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TOPEKA, Kan. -- After a couple of near misses recently Gary Scelzi finally broke through for his seventh win of the season. The victory here made the two time Winston champ the sole possessor of the greatest number of wins in a single season of Top Fuel competition. Previously Scelzi had been tied with Joe Amato, Kenny Bernstein, Don Garlits, the late Gary Ormsby, Darrell Gwynn, Eddier Hill, Scott Kalitta and Cory McClenathan with six wins. Both Ormsby and McClenathan achieved the feat twice in back to back seasons with Ormsby’s wins coming in 1989 and 1990 while Cory did it in 1997 and 1998. Interestingly Scelzi also took six events in 1998 as the duo dominated the points chase that year. Scelzi still has a little way to go to equal John Force’s all time record of 13 wins set in his banner year of 1996 but at least he now stands alone at the top of the dragster scorecard. Scelzi set another record of sorts here as he ran in the 4.6's on every lap including all four qualifying runs. It was definitely an improvement on this race last year where he totalled two cars in two days. On the subject of Gary Ormsby his son Gary Jr. won his first ever national event here as he scored in Federal Mogul Dragster over Billy Bybee. Ormsby’s Giant Bicycles digger was the class of the field, running low elapsed time of all but Saturday’s opening round of competition. In that round Shelly Howard's 5.511 outpaced Ormsby’s 5.535, but he stepped up to a low e.t. of eliminations 5.500 today and paced the action from there. John Force's Funny Car victory was his 90th and he dedicated the win to Vinnie Napp of Old Bridge Township Raceway Park who lost a long battle with cancer on Friday. Napp was the first east coast promoter to book Force in the early days of his career and that relationship continued for many years as Force's fame grew. The Napoliello family (Vinnie's dad Vincent , his uncle Louis and brother Richard) conceived and constructed the track known to most as Englishtown. It was a hands on venture for the family and continues to be to this day. Vincent Sr. passed away in 1969, just four years after the track opened and Loius died in 1969 a year after the NHRA recognized the track’s importance by awarding the Springnationals to the facility. In 1971 the event became the Summernationals and the July race was one of the most popular fixtures on the tour due in part to the excellent traction. The heat and humidity were hard on both racers and fans and in 1993 the race was moved to a May date and once again became the Springnationals. In addition to building and running one of the best facilities in the country Vinnie was also instrumental in the creation of the NHRA's junior dragster category, building what was in effect the prototype car well before the class was publicly debuted. Another dedication took place here as the media center was named in honor of the late Ed Dykes, the father of the current electronic dissemination of drag racing news via the Summit web site. Dykes' long time friend and colleague Dave Densmore presented a framed photograph of Dykes to be hung in the press room. Dykes, who was killed in a plane crash early this year founded what has become the FastNews Network in the early 1980's when it was the first to provide on line coverage of NHRA events. Dykes' efforts were recognized by Car Craft magazine at its All Star awards evening in 1995 and the following year he was the recipient of the NHRA Media Award. A name from drag racing’s past returned to the sport here as Al Vanderwoude fielded a fuel funny car for the first time in several decades. Vanderwoude raced in the early days of funny car with a series of "Flying Dutchman" Dodges, starting with a 1966 Dart that later became topless in that somewhat less regulated era of racing . The team of Al and his son Donny tested with the car earlier in the year and although former comp elim shoe Rich Howell was scheduled to drive Brent Fanning was behind the wheel during qualifying for the event. The car made only a single pass, during the opening qualifying session on Friday afternoon and the the 5.642 recorded by Fanning was only good enough for 21st in the final order. Brent's wife Vicky was also one of 24 drivers trying to qualify for the F/C show as she drove J.R. Wade’s American Dream Oldsmobile. Vicky did make three laps but her best was her intial 5.790 that left her one spot behind her husband when qualifying ended. Phil Burkhart did make the show in Bill Blomgren's Geronimo Camaro with Bill Schultz calling the shots. Although the qualifying lists for the event show the car as the Nitro Fish Camaro that deal is still with Cristen Powell and the Whit Bazemore owned team. Chris Cunningham who started the season assisting Rob