2016 NHRA SPRINGNATIONALS - HOUSTON NOTEBOOK
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SUNDAY NOTEBOOK - FRIGO GOES BACK TO TRACK, PRITCHETT GOES TO SEMIFINALS AND ON TO DON SCHUMACHER RACING, McMILLEN GOES BOOM, PALMER GOES TO ROUND 2, DSR GOES ALL IN TO QUARTERFINALS, KINSLEY GOES TWO-TONE THEN GOES TO THE SECOND ROUND THEN GOES RED, BECKMAN GOES THROUGH FELLOW CHAMPIONS, HALE GOES OUT BEFORE HE GETS STARTED, LINE AND ANDERSON GO TO PRO STOCK FINAL AGAIN, ENDERS GOES HOME TO TEXAS BUT GOES OUT EARLY, GRAY GOES BACK TO DRAWING BOARD
KALITTA WINS TOP FUEL SHOWDOWN BETWEEN NOS. 1, 2 QUALIFIERS - Doug Kalitta said he wasn’t sure he had gotten his Mac Tools Dragster to the finish line ahead of Steve Torrence in Sunday’s Top Fuel final round of the NHRA Spring Nationals ahead of Capco / Rio Ammunition Dragster driver Steve Torrence.
With all the other tumultuous events of the day, he wouldn’t have been the least bit surprised if Torrence had won for the second time this season and denied him his first. He had no clue whether he really had scored back-to-back victories here.
And it’s understandable that Kalitta was unsure. He and Torrence had clocked identical 3.81-second elapsed times on the Royal Purple Raceway strip. They were just .0196 of a second apart. That’s less than 10 feet, which might be hard to judge from inside a 300-inch-wheelbase race car traveling at 300 miles an hour or faster.
“It was a close race out there,” Kalitta said, relieved that he had repeated his victory here from last season and earned his third overall Houston triumph.
“It must have been about 800 feet, that thing [his car] just quit for some reason. Actually I didn’t realize I had won until I got to the end and turned around and came back [in the shutdown area],” he said. “So I was real happy . . . anytime you can get a win . . . Houston’s been good to us. It’s always good to get a win and get some momentum going. It just charges everybody up. It was just a real good day for us.”
Kalitta used a .036-second reaction time to win on a holeshot. He covered the 1,000-foot Baytown, Texas, course in 3.813 seconds at 280.60 mph to defeat the quicker and faster top-qualifier Torrence, the Kilgore, Texas, native who had hoped his 3.810, 306.81 would bring his first victory here near home.
The day ended well for Kalitta, but it had some rocky spots emotionally and performance-wise for the Ann Arbor, Mich., resident.
He owns a Ypsilanti, Mich.-headquartered airline that features cargo, passenger, and air-ambulance services. And he learned Sunday morning that one of his longtime sales team members, a dear friend named Mary Spinler, had lost her battle with cancer. So he dedicated his victory to her memory.
“She had struggled and been in a lot of pain. She’ll definitely be in a better place, with everything she had going. That was kind of a tough deal,” Kalitta said. “I’m honored to do it for her and her family.”
So he’ll remember this 83rd overall final round and 39th victory that pulled him into a tie with Kenny Bernstein and Antron Brown for fourth place on the all-time Top Fuel victories list.
“Kenny’s somebody that when I first started in drag racing, he was the guy to watch. He’s been one of my heroes, for sure. So it’s a great accomplishment for me personally, to tie him,” Kalitta said. “And the same with Antron – he’s one of the best in our field. Just real proud to tie him up today.”
He’ll remember it because he earned a nifty belt buckle to match the cowboy hat he received for winning at Dallas.
He’ll remember it because it was the first dragster win for Kalitta Motorsports since the organization partnered with Toyota.
And he’ll remember it because it gave him an automatic berth in the Top Fuel Traxxas Nitro Shootout.
“Getting in the Traxxas Shootout was huge for me. I always dread doing the raffle, the drawing thing,” Kalitta said. He was referring to the fan-favorite-vote lottery which grants the final spot to a driver who hasn’t won to clinch any of the top seven positions for the $100,000-to-win bonus race. “It’s definitely nice taking the stress out of doing all that,” he said.
Kalitta called Traxxas “definitely a great partner with the NHRA Mello Yello Series” and said, “We’re happy to have them. It’s great to run for the 100-grand, to be locked in. Hopefully this will be our year. We’re qualified, and that’s half the battle. We appreciate what they do for us.”
But he also will remember this race day for the weird things that happened, as well.
“It was an interesting day with the drizzle,” he said, alluding to the rain delays Sunday – after the forecast for high winds and torrential rain for Friday and Saturday proved false. “The fans, they’re awesome here. They hung in there with everything that was going on.”
And then there were the rounds themselves, the ones in which he, as the No. 2 qualifier, got past Terry Haddock, Kebin Kinsley, Leah Pritchett (his lone non-Texas opponent), and finally Torrence.
Kalitta’s lights were unmemorable until the final round. Against Haddock in Round 1, he was .086 on the tree, but Haddock was .166 as Kalitta was an easy winner. Round 2 was his lucky one, he said. Kinsley red-lighted in a big way, with a -.312 reaction time, and that threw off Kalitta a bit.
“I heard him go and I double-stepped, for whatever crazy reason,” Kalitta said. “Then I was about halfway down the track and realized I wasn’t going to run a (3.)74.” That’s what he needed to beat to have lane choice in the semifinal round against Leah Pritchett. “So, he said, “I just shut it off at half-track. So that was a little strange. That was my lucky round, I figured.”
He beat Pritchett off the line in the semifinal round, but he wasn’t sharp with his reaction at .089 of a second. But she ended up with a blown engine as he won without trouble.
Then he said he felt lucky again to get past Torrence, who had qualified No. 1 for the fourth time this season and third in a row. Susan Wade
COURTNEY FORCE SNAPS 32-RACE WINLESS STREAK - In the time since Courtney Force last won a race, a lot has happened in the world around her.
She got married. She switched manufacturers. Her father, 16-time world champion John Force, has won twice. Her teammate, Robert Hight, added two more victories. While her sister, Brittany, struggling to find her footing in the ultra-competitive Top Fuel class, claimed her first two career wins. That is a lot of celebrating going on around her.
But on Sunday, Force finally got the monkey off her back as she snapped a 32-race winless streak dating back to a pair of back-to-back victories in September of 2014, with a resounding win over class pacesetter Tim Wilkerson at the NHRA SpringNationals at Royal Purple Raceway in Houston.
“It was a pretty amazing weekend for our Traxxas Chevy Camaro team. We have been working really hard for this and I feel like this one is even better than my first career win. It certainly took a lot longer,” Force said. “With a winless streak last year and then coming in this season, we wanted this more than anything.”
Force defeated top-qualifier Wilkerson in a tremendous drag race for the SpringNationals title. The two left the line at near-identical times and were welded together the length of the track, but it was Force who pulled ahead near the 100-foot mark and stayed ahead in picking up her eighth career Funny Car win.
Force crossed the stripe with a 3.913-second elapsed time at 327.90 mph, just ahead of Wilkerson’s 3.943 at 323.81 mph.
“I was nervous going into the finals against Tim. I knew what kind of number he could put on the board and I knew I had to be right there with him,” Force said. “Lucky for me and my Traxxas team, they worked so hard on this racecar and really turned things around this season for us. With Dan Hood and Ronny Thompson tuning this car, they gave me a great car in the final and we were able to take home the win today.”
Force added wins over Bob Bode and Ron Capps - both suffering issues during their runs - before facing another close battle in the semifinals against Tommy Johnson Jr. With a trip to the finals on the line, Johnson earned the holeshot, but Force was able to drive around the Don Schumacher Racing-backed driver to earn a ticket to her first final of 2016 with a 3.932 to Johnson’s 3.964.
Wilkerson, who was able to tame the tricky Houston conditions better than most with the top qualifier award and lap-after-lap atop the charts, had wins over Jim Campbell, Matt Hagan and Jack Beckman to reach his third final of the season.
“Honestly, going up against Tim, we have been watching him since the beginning of the season and he is the one to beat out here,” Force said. “He’s got a car that everyone is looking to out run and he is doing such a great job. This weekend, he was running good in the worst conditions. Half the field wasn’t getting down the racetrack and he was out there outrunning everybody and improving his time. The only good thing was that I knew I wouldn’t face him until the finals.
