 Thanks
to the National Hot Rod Assn (NHRA), I was able to
interview a couple of racers at the recent NHRA Tour
Stop just outside of St Louis in Mid-June. The premise
of this visit to the races was to build a relationship
between the drivers, and hopefully NHRA as a sanctioning
body, and the Blues. Many of the drivers and crew
are from the Delta. Some lost homes and businesses
in the hurricanes of ’05 and so they can appreciate
the blues first hand. Sadly none of these were available
for interview on record. Many quickly expressed their
fondness for the delta and its music including Zydeco.
I
was able to meet with the actual POINTS
LEADER of the Nitro burning Funny Car Division,
Ron Capps. Capps, from California, is a fan of good
music. He likes hard rock but also the BB King,
Eric Clapton Blues. We talked about how NASCAR has
“adopted” country as its musical theme
and Ron was warm to the suggestion of the Blues
becoming the Music of NHRA.
 I
am building a base, hopefully, to promote this idea
further and so I will be contacting the offices
of NHRA in Compton, CA, to see if they have any
interest in perusing this.
For
those of you who aren’t familiar with Pro
Drag Racing it is a multi-million dollar sport with
sponsors familiar to us all including our local
friends at AB Brewery who now have the longest sponsor
relationship in all of motor sports with Kenny Bernstein
(longer than STP and Richard Petty in NASCAR). So
the potential is there to do something to promote
the music and the sport. Hopefully I will have more
to report later. Here’s a shot of Ron Capps
and his Funny Car.
Later
- Gator
Gator@stlblues.net
|
