Tue, 27 May 2008, 10:20 PM The Season Is Flying By

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2008 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Tony Schumacher

It's hard to believe that we're already one-third of the way through the 2008 NHRA POWERade drag racing season. Eight races down with ten more to go before we make the cut to the top ten teams and then it's a six race sprint for the championship. After eight races about the only pattern that we've seen developing is the one that says that Tony Schumacher and the Army team are off to their best start in quite a while. Did you know that Tony has won more rounds already this year than he did in his first eight races of 2006 & 2007 combined? Toss in the fact that he hasn't dropped a first round match yet this year and you have a car that is solidly in first place in the points and is very likely to stay there. The Funny Car and Pro Stock classes seem wide open, not only in the battle for the top spot but in the battle for a spot in the top ten. Even the Pro Stock Motorcycle class, with only four races in the books, appears evenly matched although most folks whom I talked to really like the Vance & Hines Screamin' Eagle of Andrew Hines. The bike is quick, fast and Andrew is riding well are the things I hear from those who should know and that's a tough combination to beat.

Schumacher and crew celebrate win.

For those of you who are my age, or for those of you who remember the past, you may recall when major league baseball had two leagues, the American and the National and they each had eight teams. The teams that finished in the top four places were called the first division and the bottom four were the second division teams. At that time, only the team that won the most games in each league earned the right to play in the World Series. My dad used to tell me that if you want to win the championship you had to play ".500 baseball" against the first division and clobber the teams in the second division. If you apply that same logic to drag racing, it would seem like the key to success would be to break even with the other teams in the top ten and run up your record by beating up on the teams who are outside of the top ten. Well, if you look at Tony Schumacher so far this season, he is clobbering the top teams and pitching a shut out against the others. Did you know that the "Sarge" is 15-5 against the other teams in the top ten so far this year and that he is 7-0 against all the other teams? Now that's dominating, isn't it? Winning all of his opening round matches doesn't hurt his standing, either. And here's another amazing stat. Did you know that Tony won 32

JR Todd

rounds all of last year and that he has already won 22 this year? For a team that historically seems to get better as the year goes on, that's down right spooky!!...The way I look at the standings right now it appears that the top seven teams, including Tony, Antron Brown, Larry Dixon, Rod Fuller, Hillary Will, Cory McClenathan and Brandon Bernstein will, or at least should, hold on to a spot in the top ten and make the Countdown. Doug Kalitta, David Grubnic and Doug Herbert are eighth, ninth and tenth right now and they all need to get a little more consistent in order to hold on to their spots. That's because Morgan Lucas, JR Todd, Bob Vandergriff and Alan Bradshaw, the other teams who will compete at all of the races leading up to the Countdown, all have solid teams who can contend for a spot in the top ten. The spoilers could be the teams like Bill Miller's car or Joe Hartley who will be in Topeka. Troy Buff, in Bill's car, has already beaten David Grubnic and Rod Fuller this year and they are capable of knocking off just about any of the top teams. I don't want to say that the "second division" teams could decide who makes the top ten this year, but let's face it, if you're not running the entire tour you just won't earn enough points to make

Austin and crew celebrate Topeka win.

the top ten. You can, however, keep the other teams honest and make them earn every round win and race win that they get..The way it looks right now, there will be fifteen cars in Topeka in the Top Fuel class and that means an automatic win for the driver who qualifies number one. The way the points are, every round win you can get will be huge, and if you can get a "gimme" along the way it's even better....If someone wants to pull an upset, beat one of the top cars and maybe make it to the final round, Topeka may not be the best place to do it. Did you know that in the entire history of this track, including the years when there were two races held at Heartland Park, which is a total of twenty-four races, only five drivers who have qualified in the bottom half of the field have ever made it to the final round in Top Fuel? And that includes the fifteenth qualifier, Stevie Foster, who made it to the finals in 1994 and JR Todd, the twelfth qualifier who was the runner-up last year. And only Pat Austin (1991) and Scott Kalitta who beat Foster, have ever won here from the bottom half of the field....It'll be a unique weekend for the David Powers team in Topeka. That's because Rod Fuller has never won a round there and Antron Brown has never even been to the track. Of course Lee Beard, crew chief for Antron's Matco Tools car has been to Heartland Park Topeka. Did you know that in 1990, along with the great Gary Ormsby, they ran 4.88 at 296 mph which was, at the time, the quickest and fastest run in the history of the class? And you'll know what that run meant to the track when you turn off the highway and drive on to Gary Ormsby Boulevard this weekend.

