Quote Originally Posted by Mike in Motown

And Dave, dont downplay your trips into the 6's. Thats way faster than most of us will EVER go and with some of the more wild n wooly runs ive seen coming from cars in the 6-7 second range you've got my respect. Driver wise anyway, now if I could just work on your politics
I wasn't trying to downplay it, or didn't mean to anyway. Believe me, I loved every one of those passes, the good ones and the bad ones... But the difference between a 6.0 and a 4.80 is 10 times more dramatic then the difference between a 13.50 car and a 7.90 car. I'm sure there is some rules that cover it, but once you get to the 10's, every time you get a car that is a second quicker it is probably 3 or 4 times more demanding of your talents.... If I wasn't so dang old and crippled, I'd plunk down the money in a heartbeat to go to Frank Hawley's fuel school!!!! I went to his top alcohol school after a couple seasons in a 7.90 car (that went 7.30's without the throttle stop), thought it would be a cake walk, and even a bit boring. Man, first thing I learned was how much I had to learn!!! It was like learning how to drive all over again...... !!!!!!! The first few launches in an alcohol car were real eye openers!!!! I was past the 60 foot timer before I could blink!!!!! Don't really know how to explain it, but it works you so flippin' hard, mentally and physically, 4 or 5 passes in an afternoon would leave me totally exhausted. Like I said, can't even imagine the amount of conditioning and expericence it takes to be a pro Top Fuel driver......