Wed, 29 Sep 2010, 11:22 AM Now It Gets Really Interesting

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2010 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Tonglet vs. Hines

The latest running of the O'Reilly Fall Nationals at the Texas Motorplex was very exciting and the end results started to bring some clarity to the battle for the Full Throttle championships. After three races in the "Countdown" and with three to go, there really are no clear cut favorites for the championship in any of the top four classes. Having said that there certainly are teams that have separated themselves from the pack and who have given themselves a real shot at the championship. In Top Fuel it's going to be three teams battling for the title, while in Funny Car there are four teams and in the two Pro Stock classes it looks like we have narrowed it down to three in the car class and two in the bikes. A quick look at the points would seem to indicate that those teams could go right down to the last race of the season before crowning a champion. Now before you write, call or e-mail me please remember this. I'm not saying that any of the other drivers can't win the championships, I'm just saying that it will be tough for them to do it with the limited number of races and rounds that remain in the season.

Garlits receives "Don Garlits Day in Ennis" plaque.

Keeping with that "champion" theme there were a lot of them in Dallas. "Big Daddy" Don Garlits ran his Drag Pak Dodge and was honored for his great moments at the Motorplex. Saturday was named "Don Garlits Day in Ennis," and during the pre-race ceremonies on Sunday "Big" was given a pair of cowboy boots, complete with his name stitched on them, as a token of appreciation from track owner Billy Meyer. Did you know that Don, who said that he was really enjoying racing the new Drag Pak Challenger, won the inaugural race at the Motorplex in 1986? Don beat an all-star cast to get the win, including Gary Beck, Eddie Hill, Connie Kalitta and Darrell Gwynn. I found it interesting that the low elapsed time at the event was 5.26 while Chase Copeland set low E/T this year in the Top Alcohol Dragster class with a 5.21....Raymond Beadle was also at the track and he had one of his vintage "Blue Max" cars on display and it was a big hit with the fans. In a little bit of trivia do you know who the first man to drive the "Blue Max" was? Paul Gordon. Really. And he later went out and built his own car to match-race the "Blue Max" and his car was called the "Red Baron."

Raymond Beadle, Billy Meyer, Paul Candies and John Force

....Other notables at the event included Paul Candies, Dale Emery, "Waterbed" Fred Miller and more. It's always great to come to Texas and to get to spend some moments with the legends. Now, back to the present....Tony Schumacher won Top Fuel on Sunday and, in the process, moved to within ninety-four points of the leader, Larry Dixon. In between the two is Cory McClenathan who is just sixty-nine points behind Larry and it looks like it will be one of those three who will be making a speech at the awards ceremony this year.....Tony beat Shawn Langdon in the final round after beating Cory in the semi-finals in one of the best races of the year. According to the numbers here on DragRaceCentral.com Tony won that race by seven inches and it will go into the books as a holeshot win for the "Sarge." Cory has had and continues to have a very good race car this year but it seems like every time he makes a good run the driver in the other lane steps up and makes a better run. Still, he is less than four rounds behind the leader with a dozen rounds to

Schumacher vs. McClenathan

go....Tony's win was the 66^th of his career and that ties him with Jeg Coughlin for ninth place on the all-time national event win list. The win was also his fifth at the Motorplex and that's second only to his eight wins at Indy. As I often say, I can never figure out why drivers do well at some tracks and struggle at others. Of course, as the records show, Tony doesn't struggle at many tracks. Did you know that the Motorplex was where Tony won his first national event 1999? At the 1999 race Tony qualified second and set top speed on the way to the win, and this week he qualified second and set top speed on the way to his win....One of the big races of the day was the second round match between Larry and Shawn Langdon, a race that Shawn won on a holeshot. When I mention holeshots I often hear from drivers that the way a driver stages effects the reaction time and I know that. But as I always say, when a slower elapsed time beats a quicker one it goes in the books as a holeshot. I found it interesting that Larry had a .089 reaction time in that round and Shawn had a .051. Did you know that for his entire career, which spans 883 rounds, Larry's

Langdon vs. Dixon

average reaction time is .084, and for his career, which is obviously much shorter, Shawn's average reaction time is .056? And did you know that for the entire 2010 season so far the average reaction time in the Top Fuel class is .085?....Larry still leads the points and I think it's great that three of the best dragster drivers and teams ever are going to battle it out for the Top Fuel championship this year...When Larry lost it meant that the top qualifier wouldn't win and that was a pattern that repeated itself in every class in Texas. Did you know that not a single number one qualifier in any class, pro or sportsman, even made it to the final round on Sunday. Not one!! And did you know that this was only the fourth time this year that none of the top qualifiers won in the top four classes?

Hagan celebrates win.

Matt Hagan, who has been running well for most of the year, beat John Force to take the Funny Car crown and that moved Matt into second place in the points and he's just twenty-five points behind John. Jack Beckman is in third place, forty-five points back and Ashley Force is in fourth place just sixty-eight points behind her dad. Matt's Die Hard team sent a message that they are ready to challenge for the title when they beat both Ashley and John on the way to the winner's circle. Did you know that this was the second time this year that Matt has beaten two Team Force members in one of his wins? Matt won the race after qualifying fourteenth in the field and that was his lowest start since Indy last year. Did you know that no driver who qualified fourteenth had ever made it to the final round in Texas let alone won the race? Matt is also only the twelfth driver in the history of the class to win after qualifying fourteenth....It looked for a while like it would be another John vs. Ashley final round but Matt took care of that with his semi-final win over Ashley. The other semi-final featured John beating Del Worsham who had a very good day even if he didn't make it to the final

