Thursday Night Thunder
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I bid
you welcome gentle readers, and our always cordial greeting to our assigned
reader of all things NASCAR on this December morning. Your scribe hasn’t been
too much into the rush of ideas for racing seasons to come. NASCAR, one might
imagine, must be deluged with both logical and illogical thoughts on how to
make the future better and bring fans back to the tracks.
One
idea mentioned by Steve Phelps in his State of the Sport conference at
Homestead was pairing weekends with IndyCar. That idea brought about a
conversation with someone that would prefer to remain anonymous, but it didn’t
warmly embrace the IndyCar idea. Instead, we both loved the idea of pairing,
but with a very different open-wheel series… perhaps the World of Outlaws, or
any or all of the USAC Sprints, Midgets and Silver Crown cars.
Years
ago, starting in 1988, ESPN ran a series they called “Thursday Night Thunder”,
hosted by Dave Despain and narrated by Gary Lee,
Larry Rice and/or Steve Chassey. At a later point the
program migrated to Saturday nights and became “Saturday Night Thunder.” It was
speculated at the time, but never confirmed, that Ted Turner had taken
exception to folks calling it “TNT”, though it aired on ESPN. The series
presented an interesting mix of old established names such as Foyt and Bettenhausen along with youngsters named Gordon, Stewart,
Irwin, Kahne, Leffler and many more.
The
wonderful part of that is we learned to love those kids long before they even
decided to go the stock car route instead of the IndyCar option. When they each
came in turn to NASCAR, they brought along an established fan base of their own
and were welcomed with open arms. That is something that isn’t happening at
present, as we’re locked in and choked down by the Charter system that gives an
opportunity to only a chosen few. NASCAR is desperately in need of something
such as this to introduce the fans to new up and comers in their own element
and not have to be dependent on being “noticed” or signed at age 12, to one of
the “Mega Teams”, and we all know who they are.
These
cars, in any configuration, on either asphalt or dirt, are fun to watch. Fans
would once again see the kind of racing, complete with “Slide Jobs” galore,
that once made NASCAR famous. All of the cars are small and really overpowered,
producing tons of horsepower to move maybe a third of the weight of our bulky
stock cars. I just happen to have a short video of the very first Thursday
Night Thunder in 1988. By the time the show moved to Saturdays, it became more
polished but I kind of like this first effort as the broadcasters got to know
the racers and each other.
Since
the cars can perform on varied surfaces, they could do dirt pairings at
Charlotte, Texas and Las Vegas, each of whom have a dirt track on premises.
There might be others of which your scribe is not aware, but just the idea of
seeing the lightweights running in concert with the big cars is exciting to me,
and I’ll bet there are many more fans out there who see the possibilities of
really shaking up and improving the “Show” on any given weekend. This would also
free up the Xfinity and Truck series to run independently of the Cup cars…
something they desperately need to do to regain their identities.
What
say you gentle readers? Does the thought of that sort of weekend pairing sound
appealing to you? How about you NASCAR? Do you see the positive logic of
building a fan base for the up and coming young ones from the USAC series or
World of Outlaws before they come to NASCAR as unknowns? This scribe feels it
of major import to reconnect with the building blocks that got us to the top,
and this is certainly one of them.
We do
have another video, this one from a rain delay at IRP in June of 1990. The last
part is pretty much a typical rain delay, but the beginning has a wonderful
intro to and discussion with a very young Jeff Gordon. It was things such as
this that allowed us to know him long before he came to our NASCAR ranks.
Wouldn’t it make sense to try another time what worked so very well in the
1990s?
***** PLEA FOR HELP *****
A couple
of days ago, I received a request from a reader for any photos we could locate
of his grandfather, Glenn Guthrie. Glenn was a racer in the Modified and Late
Model divisions in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. His home was in Maryland, and he
raced up and down the East Coast, as far north as New England. He was 1959
Modified National Champion.
If
anyone reading this missive has any pictures of Glenn Guthrie, or knows of
websites where such pics might be found, please contact me at the email link
below. Grandson has been searching for some time, so the obvious large sites
have been pretty well scoured. It’s a huge world of racing out there, and a
monumental task to search for that needle in the haystack. The biggest problem
is that folks back then didn’t take as many pics as they do today. It was
expensive! Compounding that, most folks never bothered to label pics… they knew
who was in them, and little thought was given to the time when they would no
longer be here to tell us.
Your
scribe keeps a wonderful website dedicated to serving the race fans in any way
we can. I do that now by myself… at age 80… and have written on a weekly basis
for almost 6 years now on that site. Between my greybeard staff and me, we have
already kicked up a few from dusty corners, but would like more, so I turn to
you my gentle readers. Can you help? I thank you in advance for anything you
can send me.
That’s
enough for now. I think everyone gets the gist of the Thursday Night Thunder thing, so let’s
go right to our Classic Country Closeout as Christmas draws ever closer. This
week we’ll hear Johnny Cash doing Christmas his way. Johnny’s rendition of “I
Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” is my personal favorite. He gives that song
something no one else does.
It
stands today as a Christmas Carol, but was originally penned on Christmas Day
in 1863 out of anger and despair at the wounding of his son and death of his
wife, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It speaks of the atrocities perpetrated
brother upon brother and friend upon friend in our own war between the states.
It was set to music in 1872, and I honestly don’t know when Johnny Cash
recorded it the first time, but since hearing him sing it, no one else does it
as well. Please enjoy Johnny as he sings this old standard. (Complete words
follow… not all are ever included in the Carol version)
I heard
the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And thought
how, as the day had come
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Till
ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Then
from each black, accursed mouth,
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
It was
as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And in
despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"
Then
pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.”
Be well gentle readers, and remember to keep smiling.
It looks so good on you!
~PattyKay