This week’s episode features something that countless racing enthusiasts wore this Richard Petty Driving Expirence suit to race in real race cars on real tracks.
Tag: nhra
Introduction to Sports Memorabilia-Bobby Labonte Replica Suit
A replica Bobby Labonte suit from his days with Ask.com in 2009, which has been made by Simpson
Introduction to Sports Memorabilia-Tom Johansen Firesuit
Pit crew member Tom Johansen was involved with this prototype suit from 2006.
Introduction to Sports Memorabilia-Race-Used Equipment
A collection of NASCAR, and NHRA race used equipment, including parts and sheet metal.
Introduction to Sports Memorabilia-Racing Figurines
A collection of NASCAR, and NHRA Starting Lineup figures from the late 1990’s.
Introduction to Sports Memorabilia-Racing Mini Helmets
A collection of NASCAR,IndyCar and NHRA mini helmets from across the years
Introduction to Sports Memorabilia-NASCAR Die Cast Episode 2
For the 12 season premier, we will look at my collection of Nationwide, Camping World Truck, IndyCar and NHRA die casts
A Day At The Races
By David G. Firestone
Every summer, I make a pilgrimage to two places, Jim’s Original and The O’Reilly Auto Parts Route 66 Nationals at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet. This last week, I did both. Jim’s Original is still good, and the Route 66 Nationals are always fun.
This year, I went on Saturday and Sunday. Normally I would only go on Saturday, but this year I decided to double the fun. I went with Argie, a friend from work, and I spent Saturday watching racing and wandering through the pits. NHRA tickets promise that “every ticket is a pit pass” and trust me, they more than live up to that claim. 
You can walk around the pits and watch as the teams setup cars before races and fix cars after races. The wear and tear on nitro cars is such that the entire engine has to be disassembled, repaired, and reassembled between races, sometimes in as little as 45 minutes. Needless to say, speed is paramount.
I had been fortunate enough to get a pass to the Don Schumacher Racing hospitality tent. This not only got me the tickets, but also a chance to meet Tony Schumacher, and Ron Capps. I came into the tent a little later than normal, and I got to listen Tony talk to the crowd, and take questions. I got a chance to ask him something that I have always wanted to ask a driver… “What is the weirdest thing you have ever autographed?” Having done autograph signings since I was 5, I’ve seen a lot of odd stuff get autographed over the years, and I was interested in the answer. He responded that he has signed a lot of body parts, arms, legs, etc, and that his wife hates that.
A few minutes later, he mentioned that he wears a 5-layer firesuit, as well as two additional layers of fire protection. That adds up to a total of 7 layers. Most NASCAR suits make up 3 layers, with an additional layer underneath. Nomex is not a lightweight material, and on days like Saturday, when it was 88 degrees outside, that can get very uncomfortable. He is also credited with the aforementioned canopy to Top Fuel dragsters.
One thing I love to do is to buy race-used equipment from dragsters, and I did so this year as well. I bought a couple of valves from Tasca Racing, one large,
and one small,
Both show tremendous use, and have chips missing from them. Valves like these are used for one race and then replaced. The wear they go through for one run is very evident. 
The other race used piece of equipment is a gasket from Morgan-Lucas Racing. It shows a huge amount of wear, and is a very heavy, thick and durable gasket.
It just wouldn’t be a race for me without getting some autographs. I bought a Ron Capps funny car die cast, and had his sign it in person, and it looks really good.
I had a pair of gloves I wanted to get signed, and I did, by Tommy Johnson Jr.
My favorite item it this brightly painted helmet. 
It was signed by Robby Gordon when I bought it
, and I got it signed by Clay Millian,
Terry McMillen, 
Tony Schmacher, Tommy Johnson Jr.,
Ron Capps,
and the legendary Shirley Muldowney.
One thing I didn’t do as much this year was take pictures. I did take some, but not as many as last year. I did make a number of videos, as shown below.
That’s all for this week, I’ll return next week with a set of paint scheme reviews, and believe me, there are a lot of them! Hope you are all having a fun summer! Happy Belated Canada Day for our friends up North, Happy Fourth of July to my readers in the USA, and to everyone else, See you soon!
Showing Some Love for the NHRA!
By David G. Firestone
While the bulk of The Driver Suit Blog is devoted to NASCAR, which, admittedly is my favorite form of auto racing, I do follow other forms of racing, and collect items from many different forms of racing. I am a fan of NHRA drag racing, and I attend races when I can. I have a decent collection of NHRA memorabilia, so this week, I’m gonna show some love for drag racing.
First, let’s get some factual history out of the way. Founded in 1951 by Wally Parks, the National Hot Rod Association or NHRA was created to act as a governing body for the sport of drag racing. Parks had previously founded Motor Trend and Hot Rod magazines, and was a racing enthusiast . The NHRA has 80,000 members, 95% of which are non-professional drivers. While there are hundreds of drag racing classes, The three most popular and well-known are top fuel, funny cars and pro stocks.
