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SUNDAY NOTEBOOK -

FORCE EARNS FIRST-EVER NORWALK WALLY - NHRA Funny Car driver John Force has a list of career accomplishments almost as long as his victory speeches. The personable driver, who has starred in a reality television show and walked the red carpet at the ESPY Awards in Hollywood, has done it all.

He has set records, won more rounds than any other professional driver in NHRA history, won more world championships than any two active drivers, combined, and made more drag racing track operators more money than anyone else, ever.

Heading into the 8th Annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals, however, his trophy case had one giant hole in it…the place reserved for the Wally from Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk.

Though Force had raced at the facility countless times at Night under Fire and other booked-in exhibition races, he had never driven to the winners circle at an NHRA national event.

At the 2014 running of the event, however, that changed.

Force powered past Ron Capps in the final round, running a 4.113 at 317.27 miles per hour with a .068 reaction time compared to Capps’ 4.135/305.56 pass with an .061 reaction time. It the 140th career Funny Car win and the first since the season opener in Pomona for the 16-time world champion.

“I just couldn’t get a national event win here, and I’ve won ‘em all with the exception of Epping, and I’ve been in the final there,” Force said. “You want to win them all, and with everything I’ve accomplished I’ve been real lucky in my career. I’ve surrounded myself with good people and great sponsors, but I really wanted this win.

“It was an exciting win and this win was special to me. I want to win every race, but I really wanted to win this race for (the Baders) and help pack people into this great race track. They really do work hard.”

Force qualified No. 2 behind Del Worsham, who ran a pair of 4.000 passes during qualifying.

He overpowered No. 13 qualifier Tim Wilkerson in the first round and Chad Head in the quarterfinals, but Cruz Pedregon and Capps didn’t make things easy on him.

Facing Pedregon for the 93rd time in his career, Force needed every bit of power the 500 cubic inch John Force Racing engine could give his 2014 Mustang. Pedregon had an .059 light and ran a 4.150 at 306.53 miles per hour, a mere .015 slower than Force’s .045-induced 4.149/290.88 package. Force was a mere .028 ahead at the 60-foot mark and .041 in front at 330.

“Cruz Pedregon is a true drag racer,” Force said. “NHRA puts on a great show and I’m just grateful to be a part of it. I raced some great kids…Capps, Cruz, Wilkerson and Chad Head, another kid. We gave them some good racing.”

Things weren’t much easier against the Rahn Toebler-tuned NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Charger of Ron Capps in the final.

Capps had the advantage at the tree, .061 to .068, was ahead by .015 at 60 feet, by .008 at 330 feet and by a mere thousandth at the 660-foot mark. Force was just too fast, crossing the finish line .015 ahead at 317.27 mph compared to Capps’s speed of 305.56.

“It was a great weekend,” Force said. “(Grandchildren) Jacob and Noah and Autumn were in the car after every run, hugging Grandpa. That’s what gets your heart right, and if your heart’s right you are going to drive your best. If you go out there and get all jacked up and the pressure takes over, you’re junk. Your body won’t respond. And if it does you got away with it.

“If you’re happy the mind does everything right because it isn’t locked up. As crazy as I look, running around all day long, when I get in the car I’m a very calm person. Everyone thinks I’m crazy and that’s the way I race. I’m crazy, but calm.”

Force moved into second place in the 2014 points standings with the win, trailing teammate Robert Hight by 78 points. Capps moved into third place with 846 points, one ahead of Tommy Johnson’s 845.

BROWN'S CONFIDENCE STRONG AFTER FIFTH TOP-FUEL VICTORY - They were carrying around their gleaming Wally trophies and laughing at yarns that iconic track promoter Bill Bader Sr. was spinning Sunday after the conclusion of the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Norwalk, Ohio.

Then Top Fuel winner Antron Brown and Funny Car counterpart and close pal John Force started some friendly smack talk.

JOHN FORCE (to Brown): Did you or did you not call me out in a challenge?

ANTRON BROWN: Yes, I did!

FORCE: In front of everybody - your dragster against my Funny Car.

Brown had offered a small handicap to Force, who waived off the suggestion, saying he'd make it up at the Christmas tree. The crowd egged them on with a collective "Oooooooh" that had that "Yeah – so there! It's on" vibe to it."

Then Brown mock-heckled Force, telling him, "I know they call you White Lightning. But you never saw Black Lightning, because it’s too quick!"

They laughed uproariously and congratulated each other.

Then Brown spoke a little less boisterously about the unexpectedly wild commotion in his Matco Tools/U.S. Army/Toyota Dragster pit just before the final round. He used the word "adversity" and described how his team "definitely got Army Strong" as they dealt with a last-second discovery about 15 minutes before his showdown with No. 1 qualifier Shawn Langdon.

His dragster started smoking during the warm-up, and the Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald-led crew "had to loosen everything on the car" and fix the problem that Brown said made them "the closest we've been not to making the final round." But he marveled at the team's reaction to the potentially calamitous circumstances.

"They were talking back and forth. The communication was unparalleled. Nobody got in a panic. Nobody got in a rush," Brown said. While the precious seconds ticked away, Brown prayed, "Lord, just give us the strength to get through it." And he said, "The experience to stay poised and collect yourself definitely played a part of it. I could have been a wreck up there, and the boys could have been, too. But that's how much I believe and trust in my boys."

He said, "They put that car back to perfection, and we pulled that win off. That gives you that sense of confidence that this is a championship team. That's what it takes to win championships, when you can pull through those tough times like we did. It's just a blessing to be on a team with a good group of boys like that."

And that was what Brown took away from his Mello Yello Series-best fifth triumph in 13 events, besides the $50,000 winner’s share of the purse, Don Schumacher Racing's 231st victory, and the Wally statue that's his 30th in Top Fuel and 46th overall. He took away confidence.

Brown knows his season hasn't been perfect. He has endured a vicious wreck, been forced to sort out a brand-new car, persevered through a bit of a performance dip, and bounced into then out of the points lead while Doug Kalitta established himself as almost unstoppable. But now Brown knows. He knows he can rebound. He knows his team is focused with blinders on. He knows these Matco Tools crew members have what championship runs require.

Naturally, Langdon, too, feels the same about his Al-Anabi Racing team, and the way he approached this battle between the past two NHRA Top Fuel series champions showed that. The trouble Sunday for Langdon was that they simply had too much ammunition for Brown.

While Brown blazed to a 3.797-second, 318.84-mph victory, Langdon smoked the tires on his Al-Anabi Racing Dragster and gave Brown no resistance with a 4.982-second elapsed time at 155.52 mph.

"We wanted to give Antron a great race in the finals, but we were just a little too aggressive and smoked the tires," Langdon said.

And that confidence Brown displayed when reviewing that last-minute push in the pits and when engaging in playful verbal jousting with Force is the kind of confidence Langdon is looking to grab.

"The Al-Anabi team made some great runs this weekend. We qualified No. 1 and made some excellent runs in eliminations. The final round was the first time we ran in the left lane today, so we didn't have a lot of information," he said. "We came into this weekend, changed a lot of things, and reverted to some things we knew would work for the Al-Anabi car. We've been kind of chasing our tail for the last few races, and we just needed to get a little bit of confidence back. We wanted to get a race under our belts racing what we knew, and even though we didn't win the race, it was a good weekend for the Al-Anabi team."

Langdon's runner-up finish extended the Top Fuel No. 1 qualifying jinx to 19 races, dating back to last fall's race at Charlotte. Morgan Lucas was the last Top Fuel driver to win from the No. 1 qualifying position.

Langdon did reset his own elapsed-time track record to 3.745 seconds in the final qualifying session.

ENDERS-STEVENS CONTINUES TO DOMINATE PRO STOCK - All the Erica Enders-Stevens haters are probably going to have to find someone else to take the brunt of their message board venom.

Enders-Stevens won the Pro Stock Wally at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals, dispatching former crew chief (and friend) Dave Connolly in the final round. The win increased her lead in the 2014 NHRA points chase and continued a dominant season that many thought was not possible when she joined up with Elite Motorsports last November.

Enders-Stevens, who has been the quickest driver in the field for six consecutive sessions, dating back to Chicago, broke a long streak as well. It had been since the 2013 U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis since the No. 1 qualifier had gone on to win the event in the Pro Stock class. Enders-Stevens qualified first with a 6.523 pass at 212.63 miles per hour, and then marched through four rounds of racing with relative ease. Though Connelly’s teammate, Shane Gray, pushed her a bit in the quarterfinals, Enders-Stevens .050 margin of victory in the final round was her closest race.

Her fourth win of the season gave her 1,166 points…241 more than second-place Allen Johnson.

It also avenged a loss to Connolly at the 2012 U.S. Nationals in Indy.

“Dave and I have a long history,” she said. “We were friends for 10 years and he was my co-crew chief for three years. He stood behind me when we got our first win in Chicago in 2012, and a few more after that as well.

“I’m proud of my team. They put a race car underneath me. You have to leave the emotion out of it, no matter how I feel or no matter how he feels. It’s all about my team, my car, our lane, me and that tree. I’ve got to get my job done and not think about any of the negative things. I was able to do that today.”

“He double-bulbed me and I figured he was going to try to pull something,” she said. “I went up there prepared for that, and at the end of the day we came out on top. That’s all that matters to me.”

The win put Enders-Stevens in exclusive company. Along with legend Shirley Muldowney and Angelle Sampey, Enders-Stevens became the third woman to record double-digit NHRA national event wins with the victory in Norwalk.

“That’s crazy to have my name on a list like that,” Enders-Stevens said. “Shirley’s a legend and has been a mentor to me. Angelle’s been great…she’s a friend of mine that lives 20 minutes from our house in New Orleans. They are two extremely talented ladies that are passionate about our sport, did a great job and were able to break down the barriers so girls of this generation can do what they do…like Courtney Force, Alexis (DeJoria) and Brittany (Force).

