This is the third and final stop on NHRA’s much ballyhooed “West Coast Swing,” and it’s showing on the faces of mechanics, drivers and race officials.  It’s been a very long two weeks thus far, weeks fraught with emotional trauma (the untimely death of Mark Niver), controversy (the Pro Stock confrontation at Seattle) and a lot of highway miles.

Drag racing is an exhausting endeavor for the professionals because almost everyone is a Road Warrior, i.e., the crews service the cars and then, at the end of the day, have to climb into the transporter and hit the highway for the next race.  Someone – usually more than one and as many as a half dozen – do double duty, servicing the clutch between rounds and then driving the support rig or race transporter to the next event.  Compared to Sprint Cup teams, our guys often work longer and tougher weeks.  Yes, we know the NASCAR series is comprised of 36 races, but did you know that most of the teams employ dedicated truck drivers who only show up late on race day to handle getting the rig home while the rest of the guys climb aboard the team plane for a ride back to their base?  Oh, if only our teams had the funding to do things like that, what a difference it would make.



This is the third and final stop on NHRA’s much ballyhooed “West Coast Swing,” and it’s showing on the faces of mechanics, drivers and race officials.  It’s been a very long two weeks thus far, weeks fraught with emotional trauma (the untimely death of Mark Niver), controversy (the Pro Stock confrontation at Seattle) and a lot of highway miles.

Drag racing is an exhausting endeavor for the professionals because almost everyone is a Road Warrior, i.e., the crews service the cars and then, at the end of the day, have to climb into the transporter and hit the highway for the next race.  Someone – usually more than one and as many as a half dozen – do double duty, servicing the clutch between rounds and then driving the support rig or race transporter to the next event.  Compared to Sprint Cup teams, our guys often work longer and tougher weeks.  Yes, we know the NASCAR series is comprised of 36 races, but did you know that most of the teams employ dedicated truck drivers who only show up late on race day to handle getting the rig home while the rest of the guys climb aboard the team plane for a ride back to their base?  Oh, if only our teams had the funding to do things like that, what a difference it would make.

Okay, we’re finished singing the blues for the race teams, because despite the work and the fatigue, these men and women know what counts and (surprise!) it isn’t the next qualifying session, it’s the fans.  We’ve had more than one driver and mechanic give us his short list of the most important things they deal with, and the order never varies.  The fans are Number 1, the sponsors are Number 2 and the car and everything else comes after that.  You may not know the guy’s name who’s bolting the new set of Goodyear Eagles onto Doug Kalitta’s car, and he doesn’t know your name either, but he nevertheless knows who you are.  You’re the person who dug deep enough to buy a ticket to the show, and that mechanic knows that without you, there is no show.

Have you ever been to Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Colorado?  We know, we know.  “Well, the cars run so much slower up there.”  Bull!  And so what?  Drag racing is about racing just as much as it is about numbers, and if you can resign yourself to the fact that your favorites are going to run a few tenths slower than at a sea level track, the show at the Mopar Mile-High Nationals is one of the best on the Full Throttle Series tour.  And let’s not leave out the fact that the seating at Bandimere is arguably the best in the nation.  Every seat has a completely unobstructed view of the action – and a heck of a lot of fans know that.  Once again Bandimere was packed for Friday’s two pro qualifying sessions.

 

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There’s some heavy stuff coming down in Pro Stock Motorcycle, accusations and some reportedly nasty talk going on between riders Michael Phillips and Matt Smith.  Smith has alleged that Phillips is cheating, but the latter was advised to let his Suzuki do the talking for him, and he did, notching the Number 1 spot (for now, at least) with a 7.308.  Engine supplier Terry Vance put an at least temporary stop to the talk by saying Phillips had more than enough power to be the quickest motorcycle on the mountain, and the number says he knows what he’s talking about.  Eleven of the first 12 bikes were spread between Phillips’ thirty-with-and-an-eight to Craig Treble’s thirty-nine-nine.  That’s an impressively small spread, but it’s unlikely to get tighter, as there are only 16 bikes on the grounds.

