Tue, 20 May 2003, 11:55 PM
Ralph Hope Just Got Bumped Down To #2
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By Bob Frey
Photo copyright 2003
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Al Vanis vs Nick Reiter
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I can’t honestly tell you the last time that I began a
column the week after a national event with a comment or a “Did You Know?”
about a sportsman racer, but I simply have to this week. With all of the
exciting things that took place at Englishtown and the 34
th running
of the
K & N Filters Supernationals
none may have been more significant than the final round of Stock Eliminator
when
Al Vanis beat
Nick Reiter for the title.
Did you know that this was the second national event win for Al
Vanis? And
did you know that
his first win came at the 1974 U.S. Nationals? That’s right, Al Vanis,
the 66 year old man who won the Stock title
in E’town is the same guy who won the Stock title at Indy 28 years and 8 months
ago, and thus he assumes the title of the guy who went the longest between
national event wins, pushing the former top man,
Ralph Hope, down to number two. And, if the reports that I get are
correct, Al may not have the trophy that he won at Indy back in 1974. It seems
that, after the race, the NHRA tech department threw another five pounds on
Brandon Bernstein
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Al’s thundering
’74 Pontiac Ventura and
he was so upset that he sent the trophy back. Now that may just be urban
legend, but that’s the story that I got after the race. Anyway, congratulations
to Al (and to Ralph, I assume) for his great accomplishment.
Did you know that at Indy in ’74 Al, whose car was called
“Ill-Legal,” beat
Larry Peterson in an R/SA Chevrolet station wagon for the win?
There were a couple of other guys in that ‘74 field who are still racing,
including
Don McElroy, Harry Doolittle and
Gary Long. Julie Luneack also raced
that year in Stock Eliminator and I wonder what her relationship is (if any) to
Greg Luneack who is still racing?
Of course one of the big stories at Englishtown was the
accident by Brandon Bernstein that
occurred in the first round of competition. Brandon will be out of action for a
while and it has already been announced that his dad, Kenny, will drive the car for the foreseeable future. The word that
I got earlier today (Tuesday) was that Brandon will not need any surgery,
which is great news, and that he may be moved as early as next week. Of course
it’s imperative that he take full advantage of his recovery time and not rush
back into action. Our thoughts and prayers are with Brandon and the entire
Bernstein family (both racing and personal) as he begins the road to
recovery…
Greg Anderson
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One of the other major happenings came in the Pro Stock class
where
records were shattered like never before.
Greg
Anderson is now the national elapsed time and speed record holder with his
unbelievable blasts of 6.670 and 207.18 miles per hour. Even the real hard core
Pro Stock fans may not realize how significant it is for one driver to set both
ends of the record at the same event.
Did
you know that since 1982, when
NHRA went to the 500 cubic inch engine in Pro Stock, that only four men have
set both ends of the record at the same event before Greg did it this weekend?
Now you can probably guess who they are, and if you said
Lee Shepherd, Bob Glidden, Kurt and
Warren Johnson you would be correct. And for the seriously hard
core among you,
did you know
that the first guy to set both ends of the record at the same race was
“Dyno” Don Nicholson who also did it in
New Jersey back in 1970. Of course he did it in Atco, New Jersey, while some
skinny, geeky kid was announcing. Now I wonder who that could have been? Greg
took away the maximum 138 points from the race and, in the process, he also
took over the point’s lead. Way to go, Greg.
Whit Bazemore
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The number 13 was big this weekend, with both
Doug Kalitta and
Whit Bazemore winning their 13
th national event while
Dale Creasy qualified #13 for the 13
th
time. Go figure!! Bazemore’s win moved him from 13
th place on the
all-time list up to #12 where he is now tied with his former car owner,
Chuck Etchells, Raymond Beadle and the
guy he beat in the final,
Ron Capps,
who also have 13 wins. Since his last win came at Bristol last year, it has
been 13 months since Whit has been in the winner’s circle…..
John Force and
Tony Pedregon both fouled out at Englishtown and
did you know how many red lights the two of them have in their
careers? How about 13?...
Frank Manzo
went to the final round at Englishtown and
did
you know how many times he had been to the final at E’town coming into
this race? How about 13?...Doug Kalitta qualified #1 for the 13
th time
and he also recorded the low elapsed time for the 13
th time in his
career.….
Tony Bartone won the race
and he qualified #13…Whit Bazemore won the race after failing to do so in his
previous 13 trips to New Jersey…Greg Anderson has now been the number one
qualifier and set top speed a grand total of 13 times….
Cory McClenathan fouled out against Larry Dixon and it’s been 13
races since Cory lit the red light…
Paul
Romine went to the semi-finals in the 13
th race since he did
that the last time (that’s 13 actual starts)…There were 13 drivers who ran in
the 6.70 range and did not qualify in Pro Stock…Kalitta, Dixon, Whit and Capps
have been to the final round a combined total of 13 times this year and,
finally, the next time you go to the “Nationals” in New Jersey will be 13
months from now. Remember you heard it here first.