“For our Traxxas team to come from behind and take him down for the win is pretty amazing. This wasn’t even a great weekend for our car, but that actually gives me a little more confidence for the rest of the season because I know we have a better racecar than what we showed this weekend.”
Among the issues Force had to overcome were a couple of fires at the top end, including one particularly scary incident following her second round win over Capps.
“We had a couple of fires down at the top end making it a little exciting. My guys were thrashing to get the car together and back out there after the second round and to be able to still run numbers like that in the heat and humidity, to be able to outrun Wilkerson, is pretty amazing,” Force said.
With Sunday’s win, Force added a number of milestones to her already impressive resume. Among them, her 105 round wins ties her sister, Ashley, in the Funny Car ranks, while her latest victory moves her into a tie for first place in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Funny Car standings with Wilkerson.
In addition, Force’s win extends the win streak for female nitro races to five-in-a-row, as Force equals her sister, Brittany, who currently leads the Top Fuel standings, giving John Force Racing a monopoly at the top of the nitro standings.
“It is pretty amazing for the females in our sport. To be able to continue the win streak and be at the top of the standings alongside my sister, is a feeling I can’t even describe,” Force said. “I am going to cherish this moment for a long time. This goes to show that we are on the right track with this car and that we are heading in the right direction with many more wins to come.”
Force also qualified herself for the NHRA Traxxas Nitro Shootout at the U.S. Nationals later this year, a very important item to check off her list.
“That has been on my mind since the start of the season. Every time we come out here we are looking to get that win to lock ourselves into the Traxxas Nitro Shootout,” Force said. “To be locked in and not have to worry about it anymore, is great. And being able to get a win in Texas, the home state of Traxxas, is pretty amazing.” Larry Crum
ANDERSON TAKES WIN IN TOUGHEST TEST OF THE SEASON - So far this season, it seems everything has gone right for KB Racing.
Through five races, the duo of Greg Anderson and Jason Line have taken every pole, won every race and set the quickest and fastest time at every event. Yet, despite overwhelming odds in their favor, tensions were a little high entering this weekend’s NHRA event in Houston.
“There is no doubt, this was a big test this weekend and I think we passed with flying colors. The humidity here this weekend was, by a mile, the most humid we have ever tried to run these fuel injected cars. Despite all that we have learned, so far, you still don’t know what is going to happen out there,” Anderson said. “We just kept tuning on the car throughout the day as the humidity kept going up and up. It was probably as much humidity as you can get away with and still have a race. But we made the right tuning moves and we are really starting to feel good about the job we have done with the car.”
Yet again, Anderson and Line outclassed the field Sunday at the NHRA SpringNationals at Royal Purple Raceway, qualifying 1-2, dominating every session and meeting head-to-head in the final for the fifth time this season.
And, with little separating the teammates, it was Anderson who hoisted the Wally this round in an exciting final between the two as Anderson won on a holeshot - his third holeshot victory of the season - with a 6.630-second pass at 209.43 mph. Line made it a race at the end, but the sizable starting line advantage for Anderson proved too much to overcome as Line crossed the stripe with a 6.597 at 208.23 mph.
“I had a ball today. The car was just a dream to drive every run and I knew I had a great chance to win the event,” Anderson said. “Rob (Downing) and the boys did a great job with the car. When you can make it all the way to the final with your teammate, the gloves come off and you can have some fun.
“I felt a little bad for Jason. You want it to be a tough race and obviously he missed the tree, but my car didn’t make a good run, so I guess we had a bobble on each side and it ended up being a very close race. If you add up our reaction times this weekend we were within thousandths every run, our cars were within thousandths every run, and when it came down to it we were still close, but in a completely different way.”
Anderson faced a rather unorthodox journey to his 81st career victory, falling behind at the start in each of his runs before overcoming for the round win.
After a bye in round one, Anderson defeated Vincent Nobile and Allen Johnson on his way to the final, while Line had wins over V. Gaines and Bo Butner to reach his sixth final of the year. The ease of each round win further prove just how powerful the Summit Racing Equipment-backed Chevy Camaros have been on the racetrack through the first quarter of the season.
“These are very sharp individuals we race against. There is a lot of talent in the field and they chased our tail all over the track the last few years. So we know it is coming, but we are sure enjoying the ride while it lasts,” Anderson said. “The good news is, we are making the most of it while we have the opportunity. While we have this performance advantage, we are not making mistakes. We are finding ways to get to the winner’s circle and that makes it extra special for us.
“It is great to have an advantage, but there is still a minefield out there. There are a million ways you can lose, so I am proud of Jason and myself and our teams that we have gotten the job done at every track. Six races, three wins for each of us, that is just about as good as it gets.”
Line leaves Houston still in control of the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Pro Stock points lead, but Anderson has closed the gap to within 79 points of his teammate. Both are more than 100 points clear of third place.
As Anderson continues to add to his gaudy totals with his 81st career Wally and 83rd career top qualifier award, the question must be asked - where does this resurgent season rank in his historic career?
“I still love going to every race and having the chance to get one more trophy,” Anderson said. “You just never know when it is going to be your last one. I cherish every one and, no matter what that number ends up being, it is fine with me.
“All I know is that we are having a ball. We will pick up from here, go home, dig in, work hard and show up in Atlanta at the Summit Nationals and see if we can do it again.” Larry Crum
FRIGO RETURNS TO RACETRACK TO OBSERVE – Pro Modified owner-driver Sidnei Frigo, injured in a frightening high-speed accident Friday during qualifying for the NHRA Spring Nationals at Baytown, Texas, is released from Houston’s Memorial Hermann Hospital and headed back home to Sao Paulo, Brazil.
But he took a detour Sunday back to Royal Purple Raceway, his broken left arm in a sling, to watch eliminations.
Doctors inserted a titanium plate and six screws into Frigo’s arm Saturday after Frigo, a six-time champion in his homeland, crashed for the first time in his career during Friday-night qualifying.
Still, he said he’s anticipating rebuilding his car and returning to the NHRA’s J & A Service Pro Modified Drag Racing Series before the season ends. That series has eight races left on the 2016 schedule.
“I’m doing good, considering what happened. I just broke my arm,” Frigo said.
“They put in titanium plates and six screws. Now I have the same thing [that’s] in the car,” he said, laughing. “But I’m OK. The car is really strong and safe.”
His turbocharged Artivinco Corvette is a Jerry Bickel-constructed race car with ProLine power.
Footage of his airborne, over-the-wall, barrel-rolling, wheelie bar-breaking, upside-down-landing accident has aired on major television networks this weekend. But Frigo said he won’t allow himself to watch it.
“I haven’t seen the video yet. I can’t see the video or pictures. I don’t want to see it,” Frigo said. “The guys explained and told me it was a bad wreck.”
That doesn’t mean he doesn’t recall the details of the crash.
“I remember everything,” Frigo said. “When the car started spinning, I counted one . . . two– oh my God– it was a long time. It took forever.
“When the car stopped, the Safety Safari crew came to me and asked if I was OK, and I told them I was. I just realized my legs and the helicopter. The guys told me, ‘I think you broke your arm.’ I said, ‘No, my arm is OK.’ And they said, ‘No, no. You broke your arm.’ I could move my arm and fingers, but it was still broken. In that moment, you adrenaline is too high,” he said.
Frigo became emotional when he shared that wife Daniela saw the accident live via the Internet while at home.
“She saw it live. She called the guys,” he said, flicking away tears.
What he said he remembers of the accident was that “the car moved to the right. I pedaled it. The car moved to the right again. I pedaled. And the second time I pedaled, the car moved straight to the left. I lost the control.”
Frigo seemed to have torn feelings.
“If they had the car, I’d be in it,” he said with a chuckle. “I need to help rebuild the car.” In another breath, he said, “I go home tomorrow. I tried to go home today, but the doctor said to stay one more day.”
The popular Brazilian businessman. whose homeland fan refer to him fondly as “El Grandão,” or “The Big One,” said his Top Fuel engine explosion at the 2014 Winternationals was the worst thing that had happened to him prior to Friday. And he said he wasn’t sure yet how he might react when it’s time for him to get back in the race car later this year.
