Tue, 22 Mar 2005, 10:15 PM
What A Show!!
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By Bob Frey
Photo copyright 2005 Auto Imagery, Inc.
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Whit Bazemore
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Last week I told you that I have dubbed the
MAC Tools Gatornationals as the "Big Go
East" and it certainly lived up to that billing this week. Even with a couple
of cold, nasty days to begin with the Gatornationals lived up to all
expectations on Saturday and Sunday complete with great racing, some stunning
upsets, fantastic weather and maybe, the biggest crowds in the history of the
event. In a word it was magnificent. When it was all over we saw a new
points leader in Funny Car and a first time leader in Pro
Stock Motorcycle. The weather had a great deal to do with all of the
performance records, even though it wasn't great for the fans on Thursday and
Friday, and it was one of the reasons why we had so many personal best numbers
recorded. But here's an interesting point,
did
you know that there were twenty one Pro Stock drivers and twenty
motorcycle drivers who improved on their career best numbers in
Florida? And how many
fuel cars do you think set career bests? The answer would be exactly none.
Zero. Zip.
Zilch. None. Amazing, isn't it?
David Grubnic
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To begin with, the track record at
Gainesville was beaten,
no,
it was battered, by a trio of drivers who stormed into the 4.40 range. Among
them were
David Grubnic, Doug Kalitta
and
Cory McClenathan who all went
into uncharted waters in Florida, and along the way they took the track record
away from
Mike Dunn who had held the
mark since 1999.
Did you know
that, in addition to his great qualifying elapsed time, Cory also made the
first 330 mile per hour run in Gainesville history as he took the
"Carrier Boyz" Fram AirHog car all the way to the semi-finals. For his part, David
Grubnic took the top
qualifying spot for the second
consecutive year at
Florida
but he wasn't able to turn that into a win. Another thing that happened for the
second consecutive year at
Gainesville
was
Brandon Bernstein fouling out in
the first round.
Did you know
that Brandon has a grand total of three red light starts in his career and that
Dixon vs Kalitta
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two of them have come in Gainesville?...Doug Kalitta, who hadn't won a round in
his first two starts this year, rebounded in grand fashion as he won for the 20
th
time in his career with the beautiful
MAC
Tools /
West Coast Customs Top
Fuel car. With his win Doug moved past
Gary
Beck and into
eighth place on the all-time TF win list. Doug and
Larry Dixon treated the fans to an old fashioned, tire smoking
final round that was among the most exciting we've seen in a long time..
Tony Schumacher provided a lot of the
drama by not being qualified going into the final round on Saturday. The
U.S. Army team, led by
Alan Johnson, rebounded like the true
champions they are to break into the field and set the track record at an
amazing 333.95 miles per hour. On race day Tony beat
Rod Fuller before losing in a second round "battle of the
champions" to Larry Dixon but he still left
Florida with the points lead although it's
now only an eight point lead over
Morgan
Lucas. Since I mentioned Rod Fuller, you have to like what you've seen from
that first year team, don't you? They qualified for the quickest field in
history in
Pomona
and made another nice showing this weekend. Keep your eyes on the
David Powers / Valvoline car because they're going to start beating
people very soon..
Clay Millican,
despite missing the Phoenix race, moved into the top ten in points with his
fine showing which carried him to the semi-finals. The
Werner Enterprises car
stopped two of the three Kalitta cars in the opening rounds before losing to
Larry in the semi-finals. For the record, Clay is now 36 - 35 in his NHRA
career.
Robert Hight
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The Funny Car class was absolutely spectacular this weekend
and it all started out with
Robert Hight
qualifying number one for the first time in his career, a career that only spans
three races.
Did you know that
Robert qualified number one quicker than any other member of "Team Force" did
in their careers? And
did you know
that Robert became the 78
th driver to claim the top spot in Funny
Car qualifying history? Right behind him were his "Team Force" partners,
Eric Medlen and
John Force.
Did you know
that this was the fourth time that John's three cars had locked up the top
three spots and it was also the fourth time that they failed to win the race
after ending up one, two and three in the field? Hard to believe, but true.
Whit Bazemore moved into the top spot
in the points with his win in the
Matco
Tools car. While Gainesville Raceway had a special place in Whit's heart it
hadn't been one of the better tracks for him over the years. Whit went to the
races at
Gainesville
when he was just a young pup and he attended the Frank Hawley Drag Racing
school there, but he never had good luck racing there.
Did you know that in his previous
fifteen races in Florida Whit had only gone past the second round twice? Whit's
win ties him with
Ed McCulloch and
Mark Oswald for seventh place on the
all-time win list in the FC class. Whit said the win capped the best eight days
of his life, referring to the birth of his son, Dashiell, eight days before his
win in
Florida.
Whit told me he always liked the name "Dashiell" and made reference to the
great author, Dashiell Hammett.
Did
you know that Hammett wrote a novel called "The Thin Man" and a radio
series called "The Fat Man?" I don't know what that has to do with drag racing
but I don't get to work many authors into my columns..
Bob Gilbertson subscribed to that famous Bob Frey theory that if
you can't win,
be spectacular. His semi-final round
win over John Force was only the third time in twenty one meetings between the
Whit Bazemore
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two that he beat John, but it came at a price. As he crossed the finish line
his new
Autolite XP Extreme Monte Carlo burst into
flames in a fire that Bob described as the worst of his career. With the help
of crewmembers from
Del Worsham's team,
Tony Pedregon's, Scott Weis, the
"Carrier Boyz" and more, Bob got his car repaired in time to make the final
round but it was more symbolic than anything else. From the time he did the
burnout you knew that he wouldn't mount much of a threat but he has to get a
lot of credit just for making it back at all. The entire "Gilby" incident was
reminiscent of the
Dean Skuza fire
at
Memphis in
2003. At that race, Dean won the semi-final round, burst into flames, had a lot
of help from other teams to make the finals, and then lost. But there's more to
the similarities than that.
