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Bob Vandergriff Retiring. Shuts Down Top Fuel Operation Immediately

RitcheyRch

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http://www.competitionplus.com/drag...nounces-immediate-retirement-from-drag-racing


Bob Vandergriff, team owner of Bob Vandergriff Racing (BVR), an organization that has been fielding two Top Fuel Dragsters on the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing tour, has announced his retirement from the sport following the NHRA Denso Nationals in Las Vegas.

The Top Fuel cars had been driven by Dave Connolly and Leah Pritchett. Effective immediately, the entire BVR organization has been shut down and all employees have been released from their duties.

Vandergriff issued the following statement:

?I've been considering retirement for a few years now, and I?ve actually done it once already when I retired from the driver?s seat at the end of the 2014 season. Now it?s time to retire from the sport altogether. The recent unexpected death of BVR supporter and close friend Josh Comstock, from C&J Energy Services, has made me reflect and seriously reevaluate my priorities in life.

"I?ve missed a lot of things in my children?s lives over the years and the desire to spend more time at home with my family has weighed on me greatly the last few years and when combined with the struggles the oil and gas industry has been facing over the last 12-18 months it seemed like now was the right time to retire. C&J Energy Services CEO Randy McMullen and I sat down recently, and after lengthy discussions he was in agreement and fully supported my decision.

"I want to thank everyone who supported BVR, from our sponsors, to our vendors, employees, and most of all my father Bob Vandergriff Sr. My father has been the bedrock throughout my career and, without any hesitation, he has supported our efforts through the many challenges we've faced over the years. We?ve had a tremendous group of people at BVR and I expect and wish for great things in the future for each and every one of them. I've enjoyed spending the last 22 years of my life in drag racing. I owe a lot to the sport, its fans, and the individuals who have who played key roles in my career."

Randy McMullen issued the following statement from C&J Energy Services:" We have enjoyed and greatly benefited from our relationship with Bob over the last 8 years, both on and off the track. We support Bob in his next steps and look forward to continuing to work with him for many years to come on other ventures?
 

Stainless

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Wow!! Some people got fucked there. :(
Leah's hope for a full season just got yanked out from under her again. Didn't care much for Connolly after the shit he pulled on Enders-Stevens.
 

Tom Slick

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Really crappy move on his part. Two drivers and a bunch of crew guys left empty handed. Should have thought about pulling the plug before the season started, or fulfilled his obligation to his team and sponsors to the seasons end.

This is also a big hit to the class, as the NHRA isn't getting enough cars to fill the 16 car fields at many of the events.
 

Stainless

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Really crappy move on his part. Two drivers and a bunch of crew guys left empty handed. Should have thought about pulling the plug before the season started, or fulfilled his obligation to his team and sponsors to the seasons end.

This is also a big hit to the class, as the NHRA isn't getting enough cars to fill the 16 car fields at many of the events.

Great point, should not have started the season and leave a bunch of people out in the cold.
 

Stainless

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Rumors have been swirling about a 4th DSR TF'r, Pritchett would make a pretty addition there.
 

TBI

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At Vegas they were returning to the pits after Connolly's first Qualifying pass, they were flat hauling ass through the pits and came within 1/4" of hitting Chad Head (who was in the process of packing his chute and had his back towards them) I was standing right there and couldn't believe how close of call it was! Chad jumped up and was headed towards their pits with his fists clenched. Just as he was about there, a couple of media crews in golf carts rolled up in between Chad and the BVR crew. Chad turned around and I could actually see him counting to ten trying to cool off. He came back to his pits and resumed rolling his chute up. I said that was about as close to a disaster as I had seen in a while. He looked up and said "Holy Fuck, you saw that?!" I said yep, unbelievable! And Kudos to you for walking away while the media was present :thumbsup


Pretty crazy shit!
 

guest hs

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Wow!! Some people got fucked there. :(
Leah's hope for a full season just got yanked out from under her again. Didn't care much for Connolly after the shit he pulled on Enders-Stevens.

What did he do to cry baby Enders besides kick here ass at the US Nationals?????????????????
 

jetboatmatt

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Does anybody know if he is related to a famous Marine?
My brothers ship in the Navy was the only ship named after a Marine and the only ship in all of the navy to wear Red Ball caps instead of blue! It was called the U.S.S Vandergriff spelled the same way!!! It was a fast friggit they put in front of aircraft carriers for protection! They would take the hit before the aircraft carries! One in front and one in back! Anyway just wondering!!
 

ToMorrow44

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There is something more to this story. Nobody decides to up and retire in the middle of the season and shut everything down. The article hints at the hard times of the oil and gas industry and a supporter at C&J dying, I'm wondering if he lost all that C&J money? I'm sure he can't run any of that without their support. I feel really bad for Leah, finally gets a good sponsor and a full time ride and gets shut down 4 races into the season.