“I don’t know. I need to stay in the car. I never crashed. This was my first time. The worst ‘crash’ for me was Pomona, when the Top Fuel dragster exploded. That was the worst,” he said.
He said he expects to be on the sideline for about two months. “I need to stay [immobilized in a sling] five weeks. I’ll miss three or four races.”
Crew chief Anthony Lum said Saturday the team had designs on a Pro Modified championship. But Frigo recognizes that those hopes will have to wait.
“The championship is done,” Frigo said, disappointed because, he said, “The car was really good. The car could have gone to No. 1 [here in this race at Houston]. The car was really good. It would have been a very good run. We have a really great team on this car.”
DOING IT AGAIN FOR THE GOOD TIMES – With the former Bob Vandergriff Racing team reunited for this race in sponsor Quaker State’s home area, Leah Pritchett made it worth their while. She advanced to the semifinals past a pair of champions, Clay Millican and Shawn Langdon. After her first-round victory, she said, “This isn’t easy. We didn’t get lucky.” And she said she’s “trying my damn best” to remain in the championship chase. Pritchett hasn’t missed a race yet, despite the BVR organization disbanding in early April. Pritchett won the Phoenix race, the second of 24 on the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series tour.
Team owner Don Schumacher told announcer Joe Castello on the public-address system in a brief starting-line interview that Pritchett will drive a fourth dragster for his organization, starting at the upcoming Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway in two weeks.
KABOOM – Eliminations for the NHRA SpringNationals began Sunday with a huge bang. In the first pairing of the day, Terry McMillen’s Amalie Oil Dragster experienced a massive engine explosion that launched the entire supercharger into the opposite lane behind Tony Schumacher.
Uninjured despite the billowing fireball to his back and showers of sparks and disintegrating pieces flying in all directions, McMillen steered his “Xtermgator” to the right wall to avoid harming Schumacher. He hit the wall hard and ground along the wall as the car pulled to a halt.
“It just hurt our feelings,” the Gatornationals runner-up said right after exiting his cockpit. He said it was especially disappointing because crew chief Rob Wendland and his team had been working extra hard. But that DSR [chassis] is one safe hot rod.
“It was a tuff deal. We’ll go back and rebuild. You will see me at the next race,” McMillen said.
LONG TIME COMING – Scott Palmer is serious about his Top Fuel racing, but he offsets his frustration at being underfunded with his endearing sense of humor. He one time even gave a crew member a baseball-style cap stitched with the words "Scott Palmer Sucks" – then said, "It's actually true!"
Palmer certainly didn’t suck in the first round of eliminations Sunday. He scored one of three opening-round upsets in the Top Fuel class, making a straight and strong 3.922-second, 309.42-mph pass to eliminate traction-plagued Richie Crampton. Ironically, Crampton and his crew chief, Aaron Brooks, are among the colleagues who have been helping Palmer since this past off-season.
“We love ’em,” Palmer said of the Morgan Lucas Racing group, “but we’re here to race, too.” The round-win was Palmer’s first since the 2014 Denver event (40 races ago). In the second round, Palmer’s 4.014-second elapsed time couldn’t beat Antron Brown’s 3.780, 321.37, although Palmer’s team got some extra helping hands from the Bill Miller Engineering team between rounds.
JUST KIDDIN’ – Courtney Force was the lone John Force Racing driver to survive the first round Sunday. But after her engine blow-up at the finish line in Friday-night qualifying, she couldn’t resist needling co-crew chief Dan Hood, who happens to be her brother-in-law. She tweeted to her sister, Ashley Force Hood, "Ash . . . Tell your husband to quit lighting my ass on fire (#WhatDidIEverDoToHim”). But he qualified us No. 3, so I’ll get over it. LOL.”
The Traxxas Camaro driver won against Bob Bode, while her father red-lit against Tommy Johnson Jr. and teammate Robert Hight fell to Jack Beckman in the round’s only champion-vs.-champion match-up. For the record, she defeated Ron Capps in their quarterfinal, but she stopped her car on the track at the end of her left lane . . . with a fire under the body.
She got over that, too, advancing past tire-smoking Ron Capps in the second round and edging Johnson by seven-thousandth of a second to reach her first final round of the season and her first since last summer’s race at Norwalk, Ohio, where she was runner-up to Jack Beckman.
MAGNIFICENT SEVEN – For the first time since the 2015 Sonoma race, all seven Don Schumacher Racing drivers advanced past the first round. Red Fuel / Sandvik Coromant Dragster driver Shawn Langdon posted his first opening-round victory of the season at BME Dragster driver Troy Buff’s expense (3.772, 322.44 to Buff’s 3.824, 316.67).
RAGIN’ TO ROUND 2 - It was a coup for Kebin Kinsley and team owner Roger Hennen that they were able to bring Road Rage Fuel Booster sponsorship to their Top Fuel team. The part-time independents have used this 2016 debut to introduce Road Rage, which has been popular in the Caribbean and will make its U.S. market debut in late summer, to NHRA drag racing. Road Rage President Charlie Smith has agreed also to sponsor the Nostalgia Funny Car that nitro Funny Car racer John Hale owns and Tera Graves will drive.
Hennen said Road Rage is designed for over-the-road and agricultural applications and performs equally well in both gasoline and diesel fuel systems. That’s what inspired the unique paint scheme on the dragster, with one side red and the other side green. With that concept translated to the crew shirts, the Hennen Motorsports team was given the Best Appearing Crew award this weekend.
However, the biggest coup for Kinsley and his John “Bode” Smith-tuned team was his first-round triumph over points leader Brittany Force, officially an upset because she was qualified seventh and he started from the 10th slot. Kinsley beat Force off the starting line with a .061-second reaction time to her .078, then she smoked the tires on her Monster Energy Dragster and couldn’t recover. The luster wore off eliminations for Kinsley in the next round, as he was over-amped and fouled out with a negative-.312-second light.
Kinsley, of Kennedale, Texas, was making just his seventh Top Fuel appearance. He was the 2006 Top Alcohol Funny Car winner here at Royal Purple Raceway and was hoping to add a dragster trophy from here.
Still, it was a successful weekend for Kinsley, who’s in discussions with Road Rage representatives for a possible fulltime 2017 campaign.
“This is the first time they’ve been to a national event or seen a Top Fuel car fire up,” Kinsley said. “That’s what we need in this sport. We need to get this thing rejuvenated. We need some new blood in here. And we think these people are going to do it.”
He said his “car is really good. We worked really hard over the winter with it.” And it showed.
DEJA-VU . . . ALL OVER AGAIN – Sometimes reruns never get old. They don’t seem to for the KB / Summit Racing Pro Stock team. For the sixth time this season in as many races, one driver from that team was destined to win. Sunday’s Pro Stock field included 10 other racers who had hoped to crack into the winning column and halt the dominators’ streak. But for the second time this year, Greg Anderson and Jason Line duked it out in the final round. It was points leader Line’s sixth straight final-round appearance this year. Chris McGaha, the Phoenix runner-up, is the only non-KB /Summit team driver to reach a Pro Stock final round this year. Anderson began with a bye because the field had a missing-man formation (actually a missing-three-men formation), and after his solo run, he quipped, “I kicked that dude-in-the-other-lane’s butt, didn’t I?” Line also received a bye, in the second round.
ENDERS MISSES OUT ON THIRD STRAIGHT – Chris McGaha used a first-round holeshot to deny hometown star Erica Enders a third consecutive Houston victory.
Enders, driving the ShirleysKids.org/Elite Motorsports Dodge Dart, said, "No excuses: I got beat on the tree. I pride myself on doing my job on the line and with my shifts, and I didn't get it done today. I'll be back.
"Winning only makes you want to win more, and when you don't you're clearly disappointed," she said following her 6.659-second, 207.18-mph that was quicker than Chris McGaha's 6.668-second E.T. She lost by about three feet.
Enders said, "We've had a lot of fun here the last couple of years, but I guess it just wasn't meant to be this time around. That's OK – it only makes all of us fight that much harder to get back to the winners circle. I love coming to Texas. I really loved it the last two years, and I still love it, even though we lost today. We'll be back."
