Tue, 18 Jun 2013, 23:04 PM
Superman Returns!
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By Bob Frey
Photo copyright 2013 Auto Imagery, Inc.
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Force in the Superman car.
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On a weekend when the new
Superman movie
"Man of
Steel" broke box office records it was only fitting that drag racing's
version of the super hero,
John Force,
returned to the winner's circle. With the win in
Bristol over his own arch enemy,
Cruz Pedregon, John picked up the 135
th
win of his great career and ended one of the longest droughts of his career all
at the same time. We shouldn't lose sight of the fact that he did all of this
in Bristol Tennessee, the same place where he beat everyone, Top Fuel Dragsters
and Funny Cars alike, in 1999 while carrying the Superman colors into battle.
That time it was just for fun and profit, this time it was for points and a
chance to run for another championship in a few months, and possibly for the
chance to show everyone that he still has what it takes to be a winner (not
that anyone ever doubted that)...At the other end of the spectrum in Bristol we
had one of the youngest Top Fuel drivers in the sport,
Steve Torrence, picking up his fourth win overall in the Top Fuel
class, while in Pro Stock
Rodger Brogdon
ended his own long dry spell and earned the first win of his professional
career. All in all it was a super weekend in
Thunder
Valley and now it's on to
New England for the first time, or at least for the first
time as an NHRA national event.
Lee Beard and Steve Torrence
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Anytime John Force does something it's hard not to focus on
that, but let's face it, Steve Torrence and Rodger Brogdon were both drivers
who desperately wanted and maybe needed to win. Steve had gone through the
tough process of dismissing a good friend and crew chief early in the season
and Rodger had been racing Pro Stock cars for a while and was still looking for
that elusive, first-ever national event win. Congratulations to all the winners
in Tennessee who now have just a few days to savor the taste of victory before
racing in New England...Steve Torrence, with veteran tuner Lee Beard calling the shots, didn't have the fastest car on race
day but he did have a very consistent car and that, more often than not, wins
races. He beat Leah Pruett, Shawn Langdon and Clay Millican before stopping the top qualifier, Spencer Massey in the final round. The
racing in the Top Fuel class has been very competitive this year, and with a
combination of weather and track conditions, qualifying itself was very
interesting. Did you know that
eleven different drivers earned at least one bonus point during the four rounds
of qualifying? That's a bunch and it just goes to show you how many good cars
there are in the class. Ok, so some earned the points in wacky sessions, like
Q3 when Leah Pruett and Brittany Force
picked up points with runs of 4.744 and 4.366 respectively, but still, they
earned points on the same track and under the same conditions as everyone else
so I'm sure they'll take it..Steve became the sixth driver to win in the
dragster class this year and all six of them also won a year ago. In 2012 there
were ten winners so we have a way to go before we reach that level, but based
on what we have seen so far it wouldn't surprise anyone if at least ten drivers
visited the winner's circle in 2013. The final round matched the top two
qualifiers, and did you know
that's the first time that has happened at the Bristol
race, and when Steve won it continued a little streak at Thunder Valley.
Did you know that this marks
Bobby Hilton defeated Jeb Allen
at Division 1 point's race in
1980.
Photo copyright 2013 NHRA
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the fourth consecutive year when not a single number one qualifier won in any
of the
Mello Yello classes in
Bristol? And
did you know that this was the
fourth time in his career that Spencer Massey has been involved in a 1 vs. 2
final round and he has only won one of those races?...Top Fuel will return to
New England Dragway as part of the event this week and that will mark the first
time since 1980 that an NHRA Top Fuel race was contested at the track.
Did you know that last time that
happened was at the Division 1 point's race in 1980 and that's when
Bobby Hilton beat
Jeb Allen in the final round? At that same event
Gary Burgin beat
Rick Johnson in the Funny Car class and
Frank Iaconio stopped
Bob
Ingles in Pro Stock..It must be the proximity to Canada or maybe he just
had a weekend off but
Tim Boychuk is
on the entry list this week. Tim has been to seven NHRA national events in the
Top Fuel class but none since 2010. He has, however, distinguished himself on
the
Hot Rod Heritage tour where he
is among the best in the class.
Did
you know that he won the
Bakersfield
race this year and that he recently earned his license to drive jet cars? The
versatile driver will be a welcome addition to the dragster field in
New Hampshire.
Steve Kent and Rodger Brogdon
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Rodger Brogdon
has to be breathing a sigh of relief after finally winning in Pro Stock. I say
that because, despite the fact that he has had a good car for years, he wasn't
able to win four rounds until Sunday in Bristol.
