2009 PHOENIX NATIONAL TIME TRIALS - TESTING NOTEBOOK
The leading nitro and sportsman teams flock annually to Firebird Raceway for the National Time Trials, a week long festival of teams making test runs in preparation for the upcoming session. The 2009 event will carry more importance than in years past with the recent announcement of the NHRA's testing limitations to be imposed once the season starts. We'll be here all weekend bringing you pictures and stories on what transpires during the course of the event.
SUNDAY NOTEBOOK -
ANTRON: THE UNACCOUNTED FACTOR - What do you get when you cross a sophomore Top Fuel driver with an enthusiastic 
nature and a pair of Funny Car tuners who have weathered weeks of employment uncertainty?
If you’re Antron Brown and tuners Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald, you get the quickest Top Fuel lap in preseason testing - a thunderous 3.781 seconds, 316.45 mph. Not a bad end result considering the uncertainty of the previous month.
The aforementioned parties, combined with the positive nature of new team owner Mike Ashley, has all the makings of expanding the much anticipated rivalry between Tony Schumacher and Larry Dixon into a three-man barn yard scrap, winner take all.
“I’m like a kid in a candy store with this car,” Brown crowed. “When you’ve got Brian and Mark Oswald on the same team and Lance Larsen is out here helping out, it’s incredible the team work we have here.”
Yes, even Lance Larsen, noted tuner for Mark Pickens Motorsports, was on hand helping longtime protégé Corradi find just the right combination for the dragster during testing in Phoenix.
This weekend marked the first time Corradi had tuned a Top Fuel dragster in his career and for Oswald, his last experience dated to the early 1980s.
Forget Barrack Obama’s “Yes We Can” campaign, Ashley instilled a desire to win in his team moments after acquiring the Matco Tools-sponsored operation from Tim Buckley. Brown jumped on board with the campaign immediately.
“I’m just fortunate enough to be on a good team like we are and to have Mike Ashley take us over as a great motivator and a great team owner,” Brown continued. “He really understands racing because he is a racer. To have gone through what we’ve been through and to have been through two different team owners now we finally have some stable ground to walk on with Matco. There’s never been a doubt in my mind, but it gives my teammates a very stable atmosphere to work in. Five of them are from the team that I was just on and we have a lot of new guys as well. We are all just meshing well together and gelling with each other. “
Brown has seen more than your average second year driver in the last few months. He's watch the team sold twice, lost his veteran tuner, Lee Beard and welcomed in new owner Mike Ashley and a pair of unseasoned Top Fuel tuners.
Brown had not other logical choice but to be positive. He always felt from day one that his destiny was held by a higher power.
“I’m a firm believer that when one door closes, the Lord opens up another door for something great to happen,” Brown said. “I’m looking forward to this race year because there are going to be a lot of fun races and everything. We’re going to be one of the teams to beat out there.”
The numbers confirm Brown’s assessment isn’t mere idle talk.
The quickest 1,000-foot pass Brown posted last season was 3.803-seconds in the first round at Virginia Motorsports Park in October. The quickest 1,000-foot E.T. was posted by six-time Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher at 3.771-seconds. Only Schumacher, Hillary Will and Doug Herbert ran in the 3.7-second range last season. Schumacher and the U.S. Army/Matco Tools team posted the second quickest testing lap at 3.795-seconds on Sunday.
“I also want to thank my Matco family here in Phoenix this weekend,” Brown said. “It’s great to have such awesome support from the local Matco group with district manager Kent (Holladay) and the Phoenix group. We had a lot of Matco distributors hanging out with us this weekend here at testing, and we love the support for our race team here at MAR.”
A REAL RIVALRY? - Defending Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher might have lamented the fact Hot Rod Fuller didn't 
provide a real rivalry, but chances are his days of lacking vicious competition are over. The season hasn't even gotten past testing and there's a good one already brewing with Larry Dixon. The two battled it out in West Palm Beach testing with Schumacher getting the best.
On Saturday, the two former champions staged their first side-by-side battle with Schumacher getting the best of the tire-smoker.
"I told Mike (Green) I was sorry if I had to pedal it (refering to his first pass against Dixon in the test session) but it is Dixon and *&^% it, I am going to get there first," Schumacher said.
Dixon jumped to the top of the testing charts early Sunday when he drove the Alan Johnson/Al-Anabi dragster to the quickest lap of the two sessions with a 3.817, 315.86.
Schumacher stormed back at the end of the day to score another personal victory with a 3.79 to edge Dixon's 3.80.
COMPONENT TESTING - Ron Capps took advantage of good weather in Arizona and a solid test in West Palm Beach last weekend to make test runs of certain components at the NAPA AUTO PARTS National Time Trials this weekend at Firebird Raceway. Of the six passes he made in the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Funny Car, his best was a 4.854-second run at 157.96 mph, not a full pass.
