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Fuel team owner Ken Black prepared to sit out sessions

The rising cost of doing business has forced a handful of teams to sit out qualifying runs. Many teams,

The rising cost of fuel racing has team owner Ken Black prepared to sit out some sessions this year. (Roger Richards)

based on a strong Friday effort, have chosen to sit out Saturday’s session at some events to conserve budget and parts.

Top Fuel team owner Ken Black never thought he’d see the day he’d be
forced into such a cost-cutting move. The successful businessman admits
the latest price increase of nitromethane has him almost assuredly
planning to skip some sessions with his Top Fuel dragster driven by
Hillary Will.

“If we do well that first day of qualifying, I think that’s what I am
going to do, have to do,” said Black. “It’s the only way I know of that
I can protest an unfair situation. When you get price increases like
they [official nitro supplier of NHRA] are giving us I think somewhere
we have to take a stand.

Top Fuel driver Cory McClenathan grabbed the provisional pole position for the first 1000-ft. race

Cory McClenathan thunders to the top spot on Friday evening.

NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series history, McClenathan was the last car
down the track, recording a 3.929-second elapsed time at 308.07 mph. If
he holds on to No. 1 through two more qualifying rounds, he will
collect the 32nd pole position of his career and second of the season.
 
"We all kind of had some numbers in our mind coming in here," said
McClenathan. "We wanted to run in the high 3.80-second range at 310
mph. So to go out and run what did earlier (4.023/298.27) put us in a
position to kind of get after it knowing that we were going to be the
last pair, that the track was going to get better and our teammate Tony
Schumacher was in front of us.

At the top of Pro Stock driver Allen Johnson’s list is to show up at his sponsor’s race ready to win.

If his Friday run stands, for the second year in a row Allen Johnson
will score the No. 1 qualifying position at sponsor Mopar's race. (Roger Richards)

The Mopar-sponsored driver showed his priorities are in order as he
drove his Dodge Stratus R/T to the provisional No. 1 spot. The veteran
Team Mopar driver will look to hold his position tomorrow and claim the
No. 1 Qualifier award at the Mopar Mile-Highs for the second-straight
year

Johnson briefly lost and reclaimed the top spot with a mark of 7.037, 195.17.

“The first run on the track was pretty hot,” said Johnson. “Everyone
was trying to get from A to B to get some info for tomorrow. Tonight’s
run, the track was awesome. It really cooled down, and you can really
get at it when the track get likes that.”

Johnson had the strongest car during testing at Bandimere leading up to
the Mopar Mile-Highs, leading many to believe he has the car to beat
this weekend.

PEDREGON TAKES PROVISIONAL TOP SPOT IN FUNNY CAR; McCLENATHAN, JOHNSON, JOHNSON ALSO PROVISIONAL NO. 1 QUALIFIERS IN DENVER

Tony Pedregon raced to the provisional No. 1 qualifier at the 29th annual Mopar Mile-High Nationals in Denver.

Cory McClenathan, Allen Johnson and Steve Johnson were also No. 1
qualifiers in their respective categories at the 13th of 24 events on
the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series.

This was the first time in NHRA history that Top Fuel and Funny Car ran at the interim distance of 1,000 feet.

Antron Brown clocked the first sub four-second 1,000-foot
pass in NHRA history Friday evening at Bandimere Speedway as the two-time Top
Fuel winner clocked a run of 3.998-seconds in his David Powers-owned Matco Tools
dragster. Brown finished in the provisional No. 4 qualifying position.

The irony of it was not lost on Melanie Troxel Thursday night following the
opening day of qualifying for the Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway, her
hometown track.

Tony Schumacher grabbed the second starting position during the first
day of qualifying for the Mopar Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere
Speedway with a 3.943-second pass at 307.16 mph. He is second behind
Don Schumacher Racing teammate, Cory McClenathan.

The Mopar Mile-High Nationals is the first event where the Top Fuel and
Funny Car classes are racing to the 1,000 foot mark instead of the
traditional quarter-mile.

“I have to admit that it was an adjustment competing on a shorter
track,” said the defending NHRA POWERade world champion. “But, we’ll
get used to it real quick. Like I stated earlier this week, we needed
to do this for safety reasons.”

NHRA announced today the members of its safety task force created to
investigate, analyze and determine ways to implement the initiatives
recently outlined by NHRA to continue to enhance safety. 

The current task force is made up of NHRA officials and Top Fuel and
Funny Car crew chiefs and conducted its first conference call among its
members earlier this week.

The task force is headed up by Dan Olson, NHRA director of top fuel and
funny car racing.  He is joined by: Austin Coil, crew chief for John
Force Racing; Jim Head, Funny Car driver/crew chief; Alan Johnson, crew
chief for the U.S. Army Top Fuel dragster; Jon Oberhofer, crew chief
for the Doug Kalitta-driven Top Fuel dragster; Mark Oswald, co-crew
chief on Melanie Troxel’s Funny Car; and Tim Wilkerson, Funny Car
driver/crew chief.  Other representatives from NHRA and the
Professional Racers Owners Organization (PRO) will also participate.

Kicking off the Mile-High Nationals weekend, race
fans jammed the downtown streets of Golden, Co., for the Mopar Big Block Party
on Thursday, July 10. There was plenty of fun to be had ranging from classic
car viewing to the traditional autograph session.

Kenny Sargent, host of SpeedFreaks Motorsports Radio
Show, served as the emcee and the Chicago-based rock cover band, Maggie Speaks,
performed. Race Central Radio’s host Kurt Hansen brought his ESPN Radio program
as well.

Catch our complete PHOTO GALLERY

Top Fuel driver Rod Fuller and his David Powers Motorsports crew showed
up at the Mopar Big Block Party in Golden, Co., sporting new t-shirts
emblazoned with the image of a circus monkey. Fuller said the shirts
were in response to a driver said his team resembled circus monkeys. Of
course, the back of the shirt has a dark side reference.