By Robin Smith Meiser
 The morning of April 21 was one of those days you move to Florida for, at least I think so as I am a native and have always lived here. The temperature was in the mid-60s; the sky was clear and blue. What a day to spend at the races!!! Before this day was over I would put over 450 miles on my car and cover two nationally sanctioned motorsports events. As I said all week prior to this day "I am pulling a Tony Stewart." He became my favorite NASCAR driver after his Memorial Day Weekend double header a couple of seasons ago when he drove in both the Indy 500 and the Charlotte Coca Cola 600 on the same day.
I call my attempt to cover two events on the same day "The Gator Tour" as I started the day driving to Gainesville for the rain day make up of the NHRA Mac Tools Gatornationals and ended it in Lakeland. KARNAC photographer, Max Miller, and I pulled into USA International Speedway just in time for driver's introductions for the Discount Auto Parts 200 for the NASCAR Gatorade All Pro Series. Get it, Gatornationals and Gatorade?? A race fans dream day, if there ever was one.
 Gator National short clip.
We arrived at Gainesville Raceway at High Noon, just as the last Top Fuel dragsters made their first round of qualifying for the day. The vibrations from the monstrous engines made car alarms go off all over the parking lot and the ground rumbled underneath your feet. There is no more powerful sound than this except for maybe the first green flag lap of the Daytona 500 as 42 stock cars whiz by at close to 200 miles per hour.
On my first trip to the Gatornationals my quest was to meet John Force and he was the first driver I saw that day. My quest for this day was to meet my other drag racing idol, Kenny Bernstein. Again, fate smiled on me, as he was the first driver I had the opportunity to interact with on April 21. I was surprised to find he is built like NASCAR's Mark Martin, somehow I pictured him as a giant. The next driver I saw sitting on her drag bike was Angelle Savoie, the current champion in the NHRA Winston Pro Stock Bike division, only the second female to win an NHRA championship. Before my trip through the pits was completed, John Force drove by on a golf cart and drag biker Antron Brown was walking around with a part in his hands, trying to find a replacement.
We sat and watched the semi finals for all the divisions and the Funny Car division finalists ended up being eight time winner John Force and Dean Skuza, the definite under dog who received lane choice due to a faster qualifying time. I had quite a discussion with a devout drag racing fans about the Force-Skuza pairing that I will come back to. The final round participants for the Top Fuel dragsters were Doug Kalitta and Larry Dixon. The eventual 2001 Mac Tools Gatornational champions were John Force and Larry Dixon.
My friend, Al Peters, who took the 1987 NHRA Gatornationals Stock Championship, the same year John Force won his first Funny Car title, made it to the semi-finals of his division. In the Stock division, the drivers participate in bracket racing (AKA handicap racing). This means that the driver chooses their anticipated elapsed time and the driver must "dial-under" these times or they are subject to disqualification due to a "break out". In Al's case he did "break out" in the quarterfinal round but the driver he competed against, Marion Stephenson, who "broke out" worse than Peters "dial" so Stephenson was eliminated (oh boy, I sure I hope I said that one right!!!). Unfortunately, Peters, lost his semi-final round but went home a very happy 58 year old. Actually, he and wife, Rosemary, didn't go home but went on to next week's event at Bristol, Tennessee.
We left Gainesville Raceway at 4:30 p.m. just as John Smith made a Dave Schultz Memorial run in tribute to drag racing's fallen hero and 2000 Gatornational Pro Bike champion who recently passed away from colon cancer. The fans went wild and were honored to have Schultz's widow, Meredith, at this year's event.
We arrived at USA International at 7:15 p.m., ran into the office to get our armbands and found seats just before the green flag dropped on the 200 lap NASCAR Gatorade All-Pro series race. The sound of the 36 race engines as they came around the backstretch for the first time under green, drove all thoughts of drag racing out of my head. After the caution flew for the first time, we raced around to the front stretch for a better view of the race.
All Pro Drivers at USA International.
For the most part, it was a two-man race between hot shoes, Wayne Anderson and 2000 All Pro series champion and current points leader Billy Bigley, Jr. Anderson dominated the first half of the race but Bigley finally wore him down and passed him for the lead. Anderson was content to ride in second for quite few laps but as the laps wound down, he used lapped traffic to regain the lead and the victory. My fellow writer, Thom Watson, will tell you all about this race and I will tell you more about Bigley but that is a story for another day.
I thoroughly enjoyed my day at the races but my friend T.C. Collins who I sat with at Gatornationals said that next year, I need to have a plane standing by to fly Max and I to Talladega in time to cover the Winston Cup race for the ultimate weekend at the races. Too bad I hate to fly!!!
As I said earlier, I met a drag racing fan (never did get his name though) that had never attended a NASCAR event. Being a stock car racing fan that never attended an NHRA event before led us to a very interesting discussion on the pros and cons of our favorite sports. He asked whom I wanted to win in the Funny Car finals, Force or Skuza? I said John Force, as he was my favorite drag racer. Anyway, the drag racing fan says "So you would rather see someone who has already won this title eight times win again instead of someone who has never won it before?"
What he said made a lot of sense to me since there is nothing more I love to see than a new winner, such as Bobby Hamilton in today's Talladega Winston Cup race. We then discussed how boring any kind of racing can get when one driver dominates any series or any sport. So when you look down deep these two forms of motorsports share many similarities, as well as their differences.
When I was in college, we had to do what is called a compare/contrast essay. This form of writing is used to compare or classify the subject of the essay. I did mine on the different divisions of stock cars there were. Were I to do it today, I might do it on the subject of stock car racing versus drag racing but since I don't have to worry about that anymore I will just leave you with my Top Ten list of comparison/contrast for these two exciting forms of motor sports.
1. Drag racers enter their cars through the door, like you do in your passenger cars. Stock car drivers enter through the window. 2. Drag racing fans are mourning the loss this year of their fallen hero, Dave Schultz and honoring him at each of their race events. Stock car racing fans are doing the same thing for Dale Earnhardt, Sr. Both drivers wives, Meredith Schultz and Teresa Earnhardt, continue their involvement in their husband's racing interests. 3. NHRA drag racing has had two women champions, Shirley Muldowney and Angelle Savoie. NASCAR stock car racing has not even had a woman win a major race. 4. There were more men at the Gatornationals than women, by a long shot. At the NASCAR All Pro race, the stands had a much more equitable division of men versus women. 5. There were more motorcycles at the Gatornationals and more pick up trucks at the NASCAR All-Pro race. 6. The programs at the Gatornationals were very professional and filled with important information on the drivers, the divisions, and the rules. I couldn't even find a program at the All Pro race so I didn't even know the drivers names for the most part. 7. A 20-ounce bottle of water at the Gatornationals cost $2.50. The exact same bottle at USA International Speedway was $1.50. This was the case on almost all food items. 8. There were alot of NASCAR driver shirts at the Gatornationals. The only NHRA shirt I saw at the All-Pro race was on our photographer, Max Miller. 9. The alcohol and nitro fueled dragsters burned your throat and made it almost impossible to breathe. The race fuel in the stock cars, tickled your throat and the smells were more recognizable. You can smell when someone is losing their brakes or rear end on a stock car. 10. Earplugs were a necessity for the Top Fuel and Funny Car dragsters as the power emitted by these monsters of horsepower is one of the most deafening sounds I have ever heard. At the All-Pro race, I wore my earplugs because of the wind whipping through my ears from the constant movement of the stock cars.
More to follow.
-Robin Smith Meiser
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