Wed, 2 Mar 2005, 09:03 AM Hey Mike, Is That A Steering Wheel In Your Hand Or Are You Just Happy To See Me?

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2005 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Mike Dunn

Believe it or not, when the final race was run at the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Nationals at Firebird Raceway on Sunday it wasn't the end of professional cars racing at the track. On Monday after the race there were a bunch of fuel cars and teams that stayed around to test and there were some very interesting results. First of all, Mike Dunn, the resident "driver for hire" this year, stayed around to make a few passes in the Snap-On Tools dragster and it was anything but a normal run for Mike. After smoking the tires early in the run, the on lookers then saw the car drift down the track and toward the center line where it eventually ran over the timing blocks in the middle of the track. After the run Mike said that the real problem was that as soon as he hit the throttle the steering wheel came off in his hand and he couldn't steer the car. Well that can be a problem for even the most experienced driver, can't it? I guess on the bright side of things it didn't happen farther down the track where it really would have been a problem. Later in the day Mike made a couple of more runs and everything stayed in the proper place and now he has some more material for the ESPN shows. I wonder if there were any cameras there on Monday?...One of the

Brady Kalivoda

other things that got everyone's attention was the fact that the Menard's car stayed and tested and it wasn't Rit Pustari who was driving the car it was Brady Kalivoda. When I spoke to Brady about it today he said that he was at the track and that Jimmy Walsh, the crew chief on the car, asked him if he'd like to make a couple of runs and he agreed. Brady then went out and borrowed Gary Scelzi's fire suit and a helmet from Cory McClenathan and made two runs. "Other than those two runs I have no involvement with the team," Brady said, "although I am looking for a ride and would be open to just about anything. The trip to Phoenix was very productive and I want to thank Jimmy for giving me a shot a driving the car." The next time that we're expecting to see the brightly colored car is in Las Vegas. It should be noted that the team has run a couple of 4.60's at the last two races and that's not bad....Tony Schumacher, whose Army car looked awesome on Sunday, stayed and tested, too, and that's got to scare all of the other teams, especially after the way the Army car ran this weekend. Tony qualified at the top of the pack for the second consecutive race to start the '05 season and

Lucas vs Schumacher

then went out and crushed everyone who got in his way on Sunday. Did you know that it took him until the Bristol race last year to record a number one spot? This team looks really good, don't they?.Morgan Lucas, with Wayne Dupuy calling the shots, made some test runs and from what I hear from people in the know they seem to think that Morgan, Wayne and Joe Amato will be one of the teams that will challenge Tony Schumacher (and anyone else) for the title this year. With three final round appearances in his first ten races Morgan is already off to about as good a start as anyone in the TF class. Wayne is making a lot of power and if they can get a little more consistent you'll see Morgan

David Grubnic

in the winner's circle a lot this year. Of course the key to that will be staying away from the Army car in the early rounds. Speaking of that, Tony has not lost in the first round since Englishtown last year and that's a span of fourteen races and that's the kind of performance that championships are made of..David Grubnic was seen making passes in the Zantrex-3 car but the team was more interested in some special gadgets that were attached to their car then they were about the quarter mile times. The "Team Kalitta" gang was doing some "load testing" on the car and from what I hear, the results were very interesting. The equipment just to measure the load on the wheels and tires weighed about 140 pounds and that ought to tell you how serious they were about learning new stuff about the pressure that a top fuel car goes through on a 330 mile per hour run. I hope they release the data because it is pretty interesting

Phil Burkart

Robert Hight took a couple of passes in both the Automobile Club car and John Force's Castrol car while Gary Scelzi did double duty driving his Mopar / Oakley car and the Matco Tools car of teammate, Whit Bazemore. Whit was back home with his wife, Michelle, who is expecting the couple's first child any day now. Good luck to both of them.. ..Like I said, I know that we're only two races into the season but I don't think that makes any difference to Phil Burkart, the new points leader. On the basis of his final round appearance in Pomona and a good semi-final showing this week Phil, in the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen "blue car" is the leader for the first time in his career. And just how neat is it to be number one? Well, did you know that since the start of the 1990 season, also known as the start of the "John Force era," only eighteen different drivers have held the top spot in the Funny Car class? Ironically, Tommy Johnson had become the 17^th guy to hold the top spot when he won the Winternationals. "TJ" kept up a pretty interesting trend when he lost in the first round. Did you know that after every one of his wins, Tommy has either lost in the first round or gone to the finals at the next race? Amazing,

