CREW CHIEF JOHN COLLINS UPBEAT AFTER SEASON-OPENER WITH CRUZ PEDREGON RACING

by Tracy Renck    Wed, 2021-03-17 12:34

 

A change of scenery to a new team didn’t stop veteran crew chief John Collins from getting results.

Collins, in his first race with owner/driver Cruz Pedregon, guided the former world champion to a semifinal-round finish at the season-opening AMALIE Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville (Fla.) Raceway March 14.

“It was all good,” Collins said. “I was hoping for a little bit more. We still have a little bit of work to do on the car, performance-wise. The parts are a little different, but as far as Cruz and his organization I couldn’t ask for any more than what he has been doing. He has given us everything we’ve needed and everything we’ve asked for.”

Pedregon qualified No. 7 with a 3.971-second run. He then proceeded to defeat Chad Green with a 3.973-second lap at 322.81 mph in round one.

In round two, Pedregon ousted Alexis DeJoria. Pedregon clocked a 3.989-second run at 319.90 mph to edge DeJoria’s 4.031-second effort.

Pedregon’s day ended in the semis when he slowed to 4.781 seconds in a loss to eventual race winner J.R. Todd, who clocked a 3.970-second elapsed time.

“There are few little changes that will take a little bit to get used to,” Collins said. “We were in a comfort zone over there at DSR (Don Schumacher Racing) and we are trying to get in that comfort zone again. The first time down the track, down at West Palm (Beach in testing) the car went down the track. I shut it off just after the 330 because I wanted to check the fuel system and all that stuff. It felt good for the car to go down the track the very first hit and it went down the race track the very first qualifier (at the Gators). That was satisfying that happened. Going down the racetrack is what I want and now I’m just pecking on the performance and pick things up.”

Collins was wrench boss for nitro Funny Car driver Tommy Johnson at DSR the seven previous seasons.

Collins has joined Pedregron in the offseason and brought eight guys with him who worked on Johnson’s Funny Car.

“We totally stripped his (Cruz’s) cars down to bare chassis and built them exactly like what we had,” Collins said. “The cars are twins to what we had and now we have two complete race-ready cars right now. We (the crew) are all family, and we all get along great, and we have a lot of fun together. We go out and do a lot of boating and we all gel really good.”

Although Pedregon had a solid outing at the Gators, he knows there’s still work to do.

“There’s definitely room for improvement because our early splits aren’t what we had before,” Collins said. “Then, I just got a little too aggressive in the semifinals. We are still searching for that performance that we are missing.”

After the Winternationals in Pomona, Calif., was postponed Wednesday, the next race in the next scheduled event in NHRA’s Camping World Series is the Denso Spark Plugs NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“We have had pretty good success in Vegas (in the past),” Collins said. “We’re going to approach it the same way as we normally do and implement the changes we make and just keep pecking at this thing and get it better.

“We have had a lot of time off from racing and we spent a lot of time at the shop getting ready for the racing this year. It just feels good to get out of the shop and actually pull the wires and smell some nitro and smell the rubber burn and watch the cars go down the racetrack. We are all happy to do that now.” 

 

 

 

 

 
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