EVENT NEWS EVENT NOTEBOOK GSA PROMOD POINTS AFTER EVENT ROUND-BY-ROUND RESULTS FINAL ROUND RESULTS			EVENT GALLERY

 

SUNDAY NOTEBOOK - ANDERSON HEADLINES WINNERS

ANDERSON GETS HIS REVENGE - Greg Anderson had a score to settle and taking out the revenge on others is nothing like extracting the payback on the one who dealt the bad fortunes on you. For two years, the three-time Pro Stock world champion has waited for the opportunity to pay back Allen Johnson for one of the most humiliating defeats in class history.

Johnson beat Anderson in the final round of the 2008 K&N Horsepower Challenge and after that event a once unbeatable Anderson appeared to have a developed a chink in his armor.

Saturday afternoon, Anderson beat defending series champion Mike Edwards in the finals of the 2010 K&N Horsepower event and while the victory, might have eased the sting of years gone by, it certainly wasn’t the same as it would have been if he’d beaten Johnson.

Sunday, during the NHRA Summit Nationals, with a thunderstorm looming on the horizon, Anderson did his best impersonation of a lightning bolt by beating Johnson at both ends of the track.

If location is everything in business, pulling off the revenge, was perfect in Norwalk.

“We probably saved our jobs for a week or two,” joked Anderson, his mood suddenly turning serious. “We do probably beat ourselves up a little too much if we don’t perform well, and do act like our jobs are on the line. But, that’s how we operate. I think if the rest of America thought that way – we’d all be a whole lot further ahead. You have to live that way and dig every day. You try to do the best you can for those who support you.”

Anderson pocketed $75,000 for his clean sweep, winning $50,000 on Saturday and earning a double-up $25,000 bonus on Sunday.

“They way I feel today, I don’t know that I’ve ever been this excited,” Anderson said. “We’ve won races in the past, won championships and been on great rolls, when you go through a lull … a slump like we have, You start to wonder if you’re ever going to win again. You wonder if you’re done, if you are at the end of the road. When this happens you feel 18 again. This is probably the best victory I could have gotten.”

Anderson credits his gains to a test session following the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway last weekend and we felt we pulled within maybe .02 of Mike Edwards. Anderson leaves the event fourth in the points and a distant 680 behind Edwards, a first round loser on Sunday.

“This was beyond a dream weekend, I couldn’t have ever envisioned what happened here,” Anderson said. “I just hoped and prayed we could come into here, score a few round wins and go home with a good performance. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a performance like this. I have to go back two or three years to have a car that performed like this. When you get a hot rod that can run like this, and you get a few breaks here and there, your confidence factor only goes up. There’s no replacement for confidence. I’ve had a problem with that before, not this weekend.”

There was nothing Anderson was going to do which might send a ripple through the positive mojo he had going on during the weekend, even if it meant missing out on his $25,000 double up bonus by refusing to manipulate his semi-final match against teammate Jason Line.

“Someone reminded me of all we had on the line before the semis, and if we were going to throw the race,” Anderson said. “I said, ‘Hell no.’ I’ve never done that in my career and I can put my hand a Bible and swear to that. We’ve never done that and never will. I live by a simple rule that states if I were to do a stupid boneheaded move like that, I guarantee we would get run over by the karma train before the final round and we would have. You don’t get away when you do stuff like that.”

Anderson praised Tommy Utt, the team’s newest addition, for bringing a calming effect to an organization which had the tendency to get over center in their pursuit of the Pro Stock leader board.   

“You just can’t try too hard sometimes or you’ll screw up and we kept our heads,” Anderson admitted. “Tommy Utt has kept us in check. He’s kept me and Jason, crew chief Rob Downing from making too many moves and getting down on ourselves. He doesn’t let us get excited and he’s a great addition. He’s gelled with Rob Downing and they are making good calls.”

For Anderson, this weekend went a long way toward the health of team owner Ken Black, who suffered a stroke earlier this year. It didn’t hurt his team’s health either.

“Ken Black is out there and he’s rehabbing hard to get back out here … and he’s probably about four races from being out here. What happened this weekend will accelerate his healing process. Just like this drag racing stuff, a lot of the healing is in the mind. This should help the healing process. I thank the Lord every day for Ken Black and Summit Racing Equipment.”

THE CALL ME THE BREEZE - Understand one thing about Tim Wilkerson. The veteran Funny Car driver only gets in a hurry from the time he leaves the starting line until he reaches the finish line.

In about 4.191 seconds, at 300.40 miles per hour, the Springfield, Ill.-based driver drove his Levi, Ray & Shoup Funny Car to the finish line to upend an upset-minded John Force in the finals of the NHRA Summit Nationals at Summit Raceway Park in Norwalk, Ohio.

But, that’s the only time he picked up the pace. He met the deadlines of a hurried race day, turnaround time reduced 10 minutes to 65, but his pace was nothing out of the unusual. Even with a notification from the NHRA.

“Chris Hill [NHRA staging director] came by and said, 'you're up at four o'clock' So, they tell me four o'clock, I'm not coming up at three fifty-nine, I can tell you that,” Wilkerson said with a smile. “We left the trailer at three fifty-eight and we hit the gas at four oh four, so I guess I was four minutes late. First thing I told Force was I thanked him for waiting on me.

"'We weren't going to start without you Wilk.' Force told me," said Wilkerson.

On a day when being the top dog in the pack was nothing more than an ego ride, Wilkerson worked his way through the field from the tenth qualifying position. Wilkerson drove to his 15th career victory on the strength of wins over Bob Tasca III, Jeff Arend, Del Worsham and lastly Force.

“It was great to have the win over John because he is so good,” said Wilkerson, who avenged a final round loss last week in Bristol. “He is coming into his own again after one bad year. He's making us all look like we don't know what we're doing, again. We're happy to have that win over John. Last weekend we let him off the hook.”

Wilkerson wasn’t even the least bit fazed with Force’s run to the finals from the 16th spot. He wasn’t the least concerned with any mojo Force might be brewing up for their match.

“You know that's a hoax right there,” dismissing Force’s favor from fate. “That was them guys sneaking into the show; you know how them guys are. That's the Force sandbagging technique, right? When he went .21 first round I went, 'whoa, there went that sandbagging deal right down the drain.'”

The victory vaulted Wilkerson into the seventh spot in the Funny Car standings, almost assuring him a spot in the Countdown to 1.

“Yea, but we can't go out there and hock-e-puck [a minor cough combination with hiccup],” warned Wilkerson. “We need to do our deal and keep going down the track run after run after run. There’s still four races left, so we have to keep on our game.”

Wilkerson’s game plan is to run quick when he has to and remain at the relaxed pace when he needs to.

STILL RUNNING HIS ENGINES – Tim Wilkerson understands he’s got a place in line when the Boss 500 parts get doled out from John Force Racing. Right now he’s pleased with the progress of the engine program he’s had dating back to his championship run in 2008.

“The problem I have is that I have so many nice parts. We bought them brand new this year. With my economic situation, I told John, I said 'I mean me switching over is kinda foolish today so we'll wean into if it's still available to me' and we'll continue that way,” Wilkerson admitted.

The bottom line is, Wilkerson feels, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But, there’s an overwhelming desire to be a full-fledged part of the Ford Racing team in every aspect.

“I just want to be part of the team, know what I mean part of the Ford group, and I think that I have that available to me,” Wilkerson said. “I'm telling you John has been nothing but a gentleman to me about all of that. He's been great to me. He said, 'you know as soon as we get ramped up to do this Wilkie, you're right in-line'. Do I think it's an immediate need? No. Do I want to be part of the family and the group? You betcha.”

DIXON’S DOMINANCE OVERWHELMS NORWALK - Perfection is something Al-Anabi Racing driver Larry Dixon always strives for, however his latest victory has him shaking his head in disbelief.

Seven times he’s reached the Top Fuel final round of a 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Championship Drag Racing event. Seven times he’s walked away with the trophy.

This one almost got away from him as opponent Antron Brown challenged him all the way to the finish line, losing by .0002, a mere foot at 300 miles per hour.

“I feel fortunate, said Dixon, who leads second place point earner Tony Schumacher by 176 points. “A lot of tight races. That one right there was tight. Truth, you could race that one again and get a different outcome.

“It was just hurry up, hurry up all day. It was kind of neat. Then you rolled to the final thinking we're doing alright and it's hey, 'suit up'. I'm like what about bikes and cars and Funny Cars. 'Don't matter, get in your car.' It's was a little bit different. Obviously they needed to do that. We didn't even get off the top end of the track before it started raining.

