U.S. SMOKELESS SHOWDOWN - A FAMILY SQUABBLE
Father Against Daughter, Brother Against Brother Made The U.S. Smokeless Showdown Even Better
Why is it that some races are harder to win than others? There doesn’t seem to be any logical explanation, but it’s nevertheless fact. Winning Indy, the U.S. Nationals, may be the toughest one of all, however the Skoal Showdown is a close second. It’s just doesn’t seem reasonable, yet winning reduces drivers to tears and that’s certainly not the result of winning $100,000, although that’s definitely a hefty pay day.
Cruz Pedregon made it to the finals of what used to be the Big Bud Shootout and now, for the last time, the Skoal Showdown, four times in the past and lost every time.
When he triumphed at O’Reilly Raceway Park on Sunday afternoon he appeared to be pretty much in control of his emotions, but as he spoke to ESPN commentator Garry Gerould his voice cracked and tears appeared in his eyes.
Father Against Daughter, Brother Against Brother Made The U.S. Smokeless Showdown Even Better
Why is it that some races are harder to win than others? There doesn’t seem to be any logical explanation, but it’s nevertheless fact. Winning Indy, the U.S. Nationals, may be the toughest one of all, however the Skoal Showdown is a close second. It’s just doesn’t seem reasonable, yet winning reduces drivers to tears and that’s certainly not the result of winning $100,000, although that’s definitely a hefty pay day.
Cruz Pedregon made it to the finals of what used to be the Big Bud Shootout and now, for the last time, the Skoal Showdown, four times in the past and lost every time.
When he triumphed at O’Reilly Raceway Park on Sunday afternoon he appeared to be pretty much in control of his emotions, but as he spoke to ESPN commentator Garry Gerould his voice cracked and tears appeared in his eyes.
Cut to its essence drag racing is still an acceleration contest from a standing start to 1,000 feet, yet wining the Showdown appears to be a heck of a lot harder than it is to, say, winning at Norwalk. Or Seattle. Or Topeka. Why this is may never be fully understood, but taking home the trophy from the Showdown is heart-breakingly difficult and Pedregon will probably never forget his day in the sun.
The format for making it into the Showdown field is brutally simple. Amass as many points as possible during qualifying at a year’s worth of national events, end up among the top 8 points earners and voila, you’re in. If your team is good enough to get you into the top half of the field at a majority of those races, your chances of making the cut are dramatically enhanced, but in truth it’s unlikely that many drivers will be thinking about that at, say, Memphis in a few weeks. But, come the Mile-Highs next July, well, they’ll darn sure be checking their points position but that will depend, of course, on whether not the NHRA is able to sign a replacement sponsor for U.S. Tobacco.
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Had this year’s qualifiers placed themselves in slightly different positions we might have seen a knock down, drag out family battle of the first order, but alas, all of the intra-family on-track squabbling took place in the first round. First up came the Pedregon Bros., but it wasn’t really much of a fight because Cruz’s Advance Auto Parts Toyota went right down the center of his lane while brother Tony’s Quaker State Chevy did as others would do behind him; he began spinning the tires at about the 330 foot mark, and the race was over right then and there.
The second – and final – intra-family battle came when Ashley Force raced her father, that guy John. Dad had the right combination for this one, or should we say, tuners Austin Coil and Bernie Fedderly had the right combination, sending the six-time Showdown winner right down the middle of the right lane – the same one out of which came Pedregon’s victory – in a smokeless 4.241 seconds. Like Tony P before her, Ashley smoked the tires in the left lane.
Del Worsham also won in the right lane, as Force team driver Robert Hight suffered the same kind of tire-smoking defeat as had the others.
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Why are we making a point of this? Because when the season’s hottest and probably most unexpected success story, driver Tim Wilkerson, came up in that same “bad” lane, everyone pretty much expected the same result. Sorry, kids. Wilkerson is
so on top of his game this season that when he pulls out the unexpected it’s, well, expected! He blistered the timers with the event’s quickest lap of 4.146 seconds, easily topping Ron Capps’s 4.226. We mention that 4.22 only because the other three winners were all in the 4.2s, which does nothing more than emphasize Wilkerson’s awesome performance this year.
Twenties would roll out of the clocks like, er, clockwork for the remainder of the day, until the finale. But none of the first round survivors could match Wilkerson’s first round number. That’s actually kind of important because the first two rounds of the Showdown count towards qualifying for the Nationals, and ‘twenties were needed to make the show. In the second round the surviving member of the Force family came up against Wilkerson, and the fans couldn’t decide which was more important, winning the round or making Monday’s show. Alas, the sport’s acknowledged Ambassador of Verbal Insanity did neither, losing to Wilkerson and failing to make the Indy field with a tire-smoking…well, who cares? That he, John Force, won’t race Monday was the big news, because Wilkerson’s victory wasn’t exactly unexpected. There’s that word again.
Del Worsham suffered the same kind of tire-smoldering humiliation at the hands of the Cruzer, setting up a terrific finale that, by the time it rolled around, most folks figured Wilkerson would take. Man, if they had wagering in drag racing the odds probably would have been something like 2-5 for Wilkerson and 5-1 for Pedregon, but hey, if we knew anything about wagering on drag racing we’d be big winners at the two Las Vegas races, where they do take action at some of the casinos. As it is we usually leave town with our tails between our legs and our wallets empty. Shows what we know, ‘cause we would have taken Wilkerson in the finale.
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Bad bet!
Writer Larry Sullivan called it “Just your typical Sunday afternoon match race, with $100,000 on the line…” Uh-huh, just like that!
Tim Wilkerson is one of the last of his type, because he not only drives the car, he makes all of the tuning calls himself, making him a rarity in 21st century drag racing. Pedregon, on the other hand, has Rahn Tobler handling the tuning for him, and Tobler was never more on top of his game than he was during the Showdown. He gave the car only what he thought the track could handle, and no more – until the finale, when he tightened the screws and told Cruz to hang on.
The race was really good, until Pedregon pulled ahead for a tenth of a second victory. That tenth, by the way, chopped his elapsed time down to 4.184 seconds, the only other ‘teen in the show after Wilkerson’s first rounder. Wilkerson was game with a 4.280, but there was daylight between the cars at the finish line.
“I tried for a long time without winning,” Cruz said afterward. And then he began choking up. With his voice catching he added, “I just wanna thank Rahn Tobler. He’s just what I needed.”
There’s nothing we can add to that.
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