“I’m appreciative for that. Shirley’s been following me and she calls occasionally to offer advice and kind of pump me up. To have my name on a list with those two names is pretty significant. It means a lot to me.”

Enders-Stevens’ friendship with Connolly has disintegrated, and it took some time for her to figure out how to deal with that on the track.

“I went to Frank Hawley’s school numerous times,” she said. “He teaches you the mental side of the game. He describes it as you take a piece of paper and are like, ‘Oh, I got in a fight with so-and-so today, Oh, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed or Oh, my electric bill is due and I don’t know how I’m going to afford it.’ All these things crinkle the paper up.

“You can straighten it out, but all the wrinkles are still there. You just have to throw it away and focus on what you have to do. It’s a challenge. I struggle with it…everybody struggles with it…but it’s part of the job.”

HINES, NEW BIKE EVENTUALLY GET ALONG FAMOUSLY AT NORWALK - Matt Hines looked at younger brother Andrew – the Pro Stock Motorcycle points leader - this weekend during the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Norwalk, Ohio – where they've had so much success – and couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Just the look on Andrew Hines' face was too much for him. And the Vance & Hines Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson champion-turned-tuner said, "You look like you gave up already."

Trying to justify – in his words – being "down in the dumps," Andrew sullenly replied, "We’ll, it's hard to be optimistic when guys got you covered by a tenth [of a second]."

Matt Hines' advice was basic: "Just go up there thinking you're going to win."

It was basic but effective.

Andrew Hines defeated Hector Arana Sr. Sunday for his fourth Norwalk victory in eight visits, his third this year, and his 35th overall, tying him with "Big Daddy" Don Garlits in the all-pro NHRA list.

Hines used a four-thousandths-of-a-second advantage at the Christmas tree and a 6.901-second elapsed time at 193.96 mph on the Summit Motorsports Park quarter-mile course to edge Arana's 6.924, 195.53 on the Lucas Oil/Protect The Harvest/MAVTV Buell.

That represented redemption for Hines, who said his qualifying performances were "disastrous" as he wound up qualifying 10th, his worst this season. Even as eliminations loomed Sunday morning, the Hines brothers and teammate/technician/No. 2-ranked Eddie Krawiec huddled to discuss what tune-up they should go with n Hines’ bike as he faced first-round opponent John Hall.

The usually in-control Vance & Hines team was uncertain because this was a brand-new bike Andrew Hines was racing here. Following less-than-inspiring results the week before at Joliet, the brain trust glanced around their Brownsburg, Ind., facility this past Monday and decided to, Andrew Hines said, "take this third chassis that's sitting here and turn it into a motorcycle." He said they spent three 14-hour days in that already short week to get it ready to take to Norwalk.

"It was just a lot of little things that needed to fall into place for it to finally come around today," Andrew Hines said Sunday.

In their last-minute race-day tune-up discussion, "we threw some numbers at it," Hines said, "and I had the quickest winning time in the first round. It really turned the corner, and we were able to massage it throughout the day."

Well, of course. Who doesn’t respond to a massage? Soon this bike stopped making him moan, "Man, I want my old bike back," like he had done all during qualifying.

No, Hines said he's happy with his latest Harley-Davidson Pro Stock racing bike. It's easy to ride, he said. So whatever its quirks during qualifying and their "getting to know you" period might have been, all is forgiven. He's back in the winners circle and still in command in the standings. In the end, this new motorcycle delivered against a strong-performing and gnawingly hungry final-round opponent.

Arana Sr. was looking for that magic that has vanished since his 2009 championship season, when he won five times. And he had been hoping it would reappear at this track where he claimed his first professional victory in 2008 against Craig Treble in the final.

Making his second final round in as many weeks, Arana Sr. came within .0273 seconds, or about eight feet, of earning his first victory since the Dallas race of September 2009. Instead, he saw his winless streak grow to 69 races.

Said Hines of Arana Sr., "That guy's going to be a pain. He's got his bike running really strong in the back half, and he's getting it more and more consistent off the starting line. To get around him was big, because he's itching to get that next win. He's been on a losing streak here for awhile."

He said the fact Arana Sr. has appeared in back-to-back final rounds "says a lot about what he's done with his program."

That's why, Hines, said, "The fourth win light was definitely the prettiest of the day."

He advanced past Matt Smith Racing's Hall, Jim Underdahl, and Steve Johnson to reach his third final of the season.

Hines joined Antron Brown (Top Fuel), John Force (Funny Car), and Erica Enders-Stevens (Pro Stock) in the winners circle.

Meanwhile, Arana, who lost to son Hector Jr. in the final a week before, again had to line up against one of his sons. This time it was the younger one, Adam, in the semifinals. But against him, Dad ran his best E.T. of eliminations (6.894 seconds) and sidelined him just as he had Shawn Gann and Chaz Kennedy before him.

Arana – nicknamed Hector the Hammer – pounded out the track speed record Saturday with a 196.93-mph clocking during the third of four qualifying sessions during Q3 at. With that 6.871-second pass, he took the No. 5 qualifying spot for the third straight event.

The Pro Stock Motorcycle class will be back in action at Denver with the other pros when the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series resumes after an idle week.

RANDOM RACE DAY NOTES -

TOP FUEL

WHAT CAN BROWN DO FOR YOU?- Antron Brown’s final-round victory over Shawn Langdon marked his first career win at Summit Motorsports Park. It was Brown’s second final round appearance at the Norwalk, Ohio, track.

After the race, in the Media Center at Summit Motorsports Park, Brown teased Funny Car winner John Force…who has a section of grandstands named after him at the facility.

“They’re going to have to name part of those stands the ‘Brown Grandstand,’” he said with a chuckle.

The win was the 46th of Browns career, with 30 of those coming in Top Fuel. It was his NHRA-best fifth win of the 2014 NHRA Mello Yello Series schedule. Brown has also climbed to within 48 points of the lead in the Top Fuel points standings.

FUNNY CAR

FAMILIAR PAIRING, FAMILIAR RESULT – In the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals, John Force and Cruz Pedregon squared off against each other for the 93rd time…the most times two professional drivers have faced each other in a round in NHRA history.

Force prevailed for the 63rd time against Pedregon, against 20 defeats, to advance the final round against Ron Capps.

Force has a lot of respect for his Brownsburg, Indiana-based opponent.

“There ain’t nobody better than Cruz Pedregon,” Force said at the top end of the track, after the run. “Him and I grew up in this stuff and he’s probably 10 years…hell, 15 years younger than me but he’s a real drag racer. Gosh dang, if I ever get out of the seat I would hire him, too.”

18 AND LIFE, YOU GOT IT – When Force and Capps squared off in the final round of the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals it continued a kind of tradition. Capps and Force have now raced against each other at least once for 18 consecutive years.

STILL LOOKING FOR A DIEHL – Salinas, California-based driver Jeff Diehl has been racing out-of-pocket for the better part of eight years now, and remains hopeful he will find the sponsorship that will enable him to run a full NHRA Mello Yello schedule someday.

Diehl match races and will compete at IHRA events as well as on the Mello Yello Tour, and he wishes he could race with the big boys all the time.

Even though Diehl is a Californian, he wants to focus on the races east of the Mississippi.

“I’ve been trying to get back on tour since Bristol,” he said. “I’m going to start running more on this side of the country because of the tracks. Over there on the West Coast things are really cut-throat. It’s not easier to race over here, but the bumps seem to be a little less where I can qualify this car. I’ve got to stop giving up that qualifying money.”

At the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals, Diehl qualified his 2011 Solara Funny Car 16th with a 4.343 pass at 289.20 miles per hour. He improved in the first round of eliminations, running a 4.295/282.78 lap, but could not overcome No. 1 qualifier Del Worsham, who clocked a 4.072 at 317.64 mph.

“I’m a no-budget guy,” Diehl said. “It’s all based on money. We didn’t make that last qualifying run last night, and we would have loved to have made that run because it would have given us more information. Maybe we would have fixed the problem we saw and it would have run quicker today. It’s just one of those things.”

Diehl will head to Cayuga, Ontario, for a match race at Toronto Motorsports Park before moving on to Bandimere Raceway in Denver for the NHRA Mile-High Nationals.

“We’re happy,” he said. “We’re working on the car right now and it isn’t going as quick as it has been so we’re trying to sort it out. We’re happy with this evening because we really didn’t hurt anything. There’s something wrong with this car right now but we’ll find it.”

FAST ENOUGH, NOT QUICK ENOUGH - Courtney Force got her Traxxas Ford Mustang qualified in the No. 12 spot this weekend with a 4.106 ET at a huge speed of 321.42 mph…a Summit Motorsports Park speed record. She went up against Ron Capps in the opening round on Sunday. Force’s hotrod pulled the tires loose and went 4.439 ET at 209.95 mph to Capps’ 4.104 ET at 315.19 mph.

“We had a rough weekend here in Norwalk,” she said. “It’s been a great four-week stretch with back-to-back races for my Traxxas team. I think we definitely got a good kick-start up in the points. We struggled a little bit this weekend, but I think we’ve got a good car for this championship hunt and I’m excited.”

Force will stay No. 6 in the NHRA Funny Car point standings after the four-race-swing. This is the fifth straight race that Force has kept a hold on the No. 6 spot in points.

“We fell back a little bit during the race this weekend, but we didn’t fall back in points and that’s the most important thing,” she said. “As long as we can stay up there in the top 10 to lock into that championship chase, that’s all that matters. It’s a little bit of a bummer this weekend, but we’ll keep our heads held high. We’re going into the Western Swing in a couple weeks and hopefully make some big improvements.”

