Wed, 12 Mar 2003, 08:39 AM Here Comes Gainesville

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2003 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Well, the first big race of the year hits the east coast this weekend and let’s just hope that no more rain hits the east coast this weekend. The Gatornationals, one of the longest running races on the NHRA tour, has grown into one of the biggest events and it sure would be nice to get four days in without having any more weather problems. The super saturated wet grounds in Florida have already caused NHRA to move some of the sportsman racers down south to Orlando and, as expected, that move drew fire from some circles, but I ask you, what is the alternative? Sure it will impact the racers, but so would canceling the event or eliminating some classes altogether. So would getting everyone stuck in the pits in Gainesville and so would waiting until Friday or Saturday and then sending everyone home. I’ve spoken with dozens of racers in the past couple of days and no two of them could come up with or agree on the same solution, or any solution in some cases.  Now I admit that I am an employee of NHRA, but having said that, I’ve also been in this sport for over thirty-five years and I’ve seen all kinds of situations arise over that time and when a decision is made to rectify or at least try to live with a problem that no one can control, there are always a lot of complaints. NHRA makes their decisions based on what they feel is the best for the majority of the people involved and, while everyone may not agree with it, the decisions are always made with a lot of thought and careful consideration. This isn’t a test to see how national events would run without sportsman cars (we’ve gone over that for thirty-five years), it’s not an attempt to “stick it to the sportsman racers,” (where have we heard that before?), but it is an honest attempt to try to run the race and provide those who have come to Florida with the opportunity to race without being sent home empty handed, and it’s an attempt to do so with a minimum of inconvenience. Believe me, no one wants to have the entire four day race run under bright, sunny skies in front of packed grandstands at Gainesville more than NHRA does, and no one stands to lose as much when something like this happens as they do. I know some will still be dissatisfied and, if that’s the case, so be it. Even the folks at Drag Race Central are impacted by this, since they’ll have to send a crew down to Orlando to cover the sportsman racers, but they’ll do what they have to do. Twelve champions will be crowned at this year’s Gatornationals and I hope you’re one of them and if you choose not to participate, and that’s your right,  I hope to see you at the next event. The sixteen sportsman racers who are still in competition on Sunday will have a chance to run in front of a huge crowd and, if they get to the final, they’ll get some air time on the ESPN sportsman television show. Hey, things could be a lot worse. Now I’ll get off my soap box!!

Larry Dixon

Larry Dixon, who has set just about every Top Fuel record over the past two seasons, will have an opportunity to break another mark if he can win at Gainesville this weekend. Did you know that no TF driver has ever won this race three years in a row? Several very famous drivers have come close, like Don Garlits, Shirley Muldowney, Eddie Hill and Darrell Gwynn, all of whom won it two consecutive years, but nobody has been able to “three-peat.” Maybe Larry will….Larry’s crew chief, Dick LaHaie, will be one of twelve people inducted into the Drag Racing Hall of Fame this Thursday night in Gainesville, and we tip our hat to one of the great people in this sport….Dick will be joined in the induction ceremony by another former Gatornationals’ champ, Jimmy King. In addition to the drivers, a great friend of all of ours, the late Steve Collison will be inducted into the Hall of Fame and that’s a great move by the committee. Steve, who wrote for a variety of magazines, and always championed the “little guy,” passed away about two years ago and his viewing was like a “Who’s Who” of the automotive journalism world, and that was a tribute to the great person that he was. Friends came from all over the country in the snow just to pay their respects, now we’ll all get another chance to do that at the Hall of Fame ceremony. There are very few people in this business that I can say everyone liked, well, everyone liked Steve Collison and everyone misses him and his contributions to the sport….In a related item, congratulations to Barrie Paton, Todd’s dad, who was inducted into the Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame this past weekend in Toronto. You can congratulate him personally this weekend since he and the kid will be in action at Gainesville.

