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Wednesday, February 14
Time to sell the sport
By Chuck Etchells
Special to ESPN.com
This is an exciting time of year to be a race fan. Whether you follow the
NHRA's Winston Drag Racing Series or NASCAR, the seasons are just getting
underway. There are new paint schemes, new team and driver combinations, and
everyone's a contender.
But from the race team's viewpoint, there's probably more pressure now than
at any other point in the season. First, you have to scramble to make sure
everything is ready in time, from the race car to the transporter to crew
uniforms.
|  | | Etchells reached the Funny Car semifinals at the season-opening Winternationals. |
Then you want to set the tone for the year by having a good run.
You don't want to start playing catch-up right out of the box. So, in a way,
our first race is one of the biggest of the year. It makes for some long
days and frazzled nerves.
Our Chuck Etchells Racing Team is a pretty good example of this. With all the
changes since last season, our winter was pretty hectic. We're expanding to
two cars, so we had to find a lot of crew guys, buy the necessary equipment,
and then put it all together and see how it worked. It's been a long haul,
and we're far from done.
We had mixed results at our debut in Pomona ten days ago. Although we were
thrilled to get the Kendall/Matco Camaro to the semifinals, our excitement
was somewhat tempered by the fact that our teammate Jim Epler and the Racing
Champions/Matco Tools Camaro had to watch from the sidelines.
The fact is we know we have a lot of work to do, and I know Terry Manzer, Larry Meyer and
the whole crew have put in some long hours getting things ready for this
weekend's race in Phoenix. Hopefully, their efforts will pay off.
One question that was answered pretty quickly was how I would feel getting
back behind the wheel after a year and a half. To be honest, I feel more
comfortable now than I ever did. I think it's a combination of my working to
get back into shape during the winter and the Terry Manzer hot rod I'm
driving. Either way, I'm looking forward to the rest of the season.
I'm also happy to have Jim Epler as my teammate. Jim and I have been friends
for years, and I've always seen him as one of the hardest working guys in the
pit area. Our goal for this season is to be one team running two cars.
Our Camaros will be set up identically, with each having the same opportunity to
win. Hopefully, next week's column will tell you how well we both did at
Firebird Raceway!
In closing, I believe 2001 is a crucial year for the sport of NHRA Winston
Drag Racing. With the start of our five-year ESPN television package, our
fans will no longer have to channel surf to catch our races, with every event
covered on a same-day basis throughout the weekend on either ESPN or ESPN2.
What we as competitors have to do is make sure we continue to put on as good
a show as we can, bringing the excitement and passion of racing down the
quarter-mile in under five seconds at over 300 mph right into your living
rooms. It is important to our future that we introduce ourselves to a lot of
new fans.
Of course, it's always better in person, where after standing at the edge of
our pits watching us get ready to race you can go sit in the stands, smell
the nitro and feel the ground shake each time we go down the track. So once
you get a taste for it on TV, come out and watch us in person -- you won't be
disappointed.
Chuck Etchells, driver and owner the Kendall Oil/Matco Tools Camaro Z28 Funny Car, will provide a diary to ESPN.com throughout the NHRA season.
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