Wed, 9 Mar 2005, 11:25 AM The Halls of Fame. Or Is It The Hall of Fames?

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2005 Auto Imagery, Inc. & Bob Johnson Photography

Roland Leong

There is always a lot of excitement that surrounds the MAC Tools Gatornationals, not the least of which is the big International Drag Racing Hall of Fame ceremony that takes place on Thursday night. The class of 2005 that will be inducted includes some of the most familiar and well respected names in the sport's history. Nick Arias, Kent Enderle and Stu Hilborn will represent the manufacturing and parts end of things while Tim Beebe, Roland Leong, Al "Mousie" Marcellus and Jim Walther will be there from the race car end of the sport. Plus this year the Founder's Award will be given out to the great Dave McClelland for his many contributions to the sport. All in all it should be a great night and if all the guys who used to drive for Roland Leong show up and nobody else it will be a standing room only crowd. Induction into the "Hall" has grown into one of the really big nights in the sport and, as you can imagine, it's quite an honor and crowning achievement for those who are selected to enter. It's also a great place for the fans to come and see some of the premier people in the sport. Congrats to this year's inductees..

Bob Glidden

The other place where drag racing will get showcased is at the annual International Motorsports Hall of Fame ceremony in April. At that event, Bob Glidden and Joe Amato will be inducted while Greg Anderson will be presented with his "Driver of the Year" award. The other inductees will be Chip Hanauer, Nigel Mansel and Darrell Waltrip which means that drag racing will be fifty percent of the evening's activities. Edsel Ford will induct Bob Glidden, and anytime you can have someone with the name "Ford" induct you it means that you have moved pretty high up the food chain in that company's history. Way to go, Bob. I am pleased to say that Joe Amato has asked me to induct him and that is quite an honor. It's hard to believe that a skinny, geeky guy from Atco, New Jersey, can get to be part of this great night for two consecutive years. I was part of Shirley Muldowney's induction last year and that was a night that I will never forget and to go back again this year is really a treat. Congratulations to all the inductees (we'll have more on this when it gets closer) and drag racing fans all over should take a great deal of pride in these two events.

Tony Schumacher

Now, as we get set for the third national event of the season, the 36^th running of the MAC Tools Gatornationals in Florida in two weeks, I ask you, have you seen any patterns developing yet? I have. In the Top Fuel class it sure looks like Tony Schumacher is the guy to beat and, based on his performance at the first two races, it doesn't look like the Army team has missed a beat since last year. Tony has already logged a couple of number one qualifying spots and has added another top speed to his credit and, basically, he has only made one bad run so far this year and that was in his second round loss in Pomona. His run through the field in Phoenix was almost as impressive as Scott Kalitta's in Pomona, that is, Tony made three runs in the 4.40 range in Arizona after Scott made a record four at the Winternationals. The TF guys better step up in Florida or it could be a long season for them as they chase the reigning NHRA POWERade World Champion..Another pattern is that Doug Kalitta, picked by many (including me) to win the championship this year, hasn't won a race or even a round yet. I know it's early but the MAC Tools event will be very important for the MAC Tools car. Did you know that in the past thirty-one years (since 1974 when the current points system was put in place and you had to win more than the World Finals to be the World Champion) a driver who lost in the first round at the first two races has only gone on to win the season championship once? Shirley Muldowney, in 1977, is the only Top Fuel driver to drop consecutive first round matches to open the year and then go on and win the TF title. Like I said, good luck to Doug in Florida..

Rod Fuller

By the way, you can expect to see Rod Fuller return to action at the Gatornationals and then be on tour for a while. You have to give that team a lot of credit for what they did at the first race of the season, after all, just making the quickest field of all time is a pretty good accomplishment, don't you think? With the determination of car owner, David Powers, and with the good team that he has assembled, I look for some big things from this team this year, possibly starting in Florida. Plus I fully expect Rod to win a few rounds for them this year on the line. We'll see.

Frank Pedregon

The Funny Car class hasn't displayed any real pattern to me other than the fact that you can't keep John Force down for long. With four different drivers in the finals at the first two races it might appear that the class is wide open. Well, it might appear that way but until someone or some team shows that they can handle John on a regular basis it's still his championship to win or lose. Just for the record, did you know that John had won the Phoenix race seven times before this year and after four of those races he went on to win at Gainesville, too? I'll say the same thing about the FC class as I did about Top Fuel, and that is, if John wins in Florida it'll be a long year for the other Funny Car drivers. Here's that good luck wish again to all of the FC competitors in Florida.For those of you who have asked, yes, Frank Pedregon will be at Gainesville, and without revealing all the details I can tell you that Frank will have something special going on in Florida that should thrill all drag racing fans. With Scott Graham and Rian Konno working together, Frank and his RGM Dodge have been one of the real surprises of the young year, especially from a performance point of view. We'll see Frank at the next couple of races, Houston and Las Vegas after Gainesville, and then we'll see what happens from there. Frank told me that "I have to stop running the car like a car owner, quit trying to be conservative on race day and just let the guys do their thing." If he does that, brother Frank could be a real sleeper in Florida. I'll tell you this, he certainly has made a believer out of a lot of folks in the FC class and don't be surprised if his car isn't one of the most popular ones at the Gatornationals. You'll see what I mean next week.Hey you know what would be cool, a Funny Car that looks just like Richie Stevens Pro Stock car. Just a thought.

Richie Stevens

Since I mentioned Richie Stevens I want to tell you something that I heard this past week from a very reliable source. I was told that Richie's number one qualifying run in Phoenix, the 6.735, was the best Pro Stock run ever. Now I know what you're thinking, what about all those 6.60 runs we've seen and the numbers from the Florida test sessions earlier this year? Well, the person that I spoke to said that if you take all of those runs and correct or factor in the altitude numbers so that they are all equal, Richie's run was the best and that's saying a lot. Now, will we see a pattern develop in Florida? Will Richie and the Mopars be able to repeat what they did in Arizona? Can Allen Johnson have another good race or will the GM teams rebound and move back to the top of the pack? Can Greg Anderson return to his form from the last two years or will we see another new winner for the third consecutive race? All good questions and they're all part of the reason why Pro Stock seems to be more interesting this year than it has been in a long while.Two cars that have looked good early on are the ones of Jim Yates and Ron Krisher. Jim, in case you didn't notice, set low elapsed time in every round in Phoenix and that came after his top qualifying effort in Pomona. Jim just loves his new Jerry Haas race car. Ron, meanwhile, had a car that could have won the race in Arizona if it weren't for a mechanical failure in the final round. If these two continue to run that well the rest of the year the Pro Stock point's battle should be a whole lot of fun.

Chris Demke

There are two Lucas Oil divisional races this week, one in Florida and the other in Texas and then the alcohol cars hit the trail again on the national level in Florida. Congratulations to Chris Demke and Jerry Maddern for their big win in Phoenix this past week and to Dennis Taylor, too. Chris beat Ashley Force on a holeshot while Dennis ran very well all weekend en route to his win over fellow Californian, Steve Gasparrelli in the alky Funny Car class. Dennis gets extra credit for seeing the value of public relations and before and after each event he sends press releases to the media telling about his goals for the race and the, after the event, he follows up with information about how he did at the race. I know it's tough, since that costs money, but it seems to be working well for Dennis and his Plumbing Concepts team and maybe more teams could look at that as an option as they try to sell themselves to sponsors. Some times you have to spend money to make money. Nice job, Dennis..

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