FEATURE- From the Tower by Bob Frey

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Thu, 24 Oct 2013, 13:33 PM

A Couple Of Notes

By Bob Frey
Photo copyright 2013 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Edmond Richardson won it all in 2011 Pomona.

Even though I am not at the races I continually follow the racing both on the national and divisional levels. Of course the best place to keep up to the minute is right here at www.DragRaceCentral.com where you can get the updates quicker than anywhere else. So, when I am home on the weekends I constantly hit the "refresh" button on my computer to see what has been added to the site. Sometimes I am actually looking forward to the final round matchups that I see are coming, and other times I am simply waiting to see who won and who came close. But through it all I have noticed a couple of things this year and I thought now would be a good time to pass them along.

One of the first things I would like to point out is the fact that the Summit Racing Series ET national finals are just around the corner. All of the divisions have finalized their teams and there are some familiar names on the rosters. In Division 2 Edmond Richardson and Chad Isley will lead a very formidable team to Pomona following their wins in Atlanta earlier this month. Edmond, who has won just about everything in the sport, took Super Pro honors while Chad grabbed the top spot in the motorcycle class. Edmond won the Summit national championship in 2011 while Chad has been to Pomona a couple of times and has been to the final round so he knows what it takes to do well at the bracket championships. Along with Dylon Kiser and Marshall York it looks like the D-2 team will be very strong.

A.J. Percival celebrates E.T. final win in Topeka.
Photo copyright 2013 Barry Bergeron, Eagle Eye Photography
A.J. Percival who has won on the NHRA national event stage will make his first appearance at the Summit Series championship event thanks to his win over Mike Campbell in the Super Pro category. A.J. will be part of the D-5 team that will also include Reno Loeffelholz, Alix Risse and Jon Haney. All four will be making their Pomona debut in the Summit series and it should be a fun experience for all of them. The Division 6 team will include Jeff Havens who won the crown in the bike class to earn his second consecutive trip to the big show in Pomona. Normally when a guy wins he talks about how much he liked his opponent and how he wishes they could both go to California. Well, in this case it is probably true because Jeff earned the win when he beat his son, Jacob, in the final round. Another driver who continues to impress is Jeff Hefler. Jeff, who has won ten NHRA national events, won the Division 4 Summit Series championships last weekend and earned a trip to the finals in Pomona. This will be Jeff's fourth trip to the Summit Series final round and he has to be considered one of the favorites to win it all. When you talk about some of the most versatile and talented racers in the sport Jeff's name has to be in the conversation.

Donnie Durenberger won Super Street
at the Sportsnationals.
Another thing that caught my eye, besides all the division bracket finals that were being held, was the win by Donnie Durenberger at the Sportsnationals in Columbus. Donnie, who is one of the best motorcycle riders in the country and who has been to the Summit Series finals before, won his first NHRA national event in a car when he took the Super Street crown in Ohio. Donnie had won on the divisional level before and now he has a national event "Wally" to add to his collection. There are a lot of good drivers across the country but when you are a multi-time division champ on a motorcycle and now win a national event in a car you have to rank right up there with the best.

Congratulations to Mikael Lind from Sweden for setting the D/SA national record at the recent National Open in Indianapolis. To the best of my knowledge, and someone will correct me if I'm wrong, Mikael is the first Swede to set an NHRA record since Roland Forsberg did it in 1991 with his incredible A/D. Even if Mikael isn't the first since then congrats for a job well done. At that same event the father and son team of Ernie and David Neal also set national records and that's very rare, too.

Mikael Lind set the D/SA national record.
Photo copyright 2013 Kevin Pepera
With the season winding down I found it interesting that the two likely national champs in the alky classes are both going to retire after this year. At least they are not going to drive their regular cars in 2014. Jim Whiteley, who has a hammer lock on the Top Alcohol Dragster class, has announced that he will not chase the points again next year. That's bad news for drag racing fans but good news for the other racers in the alky dragster class. Sure, they will all say that they will miss Jim but let's face it, with him out of the way it opens the class up for a new champ next year. Jim will still be active in the sport just not behind the wheel of his familiar Y-Not Racing dragster. The same holds true for Frank Manzo, who looks like he is well on his way to a record-setting seventeenth national championship. Frank has said that he won't be driving next year but he will stay involved in the sport. Hey, now that I think of it didn't Rickie Smith say that he was done after he clinched the Pro Mod crown a few weeks back? And isn't he going to drive again this year? By the way, Frank is entered for the race this weekend and it will be the first time he has ever raced at the national event in Las Vegas. Eight of the top ten teams from last year are entered in the Top Alcohol Funny Car field for this weekend and so are seven of the drivers who are currently in the top ten in the class so that should be some shootout at a race that has almost 600 cars and just about 100% full fields.

Alan Ellis
With all of those cars in Las Vegas and the Lucas Oil championships still up in the air there are a couple of classes that you should keep a close eye on this week. One of them is Competition Eliminator where Bruno Massel leads Alan Ellis by twenty-three points. Bruno, a two-time champion, is out of races to claim while Alan can add points this week and at the divisional race next week in Vegas. Since he is replacing a third round at a national event and a second round on the divisional level Alan has a lot of room for improvement. While Bruno prepares for his Pro Stock debut in two weeks in Pomona and is not on the entry list for Las Vegas (at this time) Alan will look to add to his total and maybe pass Bruno this week. One interesting note about the Comp class this week is the fact that a couple of Division 3 standouts, Brian Browell and Robert Bailey, are both on the entry list. As you know, I love Comp and I would really like to be in the stands to watch Brian and Robert this week, and with them in attendance you could get some great matchups between Comp stars that you would never see at any other race.

Byron Worner
Byron Worner's win at the Division 2 race moved him into first place in the Super Stock class and he will be tough to beat now. Dan Fletcher and Jimmy DeFrank both have a shot and they both have the talent and the experience to do it, but according to my calculations they would have to win the division race next week to pass Byron. Jeff Dona also has an outside chance, but like Dan and Jimmy he would have to win one more national race, and as far as I can see he isn't entered this week and he isn't on the Pomona list, either. Maybe he's waiting to see how these next two races play out before making a decision about heading west.

He may not win a championship this year but you have to give Kyle Cultrera a lot of credit for what he has done. Kyle has put himself in the top ten in two classes and that's quite an accomplishment. Now I know that several drivers have done that before but it's rare to see someone do it in Competition Eliminator and Super Comp. That's impressive and he should be proud of the year he has put together and I know that his father is. Nice job, Kyle.

Kyle Cultrera
Another driver to keep your eye on this week is Rick Beckstrom. Rick is in second place in the highly competitive Super Gas category and he is just ten points behind the leader, Jason Lynch. Rick can still count both Las Vegas and Pomona and all he has to do is make it to the fifth round at either of those races to take the lead. I say "all" like it's an easy deal, which it isn't, but Rick always does well in Vegas and Pomona so he could sneak around Jason before the end of the season. Having said that I would still rather be in Jason's position, wouldn't you?

I always thought these two races in Las Vegas, the national event and the divisional a week later, were two of the most exciting of the year because of all the possible scenarios that exist in the point's races. If you're there enjoy it, and if you can't make it follow all of the action, round-by-round, right here on DragRaceCeantral.com. It should be fun!