What did he do to cry baby Enders besides kick here ass at the US Nationals?????????????????

Yeah what did he do? All I saw was that she got all butt hurt that he left from being her crew chief for a full time ride...she should've been happy for him he's a driver who got a driving job...
 

Willie B

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There is something more to this story. Nobody decides to up and retire in the middle of the season and shut everything down. The article hints at the hard times of the oil and gas industry and a supporter at C&J dying, I'm wondering if he lost all that C&J money? I'm sure he can't run any of that without their support. I feel really bad for Leah, finally gets a good sponsor and a full time ride and gets shut down 4 races into the season.



Yeah what did he do? All I saw was that she got all butt hurt that he left from being her crew chief for a full time ride...she should've been happy for him he's a driver who got a driving job...

...X2...
 

jones performance

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There is something more to this story. Nobody decides to up and retire in the middle of the season and shut everything down. The article hints at the hard times of the oil and gas industry and a supporter at C&J dying, I'm wondering if he lost all that C&J money? I'm sure he can't run any of that without their support. I feel really bad for Leah, finally gets a good sponsor and a full time ride and gets shut down 4 races into the season.



Yeah what did he do? All I saw was that she got all butt hurt that he left from being her crew chief for a full time ride...she should've been happy for him he's a driver who got a driving job...

who's now unemployed..
 

Stainless

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What did he do to cry baby Enders besides kick here ass at the US Nationals?????????????????

There is something more to this story. Nobody decides to up and retire in the middle of the season and shut everything down. The article hints at the hard times of the oil and gas industry and a supporter at C&J dying, I'm wondering if he lost all that C&J money? I'm sure he can't run any of that without their support. I feel really bad for Leah, finally gets a good sponsor and a full time ride and gets shut down 4 races into the season.



Yeah what did he do? All I saw was that she got all butt hurt that he left from being her crew chief for a full time ride...she should've been happy for him he's a driver who got a driving job...



It wasn't an amicable parting.
 

MSum661

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I believe its 2 separate things that came down all at once.

1) Vandergriff truly upset at the sudden loss of His good friend.
2) C&J Energy financials have been in a non-stop downward spiral and it quickly came down to money.

Takes a enormous amount of money with anything that runs on Nitro. Ask around the people who do it.

JMHO.
 

guest hs

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I thought it was great every time Connoly went up against her the year he was crew chiefing for her he would tree her then wax her ass! She didn't like getting beat oh well may the best driver win. Connoly wont be out for very long!
 

rivrrts429

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I'm pretty sure the Connolly/Enders feud is much deeper than him just leaving to go drive.

They were much closer than a crew chief & driver type relationship. Pretty sure Dave was in Erica's wedding. They were more like family. The issue was much deeper than Dave wanting to just go do something else.

She went on to win a championship and Dave doesn't have a job right now. You never know, he may crawl back to Enders' camp if the phone doesn't ring with a top fuel ride.
 

oldschool

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Got to be more to it $$$$$$$. You're trying to tell me he decided to retire now?
 

jack14r

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The CEO of C+J died a couple weeks ago I would bet that the flow of money also died.
 

jeffymurray1957

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It takes a lot of money to run Top Fuel. I ran Winston West Nascar from my business checkbook and I can tell you firsthand that if the money flow stops you have to pull the string right then and there or you will start using your personal money and that just does not work. I learned the hard way and I raced on a small budget. He did what he did for what ever reason he had, He raced for many years and I guess he just did not want to pull any money out of his personal retirement. I agree that it sucks for the people that lost their jobs, but the ones that are good should have a good reputation and may be able to sign on with another team
 

KENDOG689

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I was a tire guy in the West series and it is big bucks.Top fuel is a crazy amount just to qualify.To bad it went down this way for the crews.
 

RVRKID

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Funny I am watching a rerun from Vegas and I guess Bob promised everyone a Breitling for their first national win
 

New to boating

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The CEO of C+J died a couple weeks ago I would bet that the flow of money also died.

Josh Comstock is the name of the Guy you are referring to. Passed away suddenly at 46 - (look healthy at the last race) cause of death remains "unknown" at this time but people have their suspicions when your are the CEO of a public company and your stock has a 52 week high of 18 and is trading at $1.55 last Friday. Google Aubrey McClendon, Chesapeak Energy - similar fact set and also dead.

