2015 NHRA KEYSTONE NATIONALS - READING EVENT NOTEBOOK
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SUNDAY
‘BLESSED’ BROWN POWERS TO THIRD STRIGHT PLAYOFF VICTORY - With a runaway Top Fuel victory Sunday over tire-smoking Tony Schumacher at the Keystone Nationals near Reading, Pa., Anton Brown became the only NHRA racer to win the first three events of the Countdown to the Championship.
And he opened up a 94-point advantage over second-ranked Schumacher – who himself has a 100-point margin over No. 3 Brittany Force – as the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series action shifts to Ennis, Texas, near Dallas, for the fourth of six playoff events.
Brown joined fellow seven-time winner Jack Beckman, from the Funny Car class, in the winners circle to celebrate Don Schumacher Racing’s double-victory that raised its total number of event titles to 266. This feat marked a record seventh time this season DSR has swept nitro titles at the same event. It also is the third time through 21 events at which Brown and Beckman have shared the post-race stage. They shared the accomplishment with Pro Stock winner Chris McGaha and Pro Stock Motorcyle winner Andrew Hines.
“This day was just a true blessing,” Brown said after his triumphant 3.717-second elapsed time at 328.46 mph on the Maple Grove Raceway 1,000-foot course where he never before had won in either his Top Fuel or Pro Stock Motorcycle career in 18 tries.
“The thing I’m blessed to have on my side is [crew chiefs] Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald with this entire Matco Tools/U.S. Army team. To go out there and do what we did today and go down that track with no runs on it, was a monumental statement,” Brown said.
“We didn’t get real greedy. We just kept running what we thought the track would hold. We just raced the track, not the other competitors, and we were fortunate enough to come out with a win. The goal is to keep winning rounds,” said the driver of the Matco Tools-branded “Tools For the Cause” Dragster.
“That U.S. Army team with (crew chief) Mike Green, Neal [assistant crew chief Strausbaugh] and Tony are no joke. They go rounds. They made it to the final round again, and we were able to get by them for the win. And that was huge for us,” he said.
Reigning series champion Schumacher knows if he’s going to earn a ninth title, he’s going to have to figure out how to stop Brown, who has defeated him 10 consecutive times in Countdown match-ups.
“There are no two ways around it – those guys are running really well right now,” Schumacher said.
He knows how critical that momentum can be. In last year’s Countdown, he dominated with back-to-back victories at Charlotte and Dallas [both of which finished at the Texas Motorplex] en route to his eighth championship.
“It’s still going to be a battle to the bitter end,” Schumacher said. “Last year, we won a couple of races to start off the Countdown and then we smoked the tires a few times and opened the door. The game’s not over yet. It’s still a lot of fun, and there’s still a lot of racing left.
“We did well here this weekend, for the most part,” Schumacher said of the paranormal conditions at Reading. “The U.S. Army car was a good car here this weekend. The right lane was a little tougher for us there in the final. The sun was out – I don’t know, we’ll have to go back and look at it. But the car’s fine as we move forward. That final run, the car didn’t even move forward. It jumped straight up. I never even pedaled it, because he was on such a great run. So game over for today.
“What is it, 94 points right now? We’ve come back from further than that,” Schumacher said. “They just have to make some mistakes. If they keep winning races, then it doesn’t matter, we’ll just keep fighting for No. 2.
“We blew it up hard in the first round today. We destroyed some stuff, and the guys worked so hard to get us back on track and then we beat some great cars. Then, losing lane choice didn’t help us in that final, though. I wish we could go back and maybe stage a little thinner in that semifinal and get that lane choice back. But, who knows? Antron ran a 71 (3.714 seconds) in that right lane in his semifinal, anyway. They’re just running well right now.”
By notching his 12th round-win in this year’s Countdown, Brown already has topped the 11 total rounds he won in his 2012 championship season. (JR Todd owns the record for consecutive round-wins to start the playoffs. He set that in 2007.)
Brown claimed the 54th total victory, 38th in a dragster. It was his personal-best seventh victory in 2015. He has won six races in a season five times.
He fought his way from the No. 12 starting position (for which he can thank stubborn rain that stingily subsided long enough for only one qualifying session all weekend). He beat Clay Millican, Dom Lagana, and Larry Dixon to reach the final.
Schumacher eliminated JR Todd, Richie Crampton, and Brittany Force on his way to a bid for a sixth Maple Grove victory. Schumacher is the most successful Top Fuel driver in this event’s 31-year history.
But Sunday, in this return to the region where he grew up, at nearby Chesterfield, N.J., Brown was fulfilling a mission. When he won in June at his hometown track at Englishtown, N.J., Brown said he wanted to make NHRA history. He did that Sunday, but he has a few more miles to march before he is poised to make the history he had in mind. Susan Wade
BECKMAN CLAIMS FUNNY CAR TITLE AT MAPLE GROVE - Through late July through the first week of September, Jack Beckman had the baddest nitro Funny Car in NHRA.
Beckman returned to his throne at the NHRA Keystone Nationals (Oct. 1-4).
Beckman clocked a 3.910-second run at 326.79 mph to defeat Chad Head on a holeshot in the finals. Head had a faster 3.903-second run at 326.16 mph.
The difference was at the starting line as Beckman had an .077 reaction time, while Head came in at .115.
Beckman, who drives the Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge for Don Schumacher Racing, has a class-best seven wins at Charlotte, Topeka, Norwalk, Denver, Sonoma, Indianapolis and now Reading. He also won the $100,000 Traxxas Shootout Sept. 6 at Indy. This was the 22nd win of his career.
Not only did Beckman win at Reading, he also set the national record with a 3.897-second run at 326.87 mph when he beat his DSR teammate Ron Capps in the semifinals.