BACK TO DRAWING BOARD – Shane Gray skipped Race No. 2, at Phoenix, to stay home in North Carolina and work on his Valvoline / Nova Services Camaro. And he has won just one round all season so far. That’s still the case, as he fell in the first round Sunday to Allen Johnson. But no one will accuse Gray of not working hard.
He said he and crew chiefs Jim Yates and Craig Hankinson will continue to whip the race car into shape.
"It's frustrating, but we're not going to throw our hands in the air and give up," Gray said. "Nobody said this was easy, and it sure hasn't been this year, but we're not going to stop until we get it figured out. I've got some really smart guys on this team, and we'll keep working on it."
Yates, a Pro Stock champion inhis driving days, joined the team earlier season. Hankinson tunes Alex Laughlin's Gas Monkey Garage Camaro, which uses a Gray Motorsports engine.
NHRA’s mandated fuel-injected engines and 10,500-rpm limiter continue to plague Gray, but he said, "I truly believe we have plenty of power under the hood. Our guys back in the engine shop [at Denver, N.C.] have been working extremely hard building good motors. We have the power. We just need to get it to the racetrack better. There's only one way to get better, and that's to keep working. We're not afraid of that. If we can match the early numbers to the late numbers, we'll be right there. I know we can."
SATURDAY NOTEBOOK - PRO MOD RACER FRIGO UNDERGOES SURGERY FOR BROKEN ARM; BROWN SEEKS 100TH FINAL-ROUND APPEARANCE; FORCE TRIES TO REVIVE HOUSTON REIGN; LANE WORKS THROUGH PAIN; PRO STOCK’S STRONG GETS SOME ELITE HELP
Sidnei Frigo suffered a broken left arm and bruised right hip in his frightening crash at approximately 240 mph during qualifying Friday night for the NHRA SpringNationals at Royal Purple Raceway at Baytown, Texas.
The 44-year-old Brazilian Pro Mod racer underwent corrective surgery Saturday at Memorial Hermann Hospital. According to Anthony Lum, crew chief for the Artivinco Corvette, Frigo is expected to be released early next week and is expected to return home to Sao Paulo.
“He’s going to go home and recover there,” Lum said Saturday, adding that doctors have not estimated a time frame for recovery.
Frigo’s wife, Daniela, and three children were not in Houston this weekend. However, a handful of friends from Brazil who usually accompany Frigo to the races have stayed with him at the hospital. Lum said those three are “taking care of what they need to take care of.”
Lum said, “Sidnei’s doing good. The car did its job; the safety equipment did its job. He’s in good spirits.”
“He’s a competitive racer, and he wants to be back out here already. But we’re going to make sure he heals up just fine. Cars can be replaced. I’m just glad he’s OK. Thank God for Jerry Bickel Race Cars, ProLine, and RK Racecraft, everybody involved Safety’s No. 1. Safety played a big part in keeping his injuries to a minimum.”
Frigo' accident was the second in the Pro Mod class Friday, and both crashes affected the elimination lineup. Jonathan Gray hit the wall in the opening qualifying session as his left rear tire exploded and shredded a large portion of the body. Gray’s Precision Turbo Camaro was heavily damaged, and his team left the premises by Saturday.
Mustang driver Billy Glidden and Chevelle driver Jim Whiteley, the Nos. 17 and 18 qualifiers, moved into the field. Glidden took the No. 4 slot that Frigo had earned, and Whiteley was awarded the No. 6 spot that Gray had secured.
Frigo’s car blazed down the left lane but got out of the groove and veered toward the center line and knocked into the 1,000-foot timing cones. It made a hard left turn and crashed into the guard wall head-on, flipped, went airborne, flew over the wall, and rolled several times before coming to rest upside down in the muddy grass.
His scoreboard registered a 5.489-second elapsed time at 255.65 mph, but the run was disallowed. Mike Castellana, competing in the right lane, received no time.
The NHRA followed customary procedure and impounded the car.
“They usually take the car, assess what the damages are, and do their investigations and hold it so that nobody can see it. I don’t blame them I wouldn’t want anybody coming up and just looking at that thing. So they keep it covered up and do their investigations as they need to,” Lum said. “And they’ll let us know when we can have it back. We’ll probably get it back sometime this weekend.”
The NHRA J & A Service Pro Mod Drag Racing Series has eight races remaining on its 2016 schedule. Lum said it’s too early to determine if the team will commission a new race car and hire a substitute driver before Frigo returns to the cockpit.
“We wanted to run for a championship this year,” Lum said. “He’s the type of guy where he’s going to want to get back in the car as soon as the doctors clear him, as soon as he feels ready to do it. If it happens this season, great. If not, we’re not going to hang our heads. We’re going to keep on moving forward, rebuilding, and trying to give him an even safer car for next time . . . just give him whatever he needs to go out there and feel comfortable and be safe.”
Lum said he arrived on the accident scene about one minute after the Safety Safari emergency crew and was not permitted to approach the race car.
“I understand. They needed to make sure he was perfectly fine and assess the situation,” he said. “I got down there and as just hoping for the best, asking questions of the Safety Safari, seeing if they knew anything. They really couldn’t say much. They just said he was responsive, that he was talking a little bit. He was conscious the whole time. So that was a good sign. They took him in the helicopter, just to be sure. He’s in good hands.”
Lum said he has communicated with Frigo via text messages.
As for the cause of the wreck, Lum said, “I can’t answer that right now, because we really haven’t downloaded the [data from the] run and really looked at it and made sure what happened. So I can’t release that information.”
While the team has not determined an official cause, Lum indicated Frigo had a mechanical failure. “I don’t believe there was, but anything can happen,” he said.
Lum said Frigo texted that he “really didn’t say much. He said he’s OK and that he’s sorry that it happened.
“He wants to be out here, racing again. It’s not going to hold him down,” Lum said. “He’s a racer at heart. He’s competitive. He’ll be back.”
The incident, understandably, made a huge impact on Lum, 26, who’s in his first crew chief role after serving as Courtney Force’s car chief at John Force Racing.
“I’ve never seen a car go over the retaining wall and do a bunch of flips like that, not one that I was working on. I’ve seen it happen a bunch of times, but not the car I’ve been working on. It’s definitely scary. A lot of things are running through your mind. You don’t know what’s happening. A lot of things were running through my mind. My only concern was ‘Is he OK?’ Honestly, I didn’t care about the car at that point. I just wanted to make sure Sidnei was alive and he was going to be fine – which he is.”
Many drag-racing observers compared the nature of Frigo’s crash to that of Top Sportsman driver Ronnie Davis’ fatal April 9 accident during the April 9 PDRA race at North Carolina’s Rockingham Dragway that also seriously injured photojournalist Ian Tocher. Lum happened to be at that race but said he didn’t have any flashback to that incident.
“I wasn’t thinking of anything else but if Sidnei’s OK. That’s all I was worried about,” he said. ‘I hate to see that happen to anyone. It was unfortunate they do happen like that.”
HUFF FILLS IN – Division 4 starter Cliff Huff has stepped up to the national-event scene this weekend. The NHRA is expected to name a fulltime successor to the late Mark Lyle sometime this next week.
TOP FUEL
BROWN APPROACHES FINALS MILESTONE – Antron Brown said last June when he won the Top Fuel trophy at his home dragstrip at Englishtown, N.J., that he wants to make history, wants to make more drag-racing history.
He’s on the verge this weekend at Baytown, Texas, of achieving another milestone.
The Matco Tools /Toyota Dragster driver qualified fifth for the NHRA SpringNationals at Royal Purple Raceway. And when he meets No. 12 JR Todd in the opening round of eliminations Sunday, he’ll be going for his 100th career final-round appearance.
If he meets his goal, he will join Tony Schumacher (Top Fuel), John Force (Funny Car), and Pro Stock champions Greg Anderson and Jeg Coughlin as the only active Mello Yello Drag Racing Series drivers to accomplish that.
Brown has ridden a Pro Stock Motorcycle to 32 showdowns. But since 2008, when he redefined himself as a dragster driver, he has earned more than twice as many Top Fuel trips to the final round. He has run for the Wally 67 times in a dragster – with four different team owners.
