Fri, 24 Nov 2006, 06:37 AM The US Army Team....Top Fuel Champions Again!!

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2006 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Kalitta vs. Bernstein

I don't know how long it will be before all the buzz about this year's Top Fuel championship will die down, but I do know one thing, the chapter that both Tony Schumacher and Doug Kalitta, along with Brandon Bernstein, wrote this year will go down in the drag racing history books as one of the best ever. While it all came down to one run, "The Run," and one race, the stage was set for this dramatic moment long before that. The hard core baseball fans always say that "you have to win those games in September and October if you want to make the World Series." Well, the truth of the matter is that if you don't win the games in April and May you won't make the playoffs, either. That's why Tony's improbable run to the title is even more impressive, because he didn't win early in the year, not races and, in some cases, not even rounds.

Did you know that in the first eleven races of the season Tony won exactly eight rounds? Eight! During that stretch he lost in the first round at three consecutive races in Gainesville, Houston and Las Vegas. Following the eleventh race of the season in Englishtown, Tony and his Army teammates were mired in seventh place and they were a full 312 points behind the leader at that time, Melanie Troxel. That equates to almost sixteen rounds with twelve races to go. As I often say, you do the math. That meant that Tony had to pick up more than a round a race

Schumacher vs Kalitta

over the second half of the season and hope the Melanie, Doug and Brandon would all stumble somewhere along the line. Only when they won the race in St. Louis did the Army team start to get any attention at all in the battle fore the Top Fuel title. In fact, if you go back and check my story from June 27^th, the heading on that story says, "They're Back," and makes reference to the fact that the team, the crew on the Army car, felt at that time that they could make a serious run for the championship, and looking back, they were right. If you've ever been involved in sports you know that the mental aspect of it is very important, and the fact that the Army team thought they could contend for the title is probably one of the reasons why they did. And I know that it's different than your average sport where an individual or a team can reach back and get that little something extra they need to win a game, but the simple fact that the team thought they could win the championship has to go a long way toward their attitude at each race and the way they approach their job. In short, it goes a long way toward winning a championship. Whatever it was, beginning with that St. Louis race, the Army team went to five consecutive final rounds and moved from seventh place into a tie for second. During that all important St. Louis race, Tony ran low elapsed time of every round en route to the win and, all of a sudden, everyone in the sport knew what the team knew all along....they're back!! By the way, did you know that over the span of those five races Tony and Doug met three times and that Tony won all three of them? And over the course of the year the two top contenders for the title raced each other seven times and Tony won four of those meetings. That would give him a one round advantage over Doug. One round, the difference between winning and losing the championship. So, as important as the final round and the final race were in Pomona, what went before them also had a lot to do with winning the championship.

Kalitta and crew celebrate win.

As important as winning rounds is, qualifying also plays a very big part in who wins the championship. In the TF chase this year, Tony had the upper hand in that area as he put up a season high thirteen number one qualifying spots. Did you know that that is a record for a single season in Top Fuel? Throw in the dozen times that he was number one in 2005 and you can see that the Army car has accounted for more than half of the top qualifying spots over the past two season. That's pretty impressive and it's also a whole pile of points for the team. A whole pile!! Combined with another nine times when he qualified in the top half of the field, Tony put up 151 points jut in qualifying. Did you know that the Army car only qualified out of the top half of the field at one race this year? That came in Seattle where they qualified ninth and still went on to win the race. Doug, on the other hand, qualified number one twice, including the last race of the season. Overall, the Mac Tools team made it in the top half of the field at twenty one of the twenty three races this year, and they managed to get 117 qualifying points. Still, compared to Tony, that put them more than a round behind going into eliminations and that, too, played a big part in deciding the championship. It's interesting to see how consistent the red car had been over the years. Did you know that Doug earned 1667 points this year, and that in 2004 he earned 1668 and in 2003 he put up 1664 points? In 2003 and 2004 Doug won forty two rounds while this year he won forty three. That's a pretty good race car, isn't? And Doug credits a lot of his success to his crew which is led by Rahn Tobler and assisted by Shawn Dill, James Riola, Clayton Musser, Phil Gutierrez, Jason Tirb, Dave Griffiths, Ben Zipf and Rick Fisher. Those guys gave Doug a very good car and he gave us a lot of great moments this year and every year since 1998.

Bernstein and crew celebrate win.

Brandon Bernstein may be the forgotten man in this equation but you have to remember that the Budweiser / Lucas Oil team was right in the mix until late in the season. After going to the final round at three of four races late in the year, Brandon and his team were sitting in third place and were well within striking distance of the leaders. Another two races and they found themselves in second place and, what appeared to be a two race battle for the championship suddenly became a three-way affair. Led by Tim and Kim Richards, and encouraged by his dad, Kenny, Brandon and the Bud team were as good as any car for most of the season and they had a legitimate shot a the title as late as the Las Vegas race. There, Doug picked up a round on them and Tony added two and, basically, Brandon had to face the fact that he was not going to be among the challengers going into Pomona. Still, with another great year, with four wins and seven final round appearances, and while running his consecutive qualifying streak to seventy seven races in a row, Brandon has established himself and his team as one of the elite in the Top Fuel class. And while they certainly wanted to win the thing, a third pace finish in a great points chase isn't too bad, is it? Did you know that over the course of his first three and a half years in the class, Brandon has won a dozen races and gone to sixteen final rounds and that's impressive in anyone's book, isn't it? In addition to Tim and Kim Richards, who have been involved with winners all of their drag racing lives, the Bud team consisted of Mike Domagala, Chris Fortin, Tony Snyder, Nick Casertano, Tim Jackson, Adam Tupper and Eddie Angell . Of course, in 2007 the entire pit area for the Bernstein's will increase when Kenny adds his Monster Energy Drink Funny Car to the battle and that should be a lot of fun. Right now for Kenny and the team it's probably a lot of work, but believe me, it will be a lot of fun....eventually.