Doug Kalitta
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Greg Anderson’s assault on the record books certainly
overshadowed the performance by Doug Kalitta who ripped off 4.40 runs like they
were giving them away.
Did you know
that Doug now is the holder of three of the five quickest runs in NHRA history?
If he and the
MAC Tools team can
tame that thing down so that it runs well on the hot tracks, Doug could make a
real charge for the
POWERade
championship. Doug is 147 points behind the leader, Larry Dixon, and he will
need to gain about a round a race for a while to make it interesting down the
stretch and you know what, he can do it. All of that kind of begs the
questions, when will we see
Scott
Kalitta on the track as a blocker or helper for Doug? Speaking of Scott,
the tour is coming to Topeka, a track where Scott won six different times.
Hummmm….. With
Tony Schumacher
failing to qualify, Doug Kalitta now holds the mark for the longest consecutive
qualifying streak in the Top Fuel class.
Did
you know that it’s been 76 races since Doug failed to make the show and
that he only has two DNQ’s in his entire career? By the way, if my math is
correct, Kenny Bernstein will return to action riding a 76 race consecutive
qualifying streak as well…Larry Dixon probably had the best line of the day
when he was asked “what can you do when the guy in the other lane is running
4.49?” Larry just smiled and said, “Watch!!” Larry brings the total package to
the table as our reigning Top Fuel Champion, doesn’t he? He drives well, speaks
well, is a great family man, is serious when he has to be, extremely serious
when he has to be, and represents the sport as well as any champ that we have
ever had. At least that’s my opinion. By the way, if Larry wins two rounds this
weekend in Topeka he’ll reach the 300 mark in total wins and that’s pretty
impressive for a young guy…..Now if you want to know impressive, how about
this?
Did you know that 56
professional drivers recorded their career best numbers this past weekend?
There were a total of 91 individual bests turned in, 45 in the elapsed time
department and 46 in the speed category. Wow!!
We keep saying it but this could be the “get healthy”
weekend that John Force is looking for. After fouling out in New Jersey, John
will come to a track that has seen his team win in six of the last eight years
with the champ winning four of them. Teammate, Tony Pedregon, will be looking
to win the race for the third time in as many years, while Darrell Russell will look to do something in TF that no other
driver has ever done, and Larry Dixon will be looking to do something that he
has never done. Did you know
that no TF driver has ever won this race in back-to-back years (Russell won it
last year) and did you know
that Larry Dixon has never won this race? Should make for an interesting
dragster show, huh? Larry not only hasn’t won the race but in his ten
appearances at the Topeka track he has not gotten past the second round eight
times. Like I said, if the Kalitta team can do well here they can make a race
of it in Top Fuel….It was a pretty good weekend for Dodge in the Funny Car
class at Englishtown. Gary Scelzi
ripped off the fastest speed ever in the class, a stunning 326.95 mph blast,
while his teammate won the race and both did their thing in the Dodge Stratus
FC. Now we’re coming to the place where FC history was made when the first
4-second Funny Car run was made the same weekend that we saw the first 300 mph
Funny Car pass. There was another bit of racing history that was recorded at
Heartland Park Topeka and it was done in 1996. Did you know that John Force became the first FC driver to
run in the 4.80 range when he did it at HPT in 1996? But more than that, John
made all eight passes in the 4.80 zone that weekend, four in qualifying and
four in eliminations in what was, at the time, one of the most amazing
performances in the history of the class. Like I said, could be a good race for
John…It was at that same race in ‘96 where Cruz
Pedregon took the mile per hour record away from Al Hofmann, who had set it exactly one day earlier…In keeping with
the theme on national records, great performances and the number 13, did you know that the only time
the Pro Stock record was ever set at Topeka was when Darrell Alderman ran 7.206 there in 1990? Hey, that’s 13 years
ago!!
NHRA: 10 Most Recent Entries [ top ]
Nov 06- LAS VEGAS - Top Alcohol Funny Car Final, Round 4 Eliminations
Nov 06- LAS VEGAS - Competition Eliminator Final, Round 5 Eliminations
Nov 06- LAS VEGAS - Top Dragster Final, Round 5 Eliminations
Nov 05- POMONA 2 - Event Preview
Nov 02- LAS VEGAS - Summary of Eliminations in Top Alcohol Funny Car
Nov 02- LAS VEGAS - Summary of Eliminations in Top Alcohol Dragster
Nov 02- LAS VEGAS - Summary of Eliminations in Competition Eliminator
Nov 02- LAS VEGAS - Summary of Eliminations in Super Stock
Nov 02- LAS VEGAS - Summary of Eliminations in Stock Eliminator
Nov 02- LAS VEGAS - Summary of Eliminations in Super Gas