Propelling him closer to the “100” plateau are back-to-back final rounds at the last two races, where he won at Las Vegas and earned a runner-up finish at Charlotte.
He knows past history guarantees nothing, but it’s fun to note that Brown has reached the finals in Houston in every "even" year since entering the Top Fuel class in 2008 - winning in 2008 and 2014 and reaching the finals in 2010 and 2012.
"We will try to keep that streak alive of going to the final in even numbered years," Brown said. "We're going to go there with our heads down and do what we always do. And that's take it one step at the time. We're just going to try to be efficient, keep doing what we're doing, and be there at the end of race day.
"The key thing is we’re always learning things every time out and we’re always making progress. The Top Fuel class is really challenging right now. Praise to our whole team. We were very versatile in adjusting and able to adapt and get the best out of the car,” he said.
Ultimately, Brown said, “I’m a racer at heart. I’m a competitor at heart. Whatever I do, my biggest deal is I want to win. I’m not the type of person or have the personality or attitude that ‘Oh, I’m just happy to be out here racing.’ ”
What’s remarkable is that Brown, though strongly identified with Don Schumacher Racing (for which he competed on a bike years ago, too), has achieved 99 final rounds with four different team owners – including three in one season.
He began in 2008 with David Powers, then Tim Buckley took over the team. Mike Ashley was his boss for a while, before Don Schumacher brought him into his organization in 2009.
Mark Oswald, who with Brian Corradi has been his co-crew chief for many years, said Brown “is the best there is out there, we feel. What Antron is, in my mind, is somebody who had the natural ability and honed that and made it better. There are some natural drivers out here who are lazy, just status quo. And there are some drivers who work very hard but they weren’t naturally good. I think [Antron] had natural talent. And you see how athletic he is and keeps himself in shape. He eats right and keeps his mind sharp. He’s just honed his skills.”
Oswald said some days Brown saves the team and deserves the credit for the victory, while other weekends it’s the other way around.
“We do it all together,” Brown said.
And the 55-time winner said he had great resources from the beginning of his Top Fuel venture.
He said he inherited a proven car at David Powers Racing and a proven crew chief in Lee Beard. And that got his career in a dragster off to a successful start.
“That car was running good at the end of the previous year with David Baca driving. He went to two finals in a row. The car was already running good when I got there,” Brown said. “We had a really good group of guys. Then at the end of that year, when Brian [Corradi] and Mark [Oswald] came in and Mike Ashley came in, we made the team even better. We had an all-star team. It was truly an all-star team.”
That’s how he describes his current team, for many of those same crew members are still with him, including Brad Mason and Wayne “Red” Waite.
It’s a blessing that each member of the Matco Tools / Toyota team can rely on the predictability of their hard-working mates, because no one has been able to rely on the Houston weather forecasts this weekend.
Few thought the two Friday qualifying sessions would run because of the dismal extended forecasts. But they did, with Brown grabbing the tentative No. 5 position. But when everyone left the racetrack Friday night, they figured the NHRA’s luck surely had run out. Thunderstorms seemed ready to sweep in and hover over the entire area. However, the unpredictable Gulf Coast spring weather spared Baytown for most of the day. Both qualifying sessions ran without a hitch under sunny skies, and Brown remained fifth in the order.
"We are looking forward to race day because it's going to be hot and tricky," Brown said. "We just have to keep on doing what we do and getting the most out of what the track is going to give us. I think that's going to be the key for race day, to get down that track. It's going to be a tough road."
No wonder he said that - track temperatures reached 130 degrees Saturday afternoon.
But in this first weekend of the year that completes a back-to-back set of races, Brown is making merry. Oswald isn’t far from his Houma, La., home. Brown’s wife, Billie Jo, also is from New Orleans.
Royal Purple Raceway, Brown said, is “kind of like a second home for me. Mark Oswald, all of his friends, and everyone from Louisiana comes out. All of my in-laws come out, and we always have a great time. Always have a little bit of home cooking, a little bit of jambalaya, crawfish. It's always a lot of fun going to Houston and seeing all of the family and friends."
And an additional chapter in Brown’s history book just would add some Cajun spice to his career.
LOVE YOUR HAIR STYLIST – Country artist Toby Keith has a song with a verse that goes like this: “My baby cuts hair at a beauty boutique, just blowin’ and goin’ till she’s dead on her feet. They walk right in and they sit right down. She gives ‘em what they want and then she spins them around. I don’t think they even know her name . . .”
Top Fuel racer Clay Millican and the Stringer Performance crew want to honor those hard-working folks. They’re sending out a special “Thank You” from Royal Purple Raceway this weekend to all of the Great Clips stylists across the country. Millican is racing with a special “We Love Stylists” decal on the Parts Plus/Great Clips/UNOH dragster. He and his crew also will send out special messages on social media to show their appreciation.
FUNNY CAR
CAN FORCE STILL RULE HOUSTON? – John Force has won at this venue seven times, more than any other driver. But he hasn’t done so since 2002.
“I am not worried about it,” Force said, “because this PEAK Antifreeze Chevy hot rod has been running great this season. (Crew chief) Jon Schaffer and my guys are keeping me young and we’ll get there.
“I love Texas and I love racing in Houston. We won there a lot a few years ago but we just haven’t been able to get back into the winner’s circle in a while. I have a lot of sponsors to thank like AAA Texas and Traxxas which are both Texas companies so there will be lots of people supporting us plus Monster Energy, Lucas Oil, and Mac Tools,” he said.
Force has racked up 48 round-wins at the SpringNationals. An appearance in the semifinals Sunday could make this the 15th event in which he has won at least 50 rounds. His win-loss record before Sunday’s eliminations is 48-21, thanks to eight final-round appearances from 1990-2002. During that stretch, Force was 35-7.
He qualified the Advance Auto Parts / Peak Camaro in 10th place this weekend (with a 4.005-second, 322.11-mph effort) and will give up lane choice to Tommy Johnson Jr. in the first round of eliminations.
“I am still up there with a four flat,” Force said. “In this day and age when you have 3.89s by guys like [Tim] Wilkerson with Courtney [Force] and Alexis [DeJoria] running 3.91s, it is just unbelievable. I have no complaints about what our cars are doing. My car had a computer issue that threw off the timing.
“What has been going on in this state of Texas that we all love – we were hoping to get out here and give these families a little entertainment. They deserve to have some fun, and we were lucky today. The good Lord gave us good weather to get some racing in, and tomorrow it looks like we might get to make some more runs. I want to invite everyone to take a break and come out and watch us burn some nitro tomorrow and we’ll give you a show.”
OUCH! – Eric Lane can make a Funny Car sing. But don’t ask Ron Capps’ assistant crew chief to build a backyard gazebo.
Lane smashed his left hand this past week and broke his pinkie finger. Moreover, he has helped Rahn Tobler prep Capps to a No. 6 qualifying position for Sunday’s eliminations with six stitches in the broken finger.
Still he helped Capps make a best run Friday of 3.953 seconds at 321.27 mph that made him one of six drivers to surpass both of the previous track records.
PRO STOCK
KB TEAM AT TOP BUT PAIRINGS CHANGED – Pro Stock points leader Jason Line put a little more pressure on teammate and top qualifier Greg Anderson during Saturday qualifying. It didn’t change the order – Anderson still is seeded first and Line second. But they closed the day just one-thousandth of a second apart, after starting the day separated by .013. Once again Bo Butner, their third KB / Summit Racing mate, is third on the list.
Anderson will advance automatically to the second round Sunday with a solo pass to start the day. The class has just 13 racers this weekend.
Rather than give Line and Butner byes, as well, officials bracketed the other two empty spots. So Line will race No. 13 V Gaines and Butner will face No. 12 Aaron Strong.
STRONG RECEIVES ELITE HELP – Pro Stock independent owner-driver Aaron Strong is a former Comp Eliminator racer with two divisional championships, a national event victory, and Sportsman Driver of the Year honors. But everyone needs a little help now and again. And Strong has received that from Richard Freeman and his Elite Motorsports operation.
Nick Ferri, Jake Hairston, and Kyle Bates from Freeman’s Elite Motorsports team (which features stars Erica Enders, Jeg Coughlin, Vincent Nobile, and Drew Skillman) have lent tech support to Strong, who purchased two of Freeman’s engines.