GET IN THE CASKET! – Funny Car driver John Force and track operator Bill Bader Sr. have been a part of each other’s lives, personally and professionally, for a very long time.

It all started with a casket.

The first time they worked together Force and Dean Skuza were booked for a match race at what was then named Norwalk Raceway Park. Bader had an idea how to kick things off.

“When Bader first brought me in, he told me he was going to make me a star,” Force said. “My shirts all said ‘The Nightmare Continues’ and he puts me in a coffin with a big old rat on the front. He brought me out with the music playing in a packed house. They opened up this coffin and I was supposed to jump out. It was a mental thing to me.”

Bader, who was listening to Force tell the story, wanted to clear up what happened.

“I asked you if you were superstitious,” Bader said to Force. “You said, ‘I crash ‘em, I burn ‘em, I flip ‘em, I roll ‘em…I’m not superstitious.’ I told you I was going to bring you out in a coffin and you told me you weren’t getting in any damn coffin.

“This was the first time we ever worked together. The parade was coming out, it was five or six o’clock, and he wouldn’t get in this coffin. He was looking for people to sign autographs for. I finally said, ‘John, get in the coffin.’ He gets in the coffin and it was in an old hearse.”

Force’s competition was behind the wheel of the hearse.

“Skuza was driving it with his tux on and I gave John a live mic,” Bader explained. “He was finally in the coffin. I told him, ‘John, this mic is going to be hot. All you have to do is say, ‘I’m your worst nightmare.’ That’s all you have to say.’

“He asked me if this was in his contract, and I asked him if he had gotten paid yet. I put the lid down, the mic was hot, and I told Skuza to go. Skuza takes off and the coffin rolls to the back and all you heard was ‘boom, boom’ because the coffin rolled back on the rollers in the hearse.

“The place was packed and the crowd was goofy because we’d never had Funny Cars before…and we got the King. They came around the corner and Billy asked Skuza, ‘What are you here for?’ Skuza said to the crowd, ‘I’m here to bury Force.’ Force is supposed to jump out and say, ‘I’m your worst nightmare.’

“He jumps out and says, ‘It’s amazing what I do for $50,000.’ Then he takes off running, up and down the track.”

Force and Skuza were supposed to make three runs, but only got two in. Force wanted to make the third lap but the show was out of time.

“I told him to stay and sign autographs,” Bader said. “He told me he would sign autographs until two in the morning…and he did.”

“We turned 40,000 people loose on the track,” Force said. “The women were trying to rip my clothes off.”

PRO STOCK

AN UNCOMFORTABLE FINAL – For three years, Dave Connelly and Erica Enders-Stevens worked together…Connelly as the crew chief on her Pro Stocker. They had been friends longer than that, with Connelly even serving as a groomsman in Enders’ wedding to Richie Stevens Jr.

After a difficult split last November, when Enders left Connolly and Cagnazzi Racing to accept a ride with Elite Motorsports, the two no longer even speak.

“Think about it like someone you had a decade-long relationship with, that you cared about…relate it to your best friend in the world and, all the sudden, you’re not friends anymore,” she said. “Then you have to get a 215 mile an hour race car down the race track successfully and safely and putting that out of your mind. You can relate to it, but you cannot focus on anything but what you have to do.”

It took a short time for Enders-Stevens to move on.

“I struggled with that at the beginning of the year because I was pretty pissed about everything,” she said. “You know, it is what it is. There’s a reason for everything. God’s got a plan and I’m going to stay positive.”

Enders-Stevens said there is no interaction between her and Connolly.

“We are on opposite teams, obviously, but we don’t speak,” she said. “At all. It is what it is. Taking it with me was not successful in the past.”

AN INAUSPICIOUS DEBUT – Travis Mazza made his NHRA Pro Stock debut at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals. After struggling to make it down the track during qualifying, ending up No. 16 on the sheet, Mazza had to lift in his first round match-up with eventual event champion Erica Enders-Stevens.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE

A VALUABLE LESSON – After his first round win over Matt Smith, Adam Arana told a story about the critical piece of mechanical magic the crew of his MavTV 2011 Buell XB9R bike shared with two PSI students that came to the race to work.

Apparently, the zipper on Arana’s leather fire suit was stuck during qualifying, and he shared his wisdom with the students so they could fix it.

“Dry soap will loosen a stuck zipper,” Arana said. “So now they get to go back to school and tell their classmates, ‘I worked on a Pro Stock Bike over the weekend and got to soak the driver’s zipper.’”

 

 

 

SATURDAY NOTEBOOK -

TOP FUEL
 
LOOKING DUCKY - Al-Anabi Racing Dragster driver Shawn Langdon, whose victory at Bristol helped him move steadily from seventh place to third in the standings, says his Brian Husen-led team is poised to make some gains.

He did so in spectacular fashion Saturday night, swiping the No. 1 qualifying spot from Doug Kalitta and eclipsing his own track elapsed-time record with a 3.745-second, 325.22 blast on the 1,000-foot course in the class penultimate pairing.

"We have all of the ducks. Now we just have to get all our ducks in a row," Langdon said at the start of qualifying, acknowledging that sometimes it seems like he and his crew really are chasing chickens.   

"We've been addressing problems with some things we've been doing at the last couple of races. We're kind of fixing one problem after another, because when we fix one thing, it affects something else. So then we move on to that one because it's all related," he said. "We really think we've gotten to the base of it now."

The Al-Anabi brain trust, Langdon said, had a pow-wow after the Chicago race last weekend and did "a lot of brainstorming."

He said earlier this week, "We're not far off. It could take us another race or two to get completely back in the swing of things, but we might also see some fast improvement."

Saturday night's run removed any doubt.

"Some things we changed during the off season that we thought would work have affected our performance. So we've kind of eliminated those issues and gone back to some stuff we know will work so we can get back on track," he said. "It does seem like we're kind of chasing our tail, but even though the results haven't shown it in the last couple of races, we are definitely making progress. We all know it's just a matter of time before we have the Al-Anabi car that won the championship last year back."

Langdon was No. 2 early Friday and slid to fourth as Steve Torrence and JR Todd leapfrogged him in the Friday night session. But he came back with a vengeance in the last session, running alongside Antron Brown, Top Fuel's lone four-time winner.

Brown was No. 2 until Kalitta came along in the final pairing and fell just one-thousandth of a second short of catching Langdon (at 3.746 seconds), resetting his own track speed record at 327.82 mph.
 
Langdon said he always has had confidence in his Al-Anabi crew and team manager Alan Johnson but that Saturday's performance magnified it: "You still have that confidence, but nothing like after you throw down a 3.74 and qualify No. 1. You can see it in the guys."

He said he wasn't totally surprised, because Husen had told him before the run, "We have a shot at being No. 1."

Said Langdon, "It feels like we have a handle on the race car again."

And he has another strong shot at keeping Al-Anabi Racing's streak alive at Summit Motorsports Park.    
 
alBALOOSHI HOPES FOR REPEAT - Khalid alBalooshi, last year's Top Fuel winner here, began the season with the Winternationals victory and his first-ever points lead. He has dropped to eighth in the standings, but he indicated he's ready to flex his performance muscles again.

“That was one of the best weekends I’ve had,” alBalooshi said of the February schedule kickoff. “Everything was working that day, and we beat a lot of good competitors to get the win." He said that's what he wants again – at Norwalk . . . again. "From last year when I won the race here, I have been thinking about when I go back. It [felt] good to get back to Norwalk because I know I have done this before. I will not have any thoughts about not being able to win [here] because I won last year, and that will give me an advantage.  Norwalk is also a very good race track for our team, so that is good, too."

He said crew chief Jason McCulloch and the team "are still finding out a lot of things about the car. Everyone is doing their job to get our car back where it needs to be. The Al-Anabi team is putting everything together to give me the best car it can, especially now that we found a big problem in New Hampshire. We are focusing on one or two things we need to do to get our hot rod back. We know how to make the car keep getting better.  I still think you will see a lot from the Al-Anabi team very soon, and I feel like we’ve got our hot rod back."

AlBalooshi has four first-round losses in the past six races and in the other two has made it only to the quarterfinals. Admitting that he needs to improve, he said he feels more comfortable this weekend: "We're going to do a better job of getting down the track, as well. The guys on the team are doing a great job, and I haven’t driven my best. I have to do that to keep everyone at their best and make everyone happy. I think we can get better very soon, and I think we will be in way better shape than we have been in the last four or five races."

As the No. 10 qualifier, he'll start eliminations against No. 7 Tony Schumacher. The Dubai native's goal is to finish this string of four races in as many weekends with a strong performance.

"For me as a driver, I like it,” alBalooshi said of the intense schedule. "But it's four straight weeks of work for our team, and I feel for those guys. But as a driver, I enjoy it and it’s a chance for me to get better."               

Teammate Shawn Langdon said, "The Al-Anabi team has had a lot of success at Norwalk, and we really couldn't [have come] back at a better time. We have tons of great Norwalk data, and we can definitely use that information for both of Al-Anabi cars." Considering his dragster appears to have responded quickly to the changes the team made, he said, "I don't see any reason why the Al-Anabi team can't repeat as Norwalk champions."

Of course, he's hoping he – and not alBalooshi --will be the one to earn Al-Anabi Racing's 42nd overall victory.
 
LICKING HIS CHOPS - Antron Brown said after exiting his Matco Tools Dragster and learning his third-session qualifying run was in 3.801 seconds at 321.65 mph, much better than his previous best of 3.840, 311.56, "We're ready for tonight. We're going to lick our chops. We want to put a good show on." That was enough to give him third place before the final session, an improvement of five spots.

