Wed, 18 Oct 2006, 07:47 AM
I Told You So
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By Bob Frey
Photo copyright 2006 Auto Imagery, Inc.
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Line and team celebrate win.
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A few weeks ago, before the first weekend in
Richmond, I told you that
the Pro Stock drivers who had tested at
Virginia
Motorsports Park liked the track so much that they said we should see a 6.5
run at the event. What they didn't tell me was that there would be so many. A
full twenty-four Pro Stock drivers recorded their personal best numbers, either
elapsed time, speed or both, at the
Torco
Racing Fuels Nationals this past weekend. The barrage was so stunning that,
coming into the race there had not been a single run in the 6.5 range, and now
all of the top ten runs in the class are 6.5 seconds. It was simply amazing.
The leader of the pack, of course, was
Jason
Line who not only set the national record for the second consecutive event,
but he won the race, got the maximum (138) points and is now the leader in the
clubhouse in the battle for the
POWERade
Championship. With two races to go Jason has increased his lead to a
healthy 119 points over his teammate,
Greg
Anderson. The two
Summit Racing
Pontiacs have been the best cars all year long from a performance
Line vs Anderson
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standpoint and it now looks like Jason may be the heir apparent to the Pro
Stock throne that has been held by Greg for the last three years. Wasn't it
John Force who once said of
Tony Pedregon "I've hired my own assassin?"
That same line could apply to Greg right now, couldn't it? The fact that Jason
has set the record at consecutive events can't be lost in this championship
battle since that accounts for forty points, or two rounds. And just how tough
is it to set a Pro Stock elapsed time record at back-to-back events? Well,
did you know that the last time that was accomplished was back in
1990 when
Darrell Alderman did it at
Topeka and
Dallas? And
did you know that in the history
of the Pro Stock class, which began in 1970, a driver has set the national
elapsed time record at consecutive national races a grand total of six times.
Jason and Darrell did it and so did
Larry
Lombardo in 1976 (Englishtown and
Sanair),
Bob Glidden in 1975 (
Pomona and
Gainesville) and both
Don Nicholson (
Pomona and
Gainesville) and
Wayne Gapp in 1973 (
Amarillo
and
Ontario).
That's how good Jason's car is right now. The 138 point effort was the first
for Jason and that makes him only the fourth Pro Stock driver to do that. Greg
has done it once,
Warren Johnson did
it five times and the great Bob Glidden did it an amazing fourteen times.
That's how good Bob was. Anyway, now that all the shouting has died down, you
have to like Jason's chances of becoming just the fourteenth driver to win the
Pro Stock championship since the class began thirty-six years ago. I know, it's
not over yet, but if anyone wants to take Greg you can catch up with me at the
Bob Glidden
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tower in
Las Vegas
on Thursday and we can make a little wager. For amusement purposes only, of
course...If he holds on and wins the title Jason will join drivers like
Jeg Coughlin,
Ronnie Sox and
Mike Fons
as guys who won the Pro Stock championship after winning a sportsman crown,
too. Of course Ronnie and Mike won their sportsman crowns back in the 1960's
before Pro Stock was a class, while Jeggie won the Super Gas championship in
1992 to go with his two Pro Stock titles. Jason, for those who may not know,
won the Stock Eliminator national championship in 1993....
Tom Martino, who was in the other lane when Jason won the event,
has had several good years in the Pro Stock class but 2006 has to be among his
Tom Martino
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best. Despite not running all of the events Tom has been to three final rounds
with a win at
Gainesville
earlier this year. Along with car owner,
Richard
Maskin, and their primary sponsor
Knoll
Gas & Energy, they have done very well and let's hope this team starts
the 2007 season out in
Pomona
because they could be a real factor in the title chase next year.
Did you know that this is the
third time that Tom has been to three finals in the same year? He did it back
in 1997 and 1998 in addition to this year. The final round was also the fifteenth
of his career which moved him past his idol,
Bill Jenkins, and ties him with Wayne Gapp on the all-time list..By
the way, you may have read (but not here) that
Ken Black, who owns the cars that Greg and Jason drive, was
thinking about bringing out two more cars because of the new point system for
next year. Well, that simply isn't going to happen and never was. "Greg and
Jason would kill me if I did that," Ken told me Sunday. "The amount of work
involved in something like that is unbelievable not to mention the expense. I
was just making on off-handed comment about what I might do because that points
thing narrows it down to four cars for the final two races of the year next
season, and anyone who heard it should have known that's just what it was.
Believe me, it was never a consideration, not for a moment." There, another
internet rumor put to rest...maybe!