Strong, who owns his own business in the Seattle area, said he made a deal with Elite after the Pomona race: “Richard got us a motor. We worked on some details and we ended up getting two motors. We’re not based out of their shop [in Wynnewood, Okla.]. They’re not setting up our car. We stil have our same crew. Greg Stanfield is still our crew chief.”
He said, “We haven’t had a chance to go out and test the motors. We’re just trying to adjust to the chassis and shocks – that’s what everybody’s fighting now. We just need to get out and get more seat time.”
Strong said he doesn’t know what his next race is but that when he comes up with enough funding to hit the racetrack again – possibly at Topeka in a few weeks – his race car will be at crew chief Greg Stafield’s Bossier City, La., shop.
“Racing about once a month” is Strong’s goal, he said. “It’s about the money. We’ve got the parts and the pieces to go racing fulltime. We just don’t have the budget.”
Al Valera and his A & J Furniture Manufacturing, from Lynnwood, Calif., have sponsored Strong this year.
“They came out at the beginning of the year and helped us out a lot,” Strong said. “They’re looking at possibly helping us out the rest of the year.”
Las Vegas-based FIGSPEED also has signed on as one of Strong’s backers and housed his car following the Las Vegas event.
This also is a special weekend for Strong. Wife Melissa is here, and they’re celebrating her first weekend away from their six-year-old and four-month-old children.
FRIDAY NOTEBOOK - TORRENCE TOPS KALITTA, MILLICAN; PRITCHETT’S TEAM MAKES ENCORE; WILKERSON, WORSHAM DOMINATE FUNNY CAR PERFROMANCES; PRO STOCK FIELD THREE SHORT; ENDERS HOPES FOR HOMETOWN MOJO AGAIN; KB / SUMMIT TEAM TIGHTENS CHOKEHOLD ON FACTORY HOT ROD CLASS
TOP FUEL
KALITTA REALLY STRONG BUT STILL WINLESS – Doug Kalitta is hoping this race will bring the satisfaction it did last April for him and his Mac Tools Dragster team. He arrived in Houston in 2015 with a Phoenix runner-up finish among his first five efforts. He scored his first victory of the year here at Royal Purple Raceway, avenging that final-round defeat from Arizona against Tony Schumacher.
Already this season, Kalitta has a couple of distinctions. He’s the only Top Fuel driver to rank among the top three in the standings after every race so far. His identical 328.22-mph passes at Pomona and Phoenix in February were the fastest so far this year. Moreover, Kalitta is fresh from his second final-round appearance of 2016, at Charlotte. Again as he arrived in Houston, though, he’s looking for his first triumph of the season. He has won twice here, including from the No.1 starting spot in 2003. He qualified No. 1 also in 2002 and 2013.
He was seventh in the order after the first session and was No. 1 for a few minutes in that late session. Kalitta said he doubted his 3.743-second blast would hold up as quickest, and it didn’t. Steve Torrence overtook him with a track-record 3.724-second elapsed time. Torrence also set the speed standard for the meet at 329.42 mph.
SET TO MAKE MORE MEMORIES – SealMaster Dragster driver JR Todd said he’ll always cherish his 2007 victory here: “Houston will always be special for me, as it was the first race after Eric Medlen's accident and I was fortunate enough to win.”
Maybe this year he’ll have another feat to remember fondly.
With just three events under his belt in the current in-house, Kalitta Motorsports-built chassis, Todd is coming from his best performance this season. At Charlotte, with team owner Connie Kalitta and experienced tuner Rob Flynn combining for the set-up, Todd posted Saturday’s best run in the Top Fuel class. That 3.743-second elapsed time vaulted him from 11th in the order to his season-best No. 2. Todd ran even better (3.736) Sunday in his opening-round victory over Terry McMillen and Chris Karamesines. He also registered the top speed of the meet at zMAX Dragway at 328.06 mph.
Racing in consecutive weekends doesn’t bother Todd. “It keeps you in your groove and doesn't give you time to dwell on the previous event,” he said.
Another positive for him is that he has nearly double his elimination round-win total from this point last season and is four places higher in the standings.
Todd ended up in the 15th and final spot in the order at No. 15 in the first session. He moved up three places by Friday night but experienced a huge fire by the time he got the car halted.
EDDIE’S THE MAN IN TEXAS – Clay Millican said that “it may not make a lot of sense to other people,” but “every time I think about racing in Texas, I always think of Eddie Hill, the Texas Top Fuel guy. That’s what sticks in my head, especially when we’re going to a place with so much history.”
The Texas part makes sense, but the Houston connection might not. Hill grew up in Longview, east of Dallas and close to Shreveport, La., and is a longtime resident of Wichita Falls, near the Oklahoma border. And he won this event only once, in 1988. Just the same, Hill is synonymous with Texas, as far as Millican is concerned.
“Houston was really great to us last season,” Millican said, recalling his semifinal appearance. “I have been to a final round there before [in 2004, to Brandon Bernstein], and after last weekend in Charlotte, I think it’s something we can do again.”
Meanwhile, Millican tops the list of active pro drivers with the most final-round appearances before a first victory at 10. He’s aiming for his first NHRA victory after earning the most IHRA trophies and six series championships.
The popular Tennesseean was No. 4 following the opening qualifying session Friday. He sliced four-hundredths of a second off his time in the evening session and has the tentative No. 3 spot at a 3.743-second elapsed time that was identical to No.2 Doug Kalitta’s. But Kalitta was granted the No. 2 position with a faster speed (324.36 mph to Millican’s 323.12).
HOME SWEET HOME? – Top Fuel driver Richie Crampton is about 9300 miles from Adelaide, South Australia, where he grew up. But the naturalized U.S. citizen said, “It definitely feels a lot like home whenever we go to Texas. The weather, the terrain, the people, the food . . . just the entire attitude is so much like Australia. The first time I ever [came here], it was one of the first things that struck me.
"When George W. Bush was president, he came to Australia for a visit with Prime Minister John Howard and he said over and over on TV how much Texas and Australia were the same," Crampton said. "I know exactly what he meant. The fans at this race have always been very kind and welcoming to us, and that's the Texas friendliness we've come to expect."
He feels at home in the Lone Star State, too, because his team has been successful here. "I won in Texas last year [at the Fall Nationals near Dallas], and Morgan [team owner Lucas] won in Houston in 2012, so we have good data in the books to work from.”
Before this weekend, Crampton said, “Usually, the Houston race swings very heavily on the weather. The track is just a few feet above sea level, so it has the potential to be very fast with all that oxygen available. At the same time, it can be humid and wet, which presents other issues. We have to be ready for whatever we get."
What everyone got at Royal Purple Raceway Friday, surprisingly with menacing clouds and a bleak forecast, were two qualifying sessions. Crampton was 11th in the first lineup. He moved up to the provisional No. 4 slot at night on the strength of a 3.752-second, 314.31-mph effort.
Now Crampton has to wait to see if what he calls his “promising weekend” at Charlotte will carry over to Houston.
"We really got onto something promising this past weekend in Charlotte, and the car responded well to everything Aaron [crew chief Brooks] was trying to do," Crampton said. "You don't make big changes with nitro cars. You have to massage what you have, be patient, and take the incremental gains you make. We feel like we've taken a bunch of steps forward in the last few races.
"We are getting a firmer grip on the race car, and we think the clutch disc problem we discovered just before the race was what's been holding us back," he said. “The gains we've made in consistency should start paying dividends very soon."
REUNITED AND IT FEELS SO GOOD – Leah Pritchett might be singing that old song, “Hail! Hail! The gang’s all here!” Well, everybody but Bob Vandergriff. But the former BVR team, with Mike Guger and Joe Barlam tuning and the crew back for at least one more hurrah, will race with backing from Quaker State and FireAde.
Houston is the home of Quaker State, and Pritchett participated in some personal appearances as Quaker State ambassador before the event kicked off.
“I’m so grateful to have growing relationships with sponsors like Quaker State and FireAde that stand behind us, share common goals, and work hard with me to keep in the game,” Pritchett said. “I’m also beyond stoked to have my crew back together for Houston. There is a unique, seamlessly misfit, yet professional bond among us that I love.” She said it feels sweet “to be reunited, even if it is for just this one race. I’m pumped to the max to hunt down that Spring Nationals Top Fuel Wally together.”