“I heard Antron at the start and saw him for a bit and then he kinda faded. I kept looking. I was looking for the Summit win light and it came on in our lane. It was just a great drag race. It's nice to be on the right side of a drag race.”

Being on the right side of this drag race enabled Dixon to claim his 55th win in 99 final round appearances. Just making his way to the final, tied Dixon with Joe Amato for second on the all-time final round list in Top Fuel, just one behind Tony Schumacher.

Any other driver, working through a fast-paced day, 65-minute turnarounds to avoid bad weather, might have been affected. At this point in his career, Dixon is anything but your typical nitro racer.

“You just do the best you can with the adversity, whatever it is,” Dixon explained. “There again, I have [crew chief] Jason McCullough and Alan Johnson in my lane looking and right before we fired the car up Alan made a last minute adjustment. I don't know if it was to speed it up or slow it down but it was the right one and just enough.”

While admitting he was rushed, Dixon firmly stated he was never shaken from his routine throughout the hectic day. The opponent in the other lane becomes an afterthought once the parachutes blossom.

“You get in such a routine,” he said. “I race Antron Brown the way I race Troy Buff, or anybody else; you just have to go up there and do your thing. It's about consistency; everything, you just try to repeat. Whether they're good or bad, you just do everything exactly the same.”

Suddenly the stinging first round loss in Bristol, on Father’s Day, was a race in the past. It could have been a million years ago to the focused Dixon.

“You know it's going to happen,” Dixon said of drag racing’s successes and failures. “It's just the law of averages. You hope you have more peaks and valleys. Out of this four-race swing, to have three wins out of four, that's huge. It's the only way you can stay ahead in the points. Nobody can catch you if you're winning rounds. We have three, four more races, before the Countdown starts, and we'll go from there.”

And if you think he’s backing off with a No. 1 seed all but secured, think again.

“You look back on last year, if we'd gone in number one seed instead of two, that would have been 30 more points and I could have used 30 points,” Dixon pointed out. “If you can get it great, but it's still not going to be easy. We'll just go up there, celebrate tonight and tomorrow and then start getting ready for Seattle.”

REALLY HOT STUFF - The real challenge for Matt Smith was to determine which was hotter – him or his Al-Anabi Pro Stock Bike Buell. Both were of elevated temperature as they crossed the finish line during the finals of the NHRA Summit Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio.

Smith defeated defending series champion Hector Arana to score a career twelfth victory. The past world champion relied on his crew to keep both of their thermometers in check throughout a breakneck pace race day schedule.

“They kept the bike tuned up for me today; it was tough to get the thing cooled off,” Smith explained. “We had a staging battle first round and I thought we were going to have a staging battle second round. Besides getting the motor cool and the rush, we had a consistent bike we went .04, .04, .04, then we went .07 in the finals. It just got cooler and I think we were probably too lean but we held on for the win to beat Hector. He’s got a really fast bike this year, all in all, Al Anabi V-Twin motorcycle is pretty hateful out there. We came here to run with the best and we ran with them.”

Just hoping to run with the best was a goal, but his objective for the race weekend was to leave second place in the point standings, since Arana has all but clinched the top seed headed into the Countdown to 1 championship phase.

“Our goal was to try to be in the top five come Indy. This just helped our progress to be in that top five. The other thing I’m working on is trying to get my wife in the top 10. She’s eleventh now or maybe 12th, I don’t know. She’s gaining, she won a round today, and we’ve got three more races to try to get her in.”
 
Smith laughs at the irony of it all, headed into the championship phase of the season. Last year he rode a Suzuki and for the entire season exhausted his effort just trying to keep pace with the leaders. This weekend he spent much of the weekend just trying to keep pace. The No. 1 qualifier Steve Johnson was atop the list aboard a Suzuki.

“The Suzuki’s definitely have an advantage right now, they’ve got I think a 100 cc’s over the winner and a big stroker crank for it and it really paid off, I wish I would have had that last year when I was on the DSR bike,” explained Smith. “I complained all year last year, I said they need help, they need help, about the time I get off they get help. All in all, we’ve been working really hard, we’ve got some people working back, I don’t want to say their names but they know who they are. They’ve been helping with a lot of stuff in the research and development department. We found a little something and we’re making strides and I think we’re going to be good the rest of the year.”

When this happens, Smith understands the competition will be begging for someone to cool him down.

WHAT THE HECK JUST HAPPENED? - This was a much-anticipated heavyweight match-up between John Force and Robert Hight in Sunday’s semifinals of the Fourth annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio.

The race between father and son-in-law and JFR teammates was memorable all right, for how bizarre it was at the starting line.

As Hight, who is the reigning Funny Car world champion, was getting ready to stage, the Christmas tree appeared to be functioning abnormally.

“When I pull up forward to (crew chief) Jimmy (Prock), I do not look at the tree or anything,” Hight said. “I’m looking down track to make sure my car is straight. Then, I see him (Jimmy) out of the corner of my eye stop me, and I stopped. He does his deal and he walked away. When he walked away, the bottom light on the tree flashed. The bottom stage bulb flashed. So, I stopped in my tracks. I thought oh $%^&, did he (Jimmy) pull me clear through, am I way too far in, because it was a flash. What the #$%^, how did that just happen? So, I thought OK, and I rolled forward and the top light lit. I actually blanked that out and never thought about it again, it was over with and it was something different. I saw John pre-staged, and I pulled my pump on and I pulled my foot off the clutch and I started bumping in and I was staged. I look over at him (John) and he’s staged and I look at the tree, and I never saw anything and he left.”

Force had a .094 light and clocked a 4.249-second time at 288.77 mph for the easy win. When Hight finally did leave the line he had a 1.257-second reaction time and  a 4.564 elapsed time at 196.10 mph.

“You can see on our video it did flash, the tree did, but I swear I didn’t see it and it was a quick one,” Hight said. “For some reason, something was weird and it was a quick flash. I do not know what just took place. Probably more than anything, it was driver malfunction. I have no idea. I did not see the tree come down. I didn’t. It was weird.”

The craziness at the starting line wasn’t lost on Prock. Prock and some of Hight’s team members had a discussion with NHRA officials at the starting line about what unfolded. 

“I wasn’t sure (what happened),” Prock said. “The only thing that distracted me was because the lights came on and went off and there was no green light, but you do not leave on the green anyway. But, they were trying to tell me that the body was in the lights. I know it isn’t because I put my foot right behind the beam and I roll them forward. I think he (Hight) just got distracted and didn’t leave. I think his brain went dead or something for a minute. I do not know. Originally, we went and argued that the tree didn’t come on because the lights came on and went off so fast. I think that is what made us think that (on the) light, we didn’t get a tree because if you look at the video, the lights came on and went right off and there was no green light. It was just a weird deal.” - by Tracy Renck

QUICK HITS, RACE DAY REPORTING IN RAPID FASHION

ON THE HORIZON – Tracking turbulent weather on the horizon, NHRA race control reduced the turnaround time for the professional cars to 65 minutes.

The race is scheduled to secure before 5 PM, EST. A significant storm cell from the west, according to weather.com, is supposed to set in this evening at 6:45.

NO. 1 UNFRIENDLY – Only one of four professional No. 1 qualifiers made it past the second round of eliminations on Sunday. Larry Dixon, the Top Fuel, pole-winner was the man.

TOP FUEL

BEST APPEARING FIRST ROUND WINNER - The Best Appearing Award wasn’t the only good thing to happen to Doug Foley on Sunday. In the first round, Foley grabbed his second career round win as the driver for Dote Racing by defeating David Grubnic.

“This is a team that shows up and is pretty much ready to race,” said Foley. “We struggled a bit in Englishtown and lost a bit of confidence. We did fine today and [crew chief] Doug Kuch will get you down a dirt road.”

Foley was a not unhappy to see he was facing Doug Kalitta in the first round. With this win, both have now come at the expense of the Kalitta operation. Foley previously beat Kalitta in the first round of the NHRA Gatornationals.

VETERANS RULE – If Pat Dakin has one extreme edge on the competition this weekend, it’s in experience. The veteran Top Fuel driver, who raced the class during the 1970s, scored a big win for his home state fans beating a tire-smoking Morgan Lucas in the first round.