“I said last week we were probably going to have to win the race and set the national record thinking that Del and his team we were going to go at least to the semifinals and we were just running out of rounds,” said Beckman, the 2012 nitro Funny Car world champ. “I did not know it was going to go this well. I don’t wish ill on anybody, but we had to have him stumble if we were going to have a shot to get back in the points hunt. It couldn’t have ended up any better. We made up the equivalent of more than five rounds. Qualifying points, national record and four more round wins than him we went from six rounds out to less than half a round out. It puts us right back in the position where were when they reset the points for the Countdown. Yeah, we are not leading, but we have a car that is clearly able to win races. I think that lead is within sight again.”
All of Beckman’s success at Reading helped him make up big ground on points leader Worsham. He now only trails Worsham by 16 points with three races left in the season – Dallas (Oct. 15-18), Las Vegas (Oct. 29-Nov. 1) and Pomona (Nov. 12-15). Worsham lost in the first round to Tommy Johnson Jr. at Reading.
Winning is something that was on the forefront of Beckman’s mind, but not the national record.
“I thought we were hosed (to set the national record) when we got cut to one shot qualifying (because of rain),” Beckman said. “On race day, maybe the conditions are conducive to a national record, but you really want to put the round win in front of potential points for the national record. Sometimes trying to run that quick makes you stumble and you give up the round win so you forfeited 20 points and didn’t get the record anyway. Everybody on that Infinite Hero car is working together. Everybody there is to support the other 10 members of the team, we don’t point fingers, we all win the race and we all lose the race, and I think when everybody is that much in concert it makes the results better.” Tracy Renck
WITH NEW CREW CHIEF MCGAHA GETS READING PRO STOCK WIN - Even with a new crew chief, Chris McGaha’s career season didn’t miss a beat at NHRA’s rain-plagued Keystone Nationals.
The Pro Stock driver, with tuner Tommy Utt leading the way, captured his third win of the season by beating Greg Anderson with a holeshot in the finals Sunday.
McGaha clocked a 6.492-second time at 213.64 mph to edge Anderson, who had a quicker elapsed time at 6.484 seconds at 214.59 mph.
McGaha had a .034 light compared to Anderson’s .076 light.
“I can’t say it got easier, especially this week,” said McGhaha about winning national events. “This week has been really something. I wouldn’t say it was easy at all after having a crew chief shuffle and it was a pretty big feat to accomplish. You leave the house hoping you can win and knowing you can win, but to actually do it is another deal. Then to have the weather come in and not get all the (qualifying) runs we were hoping to get and we had never even gone to the starting line (his new crew) all of us together.”
Brian “Lump” Self, who had been McGaha’s crew chief since June 27, 2014, left the team earlier in the week to join the Elite Motorsports team.
“You lose the main personnel, the guy who used to line you up and do a burnout and that guy was on the radio and that guy did the wheelie bars and now you are putting another guy in his position,” McGaha said. “I did put a lot of trust into Tommy Utt and I knew he was very capable of doing it. He fit in our group, ultimately, really quick. Everybody likes to play the shuffle game out here and people move around and I’ve always said I would crew chief myself, but there is too much pressure I guess. I’m very capable of doing it but it would be easier to put somebody else (in that position). You always keep your eye out because you truly never know and Tommy was one of those guys I always had my eye on, thinking that guy could probably fit in my group good if I had to get somebody and ultimately it looks like he could be.”
McGaha, who pilots his family-owned Harlow Sammons Chevrolet, claimed his third win of the season – he also had wins at Sonoma (Aug. 2), and Seattle (Aug. 9) – which left him in third place in the point standings with 2,281 points behind reigning world champion Erica Enders-Stevens (2,385) and Greg Anderson (2,313). McGaha also had two runner-up finishes at Houston and Bristol, Tenn.
There are three races left in the season Dallas (Oct. 15-18), Las Vegas (Oct. 29-Nov. 1) and Ponoma, Calif. (Nov. 12-15).
On Sunday, McGaha had wins over Val Smeland, Jonathan Gray and Bo Butner before ousting Anderson.
“It really wasn’t that bad,” said McGaha about his stress level in the final round. “It was just go up there and make a run. I had knew I had nothing to lose. When I go up there I feel like I take shot (at the tree) every time. I guess I suck at it maybe, but I have to go up there and go for broke every single time. It’s the only way I can get, I have to go for broke.” Tracy Renck
BIKE LEADER HINES MATCHES SAMPEY IN VICTORIES, EYES FIFTH TITLE - Andrew Hines said Eastern Pennsylvania’s Maple Grove Raceway was Angelle Sampey’s NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle playground.
“Reading was kind of like The Angelle Nationals,” Sunday’s Keystone Nationals winner and points leader said after defeating Chip Ellis to tie Sampey for second place on the class’ all-time victories list at 41.
“To tie her here, it’s a special deal,” Hines said. “It’s unfortunate she’s not racing here. [Her Star Racing team skipped this event]. She’s always been tough competition. I’ve always had a heck of a time trying to beat her over the years. Even when she came back, she waxed me earlier this season.”
No one waxed him this weekend.
Not even the wet, dreary weather rattled him.
Instead, Hines said he wasn’t bothered by the fact everyone in the pro ranks had just one single qualifying session.
“That kind of played into our favor,” he said. “As a team, we’re always quick off the truck, and we showed that by qualifying 1-2 in the only session we had.”
He said the single run “stacked up the ladder really funny,” but otherwise, Hines wasn’t affected by any of the quirky conditions. “We made good runs off the truck and just tuned on it from there,” he said.
Maybe his secret for this third victory of the year was sticking with his trusty parts on the Vance & Hines Screamin’ Eagle Harley-Davidson that took him to a 6.794-second, 197.25-mph quarter-mile triumph.
“I tried some new exhaust pipes we made on Monday. They showed promise but we just weren’t running the speeds we were looking for. So we threw my old set back on for the finals and boom – 197 miles an hour. Best speed of the weekend,” Hines said.