John Force

isn't it?..Mr. Force, meanwhile, got off the canvas after that round one loss in Pomona to win for the 115^th time in his amazing career. John's win moved him into the second spot in the points. A win in Arizona shouldn't surprise anyone since John has now won that race eight times in the past twelve years. But as impressive as that is, it's not the best race on John's calendar. Did you know that he has won the Brainerd race ten times? And as impressive as that is, that's not the best in drag racing history. Did you know that Bob Glidden won the "World Finals" eleven times?...John's win over Ron Capps in the "Brut" car ran his record against Ron to an amazing 34-7, and he is now 7-2 against Ron in final rounds. John's four round wins in Phoenix give him a stunning total of 895 and it won't be too long before he hits 900 wins for his career. Stunning!!..It took Robert Hight all of two races to make the front page of the race re-cap sheet. That's the sheet that lists the winner, loser and number one qualifier along with the low elapsed time and top speed guy at each event. Robert's 329.99 mph blast was the best in the FC class and it made Robert the 79^th driver to record top speed in the class. It also puts him just ninety seven behind the leader, his boss, John Force. Just for grins, did you know that Ron Capps has competed in over 200 races and he has set top speed exactly once!!...Tony Pedregon qualified number one for the 30^th time in his career and that ties him with his brother, Cruz, for fourth place on the all time Funny Car list.

Gary Densham

Tony was beaten in the first round by Gary Densham who then blew up and it took the combined efforts of Gary's team along with help from Frank Pedregon's crew, Scott Palmer and Jack Wyatt to put him back together in time for round two. I'm sure Gary and the "Racebricks" folks were happy to see him get his first round win of the year but they could have done without all that stuff that happened after that. Sure hope we see Gary in Gainesville...It shouldn't come as a real surprise that Tony lost in round one, and not because of anything that he did. Did you know that in the twenty one years of this race the top qualifier in Funny Car has only gone on to win four times?

Krisher vs Johnson

The Pro Stock cars certainly got a lot of attention this week and rightfully so. With Greg Anderson's team looking well, human, the field was wide open and Allen Johnson took advantage to beat Ron Krisher in the finals. Like I said earlier, it's only two races into the season but Allen is now the point's leader and it's the first time since Englishtown in 1995, a span of 214 races, that a Dodge has been in the points lead. Ironically, that E'town race was the first one where the "Dodge Boys" didn't run after that infamous break in at their shop. Still, Darrell Alderman was the leader and that was the last time that a Mopar was at the top of the pack until now. The final round in Phoenix was a rematch of the St. Louis race in 2003 and that was the last time these two were in a final round and it just happened to be against each other. The win was also the first for Dodge since Larry Morgan turned the win light on four times at Sonoma in 2002.Richie Stevens was the

Richie Stevens

number one qualifier and that's the first for Dodge since Larry Morgan in Atlanta last year and Richie also set top speed which was a first for Mopar since, oh yeah, the last race of last year....For his part, Ron Krisher certainly looks like he has a very good package right now and if he regains his form of a few years ago it could be a very interesting year in Pro Stock...Erica Enders qualified for her first race and that's a tribute to her and her team. If you weren't there you should have heard the ovation she got during the driver introductions on Sunday. It's early in her career but the fans already have taken to her and it will only get better when she starts winning rounds.and she will..Bruce Allen's qualifying streak came to an end at thirty races while Mike Edwards and his team rebounded nicely from their tech troubles in Pomona. Mike couldn't have been more gracious when talking to people about the situation and, despite what you may have read elsewhere, he didn't point any fingers, pass any blame or anything like that. Like I said last week, he is a class individual and will put that incident behind him. Now if only everyone else would.

Brogdon vs Rampy

Congratulations to Rodger Brogdon who won the first race of his career when he stopped David Rampy in the Competition Eliminator final and to Gregg Luneack who won his first race, too. Did you know that Gregg went to his first final round at Englishtown in 1975? It's great to see two long time racers finally break into the winner's circle. Mark Yeager also got his first national event win while Sheldon Gecker and Jody Lang continued their winning ways. Jody won the final race of 2004 and since they didn't have Stock Eliminator at the Winternationals he has now put consecutive wins on the board. Not bad for a guy driving a station wagon, is it?...At the rained out Lucas Oil Divisional race in Florida Jeff Velde joined that exclusive "9-Second Stocker" club while Arthur Gallant ran 5.280 on 98% nitro in his A/F car. Gee, Arthur never ran that well when he won the championship and he was allowed to run 100% back then. Go figure!!

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