Troxel and crew celebrate win.

Melanie Troxel was interviewed right before the final race of the season and she was, as always, very honest about her season. "Sure we're happy with all of the awards that we have received but we're a little disappointed with the second half of the season," she said. "We kind of got spoiled with the great start that we had and, while we knew it would be hard to sustain that momentum for the entire season, we didn't expect to struggle during the middle of the year like we did." Like I said, a very honest assessment from a wonderful driver and a great spokesperson for the sport. Still, with the way she started, it sure looked like Melanie, Richard Hogan and the rest of the Skull Shine / Torco team would contend for the championship for the entire season. A mid-season slump, however, kept that from happening but Melanie still had the best year of her career and, all things considered, a good year by anyone's standards. Did you know that Melanie went to more final rounds than any other driver in the Top Fuel class this year? She made it to the money round on nine occasions while Tony did it eight times, Brandon seven and Doug five. Rod Fuller also made five final round appearances in 2006.

Will vs. Todd

When it's all said and done the 2006 season may well go down as the best in Top Fuel history. And, while I know you'll get some arguments from folks who remember the three-way battle for the title in 1981 that came down to the last round at the last race, or the folks who would vote for the Joe Amato vs. Gary Ormsby clash in1990 as the greatest ever, this one had a little something for everyone. It featured a great start and a wonderful year for Melanie, a strong year, again, for Doug, another outstanding season by Brandon and, in the end, "The Run" by Tony. It also has the emergence of two great young drivers in JR Todd, the rookie of the year, and Hillary Will, along with some highlights by other teams. Among them would be Cory McClenathan's win in Virginia, Rod Fuller's strong season throughout, and David Grubnic's big win in Gainesville. I t also featured the Army car making the best runs of the year from a performance standpoint. Of course the 4.428 at Pomona not only gave Tony the record and the championship, but did you know that it was also the quickest run in the class this year? The second quickest was also by Tony, a 4.440 at Maple Grove while the third quickest was turned in by, you guessed it, Tony, a 4.445 in Las Vegas. By the way, lest you think that the crew chiefs won't always and eventually catch up with technology, did you know that that 4. 428 equaled the second best run in history, a run that was recorded by Doug Kalitta back in 2003, before the eighty five percent fuel restrictions and the advent of the rev limiters. And did you know that only Doug's run of 4.420 in Chicago in 2004 was better than Tony's final round performance?

Troxel vs. Kalitta

I know that reaction times have a lot to do with how the driver stages the car, but I also know that when a slower time beats a quicker time it goes down in the books as a holeshot win or loss, depending on what side of the equation you are on. Having said that, historically, the Top Fuel cars do not get the reaction times that a lot of the other classes do. All you have to do is look at the perfect reaction times that have been recorded over the years to see what I mean. Of the sixty eight perfect reaction times that have been recorded in the pro classes since 1985, did you know that the dragsters have accounted for exactly three of them? And did you know that of the best four hundred reaction times this year in the four professional classes, the dragsters accounted for exactly five of them? Bob Vandergriff had two of the best, while David Baca, Doug and Tony each had one. And to close the door on that holeshot stuff, did you know that the holeshot win by Melanie over Doug in their semi-final round match at Pomona was her first of the year? And only his second such loss of the year..By the way, wasn't that a great final round between the two teammates, Tony and Melanie?

Schumacher and crew celebrate win.

While numbers alone can't usually tell the story of any race or any season, those numbers, 4.428 will forever be etched in the annals of Top Fuel as the numbers of "The Run." And it also will be remembered as the time it took Tony Schumacher to compete the greatest comeback in the history of the sport. Tony joins Joe Amato as the only guys to win three consecutive Top Fuel titles and what that team has accomplished since their first crown in 1999 is simply amazing. Of course the driver and the crew chief often get a lot of the credit for a car's performance, and rightfully so. But the Army team has had a pretty good team in place for years now and they deserve to get congratulated as well. So, congratulations to Jason McCulloch, Brian Husen, Rodger Whitworth, Nick Peters, Ryan Pethel, Joe Arena, Jeremy Gutierrez, Randy Crago and Lanny Miglizzi, all members of the championship team this year. Believe me, Tony and Alan couldn't have done what they did without those guys. And, while there will be a few changes next year because one guy's going back to school and another is getting married, the Army team will be back, Army strong in 2007 to defend their title. And if anyone is going to take it away from them you better bring your "A" game because you're going to need it.

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