“We tried some other stuff with the electronics of the motorcycle, and it didn’t seem to perform. So [in the] second round, we went back to our old faithful stuff,” Hines said. “We got better and better every round. It was a matter of picking away and finding that E.T. and speed.”
He said his pass in the final – against Ellis’ 6.818-second elapsed time at 196.39 mph on the Junior Pippin Trucking Buell – was “probably the straightest run I made all weekend- and that just leads to big E.T.s”
Because he and everyone else “had such a narrow window” to perform at the best level possible, he said, “it kept us from going too far from where we normally would go.”
Whatever the source of the magic, it worked for Hines, who extended his lead in the standings to 89 points over closest challenger Eddie Krawiec, his teammate.
He said the victory over Ellis Sunday “could be a pivotal point” in the chase for his fifth series crown.
When he looked up at the scoreboard and saw his win-light flash, he said, “I was over the moon. I know how fast Chip had been all weekend and all year. Luckily we were able to dip into the 6.7s with him and put up a nice, tight final round for the fans.”
Hines cut a .025-second reaction time to Ellis’ equally respectable .030 and pulled away from a mid-track tie with Ellis to record his second Countdown victory and his second overall at Reading.
Hines advanced past Chaz Kennedy, Karen Stoffer, and Matt Smith.
Ellis reached the final round by defeating Steve Johnson, Hector Arana Jr., and Eddie Krawiec. Susan Wade
SUNDAY RANDOM NOTES - WACKY CONDITIONS AT MAPLE GROVE ADD DRAMA TO KEYSTONE NATIONALS
DAY STARTS WITH UPSETS – Eliminations for Sunday’s Keystone Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway near Reading, Pa., began with for consecutive Top Fuel upsets.
Larry Dixon, Antron Brown, Dom Lagana, and Shawn Langdon surprised Saturday by landing in the bottom half of the ladder – because of uncharacteristically tricky track conditions and the fact everyone received only one chance to make the field. But they knocked off their higher-qualified opponents. Dixon, Lagana, and Langdon all had traction trouble but were able to eliminate Steve Torrence, Doug Kalitta, and Leah Pritchett, respectively. Brown, with the benefit of a .034-second reaction time, zipped to a winning 3.742-second, 321.50-mph victory over Clay Millican.
But in the fifth pairing, Brittany Force put a stop to the upsets. She used a career-best 3.707-second elapsed time at 328.46 mph not only to beat Dave Connolly but also to advance automatically to the semifinal round. (The winner gained a bye run in Round 2 because of a 14-car field.) Force’s 3.707 in the Monster Energy Dragster was the quickest pass of the weekend.
UH, OOPS – Tony Schumacher won his first-round Top Fuel match-up against JR Todd, but it cost his U.S. Army Dragster team extra servicing time and $2,000 for an oildown. His engine blew just past the finish line, but he pulled a 3.741-second E.T. and 320.51-mph speed from the car. Todd challenged with a 3.776, 324.20 that was fourth-quickest and second fastest of the round – and still lost.
Richie Crampton and Smax Smith caused some excitement as they closed Round 1 of Top Fuel runoffs. Crampton’s Lucas Oil Dragster belched out a fireball at about half-track, but he won with a 4.454-second E.T. Smith’s car started spraying fuel. He shut off his engine and ended up with a 6.426.
Saying his car dropped a cylinder immediately into the run, Crampton said, “it was rattling the tires pretty good there, so the car drove left. I stayed on it, hoping we’d drive through the shake. But I got to a point where I couldn’t see anymore. So I lifted and realized we were very close to the wall. I steered it back over and stabbed the gas again and just kept racing.” He said he didn’t see Smith “so it was all about getting to the finish line.”
In the second round against Schumacher, Crampton wasn’t as lucky. He said in that race, “we finally started running better, but I was late at the tree and we once again had some engine issues downtrack. So we really couldn’t keep up the fight.” Said Crampton, “I was off, and the car was off. That spells disaster in most cases. This was just an odd weekend with the weather and all, and so many people were having problems. But we offer no excuses. We just didn’t perform well.”
AWFUL CONDITIONS – Tommy Johnson Jr., who kept his title chances alive by knocking off points leader Del Worsham, and Tim Wilkerson, who defeated three-time Reading winner Tony Pedregon, were the only Funny Car drivers not plagued by tire shake or smoke in the first round.
Among the notable victims were Worsham, who was going for a personally unprecedented third straight victory; Courtney Force, whose Camaro fishtailed back and forth and finally hit the 330-foot timing cone to allow tire-shaking, run-aborting Cruz Pedregon to advance; and top qualifier Robert Hight, who experienced the same as teammate Courtney Force, lost an opportunity to make any headway in his championship quest, and lost the race to struggling John Hale.
Incidentally, when Hight qualified No. 1 Saturday, his 0.296-second advantage over No. 2 Ron Capps was the second-largest in drag racing history. The record belongs to Jack Chrisman's 0.560-second margin over Doug Thorley at the 1967 U.S. Nationals.
Advancing out of the bottom half of the bracket were John Bojec, who outpedaled last year’s event winner Matt Hagan, and Chad Head did the same against seven-time Maple Grove winner John Force. Maybe for Head it was a bit of payback. In 2013, Force earned the most recent of his seven Reading victories, and he did so by defeating Head in the final round.
So all three Force cars bowed out in the opening round of Funny Car eliminations, just like they did here last season.
