Matt Hartford shakes his head at the irony.

On Saturday afternoon Hartford captured his first Extreme Pro Stock Championship, his third world title overall. Amazing as it sounds, Hartford never reached a single Extreme Pro Stock final round during the season. His previous two championships, both in Sport Compact competition in 2001 and 2002, included final round victories.

The similarity between the three titles is stunning. Hartford never carried the No. 1 designation after winning his first two titles and he won't be sporting the No. 1 designation next year.

Matt Hartford shakes his head at the irony.

On Saturday afternoon Hartford captured his first Extreme Pro Stock Championship, his third world title overall. Amazing as it sounds, Hartford never reached a single Extreme Pro Stock final round during the season. His previous two championships, both in Sport Compact competition in 2001 and 2002, included final round victories.

The similarity between the three titles is stunning. Hartford never carried the No. 1 designation after winning his first two titles and he won't be sporting the No. 1 designation next year.

Hartford, an engineer with Total Seal, tendered his resignation as the driver of the Dingman Motorsports team just two weeks before the ADRL’s final event with the effective date being at the end of the championship-determining Speedtech Battle for the Belt competition.

Then, he beat Brian Gahm in the finals of the eight-car shootout to fuel the ironic twist.

“I guess it’s kind of like someone who comes in and gets the job done and leaves,” Hartford said.

Hartford was seeded third in the eight-car championship determining shootout.

“It really hasn’t set in yet,” Hartford said of winning the title. “I’ve been downplaying it in my mind that we won a championship. You have to step back and look at the caliber of racers that we compete against in the ADRL. Brian Gahm, Doug Kirk and all of the Mike Allen engines with Morton and [Stephen] Boone, the Goforths … these are the people who have the money and manpower to do this the right way. They have won races all year long. For me, you step back and try to downplay what you have done and then you say, ‘Wow'.

“There were no less than 24 cars who showed up at these ADRL races this season, some here and some there. Every single one of them wants to be sitting where I am right now.”

Hartford always believed from the first ADRL race that he suited up for with this team, that they had all the weapons necessary to win a title. The only thing they didn’t have in the potent arsenal was luck.

The team just couldn’t get a break.

“We failed to go to a single final round this year and that to me was astounding that we had all of those elements and failed to reach a final round, and experienced that much bad luck in the season,” Hartford said.

As far as Hartford was concerned there was one race he wanted to win anyway, and when the smoke cleared from Saturday’s delayed competition, he was the last man standing.

“From Day One, the first race of the season, in Houston, I made it clear that I only wanted to win one race – the championship race,” he confirmed. “I was really hoping to have won a lot of races to be in the position to win a championship. We did win the championship with Wilson Manifolds and Dingman Racing … we did what we needed to do.”

Hartford believes that while it might be unbelievable for a team to win a championship without having reached a final round during the season, it should be noted that Dingman put all the pieces in place a long time ago for a championship caliber team.

“Starting from the top with Billy Dingman … he has the money to do it correctly and is willing to spend the money to do it correctly,” Hartford explained. “That’s normally the limiting factor for most teams. Couple that with the fact that Billy is a racer and has raced all of his life. He knows what it takes to win a race a race not only financially, but also mentally and that’s why he surrounds his drivers with the right type of team members. We have the correct owner to win a championship.

“Secondly, you move it into the engine department. Billy has put together his own engine program at Ron Hutter Race Engines. Between Ron Hutter and Rich Bertliff at Hutter Race Engines – you have two guys with a multitude of experience in racing engines and wins. We had the correct engine program.

“Then you throw in crew chief Justin Elkes, and what many may not realize is that he’s also a crew chief on the KB Racing NHRA cars, when they run the KB Racing third car driven by Ronnie Humphrey. You have a crew chief that is both capable and knowledgeable.

“The rest of our crew Mike Baker and Jerry Hudson have been around racing all of their lives. You take that element and as a driver, I see that we have every aspect of what it takes to win a championship. Then you throw in Jerry Haas as a chassis builder, providing us with an incredible race car.”

Where does the road now lead for Hartford? For the time being to Las Vegas where he’ll compete in the NHRA Las Vegas Nationals in both the Pro Stock and Competition eliminator divisions.

Hartford told CompetitionPlus.com three weeks ago that his departure from the Dingman Motorsports team was predicated on the pursuit of other drag racing opportunities and there’s a chance one of those will be in ADRL competition.

“I’d be willing to be you’ll see me in ADRL competition next year in some capacity,” Hartford confirmed. “I certainly have no intentions of being there to race all season. It will be hard not to come over the ADRL and run some races.”

But, the one thing Hartford can say with an absolute degree of certainty is that he’s leaving a great opportunity for his successor.

“We’re turning over a good car to Jeff Dobbins, you’ll see that car in the winner’s circle next season,” Hartford said. “I wish Billy Dingman and the Wilson Manifold team the best of the success in the upcoming season and I hope they successfully defend the championship.”

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