“I have no idea what the car ran,” said Dakin, as he exited his unsponsored dragster. “We tried to put a tune-up in the car because we knew it would be at its best this first round. Chalk one up for the old guys.”


FUNNY CAR

FATHER KNOWS BEST – If anyone knows their daughter, it’s 14-time champion John Force who raced and beat Ashley Force Hood in the first round of eliminations. He was the No. 16 qualifier and she was tops.

“Let me tell you, she comes across with that little girl personality and ‘I love my dad’ but let me tell you she wants to kick my ass every time she races me,” Force explained. “At the end of the day, it don’t make the wife happy but I have the points lead and lots of people breathing down my back.”

DON’T EXPECT A PRESENT – Del Worsham eliminated Jack Beckman in the second round of eliminations, not exactly the birthday present the latter was hoping for. For Worsham, it was the best gift he had to offer.

“Huh … it’s his birthday … whatever,” said Worsham laughing. “It was my birthday in February … but I’m still gonna win.”

WILKERSON, THE SALESMAN – Tuning a Funny Car, Tim Wilkerson does an excellent job. Driving one, he’s just as good. Selling for the sponsors … he’s trying.

“I’m happy to be a Summit car, a proud sponsor of our race car,” beamed Wilkerson. “If you’re not buying parts from Summit, you should be. If you’re not driving a Ford, you should be. If you’re not buying software from LRS [Levi, Ray & Shoup] … you probably don’t know what they are (about).  

NEVER LET ‘EM SEE YOU SWEAT – Jack Beckman rode the edge of disqualification during the first round of eliminations against Jim Head.

Unfortunately for Head, Beckman held on to score the win.

“We were going to get a cone if I had stayed in it,” Beckman admitted. “We had a hole out and it was pushing that way [toward the centerline] awful hard.”

This might have been the politically correct reason but the non-pc reason might have been more of a personal nature.

“You can’t complain about the weather because it’s probably same for the other guy in the lane,” Beckman explained. “As soon as I stepped on the throttle – a big blob of sweat goes right into my right eye. Maybe if it had pulled into the other eye, I might have gone in the other direction.”  

TRAINING PAYS OFF – For the third time in 2010, Paul Lee reached the quarter-finals. Lee, driving Jim Dunn’s Canidae Chevrolet, knocked off Cruz Pedregon in the first round of eliminations.

The training provided by Dunn made all the difference in winning and losing as Pedregon used up a bit of real estate in his lane.

“My job is to drive this car to the finish line, whatever it takes,” Lee explained. “I just pedaled it and I never saw him. If I don’t see him my job is to get it there. It’s a whole lot of fun winning.”


AREND’S MATH – Jeff Arend scored a major upset from the No. 15 spot by knocking off Matt Hagen. This was the first time in a long time for Arend to beat the Diehard-sponsored driver.

“I saw Matt ahead of me for a while and I imagine he smoked the tires,” Arend said. “We had a hole out and the thing was driving all over the place. We’ve raced like four times in a row and I’m like 0-6.”

Make that like 1-6 now.

PRO STOCK

WON IT BY THAAAAT MUCH – Five of eight first round Pro Stock races were determined by less than .01 at the stripe. The closest of the five victories belonged to Ron Krisher as he topped Rodger Brogdon by .0013. The rest of the close margin of victory winners were Jason Line [Mike Edwards] .0057, Larry Morgan [Warren Johnson] .0079, Allen Johnson [Shane Gray] .0023 and Jeg Coughlin Jr. [Justin Humphrey] .0063.

BATTLE OF THE MAIL ORDER TITANS – The second round of Pro Stock presented a battle of titanic proportions; a clash of the mail order titans. Event sponsor Summit Racing Equipment and Jegs Mail Order and their representatives brought the Pro Stock fans to their feet.

A day earlier both Greg Anderson and Jeg Coughlin Jr. were on top of the world. Anderson piloted his Summit-sponsored Pontiac to the $60 K&N Filters Horsepower Challenge title while Coughlin put the Jegs.com Chevrolet atop the qualifying list.

On this day, Anderson overcame a Coughlin hole shot to score the win.

I REMEMBER YOU – Larry Morgan raced his first Pro Stock event in 1987. He was a first round loser, dropping the match to veteran Warren Johnson. On this day, the two faced off in the first round and while they both raced Oldsmobile-bodied cars the first time, this time Morgan’s Ford beat Johnson’s Pontiac on a hole shot.

PRO STOCK BIKE

PAYBACK’S A MUTHA – Matt Smith isn’t afraid to call a fellow rider out over the PA system and did it following his second round match against Michael Philips. Smith rubbed salt in Philips’ wounds after beating him on both ends of the track.

Smith fully believes payback can be a “mutha”.

“After seeing the videos of Englishtown, seeing him looking over his shoulder and doing the high-fives,” explained Smith, who lost to Philips at the race. “The motioning for me to come on down after we had broken, That’s a good payback to beat him on a hole shot.”

NEED TO QUIT WORRYING – Karen Stoffer lost in the first round in the most frustrating way, on a hole shot. LE Tonglet got the best of her, leaving .029 seconds ahead of Stoffer, which added insult to injury when he beat her with a slower elapsed time.

“We need to quit worrying about red lights,” crew chief Gary Stoffer said. “I slowed the clutch lever release down too much and I cost her the win. Karen's riding a lot better and I know on race day she's good for a three hundredths of a second jump on the green light. If I had left it like it was, that would have given her about an .010-second green-light start and I thought that was a touch too close so I tightened it up and cost her the race.

“I know we can win all day long with .020 lights. I just get nervous when you start getting down in the .010s and .00s. It's too close to red. But this time I should have left it like it was and let her ride.”

THIS IS NOT A HANDICAP CATEGORY – Was David Hope that good in his first round or Eddie Krawiec just bad? If there’s an award for the slowest reaction time of the class, Krawiec nailed down a winning shot with a .239 reaction time, and rightfully so, had no hope in beating Hope.

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SATURDAY NOTEBOOK - HOT DAY OF RACING

ANDERSON WINS THE K&N HORSEPOWER CHALLENGE - Allen Johnson taunted Greg Anderson and because of that, Mike Edwards paid the price in the final of the K&N Horsepower Challenge, a race-within-a-race during the NHRA Summit Nationals.

Two years earlier Johnson strapped a perfect .000 reaction time on Anderson to claim the $60,000 winning purse. At the time, Anderson was the top dog in the Pro Stock class.

Fast forward to Saturday afternoon at Summit Raceway Park in Norwalk, Ohio.

Anderson worked his way through the eight-car field from the second seed only to meet the top ranked Edwards for the prize. He beat Edwards on a hole shot, recording a 6.685, 206.23 pass to secure the victory.

His greatest weapon in the final round wasn’t necessarily a quicker reaction time, although it helped. A strong run down the quarter-mile was the same story.

The largest weapon in his arsenal on Saturday afternoon was a flashback.

“When I saw that ring on the podium this morning that did it for me,” said Anderson, whose win on Saturday marked his third career triumph in the specialty race. “Allen Johnson has flashed that ring underneath my nose so many times since that day. Thanks for giving me that drive.”

The drive was there for the final round but for Anderson moments after the victory he couldn’t grasp the enormity of the moment.

“I looked at those rings, that hood scoop trophy and I had no idea how I was going to pull it off,” said Anderson, reflecting on his pre-race moments. “I still don’t know how it happened. I had a decent car and I drove decent today. Somehow the timing was right and we had just enough to win every round. It all comes down to timing.”

Anderson realized after the victory he owed his team an apology and delivered.

“It was a crazy day. I haven’t been brimming with confidence lately. My guys kept telling me we were going to win this thing. They told me to stop acting like we weren’t going to win. I apologized to them because they are right. I need to start thinking positive because if you don’t, you aren’t going to win. My guys cheering me up and giving me confidence won it today.”

So did those shining rings, Anderson attests, and the glowing vote of confidence.

‘The mind is a powerful thing    and it’s a weak thing apparently on top of my head,” Anderson admitted. “I’ve gotta work my mind and get it stronger. I have to be more positive because you won’t win if you’re not. Seeing those rings was the intangible I needed.”



COUGHLIN HEADS INTO NORWALK SUNDAY AS NO. 1 - Jeg Coughlin Jr. has been racing long enough to know Mother Nature is the biggest 

factor in drag racing. Sunday, the No. 1 Pro Stock qualifier at the NHRA Summit Nationals, figures she is going to have a hand in Sunday’s eliminations.

