There was the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame Banquet, where we inducted Kenny Bernstein, Frank Bradley, Ted Jones, Jim McLennan, Dale Pulde, Don Schumacher, Dave Uyehara, Dave Zeuschel and Darrell Zimmerman (with Bill Bader receiving the Founder’s Award). The Banquet was a huge success—it was a sellout, with all tables and seats sold in advance. There were a lot of really good induction speeches. I loved Schumacher’s and Kenny’s remarks—they were real good. Of course, they’ve been talking on TV a long time, so they do know how to talk! There were some good guys that were in the Hall of Fame’s 2007 class. Donnie Hampton is an old dear friend, and I was so glad to see him get in, and I was also glad to see Dave Uyehara get in, too. Those guys are personal friends, not just guys that I’ve raced against and pitted next to over the years.

We’re already thinking about next year’s Hall of Fame Banquet. We’ve got to find a bigger hall for it, because we’re out of space in the one that we used this year.

Of course, the Gatornationals themselves were just outstanding. Gainesville Raceway said that on Saturday, they had the biggest one-day crowd on the grounds ever, not just in the history of NHRA’s national events, but in the history of drag racing as a sport. The facility is just huge, they have room to get even bigger, and they’ve got a lot more improvements and upgrades in the works. If it grows any bigger, it might just bump up against the Walt Disney World resorts!

There’s no other way to say it: NHRA President Tom Compton is doing a great job.

All those race fans at Gainesville saw a lot—they saw Greg Anderson make the first run over 210 mph in a Pro Stock car on Saturday, running in the 6.50s. My wife, Pat and I commented that it doesn’t seem that long ago that a 6.50 was a real good Top Fuel time!

On Sunday, I was up in the skybox, about 300 feet out. I saw the Top Fuel Final, where Tony Schumacher beat Larry Dixon for his 36th career win, passing me on the all-time NHRA win list in the process. Dixon had a wheel on him, but Tony drove around him for the win, even though he blew up his engine while making that 4.54-second pass.

I’m just hearing how great the March Meet was this year, and I’m really happy that it was. Some friends of mine went out there, and they saw how well the front-engined Top Fuel cars were running—6.13 was the bump spot in qualifying, 5.76 was Low ET, and there were a lot of runs quicker than six seconds all weekend. After last year, when they got all that rain near Bakersfield, they had to repave the track after all that water came up through it. They also had huge crowds all weekend, especially on Saturday.

Meanwhile, back in the shop, we just acquired the “Golden Gator”.  It’s a DTA (Dragster-Turbocharged-Alcohol)  dragster that won the 1977 NHRA Division 2 Championships by Chase Knight, and it’s powered by a 426 Hemi with a 6-71 supercharger AND two turbochargers blowing into the Hilborn injector. You cannot believe how complicated that induction setup is, and it’s just what the people like. They want to see the stuff that’s different. It was so fast that NHRA had to factor it out. It had been hanging in a restaurant in Texas for years. The restaurant went out of business, and when we found out about it, we bought it. We’re cleaning it up right now, getting it ready for display, and it should be in the Museum for you to look at by the time this column hits the streets.