John Force
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John Force,
Ron Capps
and
Robert Hight, the three guys
battling for the Funny Car championship, didn't win the race in
Virginia,
Eric Medlen did, and in the process
Eric and the
Castrol Syntec team
moved into fourth place in the standings. At the same time, Ron went out in
round one, Robert in round two and John a round later which means that John now
leads the pack by forty-six points over Ron and by fifty-four over Robert. A
quick look at those numbers means that we should have a points battle going
into
Pomona.
The only thing we don't know is which teams and how many will be involved in
it. Eric, who won from the number one spot, did everything but set top speed en
route to the win and he certainly seemed to have the best car on race day.
Along with his father, John, and the rest of the Syntec crew, Eric bunched four
runs between 4.831 and 4.795 on Sunday and that's tough to beat. Sure, a couple
of other cars ran better, but none ran longer than Eric.
Scott Kalitta and the
Toyota team,
ran 4.808 in round one while John went 4.828 and Robert logged a 4.760 (which
was low E/T on race day) in the initial stanza, but other than that, Eric had
low elapsed time in every other round and he was the last man standing. Eric's
Pedregon vs Medlen
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opponent in the final round,
Cruz
Pedregon, was trying to duplicate the feat that his brother, Tony, did
earlier this year and that was to beat all three of the Team Force cars on the
same day. Tony did it in
Atlanta
and, to date, he is the only guy to stop all three of John's cars at the same
race. Cruz came close, and his 4.873 in the final round kept Eric honest but it
just wasn't enough to beat him....I did a podcast interview with John Force
after the race and it should be available on
NHRA.com and I think you'll find it very interesting and
informative. John talks about his incident at the race when his car blew up and
he was rolling around on the ground at the end of the track. "I need to follow
the instructions that came with my fire suit," he said. "They tell you to
always wear the fire-proof underwear with it and I wasn't and I got burned. I
can tell you that that will never happen again." John also talks about his
daughter, Ashley, who tested yesterday in
Virginia and, from what I heard, it now
looks like she will turn pro next year. At least that's what I took from the
interview and you can judge for yourself by checking it out. John is, as always,
very honest and out spoken and he also talks about the points battle and his
approach to the next two races. Anytime you can get a moment to sit down with
John it's a good thing. Plus, and I know this will make him happy, there are no
edits on the tape so you'll get everything that he said just as he said it.
Good luck to John, Ron and Robert at the next two races..By the way, the Funny
Car class was the only one of the three pro classes that didn't have a single
driver record his personal best this past weekend. What's up with that?
McClenathan and team celebrate win.
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Cory McClenathan's
win was big for him, the
Carrier Boys,
Mark and
Andy, Fram Boost and everyone associated with that
team. After a near miss in
Columbus
earlier this year, Cory finally broke that long, two year drought as he picked
up his 29
th career Top Fuel win which ties him with
Doug Kalitta for sixth place on the
all-time win list. I would also like to add a special thanks to all the folks
at Fram who said earlier this year that they would donate $1000 to
DRAW for every win that their teams
recorded this season. Thanks, Fram, and I ask you, how cool would it be if we
could get every sponsor to do that? Anyway, I digress. The win moved Cory and
the team back into the POWERade top ten (ninth) ahead of
JR Todd and less than a round away from
Morgan Lucas who is in eighth place....I have never been able to figure
out why but certain drivers always seem to do well at certain tracks.
Did you know that when the NHRA
tour was in
Virginia
a few years ago Cory won the race three times and was in another final round.
He told me after the race that "you just get into a comfort zone at certain
tracks and this is one for me." I guess it is, Cory. Nice job by the entire
team who vowed not to smoke the tires in the final round. "We want to go down
the track and if they beat us, fine, but we don't want to beat ourselves,"
Wes Cerny said. By the way, there
aren't many guys, or any guys, who have sent more fuel cars down the track over
the course of the years than Wes Cerny has?
Did
you know that Wes Cerny, along with his partner,
Don Moody, set the national Top Fuel record at the "Last Drag Race"
at Lions Dragway in 1972?
They also set
records at
Orange
County, Irwindale and
Carlsbad that same year.
Prior to that last drag race, almost immediately prior to that, the team also
won the big National Challenge event in
Tulsa
and the NHRA Supernationals. That was one, tough team. Anyway, congrats to the
Tony Schumacher
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team for winning this weekend and, if you'd like to hear from the owners of the
Fram Boost car, the POWERade podcasts this week will also include an interview
with Mark and Andy Carrier...