“Weather could really play a role in this race tomorrow,” Coughlin said. “We ran that 6.59 Friday night in what is usually the hero session, but this morning when we had that cloud cover we saw plenty of cars running good numbers. If we get that again tomorrow morning it could be really interesting.”

In addition to this weekend's national event, Coughlin took part in the $50,000 K&N Horsepower Challenge where he raced to a semifinal finish, worth $3,000. Coughlin was the defending champion of the event, a race he's won three times in the past.

“As soon as I let the clutch out against Mike (Edwards, semifinal opponent) the car immediately decelerated so we thought we had an engine problem,” Coughlin said. “We swapped out motors before Q4 and it did the exact same thing again, so obviously the problem lies elsewhere.

“I'm a little shocked. Typically when you have a problem like this you can diagnose it right away with the RacePak data we collect and fix it. We weren't able to do that this time so we'll go over this thing from front to back and triple-check everything to make absolutely sure we're ready for tomorrow.”

When eliminations begin, Coughlin will take on No. 16 qualifier Justin Humphreys for the first time in 2010.

 

JOHNSON'S FRUGAL POLE POSITION - The first time Steve Johnson qualified on the pole he could never haave envisioned the scenario he would face the second time around fifteen years later.

Johnson, a three-time finalist thus far in 2010, fended off a flurry of challenges for his provisional pole spot to head into Sunday’s eliminations at the NHRA Summit Nationals as the No. 1 seed for the first time since the 1995 NHRA Southern Nationals in Commerce, Ga.

The difference between then and now is this time he didn’t even fire his bike outside of his pits on Saturday. For Johnson, his survival from week to week is dependent on being conservative during qualifying. In this case, it was better to sit in the pits then it was to put two more runs on his bike.

“The reality is that we look at each run against our competitors,” said Johnson. “We have a budget to deal with and we want to save parts. We have a Vance & Hines engine that is extremely strong, it’s the best you can buy, but the reality is – at the end of the day we only have one. The big focus for us at this moment is getting into the Countdown to 1. I hate leaving those six qualifying points on the table today.”

“We’ve never had a hot rod capable of doing that before. Having said that, it all comes down to budget and having a strong engine to survive those last five races. That’s why we sat out.”

Saving budget has a downside, as Johnson will attest, when the practice affects the ticket purchasing race fans.

“I had two fans walk over to my trailer to let me know they were bummed that I wasn’t running on Saturday,” said Johnson. “I’m getting them tickets to come tomorrow. I felt bad. I figured maybe they might be the only two fans we have.”  

Sunday he hopes to bank heavily on what he learned on Friday.

“Friday afternoon’s session is about where we will be at on Sunday. But, every day you start from scratch.”

ANOTHER FATHER/DAUGHTER FIRST ROUND MATCH-UP - Ashley Force Hood learned on Saturday that you cannot change fate and for her this means a first round match against her 14-time Funny Car champion father John Force in Sunday’s final eliminations at the NHRA Summit Nationals.

Force Hood’s provisional pole survived a hot day of qualifying and two torrential downpours which brought an end to the incomplete final round.

“I was in my Mustang belted up and ready to go and then the rain just started pouring,” Force Hood explained. “It surprised all of us. I think the locals all knew because someone said the stands cleared out before it started raining really hard. We were going to try and make another really strong run. In the heat I don’t think we would have been trying to improve too much on our time.”

Force Hood’s Friday night time of 4.032 seconds held up as the top elapsed time.

On the other end of the spectrum, her father, unqualified headed into the final session, was one of the only seven Funny Cars to make runs. His 4.238 second pass placed him alongside of her in the first round.

Force Hood does not relish the fact that she will have to race her father and teammate in the first round but she knows that it is out of her control. Weather and her loquacious father are two of those things.

“I just have a really good running car. We have had it all weekend long and we are excited to be going into race day feeling this confident. The car doesn’t know who is in the other lane whether it is dad (John Force), my brother-in-law (Robert Hight), my best friend or someone you don’t like. It just doesn’t know the difference. That is how we race and especially when we race my dad,” said Force Hood.

“He talks so much and he is so involved and I have a very different style than him. I do my own thing. I do think he tries to mess with me. I don’t think he does it on purpose but he is constantly talking about everything to do with the runs. I want to tell him, ‘Dad, you just do your thing; you have been doing it for over 30 years. I’ll do my thing.’ Whoever has the best car will go on to the next round and most importantly whoever wins should go on and win the race.”

DIXON REBOUNDS AS NO.1 QUALIFIER – Larry Dixon is back in the groove and if his history this season stays true to form; his No. 1 qualifying spot is a strong indicator he'll spend some time Sunday celebrating a victory.

Dixon was happily recounting the days events when he was reminded he has yet to lose from the No. 1 qualifying spot in 2010.

“Thanks for bringing that up,” responded Dixon with a laugh. “The pressure is on.”

The pressure to perform to a gold standard has been hovering over Dixon ever since he left Don Prudhomme Racing to become the driver of the Al-Anabi dragster in 2009.

Up until last week at Bristol, Dixon has been a virtual machine this year, capturing poles and winning races. Still, it hasn't been as easy as it looks.

“It's really tough,” admitted Dixon as he talked about qualifying. “You have to hit that Friday night session just right. You know you are going for the pole. It's like a long ball contest in golf. Friday night you swing for the fences and hope it sticks. For us, ours was the one that stuck the best last night.”

Typically, Dixon and the Al-Anabi team swing for the fences on Friday night and then look to Saturday to fine tune a set-up for eliminations on Sunday. At Norwalk, the pattern held true to form.

“I thought our team, the Al-Anabi team, did a good job today,” Dixon said. “We had two runs, the first one an .87, Q3, and then, Q4, came back with an .85. Good runs for the middle of the day.”

Exactly the conditions teams are expecting on Sunday. However, according to Dixon, the forecast could always change.

“Forecast-wise, the forecast is similar to what you saw today. Obviously a chance  of rain, we hope not. There is a chance you might have cloud cover, you might have sun, heat humidity and all that. You just have to be prepared for everything. Our team is trying to do the best they can. Overall, I thought a good day for the team.”

A good day for the team and the driver just did his job flawlessly, like he has all year long.

NEW DUO BRIGHTENS CAPPS' QUALIFYING - With new crew chief John Medlen on board, and former crew chief Ed “Ace” McCulloch working alongside, Ron Capps shined during qualifying for the fourth annual NHRA Nationals, snagging a No. 5 qualifying spot.

Driving the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger Funny Car, Capps posted a straight, solid pass of 4.069 seconds at 306.40 mph during the cooler Friday night session, which followed a 4.272/287.60 (No. 10) earlier that day. In Saturday's third round, he lost traction in the heat of the day, recording a 6.618/98.09. The final round was cancelled, after seven cars made it down the track, because of rain before Capps was able to come to the starting line.

“Obviously, it was a rough week in the sense that I couldn't wait to get here to the race track and get back in the car,” said Capps, who was given the news that Medlen would take over for McCulloch after last Sunday's Bristol race.
“And even with all the changes that were made I knew that having Ed McCulloch still hanging out here would make for a positive weekend.

“And, sure enough, they unreeled that 4.06 Friday night as a team and that was terrific. To make that .06 run at 306 mph was just a tribute to John Medlen, for what he's done, and to Ed McCulloch who is working closely with John to make this car better. And for me it's a new page. We'll see what tomorrow brings.”

Capps faces Bob Bode in the opening round of Sunday's eliminations.

CORY MAC CLINCHES HIS SPOT IN THE COUNTDOWN - Cory McClenathan clinched a spot in the Countdown to 1 playoffs after running the first qualifying session on Friday at the fourth annual NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio. Following four rounds of qualifying, he ended up sixth in the order and will face Doug Kalitta in the opening round of eliminations, the seventh time the pair will have faced each other this season.

McClenathan, driving the FRAM Top Fuel dragster, posted his quickest lap of 3.887 seconds at 313.73 mph in today's third qualifying round. His Friday's passes were a 3.889/308.57 (No. 2) and a tire-smoking 5.952/105.16 (No. 6) during the cooler night session under the lights. Today's final try produced an 8.549/80.51.

“Obviously having a spot in the Countdown already is a good thing,” said McClenathan, who joins Larry Dixon and Tony Schumacher as the only Top Fuel drivers who have clinched their places in the playoffs so far. “We’re still in that position where the more rounds we go the better the points are and the closer we get  to Larry and obviously Tony (first and second in points, respectively), but to clinch a spot in the Countdown already at this part of the season, I’d say that’s pretty good."