Brown made good on his promise. He and Shawn Langdon ran side by side in the final session, and they went to the top two spots in the order. Langdon rewrote his own track elapsed time record at 3.745 seconds at 325.22 mph to knock Doug Kalitta from his perch. Brown trailed slightly at 3.763 at 323 mph to claim the No. 2 spot, pending Doug Kalitta's run in the last pairing alongside Steve Torrence.

Brown, who will start third, will line up against No. 14 Clay Millican.
 
DIXON GLAD TO BE BACK – NEAR ICE CREAM - As he waited Saturday afternoon during the lengthy delay that Richie Crampton's fireball caused, Larry Dixon said his own engine problems -- that also produced a top-end fire – stemmed from a valvetrain malfunction in the Bob Vandergriff Racing-owned Casedhole Solutions Dragster. But he said crew chief Mike Guger was able to glean some helpful information from the pass. Making his first appearance since the April Houston race, Dixon said he liked racing in Ohio. He said he recalled fondly the days of competing in the Spring Nationals at Columbus in front of what he called "rabid" fans. Then when he got word it was time to get back in his car, he joked and referred to Norwalk promoter Bill Bader's famous dollar-per-pound-ice-cream promotion. Dixon said he was ready instead to "get back in that ice cream line!"

He'll be ready, too, to race Steve Torrence in Round 1 of eliminations Sunday. Dixon ended up No. 11, Torrence No. 6.    

NOT KEEN ON WAITING - Clean-up for Richie Crampton's engine explosion lasted about 40 minutes, and the wait annoyed Funny Car owner-driver Tim Wilkerson. The Levi, Ray, & Shoup Mustang driver thanked the fans and said, "Welcome to the 24 Hours of Norwalk. What a ridiculous day."

Steve Torrence, energized by registering low elapsed time of the Top Fuel session at 3.792 seconds and staying No. 2 to Doug Kalitta after three qualifying chances, gave a salute to what he called "the fans in Baderland." The Capco Dragster owner-driver said he was eager to reward them for their loyalty in the final session: "We'll finish it off in a grand spectacle, I hope." He was among the final foursome, but his run was not the talk of the session, like the passes from Shawn Langdon, Antron Brown, and Doug Kalitta.
 
SQUEAKING BY - Getting into the field in Q3 were Clay Millican and Terry McMillen. Leah Pritchett set the bump number at 3.999 seconds, leaving four drivers still unqualified: veterans Luigi Novelli, Chris Karamesines, and Cory McClenathan and Englishtown-winner rookie Richie Crampton.

Qualifying turned into a nail-biter for McMillen and Crampton in the last go-around. Crampton got in with a 3.905 in the GEICO/Lucas Oil Dragster, and McMillen was paired with Leah Pritchett, the one who could have put him on the sidelines. "I heard her go by, and thought, 'It's all over,' " the Amalie Oil/UNOH Dragster owner-driver said of the Dote Racing Dragster driver. He said he knew she and crew chief Doug Kuch, whom he has known since their IHRA days when Kuch tuned for Doug Foley, "have a bad car that runs consistent."

Pritchett's time wasn't quick enough to make the field, leaving McMillen No 16. He'll face top qualifier Shawn Langdon. Crampton has an unenviable first-round meeting with Doug Kalitta.
 
OTHER PAIRS - Other Top Fuel pairings are JR Todd vs. Troy Buff, Bob Vandergriff vs. Pat Dakin, and Brittany Force vs. Spencer Massey.       

FUNNY CAR

BROTHER CAN YOU SPARE A DIME…OR TWO – The width of a dime…that’s about how far a Nitro-powered Funny Car can travel - a thousandth of an inch at over 320 miles per hour.

At the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals, Del Worsham has fallen about 20 cents short.

After failing to run a lap in the three-second range during Friday qualifying, posting a 4.000 at 317.34 mph, Worsham hoped to give the fans at Summit Motorsports Park a show by running in the threes during the Saturday evening qualifying session.

The result? A 4.000 at 321.88. It was good enough for top qualifying honors, but he wanted that sub-four run.

“I thought the guys were messing with me when they told me what I ran,” Worsham said. “Maybe I should have staged the car a little shallower or something. No one has ever run one before…now we have two. Is that unlucky or lucky?”

Worsham’s E.T. set the track record. He will square off with No. 16 qualifier Jeff Diehl in the first round of eliminations Sunday.

“It was the hardest and the most clutch weight…we tried things we never tried before to try to get that three-second run,” Worsham said. “Apparently the race track was a little better than us because it ate it all up and put us right back where we were last night. It was a great run, the DHL Toyota Camry made a beautiful run down track. It was fast and it was quick…it was just a little bit less than we were after.”

DON’T PATRON-IZE ALEXIS – Worsham teammate Alexis DeJoria figured her crew would get her down the track and solidly into the show during Saturday qualifying. The Patron 2014 Toyota Camry team struggled Friday night.

“We just overpowered the race track a little bit so we decided to try something a little different today to get a safe one down the track,” she said. “It’s still a little warm so we’ll see what happens.”

DeJoria ended up 10th on the qualifying ladder after clocking a 4.076/311.49 Saturday afternoon. Her pre-qualifying thoughts proved prophetic.

“Our teammate ran really well last night so I think, on our car, they changed a few things so I can get down there,” she said before Saturday’s afternoon session. “We’ll be right in the middle of it.”

DeJoria will face Chad Head, the No. 7 qualifier, in the first round Sunday.

HIGH EXPECTATIONS – Bob Tasca III also expected big numbers from the Funny Cars Saturday evening.

“The conditions are good enough and the track is good enough…if you hit it right you’ll run in the threes. The starting line is great and we have no issues at all. The track is amazing. It’s a great place to race and the Bader Family does a great job of putting on an unbelievable show.”

Tasca finished ninth on the qualifying ladder and will face No. 8 Jack Beckman in the first round.

TIRE CHECK – John Force finished second on the qualifying sheet after a 4.016 blast at 322.04 mph. That speed set the Summit Motorsports Park track record.

“We will run in the heat tomorrow so this won’t matter,” he said after qualifying was over. “Jimmy (Prock) thought this thing would run a four-flat, maybe run in the threes, but I have to go to the Goodyear trailer to see if I have the right set of tires because Worsham obviously does. Connie Kallitta is tuning that car over there and that’s a bad DHL hot rod right now.”

Force will face the No. 15 qualifier, Tim Wilkerson, in the first round Sunday.

THE REST OF THE REST – All told, 11 drivers ended qualifying with sub-4.1 runs in the Funny Car class. Current points leader Robert Hight (4.050/310.91) qualified No. 6 and will run against No. 11 Cruz Pedregon (4.077/308.21) in the first round of eliminations. Chicago runner-up No. 3 Tommy Johnson Jr. (4.030/319.67) will face No. 14 Tony Pedregon (4.170/301.81), Chicago winner No. 4 Matt Hagan (4.044/318.69) will run No. 13 Jeff Arend (4.158/299.93) and No. 5 Ron Capps (4.048/316.15) will take on No. 12 Courtney Force (4.106/321.42).

PRO STOCK

GLAD SHE TOOK THAT CALL – Erica Enders-Stevens put on a two-day show during qualifying at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals. She dominated the Pro Stock field, posting the low elapsed time and top speed of all four sessions to pick up all 12 available qualifying bonus points and set herself at the top of the ladder as she looks for her 10th career professional national event win.

Enders-Stevens clocked a 6.523 at 212.63 miles per hour to claim her second No. 1 qualifier of the season and the eighth of her career.

She also set both ends of the track record. Crew chiefs Rick and Ricky Jones gave her a consistent car…a phone call she received earlier this week gave her some confidence.

“We’ve got a really consistent hot rod right now,” she said. “Rick and Ricky Jones have the set-up down pat. The first pass today we used our race day set-up because those are going to be the conditions we race under tomorrow.”

Enders-Stevens entered the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals with the Pro Stock points lead…190 in front of second-place Jeg Coughlin Jr.

“It’s been really exciting,” she said. “This is the first time this has happened in my Pro Stock career, but we have a lot of racing left. We have to put that aside and, week in and week out, consistency is what’s going to get things done.

“It’s pretty surreal for me. I’ve watched a lot of these guys since I was a kid. I talked on the phone to Bob Glidden last week and he was trying to help me get over this little hole-shot slump I’ve been going through. It’s an honor to be where I’m at and very humbling.”

Enter Bob Glidden. The 10-time Pro Stock champion gave Enders-Stevens a call to discuss her problems at the starting line.

“Bob called me Monday,” she said. “I was on my way home from the airport and he was like, ‘Erica, what the hell is going on?’ We talked for over an hour and went over every different aspect. He told me when I get to the track to sit down with Rick and Rickie, and that’s what we’ve done. The last few races have been tough to swallow and any driver hates a hole-shot loss, especially when you’ve got a car as great as I’ve got and a team as awesome as it is.

“We chatted and I went over everything with Rick and Rickie when I got here. I’ve been in the simulator every time I’ve been home, just really working on the car this week.”

Enders-Stevens will face Tommy Mazza, making his Pro Stock debut, in the first round of eliminations Sunday.

STEP ONE IS DONE – Before the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals, defending Pro Stock world champion Jeg Coughlin Jr. had a specific goal in mind…he wanted to add something big to his resume.

Coughlin has won six drag racing championships. He has collected 74 national event victories in 117 final-round appearances. He has been the No. 1 qualifier, set the top speed mark, and posted the quickest elapsed time of the meet on numerous occasions. He has collected trophies in six different eliminator classes. His overall ranking among the top-10 drivers in the 64-year history of the sport proves that he has pretty much done it all.

Yet even a driver as decorated as Coughlin has some goals left to achieve, and one of the bigger ones on his personal to-do list is taking his JEGS.com/Mopar Dodge Dart to the winners circle in Norwalk.