Tony
Schumacher sure picked a bad time to lose in round one, didn't he? Actually
there is no good time to lose in the first round but, after making a real
charge to the front, or almost to the front of the points, the driver of the
"Army" car was beaten in round one by
David Baca and his
"Mach 1 Air Services" team. That loss, coupled with Doug Kalitta's
semi-final appearance and
Brandon
Bernstein's second round loss (to Doug) means that the
MAC Tools driver is now eighty-three
Melanie Troxel
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points ahead of Brandon, who moved into second place, and eighty-nine up on the
"Sarge."
You need to leave Las Vegas
with a 139 point advantage so it looks like the Top Fuel battle will carry over
to Pomona, although Doug could wrap it up in Vegas if everything falls into
place for him....
Melanie Troxel
continued to pile up the awards this year when she was named the "Sportswoman
of the Year" by the Women's Sports Foundation last night. In a gala affair at
the Waldorf-Astoria in
New York,
Melanie picked up the award and she added her name to a rather impressive list
of female athletes that includes
Annika
Sorenstam, Juli Inkster, Steffi Graf and
others
. The award is
richly deserved and congratulations go out to Mel and her team, including owner
Don Schumacher, crew chief
Richard Hogan and everyone on the
Skull Gear/Torco entry.
Frank Manzo
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As impressive as Jason Line's run to the winner's circle was
this weekend I'm not sure that it was even the best performance at the event.
Frank Manzo, who had clinched his tenth
Lucas Oil World Championship at
Maple Grove two weeks
ago, absolutely crushed the competition en route to his win in TA/FC. Frank's
worst run of the weekend, including three in qualifying and four on race day,
was a 5.517 which equaled the best run in the history of the class coming into
the event. Frank ran a best of 5.454 in the semi-finals and all of his runs in
eliminations were in the 5.4-second range. He also made the fastest run in the
history of the class, a stunning 263.26 mph blast in the semi-finals. It was,
in a word, awesome. I can't remember a driver having a weekend that was that
dominating in any class in quite some time...if ever. I asked Frank if he had
ever had a weekend like that and he said "no," and then I asked
Brad Littlefield, the reporter for
National Dragster, and a guy whose dad
has been running in the Top Alcohol Funny Car ranks for years, and he said that
he can't remember such a dominating performance either. And Brad has seen a lot
of alcohol cars go down the track. Oh, by the way,
did you know that Brad's father, Mert, ran at that "Last
Drag Race" that I mentioned earlier? Well he did. Anyway, Frank was almost
perfect and now he can sit back, make a leisurely trip to
California to pick up his hardware and enjoy
what he has accomplished. As a fan of the sport I can honestly say that it was
a pleasure to see that performance....
Bob
Tasca III, the runner-up to
Frank, had a very good weekend, one that would have been a record setting
Bill Reichert
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weekend had it not been for Frank. Bob, who went to four final rounds at national
events this year, ran a best of 5.535 in eliminations and that's really good.
The driver of the
Quick Lane Ford
should be pleased with his year in the class. It's got to be tough running an
alky funny car in the Division 1 area, where Frank makes his living....
Bill Reichert wrapped up the Top
Alcohol Dragster title when he won two rounds in
Virginia. Bill, his wife,
Gloria and son
Andy, have done a great job and this has to be Bill's finest year
ever, and that's saying something since he almost won the whole thing in 2004.
Did you know that Bill lost to
Duane Shields in the second round at
Pomona that year and when
Duane lost to
Mitch Myers in the semis,
Mitch won the championship? In addition to his family, Bill had a lot of help
this year from his sponsor,
Rislone, Bob
Adams, Mike Libengood, Cory Eich, Tom Hammil, Ron Potter and
Steve Hammond....While he didn't win the
race
Ken Perry did make a little
drag racing history when he went 5.255 which is the quickest pass ever by a
supercharged, alcohol burning dragster. Ken also went 5.258 in the first round
before his stunning pass in round two..
Marty
Thacker, the runner-up in the class, also dipped into the 5.20 range, and
he did it three times in eliminations. It was a great race for all of the teams
in the alky dragster class..
Anthony
Fetch won the Stock Eliminator title in
Virginia and that puts him in a very select
group. Not the Stock Eliminator winners, there have been 295 of them, but
drivers who have won division titles in the
Summit Racing E/T Series,
gone to Pomona and won a national event on the Lucas Oil tour. Anthony
represented Division 1 at the Summit Finals in
Pomona in 2000 and, to this day, says it was
"one of the best experiences of my life." Nice going, Anthony, keep up the good
work.
NHRA: 10 Most Recent Entries [ top ]
Apr 23- HOUSTON - Sunday Video
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