The playoffs will be contested in the final six events of the season among the top 10 in points. After the Norwalk event, there will be four races before the Countdown kicks in.

“This FRAM car’s been running great numbers all year long," added McClenathan, who is third in points. “(Crew chiefs) Phil (Shuler) and Todd (Okuhara) and the FRAM boys have been doing a great job so I’m really proud of them. I think that’s a good testament to a second-year team doing as well as we have. But, at the same time, we still want to win some more races before the Countdown starts.”

THE NEWEST NESS CREATION - Don Ness was as proud as he could be walking through the pits at Summit Raceway Park in Norwalk, Ohio. He was more than willing to show off his latest creation to anyone who would take the time to look.

Ness, a veteran chassis builder known for his prowess in building Pro Stockers, no longer has a race car to showcase. He’s now in the wheelie bar business and firmly believes his carbon fiber model could become the greatest thing since sliced bread for this area of the race car.

Ness believes the carbon fiber bars, coupled with the billet hardware creates a unit that is up to 40-percent stronger, while weighing in at 30 pounds lighter.  

Ness believes his new product line represents the wave of the future.

“I think so. I really do,” Ness said. “If you can take 15 to 20 pounds off a car how can that hurt?  And, especially unsuspended weight. It looks like the sales are going to be great. We're looking forward to putting them on a lot of cars in the next two weeks.”

The new wheelie bars are designed for Pro Modified, Pro Stock and Competition eliminator applications for now but according to Ness he’s already working on a Funny car design. The units will retail in the $5,000 range.

Ness has a dealer network in place through leading chassis builders Tim McAmis, Jerry Bickel, Jerry Haas and Dennis Burnevik. He’s even fielding orders personally.

“They are available right now, next week,” Ness said. “I just got in shipment of carbon, which I was waiting for. All the hardware is done already; just got to glue them together. It takes twenty minutes to put a set together.”

And Ness believes those 20 minutes will make a big difference in a team looking for performance outside of the engine.

THE FIRST EXPERIENCE: NORWALK’S 1981 EVENT - Next year will mark the 30th anniversary of the first national event staged at the track formerly known as Norwalk Raceway Park. A lot has changed about the palatial house of speed located to the southwest of Cleveland, Ohio, even its name.

Now branded as Summit Raceway Park, the facility operates under  the NHRA sanction and represents one of the more successful events on the 23-race Full Throttle tour.

Back in the 1981, the Bader family, fronted by Bill Bader Sr., used a rain plagued IHRA event as a springboard for the future; a stepping stone to it's current prominence as a premier facility in the drag racing world.

However, there are those who remember the time the drag strip, carved out of a cornfield, was afforded its first chance to host a national event. The 1981 IHRA World Nationals was one of those events which left its participants with memories.

Mark Oswald, co-crew chief for the Matco Tools Top Fuel dragster, remembers the inaugural event very well because he won it. Then a Top Fuel driver, he wheeled the Thomas, Oswald and Kattleman dragster to a win over the legendary “Big Daddy” Don Garlits.

“Obviously the place wasn’t as big as it is now,” recalled Oswald, who won the event a record six of the first seven times in both dragster and Funny Car. “But as a Bader trademark, the place was always clean and taken care of. It just wasn’t big at all.”

As a bracket track the pits were fine but for nitro cars and those requiring a tow to the staging lanes, the early days of the facility presented a few challenges.

“You had to be careful towing your car through the pits because there were rocks and boulders to dodge,” Oswald said with a smile. “It was quite a struggle to get around at times.”

Kenny Bernstein raced at the first event like Oswald, and reached the final round. His day ended as a runner-up in Funny Car to Billy Meyer.

“Yeah, I don’t remember much pavement in the pits,” Bernstein acknowledged. “The place was really small.”

Whatever inadequacies the track may have shown during its debut on the big stage were quickly erased as each driver met with Bill Bader recalled Bernstein. It was according to Bernstein, like “meeting the man larger than life”.

“He was a big, tall guy and carried a big smile,” Bernstein remembered. “I shook his hand and knew immediately this guy was different. I knew he was a go-getter back then. The track was small, but it had a lot of potential. All of the tracks were that way back then.

We all saw the hard work and enthusiasm Bill Bader put into it and there was no doubt that he’d make it. Then his son followed in his footsteps.”

Even thought the early pits were crude, the racing surface was as good as any of the legendary drag strips hosting NHRA events at the time.

“I remember making the first run and thinking my car was really slow,” Oswald said. “The track was so smooth and presented one of our career best runs.

Jim Head was in his second season as a Top Fuel driver and with his limited experience learned early how good the surface was.

“Jeb Allen made one of the quickest runs at the time here,” explained Head, who qualified for the field. “I’m not surprised by what this track has become today. If you knew Bill Bader and his determination and his work ethic, you had to know he was going to pull it off.”

If only those racers had seen the track in the days before they arrived. Bill Bader easily admits they might have been concerned. IHRA’s Vice President Ted Jones was very concerned.

“He saw it was under construction,” Bader recalled. “We weren’t scheduled to open the gates until Friday morning, but we had lots and lots of work to do. There was no guardrail in place for the first six hundred feet. There was no chain link fence and the grandstands were just being finished.

“Ted said to me, ‘Bill how’s it going? The race is this week, you know.’ I told him the race is Friday and this is Monday, so get the hell out of my way so I can get it finished. I think Ted was very nervous at that point,” Bader said with a smile.

It was easy to understand why Jones was panicking, considering the lack of necessities as well as a mud-covered racing surface. The track had served as a staging area for the new bleachers, which were purchased from a high school stadium. The Norwalk crew washed the track from start to finish on Thursday.

That first event was an abysmal failure for Bader and the IHRA. According to Bader, the event cost $110,000 to produce and they lost $55,000.

“I said to myself, ‘I just borrowed a quarter of a million dollars to do all of this stuff and I lost over fifty grand,’” Bader said. “I didn’t know what the heck I was thinking.”

“Raymond Beadle walked up to me and asked me if I wanted to flip for $50,000,” Bader said. “He asked me how much I stood to lose. He wanted to flip me for it. God bless him. He was being funny and I wasn’t much in a funny mood.”

Today Bader can laugh about it all, and given the prestige which graces his facility, he is certainly having the last laugh over those who thought it would never happen or at the very least fail miserable.

Just the opposite, Summit Raceway Park is a must stop in the modern NHRA tour for both teams and fans.

It is a fine house, despite the inauspicious start.

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FRIDAY NOTEBOOK - A LONG DAY AT THE NORWALK EXPERIENCE

DIXON ERASES BRISTOL LOSS WITH UPPER DECK SHOT - Larry Dixon lost in the first round of last weekend’s NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tenn. The race was staged on Father’s Day, a holiday in which Dixon has won five of seven times.

One week later at the NHRA Summit Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio, Dixon is quick to point out the loss is behind him.

“Can’t do anything about last week,” said Dixon. “Hopefully that’s just a mulligan in the season. Can’t get points anymore from last weekend, you just have to go forward and try to get points this weekend. That’s what we’re working on right now.”

In the search for those points, it just so happened he got aggressive on Friday night, real aggressive.

“It was certainly a great run by the Al Anabi team,” said Dixon. “As you have seen, it takes a great run in the Friday evening session to get the pole or even close to it. There’s a few times we’ve missed.”

If Dixon left anything on the table, he couldn’t tell.

“Just looking at the computer, it got every bit of it,” Dixon admitted. “There wasn’t much of anything left. It was a great run. It’s great to be on the pole and at least in the top two or three.”

Dixon’s pole will be his fourth of the season if it holds and the 44th of his career.

“It was a nice run,” Dixon said. “I’m still learning in driving this car. Usually it’s a handful on the fast runs but tonight, it had a lot of grip. It was just a great run.”

It was pure coincidence the stellar qualifying pass followed last week's first round loss; pure coincidence.

FORCE HOOD FIRST IN QUALIFYING - Ashley Force Hood didn’t mind going to the top of the Funny Car qualifying list during the NHRA Summit Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio, even if it meant sacrificing her dad to get there.

Her famous father, 14-time Funny Car champion John Force, was the first of the John Force Racing Mustangs to run during the final qualifying session and after he smoked the tires at mid-track, the remainder of his cars went to the finish line under power and quickly.

