IHRA EPPING NATIONALS - EVENT NOTEBOOK

Keep up with this weekend's IHRA North American Nationals by reading our event notebook. We bring you the stories behind the numbers and win-lights throughout the course of the weekend. Tune in daily for the latest news from the pits.


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

THE AFTERMATH OF SATURDAY'S RAIN

The remnants of Tropical Storm Hannah made its way up the eastern seaboard in passing through the IHRA North American

Pro Stock racer Robert Patrick doesn't have the Fred Astaire look on his face. The defending Pro Stock world champion was one of several Pro Stock teams facing relocation due to flooded pits.

Nationals at New England Dragway in Epping, NH., dumped as much as four inches of rain on the facility Saturday evening.

IHRA officials were able to get in several hours of racing on Saturday before the rains fell and ended the day.

Race teams arrived at NED on Saturday and were greeted with flooded pits. So flooded were the Pro Stock pits that several of the team required relocating on Sunday morning.

IHRA officials are intent on racing Sunday.

The first round of professional eliminations are slated for Noon but could likely kick off at 1 PM. Sportsman racing is scheduled for 10 AM provided teams can get into the staging lanes.

Larry Sullivan at DragRaceCentral.com reported, "The track is drying nicely and is almost ready for racing, but there's a big lake in the west-side VIP parking lot and white-water rapids running across the staging lanes on the east side where the drainage from the lake emerges from a drain pipe that runs under the dragstrip.

The running water cuts the staging lanes off from most of the pits and will be a problem until the water level in the lake drops far enough to reduce the torrent to a trickle."

The lake of rainwater on the west side of the track has created a myriad of problems in the pits due to draining.

The aforementioned lake has caused this river flowing through the staging lanes.

To get ice cream, one must swim to the concession stand. One positive thing about this lake is that it provides a barrier for racers seeking to complain to the tower staff.

Some teams unloaded Sunday morning, others were forced to relocate.

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FRIDAY NOTEBOOK -

RELISHING THE EXPERIENCE - Rookie Nitro Funny Car driver Matt Hagan is making quite a name for himself in drag racing circles. Not only is he fighting tooth-and-nail with Terry Haddock and Paul Lee for the 2008 IHRA Nitro Funny Car world championship, Hagan has also stepped outside IHRA competition to get some laps under his belt in NHRA competition.

Hagan, from Christiansburg, Virginia, first went to Maple Grove Raceway in Pennsylvania for the Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals. Though he did not qualify for the final eliminations field, Hagan and his Shelor Motor Mile 2008 Solera turned some heads with a strong showing and confident effort in his NHRA debut. Hagan then moved on to Indianapolis, where he qualified on the bump for the “biggest drag race in the world,” the U.S. Nationals.

In eliminations Hagan red-lit against #1 qualifier Tony Pedregon, but the experience in Indy is something he hopes will help as he tries to chase down front-running Terry Haddock in the IHRA Nitro Funny Car points race.

“Every lap we make helps us, it gives us that much more information on the car and gives me that much more experience as a driver,” Hagan said. “We are in the fight of our lives in the IHRA championship points chase. Terry Haddock has a strong car, a strong team and is having an incredible year. Paul Lee is the kind of driver who can beat anyone on any given day. Even Steven Macklyn and Andy Kelley are as good as it gets out there. The race in Indy was great and we’re very proud of what we were able to accomplish there. But now it’s time to get back to work as we get after our season-long goal of winning the IHRA championship.”

Haddock currently leads the IHRA standings with 536 points. Lee is second with 513 points while Hagan sits third with 485. Hagan, Haddock and Jeff Diehl, who is seventh in the points standings with 325, are the only Nitro Funny Car drivers still eligible for the 41-point bonus given to all professional IHRA drivers who attend each national event.

“We have two events to make up 51 points, that’s how we have to look at it,” Hagan said. “Terry has had a great year and is peaking at the right time. He was very strong last weekend at a match race up in Canada and does not make many mistakes. If we want to win this thing we’re going to have to earn it. Terry is not going to give it away, that’s for sure. The North American Nationals in Epping are going to be huge and we will have to be on top of our game. I’m looking forward to it.”