"We actually won Norwalk when we claimed the K&N Horsepower Challenge there in 2009," Coughlin is quick to point out. "But it's true, we haven't won a national event there as of yet. It's certainly something we'd like to get done, and this weekend is our next chance to go for it, so we're excited."

Coughlin qualified sixth on the Pro Stock sheet with a 6.554 at 212.03 mph. His quest will begin Sunday with a first round match-up against No. 11 qualifier Roger Brogdon, who posted a 6.574/210.90 pass.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE

STILL NO. 1 - Eddie Krawiec held onto his No. 1 qualifying position Saturday and will meet No. 16 Elvira Karlsson in Sunday's first round of eliminations. The Atlanta winner and Englishtown runner-up who's No. 2 in the standings with the Vance & Hines Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson will lead the Pro Stock Motorcycle field for the 19th time overall and fifth this year. With some jockeying behind him, most notably by Hector Arana in both Saturday sessions, Krawiec kept command with his track-record 6.844-second elapsed time at 195.05 mph.
 
WANTS HIS OWN WALLY - Hector Arana Sr. said after a runner-up finish to his son Hector Jr. last weekend at Joliet, Ill., "Now I need to get back to the finals and get my Wally. I'm so excited to go back to work, tear down my bike, and see where else we can fine-tune and find some more speed."

He might not reveal what he found in his Lucas Oil Buell, but it was enough to give him an extra four-hundredths of a second and a miles-per-hour boost. He qualified fifth at Route 66 Raceway last week with a best time of 6.959 seconds at 192.99 mph. At the end of Friday qualifying at Norwalk's Summit Motorsports Park, he also was fifth in the order overnight. But he had shaved his elapsed time to 6.919 and improved his speed to 196.16 mph.

He'll start fifth Sunday on the strength of his 6.871 at a track-record 196.93 mph in the first Saturday qualifying session.

Arana Sr. had said losing to his son last week "means that I'm going to have to work harder. Losing to Hector didn't soften the blow at all, but it was a win for the team." Making it to final round, he said, "is exactly what I needed to get my confidence back. We've worked hard lately, around the clock, so a win is just what we needed. This will keep us going, and we'll dig deeper and keep going forward." That's what he has done.  

Winning, Arana Sr. said, "is something that I've been looking forward to for a long time." Although he has finished in the top five in the class each season since his 2009 championship run, he has been winless since that 2009 September race at the Texas Motorplex, near Dallas. That's a 68-race drought he's trying to shake here at Norwalk. His first chance Sunday will come against No. 12 qualifier Shawn Gann.
 
"We need to find some more horsepower so we can lower our E.T. and stay on pace with the Harleys," he said. It will remain a goal, for both Eddie Krawiec and Andrew Hines put their Harley-Davidsons ahead of Arana Sr. on the list Friday.
 
JUST ONE HURDLE - Only the Harley-Davidsons of Andrew Hines and Eddie Krawiec are ahead of Hector Arana Jr. in the standings, and the Lucas Oil Buell racer said, "That's what makes us strive to do better. We're not going to let them just overpower us or have the upper hand. That's just going to motivate us to do even better and run even stronger and compete for No. 1."  Arana Jr. used his final qualifying chance to move into the No. 2 position with a 6.859, 195.79, the quickest of the session. So when it comes to qualifying at Norwalk, Harley rider Krawiec still has the upper hand.
 
OH, BROTHER - The Arana brothers made dramatic improvements Saturday. In the third overall session, Hector Arana Jr. ran a 6.873-second elapsed time at 196.33 mph on his first full pass of the weekend to leap from last on the list of 19 to the No. 3 position. In the following pairing, Adam Arana jumped from 17th to sixth, then settled in at No. 9 with another opportunity to do even better. When time trials closed, Junior was second and Adam still ninth. Junior will face No. 15 Jim Underdahl in Round 1 of eliminations, and Adam will meet No. 8 Matt Smith.

Their progress in Q3, along with Swedish racer Elvira Karlsson's lowering the bump-spot elapsed time to 6.984 seconds, spelled trouble for Suzuki racer Joe DeSantis, an NHRA veteran from Rootstown, Ohio, east of Norwalk. DeSantis had hoped to hang onto the No. 15 spot in the lineup in that third overall session. He had been 15th overnight, too, but his Friday time was wiped out because he wasn't in the protected top 12.  DeSantis ran a 7.002 early Saturday afternoon at 191.76 mph but it wasn't enough.

DeSantis led a trio of Suzukis, including Justin Finley and Wendell Daniels, who missed the cut.

MUCH BETTER - Scotty Pollacheck had trouble getting his bike started Friday night, but he had everything running smoothly Saturday. With Hector Arana Jr. running strong beside him in Q3, Pollacheck put his Matt Smith Racing Buell into fourth place at the time at 6.873, 195.03. He ended up No. 6 with one last chance. That was an upgrade of five places for the Oregon businessman.

ALL THAT CHAZ - All the tinkering during qualifying last week at Joliet and Friday night here produced a run early Saturday afternoon for Star Racing's Chaz Kennedy that vaulted the rookie-of-the-year candidate from 16th to third at 6.867/194.27. Arana Jr. bumped him down to fourth with his climb to No. 2 in the last session. The unfortunate news, though, for Kennedy is that he has to square off against teammate Michael Ray, the No. 13 starter, in Sunday's opening round of eliminations.

KNOCKING EACH OTHER OUT - Once again, Angie Smith will have to run one of her teammates in Round 1. Last week it was John Hall. Sunday it will be Scotty Pollacheck. She qualified 11th, and Pollacheck will have lane choice as the No. 6 starter.

ALSO IN THE HUNT - the match-ups are No. 3 Jerry Savoie and No. 14 Steve Johnson and No. 7 John Hall and No. 10 Matt Hines

 

 

FRIDAY NOTEBOOK -

TOP FUEL

KALITTA CONTINUES DOMINANCE - Doug Kalitta was the lone Top Fuel driver in the 3.7-second elapsed-time range in the opening qualifying session Friday, and was the only one all night until Steve Torrence came along to buzz up behind him in the tentative No. 2 position.

But the Mac Tools driver went one better by following up his 3.788-second pass at 326.78 mph with a 3.771, 326.16, giving him the two best times of the opening day of the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals.

Kalitta downplayed his stunning feat in the Mac Tools Dragster, deferring to track owner Bill Bader. Kalitta graded Bader's extravagant July 4 fireworks display as "a 3.77 in itself – probably 3.75! That's pretty cool that Bill does that for us and all the fans here. It's a pretty special place."  

If Kalitta's performance holds up as best through two qualifying sessions Saturday, he'll have earned his sixth No. 1 qualifying spot in 13 races this season. The seven-time 2014 finalist guessed that conditions "will probably be a lot like today's" and said, "with the conditions here, it’s a great opportunity to try to get under that track record."

Shawn Langdon set that E.T. mark last July at 3.752 seconds, and Kalitta said, "I'm pretty sure Jim O [crew chief and Kalitta Motorsports vice-president Jim Oberhofer] won’t be bashful tomorrow. We'll be gunning for it, along with everybody else."

Kalitta already owns the track speed mark at 327.74 mph.

He said this facility "is my closest track to come to" and said he has a special incentive this weekend, with all the Mac Tools corporate representatives attending from the headquarters at nearby Columbus.

"I'm looking forward to tomorrow," he said.

Kalitta attributed his qualifying success to Oberhofer, assistant crew chief Troy Fasching, and "all my guys." He said, "I'm thankful every time I get in that thing. It's been a fun year, doing what we're doing."

And it could become even more fun by the time this weekend is over.     
 
CITIZEN CRAMPTON - GEICO/Lucas Oil Dragster driver Richie Crampton, correctly so, usually is identified as a native of Australia. But two years ago, he officially became a U.S. citizen in a July 4 ceremony at Indianapolis. He called it "a pretty special experience," saying, "The naturalization ceremony in downtown Indianapolis was a big deal."

The racing mechanic and former sportsman-level competitor from Adelaide moved to the United States in 2004 with the Graeme Cowin-owned Andrew Cowin Australian Top Fuel team on a business visa. Crampton later was granted permanent resident alien status as he took the path toward U.S. citizenship.

"There are so many great opportunities over here in motorsports," he said. "Australia and the U.S. have a big brother/little brother kind of relationship, so it was pretty exciting when I got to come and live in the U.S. and enjoy all the great opportunities and freedoms."

July 4, he said, "It was always a good holiday and time of the year for me. After I became a U.S. citizen, I pay more attention to what it means and enjoy it even more because I'm more connected to it."

Said Crampton, who highlighted his rookie Top Fuel driving season with a victory at Englishtown 12 days after he and girlfriend Stephanie Laski celebrated the birth of daughter Emma Kathleen, "Sometimes I can't believe how lucky I've been, but that just goes to show you the unique opportunities this country presents. I'm so blessed in many ways, and I'm doing everything I can to live up to the faith people have placed in me."
 
WELCOME BACK – Larry Dixon and Cory McClenathan, two popular veterans who less than three years ago waged a fierce war for the Top Fuel series championship, were back on the track, competing, for the first time in awhile. Dixon is returning in Bob Vandergriff's Casedhole Solutions Dragster for the first of a handful of 2014 races. McClenathan is driving the Dakin Family's Warrior Racing Dragster.

Dixon and his car were prepared to be competitive. He ran a 3.844-second pass at 321.88 mph to take the early No. 5 position. His time was just four-thousandths of a second slower than No. 4 Antron Brown's and five-thousandths off No. 3 Tony Schumacher's E.T.  McClenathan slipped into the No. 13 spot at 4.164, 213.81 in the first session.

