FEATURE- Did You Know? by Bob Frey

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Wed, 5 Oct 2011, 03:12 PM

Can't Get A Break!!

By Bob Frey
Photo copyright 2011 Auto Imagery, Inc.

It doesn't seem to make any difference who sponsors the race, when it is held or what season it is in, the Maple Grove event always gets rain or bad weather. Ok, so maybe "always" is a little severe, but over the years no single event has been plagued with as much bad weather as the one at the "Grove." This year's Auto-Plus Nationals was no exception, with cloudy and cold weather all weekend and rain on Sunday that forced the event to be held over for another day. Actually there was a change in the schedule before anything even happened because the sportsman racers from Super Stock on down were moved to this upcoming weekend, and while that is a burden to the racers it was the only call to make. The grounds, including the pits and spectator parking areas, were so soggy that it was just impossible to have all the race cars on the grounds at the same time. I know that I am not an official spokesman for NHRA or Maple Grove when I say this, but I sure appreciate the understanding of everyone who was affected by the situation. It's tough, it's a no-win situation and nobody likes to have to make those decisions but there really weren't a lot of choices. Obviously not everyone agrees with the way things played out, but some of those same people would have complained (or worse) if they had to park in the mud, stay over until Tuesday to race or race on another alternate date. Everyone at Maple Grove and NHRA did their best and that's all you can ask. I just hope that next year may be the year when they get four days of nice, sunny weather in Reading because the racers, the fans and the track really deserve it....Those fans who did attend, and considering the weather there were a lot of fans at the track, saw some history making runs. They saw the national record fall in Top Fuel and Pro Stock, they saw the quickest run ever in both of those classes (a lot of quick runs, in fact), they saw a stunning Top Fuel final round and they saw a new points leader in Funny Car. They also saw a second generation racer make a big move in the battle for the championship as well as the Rookie of the Year race and they saw one Full Throttle class just about wrapped up. Oh yeah, they also saw the quickest run in the history of the Top Alcohol Funny Car class and a surprising winner in the Top Alcohol Dragster class. In short, they saw a great race. Not just a good one, but a great one. Now, if only it had ended on the day it was supposed to end!!!

Massey celebrates Top Fuel win.

The Top Fuel final was just a wild end to a wild weekend in the dragster class. When Spencer Massey beat Del Worsham he increased his points lead from seven, what it was coming into the race, to sixty-five, where it is now. He also got to say that he won the race while running against the car that made the quickest run in history. Del Worsham grabbed the national record when he crossed the finish line in 3.735 seconds, making him the quickest driver in the sport. That's the good news, but the bad news is that he did it in a losing effort. Did you know that Spencer used a .056 reaction time and a 3.770 on the track to beat Del's .101 reaction time and quicker 3.735 on the track? Now I don't know what each driver considers a good reaction time and I do know that they vary depending on how they stage and things like that. With that in mind I decided to check Spencer's average reaction time for his Top Fuel career. Did you know that for all of the races in which he has competed in Top Fuel his reaction time average is, drum roll please, .056? What are the odds? I'll tell you this, the odds of Spencer leaving first against anyone are very good. Did you know that for his career he has left first 82% of the time? Not bad, huh?...For Del the loss has to be tough, after all, how many times do you make the quickest

Worsham runs the quickest
pass in the history of Top Fuel.
run in history? Did you know that Del only has two holeshot losses this year and they have both come against Spencer and they have both been in the final round? He also lost that way in the finals at Englishtown, but he is a good driver, has a good team and plenty of races left to get back to the top spot so he shouldn't worry about one run. I know, easy for me to say because I'm not running for the championship, but if I were I wouldn't want to line up against Del and his Al-Anabi team. As tough as it is to lose that way Del has been good, very good in fact over the course of his career. Did you know that in over 800 rounds of racing Del has only lost nineteen times on a holeshot? Like I said, he's very good..... Del, Larry Dixon and Antron Brown all had a shot at the record and all possessed it at one time during the weekend. Of course the twenty bonus points only go to the driver who leaves the track with the record and that's Del. It sure was fun to watch all of the Top Fuel teams slugging it out and it was nice to know that someone was going to set the record...When it was all over seven of the twelve quickest runs in Top Fuel history had been recorded at Maple Grove.

Hight with his
fifth Wally this year.

Robert Hight threw his name back into the title chase with his win over Johnny Gray in the final round in Reading. Robert, who is now 5-0 in finals this year, jumped up two spots to fourth and he has to be considered a factor as we head into the last three races of the year....It wasn't quite the performance barrage in Funny Car as it was in Top Fuel, but there were still eleven drivers who recorded their career best numbers and five of the top eleven runs in the class were recorded. Robert made his fastest run, a 317.42 mph blast, in his first round win over Ron Capps and he coupled that up with a 4.041 elapsed time. Did you know that Robert ran in the 4.0 range on all four rounds of eliminations? As famous as he has been for making the really quick and fast runs, it's that kind of consistency that is going to win races and maybe another championship for Robert....The win was the 23^rd for Robert and that moved him past Ed McCulloch and Mike Dunn and into 15^th place on the all time Nitro