Flynn with the e-moola Pontiac has been carrying a little more of the load in the "Fish" camp lately as crew chief Wayne Dupuy has once again been called in to assist Don Lampus with his T/F effort. Dupuy stood in for now former Lampus crew chief Mike McLaughlin at Brainerd and was recruited again following the Maple Grove race where McLuaghlin quit following Friday night qualifying. Lampus recorded a season best e.t. at Brainerd following Dupuy's ministrations and qualified 8th here while Powell made the cut with an 11th best 4.973, the only four second run of the third F/C qualifying session. After the fierce first round fire at Maple Grove that totalled the "Kane" body on Jim Epler's WWF entry the team revived the "Stone Cold" shell that Jerry Toliver used earlier in the season. Currently the team's arrangement with GM has Toliver using a Pontiac shell and Epler a Camaro so the trade was a natural. Del Worsham is still running the black first generation 2000 Pontiac body that the CSK team purchased from Toliver at Indy although a new phase two shell painted in the team’s usual red and white scheme was on hand here. The new body was still being assembled at the track and the decision was made to stick with the tried and true body for eliminations in deference to the modified aerodynamic characteristics of the new unit. Corporate policy makes for some interesting press material at times. Dodge has recently discontinued the Avenger line, renaming their mid size coupes Stratus in line with their sedan counterparts. Since that change press releases regarding Team Mopar's drag racing activities refer to both the Pro Stocks and Funny Cars simply as Dodge R/T’s. When the new Neon Pro Stocks debut the cars may once again have a model name but the floppers appear to be in limbo for some time with no new body on the immediate horizon. There were three Dodge R/T’s in the Pro Stock field as Darrell Alderman, Scott Geoffrion and Larry Morgan all made the cut, but Dean Skuza failed to qualify in the F/C ranks for only the second time this year as he debuted a new chassis. Of late Tim Wilkerson's Pontiac has been sporting major signage from Levi, Ray and Shoup, formerly an associate backer while Souix City Kenworth has taken a minor role on the rear spill plates. Here Helen Hoffman's Pontiac sported large Souix City Kenworth decals on its flanks in addition to the usual Red Line Oil and Pontiac signage. After turning in some decent performances of late including a #1 qualifying effort at Indy and a first round defeat of John Force at Maple Grove Tommy Johnson struggled here and missed the cut. Although the general intent of a two car team is to provide two sets of tuning date from each qualifying session the cars currently fielded by Don Schumacher do not use entirely the same components. For this event Melanie Troxel’s Exide car was using an injector hat manufactured by Australian Jeff Burnett. The "Burner’s" hat is not new on this side of the Pacific as Gary Densham first had one on his NEC Pontiac last year but this is the first time that your reporter knows of that a T/F entry has run the unit. The rumours regarding Whit Bazemore's future were true and it has been confirmed that he will drive a Tim and Kim Richards tuned F/C for Don Schumacher. The contract is for three seasons and the package includes major sponsorship from Matco Tools as the company is cutting its ties with Dean Skuza after six seasons. The team is looking to run a second Funny Car as well so don't be surprised if the Bazemore owned Cristen Powell driven car is folded into the package. Matco will continue in its role as a major associate of Chuck Etchells' Kendall Camaro and will also back a second car for that team that will be driven by Etchells who vacated the driver’s seat at the end of the 1998 season in favor of Bazemore. In other confirmation of 2001 plans Del and Chuck Worsham announced that the "Blue" Checker/ Shuck’s/ Kragen team of Frank Pedregon and Dave Fletcher will return in 2001. The "Red" team also announced that Rob Flynn, until now an "advisor" would forthwith officially be the co-crew chief of the Del Worsham driven Pontiac through the 2001 season.
This event marked the swan song for TNN in the field of NHRA drag race
programming after some 700 shows and 18 years. For the next 5 years the
series will be seen exclusively in ESPN and ESPN 2 as the scanctioning body
finally put together a totally cohesive coverage package. The sometime
major network coverage that was formerly prized is also a casualty, but with
the huge increase in cable and dish subscribers in recent years that should
not be a problem. The upside is that those who folow the sport will now
find it easier to find the appropriate programs.
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