Did you
know that in his semi-final race in Memphis Dean Skuza beat John Force,
and so did Gilbertson? And in his final round Dean lost to Whit Bazemore and so
did Gilbertson. And after his
Memphis
win Whit moved into first place in the points, just like he did this weekend.
Strange, but true..
Phil Burkart
failed to qualify in Florida after coming in as the points leader and that
dropped the
Checker, Schuck's, Kragen "blue team" into fourth
place in the points.
Did you know the last time that a
points leader didn't qualify for a race was in
Phoenix last year when
Jerry Toliver, who had won the Winternationals, didn't make the cut
in
Arizona?
Line vs Connolly
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Jason Line won
Pro Stock this week when he drove around
Dave
Connolly in the final round. Despite a great .006 reaction time, Connolly
had to watch as the
Pontiac
in the other lane went by him to take the win. Jason had stopped
Warren Johnson in the semi-finals
despite "W.J." making his quickest and fastest run ever. The "Professor," who
had stopped
Greg Anderson in round
two, ran 6.679 at 206.70 but it wasn't enough to hold off Jason whose 6.719 and
.033 reaction time were enough to beat
Warren.
If you were in the packed stands at
Gainesville
you know that the reaction from the fans after that semi-final race between
Jason and Warren was probably the biggest and loudest of the entire weekend.
The
Florida
fans love their Pro Stock racing..If it wasn't bad enough that his dragster
wasn't qualified going into the final round, neither of
Don Schumacher's Pro Stock cars were in the field after three
rounds either. But
Jeg Coughlin and
Richie Stevens both responded by making
the quickest PS field in history. The final bump spot of 6.709 eclipsed the old
mark of 6.718 that was recorded at the second
Chicago race last year. That 6.709
bump spot was held by
Rickie
Smith who was making his first start of the year in the
Richard Maskin prepared
Pontiac.
Mark Whisnant and
Dave Northrop also ran 6.709 but they failed to make the field
based on speed, which is the tie-breaker when cars run the exact same elapsed
time.
Did you know that the
last time three Pro Stock cars ran the same elapsed time in an effort to nail
down the last qualifying spot was at this very same race one year ago? At the
2004 Gatornationals race
Steve Schmidt,
Allen Johnson and
Ron Krisher all went 6.814 but only
Steve made the field.
Johnson vs Treble
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Pro Stock Motorcycle history was made when
Andrew Hines became the first driver to
make a six-second pass. The
Vance &
Hines Screamin' Eagle bike entered history when he went 6.991 during
qualifying and the folks at
Mickey
Thompson Tires then gave Andrew a check for $10,000 for his efforts.
Following that pass it looked like Andrew was the odds on favorite to win the race,
but as we've seen in the past that doesn't always translate into victory.
Andrew fouled out in the second round against the eventual winner
Steve Johnson
who now has two national event wins to his credit and they have both come
against the same rider,
Craig Treble.
After Andrew went out it looked like
Angelle
Sampey had a clear shot to the money round but she also fouled out in the
second round..
Karen Stoffer debuted
her new look
Geico motorcycle and it
is beautiful and Karen took it all the way to the semi-finals before losing to
Treble..Like the cars, the motorcycles also recorded the sixteen quickest runs
in history during qualifying and the bump spot ended up at 7.149. It should be
noted that in addition to his six-second run Andrew also went an amazing 197.45
mph.
Force vs Olivarez
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Congratulations to
Aaron
Olivarez who picked up his first round win and then his first race win in
just his fourth start in an alcohol dragster. Aaron edged out
Ashley Force in the final round, 5.408
to a very close, but losing 5.401 to become the 104
th driver to win
in the Top Alcohol Dragster class..
Bob
Newberry had his new Monte Carlo car running very well and he added another
Gatornationals win to his already impressive list of accomplishments. The body
was worked on by the folks at Roush Racing and was mounted by the talented
craftsmen at the
S & W shop in
Pennsylvania. Bob gave
the new Chevy body a lot of the credit for his win and the fact that he made
his fastest run ever..
Frank Manzo had
qualified number one in the alky FC field but he didn't race in the
eliminations due to a medical condition. After Frank made his 5.523 pass in
qualifying he felt a little light headed so he went to the hospital where he
was checked over. The doctors wanted to keep Frank over night but the "Ace" checked
himself out and returned to the track. The NHRA folks then checked with the
doctor and the hospital and they determined that some more tests were needed
before Frank could get back behind the wheel. When I spoke with him today Frank
said that "NHRA did the right thing. I was a little upset then but I know now
that they made the right decision." Frank went to the hospital today and took a
whole pile of tests including a stress test and when I asked him how he
did, in typical Frank Manzo fashion he said "I had that
machine smoking. I think I set a record." Frank said that he is going to take
whatever time is required to get into perfect shape and until then "my car is
sidelined. At this point I'm number
one, no race is
that important that I'll get back in the car before the doctors tell me it's
OK."
Look for a leaner Frank Manzo the
next time you see him at the races. And good luck, Frank.
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