Comstock is the only reason that the C&J deal happened for Vandergriff in the 1st place and it was a "personal affinity" sponsorship, he personally loved Drag Racing, I would bet big money that C&J never signed a customer because of the Drag Racing sponsorship. These personal affinity sponsorships are what keeps the professional category's of NHRA racing in reality ..... very little "real" sponsorship dollars flowing (and almost 100% of it goes to Schumacher and Force) and certainly not enough to keep the fields full, or even close to full... here is the reality of other teams that are existing only because of these types of deals:

Funny Car:
Dejoria (Dad is Patron Tequila)
Wilkerson (Dick Levi - Levi, Ray, Shoppe Heavy Truck dealer)
Worshom (Connie Kalitta, Kalita Flying Services)
Chad Head (Fathers company installs roadways and infrastructure
Tommy Johnson Jr (Terry Chandler)
Jack Beckman (Terry Chandler)

Top Fuel:
Doug Kalitta (Connie Kalitta)
JR Todd (Connie Kalitta)
Steve Torrance (Dad is CAPCO Contractors)
Billy Torrence (Capco Cntractors)
Morgan Lucas (Dad is Forrest Lucas of Lucas Oil)
Richie Crampton (Morgan Lucas is the "Owner of record", Forrest Lucas funds the team).

And many of the Pro Stock teams (i.e Anderson & Line - Ken Black)

The primary difference with the Listed group and Josh Comstock is that Comstock was spending Stockholder money from a public company (ticker symbol CJES on NASDEQ), not his own money, or funds from a private company like the others listed. When you are throwing away $5 to $6 million year of stockholder money on hobby racing and the company has essentially wiped out 100% of the shareholder equity in the last 12 months of operations you are going to have a huge problem with the shareholders unless that money is directly related to increasing shareholder value, which it clearly was not. And when you are in the situation like CJES is in you are going to have some really shitty quarterly conference calls if you don't shut it down - and I am shocked it didn't happen a lot earlier.


Reality is with Comstock gone, there was no one wiling to stick their necks our at CJES and continue to fund the team because there is no way to justify it and the only way to justify it was when they were very profitable and shareholders were being greatly rewarded, they tend to look the other way when that is going on. The energy sector is likely not going to see those days for a long time with OPEC holding the stick wide open on production.

Public companies owe their 1st responsibility to shareholders, not race teams. This differs from the list of affinity sponsors" - I could only imagine what would happen to the CFO of Kalitta Flying Services if he walked into Connie's office and said "I think we are spending way too much money on this drag racing hobby of yours, we should shut it down".... I think that person, best case, would be looking for work the next day, or worst case (knowing Connie) would be picking their teeth up off the ground and heading to the dentist for surgery.

As for Vandergriff, he has always come off as a little too high and mighty and dictating to NHRA what they should or should not be doing - and the only time he has been highly visable as a Driver or Owner in the sport was when he (and Casey Spurlock) had the Fruit of the Loom deal years ago, and then the C&J deal (3rd party dollars in both cases). I have no idea what his net worth is but the "chatter" is that he could run the teams out of his pocket, smart money says not a chance.

His (Vandergriffs) public statement as to why he was shuttering 2 Pro teams down in a day "I want to spend more time with my Family".... at least when Alan Johnson shut down the two Al Anabi teams he was honest and said "unfortunately we had our funding taken away unexpectedly and I am not going to file a lawsuit against the Country of Qatar over it".....

No one on the inside believes that it was to spend more time with family - it may be a half truth because of Comstocks death, but if the money was till flowing, those cars would be running.


As for the drivers, Leah is more marketable but inexperienced, and Connely is generally not very well liked in the industry, but he cut's consistantly good lights which puts him in the mix. As for the crews, I think this type of situation is unfortunate, but not unusual these days in the sport. Mike Gouger has come into his own as a fuel crew chief and I suspect will have no problem finding work.

We will see what happens at Charlotte and where everybody lands... The only up side is that this opens the door for some independent teams to make the show which does make it interesting in eliminations.
 

Stainless

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^ Great insight to what's going on, thanks for posting this. [emoji106]
 

Kylemenz1

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My dad raced Funny Car in the 70's and early 80's. Was world champion in 78'. His team consisted of 3 people, and they did ALL the work themselves. Drag racing, as with any sport is so much different now, and takes soooo much money to even get a chance to qualify.
 

XClutchboy725

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My dad raced Funny Car in the 70's and early 80's. Was world champion in 78'. His team consisted of 3 people, and they did ALL the work themselves. Drag racing, as with any sport is so much different now, and takes soooo much money to even get a chance to qualify.

Amen Brotha
 

Stainless

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Leah picked up a temporary ride in Dom Lagana's car starting this weekend at Charlotte.
 

Gramps

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My dad raced Funny Car in the 70's and early 80's. Was world champion in 78'. His team consisted of 3 people, and they did ALL the work themselves. Drag racing, as with any sport is so much different now, and takes soooo much money to even get a chance to qualify.

that's when I was racing top fuel............it was a different deal back then
 

Tom Slick

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My dad raced Funny Car in the 70's and early 80's. Was world champion in 78'. His team consisted of 3 people, and they did ALL the work themselves. Drag racing, as with any sport is so much different now, and takes soooo much money to even get a chance to qualify.

Your dad is Don Prudhomme?
 
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