Daniel Wilkerson

I know that I've said this before and I'll say it again, like right now, the Funny Car class is so loaded with talent this year that I can't see anyone dominating the class, running away with the points or securing a spot in the Countdown much before we get to Indy. Tim Wilkerson leads the points and he'll be coming to the track where he won his first national event back in 1994. Did you know that Tim beat Jackie Stidham to win the Top Alcohol Funny Car class at Heartland Park in '94? As much as he likes this track, Tim will be looking to do something that he's never done before when he comes to Topeka this weekend. Did you know that Tim has never won twice at the same event? Of course he's never led the points before, either, so maybe 2008 will be a real season of "firsts" for him. And congratulations to Tim's son, Daniel, who was the runner-up at the IHRA race in Milan this past weekend. Hey, could a two car Wilkerson team be far behind?...Del Worsham holds down the tenth place in the points right now and he is 214 behind Tim. That's only about ten rounds and that's not much to separate the top ten teams, is it?....On the other side of the coin, there are only about seven rounds between Del and the 19^th guy in the points, Scott Kalitta, so that shows you how tough the class is. And any of the cars who are outside of the top ten have everything they need to make the Countdown. Everything except space, because there just isn't enough space for all of those good cars in the Countdown which means that the next ten races should be fun....To show you how close the field is, consider this. Did you know that John Force, who is in fifth place, is

Bob Tasca

about three rounds behind Robert Hight who is in fourth? But did you know that John is only seventy-seven points, or less than four rounds ahead of Jack Beckman who is in eleventh place? That means that every round and every qualifying spot is very important to each of these teams....Mike Neff has been mentioned as the leader in the battle for the Rookie of the Year award this season and it's hard to argue with that. After all, he has a couple of final rounds to his credit already and that's better than any of the other contenders. But you can't count out Bob Tasca who is in twelfth place in the points and who has been running very well lately. The Tasca Ford has been going rounds and Chris Cunningham has the car running very well. I will be surprised if Bob doesn't make a final round before too long and win a race before we make the final cut for the top ten. Of course, he faces the same problem that all the other FC teams do and that is, if he makes the top ten, who does he bump out?...A look at the teams in the "second division" really does look like it could be a top ten list just as easily as being the eleven to twenty group. Beckman, Tasca, Jim Head, Gary Scelzi, Melanie Troxel, Tony Bartone, Jerry Toliver, Tommy Johnson and Scott Kalitta are all in that group. So is Bob Bode who began the season with a real rush but who hasn't been

Jim Head in Topeka '96

at the last couple of races....Speaking of Jim Head, what a great season he is having. Even though he has skipped a couple of races he is still in thirteenth place and his performance at Bristol was among the best of his career. Sure, he didn't make it to the final round but he qualified well and ran well on race day and it's that kind of performance that makes you a top ten contender. Too bad he's not running full time because he would displace someone who is currently in the top ten. Jim won this race before (in 1996 in Top Fuel) and he went to the final round here last year. Hey, maybe he'll surprise everyone and be a late entry this week..Another dark horse in the class has to be Mike Ashley. Here's a guy who is late to the party this year but still has the potential to make it into the top ten. OK, so he's way back right now, but he did win three races, including this one last year, in the span of a few weeks and there's nothing to say that he can't get hot like that again? The big key for all of these teams, especially the ones currently outside the "first division" is to qualify. Make the show and see what happens from there but you can't move up in the standings if you're in the announcing booth talking to me on Sunday.