Friday night Hagan was as he drove to the top of the qualifying list.

GIMME FIVE – The reports of the nitrous combination have been greatly exaggerated. At least that’s the message Mike Castellana, Jim Halsey and Pat Stoken are sending.

One of the three will likely be a part of drag racing history this weekend when the first-ever nitrous pass in the five-second range is recorded. It will happen, just ask the drivers.

But that’s only if Mother Nature cooperates.

Friday provided the best opportunity and Castellana laid down a 6.010 in Friday’s evening session. Saturday is expected by all accounts to be a wash and Sunday is iffy by weather forecasts.

Castellana admitted the performance barrier wasn’t on his radar screen on Friday.

“We weren’t thinking about anything other than qualifying well and getting those five bonus points,” Castellana said. “We did that so now we can see about going a little quicker. We’re not worried about setting records or anything like that right now; we’re worried about qualifying well and going rounds during eliminations.”

After his performance in Martin, Michigan during the Northern Nationals at US 131 Motorsports Park last month, it would be foolish to bet against Castellana running a sub-6 second run. He came as close as humanly possible during the first round of eliminations in the heat of the day on Sunday, clocking a 6.000 at 235.56 mph. During qualifying he had already ran the quickest nitrous Pro Mod pass in history, a 6.009 at 238.05 mph.

Castellana’s Awesome/Al Anabi 1968 Firebird has come a long way since the beginning of the 2008 season. Even though he advanced to the final round at two of the first four 2008 IHRA event, but he was not pleased with his car’s performance or the numbers it was posting. Things have definitely changed.

“Everything has really started to come together,” Castellana said. “We knew we had the power, but we just weren’t able to make the right calls to be able to use it all. We struggled at the beginning of the season, but after awhile we got the car figured out and have been able to run some really nice numbers.”

NOT YET - Laurie Cannister, of Johnston, Ohio, has not clinched the Alcohol Funny Car world championship yet. Her final-round appearance in Tulsa gave her an astounding 231-point lead over Paul Noakes, who sits in second place.

“Yes, we're hoping to clinch the championship this race; but we're still going to approach it the same way--one round at a time,” Cannister said. “We are going to focus on making the most out of each qualifying session and winning each round. We haven't varied from that mindset all season and we aren't stopping now. The truth is: if you stay focused, everything else will follow.”

Cannister has won five of the eight national events this season and has an unbelievable 19-3 won-loss record in elimination rounds in 2008.

DOUBLE CHECKIN’ - Robert Patrick had 50,000 reasons why he needed to take his Purvis Ford-sponsored Shelby Cobra to chassis builder Jerry Haas’ shop last week.

The defending IHRA Pro Stock world champion from Fredericksburg, Va., needed to trace every wire, inspect every setting and look in all the nooks and crannies to see if something was out of place.

That’s the kind of season he’s had.

A potential $50,000-plus payday during this weekend’s IHRA North American Nationals in Epping, NH., provided all the incentive he needed to strip the previously successful Ford to the bare necessities. Patrick is one of eight drivers vying for the IHRA Pro Stock Showdown crown being contest during the eighth of ten events on the IHRA tour.

Patrick has won the event before, scoring a $20,000 payday in 2006.

“We just haven’t been running the way we should have,” Patrick said. “We decided to take the car up to Jerry’s shop and locked ourselves in here and inspect every inch of this car from front to back and top to bottom. We left no stone unturned. I’m confident we found several things which will make a big different but we’re not going to know until we hit the track on Friday.”

Patrick has shown flashes of brilliance in 2008 but most of those came in the first part of the season. He opened the season with the quickest Pro Stock run in drag racing history – a 6.266 elapsed time recorded during pre-season testing in Valdosta, Ga. He also drove his way to the season-opening IHRA Texas Nationals in San Antonio, Texas.

Patrick’s best finish ever since was a semi-final showing at the IHRA Northern Nationals but then his day ended with a wounded engine.