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Thursday, July 12  No time to rest on road By Chuck Etchells Special to ESPN.com Next week, we start a particularly tough little stretch of races we know as the "West Coast Swing." Over the course of three weeks, we will be racing in Denver, Seattle and Sonoma, Calif., which is in the wine country just north of San Francisco. Although each race will be held in a beautiful part of the country, we're going to have little time to stop and admire the scenery. This is where they separate the men from the boys in drag racing, and although neither Jim nor I am in the championship chase, these last eleven races are crucial towards the future of our race team. Therefore, it is very important that we kick things off with a strong run at Mile High Nationals in Denver next weekend. I know there are probably several of you out there who are NASCAR fans wondering what is so tough about three races in three weeks. After all, the stock car boys do it all the time, right? Well, not to belittle the stock car boys, but it's like comparing apples to oranges. Allow me to explain. First, we'll start with a simple body count. At present, we have 10 guys working on our two cars, not including our crew chiefs. If you include Terry, Larry and Roland, we have a grand total of 13 people for both cars. Ideally, we'd like to have two, maybe three more, but that's it. On one pit stop on an oval track, you'll see seven crew members go over the wall just to change tires and put gas in one stock car. In addition, we have no one back at the shop getting things ready, no "weekend warriors" who fly in on race day as they do. Next, let's check the equipment inventory. Modern NASCAR teams have two race transporters, with many having a third just for testing. When back-to-back races are too far apart, one rig will leave the shop before the other one gets back from the last race. They are able to do that because they have a fleet of cars, with some, such as the road course or "concrete" cars, only racing once or twice a year. As you might have guessed, with the exception of my buddy John Force, drag racers have one transporter per team, inside of which is our primary car and a backup, which is only used in case of an emergency. That's right -- if possible, we will use the same chassis on every run at every race for an entire season, and if it's a good car, maybe even longer. Of course, both series have to worry about body damage, although ours comes less from hitting things and more from blower explosions, etc. Instead of fabricating new sheet metal as our stock car brethren do, we must repair our carbon fiber body -- a long and time consuming task. Once again, notice I said "body" and not "bodies" -- for the most part teams have one "A" body with the latest aerodynamic improvements, with an older, heavier backup used in extreme cases. Now let's compare the at-track routine. A stock car arrives mostly ready for competition, and once practice begins, adjustments are made to improve its performance, ranging from simple adjustments to replacing engines and rear ends (in component form). If the driver has an accident, either repairs or made or the back-up is rolled out. It's a beehive of activity and a lot of hard work. However, as a rule, NASCAR closes the garage area to the teams in the early evening. In drag racing, there are no practice runs. We get four chances down the track on the clock, that's it. Between sessions, the car's drivetrain is completely disassembled and rebuilt, with a preliminary assembly done before we warm-up and seat the clutch, after which the engine is buttoned up for competition. Should we have any problems, from explosions to fires, the car must be repaired, with our pit area open 24 hours should we need it. For example, last year we blew a tire on our last qualifying attempt, which destroyed the body and kinked the chassis -- our crew stayed until 4 in the morning to switch the electronics and running gear over to the back-up chassis so we could be ready to race Sunday. Best of all, the fans can watch it all happen right in front of them, due to the NHRA's open pit policy. The bottom line is teams work extremely hard in both series to get the job done. It is simply the nature of our sport that we perform more of our work on the road with less people, making consecutive weekend races a real back-breaker. Chuck Etchells, driver and owner the Sunoco/Matco Tools Camaro Z28 Funny Car, provides a diary to ESPN.com throughout the NHRA season.  Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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