“The track conditions were really perfect,” said Force Hood, who nailed the provisional top spot with a 4.032 seconds and 311.99 mph pass during the second qualifying session. “Everybody knew that going up to the starting line. We were really excited we got to run later in the pack. We wanted to take advantage of it. My crew chiefs were back and forth on whether to push it but risk not getting down the track. We decided we were in the show so if we don’t get down we don’t get down. It was our best run ever at 1,000 feet and it felt really good.”

And for Force Hood, it felt unusually fast.

“I was getting down the track and I was getting to the point of thinking my body couldn’t take much more pressure,” Force Hood continued. “I am surprised that (Matt) Hagan and Robert (Hight) didn’t get around me. When I saw the flames staying lit all the way to the finish line, when we were towing back, I thought if they are getting to the top end under power they would do it (go to No. 1) but we managed to hang onto it.”

Force Hood wouldn’t mind her success carrying over into Sunday’s eliminations considering she’s winless this season headed into the 13th event of the season.

“We have struggled this year so no one had hard feelings that we went to No. 1,” said Force Hood. “They were all happy to see us get a good run in the night session. We still have to be focused on Sunday. You don’t want to lose your train of thought. It is the day runs that are important for Sunday. Being the No. 1 qualifier going into the race is where everyone wants to be. You have confidence going into race day if you have been making good runs. That is how we feel about it.”

COUGHLIN VAULTS TO TOP OF THE HEAP IN TREACHEROUS HOME EVENT - Racing at his home track, host to this weekend's Summit Nationals has its advantages for Jeg Coughlin Jr.

The biggest advantage for the past Pro Stock champion is heading into the $50,000 K&N Horsepower Challenge as the top qualifier following Friday qualifying at the NHRA Summit Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio.

“When the sun went down and it started cooling off a bit with that full moon shining, I think the crew chiefs got real excited,” Coughlin said of the cooling night temperatures. “I knew it would be key to keep the car in the middle of the groove and make sure I took it to the other end properly, and that's exactly what happened. It's a great start to the weekend, especially with the K&N Horsepower Challenge firing up in the morning. We needed to be hitting on all cylinders and we are.

“The JEGS.com Chevrolet Cobalt has been going nice and straight for the last four or five races and it responded well tonight and we were able to poke it into the 6.50 range, so we're really pleased. I don't think anyone else ran a 6.50.”

Friday’s second qualifying session for the suspended chassis pro classes, Pro Stock and Pro Modified, bordered on the treacherous side. Four cars crashed prior to Coughlin's final run of the day - two in Pro Mod and two more in Pro Stock. Fortunately, no one was injured, but the carnage sent a weird vibe through the staging lanes.

“Pro Stock cars don't have big wings so we definitely put as much angle as we could on there tonight,” Coughlin said. “We knew that would give us a bit more bite even at the expense of a little ET but we were okay with that. I didn't see the two Pro Mod wrecks but I did watch the two in Pro Stock and I knew from seeing that it would be vital to keep the car in the middle of the track because the groove is narrow right now.”

JOHNSON STRETCHES HIS PENNIES INTO DOLLARS - Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Steve Johnson attributed one of his best pieces of advice to the late class champion Dave Schultz.

“He used to say enough pennies make a dollar,” said Johnson, as he faced the media following the first day of qualifications at the NHRA Summit Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio.

“We are trying to make sure we use every bit of this motorcycle. We are making the right calls on the bike, but the more we learn the more we find out what we need to work on. We are learning that and the pennies are adding up. When we started [this season] we only had 50 pennies, but now we are up to 100. When you have even 90 pennies, you have a fast bike because you have all of these details.”

The devil is in the details for Johnson, who after two finals in 2010, stands on the cusp of his first pole position of the season. If his 6.929 holds, it will represent only the second time in his career that he’s been the No. 1 seed headed into race day.

That’s not a bad place to be if you started the season merely hoping to collect the qualifying money.

“We started the season in a pick-up truck and hoped to just come in, make one run and get the qualifying money,” admitted Johnson. “Now, we’ve been to the finals in three of six races, so we have been fortunate. Then we got some sponsorship help.”

Friday, he also got some help from Mother Nature.

“We weren’t going to do anything because it was going to be hot,” explained Johnson, who was planning initially to sit out the session. “Then some things happened and it got cooler. We started thinking there was going to be a good run out there. I never believed our first run was going to be the best, but I knew [if the conditions were right] the second could be quicker. The track got better, the weather got better and we had a good tune-up in the bike.”

And for Johnson, Friday was about getting the value out of all 380 horses inside his Suzuki engine, even if it is pennies on a dollar.

FIRST 300 FOR LEE – While running 300 miles per hour in the 1000 foot era is nothing new for the class, it was for Paul Lee and Jim Dunn. Up until their Friday evening run the driver/team owner hadn’t topped the 300 mark since nitro racing was reduced to 1000 feet.

Lee clocked a 4.124 second run at 300.26 miles per hour.

MORE UNCHARTED TERRITORY – After experiencing severe tire shake in the first 30 feet of his final Friday qualifying attempt, Mike Edwards heads into Saturday’s qualifying and the K&N Horsepower Challenge outside of the qualified field with a 6.641, 207.88 run. This is the first time this year Edwards has not been qualified going into Saturday's runs.

CRASH, BOOM - BAM! - 

Jim Head's day started off with a wall-brushing. At the hit of the throttle, Head's Toyota Funny Car smoked the tires and crossed the centerline.  The damage to his car was minimal, although it looked pretty scary from this angle.

As exciting as the drag racing is in Norwalk, it pales in comparison to the cuisine.

Every wants a piece of John Force these days.

GIVE ME A BREAK - Jim Head is back in his laboratory conjuring up ideas, again.

The longtime drag racing innovator used to seek performance gains from his inventions but in the last half decade or so, his agenda has changed. He’s all about safety.

The focus of Head’s latest innovation is in getting the nitro cars stopped quicker and safer. While the outspoken advocate of 1,000 foot nitro racing believes shortening the race course has made drag racing on the 300 mph level safer than ever and easier to stop the cars, the revised course is not the end all to making nitro racing safer.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and for Head, the bulky front brakes on his Toyota Funny Car averted a potential disaster last month in Topeka, Ks.

Head exploded an engine, blowing the body off and in the midst of the engine belching fire, he got lost. He was blinded momentarily by the fire. Instinctively he got on the brakes and the parachute automatically deployed via the Electrimotion system, yet his car drifted over the center line and into Jeff Arend’s lane.

While the majority of the Funny Car teams use rear brakes primarily to stop, Head said it was his front brakes which made the difference as  he merely tapped Arend’s wheelie bars. Without those brakes Head feels the outcome could have been much worse, because his rear brakes had become ineffective as they became coated in the oil spewing from his exploding engine.

“I hit him at probably 20 miles per hour,” Head confirmed. “If I hadn’t have had those front brakes to slow me, no telling what might have happened. I could have run up the back of that car and landed on his roof. Can you imagine being a driver and having an engine over your head and leaking oil?”

Head’s heavy-duty brakes are an inch larger in diameter than the standard and the key to their effectiveness has been the double-piston design. Head believes the unit has tripled the stopping force provided over today’s standard unit.

Head believes when you get into a situation similar to what he experienced in Topeka or have parachute trouble at one of the shorter tracks, the ability to stop could easily represent the difference between life and death.

“I can skid the tires, I have proven that,” said Head. “We can put so much stopping power on the front of the car, clearly where you get most of your stopping power, that when we first did it, it was trying to tear the spindle off. We actually had to go back and reinforce the a-arm system.”

Head believes that while a double parachute system helps the deceleration greatly, it cannot be depended on as the last word in getting stopped.

“If I’ve got a choice of stopping between my parachute and front brakes, I’m taking the brakes,” Head said, with a stern look on his face.

In this day and age of performance and delivery, the downside to the brakes is the added weight. Head wonders aloud what good having a lighter car will present a driver when they get in trouble.

“At least sixty to seventy pounds on my car is made up of safety equipment,” Head confirmed. “I am willing to give up weight in the name of safety. How could you not do that? If you run off the end of the track and get hurt bad because you couldn’t stop, could you really look your wife and kids in the eyes and say, ‘hey, but at least I had a lighter car.”    