"For us this weekend was a little bit different than past years," said Capps. "We were quickest car last year leaving the test session and I believe the year before as well. This year, with the recent announcement of the lack of testing we're going to have in 2009, we wanted to take full advantage.
"We ran so well in West Palm Beach last weekend. We ran several teens, low teens, 4.11, a 4.10 and a 4.09 that we needed to try some things we needed to make sure we were able to test before Pomona.
"Coming to a test, especially here this year knowing that people need to test a lot of things, we were in the same boat with a lot of other teams where the numbers you see are not indicative of true performance. For us, it was just going to 330 feet, maybe 400 feet and trying different things to make ourselves better. So, we're happy.
"It seems like sometimes you actually learn more testing when things don't go as good as you want them to go, and we learned that a lot this weekend. We found some things that are really exciting that we're going to implement for Pomona. It was a big test for us the last two days. And we were not really worrying about going to the finish line.
"We'll be testing Monday and I think we're going to make some full pulls. If the weather is good enough I think we can run with anybody who ran low 4.0s today. I have no doubt. The car was on a great run the last run before I shut it off at 400 feet (4.854/157.96) and they were all planned shutoffs. We will evaluate everything tomorrow and we should be ready to go for Pomona.”
FLEXIBLE TUNING - The most important aspect working in the favor of veteran tuners 
Brian
Corradi and Mark Oswald is not their high level of talent; it’s their
knack for being able to adapt to a forever changing curriculum.
The duo has been joined at the proverbial hip, since Mike Ashley brought them together in 2007.
Ashley first began nitro racing in 2005 and Oswald served as his crew
chief. When he joined Don Schumacher Racing in 2006, Corradi was
assigned as his tuner.
Corradi and Oswald joined together in 2007 and their unified effort not
only led Ashley to his first-ever NHRA POWERade Funny Car national
event victory but two others for good measure, including a remarkable
U.S. Nationals victory.
Ashley was essentially a sophomore driver when the two contributed to
his success and a year later they pulled off a national event victory
with freshman driver Melanie Troxel.
It’s that kind of resourcefulness that has many cheering for Corradi
and Oswald as they pursue their latest challenge – Top Fuel.
Corradi and Oswald have replaced veteran tuner Lee Beard as tuner of
the Matco Tools dragster, purchased two weeks ago by Ashley. As was in
the case with their former driver turned team owner, they are dealing
with a sophomore driver in Antron Brown.
The one thing they enjoyed in the previous two seasons holds true in
this scenario, they are working with a driver of considerable talent.
“Out of three runs, we’re very happy with the performance of the car,”
Corradi said, discussing this weekend’s testing in Phoenix, Az. “We
fixed a couple of gremlins in the car. It was a new car that was just
put together a few weeks ago. Today was the first time it went down the
race track. All-and-all it was a good day. We look to be better
tomorrow. I made a few clutch changes that I used to do on the Funny
Car and implemented my tune-up, and ran it like we ran the Funny Car.
We changed the nitro percentage and that’s about it. We want to go
quicker tomorrow, but we’re happy with the first day of testing.”
Corradi and Oswald have that good cop, bad cop image, but their common
goal is to work for the good of the team. While Corradi may bring to
the equation his “tell-it-like-it-is” Cleveland mentality, Oswald may
counter with a kinder, gentler approach, though both have an
unquenchable passion for success. The results of pairing these two
speak volumes.
What Corradi may lack in experience in working on a Top Fueler, Oswald
makes up for dating back to his days of driving, wrenching and tuning
of high quality dragsters such as the independent underdog Thomas,
Oswald & Kattleman effort to the better financed Candies &
Hughes ride. This season marks Oswald's return to the long skinny cars
since leaving the class in 1982 for a multi-time world championship
career in Funny Car.
Oswald, like Corradi, is of the belief some applications of Funny Car
tuning will apply to Top Fuel dragster and this weekend during the
National Time Trials, they are writing a unique logbook.
“We still haven’t made a lot of runs, but it seemed to respond to the
same things as the Funny Car,” Oswald admitted. “The dragster is
lighter and easy to make go. It does take some more power and we’re
finding that balance. It’s a lot of fun to work on.”
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SATURDAY NOTEBOOK - SCHUMACHER, DIXON WAGE WARIN TOP FUEL, WORSHAM EMERGES QUICKEST
SATURDAY SCOREBOARD -
TOP FUEL
Tony Schumacher 3.830, 315.86
Larry Dixon 3.831, 313.15
Morgan Lucas 3.869, 303.50
Antron Brown 3.870, 310.63
Spencer Massey 3.899, 306.60
Brandon Bernstein 3.912, 300.20
David Baca 3.988, 272.17
Joe Hartley 4.029, 235.72
Shawn Langdon 4.041, 231.64
Cory McClenathan 4.067, 227.31
Troy Buff 4.248, 203.19
Steve Faria 4.382, 239.87
FUNNY CAR
Del Worsham 4.049, 306.88
Mike Neff 4.127, 269.78
Matt Hagan 4.139, 299.46
Bob Tasca III 4.152, 296.63
Jack Beckman 4.156, 280.43
Jim Head 4.251, 231.91
Ron Capps 5.030, 149.55
John Force 5.570, 126.14
Jeff Arend 6.873, 93.80
Ashley Force Hood 6.892, 93.19
Robert Hight 7.338, 91.06
TASCA TALKS TESTING -If you don’t think tire shake can have lasting affects, just ask Funny Car racer Bob Tasca. Tasca was feeling the aftereffects of a tough outing Friday evening following the first day of the National Time Trials at Firebird Raceway in Phoenix, AZ.
