CAPPS AND TOBLER'S RELATIONSHIP WAS ONE FOR THE AGES

by Bobby Bennett; Photos by Auto Imagery, Ron Capps, Mike Burghardt    Wed, 2021-02-03 16:31

Ron Capps admits he didn't know what to expect when championship crew chief Rahn Tobler and his crew were reassigned from the team of driver Jack Beckman just four races into the 2012 season.

Capps' crew-chief duo of Tim and Kim Richards abruptly resigned from the role, and in came Tobler and an equally seasoned crew. Life was never the same for Capps after that day..

Bear in mind that, up until this point, Capps had raced for, and with, some of drag racing's largest legends.

"I've been pretty lucky over the years," said Capps, who is quick to point out he learned valuable lessons from each.

Specific to Tobler, it's those lessons -- and the importance of looking at life's blessings from a different perspective -- that he will miss the most when the NHRA season kicks off next month in Gainesville, Fla.

Capps says he will always be reminded to enjoy his opportunity to drive a fuel Funny Car to the fullest.

"Even the legends that I always looked up to as a kid, and driving for them, I learned we're there to compete. But many don't enjoy the fruits of their labor," Capps explained. "What we do is we get so in-depth in racing, and there are a lot of people that don't get to enjoy or take time to enjoy it.

"We're usually right in the middle of Countdowns and fighting for a championship. It's hard to take a step back and enjoy what you just did, because maybe you won a race in a Countdown or whatever you did. And it's tough when you get in the competition like this; tough to take a step back and enjoy a little bit of what you've done or accomplished. It's because you're afraid you're going to lose a step."

Capps was a quick study under Tobler, learning intricate ways to work harder and earn the victories while also pausing for a moment to smell the roses.

 

 

 

"I learned that right off the bat with Tobler valuable life lessons," Capps admitted. "It was unfortunate the way things came together, but one thing we did was hit the ground running."

Hitting the ground running might be an understatement.

Capps was eighth in the points when Tobler took the reins, and they quickly vaulted to second on the strength of reaching the final round in each of their first six races together.

"At one point, we were up to 40 runs or 45 runs in a row without losing tracks from smoking the tires or having an issue," Capps recalled. "I mean, little things that were accomplished right off the bat. But the biggest thing was I learned to enjoy what we do and enjoy the job of what we're doing."

Capps likened his time with Tobler to something akin to peeling layers from an onion.

"I'd been around him," Capps said. "I heard stories."

The Don Schumacher Racing teams are a close-knit family, Capps explained, but the time they spend together isn't always a given. There can be races where some drivers don't interact, and the same goes for crew chiefs. Essentially, each person has a job to do, and socializing isn't high on the priority list.

Capps had heard the banter of Tobler's appreciation for certain aspects of American culture.

"Next thing I know, I learned that he's into West Coast hip-hop and then his love of wine," Capps said.

Capps discovered it wasn't the taste of the wine or entertainment of the rap music which made the downtime of the racing engaging.

"We could be fighting for a championship, and we'll have five or six of these teams that we're battling with that are other teams in there relaxing a little bit," Capps recalled.

"I learned pretty quickly that it wasn't necessarily the wine, although the wine is what brought a lot of people together. And that's sort of how Tobler is. He really taught me to enjoy and take the time to enjoy what we've done. And when we battle all day long, there's times we get in arguments about our thought process of what we're doing."

The discussions weren't arguments, it was just Tobler enjoying his role as a mentor and teacher. He certainly never had an issue teaching or learning a new trick.

"What I always loved about the guy was if you could come to him and explain something that changed his mind, he loved that," Capps said.

"He will not just tell a crew guy to go do something," he continued. "He explains to them why he's asking him to do something. When a crew guy comes to him and tells him, 'Look, this looks like this part failed,' he doesn't just say 'OK' and that's it. He sits down with the guy and shows him why he thinks that something happened. And same with the driver. He's always been great with explaining to me what to expect on this next run."

 

 

 

One must realize Capps and Tobler came together in the toughest of situations in that the former was losing a crew he'd been with since he came to DSR in 2005. Tobler, Capps, and the new-to-the-driver crew tested on the Monday following a DNQ at the spring Las Vegas event.