Fellow Funny Car driver Del Worsham was competing in Englishtown and moments after Neal Parker’s fatal crash during Friday qualifying at the NHRA SuperNationals, walked over to borrow a set of Head’s front brakes. Parker was killed when his Alcohol Funny Car went into the containment system following a high speed run. A cause of death has not been released yet.

“I was looking to do something different,” admitted Worsham. “The track was short, there had already been some trouble … not that the front brakes would have made a difference in what happened there. If there’s a better way out there to get us stopped, and there’s no downside, performance wise, then it should be on this car, bottom line. I really don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t run them.”

Worsham and his team were unable to properly outfit their car with the front brakes in Englishtown but he added they could have them in operation as early as this weekend’s event in Norwalk, Ohio.

“We called Strange and they are sending us some parts,” Worsham explained. “There are still some clearance issues with our wheels and how our car is built. It’s going to take some work, but in the end, it will be worth it.”

While Worsham is an advocate of Head’s braking system, he believes the final decision of implementing them should be up to the team and not mandated by the NHRA.

“I still think it should be up to the driver and the team’s discretion,” Worsham said. “If there’s a better way out there, and can help you, we should have it on this car.”

But, then again, for Worsham, there is no performance issue since his car is not having weight issues as they routinely bolt on ballast to reach the minimum weight.

“Once we get them all dialed in, I am going to put them on the car where they will stay all season long,” Worsham said.

John Force Racing is another team which has tried the braking system. Just like Worsham, they plan to run them once they get the system to work with their chassis. Initially the heavy duty braking system added stress to the A-arms. They went back to the shop and crafted new A-arms and made adjustments to the chassis.

“When you get into situations where you have four races in a row, it’s hard to implement stuff like that. We are working in that direction,” said Dean Antonelli, co-crew chief on Ashley Force's Funny Car.

“More braking always provides you with peace of mind, and while we have good brakes on there now, most of the teams concentrate their braking capabilities on the rear,” explained Antonelli. “Even if you have the best brakes, and you get in your own oil, it doesn’t matter. You don’t have those issues with the front brakes. “

Antonelli confirmed the typical John Force Racing car is 35 pounds over the weight minimum due to safety additions.

In the end, if the brakes save just one life, it’s worth its weight in gold. Just being a part of safety innovation would fulfill a lifelong goal for Head.

“I’d feel a great deal of satisfaction,” admitted Head, whose performance innovations were adopted by many teams over the last two decades. “I used to love to innovate and rightfully so, in that area, we’ve been boxed in. I think the sanctioning body didn’t necessarily do bad in boxing us in with performance, but we sure haven’t been boxed in with safety and they’ve done a good job at it, short of the wheel restraints … and that’s a whole another story.

“If my safety innovations, becomes the standard on these cars out here, and they save a life, then it will be something to be very proud of.”

Worsham agrees.

“I think is just a matter of taking [safety] to the next level,” Worsham said. “Just to think, if we had declared the 1991 car as the be-all, end-all safest chassis, we wouldn’t have the car we have today. We have a safe car today. Safety is always a work in progress.”

And for Jim Head, he’s progressing in the direction of greater safety.



A GAME OF INCHES - Ashley Force Hood isn’t greedy.  Unlike many in today’s society, if you gave the former high school cheerleader an inch, she wouldn’t take a mile.  She might, however, take a victory; maybe even two or three.
 
That’s because inches are all that separate the 27-year-old budding superstar from the Full Throttle points lead currently enjoyed by her father, 14-time NHRA Funny Car Champion John Force.
 
In the season’s first 12 races, inches were Force Hood’s enemy.  She and her NHRA world record-holding Castrol GTX Ford Mustang lost 10 times by an average margin of .067 of second, once by .006 of a second; another time by .010; still another by .021.
 
Last week was typical of her season.  After qualifying No. 1 at the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol, Tenn., the 11th No. 1 of her career, she exited in the second round when her 4.329 second time wasn’t quite good enough to track down Tim Wilkerson’s 4.313.  The difference, once again, was inches.
 
“That round is kind of how our year (has gone),” Force Hood said of the narrow Bristol loss.  “The car is getting down the track (and) I feel like I’m in a racing groove.  We know it’s just a matter of time until we win again.  The biggest thing is that we’re still going rounds and that’s what you have to do to get into the Countdown.
 
“Robert (teammate and brother-in-law Robert “Top Gun” Hight, the reigning series champion) showed last year that once you’re in it, anybody can win it,” she said. “We just want to keep going A to B.
 
“We don’t know what to expect as far as weather in Norwalk,” said the reigning Mac Tools U.S. Nationals Champion, “but whether it’s cool like it was in Joliet (Ill.) or hot like it was in Bristol, we know we have a car that will be competitive.
 
“I just feel bad for my crew chiefs, ‘Guido’ and Ron (Dean Antonelli and Ron Douglas), and for my team,” Ashley said.  “They’ve worked so hard this year (without much of a payoff).  But you have to stay positive.  Things can turn around so fast in this sport.”
 
A three-time Funny Car tour winner, Ashley is the only driver in the current Top 5 who has not won a Full Throttle event this year.  It’s a shortcoming she hopes to address beginning Friday.

 

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THURSDAY NOTEBOOK – SHAPING UP THE EXPERIENCE

DIXON LOOKS TO GET BACK ON TRACK AT NORWALK - “We probably used our mulligan in Bristol,” said Larry Dixon as he looked past his first round exit against Morgan Lucas in the Thunder Valley Nationals. “The Al-Anabi dragster is still a great car, and we have a great team; we just didn’t have a good outing.”

Despite the first round loss, Dixon still has a firm grip on the top spot in Top Fuel dragster over Tony Schumacher and Cory McClenathan, his chief rivals this year in the battle for the Top Fuel title.

 “The great thing about this team is the talent we have that allows us to diagnose a problem, assess it and then fix it. It’s exciting to see the great minds go to work.  As we write this, Alan (Johnson) and Jason (McCulloch) are working on things to make sure we have a better outing this weekend.  So from my standpoint, everything is in good hands, and we’ll get to Norwalk in better shape than we were in when we left Bristol.

“As the season goes on there are peaks and valleys within it.  Bristol was one of our valleys, and when it’s all said and done, you hope you have more peaks than valleys.  So far, we have six wins and two first-round losses. I think we’ll all take two more first-round losses if they come with six more wins.”

Unless, of course those losses coming in the Countdown to 1.   

NEW FACE GUIDING CAPPS TO COUNTDOWN - With the crew chief change announced this week on the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger Funny Car team, Ron Capps is preparing himself for an emotional fourth annual NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, this weekend.

Team owner Don Schumacher announced on Sunday that John Medlen, who came on board at Don Schumacher Racing earlier this year to help tune the Funny Car driven by Matt Hagan, would now take over as crew chief on the NAPA car. Capps' longtime tuner Ed “Ace” McCulloch would become a consultant to all three DSR Funny Car teams. Capps and McCulloch both joined DSR in 2005.

“This is probably one of the bigger races in my career,” said Capps. “It's not the first race of the Countdown or even the last race of the year, but it's going to be so much different for me not having Ed McCulloch as my crew chief. John Medlen will now be the one pointing into the windshield before I make a run.

“It's going to be an emotional race, but you have to put all that aside and focus on what's going on right now in our 2010 season. We've slipped to seventh in the points and there are only five races left before the Countdown to 1 playoffs starts and that’s when reality starts to hit. We saw the drama unfold last year when in the last race of the regular season there were several teams trying to get into the 10th and final spot. Our NAPA team is way too good of a team to be focused on that part of it.

“When you go through a change like this, it can be emotional, and at times it feels a little personal. You have to put that aside and think about the business side of it. One great thing about being with DSR is that there is such a great support system in place, that having Ed McCulloch stay on board and work with all the Funny Car teams, including the NAPA team, can only make everybody better.

“We know that if we get into the Countdown, we as a team are as good and as capable as any other team out there, if not more capable than some. It all comes down to confidence. With the Countdown being six races you obviously have to peak at the right time but, when you're in the middle of the summer months of racing, like we are going into Norwalk this weekend, there's nothing better than having confidence in your team.

“When you have challenges thrown at you like this, you really learn a lot about yourself. You learn about the people around you and, to be honest with you, it's going to be fun to work our way back to the top.

“I was very close to Eric Medlen (who lost his life in a testing accident in 2007) and I've gotten to know John Medlen pretty well, and even more so when he came to DSR. And, after all those years watching John point his finger at his son Eric before he made a run, I am now going to be the one John points at before we make a run. It's going to be very unique.”

