Wed, 8 Nov 2006, 08:11 PM The Last Race and Dean Skuza

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2006 Auto Imagery, Bob Johnson Photography & Marc Gewertz

Dean Skuza

It's show time, or it will be in a couple of days. The last race of the 2007 NHRA POWERade drag racing season is about to begin and, with it, the battle for the championships in Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock Motorcycle. With Jason Line having already clinched the Pro Stock crown, all of the attention will be focused on the other pro classes as well as the few remaining sportsman classes that are still up for grabs. Among them are the Stock Eliminator and Super Gas classes, both of which include several drivers and I'll touch on them a little later in this article. And, since I included the name of Dean Skuza in the heading, I thought I'd give you a little update on one of the more popular drivers in the sport. I spoke with Dean the other day and he told me that he is "actively working on some projects that could bring me back to the sport as early as the 2007 season opening race in Pomona." Dean and his wife are expecting their second child next year and that, as you can imagine, is keeping both of them very busy. Their son, Donnie, is nine years old now and the new addition to the family will be a welcome addition. Dean said that he has had some offers to drive but that he really wants to have his own team and that's what he is working on right now. "If I come back, and make no mistake about it, I want to come back, I will do it right, and that means a top notch team with the proper funding to run for the championship." Dean went on to say that he appreciates all of the support that he has and all the fans who keep asking him about his status. "The fans are one of the reasons that I love this sport," he said. "They really motivate me and I would love to return and be on tour again." Let's hope that one of the deals that Dean is working on does come to fruition so that he can mix it up with the Funny Cars again next year. What's the word of the day for Dean? How about, good luck? OK, so that's two words but you get the idea.

John Force

The current Funny Car battle will be between John Force, Ron Capps and Robert Hight. With John holding a 71 point edge over Ron and six more points ahead of Robert, you have to like his chances for making it fourteen titles in the past seventeen years. John would have to go out early, or worse yet, not qualify, and the other two would, basically, have to run the table in order for John not to win the championship and we all know how likely that is to happen. Based on what he has done over the past eighteen years, you have to figure that John will qualify, because he has for 391 consecutive races now, so that means the other guys will have to look for a round one loss for John and his Castrol GTX Ford Mustang. And in case you were wondering, did you know that the last time John lost in the first round at the last race of the season was in 1992 when Gary Bolger pulled one of the biggest upsets of the year? John also happened to lose the championship that year. John has won this race six times and that's the best in the class, while both Tony Pedregon and Del Worsham have won it twice. Having said that, all that Ron and Robert can do is give it their best shot and let the chips fall where they may. Both drivers and both teams have had remarkable years and are to be congratulated for their efforts. Their crew chiefs, Ed McCulloch and Jimmy Prock also deserve a lot of credit for what they have done all year long....Ron Capps, in case you haven't

Ron Capps

heard, is coming off a wild wheelstand and crash at the Bakersfield race this past weekend. Driving the nostalgia Funny Car of Jeff Gaynor, Ron qualified with a solid 6.00 in round one and then did a huge wheelstand, came down hard and hit the wall in the second round. He was OK, while the same probably can't be said for the car. By the way, Del Worsham also competed at that race with the "Blue Max" car and he set low elapsed time and top speed at 5.93 - 247.78 miles per hour. Those guys just love to drive, don't they? Anyway, Ron and his Brut team will be ready for John and Robert this weekend and you know they will give it their best shot.Robert and his Auto Club of Southern California team, could also win this thing and they certainly seem to have the best car right now, at least from a performance point of view. Although, from what I heard, they did bang the car up pretty good in Las Vegas during the test session last week, but that shouldn't bother them. It should be fun to watch this weekend and it will give you a preview of what to expect next year when the new points program goes in effect....Since I mentioned Del Worsham, did you know that he is in 11^th place right now but he still has a shot at making it into the top ten. Cruz Pedregon is tenth right now with 946 points and Whit Bazemore is ninth with 956. Since Whit won't be adding any points this week, Del, with his 894 points, will need to go a couple of rounds if he wants to move back into the elite group of top ten driver where he has been for eight consecutive years...By the way, the rumor of the week has Alan Johnson joining the Team Kalitta camp next year to tune a Funny Car. I don't know if that's true but I will tell you this, if anyone takes Alan Johnson away from the Army team, they better be prepared to back up the Brinks truck. Alan makes a ton of money with Team Schumacher and it will take at least two tons to get him to leave. Having said that, he does like that Toyota Funny Car and he has been helping out with it this year, or so I've heard, and Connie may be one of the few guys who could afford to lure him away from his present team. But if I were a betting man, and I'm not, I would bet that Alan will be with the Army team at the start of 2007. Of course now that I've said that it means that there will be an announcement this week and I'll have to print a retraction next week. Stay tuned....