In a typical nitro application, there is 2.3 seconds where the clutch slips because a car cannot apply 100 percent of its horsepower to the ground at the hit of the throttle. Then it goes one-to-one, and the car gets the full dose of muscle.

It didn't take long for Tobler and Capps to go one-to-one.

"It was a whole new feeling," Capps revealed. "I didn't even know any names on the crew. I didn't know anybody."

The next week, they went to Charlotte, where they qualified No. 2 and reached the finals only to fall victim to parts breakage.

"I was nervous like I was a rookie going into that race," Capps recalled. "New car, new team, the car felt completely different -- just a lot of different things."

Capps credits Tobler as providing the calming effect.

Tobler, who had won four world championships as a crew chief -- three in Top Fuel, one in Funny Car -- before aligning with Capps in his storied career, helped Capps win his first. Up until this point, Capps had been a contender for a championship multiple times down to the wire but didn't seal the deal. 

"It seemed like the most popular question headed into 2016 was about how I finished second in the championship and never won the title," Capps said. "That year, the question seemed to be the most popular. It was, hey, how we ended up winning the championship that year."

Capps believes it was Tobler being Tobler, one of those aspects he will miss the most.

"We kind of went on doing our own thing. A lot of guys switched to six-disc clutch; he felt so comfortable sticking with a five-disc," Capps said. "It was funny how that season went along, and I had seasons obviously like that where it felt like we were going to win the championship. And that particular season, we just kept doing our thing. And we kept looking at each other, and there were moments I remember we had celebration shots at the awards banquet.

"We were talking that night about at what point did we really think -- and it wasn't a certain win that year - -hen we were really struggling with something to find something in the car? When we needed a little bit, and maybe I got up on the wheel a little more and got a holeshot win and got us to the next round. It was funny how we looked back and almost identical split times that we thought those were the moments that won us the championship."

Capps is quick to point out Tobler has earned his retirement, but would be remiss if he didn't confess he tried to change his mind.

"He'd brought it up a few times," Capps said. "He brought it up a couple of years ago, and really one night we were chatting, I think it was even over wine. And I said I'd like to, at a point in my career before I retire, I would like to go back. I started in Top Fuel dragster, I want to go back, and I'd love to race Doug Kalitta, I'd love to race Antron, Tony Schumacher -- some of the guys that we didn't get to race each other, but I'd like to perhaps go back to dragster before I retire."

"We sort of laughed about it because he said, 'Look, I want to do this maybe three more years.'

 

 

 

"Every time he would bring it up, especially around Don Schumacher, Don would try to talk him out of it right on the spot. And then I would joke with him, I said, 'Look, you can't retire until we fulfill this and you and I go back to the dragster and rattle some cages a little bit in Top Fuel dragster."

Capps plans to begin testing in early March, and he admits that not having Tobler will be painfully strange.

"It's going to be strange because of the number of wins together, and it's an amazing number," Capps said. "I loved the building up to race day. It's maybe a phone call the week prior, or getting to the track on a Friday is usually the coolest part, because I walk in the lounge, I haven't seen the team since the last week if it's a back-to-back race. Walking in and seeing them Friday, and Tobler's there, I walk in the lounge, he's already got the game plan."

What may not be common knowledge is that each time Capps won a race, Tobler would claim the driver's seat in the Funny Car as the crew towed it back to the winner's circle. Capps found this out the first time he completed his press work. He headed over to the car for pictures just in time to watch Tobler pop out of the hatch.

"This is my thing I do," Capps said Tobler told him.

Then, after all was completed, Capps said Tobler would go in the hauler, where the tuner would change into his "Easy E" t-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops, grab his "crunk cup," and head to the hotel.

Today, Capps can envision his longtime crew chief practicing the same ritual as they did many times, albeit this time headed off to retirement.

With a Snoop Dog tune playing in the background, he calls out to Tobler and borrows a quote from Ice Cube.

"Hey Tobler ... It was a good day."

 

 

 
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