Top fuel dragsters are 25 feet long, have the engine mounted behind the driver to provide weight to the rear tires, which are 36 inches high by 17 inches wide. They run on a 90/10 fuel mix, 90% nitromethane and 10% methanol.
Funny cars are designed with a frame, engine, suspension and cockpit with a fiberglass body that raises up to allow access to the car. The name “funny car” came to be because the early models in the 1960’s had the rear wheel base moved forward, and huge rear tires. They didn’t look “stock” so they were called “funny.”
Pro stocks are an interesting design. Whereas top fuel and funny cars use nitro burning supercharged V8’s, by rule, pro stocks can’t use superchargers, turbochargers, or nitrous oxide. They also run on 118 octane racing fuel. Little consideration is given aerodynamically, and the cars can be hard to handle.
In regards to race-used equipment, I have this timing belt from Bob Tasca’s Motorcraft Funny car, this one used in his first qualifying session at the Ford Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol Tennessee. This run he had a 4.15 second, 306 MPH run. This thing is HUGE, measuring over 64 inches in circumference and 3 inches across.
As well as an ignition coil and a spark plug from Morgan Lucas Racing. Ignition coils are used to turn on cars in general, but this MSD 8142 is designed to fire up these 8000 horsepower engines, which need a lot of electricity to start and operate. I was fortunate enough to have Tony Schumacher and Ron Capps autograph it in person.
One thing I wanted was a race-used piston. I recently got one, but it is in two different pieces. The piston rod itself was used and autographed by top fuel driver Bob Vandergriff, and the piston head was used and autographed by Brandon Bernstein, son of drag racing legend Kenny Bernstein. The piston head is 3 inches in diameter, and the piston rod is almost a foot long!
One of the more oddball items I have is this 1987 Budweiser/NHRA driver suit. Here is what I can say definitively about this suit: It was made in 1987, shows a lot of use, is not safety certified, and shows the Simpson open-wheel tag. Other than that, I don’t know much about this suit and I’m still working on it.
Now we move on to die-casts. In my die cast article, I mentioned that I have a 1:32 Cruz Pedregon 1998 die cast from his days with Joe Gibbs Racing.
During my recent vacation, I found myself at a baseball card store. I bought a bunch of NASCAR die casts, as well as a Darrell Alderman 1:24 pro stock from 1997, where the doors open, and the hood comes off.
Also from 1997, this Tony Pedregon 1:24 funny car die cast, with a body that is removable
My personal favorite die cast is this Bob Vandergriff 1:24 top fuel die cast.
Now we move from NHRA to NASCAR with…
PAINT SCHEME REVIEWS
Jamie McMurray #1 Cessna Chevy SS Not the worst patriotic scheme I have seen, but it it a bit overdone. Giving it a C+
Kevin Harvick #4 Hunt Brothers Pizza Chevy SS It’s a bit overdesigned, but the green looks good(I hate most shades of green used in NASCAR) and it earns a C
Danica Patrick # 10 GoDaddy Chevy SS I didn’t think this was possible, but they took one of the ugliest schemes in racing and found a way to make it worse…the hood speaks for itself, and it says “I’m getting an F-!”
Greg Biffle 3M Window Film Ford Fusion What in the blue Hell is going on here? This is the worst Greg Biffle scheme I have seen this year and considering how bad his schemes have been that is saying a lot. F-
Travis Kvapil #32 Keen Parts Ford Fusion Awful color scheme, and the goofy pyscadelic side design just looks awful. I’m also laughing at corvetteparts.net painted on the side of a FORD! F-
David Ragan #34 KFC Ford Fusion Great color choice, smooth look, great all around design, I will give them an A+
Landon Cassill #40 Atlantic Plumbing and Utilities Chevy SS Good color scheme, and the simple yet attractive design works well. A
Kurt Busch #41 Haas Made in America Chevy SS When it comes to patriotic schemes, it is hit or miss, and this is a hit. The stars and stripes look good, and the overall design is solid enough to earn an A.
Josh Wise #98 DogeCoin Ford Fusion Such colors! Very design! So good! A+
Before I go I need to cover an update to a story I discussed last week. I had discussed Swan Racing going under due to lack of sponsorship. I did not get a chance to discuss that Swan Racing has gone under, but the two cars, #26 and #30 have found new homes. BK Racing is now the new home for the #26, and XXXtreme Motorsports is home for the #30, though it will change to #44, and keep the current owner points. It is always sad when a team has to close, but at least the equipment did not go to waste. Sadly, Parker Kligerman is now out of a ride for the foreseeable future.