Hagan vs. Force Hood

round. The times in the semi-finals showed how close and exciting the action was, with Matt running 4.062, John ran 4.083 and Del and Ashley both ran 4.085. That 4.062 by Matt turned out to be the low elapsed time of the weekend in the Funny Car class. Matt, who runs out of the Team Schumacher camp, gave Don Schumacher his 149^th win as a car owner and that's a bunch. It also gave Don another double-up, his second of the year and the twenty-third since Don formed his teams, and Matt and Tony celebrated accordingly in the winner's circle where they wore those really nice cowboy hats....Tim Wilkerson rebounded from his DNQ in Charlotte to qualify number one. His 4.079 in the last qualifying session was very impressive and it gave Tim his fifteenth top qualifying spot. Did you know that is the ninth most in the history of the Funny Car class? And did you know that since 1989 John Force and Robert Hight are the only Funny Car drivers to win after qualifying number one in Dallas?....Robert had to face his boss in round one and that didn't end well for him. Robert, who got so hot in the playoffs last year has yet to win a round in the 2010 "Countdown" and that's a real surprise. This was the sixth time that the two have met in the first round and they have each won three times....Jack Beckman was looking good for a while until his big fire in the semi-finals, but even with that incident and his loss Jack is still just forty-five points out of first place and that's not a lot with three races to go.

Anderson celebrates win.

Mike Edwards is still number one in the Pro Stock class but Greg Anderson has closed the gap considerably over the past two races. Greg's Summit Racing Pontiac is now just sixteen points behind Mike and that's less than one round. Greg Stanfield, who had another good outing in Dallas, is in third place and he's sixty two points back, or slightly more than three rounds. Allen Johnson (134 back), Jason Line (139) and Jeg Coughlin (151) still have a chance but they would have to get smokin' hot starting with Maple Grove....The final round was very interesting especially when Mike put a .001 reaction time on the board. Normally, when Mike is first off the line, nobody runs him down, but Greg did and that's why we have such a close battle for the championship going into the last three races of the year. Did you know that in the last two years, in races where he didn't break, Mike has only lost four times when he was first off the starting line and two of them have come against Greg? And do you know who the other two were against? Ron Krisher....Greg's win gave him two

Anderson vs. Johnson

consecutive victories for the second time this year and it gave him sixty-four in his career and it also gave him renewed confidence going into the last three races of the year. "When the car is running better I seem to drive better," he said during the post-race press conference. That may be tough to document but Greg does seem to be driving better lately and that's good news for the Summit team. Like Tony, who does well in Texas, the Motorplex is also a good track for Greg. Did you know that this was his fourth win at the track and that's the second most for him at any event? Greg has won five times at Indy and at the final race of the year in Pomona and he has now won an amazing twenty one times at the same race where Tony won....Like Matt, Greg won from the bottom half of the field and that doesn't happen often in Pro Stock. Did you know that in the history of Pro Stock the number nine qualifier, which Greg was, has only won fifteen times and that's the fourth time that Greg has done it?...Allen Johnson had a great race car in Texas but he couldn't parlay that into a win. Did you know that AJ was the top qualifier, set low elapsed time and top speed at the event? Still, like all the other top qualifiers he didn't win, in fact, like three other top drivers he lost in round two and that doesn't happen very often....As we all know, Maple Grove can be fast and maybe one of the drivers outside of the top three can set the record and get back in title contention. I don't know if that will happen but it could and that could change the entire complexion of the title chase. Stay tuned.

Tonglet celebrates win.

For the first time since the St. Louis race in 1997 we didn't have a full field of motorcycles. I don't know why, maybe it's the economy, the travel, the rules or a combination of all of the above but it was surprising to see only fourteen bikes show up for the race.....LE Tonglet is the hottest thing in the sport right now and he ran his record to 3-0 in the "Countdown" with his win over Andrew Hines. In fact, he ran his record over Andrew to 3-0 in the "Countdown" since the two have met in the final round at all three events. Did you know that in the 304 race history of the Pro Stock Motorcycle class this was only the third time that two riders have met in the finals at three consecutive races and the same rider won each time? Matt Hines beat Angelle Sampey at three consecutive races in 1998 and the only other time it happened was when Dave Schultz beat John Myers three times in a row in 1991....LE's win pulled him to within forty-four points of Andrew and that's just a little over two rounds so those "little points" that the teams get for qualifying could become very important. Actually, LE's brother, GT Tonglet, said it best when he said,

Matt Hines celebrates '98 Denver win.

" At this time of the year there are no little points. Every point is big." Now that's very true!!.. While it was a Suzuki that won the race a Buell was the number one qualifier and a Harley-Davidson that set top speed. For Eddie Krawiec, who ran 195.03 mph, it was his sixth top speed of his career. Did you know that ties Eddie with two other riders for fourteenth place on the motorcycle list? And while fourteenth place may not be a big thing the other two drivers are. Did you know that Eddie is tied with Byron Hines and Terry Vance? Cool, huh?

The Lucas Oil classes provided some great racing and a new winner in the alky dragster class. While Kelly Wade's story on DragRaceCentral.com sums up the action I did want to mention two drivers in particular. Chase Copeland became the latest driver to win in the Top Alcohol Dragster class and he did it in style. Chase beat Marty Thacker in the final round and recorded low lapsed time when he went 5.21 in the semi-finals. And Steve Benoit won the Top Sportsman class and recorded a little bit of trivia in the process. Did you know that Steve has won three national events and they have all been silver anniversary races? He won the 25^th Gatornationals and the 25^th Englishtown race before winning the 25^th race at the Motorplex. I'll have more in Steve later this week but he may be the only guy in the history of the sport to have three "Wallys" and every one of them is silver.

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