CRUNCH TIME FOR WILKERSON – Starting the season out quickly with a win in Gainesville, Tim Wilkerson suddenly struggled to get past the first round before logging a runner-up finish at Bristol Dragway this past weekend.

The tension began to mount as those behind him in the points chase began to get hot while Wilkerson and the LRS team went 0-1 at Topeka, 1-1 in Chicago, and then 0-1 again in Englishtown. Eleven races into the season, he found himself precariously perched in the No. 9 spot with a 10-10 record.

The Bristol finish didn't change his position, however it did him some breathing room and confidence the team is headed in the right direction.

Norwalk is the first of five races remaining before the Countdown to 1 starts with the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis.

“We kind of did this last year,” remembered Wilkerson. “I remember we were a little more consistently able to get past the second round, until we hit Norwalk and Denver and left both of those races with nothing. Now, we're headed back to Norwalk again, coming off the runner-up deal in Bristol, and the only goal is to keep getting round wins.

“We can outrun them. We can get lucky. Maybe they won't show up. I don't really care, but we have to beat some people and keep this going, and we have to do better than we did in Norwalk a year ago.”

What Wilkerson would like is a repeat of Bristol, with one minor change – he would be in victory lane celebrating.

“I think we had enough to make it close, and probably a 50/50 chance of winning, but it wasn't meant to be,” Wilkerson said.  “The best thing about the day was that we won three rounds, we found a few things that really helped our performance, and we got back on track a little bit.  For a few races there, we were hoping to win a round or two, but winning seemed a long way off.  It doesn't seem like that far of a reach right now, and this would be a great time to get on a roll.”

Winning would certainly make it easier to ensure one of the ten spots in the Countdown to     1.

HIGHT AND CREW MAKE CLUTCH DECISION - In May Robert Hight was untouchable, winning all three NHRA national events.

He opened June by reaching the final round of the United Association Rt. 66 NHRA Nationals before having his fifteen round win streak ended by Matt Hagan in the Joliet final.

Since that four race four final run Hight and crew chief Jimmy Prock have taken one step back in hopes of taking two steps forward for their second Full Throttle Funny Car championship.

“Jimmy Prock, (car chief) Eric Lane and I went back to our shop in Indy (after Chicago) and we took inventory of clutch parts and different things. We looked at what we had for the rest of the season. We realized what we have been running we can’t continue to run the rest of the season. We made a decision to set all that stuff aside and save it for the Countdown. You don’t know what the new clutches coming out or a new batch, how they will react. We know how well we have been running the last four races,” said Hight three weeks ago.

The plan is to save what they know best for crunch time – the Countdown to 1.

“We have enough of that inventory for all of the Countdown,” said Hight. “We set that aside. We are going to put the new stuff in and figure it out. You never know and that is what I like about Jimmy Prock. He is always trying and always changing. He is constantly trying to get better. He is not sitting still.”
Since Englishtown where Hight was the No. 1 qualifier his Auto Club team has been working to figure out the new clutch system. They have been making progress but not in leaps and bounds. In Englishtown Hight was defeated in the second round by veteran Del Worsham and Hight ran up against Worsham in the first round of the Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol,again coming up short. With each new run Hight and his Auto Club team get a little closer to finding a tunable set-up and Hight knows this is part of the painful process that is NHRA Funny Car racing at this competitive level.

“You look at the teams you are racing against every week and there is not a weak team out there. From the top to the bottom you have to be ready to go in the first round. Anyone can beat anyone. Matt Hagan and Bob Tasca III have been dominant the past couple of weeks. I was dominant in May and John Force was dominant starting the season with three wins and then he just won Bristol. You also mix in drivers like (teammate) Ashley Force Hood, Jack Beckman, Del Worsham, Tim Wilkerson and Ron Capps and that is just about a full field of cars.”

THE BOSSES WILL BE WATCHING - Greg Anderson will be racing under a little added pressure this weekend.

His primary sponsor, Summit Racing Equipment is also the sponsor of the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals. In addition to the pressure of trying to get back into victory lane at his sponsor race, Anderson will also be playing host to Summit executives and employees. And, he'll be trying to put the Summit name all of the trophy for Saturday’s K&N Horsepower Challenge. Anderson knows it is paramount to deliver a strong performance.
 
“This is without a doubt one of the biggest races of the year for our Summit Racing team, and we treat it as such,” said Anderson. “Not only will we be racing in our sponsor’s race at our sponsor’s track, but we also have the K&N Horsepower Challenge on Saturday, where we’ll be going for a $50,000 payday. I’d say we’ve got things covered as far as excitement is concerned.
 
“Of course, there’s a little added pressure, because it’s very important that we do well in front of all the folks from Summit who will come out to see us. Fortunately, every time we go to a Summit-sponsored race, we seem to up our level of performance, so maybe this race is exactly what the doctor ordered.”

JOHNSON HAS EYES ON SUMMIT AND K&N CASH - Team Mopar® NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Pro Stock driver Allen Johnson has tasted victory in the past at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio, winning the K&N Horsepower Challenge in 2008 and banking the special event’s $50,000 bonus. Johnson is hoping to go 2-for-2 at Norwalk this weekend, with a K&N Horsepower Challenge victory on Saturday and main-event win on Sunday at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals.

Currently second in the NHRA Pro Stock standings, Johnson is one of the hottest drivers on the circuit, with two runner-up finishes, eight semifinal appearances in 12 events and two No. 1 Qualifier Awards, including one last week at his home track of Bristol Dragway. Following a positive weekend on his “home court ,” where he advanced to the semifinals in his Mopar Dodge Avenger, Johnson feels he can deliver his first event win of the year at Norwalk, with a Saturday K&N victory to boot.

“We sure got a lot of attention at Bristol. I think we were on the front page of every newspaper in Tennessee,” said Johnson. “We’ve got the momentum coming out of Bristol and we’re going to carry it right into Norwalk and win the race, but also try to win the K&N Horsepower Challenge. It’s special to me; K&N is an awesome company. I’ve still got a little burr under my saddle from not doubling up back in ’08. I had the best car on Sunday that year, but I was late on the tree. I’m going to make up for it this week, get the snowball rolling and win us some races.”

PERFORMANCE IS KEY FOR SMITH - As spring turns to summer, Angie Smith’s thoughts aren’t of picnics and pot lucks.   They are of performance, position and points.
 
Smith needs good performances on the Karl and Kim Klement-owned Coffman Tank Trucks Pro Stock Buell in the next four NHRA Full Throttle Series Pro Stock Motorcycle races to collect enough points to push her way into a top 10 position that will qualify her for the Countdown to 1 championship finale.  
 
The first of those events, the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals at Norwalk, Ohio, begins its three-day run Friday, and Smith says she is ready for the challenge. ‘I’m excited,” said Smith, who is 12th with 262 points, while David Hope holds down the coveted 10th spot with 344. “We have to do better at the next four races to get into the top 10.  
 
“We will be ready for a good race at Norwalk,” Smith predicted.  “I went to the semifinals there last year, so I am familiar with the track.  We made some changes on the motors since our last race at Englishtown and I think we will be running much better.  We need to qualify well and race well.  We want to put it all together this weekend.”
 
Smith advanced to the semifinals at Joliet, Ill., earlier this month.  Those are the kinds of outings she hopes to emulate at Summit Racing Motorsports Park this weekend as she continues her first full season of NHRA competition.  
 
“I do feel more relaxed going to tracks that I’ve raced at before,” she said.  “There are two more on the schedule that I haven’t been to.”   They are Denver and Brainerd.”

RELAX AND ENJOY THE ICE CREAM - Like many of the tens of thousands of fans that will pour through the gates of Summit Motorsports Park for this weekend's NHRA national event, GEICO Powersports Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Karen Stoffer plans to indulge in the famous $1 ice cream offered by track owner Bill Bader.

Aside from the obvious pleasures, the ice cream treat will represent a new start for the popular rider, who has endured a rougher-than-expected start to the 2010 season.

“We need to start having fun again,” Stoffer said. “We've put an awful lot of pressure on ourselves and the frustration level has been pretty high. That's not why we do this. Sure, it's drag racing and you're going to have tough stretches but we should never lose sight of the fact we get to do something pretty special for a living.

“We're starting fresh in Norwalk and that $1 ice cream is going to get things aimed in the right direction. It's time to keep it simple, do what we know how to do, and let things come to us like they have in the past.”

 

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