Die Casts-Celebrating the Machines
By David G. Firestone
How I have gone as long as I have without delving into the subject of die casts? I really don’t know, but for this week’s column, we are going to discuss it. Racing as a sport is half man, half machine. When it comes to collectibles, they both get virtually equal billing. One of the biggest collectibles in racing is the legendary die cast car.
Die cast cars began as an industry in the early 20th Century, but the early cars were very basic, with a simple body design and rolling wheels. They were of very poor quality, lacked detail, and often broke for no apparent reason. An zinc-based alloy named Zamak solved this problem. In 1953 Jack Odell, co-owner of Lesney Products in England had a moment that revolutionized the industry forever. His daughter went to a school that allowed the students to bring toys, provided they were small enough to fit in a matchbox. He created a small die cast steam roller that could easily fit in a matchbox. For the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, he created a similarly sized model of her Coronation coach. After selling 1 million of these small coaches, he realized he was on to something, and thus the Matchbox line of die cast cars was born. In 1968 Mattel launched the Hot Wheels brand, which, like Matchbox created cars in 1:64 scale, or S-Scale for railroading. In 1997 after being sold numerous times, Mattel bought Matchbox and has been fostering the brand ever since.
Race cars are a popular version of die casts, as most boys who love racing will buy the die cast of their favorite driver, and play with it as if they are driving the car. I’m guilty of this, as I’m willing to bet the majority of racing fans are, if you don’t believe, check this out. In the beginning, die casts were marketed and sold to kids, but as time went on, it became clear that grown up fans liked these as well. So die cast manufacturers began to create larger “adult collectibles,” typically in either 1:18 scale, or 1:24 scale, or one of the accepted G scales. The adult die casts will feature alcohol and tobacco sponsors, and are much more accurate in design, with cloth window nets, and working hoods, decklids, and roof spoilers. As time progressed, these cars gained a very dedicated following, and have become very profitable for NASCAR, IndyCar and F1. Interesting to note that the standard size for NHRA and NASCAR die casts is 1:24 and 1:64 whereas IndyCar uses 1:18 and 1:64 and F1 use 1:18 and 1:43. NASCAR die casts can also be purchased in 1:43, 1:32, and 1:18, here is how they compare to each other:
An adult collectible die cast as mentioned above, is very accurate, such as this Jamie McMurray example from 2010. The amount of accuracy in this design is stunning! 
The window net is made of cloth,
the contingency decals are all accurate
the roof features a place for the in car cameras, as well was a pair of functioning roof spoilers.
The hood opens to display a very accurately recreated engine.
Whereas this Dale Earnhardt Jr. die cast, this one a children’s toy has a plastic window net,
the contingency decals aren’t as accurate,
the roof does not feature working roof spoilers, or an in-car camera pod,
and the hood doesn’t open.
If we look at an IndyCar die cast, we see some different things. This example is an Alex Barron example from 1998, purchased because I have the matching driver suit. This particular die cast is a 1:18 scale, and features a working suspension that when you move the wheels move the steering wheel. Everything else about the car, including the helmet and driver suit are perfect as compared to the real car.
Everything that I just said about the Jamie McMurray die cast can also apply to this Dale Earnhardt IROC model. Again the accuracy in this design is amazing!
One of my personal favorie die casts is this Cruz Pedregon 1:32 die cast from 1998. The body can be removed from the rest of the car to reveal details of the car. Haulers, which are used to transport cars to and from races, but they aren’t made as much today as they used to, sadly. This example is a Ricky Rudd example from the early 1990’s.
Now we move from replica cars to the real ones as we get to…
PAINT SCHEME REVIEWS
Brad Keselowski #2 Alliance Truck Parts Ford Fusion Very solid design, the yellow works very well, and the black numbers and stripes work very well, and I can’t give it anything less than an A+
Brad Keselowski #2 Wurth Ford Fusion Another very solid design with a great color scheme that earns an A+
Dave Blaney #77 Plinker Arms Ford Fusion I would love for the side design to be more simplified. It is a decent scheme, but the door design is too busy, and it is very distracting. I give this scheme a C-, bad design, good color scheme.
Ryan Truex #83 Borla Exhaust Toyota Camry This is actually a great scheme, with the oversized exhaust design that starts on the area where the real exhaust starts, and extends to just under the numbers. The number has been redesigned since last year and they work very well. I give this scheme an A.
In Memorandum 2013 Continued.
Andy Granatelli-Former CEO of STP, partially responsible for STP’s sponsorship of Richard Petty.
Bruce Pepper-Brother of ThorSport Racing GM David Pepper.
Dennis Wood-Former owner of Phoenix International Speedway
Now comes the best news of the new year so far…THE ROLEX 24 AT DAYTONA STARTS LATER TODAY! The TUDOR United SportsCar Championship starts off the racing season later today. Fox will carry the first part of the race starting at 2PM/1PM CST, and Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2 will carry the race as well. You had better believe I will be watching and enjoying it.
The Driver Suit Blog 