FUNNY CAR ROUND 2 AS CRAZY AS FIRST – The second round of Funny Car eliminations was almost as goofy as the first. Tim Wilkerson and John Bojec began the Final Four pairs with No. 12 starter Bojec taking the victory against No. 4 Wilkerson. The latter’s Levi, Ray & Shoup Mustang crossed the center line and wiped out the cones at 1,000 feet. But Bojec’s semifinal chances were in jeopardy, though, as his engine detonated after the finish line (costing him $3,000 for his third track mess-up) and caught fire. Tommy Johnson Jr. had his turn to pedal the car through tire shake, and he couldn’t catch Beckman. Capps sailed on past Cruz Pedregon, who once again Sunday had traction trouble. And so did John Hale in his race against Chad Head. But in this one, Hale’s parachutes dropped out early – at the hit of the throttle - because of tire shake, and Head’s didn’t come out at all. Head stopped his Toyota short of the sand trap.
IT WAS THE QUICKEST OF TIMES . . . – The Funny Car semifinals was a tale of two extremes. In the first pairing, John Bojec was unable to repair his car in time for his run against Chad Head, so Head moved automatically into the final round. In the other pairing, Ron Capps had no chance against Jack Beckman, who rewrote the national elapsed-time record (lowering Del Worsham’s St. Louis effort by two-thousandths of a second) with his 3.897-second blast at 326.87 mph. His back-up run was his second-round E.T. of 3.925 seconds.
KALITTA MOTORSPORTS BLANKS – When Alexis DeJoria’s foot slipped off the throttle of her Patrón XO Café Incendio Toyota Camry, helping Jack Beckman buzz past her at the last second in Round 1, that completed a 0-for-4 first-round showing for Kalitta Motorsports. With Doug Kalitta and JR Todd dropping out early in Top Fuel and Worsham having no luck navigating the unpredictable conditions (“It was tough out there,” he said), DeJoria’s defeat spelled the first time in nearly four years that Connie Kalitta’s entire contingent failed to advance to the quarterfinals.
“Short for all the Kalitta cars this weekend. Man, it is a bummer,” DeJoria said. “I tried to catch it quickly. My foot fell off the throttle, and I am out there trying to fish for it. I found it, got back on it a couple times and got close to the center line. I figured I was close enough to the finish. I hear Tommy [crew chief DeLago] getting back on the radio, telling me to ‘Go! Go!’ Beckman just flew right past me. That was a bummer. It has been a crazy weekend. We only had one shot in qualifying. Mostly nobody made it down. It is what it is. We are just going to go to Dallas. Conditions will be better and we have high hopes for that.”
DSR DOMINATES AS TRICKY WEEKEND BITES FORCE – It was an all-Don Schumacher Racing final round in Top Fuel that pitted Antron Brown and Tony Schumacher, the top two racers in the standings. In the semifinal, Brown beat Larry Dixon, who pulled to the starting line with a 20-9 record against him. Schumacher halted top qualifier Brittany Force’s march through the weekend. Force, who had not had any major trouble with the less-than-ideal conditions, smoked her tires as she launched.
NO. 700 MEMORABLE - No. 5 qualifier Jason Line made his 700th elimination round memorable, beating Vincent Nobile with a pass of 6.477 seconds, 213.91 mph – the quickest and fastest of the weekend. His two KB/Summit Racing teammates came close with strong E.T.s in the opening round: Bo Butner ran a 6.478, and eventual finalist Greg Anderson recorded a 6.479.
RED LIGHTS DETERMINE BIKE FINALISTS - The Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson team was 1-1 in the semifinals, and both finalists got free passes to the showdown. Andrew Hines benefitted from Matt Smith’s foul start by two-thousandths of a second in their semifinal match-up. And No. 1 qualifier Eddie Krawiec, Hines’ teammate, was eight-thousandths of a second too eager at the Christmas tree, handing the other final-round slot to Chip Ellis.
POINTS LEADERS – As the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series heads to Dallas for the fourth of six Countdown races, points leaders are Antron Brown (Top Fuel) , Del Worsham (Funny Car), Erica Enders (Pro Stock), and Andrew Hines (Pro Stock Motorcycle).
2016 NHRA KEYSTONE NATIONALS TICKET OFFER - Maple Grove Raceway, in conjunction with Don Schumacher and the NHRA, is offering a ticket discount for the 2016 Saturday qualifying session of the NHRA Keystone Nationals.
Those who attended the 2015 Saturday qualifying session are eligible for a $10 discount off a Saturday ticket for next year’s event. To be eligible for the special discount, ticket holders must mail their 2015 ticket stub to the Maple Grove Raceway ticket office during the renewal period for the 2016 NHRA Keystone Nationals.
This offer is available for advance purchase only and will not be offered at the gate next year. The discount is offered for Saturday ticket holders only.
“Don approached me and wanted to help with an offer that would aid the most loyal fans in all of motorsports here at Maple Grove Raceway,” said Lex Dudas, the track’s general manager and vice-president. “Maple Grove and the NHRA are pleased to extend this offer to the fans for the coming event.”
SATURDAY NOTEBOOK - BRITTANY FORCE, HIGHT, SKILLMAN, KRAWIEC BENEFIT FROM SINGLE QUALIFYING SESSION AS RAIN THE BIG WINNER AT READING
TOP FUEL
DANK START TO THE DAY - The Top Fuel class was the first to take to the Maple Grove Raceway track after two days of hurricane-induced rain throughout the Reading, Pa., region and entire East Coast. And when they did, the surface temperature was 60 degrees, with the ambient temperature 56. After the first pair (Dom Lagana and Smax Smith) ran, as Terry McMillen was lining up in his Amalie Oil/UNOH Dragster, the Safety Safari jet trucks had to intervene and do some drying because of a mist.
All four pro classes completed their first qualifying sessions. And that’s all they got for the weekend. Eliminations are set to begin Sunday morning.
After the first three pairs of Top Alcohol Dragsters made their runs Saturday, a mist moved in again. NHRA officials sent the rest of the Top Alcohol Dragster racers back to the pits and decided the remaining competitors in that class will finish their session Sunday morning. Competition Eliminator qualifying has been rescheduled for Sunday, too.