Mike Edwards started the year on fire with his Penhall Pontiac, but in the last few weeks Mopar driver Allen Johnson has made remarkable strides and the two are now separated by, oh, maybe a millionth of a second or two.  They are paired up in qualifying more often than not, and each and every time they put on a tremendous show.  If you like GM/Dodge battles, you’re going to be seeing these two going at it from now until November.  While it’s almost a cinch to suggest one or the other will win this year’s championship, it’s, ah, way too early to be going out on that particular limb.  To cede them the title now is to ignore the likes of that Jeg Coughlin guy, who knows a thing or two about winning championships, and, oh yeah, let’s not forget about Greg Anderson and Jason Line.

 

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Pro Stock may not produce the visceral excitement of the fuel cars, but if you truly love drag racing, you just have to love this class  What’s not to love?  Johnson (that’s Allen, not Warren) is on top right now with a 7.020.  Edwards is a pathetic, distant second with a 7.021.  Yeah, these guys know how to race!  In fact, the top 12 go from Johnson’s number all the way down to that other Johnson –Warren, this time – at 7.067.  That’s, like, 0.047 from top to bottom, and that’s quick, fast and oh-so-tight.

While we know it’s only Friday night, the biggest cheer we’ve heard so far was for a driver coming down the return road on a motorcycle.  Ya know, if it had been anybody but John Force on that motorcycle we’d be wondering about the sanity of the crowd, but they do know their superstars!  All Force did was rocket to the top of the list with a 4.191, an elapsed time that was matched to the thousandth by Del Worsham in the Al-Anabi Toyota, but a funny thing happened on the way to the finish line – Force’s Mustang was about two miles an hour faster, so he got the top spot while Worsham had to settle for second.

There are only 14 cars on the grounds, so qualifying is, unfortunately, moot.  Everyone will run on Sunday, but we’re convinced that tomorrow’s qualifying runs are still going to “count.”  What we mean by that is that the tuners are going to be seeking a winning combination for Sunday, and that’s probably going to come out of tomorrow’s running – even though the weather forecast looks a little iffy.

Do you realize that there are fans who believe announcer Bob Frey runs NHRA?  It’s true, because whenever Frey walks through the pits he’s bombarded by fans asking questions, questions that he can’t answer.  But, when he flips the switch on that microphone, he has no peers.  He said it best when he told the crowd that “Someone is going to go home disappointed.  There’s only going to be one, so the question becomes, who is that someone going to be?”  Frey was referring to the fact that there are just 17 Top Fuel cars here in Denver, and while we’ll acknowledge that some of the cars at the bottom of the list aren’t world-beaters, we’d be remiss if we also didn’t acknowledge that anyone is capable of winning at any time.

Brandon Bernstein clocked the lone three second elapsed time Friday afternoon, but five others cracked that barrier this evening – all of them quicker than The Prince.  (Look, if Kenny is considered the King, wouldn’t his son naturally be a prince?  We’re just askin’.)  Antron Brown’s 3.961 topped the charts, thanks to tuner Mark Oswald, with a resurgent Doug Kalitta a tick behind at 3.962.  Morgan Lucas was last on the list with a 4.177.  Behind him are Terry McMillen, Steve Chrisman, Mike Strasburg, Terry Haddock and Rob Passey.  One of them will not be racing Sunday.

What can the Mile-High Nationals teach us?  That racers are adaptable.  They can make seemingly minor compression ratio changes with different head gaskets and get their cars in the show.  They can deal with long hours, sometimes brutal working conditions and still recognize and appreciate the fans who spend their hard earned money to buy tickets.  A long time ago someone said a good drag racer can break an anvil with a feather.  We’re not so sure about that one, but one thing they can do is come to a high altitude track and put on one helluva show.  We’re just lookin’ forward to what they can do on Saturday.




 

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