Whit Bazemore

Moving on…this will be a big weekend for the Dodge Funny Car contingent, headed by Whit Bazemore and the MATCO Tools car. Along with Lee Beard and the rest of “Team Schumacher,” this team expects to come into town and leave with the trophy, although if they do, it’ll be a first for Whit. Did you know that in all of his years at Gainesville, not only has Whit never won the race, he’s never even made it to the final round? In fact, he’s only gotten out of the second round once!! But they love the Dodge body, and they’ll have lots of Mopar folks on hand to cheer them to victory. At least, that’s how they tell the story….Whit’s teammate, Gary Scelzi, will run a special one-race Dodge body for the event and don’t think the folks at Mopar wouldn’t love to see that Ram in the winner’s circle. Gary has had better success than Whit in Florida, but just barely, making it to the money round in 2001 where he lost to, you guessed it, Larry Dixon. If my notes are correct, Whit and/or Gary will be running the new Norm Drazy built supercharger in Florida and that could be just what they need to go all the way. Tony Schumacher has already been using it on his dragster and they’ve rung up some pretty impressive numbers with it…..Tony Pedregon, even with his second round loss in Phoenix, still has the hottest Funny Car around these days. Did you know that Tony’s last 27 runs have all been 4.97 seconds or quicker? All 27 of ‘em!! Over that span he has put up four runs in the 4.70 range, 14 in the 4.80 zone and 9 in the 4.90 area, and that’s why everyone else fears him right now. Still, other than last year’s win, he hasn’t fared much better at Gainesville than Whit has, in fact, other than last year Tony has never gotten past the second round in Florida, so this should be a big test for him and his Castrol Syntec team….On the other hand, Mr. John Force just about owns this place. If he qualifies for the show, John will tie the record of 303 consecutive races at which he has qualified, the record that is currently held by Warren Johnson. Ironically, Warren’s record began after he failed to qualify in Gainesville in 1987. When you consider the fact that John has been in the top half of the field at the Gatornationals at every race for the past 18 years, well, you’ve got to like his chances of making the show this weekend, don’t you?

Mark Pawuk

Pro Stock has about a brazillian cars (that’s a lot of cars) entered and that should make qualifying alone very exciting. I mentioned before the Arizona race how I liked the two Barry Grant cars and Terry Adams did make the field while Barry just missed. Well, my Pro Stock pick this weekend to surprise is none other than “Captain Chaos,” Ken Koretsky. My sources (I do have sources, you know), tell me that the folks at David Nickens’ shop have been working overtime in an effort to get their Dodges in the field. Bo Nickens will also run out of the shop so it should be a good one-two punch for the Texas team. Anyway, they’re my dark horse picks this weekend….I also expect Mark Pawuk to do well, since he, Bob Glidden and Bill Jenkins seem to be working well together and appreciating each other. After the last race my sources told me that Bill said some extremely complimentary things about Bob and that’s praise from the highest circle. Bill won the very first Gatornationals in 1970, while Bob went to the finals six times and Mark has also made it to the money round. That’s a lot of talent and, along with Marcus Bowen, they could give Mark Pawuk one of his earliest wins in a long while.

Craig Treble

If you think the PS car pit area will be full, wait ‘til you get a load of the Pro Stock Bike pit area, it could have a record number of entries. The Gatornationals race in 1987 had thirty bikes and we should see more than that this weekend. Among that class of ’87 were such notables as Anthony Anderson, Todd Moore and David Sawyer. Really! Among this year’s field we should see Angelle Savoie and her new “Team 23 Bonewear” Suzuki, Reggie Showers and the PDI bike with George Bryce in the pits, Geno Scali, The “Area 51” team and Craig Treble just to mention a few. I make no bones about it, I picked Craig to win the championship this year (even before Angelle split with George and Matt Hines announced that he wouldn’t race), and after spending some time with him this past week, I firmly believe that the defending event champ and his MATCO Tools bike is the one to beat. Besides having a good bike, and lots of power, Craig is in great physical shape and that could give him the edge that he needs to move up one spot in the standings. By the way, there are about a half a dozen Harley-Davidsons entered for this event and it will be interesting to see if any of them can qualify. Did you know that a Harley-Davidson did make it to the final round at an NHRA event in Pro Stock once? Well, it did, and it happened at Gainesville in 1980 when Ed Ryan went to the final round only to lose to “Superbike” Mike Keyte. Other than Kevin McKenna and Ed, there probably weren’t a lot of people who were aware of that little fact.

"Big Daddy" Don Garlits

Of course, Gainesville will also see Shirley Muldowney and “Big Daddy” Don Garlits in action and that alone is worth the price of admission. Shirley beat Don in the final round in 1982 after beating Jody Smart the year before, and Don won it three times, beating Clayton Harris, Kelly Brown and Pat Dakin. Wouldn’t it be a kick to see those two go at it in eliminations just one more time? Summit Racing is proud to be sponsoring “Big” this year and, if you get a chance, take a look at my three-piece story on Don’s great career that also appears here on Drag Race Central. It’s a quick view of his brilliant career and I think it may invoke some nice memories for some of you. It sure did for me….Now enjoy the race and let’s pray for sun!!

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