At first, the NHRA determined that after the Safety Safari dried the track once again, the program would proceed with the second and final qualifying opportunities for (in order) Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock, and Pro Stock Motorcycle.
However, the NHRA had to go with Plan C or D or whatever one was next, all because of . . . yes . . . more rain. So officials declared the Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle fields officially set with the results of Q1. Meanwhile, the nitro classes sat and waited for call to the staging lanes for a second session. Eventually, they decided the same with the Top Fuel and Funny Car classes.
So it was a one-and-done qualifying program – and racers were lucky to get that one in.
LADIES LEAD THE WAY – Brittany Force had no trouble with conditions early Saturday, cranking a 3.725-second, 331.53-mph pass from her Monster Energy Dragster. That gave her more than six-hundredths of a second advantage over closest rival Leah Pritchett in the Sparkling Ice/Dote Racing Dragster (3.787, 320.74). They were the only racers in the 3.7-second range in that opening session. Top Charlotte qualifier Clay Millican was third at 4.454, then the numbers dropped off to the seven- and eight-second zone and slower.
In the past four races, Force has a runner-up finish and two semifinal efforts, moving her from ninth place fourth in the standings. Saturday’ salvo represented her career quickest and fastest clocking. Her previous best (3.733, 329.91) came here last year.
She will start eliminations against Dave Connolly, who, like herself, is seeking a first victory but always is dangerous. Connolly was the No. 14 qualifier. And it will be a race with a bonus for the winner.
The field had 16 entrants, but Terry McMillen received no time (and a disqualification) for his run, and Chris Karamesines didn’t come to the starting line in Q1. So the field was tightened up to 14, with the winner of the Force-Connolly match-up receiving a bye run in the quarterfinals (and a free pass to the semifinals).
THIN FIELD – The Top Fuel field has only 16 entries, so everyone would have had the chance to run in Sunday’s scheduled eliminations. Chris Karamesines didn’t make a Q1 attempt. Terry McMillen did but hit the timing cones and got no time for his efforts. So the ladder calls for a double-bye in Round 1 that will enable the Brittany Force-Dave Connolly winner to advance directly to the semifinals.
SMAX OF EXCITEMENT – Paul “Smax” Smith is more than a fun-loving 61-year-old Brit-turned-Canadian with wild hair whose love affair with drag racing has brought him lots of air time on reality TV programs. He’s a former nitro Funny Car racer who converted to Top Fuel and as a rookie earned Europe’s 2003 FIA championship. He recently secured his NHRA Top Fuel license, and in his debut here he started 10th in the lineup – ahead, he can tell his followers, of Charlotte finalists JR Todd and Antron Brown, 2013 champion Shawn Langdon, St. Louis runner-up Dave Connolly, and Terry McMillen. Smith races for the Leverich family, Of, Ayr, Ontario, who form the core of the crew (Gary, Bob, Dan, and Sarah Leverich). He’ll race Richie Crampton in the first round Sunday.
IF IT WEREN’T FOR BAD LUCK . . . – . . . Terry McMillen might have no luck at all, it seems sometimes. Regrouping from a financial scare that triggered an NHRA reduction in oildown penalties following the Countdown opener at Charlotte, McMillen was ready to apply his new vigor to improved performance. And he appeared to be on a decent pass in Saturday’s first session, but he clipped the top-end timing cones and wound up with a disqualification.
Actually, McMillen’s luck has turned for the better. Even though he lost in the opening round to Antron Brown at St. Louis in the previous race (as Brown “barbecued my butt at the tree,” in McMillen’s words), the Amalie Oil/UNOH Dragster driver said he was encouraged and couldn't wait to get to Maple Grove Raceway.
“We changed a lot of things on this car,” McMillen said before this event opened. “In just a few short rounds, [crew chief Wendland] was able to get our car to run a competitive number, and these changes are showing big improvements on our computers. We’re still a little slow with our early numbers, and Rob has a plan to pick that up in Reading. We’re ready for Reading.”
It turned out few in any class really were ready for Reading, but McMillen got another punch in the gut when the scheduled Q2 session was washed out. Had he not gotten the disqualification in Q1, even a terrible E.T. would have put him in the field.
PINK WITH A PURPOSE – Like Alexis DeJoria is doing with her Funny Car, Top Fuel points leader Antron Brown is helping raise awareness and funds for breast-cancer treatment and research during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Among the 262 names on his fourth edition of the Matco Tools' "Tools for the Cause" Dragster is that of his mother-in-law, Linda, a breast cancer survivor.
"October is a very important month in our series, because it's right in the middle of our Countdown playoff, as well as Breast Cancer Awareness month," Brown said. "My mother-in-law is a breast-cancer survivor, so this cause is very close to my family. I am so honored to take the names of 262 fighters down the track with me this month."
As of August 2015, Matco's Tools for the Cause program has raised more than $600,000 for the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
"Matco's Tools for the Cause program is something our company is very proud of," John Green, Matco Tools vice-president of marketing and e-commerce, said. "Breast cancer is something that has touched many of our distributors, employees, and customers, and we're very grateful that we have been able to contribute to an organization that supports such a great cause."
Brown and the Matco Tools Top Fuel team first featured the first pink color scheme on its Matco Tools Dragster in October 2012, when they set the former NHRA elapsed time record of 3.701 seconds at Maple Grove. This record lap helped vault Brown to the 2012 NHRA Top Fuel championship. Last October, Brown put the Tools for the Cause Dragster in the winners circle at Las Vegas.
Matco's Tools for the Cause "Wrench Ribbon" will adorn the sides of the car and feature the submitted names. Brown will continue to drive the Tools for the Cause Dragster this month at Dallas (Oct. 16-18) and Las Vegas (Oct. 30-Nov.1).
