Wed, 31 Oct 2007, 01:26 PM Jim Luikens Reporter's Notebook at the ACDelco Las Vegas Nationals

Courtesy of Jim Luikens Photo copyright 2007 Auto Imagery, Inc.

LAS VEGAS --

John Force

In a weekend that featured many interesting stories one of the best was provided by John Force. John, who returned to a drag strip for the first time since his accident, was greeted by a standing ovation each day as he went to the starting line to watch his team's cars compete. John's doctors had given him permission to attend this race if he never left his bus. Anyone in attendance at Las Vegas, or watching the ESPN2 coverage at home, certainly saw John push the boundaries of his permission just a little. Ironically, John had also received a standing ovation at the spring race here when he failed to qualify for the first time in eons at an NHRA national event.

All four of the Force teams were in action here for the first time since Gainesville and all four qualified, including Mike Neff and Phil Burkhart, Jr. who were making their driving debuts in Force team machines. In eliminations daughter Ashley Force achieved the team's best result by going all the way to the Fuel Funny Car final, the first woman to do so at an NHRA national event.

Phil Burkhart, Jr.

I had just finished interviewing Phil Burkhart, Jr. about being John Force's replacement behind the wheel of the Castrol Mustang when I had the chance to observe a "Kodak Moment first hand. A determined young fan timidly approached Phil while the youngster's father looked on from about five feet back, much like a trick-or-treater's parent would. All the young man really wanted to know was if Phil "was the man driving John's car." He asked this question with a mix of awe and trepidation and was relieved to find out he had, indeed, identified the correct person. If a cameraman had been on hand the filmed result could easily have rivaled the legendary Mean Joe Green Coca Cola commercial.

Alan Bradshaw had one of the worst Top Fuel Dragster fires seen in a some time during Saturday's final qualifying session. Approaching the finish line it is believed his engine hydrauliced its number one cylinder. Among other things, the resulting explosion severed the engine's main fuel feed line which provided a large, steady stream of fuel to feed the fire. After stopping as quickly as possible Alan struggled to exit his dragster quickly when his shoulder belts became

Alan Bradshaw

entangled in his Hans device. Alan, who wears a "20" fire suit (which is normally required in fuel funny car) instead of the "15" spec suit that is required for fuel dragster drivers, credits the better grade suit with preventing burn damage. Alan also wears funny car style fire boots instead of the dragster fire boots to provide the best fire-resistance possible. Although the fire looked substantial, and burned for a relatively long time, the car is expected to be repaired in time for next week's NHRA World Finals. Next year Alan is moving on to the Dexter Tuttle team, where he will be the new team driver.

If Alan Bradshaw was hot Saturday afternoon, Tony Schumacher was livid. After winning the second round of the $100,000 Technicoat Shootout, which guaranteed him a berth in the final, Tony's Army team bypassed the scales and was disqualified from the Technicoat event. Although emotions ran high this seems to be the gist of the situation. NHRA rules require a car that wins a round during a race or improves it qualifying time during qualifications to weigh on its way back up

Schumacher vs. Troxel

the return road. Additionally, the NHRA has a traffic light at most of it national event tracks that shows red if scale personal want you to stop or green if you are free to bypass the scales. As luck would have it this is one of the few tracks on the pro tour that does not have a traffic light at the scales. The first two rounds of the shootout are run as part of the two Saturday qualifying sessions with only the final round run as a stand alone round at the end of the day. In the second round Tony won the round but did not improve upon his earlier best qualifying time, which could have contributed to confusion over the need to stop or not stop at the scales. NHRA officials were adamant that a stop was required and thus disqualified the Schumacher car from further participation in the shootout.

Las Vegas resident "Hot Rod" Fuller had quite a weekend at The Strip at Las Vegas. Besides winning the $100,000 Technicoat Shootout on Saturday he doubled up on Sunday to win the race. Sunday's win generated a $50,000 "double-up" bonus in addition to the race's purse. The win also gave him a leg up on the other countdown competitors with just one race yet to go to decide this year's world champion.

Urs Erbacher

Top Fuel competitor Urs Erbacher of Arlesheim, Switzerland may not be household name to even the most devout drag racing fan in this country but he is not without serious credentials. Last year he finished third overall in the FIA European Championship. This year was even better for Urs and his team as they improved two positions to win the overall European Top Fuel Championship. Urs also holds the European Top Fuel elapsed time record at 4.74 seconds. Coming into the race here the team's plans were modest. Against American competition for the first time they wanted to qualify respectably and, ideally, win a round. Urs easily notched the first goal when he qualified Friday evening by lowering his personal best elapsed time to 4.59 seconds. Doug Kalitta prevented Urs from reaching his second goal, for now, when he defeated him in the first round. Undaunted, the Erbacher team will move on to Pomona next weekend as they try to achieve goal two. After Pomona they plan to leave the car in the USA over the winter and run the early 2008 races in the USA before returning to Europe to defend their championship.

Just as is sometimes seen in NASCAR, several of the Top Fuel teams were carrying special paint schemes this weekend. Bob Vandergriff Jr. had a special UPS Store/ Toys for Tots paint scheme, Doug Kalitta bannered Long Way Down and the Doug Herbert car displayed a Snap-OnToolsFranchise.com graphic.

Max Naylor, who qualified number one in Pro Stock at Indy and Memphis, tipped here that he has declined a contract renewal with Jagermeister for 2008. The Naylor team has represented Jagermeister well but the new contract contained several clauses that would have proved limiting to the team's planned advances for the future.

In other 2008 sponsorship news, NAPA Auto Parts was introduced as the new primary sponsor of the Ron Capps Dodge Charger with Brut Cologne returning in a supporting position. Also, Geico Insurance renewed their contract with Karen Stoffer for another three years while adding a variety of sponsorship activation activities at NHRA events.

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