Tue, 29 Nov 2011, 14:59 PM It Was Worth the Wait

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2011 Auto Imagery, Inc.

A dejected Hagan after a disappointing lost last year at the finals.

In the span of twelve months Matt Hagan experienced the classic highs and lows of sports, or as ABC's Wide World of Sports used to put it, "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat." He went from the agony of losing the championship on the last day of the season in 2010 to winning it the same way in 2011. In the process he and his team gave drag racing fans all over the country the opportunity to witness one of the best Funny Car title runs in history. For the Die Hard team and everyone on Team Schumacher, Matt's Full Throttle Funny Car Championship has to be one of the most rewarding and satisfying that they could possibly imagine.

Hagan celebrates Championship with team.

Not only was Matt's run to the title thrilling, but the final day of the season at Pomona was very exciting. I can remember sitting in the tower before the first round thinking about the day and I wondered if the fans realized just how special it was going to be. In the end it was even better than anyone could have imagined. I also remember being amazed that all of the contenders for the championships in all three classes that were still up for grabs, and there were six of them in the Funny Car class alone, all won their opening round matches. First of all it was surprising that none of them met in round one. With six drivers still in contention you would think there would be at least one race between them in the first round wouldn't you? Did you know that, coming into Pomona, there were just six races during the year where none of these six drivers raced each other in round one? That, of course, is a credit to the fact that they almost all qualified in the top half of the field at most races. Did you know that of the six Funny Car contenders Cruz Pedregon and Mike Neff had the most qualifying spots in the top half of the field in 2011? Both made the top half nineteen times this year and that's very impressive in a class as competitive as the Funny Car class is. For whatever reason Mike's three bottom-half starts came over a four race span when he was ninth at Sonoma, twelfth at Brainerd and ninth at Indy. For his part Matt was in the top eight at eighteen races and that's not bad, either. And while being in the top half might not seem like a big thing, when you add up all the extra points you get from qualifying high in the field, plus the bonus points you get for being one of the top three in each qualifying session, all of a sudden those starting spots become very important.

As I pointed out after Pomona, Matt didn't win the most races this year but he did win when it counted. For you baseball fans it's kind of like the St. Louis Cardinals this year. They didn't win the most games but they did win the World Series and that's what counts. Matt's Die Hard team was strong all

Hagan runs the first three-second Funny Car pass.

year long, and as the season progressed they became that one car that nobody wanted to race on Sunday. That's because Tommy DeLago and the rest of the crew did a wonderful job in giving Matt a very fast car, a car that raced into the history books at Charlotte with the first three-second Funny Car run. And while it appears that is disputed by some, it shouldn't be. Under the 2011 rules, with the cars running with the mechanical limitations they have on them (i.e., running according to the rulebook), the Die Hard team made history on that day in North Carolina and, as the expression goes, Matt has the time card to prove it. And while it may not be as controversial as the run Chris Karamesines made at Alton, Illinois in 1960, or as history-making as the runs by Chuck Etchells and Jim Epler in Topeka in 1993, it was spectacular and something that Matt and his entire team should be very proud of. In addition to his crew chief, the "Animal" Tommy

Hagan vs. Pedregon in the semifinals for the title.

DeLago, Matt's team consisted of assistant crew chief Glen Huszar, Gage Fairchild, Joe Janisch, Brian James, Jason Davis, Ben Ratcliffe, Terry Prososki and Chris Stillwell. Congratulations to all of them on a great year and it had to be fun to be able to say that you were on the crew that set the record and made history at Charlotte in addition to winning the Full Throttle Championship.

In the performance department in 2011 Matt was right there with all of the top drivers. Did you know that there were ten different drivers who qualified number one this year and that two drivers accounted for eleven, or half of those top spots? While you can probably guess who the ten drivers were you may be surprised to find out which two drivers had more number one spots than anyone else in the class. One of them was in the battle for the championship and that was Cruz Pedregon. Cruz was number one six times in 2011 and that was the most in the class. Did you know that John Force had the second most number one spots in the class this year with five? Matt was next with four and then there were seven drivers who all qualified number one just once during the year. Nine of the ten drivers who were in the "Countdown" had at least one top spot during the season with Jeff Arend being the only one who didn't. Johnny Gray, who may have had the hottest car in the class during the "Countdown"