Brown is seeking his third straight victory on the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series tour, taking on No. 3 qualifier Clay Millican in Round 1. Off the track, Brown is aiming for a victory, too.
MATCH-UPS KEEN – If the rains can hold off Sunday, fans will get a treat with some juicy match-ups that happened because of the 14-car field: Tony Schumacher vs. JR Todd, Leah Pritchett vs. Shawn Langdon, Steve Torrence vs. Larry Dixon, and Doug Kalitta vs. Dom Lagana.
FUNNY CAR
HIGHT AT THE HEIGHT – Robert Hight set this weekend’s bar at a track-record 3.922 seconds and 329.34 mph in the AAA Camaro in the first Funny Car session Saturday, giving John Force Racing provisional leaders in both nitro classes. “Provisional” became “official” later in the day when NHRA officials cut off qualifying because of continued wet weather.
Hight’s performance peak is coming just in time for the 2009 series champion, who won at Brainerd, then was runner-up at Indianapolis in both the Traxxas Shootout and the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals.
“I still think we have a chance for this championship,” a re-energized Hight, the No. 10-ranked driver heading into this third of six playoff races, said even before making his first Saturday pass. “The key is to start getting hot in qualifying. We need to start races from one of the top four qualifying spots.”
Hight has inspired hopefuls in all pro classes with that 2009 climb to the title from 10th place. However, he said, “We weren’t as far back in the points in 2009 when we started our run.” Just the same, he said, “I think that experience gives me some hope that we aren’t out of this Countdown yet. I think we can get some momentum this weekend and get around some people and then head to Dallas in a couple weeks and do the same thing.”
Counting this weekend’s Keystone Nationals, Hight has just four races in which he could move past those nine higher-ranked drivers.
“No one is hanging their head around here. We just want to be competitive and go some rounds,” he said. “It has been a while since we got to the winners circle in Reading (2011) but both Mike [crew chief Neff] and I have won this race.”
Neff won here in 2012, beating Johnny Gray in the final.
Not all the circumstances favor a Hight run for the title. At the most recent race, at St. Louis, 10 different racers posted sub-four-second elapsed times. Hight was one of them, but he (like Tim Wilkerson) didn’t even benefit with lane choice. That didn’t rattle Hight this weekend, though.
“You look at the times we have been running at Topeka, Brainerd, and then St Louis, who knows what you will see at Maple Grove?” he said before his opening pass here. “The conditions could be so good we could reset all the records we set last weekend. That could be good for a team like us if we can get some of those qualifying bonus points and make up some ground on the teams in front of us.”
Hight has won at least two NHRA Funny Car national events every season of his career. With one victory in three final-round appearances, he’s one victory away from extending his streak to 10 years.
PLODDING IN PINK – Alexis DeJoria once again is running the pink Patrón XO Cafe Incendio Toyota Camry body throughout October, national Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This is in conjunction with the team’s “Free Mammograms for the Fans” campaign, a program that offers free mammograms to female race fans, regardless of health insurance status.
“October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and we got to debut our bright pink Toyota Camry today during the first round of qualifying,” DeJoria said. “We’re going to be running this pink scheme at the Dallas and Las Vegas October events as well.”
She joked about her neon pink Camry and matching pink parachutes, “I’m looking forward to blinding all of my competitors.”
Everyone got a good, long look at the car and the ‘chutes, as she took 13.036 seconds to roll down the racetrack (at 76.76 mph) in her first chance this weekend. She experienced tire shake, as Cruz Pedregon also did just a little bit farther downtrack in the opposite lane, and shut off the engine right away.
T-T-T-T-T-TIRE SH-SH-SH-SHAKE – At least 12 of the 16 Funny Car drivers ran into tire shake in their first crack at the track. Ron Capps and Matt Hagan, in separate pairings, were able to hook their cars back up and finish their runs under power. Most dramatic, though, were the runs from Paul Lee and John Hale. Lee, driving the U.S. Male tribute car for Worsham Racing during a weekend honoring the late “Nitro Nick” Boninfante and his series of Funny Cars from the 1970s, had mechanical trouble from the launch. The car backfired, popping the supercharger and burst panel and spilling the parachutes early. The car hopped before Lee got it corralled. And all this happened before the 330-foot mark. Pretty much the same thing happened for Hale, who had trouble at the hit of the throttle.
SMALL MOVE NETS BIG GAIN – Ron Capps conceded the 2012 Funny Car series championship to fellow Don Schumacher Racing driver Jack Beckman by two points. And just by pedaling his NAPA Dodge Charger on a cold, inhospitable track (one that’s normally conducive to record-setting runs), Capps got two points. Whether that factors into the title run for Funny Car’s No. 5-ranked Countdown racer isn’t certain, but Capps was a bit amused by it Saturday.
"The funniest thing is that we got two points for pedaling the car," he said.
Capps was referring to the qualifying bonus points, after taking the No. 2 slot in what turned out to be the only qualifying opportunity of the weekend. Capps was considerably off Robert Hight’s pace, with a 4.218-second, 318.17-mph pass to Hight’s 3.922, 329.34 mph, but he had to be thankful he was one of just two to make it to the top end of the track under power. That decision to pedal the car gained him one rung up the Countdown ladder, from sixth to fifth.
"We heard Robert run that (3).92, and I think that everyone that didn't make it down the track was underpowered," Capps said. "We're into conditions we don't see. Super cold. Super good track. I'm just glad I was able to catch it.”
As for why he thought he could hook back up and continue to the top end with power, Capps said, “We talk about it as a team: Do we need to pedal the car? Is there more rain coming? Are there more than 16 cars? [Those are] the things that you go over in your head. I was talking to [crew chief Rahn] Tobler before the run that if it did shake, then yeah, pedal it. I was prepared for it.”
His next task: preparing for Paul Lee, his first-round opponent.