The 10th-ranked Top Fuel driver earned the victory at Phoenix in the second race of the 24-event schedule.
“Right now I’m focusing at a pace quicker than my 320-mph dragster on locking in one race at a time. That is the immediate goal.”
She competed at Charlotte last weekend with the help of Lagana Racing, and she said, “Competing at back-to-back races while finding and creating proper funding has undoubtedly brought an elevated level of difficulty to the mix, but a shout-out of thanks is in order to all of the business professionals in our drag racing community that have shown support and been open to exploring opportunities with my partners to keep me on the track. It has definitely been an interesting turn of events this last month, but a journey I am embracing and growing from.”
Pritchett was 12th after the early qualifying session and dropped to 15th by the close of the day.
SOMETHING TO HONK ABOUT – Debuting in the Corradi showroom at Medina, Ohio, is the latest model, Nora. Designed by Nick and Monica Corradi, Norah arrived at 11:40 p.m. Thursday, much to the delight of crew chief / grandpa Brian Corradi and bottom-end specialist / grandma Jackie Corradi. Nora, who passed technical inspection with flying colors, has seven pounds, seven ounces distributed over her 20-inch wheelbase. Brian Corradi, who already doubles as Matco Tools Dragster co-crew chief and owner of the Master Pizza restaurants in Northern Ohio, reportedly is trying to program Nora to say, “Antron wins!” and “I love pizza!”
LANGDON PLODDING ON – It’s hard to believe the statistic. But four-time NHRA champion Shawn Langdon has yet to make it out of the first round of Top Fuel eliminations this year. Nearly every racer has had such slumps, and Langdon is seasoned enough to know it will pass.
The Todd Okuhara- and Phil Shuler-led Don Schumacher Racing Red Fuel Dragster team made wholesale changes to their setup following the Las Vegas race, and Langdon said they saw progress at Charlotte.
"It doesn't show it on paper, but we made progress last weekend," Langdon said. "We lost that one qualifying session due to rain Friday night, and that put us behind a little bit. We came out on Saturday and made two good laps and really felt like we would have a good race on Sunday. Conditions on Sunday morning were great, and we knew we were going to have to go for it to be able to get the round win. It just didn't hold. But it's another lap of data for us that is what we need most right now. We just need laps on this car so we can learn more about it."
Okuhara, Shuler & Co. got help from Antron Brown’s Matco Tools team.
“It really means a lot that we've got great teammates that offer suggestions and advice to us. We are so close to turning the corner and I feel like once we do, the win lights will start coming. We just have to get over the hump and things will start going our way," Langdon said.
He took the tentative No. 6 spot in the order after the first session Friday and stayed there overnight.
FUNNY CAR
DID YOU KNOW . . . ? – It isn’t trivial to DHL Toyota Camry driver Del Worsham, but it’s a fun tidbit of trivia nonetheless: The reigning Funny Car champion is one of just two to have earned trophies at Houston in both nitro classes (Top Fuel 2011, Funny Car 2001, 2008). Who’s the other? Current IHRA President Mike Dunn (Top Fuel 1995 and 2001, Funny Car 1988).
Worsham staked his claim on the top qualifying position with a track-record 3.923-second elapsed time at 325.92 in Friday’s opening qualifying session. It lasted until Alexis DeJoria came along and trumped that with a 3.910 – which her crew chief, Tommy De Lago, guessed might fall to a 3.8. He was right. Courtney Force challenged with a 3.915-second E.T. in her second chance Friday, but Tim Wilkerson left them all in his dust, posting a career-best 3.899-second run at 327.59 mph. Wilkerson co-crew chief Richard Hartman said the owner-driver had told him before the pass that he thought the Levi, Ray & Shoup Mustang “might run a .90 if we’re lucky.”
Worsham did come away Friday with top speed at 328.06 mph, eclipsing Matt Hagan’s 326.16 from the first session.
YOU ALWAYS REMEMBER YOUR FIRST – This race produced the first NHRA national-event victory for current Funny Car points leader Robert Hight in 2005. Since then, he has earned at least two trophies every season, along with the 2009 Mello Yello Funny Car championship.
“Getting the first win in 2005 was big,” the AAA Texas Camaro driver said. “You want to prove that you belong, and holding that first Wally was really special. The biggest thing about the first win is you want to get the second win and then the third. I have had a great team my whole career, and I am excited to be heading back to Houston with my crew chief, Mike Neff, who has also won in Houston as a driver.”
Hight, the Gatornationals winner in March as part of John Force Racing’s first double-nitro triumph, also has two semifinal finishes. He has qualified fourth or higher in four of the first five races this year. He settled into the No. 7 position with his first run Friday and used his second pass to jump two places to fifth.
A CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM – Bob Bode got some inspiration last weekend from the future driver of his Ar-Bee Toyota Funny Car, his son Bobby.
The family, including Bob’s wife, Alice, participate in the NHRA’s Jr. Dragster program, but last Saturday’s race at Illinois’ Byron Dragway was extra-special. It happened to be Bobby’s 14th birthday – and he won the race and took the points lead.
But Dad said he was worried at the start of the event, because he wasn’t sure what the car’s dial-in should be. Bobby named a figure.
“I didn’t even know what to dial in,” Bob Bode said. “I’m working on the car, and I’m thinking we need to figure it out more. He said, ‘We’ll be fine,’ and I said OK. Every round was amazing.
“Five rounds later we get the trophy. I said, ‘Know what kid? You’re pretty good.’ I have to give him that,” Bode said. “On his birthday, the exact day, he wins the big trophy. It had nothing to do with me or the race car. It was all a 14-year-old kid.
“I think it’s just the fact since he was one year old he’s been in a basket [out here], getting carried around. He doesn’t know anything else. It may be the genes, but maybe it’s just the fact that he has no other choice but to figure it out,” he said.
Bode has a few things to figure out, too. He landed in the “Lucky No. 13” slot in Friday’s initial session and remained there, although he clocked quicker and faster numbers.
HALE JAZZED – John Hale said he’s “jazzed” this weekend because Jim and Jon Dunn and the Oberto Dodge Charger crew have zeroed in on what they believe is the final piece of their tuning puzzle, based on their performance at Charlotte.
“That’s one of the things about this team here: We’ve gotten a little bit quicker each race for the past three races, and that shows strength. If we keep going in that same direction, that strength is going to pay off,” Hale said.
The native Texan from the Dallas suburb of Addison credited the team’s solidarity and devotion.
“All our crew members this year were on the team last year. Some were even here the year before. They work excellent together. I wouldn’t trade them for anything. They love working on this car. They’re not going to make a fortune doing it, but they pour their hearts into this car. They work 110 percent,” he said.
“This team does a lot with what it has. We don’t have three other cars. We don’t have the budget those teams have. I think we’re doing well with what we got,” Hale said.
He has been cheering on fellow independent Tim Wilkerson, who has won two of the previous five races, including the most recent one.
“I saw Tim Wilkerson in the elevator at the hotel last night, and I said to him, ‘What an outstanding job.’ He said, ‘Yeah, we like to put together some great runs every now and then.’ He’s modest about it. To see him win two this year, Charlotte with the new car, he’s got something figured out,” Hale said.
Hale also cheers for Wilkerson to do well because his co-crew chief, Richard Hartman, is a longtime friend.
“I just talked to Richard about his next nostalgia race. He actually put together my first Nostalgia Funny Car I bought from his dad [Virgil Hartman]. He put it together for me at his race shop in South Carolina,” Hale said. Tera Graves will drive that car, with sponsorship with Road Rage, the company that has signed on as sponsor of Kebin Kinsley’s Top Fuel dragster.
Hale also is jazzed that his John Hale Racing “Best of Texas” Barbecue Sauce – a recipe he has perfected during the past three years – soon will hit store shelves.
The 15th and final place went to Hale following both Friday chances.
PRO STOCK
LEAN FIELD – The 16-car Pro Stock class has just 13 entrants this weekend. But independent racer Aaron Strong said he understood why that’s the case.
