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At age 61 John can still get it done!!! Today at Infinion he qualified #1 in Funny Car for the 139th time in his career, he had been tied with Warren Johnson at 138 for awhile but reset the record today!!! What a career he's having with 15 Funny Car Championships and now 139 events qualifying #1!!!!
thats my man!
Always a cool head
He is definitely the man!Won't be the same when he retires.
Dave how fast did he go??.
4.060 @ 311 and change---Friday night qualifying, today in final round in the heat the top dogs were running 4.1's and slower. Think John was like a 4.15 or something in there.Quote:
Originally Posted by 1gary
That is at a 1,000 ft mark too I would think.If you think where we started yrs ago that is just amazing.Keeps me thinking what's next and those guys keep coming up with more and more.Big Daddy Don has got to look at this in aw.Might be gravity suits needed soon like the fighter jet pilots.The gg's have got to be close.
Eliminations should be great today, would love to be there!!!! Think they're on ESPN 2 at 10PM Eastern tonight. Shumacher is 1st in the diggers, Erica is qualified right behind Edwards, and the Ford is getting faster in Pro Stock!!!!
NASCAR is at Indy, great weekend for racing! Oh yeah, a final observation, Smoke won a World of Outlaws sprint car race up in Canada I think Thursday night....guess he can still do it in the dirt, too!
I admire force as a great driver... and as a sponsor magnet, which resulted in his ability to hire anyone he wanted, and buy as many cars and parts as he wants. I have always credited his overall success to Austin Coil, who put the race cars under him! Without that building, research, and tuning talent, he would be just another face in the crowd.
...but I am a huge fan of Garlits! No surprise he was voted the #1 most influencial guy in the sport. He may not hold some of the all-time records that others do, but he designed, built, towed, maintained, tuned, and drove the cars... won under several sanctioning bodies, even including one he started! He changed the overall design of Top Fuel cars forever... and set up a great museum for the sport! No reason for him to be in awe of anyone else. Force isn't even close. Sorry.
I could not have said it better.Quote:
Originally Posted by HOTRODPAINT
Oh mannnnnnnnnnnnnnn.:CRY:What I said was since Don's forced retirement,he now has to be in aw of the speeds and ET's.Now both have brought to the sport tons.And trust the fact I am not a big fan of Force's enlarged ego.;)
Comparing Garlits to Force is probably not a fair comparison... Garlits was there in the beginning when there was room for innovation and new designs... Now there's very little room for anything new and innovative, the rules are too tight and the inspections to thorough... Granted Don was an innovator but that was in the days when innovation was allowed.
Force is an organizer, knows who to hire and lets them do their job. I can't even imagine the intensity required to run 4 Funny car teams plus a Top Alcohol Team. John also has a museum and his innovations are in the area of safety more then anything, his crew chiefs and wrenches do the go fast stuff.
Comparing Garlits to Force is comparing apples to oranges, Garlits was there at the beginning, Force came along later when Funny Car racing was already going strong. In his time, Garlits was definitely the best, but for currently active drivers Force gets the nod---his racing record speaks for itself.
I don't understand the "ego" thing about John. At an event, he's the first one to the ropes to sign autographs, always has time for the reporters, and doesn't give a rip about politically correct, he says what's on his mind!!! (Though non of us will ever understand how John's mind works!!!!!) John didn't start out a rich man, nobody gave him 4 race teams, and the big $$$$$ sponsors didn't wait at his door to hand him the millions it takes to stay at the top of the game as long as he has.... He's worked his tail off for everything he has and his record speaks volumes about his abilities... Those 15 championships were earned competing against other teams that were equally as well funded as Force Racing. The more races you win, the more money you have, the more money you have, the more races you win. Or in plain language, success breeds success......
Subjectively, Garlits will always be the favorite. Though personally I'd say guys like Prudhomme, Schumacher, McEwen, Sox and Martin, and many others also had a lot of influence on drag racing as we know it today.... Objectively, doubt anyone will eclipse some of the records Force has set....
Dave I have had the good luck to meet and get to know in my life time,Connie,Scott,Eddie Hill,Eddie's wife,Oddy,Shirley,all self made people.None have had the vibrato that Force spews everytime he opens his mouth.My opinion.The other people in fact where surprising modest and Eddie and his wife has a Texas warmth that is hard to beat.
I don't think you can compare the two either. I do how ever like them both but Don Garlitts will always be my favorite.
Don really helped safety along in the sport, and helped to shape it all around.
John is amazing though and you have to give him credit for what he's done in the sport.
Like Ali who liked to bragg, I have no problem with it if they can back it up.
It's the guys that come out and talk smack then can't back it up that I don't care much for.
Especially when they try to make up excusses why they lost.
Kurt
Time frames are different---like comparing George Washington and Abe Lincoln(certainly not Abe and O'Bama((who keeps referencing Lincoln))
We competed against Garlits and as much as we were known amoung the racers for innovation, Garlits was always raising the bar (and generally he was 2-3000 miles from home) while we were right there in California where we had access to all the manufactures and builders( we were a budjet team of two airline employees transplanted from Illinois) No big sponserships back in those days
Back then it wasn't the number of NATIONAL events you won , because there was just ONE NATIONAL, Indy---They have more national events in one year now than I probably competed in!!!!
The country was pretty devided back then---west coast against the rest of the country--we were told that we'd find it pretty hard to compete against those guys but we did and grudgingly were accepted with time-----