Columnist Ron Kantowski: NHRA crowds just fine as they are

Tuesday, April 9, 2002 | 9 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's insider notes column appears Tuesday and his Page One column appears Thursday. He can be reached at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

As I drove past Nellis Air Force Base en route to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for Sunday's SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals about a half-hour before eliminations were to begin, traffic was virtually non-existent.

This is nice, I thought, having had to wake with the roosters last month to make it to the track on time for our annual NASCAR Winston Cup extravaganza.

Yet, inside The Strip, a near-capacity crowd of about 30,000 was on hand -- a nice-sized gathering for sure, but nothing like the masses of papal proportion which worship at the Winston Cup altar.

Tickets were reasonably priced in the $50 range for final eliminations. And every ticket was a pit pass, enabling those in the grandstand to sniff the nitro-methane from eye-watering range.

The cars looked great, the teams looked professional and the drivers were accessible and interacted with fans, rather than hunkered down in a trackside motorhome, or worse, a souvenir trailer.

In other words, the NHRA looked just like NASCAR did about 15 years ago.

One of the popular catch phrases in NASCAR and other forms of auto racing is "growing the sport." But after spending another enjoyable afternoon feeling the earth move under my feet at the dragstrip (and getting out of the parking lot before dark), if the NHRA wants to declare a moratorium on growth, that would be just fine.

It also should be noted that no member of the Sun sports staff has ever driven 300 mph.

But one Las Vegas radio source, who was privy to some of these same negotiations last year, said the Las Vegas 51s should also shoulder part of the blame for the fact their parent club's games aren't being heard here for the first time in more than 35 years.

"The point needs to be made -- the 51s have never spent money in the past five years on any other radio stations other than 920 (KBAD, which carries the 51s) to promote their product," the source told the Sun. "They never put money into the Dodgers last year, nor the Angels or Diamondbacks or A's or Yankees, when they were all on in the market. They (51s) are part of the mix to get a deal done."

The theory is that if the 51s advertised on Dodgers' broadcasts, the local stations could make them work financially.

Greg Ashlock, program director for KXTA in Los Angeles, the Dodgers' flagship station, was quoted over the weekend saying he still was hopeful of putting together a deal in Las Vegas.

"We've talked to about 20 stations," Ashlock said.

That's interesting, in that there are only nine English-speaking stations on the dial in Las Vegas.

On Saturday, as is my custom whenever I come across the original "Ocean's 11" on the satellite (it's on more channels than Tanya Memme's remote control programming instructions), I watched only until Edi with an 'I' conducts the traditional New Year's Eve countdown at the Sands, triggering a blackout on the Strip that helped Frank and Dean and Sammy and even Peter Lawford steal Las Vegas blind.

Gomez, a former Las Vegas lounge musician who now oversees the Las Vegas Men's Senior Baseball program after umpteen years in American Legion, should have been hired as a consultant for the remake of the movie, which stars George Clooney in the title role and will be released on DVD May 7.

After all, he's doing a lot better than most of the original stars.

Gomez and his wife, Raven, will celebrate his 80th birthday as well as their 44th wedding anniversary in a party at the Tap House on West Charleston Wednesday night.