Blake Alexander
win list....Robert was the shining light for Team Force and he was the only one who advanced past the second round when John Force lost in round one to Dale Creasy Jr. and Mike Neff bowed out to Johnny Gray in round two. Did you know that this was the second consecutive year that Dale Creasy beat John in round one at Maple Grove? And did you know that Dale is only the second driver to ever beat John in the opening round at the same race in two straight years? The other guy was, drum roll please, Robert Hight, who did it in Virginia in 2008 and again in 2009. Who'd have guessed it? The loss was the tenth time this year that John has not made it out of round one and that's the second time in his career that he has reached double digits in round one losses with the other time being in 2005.....Even though he went out in the second round Matt Hagan left the track in first place in the points and he is two points ahead of Mike Neff.....Blake Alexander made his debut in the Funny Car class and he was driving a car that was prepared by Paul Smith, the same car that Jon Capps took to the semi-finals a week earlier in Dallas. Blake made a couple of good runs to make the field before losing to Hagan in round one. Still, it was another indication of how good Paul is and the question now is who will drive next for Paul and when will some major team owner realize that Paul could make his team a contender?

Line and team celebrate
his sixth win this year.

I'm not saying that Jason Line is a lock for the championship but I am saying that he is as close to that as you'll get. Jason, with a 147 points performance in Reading, has moved to a commanding 181 point lead over his Summit Racing teammate, Greg Anderson. That's a nine round advantage with twelve rounds of racing remaining, so like I said, he hasn't wrapped it up yet but he will soon. Jason completed one of the most dominating performances in class history when he beat Ronnie Humphrey in the final and he did that with a 6.484 pass, a run that gave him the top four runs in Pro Stock history. To show how dominant Jason was, Ronnie had run 6.489 in his semi-final win over Rodger Brogdon, and that time was quicker than the previous national record coming into the race and it still wasn't good enough to earn him lane choice in the final round.....Jason started the weekend off by qualifying number one for the fifth consecutive race, and when he won the race it marked just the second time in the last thirty-one races that the top qualifier in the class had won back-to-back races. The win was the 27^th of his career, and did you know that put Jason in eighth place on the Pro Stock win list? The four round wins also gave him 302 for his career, and did you know that makes him just the tenth Pro Stock driver to win at least 300 rounds of

Line runs the quickest pass
in Pro stock history.
racing?.... When Jason's Pontiac GXP crossed the finish line first it was the 58^th win for the Pontiac GXP model and that ties it with the venerable Chevrolet Camaro for the fourth most in history. Did you know that only the Firebird (90), Oldsmobile Cutlass (88) and Pontiac Grand Am (62) have won more than the GXP?...Ronnie Humphrey ran well as he made it to the first final round of his career. He now is 0-1 in finals and he joins a group that includes, among others, Billy Huff, Mike Bell and Larry Breaux with similar marks. Did you know that Bell's one and only final also came at Maple Grove when he lost to Jim Yates in 1997?...To show you how the Pro Stock class has progressed, the first time the record was set at Maple Grove was at the inaugural race in 1985. At that event Bob Glidden set the record at 7.497, almost exactly one second slower than the 6.477 that Jason recorded twenty-six years later.

Arana Jr. celebrates his second win.

I think you'll agree that the Rookie of the Year battle is now a two man affair with the season-long leader, Vincent Nobile, being joined by Hector Arana Jr. Both drivers have won twice this season, both are in the top ten and both could make a case for themselves. Hector, who won this week, is now in second place in the points and he is just thirty-five points behind the leader, Eddie Krawiec....Hector has been riding well and he has a very good bike, and the 6.781 that he ran in the final round was the second quickest pass in motorcycle history. Did you know that only his father's 6.777 in Gainesville earlier this year was better? Like the other classes the bikes ran well, and in the end five of the twelve best runs in the class were recorded at the event....Like Ronnie in the car class, Matt Smith probably deserved a better fate than what he got in the finals. His 6.795 was the seventh quickest run in class history and he had nothing to show for it except a runner-up finish....The bikes, which are always prone to those nasty red lights, put a couple of perfect reaction times on the board in the first round. Jerry Savoie and Chip Ellis did it on back-to-back runs and that makes exactly 100 perfect reaction times since 1985. Did you know that this was only the third time that there have been perfect lights recorded on back-to-back runs and each time it has been in the motorcycle class? John Mafaro and Gary Tonglet did it at Englishtown in 1996 and Steve Johnson and Larry Cook did it later that year at the NHRA Finals.

Manzo runs the quickest pass
in Top Alcohol Funny Car history.

I mentioned the quickest run in the alky Funny Car class and it will come as no surprise that it was Frank Manzo who did it. Frank ran 5.411 in his semi-final win over Todd Veney and then capped his record-setting weekend with a 5.419 in the final round against Andy Bohl. With the win Frank also locked up his fifteenth Lucas Oil World Championship in what may be his best year ever, and that's saying a lot.....Mike Kosky, one of the true veterans in the class, won for the first time since the Maple Grove race in 1999 when he beat Joey Severance in the Top Alcohol Dragster final round. Even with the loss Joey moved into title contention and he'll battle it out with Duane Shields and Jim Whiteley at the Las Vegas and Pomona races in a few weeks.