“You’ve got the West Coast independents, and you’ve got the East Coast independents. Houston is kind of in the middle, so it’s kind of far for people,” Strong reasoned. “Last week we were at Charlotte, so you had the East Coast independents there.” He guessed that the ugly weather forecast might have scared away some of the closer Western racers.
“The part-time, little guys got to race in races where it economically works for them. It’s expensive to travel,” he said.
ENDERS HAS BUSY WEEKEND – Hometown heroine Erica Enders, the two-time Pro Stock champion who lives near New Orleans now, is back in her familiar surroundings. And she had an outstanding start to the SpringNationals Friday. She is sixth in the order overnight in the Elite Motorsports/Mopar Dodge that’s carrying branding on the side Shirley's Kids, the charity headed by legendary Top Fuel racer Shirley Muldowney.
"Houston was the place where I won my first national event in the sportsman ranks," Enders said. "And 10 years later, we were able to get it done in Pro Stock and then do it back to back."
Enders started her career in the NHRA Jr. Dragster program, racing successfully with younger sister Courtney. She moved to the sportsman classes and earned her first national-event victory in 2004 here in the Super Gas class. She stepped up to Pro Stock and won her first Wally in that category in 2012. So she is hoping for a three-peat here.
"We faced a lot of adversity at those two events," Enders said of the 2013 and 2014 Houston races. "Things happened to our car. We hurt some engines and had to do an eleventh-hour engine change (in 2015). To be able to ignore all of the distractions that come with a hometown race and win is pretty cool. I know it can be done, and with the strides we're making in the right direction, I'm hopeful we can have another good showing there."
Enders said she’s happy to carry the Shirley's Kids' banner this weekend: "Shirley's Kids has already impacted the lives of two amazing kids and their families. Shirley did a lot for this sport, and she continues to help others through Shirley's Kids."
The foundation’s mission is to lend a hand to children in need in the markets where drag racing has become a part of the community.
The Shirley's Kids-adorned Dodge is made possible through the generous contribution of Lupe Tortilla Mexican Restaurants. None of the money donated to Shirley's Kids goes to the sponsorship of Enders' race car. Lupe Tortilla is providing all of the funding.
Lupe Tortilla has been voted the No. 1 Tex-Mex restaurant in Texas on numerous occasions, with locations across Houston as well as San Antonio, Austin, Beaumont, Katy, and College Station.
"Stan and Sheila Holt have done so much for Shirley's Kids," Muldowney said. "I can't thank them enough for helping the kids at the races we go to, and now to see Shirley's Kids on Erica's car is icing on the cake. They are trying their best to help us spread the word so we can help more children."
Muldowney is slated to attend this race and NHRA national events at Atlanta, Englishtown, Bristol, Denver, Indianapolis, the fall Charlotte event, Dallas, Las Vegas, and Pomona. She also will be at the Jr. Drag Racing Western Conference Finals at Tulsa, Okla. For details about the 501(c)3 non-profit charity, please visit www.ShirleysKids.org.
REFINING PROCESS – Allen Johnson and his Marathon Petroleum Corporation/J&J Racing team tested his Dodge Dart at zMAX Dragway this past Monday after the Charlotte event. But before they got down to business here at Royal Purple Raceway this weekend, some of the crew members visited a Marathon Petroleum refinery on Galveston Bay.
“The truck, trailer and crew went, and we were en route and got trapped in the thunderstorms and never made it,” Johnson said. “But I’ve been there before.”
Johnson owns a chain of gas stations / mini-marts in East Tennessee that sell Marathon petrol.
“We started out with that refinery being an Amoco Refinery back when I got into this in the ‘90s. Then BP bought it, and then Marathon bought all the BPs. So it’s transitioned from Amoco to BP now to Marathon,” he said.
Johnson said the refinery his team visited “employs thousands of people, and I think it’s the third largest refinery in the country.”
He said, “The team got to go into the control tower and look at all the screens. They saw all the crackers where they’re cooking the fuel, crude oil, gasoline, and propane. Homeland Security these days is so strict that you can’t take pictures and you can’t go out in the common areas.”
The process that takes crude oil to the gas pump for motorists is a complicated one, Johnson explained: “It starts off as crude oil on the ship, then they download it and put the crude oil in what they call a ‘cracker’ and they heat it to temperatures all the way up in the thousands of degrees. Then they separate off gas, naphtha - which makes gasoline - heavy crude oil, and diesel fuel. Some of the last parts that come off is the thick oil that makes asphalt. It’s crazy how they separate that crude oil into about 15 to 20 products.
“They drain off the naphtha, which makes gasoline, into a tank and then they start refining it and putting additives in it to make gasoline,” Johnson said. “Then that gets put into a pipeline that comes from Galveston Bay all the way to the East Coast. Just like bus stops along the way, they’ll drop off a hundred thousand barrels here, a hundred thousand barrels there at terminals. Then our trucks go to the terminals and pick them up and take them to the gas stations.”
The process of mastering the Pro Stock class’ fuel injection changes and solving the KB / Summit team’s successful code is just as complicated. But Johnson fared well Friday, running strong. His times were fifth-quickest after both sessions. He started with a 6.645 second elapsed time at 207.62 and improved both E.T. and speed in the evening run, to 6.635, 208.97.
Johnson reached the final round here in 2007, 2010, and 2014. He was No. 1 starter in 2012 and 2014.
BUTNER EAGER AS KB TEAM GRINDS ON – Pro Stock sophomore Bo Butner has a hunch that he’ll join Top Fuel racers Brittany Force and Leah Pritchett in earning a career-first NHRA victory soon. The driver of the third KB Racing-prepared Chevy Camaro, who is a Comp champion, has advanced to three final rounds in the season’s five completed races and is third in points.
"I’ve been lucky enough to hop in a lot of good cars, but this feels great,” Butner said. “And I am real happy to start the season like this. But some other teams are catching up.” Referring to teammates Jason Line and Greg Anderson, he said, “Our goal is to try to be first through third the whole year and try to finish that way. It’s motivating not just for me but everyone that helps us. My crew guys, they want to win, and that’s great to have that on your shoulder. With a car like this, I feel like a win is coming."
Anderson and Line promised they’ll keep their feet to the throttle.
“As the other teams start to close the gap, we regroup and figure out what we need to do to up our game and stay ahead of the pack,” No. 2-ranked Anderson said.
Ditto for points leader Line: “There is no resting. The other GM cars are getting faster. They made big gains at the last race. We worked to make some gains, too.”
The KB / Summit team sewed up the top three provisional places in the early session Friday. Anderson led the way, with Line and Butner following – with just a thousandth of a second separating them. In the evening session, that order remained the same. But Anderson lowered his tentative No. 1 time to 6.589 seconds and raised his top speed from 209.10 mph to 210.41. Line also improved with a 6.602, 209.92.
GREAT FRIENDS, GREAT FOOD, SO-SO RESULTS - Jeg Coughlin will try Saturday to jump from the tentative No. 11 position. The five-time Pro Stock champion has earned five of his 76 national-event victories here at Royal Purple Raceway. So naturally it’s one of his favorite tracks on the tour.
"I don't know that I've ever been more excited to [race at] Houston," Coughlin said. "Elite Motorsports has a special relationship with Stan and Sheila Holt and Stan's sons and their business, Lupe Tortilla Mexican Restaurants. They are jumping on board with us once again with my teammate Erica Enders' race car, and [we’re] eating the best Tex-Mex food in the world all weekend - not to mention the fact we get to hang out and race with Stan and Sheila, who run Stock. We’re going to have some fun, no matter what.”
Since switching to Dodge Darts and Hemi motors at the start of this season, the Elite Motorsports team, winners of the last two championships with Enders, hasn't managed a victory. But Coughlin says it's just a matter of time: “This sport is humbling, and it's tough when you're used to going rounds a lot to take a step back, but we knew we'd experience this transitional phase at the start of the season and we knew it would take a little time. I have complete confidence in this team, and I know everyone is working at maximum capacity.
"The testing and dyno work we've put in recently is showing a lot of promise, and frankly we thought Charlotte would be our breakthrough race. but it'll have to be Houston, which suits me just fine. I remember vividly winning the 1994 race in Super Stock down there and also my first Pro Stock trophy ever in 1997. Those are memories I will always cherish, and I'm positive a win this year would match those wins in terms of importance."