At the end of Friday, Dixon was eighth, McClenathan 17th. Joining McClenathan off the grid so far are Chris Karamesines and Terry McMillen.
 
LITTLE TO SHOW FOR IT? - Steve Torrence is trying to reverse a trend of five straight Round 1 defeats. “We’ve just been in one of those deals where things just aren’t quite in sync,” he said. “But that stuff usually evens out over the season and I can promise you that we’re all ready for that to happen.

“It hasn’t been just one issue, just things that happen during a season," Torrence said. "For us, though, it seems like they’ve happened all at once.  We’ve still run good, but we just don’t have that much to show for it.”

He is sixth in the standings – and he's in the provisional No. 2 position after Friday with a 3.799-second pass at 324.67 mph that lifted him 14 places from No. 16.

Also making huge improvements Friday night were JR Todd, who went from 19th in the order to third, and Spencer Massey, who moved from 18th to fifth. Troy Biff jumped five places, from 17th to 12th.

BROWN'S NUMBERS AMAZING - Joliet winner Antron Brown, driver of the Matco Tools Dragster, entered this event 102 points behind leader Doug Kalitta. He already has a class-best four victories and with another could put major pressure on the Mac Tools driver.

Brown has won 20 races in the past three and a half seasons, far out-distancing any other driver in the series, and this is the fourth straight season he’s among the top three in the standings. He finished second last season to Shawn Langdon, won the series title in 2012, and was third in 2011 – something no other driver has accomplished more than twice during that stretch.
 
AL-ANABI LIKES NORWALK - The Al-Anabi Racing team has won the Top Fuel Wally at Norwalk in three of the past four seasons: Khalid alBalooshi (2013), Del Worsham (2011), and Larry Dixon (2010). Spencer Massey interrupted the streak in 2012.
 
TOYOTA HAS BIG PRESENCE - Toyota-backed drivers – four in Top Fuel (Antron Brown, Shawn Langdon, Khalid alBalooshi, Richie Crapton) and three in Funny Car (Alexis DeJoria, Del Worsham, Cruz Pedregon) – are on pace to qualify for the Countdown. Six races remain in the so-called regular season.
 
OH BOY, 'OHIO BOYS' – This Summit Racing Equipment Nationals is a homecoming for three members of Antron Brown's Matco Tools Dragster team, including crew chiefs Mark Oswald and Brian Corradi. Oswald's hometown is downstate Cincinnati, and Corradi is from Middleburg Heights, near Cleveland. Corradi and his family live in Medina, and they operate Master Pizza restaurant. Wayne "Red" Waite, the team's car chief, is from nearby Elyria on Cleveland's West Side – also home to Pro Stock racer Dave Connolly. "We have to go to Norwalk and win for our Ohio boys," Brown said. That includes his bosses at Matco Tools, whose headquarters are in Stow, Ohio.

Also on hand this weekend is a larger-than-usual contingent from Goodyear, based in nearby Akron. "This is the closest NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series races to Goodyear’s home in Akron, Ohio. We see a strong number of Goodyear associates at Norwalk every year to watch the tires they design and manufacture perform,” company spokesman Bryce Jones said.

FUNNY CAR

WORSHAM THRILLS NORWALK CROWD - Del Worsham came up a little short…like a thousandth of a second short.

Worsham set the Summit Motorsports Park track record with a 4.000 pass in the second Funny Car qualifying session Friday, but he wanted to give the crowd something it had never seen before; a run in the three-second range.

“We were definitely trying to make a three-second run, I’m not gonna lie,” Worsham said. “That’s about as close as you can come with a four-flat with a zero. We changed cars for the third time in three races so I’m pretty excited we could make that run.”

The drivers had problems with the left lane all day, but Worsham was actually able to put a pair of strong runs together.

“The first run was a great run. The 4.09 in the first session was all we asked for and it looked like it was on track,” he said. “For that last run we pulled up the 3.99 playbook and kind of plugged it all back in there. It looks like we’re going to have to play harder tomorrow.”

Worsham thinks the Nitro cars have something in store for the fans in Norwalk tomorrow.

“I think tomorrow there’s going to be a three-second run here,” he said. “This is a great track, a great facility and the asphalt here is second-to-none. The Bader Family does a great job here. I think a three-second run is going to be the Number One Qualifier here.

“We burn Nitromethane and are supercharged, so we can make power anywhere we go when it comes right down to it. If the altitude is great the track will be great and the Nitro cars can really show off.”

The stands at Summit Motorsports Park were packed…especially during the Nitro sessions. Worsham said it was a good time putting on a show for so many people.

“It is so much fun. I was thinking back to my first race here, racing here in 1995 and I won this race in Top Fuel in ’95 and in 2011. I would really, really like to win it in Funny Car,” he said. “I’d really like to get one before the Countdown so we can get locked in that. We want to position ourselves and work on the Countdown so we are in good position for that. A win before the Countdown is pretty important. It definitely is for me.”

The Countdown to the Championship was on a lot of drivers’ minds Friday as they are starting to position for the final races before the U.S. Nationals in Indy.

“It’s two races in one season now,” Worsham said. “You go for the Countdown, then you race for the championship. You used to just race until November and that was that. With the amount of pressure and amount of competition there is now you race until Labor Day, then you race from Labor Day on.”

He chuckled when talking about what the Countdown means to those drivers still trying to find something this season…and what it also means for the driver that has dominated the class this season…Robert Hight. Hight is a whopping 246 points in front of Tommy Johnson Jr., who sits in second.

“If you’re one of the bottom cars the Countdown is very important,” he said. “If you’re Robert Hight you’re probably not liking this Countdown system very much right now.”

Johnson was second on the qualifying sheet with a 4.030 pass at 319.67 mph. John Force (4.034/319.45) was third while Matt Hagan (4.044/318.69) was fourth. Chad Head rounded out the top five after two qualifying sessions with a 4.056 pass at 318.02 mph.

Courtney Force, who was 10th on the qualifying sheet heading into Saturday, set the track speed record at 321.42 mph during the second qualifying session.

Alexis DeJoria (4.127/309.91) was on the bump spot while Tim Wilkerson, Tony Pegregon, Terry Haddock, Jeff Diehl and Jeff Arend had not secured a spot in the final field.

HAGAN LOOKING TO BUILD ON RT. 66 WIN - Matt Hagan is hoping his win last weekend in Chicago is the beginning of something similar to what John Force put together last season.

After leading the NHRA Mello Yello Funny Car points standings for most of the 2013 season and entering the Countdown to the Championship as the top seed in the class, Hagan could not hold off Force, who charged to his record 16th career world championship.

Last weekend at the O’Reilly Auto Parts Rout 66 NHRA Nationals, Hagan found the winners circle for the first time this season. After qualifying in the 10th position, Hagan drove past Jack Beckman in the first round, Bob Bode in the second, Ron Capps in the semifinals and Tommy Johnson Jr. in the final.

Hagan was able to claim his 11th career Wally for one simple reason…consistency.

His four runs were as follows: (.034 rt.) 4.086 @ 313.07; (.060 rt.) 4.144 @ 308.07; (.062 rt.) 4.136 @ 305.36 and (.050 rt.) 4.088 @310.48. He was able to put together similar runs to get down the track.

“The car is really starting to click…it actually has been clicking for the last three races and kind of slowly coming together,” Hagan said. “We saw it last year, you have to peak at the right time. John did that last year and he won the championship.

“It’s one of those deals where you just pray to be consistent. You turn it on and at the end (Force) was hard to beat.”

The win in Chicago lifted Hagan into eighth in the 2014 points standings with 681. He gave himself some breathing room in the Countdown standings.

“We needed it, honestly,” Hagan’s crew chief, Dickie Venables, said of the win. “We were hanging onto tenth in the points and it helped a lot…it helps in the points and it helps everybody’s morale. Not that it was down because the crew has been 100 percent supportive and knew it was going to happen sooner or later. But as a crew chief it’s always good to win, and that win was more of a relief because it showed that, yes, we can still do this.”

The team will look to again get the Mopar/Rocky Boots Dodge Charger down the track with similar numbers all weekend in Norwalk, and with a recent win under their belts they will head to Summit Motorsports Park with a spring in their steps.

“Our confidence is growing,” Hagan said. “The crew’s confidence is growing. Dickie’s confidence is growing and my confidence is growing. Everybody, as a whole, is ready. A win does wonders for everybody, does so much for the morale and the spirit of this group. I really think that we are, hopefully, going to start putting together a race car that turns on win lights on Sunday.

“More than anything you know how good Dickie is, how good this team is and I know how good I am. When you’re not doing well, that’s when you have more pressure because you know you’re capable and have done it before. It’s nothing new, it’s just repeating it.

“That really is the most frustrating thing when it’s not coming together…you know you can do it. Once you’ve been there you have to get back there.”

Venables is happy the crew did not have a lot of time to sit around and think about things.

“The back-to-back weekends are tough,” he said. “But it’s a good thing because you don’t have a lot of time off and you just kind of carry it right over…especially off a win.”

THE TRACK DON'T MATTER - Tim Wilkerson is unlike most NHRA crew chiefs, who compile and maintain mountains of information on every run and every track on the Mello Yello circuit. They use that information for tuning purposes, hoping to squeeze out every last bit of horsepower possible on race day.

For Wilkerson, the track doesn’t make much of a difference.

“I don’t pay attention that I’m in Norwalk,” he said. “I just look at how the tune-up should be with the temperature and the grains and the humidity. That’s how I figure out what I want to do. You look at race track issues more than anything…I look at the starting line to see if it’s tore up or if it’s good. Usually, 99 percent of the time the track’s really good here, but you never know.

“Usually when the sun comes out it effects this place, so with the sun out all day long I don’t know how aggressive we’ll have to be. We’re going to try to be in the top half, of course, and see what we can do.”