Tony Schumacher

The Top Fuel battle has been made very interesting mainly because of the run that Tony Schumacher and his Army team have made over the second part of the season. Left for dead, or at least left for third or fourth place early this season, Tony, Alan and his very talented crew came alive beginning with their big, emotional win in St. Louis and they've been on a mission ever since. Did you know that, including that win in St. Louis, Tony has won twenty-nine rounds since that race while he had won a grand total of eight rounds going into St. Louis? Tony is attempting to come from a staggering 336 points behind the leader early in the year to win his fourth Top Fuel crown. By my unofficial stats, the previous biggest come from behind win in TF history came back in 1998 when Gary Scelzi came from 197 points back to win his second title. And let me check, oh yeah, the crew chief for Gary that year was Alan Johnson. Coincidence? I think not!...Doug Kalitta continues to lead the points and he is forty-five points, or more than two rounds, ahead of Tony, which means the Army team is

Doug Kalitta

almost in the same position as the guys in the Funny Car class. Tony needs to go three rounds further than Doug on race day, or hope that "Big Red," the MAC Tools car doesn't qualify. And in case you were wondering when the last time that happened was, well, it was a long time ago. Did you know that Doug has qualified for an amazing 159 races in a row, and the last time he failed to make the cut was in Phoenix in 2000? Just for the record, Tony has the second best streak among active drivers in the dragster class with eighty-three in a row. It will be two heavyweights going at it for all the marbles this weekend and that's just the way we like it..If you're a big Tony Schumacher fan, consider this. Doug Kalitta has competed at this event for eight years now, and seven of those times he didn't get past the second round and he has never won the race. On the other hand, Tony and Cory McClenathan are the only active TF drivers to have won this great event more than once. A couple of others worthy of note who have won the "Finals" are Dennis Baca, David's dad, in 1977 and Mike Dunn of ESPN fame, in 1999. By the way, look for Mike to stay a part of that ESPN team for a while. Of course the full roster of winner's at this race reads like a "Who's Who" of Top Fuel racing and it includes Don Garlits, Shirley Muldowney, Gary Beck, Joe Amato and Blaine Johnson among others. And, if you look at the long history of this race, it usually is won by one of the favorites. The biggest upset in "Finals" history would probably be the 1982 race when Jim Barnard won it all. Jim beat John Kimble, Jim Head, Joe Amato and Gary Beck to win his one and only national event....I don't know what you would call an upset this year but don't be surprised if we have an unexpected winner, like a Steve Torrence or Hillary Will..Hey, I wonder if the "Don" has thought about bringing out another car in an effort to line up against and, possibly stop, Doug in an early round. Probably not.

Andrew Hines

Pro Stock Motorcycle took a huge turn at the last race and now, Andrew Hines, the reigning POWERade champ, is in line to make it three in a row. Andrew is thirty-seven points ahead of Antron Brown, the only other driver with a shot at catching him. Since it's less than forty points, it's less than two rounds, so Antron certainly has a shot but he will have to do a couple of things. First, he'll have to qualify, which he has now done at 128 consecutive races, and then he'll have to go two more rounds than Andrew. Oh yeah, he'll have to have green lights all day long on Sunday and that could be the rub. Did you know that there were eleven red light starts in Las Vegas in the motorcycle class? Andrew, who runs out of the Vance & Hines camp, has some pretty good blood lines going for him as he tries to win the championship for the third time. Did you know that Terry Vance won the motorcycle class at the "Finals" in 1983 when he beat Randy Mason in the final round?...Motorcycles have been part of the last race of the season for a long while with such greats as Russ Collins and Bo O'Brochta claiming wins.The top four positions are pretty much locked up, with Angelle Sampey holding on to the third spot and Chip Ellis in at number four, but Matt Smith, Karen Stoffer and Ryan Schnitz are all battling for spots five through seven and, while it's not a championship run, every position that you can gain at the last race just makes your resume look that much better.

Peter Biondo

The Lucas Oil Division 7 race in Las Vegas this past weekend was really special, as it has been for the past couple of years. With almost one thousand cars in competition and several championships up for grabs, the racing was great and so was the tension. When it was all over, Bo Butner wrapped up the Competition Eliminator title, Peter Biondo made it five championships when he secured the Super Stock crown and Ron Erks added a Super Comp title to his long list of accomplishments. Bo's win was rather dramatic when his car caught fire after a qualifying run and Bo was put out of commission for the rest of the weekend. That meant that all he could do was watch as his teammate, and reigning champ, Jeff Taylor, attempted to stay alive in the title hunt. When Jeff lost in the semi-finals it was all over and Bo became the champion. Bo told me after the race that he wants to run this weekend because "I want to put my car in the six-second range." He has burns on his hands and face after the accident and, as competitive as he is, I would be surprised if he ran this weekend..The Stock and Super Gas titles are still on the line with several drivers in the chase in both classes. In Stock Eliminator, Randy Wilkes, Tibor Kadar and James Paul are all still alive with both Tibor and James being able to add points to their totals this weekend. Randy, who went six rounds in Las Vegas, is out of races to claim but he'll be there attempting to win the race and maybe, just maybe, stop the other guys from doing the same. Randy is the leader in the clubhouse and he's going to make Tibor or James earn the title since both will have to go deep into the eliminations this week to overtake him..In the Super Gas class, Iggie Boicesco came into Las Vegas as the leader and, even though he was racing at Maple Grove this past weekend, he

Kevin Kleineweber vs. Ray Sawyer

is still the leader. Rock Haas, Jeff Szilagyi, Tim Landis and Kevin Kleineweber are the others with a chance to win the title. Kevin, with a runner-up finish at Vegas, jumped right into the thick of things when he added seventy-three points to his total. Only a loss to the reigning world champ, Ray Sawyer, kept Kevin from coming into Pomona on a really hot streak. By the way, there were 217 cars in the Super Gas class at Vegas so Kevin really had to work for all of those points. Of the challengers, Rock, Jeff, Tim and Kevin can all add points this weekend while Iggie can only sit and watch. "It is what it is," he told me yesterday. "I've done all I can and now we'll just have to see what happens..Jeff Szilagyi, who also calls Maple Grove home just like Iggie does, will fly into California this weekend and drive a car that belongs to Ron Erks as he tries to claim his first title. It should be interesting and good luck to all of the competitors and congratulations to all of the champions.

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