FRUSTRATED FOR THE FANS, HIS TEAM – No. 3 qualifier Jack Beckman (5.440 seconds, 203.12 mph in the Infinite Hero Dodge Charger) was a bit frustrated, despite faring better Saturday than most of this rivals.
"It's frustrating because the left-side grandstand was packed and the weather was miserable," Beckman said. "It was cold, rainy, nasty, and nobody left because everyone was licking their chops at what might be. And we got the opportunity, but the problem is that we have zero data to prepare us to run under these conditions.
"Some cars smoked. Some shook and very few made good runs,” he said. “That was one of the tougher mental approaches for a qualifying lap. I pedaled it and went back to a half throttle and nursed it to the finish line. Never did I think that was going to be good for one bonus point. And at the end of the year that one bonus point might just make a difference."
Beckman will start eliminations against Alexis DeJoria.
FOURTH WITH 7.717?! – Tim Wilkerson, who has been part of the Funny Car class’ Three-Second Showoffs” lately, took one of the tops spots in the order Saturday – but he did it with a dubious “bright spot” of a 7.717-second elapsed time. The Levi, Ray & Shoup Mustang owner-tuner-driver will take it, though, despite the fact it comes with a first-round meeting against Tony Pedregon, someone who has won two championships and isn’t always a likely candidate to be in the bottom half of the ladder.
Wilkerson called it "possibly the weirdest session I've ever been a part of, but not just because it was cold and it's been raining for days, because that's not all that uncommon. The fact 15 of us couldn't figure it out and Hight ran a 3.92 is just mind-boggling. I can't think of anything like that in any other sport, where you're all trying to do the same thing. I guess maybe in golf, at the U.S. Open, everyone is 10-over-par and one guy shoots 10 under. That's about how crazy that run was.
"So we're all in the same boat for tomorrow, and we'll just take our best educated stab at what will again probably be a totally different track,” he said. “Well, we're not necessarily all in the same boat. Robert Hight appears to be in his own personal yacht. Different day tomorrow, though. It ought to be fun."
COLD CONFESSION – Dickie Venables, crew chief for reigning Funny Car champion Matt Hagan, said he miscalculated on the set-up for the Mopar Express Lane/Rocky Boots Dodge Charger. But that didn’t cost the team too much, for Hagan qualified fifth with an uncharacteristic 8.170-second elapsed time.
"It's a crap shoot," Venables said.
And he’s right, considering that a week ago at St. Louis he tuned Hagan to a 3.883-second E.T. and the distinction of being the first Funny Car racer to the 330-mph plateau.
Said Venables, "We decided to be way aggressive for the first run, and that turned out to be a mistake. The track is 49 or 50 degrees. I don't know if maybe one time in 30 years I've raced on a track that cold."
Hagan will race Toyota Solara driver John Bojec.
ONE TO WATCH – The first-round showdown between veteran racers Del Worsham and Tommy Johnson Jr. will be a key one in the Funny Car playoffs. It can make or break Johnson’s title hopes.
Worsham has won the first two races of the Countdown – and the Charlotte victory at Johnson’s expense in the final round. Johnson is seeded fourth in the class at the moment. Johnson, who has won with the Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger at Chicago and Seattle, has advanced to three final rounds in the past five races.
"We came in here knowing that Del had to go out early, and what better way to do that than to race him in the first round?" Johnson said. "Depending on how it comes out tomorrow, we'll either have a shot at the championship, or that will pretty much be it. I like having our destiny in our own hands."
Said Johnson of Saturday’s activity, "Everyone was having problems, and with those kind of conditions, there is a very small window to get your car down the track. We had to be perfect, and it is very hard to be perfect on a racetrack like that. You're either going to blow the tires off at the hit, shake, or make a record run.
"It will be interesting to see the conditions for tomorrow. It won't exactly be warm, but the first run tomorrow will be like the first run of the weekend for everybody as we get a base for warmer conditions. We're in the third race of the Countdown, and there is a lot of pressure for everyone as to how everything is going to play out. Everyone will be in the same boat tomorrow. As a driver, I'm not really concerned, because I will work with what the crew chiefs give me," he said.
ALSO PAIRED – Other match-ups for the first round are John Force versus Chad Head and Courtney Force versus Cruz Pedregon.
PRO STOCK
TALENTED AND LUCKY - For Drew Skillman, it took both skill and luck Saturday to secure the second No. 1 qualifying position of his career. The Elite Motorsports Camaro driver and arguably leading contender for rookie-of-the-year honors led the field at Chicago and won the most recent race, at St. Louis.
He was still on a roll after leaving Gateway Motorsports Park near St. Louis. He led his field with a 6.509-second elapsed time at 213.13 mph and stayed No. 1 when yet another rain swept in and NHRA officials declared Pro Stock qualifying finished.
“The conditions this weekend aren’t favorable. The rain killed us. Track conditions aren’t great, either. It’s less than favorable,” Skillman said.
But he said he figured the track will be prepped well for Sunday’s eliminations, which are scheduled to begin with the nitro classes at 11 a.m.
“They’ll be able to work on the track in the morning enough that it will be fine,” he said. “When it’s this humid and the dew point is this close as it is to the actual temperature, it’s almost impossible. They [the Safety Safari] fought it all day. There’s not anybody who can do better than what they’ve done. It’s just the conditions we’re in.”
He said he knew he was fortunate for the shortened qualifying: “We got lucky, actually, to have it rain.”
For the second straight race, Skillman will face V Gaines in the first round of eliminations. (This will be their third meeting in runoffs. Gaines was Skillman’s first opponent in the pro ranks, at Pomona, Calif., in the season-opening Winternationals. And he was Skillman’s most recent first-round opponent, at St. Louis, where the rookie beat veteran Gaines again and went on to win the race.)
That is where Skillman might not benefit from just one session of qualifying. And he knows it.