Johnny Gray

was the only driver outside of the top ten to qualify number one in 2011. It was interesting to hear both Jack Beckman and Matt talk about Johnny before Sunday's eliminations. At the "Night of Champions" at the NHRA Motorsports Museum on Friday night they both said that "nobody wants to run Johnny right now because he has the best car in the class." While that "best car" line may be up for debate there was no debating the fact that Johnny got hot, very hot during the playoffs and he and his Service Central team won more rounds in the last six races than any other car in the class. They may have been the only team who didn't want the season to end!... Earlier in the year I mentioned how evenly balanced the Funny Car class was and that is evident if you look at the numbers. Did you know that ten is the most drivers to qualify number one in a single year in the Funny Car class in the history of the category? It has happened a couple of times in recent years but when you consider that there were twenty-two races this year to have ten drivers qualify number one, well, that's a lot. It's also interesting that three drivers accounted for fifteen of those top spots.... You would think that being the number one qualifier would be a good step toward setting low elapsed time of the meet and you would be correct. Did you know that of the ten drivers who were number one nine of them went on to record low E/T at the same event? Only Bob Tasca, who was number one at Bristol, didn't parlay that top spot into low elapsed time. Bob ran 4.056 to be number one but Robert Hight ran 4.047 in the semi-finals and that was the quickest run of the weekend at Bristol in the Funny Car class.

Hight and his crew accepting the Full Throttle Hard Working Crew Award.

Numbers, of course, don't tell the entire story and all you have to do to prove that is look at some of the best runs during eliminations this year. In the elapsed time department, did you know that Mike Neff made an amazing seventeen runs in the 4.0 range this year on race day? That is, by far, the best in the class. Robert Hight did it fourteen times, Matt did it a dozen times and Jack did it eight times....Some of the good things about having multi-car teams, like Team Schumacher or Team Force, is that you often get to help your teammates by eliminating some of the competition. The fact that you have multiple cars also increases your chances of getting one or more to the final round. But all of that goes out the window if those teammates meet early on race day. For example, did you know that Robert Hight and Mike Neff met three times this year in the first round? I'm pretty sure that's not the way they planned it in Yorba Linda. They only met once in the final round and that was the one in Topeka, the race that earned Robert's team the Full Throttle Hard Working Crew Award for the year. That's the race where Robert's crew member, David "Shafty" Karkanes, got his hand caught in the blower belt and had to be taken to the hospital. For the record, "Shafty" was back before too long and was a vital part of Robert's team for the rest of the year and he is one of the reasons why we love that "Hard Working Crew" award... Did you know that Matt Hagan didn't meet any of his Team Schumacher teammates in the first round all year? What are the odds? He was, however, 3-0 against Team Force cars in the opening round and that includes one win each against John, Robert and Mike, and while only one of them came during the "Countdown," anytime you can take out your biggest competitors in the early rounds that's huge.

Hagan vs. Beckman in round two at the finals.

Beside the normal things that go along with a championship run, seeing the diversity of drivers also made it a lot of fun this year. At twenty-nine years old (twenty-eight actually when he won the championship) Matt is one of the youngest Funny Car champions. Did you know that since NHRA moved to the points system of deciding a champion in 1974 (as opposed to the winner of the last race being declared the champ) Matt is just the thirteenth driver to win the Funny Car crown? Of course when one guy, John Force, is collecting fifteen titles it doesn't leave a lot for the other drivers, does it? And of those thirteen drivers, five of them, besides Matt, only won the title one time....For Matt to be competing with former champs like Robert Hight and Cruz Pedregon, along with Mike Neff, Ron Capps and Jack Beckman, not to mention Mr. Force, was exciting for the fans and I hope for the drivers as well. Matt had been through the rigors of a championship battle before and I have to think that made him stronger and more prepared for the 2011 fight. I spoke with one driver, who will remain anonymous, and he said that he was a nervous wreck all day long. "I don't know how you guys do it," I said. "I was nervous for you and I wasn't even involved in the action." To which he responded, "I felt the same way, and it wasn't just for the first round, either." I guess that's why they are championship drivers and I'm an announcer, or writer or whatever it is that I do. I am also a big fan and I want to thank the Funny Car teams for giving us such a wonderful year in 2011. The only question is, how do you top that next year?

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