Lee Shepherd

Pro Stock isn't much different than the Funny Car class, and by that I mean that there are a bunch of drivers who could win every race and almost twenty who could compete for a spot in the top ten. We're eight races into the season and we already have seven different winners with only Greg Anderson winning more than once. Did you know that only once in the last six years have we had more than seven winners in Pro Stock? And did you know that only eight times in the entire history of the class have more than seven drivers visited the winner's circle in a single year? By comparison, in 1980 only Bob Glidden and Lee Shepherd won during the ten race season. The season is made more interesting by the fact that nobody seems ready to dominate the class, and, as the expression goes, it really does look like "if you're in you can win." Simply stated, qualify and you have a shot at winning the race. Of course, that's good in theory but we all know that if you're in the top half of the field in Pro Stock your chances of winning or even making it to the final round are greatly enhanced. Did you know that in the entire history of the class, which spans 602 races, and which involves 1204 drivers making it to the final round, the drivers in

Edwards and crew celebrate Topeka win

the bottom half of the field have gone to the money round a grand total of 148 times. That works out to twelve percent of the time. So if you want to make up ground in Pro Stock, try to do it from the top half of the field. I should point out that Mike Edwards once won this race after qualifying sixteenth in the field (1999) but that is certainly the exception and not the rule. And the way Mike is driving these days I wouldn't put it past him to win again this year even if he does start in the "second division."...There has been a lot of movement in the PS class this year, and by that I mean teams, crew chiefs, engine suppliers and the like and that always makes for some interesting conversation. Just this week it was announced that Richard Maskin has left the Justin Humphreys' camp and will re-join Jim Yates. The two were part of a

Dave Connolly

powerful team during Jim's championship years and they could really shake things up this season. Jim is currently in twelfth place and he is four rounds out of tenth. Ironically, it's Justin who is in front of him in eleventh while Ron Krisher currently occupies the tenth spot. Justin has already announced that he'll skip this race while he looks for a new engine supplier to replace Mr. Maskin and that won't help his shot at a top ten finish....Dave Connolly is the sleeper in the field, and if the way he has performed at these last two races is any indication, someone in the top ten is going to get bumped out very soon. Even though he has only raced at three events this year Dave already has two final round appearances and three holeshot wins. Did you know that for his career Dave has forty holeshot wins and only nine such losses? That's pretty impressive isn't it?...

Frank Manzo continued his winning ways (freeing Brad Littlefield and yours truly from any fault if and when he eventually loses) when he won the Division 1 race at Maple Grove. Frank beat Marty Nothstein for the second consecutive D-1 event and ran his streak to forty-two rounds in a row. At the same race, reigning Lucas Oil World Champion Bill Reichert won his first race of the year when he stopped Daniel Mercier in the final round....It was interesting to see several new teams in the alky

Ashley Bart

classes at the three divisional races that were held this past weekend. Ashley Bart, Justin Davis and Troy Sitko all entered the event at Mission Raceway in Canada in Top Alcohol Dragster while Shane Harter's debut came in the alky funny car class at the same event. Shane has raced in the old Top Comp class in D-6 and is one of the few who has successfully campaigned a AA/A car in recent years. And, to the best of my knowledge, Lou Sgro's entry at Maple Grove was the first for that Top Alcohol Funny Car team at a divisional race. Ashley Bart is a former Jr. Dragster racer from Canada who stepped up to a blown alky dragster about a year ago and now is looking to make her mark in the tough D-6 ranks. Justin Davis is a Super Comp racer who has moved up in class to try his hand in the alcohol dragster ranks while Troy Sitko is the latest member of the talented Sitko family to race at a Division 6 event. Lou Sgro has raced a lot of cars over the years in a variety of classes and is now racing one of Frank Manzo's old cars in the TAFC class in Division 1. There have been a lot of new teams in the alky classes this year and that's a good sign for the health of the sport. And, if the first third of the season has taught us anything, it's the fact that only Frank Manzo appears destined for another Lucas Oil World Championship. If someone is going to take the title away from him they're going to have to get incredibly hot very soon and hope that Frank loses a few races in a row or takes an extended vacation. Anyone who wants to bet against Frank can see me at the tower in Topeka this weekend and you can name your price!!

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