“Everyone’s very conservative. That’s not what we should have run out there,” he said of his E.T. “So you never know who’s going to step up. V made a real good hit to the middle, then had some problems.” So he really hasn’t had a good look at what Gaines’ Dodge Dart might be capable of doing – or what he can expect from his own Camaro. But he’s much more certain of the latter.
“We made a great pass,” Skillman said of his one Saturday chance to scope out the track. “We’re glad we did everything we did. The whole time I was waiting for it to go [awry].”
WAS APPREHENSIVE BUT FARED WELL – Two-time Maple Grove winner Greg Anderson agreed with Skillman that everyone in the Pro Stock class was being cautious Saturday after watching the fuel cars stumble their way through the first qualifying sessions.
"After we waited quite a long time to make that first run and seeing Top Fuel and Funny Car not really get down the racetrack in these very cold conditions, we decided to be conservative,” Anderson said. “And we made a clean, decent run. We got in there safely, and now we are in a good spot. We have the data we need, and hopefully, we can go out there tomorrow and step on it.”
The four-time Reading top qualifier will start No. 4 Sunday in his KB/Summit Racing Camaro, against Round 1 opponent John Gaydosh.
He said of Pro Stock’s lone opportunity to qualify, “Going into that session, it wasn't looking very good out there. But once a few cars got down, I knew it was OK. I got buckled into the car and knew it was absolutely fine and we were going to go down the track. It was too late to make any big changes at that point, but with each pair the racetrack got better.”
LONE DNQ – Randy Peters, of Bath, Pa., wound up with the lone DNQ in this class that was the only one to have any extra entries. Like so many others Saturday, he experienced tire spin and fell to the bottom of the list with a 29.529-second, 28.50-mph showing.
GUESSING GAME – Saying he was “somewhat satisfied” with his No. 5 starting spot for eliminations – perhaps the biggest accolade he ever would give himself – Jason Line was looking ahead to his first-round encounter with No. 12 Vincent Nobile.
"We definitely qualified better than we have been lately, even though we didn't exactly make the run we had hoped for," Line said. "But with conditions like this, it's a little bit of a guessing game. We ended up fifth out of 17 cars here this weekend, and we're somewhat satisfied with that. It was tough out there for the one run we did have in qualifying, but the [racing surface] was really good down-track, and we were able to get some useful data. Now we just have to start working towards the goal for race day.
"I'm no weatherman,” Line said, “but I think we should be good for tomorrow."
Line still owns the Maple Grove speed record with the 214.35-mph pass he clocked in 2012. His 213.23 this weekend is tied with KB Racing teammate Greg Anderson for top speed of the meet. Line ran a 6.536-second elapsed time Saturday.
RACES QUASI-TEAMMATE – Shane Gray, happy to have gathered some data about the track and his Gray Motorsports Chevy Camaro, is disappointed his No. 9 spot in the order (at 6.567, 212.93) lines him up in the first round Sunday against engine program client Larry Morgan in the FireAde Racing Camaro.
"The track was good out there, and NHRA's Safety Safari did a good job preparing it for that one run we got to make," said Gray said. "There isn't a whole lot you can take away from just one run, but we gathered a little bit of information, and we'll put that to use tomorrow. I have mixed emotions about it, though, having to run my teammate in the first round. That wasn't very good planning on our part – we should be able to stay away from each other. But we didn't, and we'll just have to see how it all plays out tomorrow."
His crew chief, Justin Elkes, said, “We just wanted to go A to B out there. After watching the fuel cars not be able to make it down, we knew it was going to be a challenge. The entire Pro Stock field was very conservative, though some ran slower than others. We do have some issues we need to work on, but that's more engine- and car-related so that we can be ready for tomorrow. If the weather stays similar, we should be good. We have as good a chance as anybody out there tomorrow."
Shane Gray’s brother, Jonathan Gray, put his IDG Camaro in seventh place (6.550 seconds, 211.86) and will meet Allen Johnson to start eliminations.
MORE PAIRINGS – Pro Stock points leader Erica Enders qualified sixth, good for a first-round race against No. 11 Kenny Delco. Chris McGaha will race Val Smeland, and Bo Butner will meet Alan Prusiensky.
PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE
SCARY BUT SUCCESSFUL - Eddie Krawiec said his 6.802-second, 193.60-mph ride down the Maple Grove Raceway quarter-mile “was a little bit hairy.”
But he stayed on the bike, powered it over the finish line, and used that one and only qualifying opportunity to lead the Pro Stock Motorcycle field for eliminations.
He and Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson teammate Andrew Hines gave the class a 1-2 punch, as Hines challenged with a 6.816, 193.16 performance Saturday.
Krawiec said he “was a little bit nervous out there with the track being pretty cold. My bike- I was a little crossed up. I was going down there and the front end was sliding out, trying to wash out on me. Fortunately for me, I was able to drive through it and go 6.80.”
He said, “The encouraging part is that [they Harley-Davidsons] left the starting line. For this weather and these conditions, that’s the hard part. We’re dealing with one tire. It’s 10 inches wide, and we’re trying to put 350-400 horsepower to it to get you off the starting line as fast as you can.”
Despite feeling like he was on the edge of extra danger, Krawiec called his pass “a rather controlled, smooth run. I’m happy. Overall, I think we have a good baseline for tomorrow.”
In the opening round, Krawiec will meet No. 14 Brian Pretzel. The class has only 14 racers this weekend. The winner of their match-up will move directly into the semifinals, because the last two spots are bracketed as double bye affecting the Nos. 1 and 14 riders in Round 2.
Hines will square off against Chaz Kennedy.
WHO RACES WHOM? – In the first round, Scotty Pollacheck will take on Hector Arana Jr., Steve Johnson will race Chip Ellis, Karen Stoffer will meet Angie Smith, and Matt Smith will go against Jim Underdahl. Jerry Savoie drew Hector Arana Sr.