Wilkerson qualified No. 2 and was the runner-up at the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in mid-June in Bristol. This after a round win over Courtney Force in Englishtown. He followed up by qualifying in the top half of the field in New England and seemed to be getting on a bit of a roll.

Then came Chicago.

“We were on a little mini-roll there, starting in Englishtown, and we had a really good car,” Wilkerson said. “When we got to Chicago everything went to hell in a hand basket. Between my driving and tuning I did a terrible job so we’re going to regroup and do what we can to make some better runs. I just want to stay more consistent. Outside of that I’m happy with how the car’s running. It’s fast when it needs to be and I was doing a pretty good job until Chicago.”

Now, just 22 points in front of Jack Beckman for the last Countown spot, Wilkerson knows how important the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals will be.

“I really think (Norwalk) is very important because we’re running out of races pretty quick,” he said. “In reality we only have five races left before we go to Indy and we’re in 10th place, hanging on by a thread. The guys in front of us are in the same boat so we need to put some distance between us and Number 10…maybe get up in the six or seven slot.”   

LOVING THE GREASE - Terry Haddock thinks the cool, greasy conditions at Summit Motorsports Park will give him a slight advantage this weekend at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals.

A “greasy” track is not a slur…it is more a description of what happens when the air is cooler than usual and the humidity disappears. The traction compound that covers the racing surface does not grab the tires as much as it does in hot conditions.

Haddock was 15th after the first Funny Car qualifying session after running a 4.329 pass at 275.51 mph.

“We went right down there,” he said of his first run. “We’ll have to go faster, though. We’ll do better…we didn’t know where to start and it’s been a couple of weeks since we’ve got to race. Everyone else was in Chicago and Epping and Bristol…we haven’t raced singe Englishtown so we had to start easy. We’ll be all right.

“I raced IHRA forever and this is what we’re used to. This kind of place is to our favor. If we get to hit our stride we’ll be fine.”

Haddock looks forward to coming to Summit Motorsports Park every year.

“We love coming here,” he said. “The Bader family gives us a great place to race…they have a great family and we just love to race.”

SNAP-ON CONTINUES HONOR FLIGHT CHALLENGE - Snap-on has extended through the remainder of the NHRA season its Honor Flight Challenge of $10,000 for every sub-four-second Funny Car run, up to $150,000. The donations will benefit the Honor Flight Network.

Snap-on sponsors “solo” Honor Flights for Snap-on retirees, associates, and franchisees who served in WW II, Korea, and Vietnam, allowing these heroes to see the memorials in Washington, D.C., built in their honor. Snap-on already has sponsored four flights, sending more than 100 of its military veterans, with an additional flight scheduled later this year.    

For each three-second Funny Car run -- any session, any race -- Snap-on will donate $10,000 to the Honor Flight Network.  Snap-on kicked off the challenge last weekend in Chicago at the Route 66 Nationals, donating $10,000 to Honor Flight when Tommy Johnson Jr., driver of the Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger, recorded his first-ever sub-four-second relapsed time, at 3.99.99.

"This is an extraordinary opportunity for Snap-on, not only to involve our driver, Cruz Pedregon, but also to include all the other Funny Car teams who now can honor our nation’s veterans every time they roar down the track," Nick Pinchuk, Snap-on Chairman and CEO, said. "It was our privilege to host many of these American heroes at Chicago. The enormous impact the challenge had on both the veterans and on the fans at Route 66 made extending our commitment an easy and necessary decision. When we sing in the national anthem that this is the 'land of the free and the home of the brave,' it’s only true because of these heroes. It’s our duty to thank them for their service and for their sacrifice."

PRO STOCK

ENDERS-STEVENS LEADS PRO STOCK AFTER RECORD RUNS - The July Fourth fireworks started early at Summit Motorsports Park, with Erica Enders-Stevens lighting the fuse.

In the first Pro Stock qualifying session of the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals, Enders-Stevens set both ends of the track record, driving her 2014 Camaro to a 6.523 at 212.63 mph. Enders hooked up at the start and kept on the throttle the entire pass.

The weather was perfect, 75 degrees with 39 percent relative humidity and a barometer of 29.32. The track temperature was 117 degrees…and Ron and Ricky Jones, her tuners, swung for the fences.

Enders-Stevens expects more of the same Saturday.

“This is abnormal weather for up here at this time of year,” she said. “I was remembering 2012 here when it was 108 degrees in the shade and how brutal that was. These temperatures are really nice and they’re not something you see quite often in the summer months. We’re hoping to get after it a little bit, providing the starting line’s better tomorrow.

“The first few feet were really tough and that’s crucial in a Pro Stock car. Rick and Rickie Jones have done a really great job with that and I think there are going to be some better numbers tomorrow. The weather is really conducive to that.”

With more information and cool weather in the forecast for the Saturday sessions, Enders-Stevens thinks there is a possibility someone, possibly more than just one, will enter the rare air of the 6.40s Club.

Enders-Stevens holds both ends of the NHRA Pro Stock record, clocking a 6.464 at 215.55 mph May 30 of this year in Englishtown.

“I don’t know what the forecast is and we’ll see what we’re dealt tomorrow, but I’ve got a lot of faith in my guys,” she said. “They’ve given me a very consistent race car, and that’s really all a driver can ask for.

“(A pass in the 6.40s) depends on what weather we’re dealt and what track conditions we’re dealt. How hot the track is plays a big role in it as well. Coming up here tonight, we were in the worse lane but we were hoping for a .49 or a .50. We weren’t going to smack it out of the park, but we wanted to improve on our last run.”

Enders-Stevens, who entered the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals first in the NHRA points standings, 190 ahead of Jeg Coughlin, will have two more shots at qualifying Saturday.

“It’s pretty exciting and I’m really proud of my team,” she said. “We’ve worked really hard and have kind of had a couple of off-weekends…me more so as a driver. The guys have really worked hard and I couldn’t be more proud to have thrown up the numbers we threw up.”

 Shane Gray (6.527/211.69) was second on the qualifying sheet after the two Friday sessions while Allen Johnson (6.532/211.89) was third.

Shane Tucker (6.609/211.56) will be on the bump spot heading into Saturday qualifying, with Larry Morgan, V Gaines, John Gaydosh, Mark Hogan and Travis Mazza on the outside looking in.
 
BACK TO THE FUTURE – Dave Connolly, who grew up 45 minutes from Summit Motorsports Park in Elyria, Ohio, is pulling double duty this weekend at the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals. He will, as usual, drive his 2014 Camaro in the Pro Stock division. However, he will also be behind the wheel of a 2012 Chevy in the Stock Eliminator class.

“It’s exciting,” he said. “My father still races and I’m going to race at the sportsman level this weekend as well, in Stock Eliminator, so I get to go over there after we have our fun in the Pro Stock car. I’ll get to grill out and have some fun with friends and family.”

Connelly is excited to be back at the track where his father took him as a kid…and is amazed with how far things have come since those early days when he would be hanging out with his friends in the pits.

“It’s pretty cool,” he said. “Back 10 or 15 years ago I was running around here, helping my dad and playing in the pit area. It’s crazy to think I’m racing at the professional level this many years later and racing on the NHRA tour. It’s definitely a very, very neat experience and very special at the same time.”

Although driving his Pro Stocker pays the bills, Connelly said his first love will always be racing in the sportsman ranks.

“I’ve always been a bracket racer,” he said. “That’s what I grew up doing here and at (Dragway) 42 and I love the competition over there in the sportsman ranks. It’s a different kind of racing, a lot more laid back, and it’s a lot of fun. I enjoy it.”

A LUMPY BEGINNING – Odessa, Texas Pro Stock driver Chris McGaha held the track record ET record at Summit Motorsports Park…for a couple of minutes, anyway.

Not bad for a guy making his first pass with a new tuner.

McGaha brought in Lump Self as his new crew chief prior to the 8th Annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals, looking to take advantage of the wealth of information and experience Self acquired while turning the wrenches for Cary and Dean Goforth on the ADRL and IHRA tours.

Driving in the right lane, McGaha laid down a stout 6.566 at 211.53 mph in the first qualifying session.

That pass broke the track record of 6.583 set by Ron Krisher in June of 2011, and lasted exactly one pair. Vincent Noblie ran a 6.559 right behind him.

“It was a good pass,” McGaha said. “We’ve got a whole new crew chief and a new set-up in the car. I didn’t think that record would stay because I was light on clutch. I even told Greg Anderson it wasn’t going to stay, then here they all came with their .54s and .52s.”

If the weather remains cool and conditions similar, McGaha thinks the numbers could fall even further. When asked if he thought a Pro Stocker could run in the 6.40s he didn’t laugh it off.

“We could possibly see a pass in the .40s,” he said. “It needs to get down to 103 and for the track to get cold and it can happen. The air does wonders for these motors.”

McGaha thought Self and the rest of his team would be a great match. They also have a history, locking horns for years in the South…Self and the Goforths in Oklahoma and he in West Texas where, he said, he was probably the only boy in Permian High School history that never played a down of football.

“He had helped me on my Dodge deal before and we’ve raced sportsman against each other for years,” McGaha said of Self. “We got to know each other and when I came to Pro Stock I think we earned each other’s respect in a unique way. We work pretty good together.”

MORGAN HAPPY TO BE HOME - Pro Stock driver Larry Morgan, from Newark, Ohio, is glad to be back at what he considers his home track…Summit Motorsports Park. The 59 year-old driver of the Lucas Oil Mustang currently stands 12th in the 2014 Mello Yellow points standings, 36 points out of the Countown, but he isn’t really thinking about the intensity and pressure that accompanies the pursuit of a world title.

