20 Questions With Dave Moody- writer, Thunder Road track announcer, MRN radio Announcer.

1. How long have you been involved in motorsports?

I started as a fan at age five. Since then I've been a crewmember, second-rate driver, writer, announcer, and radio broadcaster.

2. What is your earliest memory in motorsports.

My uncle, Doug MacDonald, used to drive from Rumney, NH to Thunder Road to the races. When I was five years old, he dragged me along. I can still recall the feeling of being able to hear (but not see) those cars from the ticket booth. I was captivated before I ever laid eyes on them. When the racing started, I picked Larry Granger's black #GT-1 Chevy as "my car," probably because it was the prettiest car out there. He won the Triple Crown that afternoon, and I was hooked for life.

3.Do you see motorsports gaining in popularity or will it start to decline as people get bored with it?

It will continue to grow, though quicker at the top than at the grassroots level. The advent of Saturday night televised races on the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit will make it more and more difficult for short tracks to attract fans. Sloppy, overpriced shows are going to have a tough time cutting it. Smart promoters, though, will survive, since a good live race beats a great TV race every time.

4. What is the best race you have ever seen live?

I can narrow it to three, in no particular order. 1) Dan Beede's upset win over Junior Hanley in the 1991 VT Milk Bowl at Thunder Road. NOBODY could beat Hanley back then, but Beede made a great, three-wide move on a late restart to claim his first career ACT win on his home turf. 2) Dave Dion stealing the 1985 Oxford 250 from Joey Kourafas when a lapped car drifted too high on the backstretch of final lap. Sandy MacKinnon (Kourafas' car owner) looked like he'd been shot. 3) Ricky Craven's .002-second margin of victory over Kurt Busch at Darlington. If only they were all like that.

5. Do you think NASCAR running Winston Cup races has an effect on the attendence of local short tracks across the USA?

Absolutely, yes. Everyone wants to do things like the big boys do, leading to foolishness like short-track time trials and heads-up starts. When the fastest car wins the race without passing anyone, the fans are getting screwed. Also, no-one is content to be a great short track racer anymore. Instead, everyone has a five-year plan to get to Winston Cup. When I was a kid, Grand National (now Winston Cup) racing was like another universe. We saw it on "Wide World of Sports" once in a while, but it wasn't real to us. The Dragon Brothers, Dave Dion,  Mike Rowe...those were real racers, and we idolized them.

6. If you were in charge of NASCAR but could only make one change, what change would that be?

Stock bodies. I mean STOCK; no fender flares, no laid-over windshields, no snowplow front valances...nothing. Put a rear spoiler on `em and let `em go. Heck, I'd even make `em run the door handles.

7. What advice would you give to a young driver looking to get into racing?

Start small. I wish I had a nickle for every driver who I've seen jump right into a Late Model, only to blow $50,000 and disappear. Build a Street Stock and have fun for two years. Then, if you're any good, start thinking about the next step. If you stink, who cares? You've spent a couple of grand and had a hell of a good time.

8. How did you get involved in motorsports?
Like most people, as a fan. Then, as a crewmember on a couple of mini-stock cars; Harry Gammell's #32 and the #77 (driven by a number of drivers). After a few years turning wrenches, I got talked into writing a weekly column for Speedway Scene, then into announcing when Ken Squier started traveling a lot for CBS. The rest is history.

9. In your honest opinion... whats the best race track in the world? What is the worst?

Thunder Road laps the field. But then again, I'm biased. There's a lot of competition in the "worst" department, and I've seen them all. New Smyrna (FL) used to be awful, with 30 minute "breaks" between heat races and 6-7 low car-count divisions that all looked exactly alike, and all started heads-up. The last time I went there, I left at 3 a.m. with two features still to go. I'm told things have improved since then, but I've never been back to see for myself.

10. Do you think the internet has helped people get information about racing or do you think it is just a vast wasteland of sites full of rumors and lies?

I love the internet, warts and all. A certain percentage of what you read on the web is fantasy, but as long as you know that going in, what's the harm? It has allowed drivers and teams to interact with their fans in ways never before possible, and the dissemination of information happens instantaneously now, rathen than in days or weeks. I love reading the opinions and viewpoints of nationally known writers like Mike Mulhern and Monte Dutton. Local guys like Big Bigelow push my buttons, too.

11. You can have dinner with anyone in motorsports (living or dead), who would you chose? Why?

Barney Hall. My colleague at MRN has more old "war stories" than just about anyone alive, though I can't tell you most of them. He's ridden out a plane crash with Junior Johnson, partied all night (and then some) with David Pearson, and witnessed things in this sport that most people would never imagine to be true. He's a fascinating guy, and I can listen to his stories for days.

12.What is your opinion on "bending" the rules and working in that grey area of a rulebook? What about out and out cheating and disregard for the rules?

There's gray, and then there's black. I've grudgingly come to accept a certain amount of "superior interpretation" in the upper levels of racing, but nothing makes me madder than a guy in the Blunderbust division hogging out his intake manifold, or building a stroker engine. If you want to cheat, build a car in the headline division and cheat against the best. Tire softener? Those people should be down at the VFW playing bingo, not driving race cars.

13. Its the last lap of a dream race.... who are the drivers and at what track would you like to see them battle it out?

Mike Rowe, Ralph Nason and Jimmy Spencer; three wide with the white flag flying at Thunder Road. None of them would finish, but man, what a wreck!

14. What is the one thing you wish more fans would know about motorsports? How could they possibly learn that one thing?

I wish every fan had to spend one season working on a race car. Pull a few all-nighters patching the car back together or building a new motor from leftover parts, and maybe you won't be so quick to cheer those big wrecks from now on.

15. How do you think racing has managed to keep a somewhat wholesome imagine while other major sports have what seems to be endless scandals involving drugs, crime, etc?

There's no way you can drive a racecar impaired. Try it once, and the other drivers will run you out of Dodge, because you're jeopardizing their life, as well as your own. Also, racing is sponsor driven. The day a NASCAR driver gets busted with a glove compartment full of crack cocaine is the day he becomes unemployed. The sponsors will not put up with that kind of negative publicity, so the sport tends to police itself.

16. What could be done in racing to get it more diverse as far as minority involvement?

There are hundreds of basketball hoops in every inner-city neighborhood, but not a single race track. That's our major problem right now. Minority kids have no exposure to the sport, and as a result, no reason to believe they can grow up to be racers. As television brings racing into the inner cities and urban areas, I think more minorities will become attracted to it. Women are also becoming a bigger part of the NASCAR picture, though none have yet shown the talent to succeed at the top of the ladder. It's coming.

17. What do you think about imported car manufactors getting into major league auto racing in the USA?

What's imported anymore? Daimler-Chrysler is German, and every other make is manufactured (at least in part) overseas. As far as I'm concerned, the more the merrier.

18. Your choice.... one ticket to a big league NASCAR race or a seasons pass to your favorite local short track... which would you chose and why?

Oh come one, who are you talking to here? Short track, all the way.

19.Where do you see yourself in 5 years as far as motorsports goes?

I like where I'm at, with one foot still in the short-track world, and the other in the Winston Cup arena. I still love the magic of radio, though if someone offers me a few million dollars to stand in front of a camera, it'd be rude not to listen...

20. When you want a break from the world of motorsports, what are some of the things you like to do?

I just finished a 75-80 game basketball and hockey season. It's a nice change of gears (literally), and allows me to stay busy and stay sharp, a little closer to home. I wouldn't know a vacation if it bit me in the backside.