find those pictures for you.

[911pix]

Point well taken, Kevin...I did call them "dragsters". But, since that time, I've been advised by those who know that in regards to portraying the sport in a good light - which is the aim of the book, after all - I need to tread very carefully where descriptions of the trucks and the contests are concerned, so as to minimize the concept of tournaments as being "races", and/or emphasize them as serious "competitions" that do not necessarily involve "racing" (e.g. using the term "drill team competition" instead of "drill team racing"). You're correct that the term "dragster" has certain connotations that go along with it; it's going to be my job to diffuse that by describing the trucks in such a way that doesn't make them sound like they are nothing but home-built, jury-rigged buckets of bolts with huge monster engines on them, designed to do nothing but go recklessly fast under the barely-controlled leadfoot of a speed freak driver...not good for the sport!

(...and yes, would still love to see those pics!)