“It was an ugly, ugly day out there,” Tasca said. “The track was
awful today, it was way over-glued. I can tell you we made nine runs in
Las Vegas and five were the quickest we had ever been. We made seven in
Palm Beach and they were fast. We shook violently the first two runs
here.”
Tasca said at the outset of the season he planned to make the most of
testing in 2009 because of his new alliance with 2008 championship
runner-up Tim Wilkerson.
This Phoenix outing becomes even more crucial with the announcement from the NHRA limiting testing.
While some might think Tasca would be opposed to such a regulation considering his 2009 game plan, he’s admittedly fine with it.
“I’m okay with it, to be perfectly honest,” Tasca said. “There were
initial rumors of no testing, which I thought would have been a
terrible mistake. I think the way the NHRA worded it [their testing
policy] is the best way it could have been handled. It’s a compromise
where you have issues with people match racing, setting up fake match
races, and getting around it and obviously sneaking off to IHRA races
to test.”
Tasca told CompetitionPlus.com that he isn’t sure of planned tests
during the course of the season but does admit strategy will play a
large role in who runs when and who goes where.
“You want to use them wisely and on tracks where the conditions are
similar to what you are going to encounter,” Tasca explained. “We’re
probably circling St. Louis and likely you’d want to do an Indy test
and maybe save one for the Las Vegas test.”
If you add up the math, that leaves one opening, assuming each of the
outings are one day affairs. Tasca opened a new shop late last season
in Concord, NC, just down the street from Bruton Smith’s palatial zMax
Dragway.
“I’m sure we're saving one of our dates for there, too,” Tasca added.
“We just have to strategize and make the most of what we have
available. If you are a single team and you get lost on your tune-up,
testing can become a process of throwing darts with your eyes closed.
That makes mine and Tim’s deal even more strategic for gathering data
headed into a race weekend.”
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FRIDAY LEADERBOARD -
TOP FUEL
Larry Dixon 3.846, 308.14
Morgan Lucas 4.234, 194.18
Troy Buff 4.432, 177.37
David Baca 4.514, 177.44
Spencer Massey 5.021, 142.88
Shawn Langdon 5.641, 113.73
Joe Hartley 7.907, 88.73
FUNNY CAR
Jim Head 4.251, 231.91
John Force 6.966, 82.93
Ashley Force 7.888, 76.65
Bob Tasca III 7.894, 88.69
Del Worsham 8.332, 76.40
Robert Hight 8.765, 76.45
Jeff Arend 8.945, 80.41
Mike Neff 12.087, 69.77
SUPER BOWL FEVER
HIGH ANXIETY - Spencer Massey is a free man.
He
is free in the sense that his anxiety over making the first run behind
the wheel of a Don “Snake” Prudhomme Top Fuel dragster was consummated
on Friday during the opening day of the National Time Trials at
Firebird Raceway in Phoenix, Arizona.
“I was just glad to get that first one out of the way,” Massey said.
“It was really no different than headed into the first round of the
U.S. Nationals or the World Finals when you’re battling for a title;
the first one is an overwhelming hurdle you like to check off your list
of things to do early. That first run left me feeling as comfortable
with this ride as I have been with any in my career.”
Massey now has one run to his credit and that initial lap was a planned
early shut-off. He was instructed to run to 330 feet. The current IHRA
Top Fuel champion, now in his first full year on the NHRA Full Throttle
Drag Racing Series, estimates he ran to 329 feet and one inch.
“We
talked about shutting it off early, so I didn’t really harbor any
feelings of how it felt and wanting to stay in it longer than I was
told to,” Massey admitted. “I was probably more concerned about coming
closer to the 330 cone than anything else.
“The car was on a good clean run even though it was backed down quite a
bit. The primary goal was just to make it down the track to gather
data.”
Massey confirmed the car is running an identical combination to that used by his predecessor Larry Dixon.
“We’re going to keep refining for the next couple of days,” Massey added.
Massey is expected to make three runs today and three more on Sunday.
Each lap on Saturday is intended to bring him closer to the finish
line, a goal he hopes to reach at least three times under power before
the conclusion of this weekend.
MORE TESTING STUFF ...
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FRIDAY HAPPENINGS
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