He is, so to speak, stopping to smell the roses.

“It is my home track, so to speak, and the (track owners) Baders are super people,” he said. “I just love coming here. I’ve known the Baders my whole life and I have been lucky enough to be able to race professionally. They ended up having an (NHRA) race here, so it’s been great for me.”

Even though he is pausing to appreciate his life and career, Morgan is all business when he stages his car. He expects a fast race with possible record-setting speeds and elapsed times at the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals, with temperatures in the low 70’s and low humidity.

“It’s going to be really good here. Let’s just hope for the best for everybody and I think it’s going to be a good race,” he said. “We want to do the best we can do for the people that support us around here …everyone that is behind this car. I also hope to do well for all the guys that work on this car and for all my family that’s here. That’s my goal.”

Morgan is thrilled he found a sponsor that has allowed him to pursue his racing career for so long.

“I’ve been blessed in my life to have Lucas Oil and everyone that’s supported me. I’ve had a great life and can’t complain one bit. I wish I had more money to do what I do, but everybody wishes for that. I’m really happy right now.”

Decisions, decisions - Roger Brogdon had a choice to make…to stand pat or to swing for the fences.

He chose the fences.

Brogdon, who is 13th in the Pro Stock points standings, skipped the last two races on the NHRA Mello Yello racing circuit so he could put together a car he feels can get him into the Countdown.

“We took off the last couple of races because we had some engine build-up that we had to get done,” he said. “I had to take my main two guys out of the shop so I had to make a decision…stick to where I was, the status quo, or try to improve. We made a lot of improvements in the shop so hopefully it will show up this weekend.”

He got things done in time to make it to Norwalk.

“This is a great track and the Baders do a heck of a job for the racers and the fans,” he said. “We look forward to coming here every year because it’s a great facility. We’re only about 40 points out of the top 10 so if we can win a couple of rounds it won’t be a big deal.”


PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE

DÉJÀ VU FOR KRAWIEC - Provisional No. 1 qualifier Eddie Krawiec (6.844 seconds/195.05 mph) sounded a bit like a broken record Friday. Just as he said at Joliet a week ago, he was happy to make a strong run right off the bat and establish the numbers to beat and he thought the racing surface was excellent.

Referring to the ambient temperature that was a pleasant 76 degrees at 8:14 p.m. when the second session started, he said, "It's great to be her when it’s cool. Unlike many other years, it’s not 100 degrees out there, so it's very welcoming. We've got great weather, not to mention great ice cream. I have no complaints."

He said he wouldn’t be surprised to see another racer top his Friday feat. In addition to No. 2 Jerry Savoie, "there's a couple of other bikes that can go faster. By no means do I think it's going to hold and be No. 1 tomorrow. Everybody's always trying to go better."

Not winning the past two races, he said, doesn't necessarily mean he's in a slump. But he said it does motivate him, considering he was No. 1 qualifier at Chicago but on race day had a parts failure and he "plain got beat" the week before that at Epping. "It's up to me to get the job done Sunday."

RACE-DAY BRACKET HARD TO PREDICT - Matt Smith has been studying hard – trying to figure out why last weekend's O'Reilly Route 66 Nationals at Joliet, Ill., didn’t turn out exactly how he had imagined. By his calculations, he and wife Angie Smith should have been in the final round, just like they were at Epping the race before, when she won. And he had filled out his bracket with teammate Scotty Pollacheck as a semifinalist. Pollacheck lost in the quarterfinals to Shawn Gann, and Angie Smith was late on the tree against Hector Arana Sr. in their semifinal. The team owner also was a victim of Arana Sr., in Round 2.

“It eats at me,” Matt Smith said. “It was one of those deals where we should have had three bikes in the semifinals and it should have been Angie and myself racing for a finals berth. I’m not sure what happened. I studied for hours just trying to figure it out.”

His focus clearly has shifted to Summit Motorsports Park, in his words, "a track where we can certainly win again,” Smith said. “The track is good and I love the facility. We could definitely have someone on our team win the race. We have a strong team and we’ve showed that all year. It’s been a pretty impressive performance out of our team. We’ve got a good team and good power, but we have to get some lucky breaks.”
 
Ironically, his start this season mirrors that of last year's championship run. The Matt Smith Racing/Stockseth Racing Buell rider came into this weekend fifth in the standings with a final-round appearance and one semifinal finish – just like he did last July.

All four of his bikes, including the one John Hall races, are among the top 10. This seventh of 16 races for the motorcycle class is the third in a row, and Smith said he knows it isn’t too long before the Countdown to the Championship field will be set.

“We’ve got four more races to show well to get all four bikes in the top 10,” Smith said. “Right now it’s like chess match and you’re trying to make all of the right moves. We’re looking for wins just like everybody else. Last year John won in Epping and I won in Norwalk. This year Angie won in Epping and it would be great if I could win again in Norwalk. It would be something to get two out of three wins again in this three-race stretch. You have to win first round. That’s the critical thing in this deal and in trying to get all four bikes in the Countdown. We just have to continue to do a good job, and we’ve got some new stuff that we’re working on that will hopefully be ready for the Countdown, as well.”

Smith was 13th after one qualifying chance, his wife 10th, and Pollacheck eighth, while Hall led the quartet with the tentative No. 2 spot.

Matt Smith gained seven places (from 13th to six) and Angie Smith picked up two (10th to eighth). Savoie's leap moved Hall back to No. 3, tentatively, while Pollacheck's engine wouldn't turn over in Q2 and he fell from eighth to 11th.
 
YOUNGEST ARANA DETERMINED - Adam Arana definitely felt like the odd-man out at Joliet last weekend – in the Pro Stock Motorcycle field, in general, and even in his own pit and his own family. He missed the cut for race day for the first time in his young 22-race career, then saw his brother defeat their father for the victory. The positive he took away from that was the Lucas Oil/Protect The Harvest, MAVTV Buell team got some valuable data.

"It was really disappointing that I didn't qualify in Chicago," he said. "We didn't get the opportunity to test before Norwalk, but we got together as a team and have some good ideas based on my dad and my brother's performance in Chicago."

That DNQ, he said, "has definitely given me the motivation that I need to go out there and kick some butt. Sitting out on race day and not wearing my leathers was all the motivation I need to go to Norwalk and do better."

The youngest of the Arana racing trio has struggled with getting the right clutch tune-up for a strong 60-foot time, which is crucial to an outstanding pass on a Pro Stock Motorcycle. The entire team has concentrated this past week to helping him improve his numbers.

"I know these things aren't given to you," Adam Arana said. "You have to work really hard to achieve even a qualifying position to get the opportunity to race. I know I have the same capabilities to do well. We just need to get my bike to where it's capable of doing the same thing."

In Friday's first chance at redemption, he ran a 7.354-second, 148.12-mph pass, as he skated close to the left-side guardwall and had to let off the throttle. His brother's luck wasn't a whole lot better on that first trip down the track Friday – he showed his frustration with some mechanical problem at just 100 feet off the starting line. That left the most recent winner last among 19 entrants with a 13.922-second effort at 55.34 mph. Adam Arana started the second session from the No. 16 position.

Both brothers had trouble in Q2. Hector Jr. remained 19th after his bike broke on the starting line. Adam's bike again drifted, this time toward the center line. So both still are unqualified with two more chances Saturday.

RECORD CHANGES HANDS – In the opening qualifying session, Matt Smith Racing Buell racer John Hall lowered the track elapsed-time record by five-thousandths of a second to 6.882 – in the lane opposite Hector Arana Jr, who had owned it since June 2011 at 6.887 seconds. But Arana had enough troubles of his own to worry about his mark being eclipsed. However, Hall held onto the record for only as long as it took Eddie Krawiec in the next pairing to roll through the water box, get set, and zip down the track. Krawiec has the distinction at 6.861 seconds – and he matched Michael Ray's year-old speed record at 194.77 mph.

The record continued to change in the second session. Jerry Savoie, aboard his White Alligator Racing Suzuki, moved to the No. 2 slot with a 6.865, 195.48 that swiped the E.T. mark and reset the track speed record. But Krawiec came along in the next pairing and reclaimed the E.T. mark at 6.844 seconds with that 195.05-mph run board his Vance & Hines Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson. So at least for overnight, Krawiec is atop the leaderboard with the Summit Motorsports Park E.T. record and Savoie is No. 2 with the facility's best speed for a Pro Stock Motorcycle.

Krawiec said, "It was really cool to see Jerry Savoie go out there on a Suzuki – he laid out a good lap."


STAR-CROSSED? - Star Racing teammates Michael Ray and Chaz Kennedy were stuck in the bottom half of the field at Joliet, 12th and 13th in the qualifying order after experimenting with new combinations throughout the process. Neither got out of the first round, and team co-owner/tuner George Bryce blamed himself, saying, "We have great S&S engines and talented drivers. I simply missed the tune-ups on Friday and Saturday in Chicago. Fortunately, our horsepower and good driving got us in the show anyway, and we figured out what I was doing wrong in time to be ready for Sunday eliminations."

Ray's problem was a broken rocker arm right off the starting line, an occurrence he said he never had seen since he began racing a Buell in 2007. Kennedy gave Matt Smith a challenge but lost. ("I didn’t know how close until I looked over at him right as we crossed the finish line and saw his win light come on. You can't be disappointed when you lose a race like that. It was so close," Kennedy said).

Whatever gains Bryce thought they made, he might have been only half right, for Ray took the No. 4 spot right off the trailer at Norwalk, but Kennedy experienced some problems and wound up 18th of 19 early Friday. He was in excellent company, as Joliet winner Hector Arana Jr. was last on the list. Kennedy improved to the No. 12 spot late Friday with a 6.989-second E.T. at 188.38 mph. Ray was ninth after the second session.