Did you know that in the
history of the Pro Stock class only Gordie
Rivera (109) and Ken Koretsky
(93) had made more race day starts without a win than Rodger had? And Rodger
did it in his 93rd start and he has to be so very happy right now...When
he wheeled his Chevrolet past Erica
Enders-Stevens in the final round did
you know that Rodger became just the 56th driver to win an
NHRA national event in Pro Stock. When you consider the fact that there have
been 720 races in the class that's a very select group to be a part of, isn't
it? When you look at drivers who have won in a Chevrolet the group is,
obviously, smaller, but did you know
how small? Only twenty-two drivers have ever won in Pro Stock driving a
Chevrolet, and Rodger joins a group that includes Joe Lepone, Harry Scribner
and Ray Allen as guys who have only
done it once. Of course Rodger gets another shot this week in New England and
I'm sure he would love to go back-to-back..It will probably be a little to warm
to think about a record this week but did
you know that the Pro Stock record was set twice at the Epping, New
Hampshire track? Bill Jenkins did it
Frank Iaconio (far side) beating Bob Ingles
in the 1980 Pro
Stock final.
Photo copyright 2013 NHRA |
in 1972 with his all-conquering Vega and then
"Dyno Don" Nicholson set the mark there in 1977. Since I mentioned
Bill and Frank Iaconio and the 1980
New England
event I guess it's only fair to mention that Frank beat Bill in round one at
that race. Hey, anytime you can give credit to someone for beating the "Grump"
in round one you should do it. That race helped Frank secure the Division 1
championship in 1980, one of two that he earned in his career..Rodger started
out race day in the number eight spot, and while that means that he was quicker
than half the field it also means he didn't have an easy bracket in
eliminations. As you know the number eight and nine qualifiers race in round
one with the winner getting the winner of the number one vs. sixteen
match, and that is almost always the number one person, and
recently that is almost always
Mike
Edwards. Round one turned out to be the only round that Rodger had lane
choice but it didn't seem to matter, in fact both Mike and
Jason Line (in the semi-finals) had lane choice over Rodger and
both had problems and never mounted a serious charge against him. The final
round race with Erica was a classic with Rodger getting the win by less than a
foot according to our wizards here at
DragRaceCentral...Since
I mentioned the number eight qualifier and how tough it is to win I should
point out that he (or she) has only won seventeen times in the 720 Pro Stock
races and that's just another reason why Rodger should be proud of what he and
his team accomplished in Tennessee..
Did
you know that when Mike Edwards went out in the second round it marked
the third consecutive year that a Pro Stock driver was number one, set low
elapsed time and top speed and still didn't win in Bristol. Like I always say,
that's why we make them go out and run them on Sunday!!....
Tom Martino is a surprise entry this week and it will be
interesting to see how he does. With his partner,
Bob Benza, they have a new engine shop and may be shaking down some
engines for new customers this week. Whatever their reason for going to Epping
is I have always said that when Tom shows up he has a good shot at going some
rounds on Sunday.
Did you know
the last time he raced in competition was in 2009? For his career Tom has been
to fifteen final rounds and that places him 24
th among all Pro Stock
drivers and that's very impressive. Good luck to him this weekend,
John Force defeated Cruz Pedregon
at Bristol in 2007.
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Take nothing away from Steve Torrence or Rodger, and even
though I wasn't there I can imagine that the most popular win on Sunday was the
one John Force got over Cruz Pedregon. This make 135 national event wins for
John and it is also the sixteenth time he has stopped Cruz in the final round. Did you know that is the most
final round wins for John over any opponent that he has raced in his great
career, and the last time John beat Cruz in a final round was at this same
event in 2007?...John started the day from the sixth spot while Cruz was
thirteenth, and if you think winning from the eighth position is hard try
winning when you are lucky number thirteen. Did
you know that in the entire history of the Funny Car class, and that is
725 races, the thirteenth qualifier has won exactly three times and one of them
was in 1985? Maybe it's because of the way the ladder falls or maybe it's just
the fact that when you're thirteenth you're usually just not that competitive,
although we know that certainly isn't the case in recent years in the Funny Car
ranks.Continuing that theme of the last time professional drivers competed in
an NHRA event in Epping, did you know
that three of New England's biggest stars were at that 1980 event that I
mentioned earlier. While Gary Burgin won the race Kosty Ivanoff (the Hungarian Freedom Fighter) Al Segrini and Al Hanna
were all in the eight-car field at Epping and all are part of the great drag
racing history in New England?...Del
Worsham grabbed the top spot in Funny Car in Tennessee and that was the 6th
time that he has done that in his career and he also has seven number one spots
in Top Fuel. Did you know that
Del's Funny
Car number one spots came in 422 races while his dragster ones occurred in just
forty-four events? Actually they all took place in 2011, or in just twenty-two
events, but for record keeping purposes you have to include his earlier races
in the dragster class, too.
John Hall
Photo copyright 2013 NHRA
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Of all the things that will be new this week the Pro Stock
Motorcycles may get the most attention. After all, as I have mentioned, Top
Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock Cars have been part of the New
England racing scene for years, but the bikes will be relatively
new. Of all the entries this week only John
Hall and the veteran Sam Hurwitz
can really call New England home. John is from Connecticut
and Sam, who hasn't raced in years on the NHRA tour, is from Massachusetts..John is currently in fifth
place in the points and he would like to make an upward move this week at his
home track. Sam, on the other hand, may just be out to have a good time since
he hasn't raced since 2005. Let's face it, it's tough to be competitive in any
pro class when you do it every week, but when you only show up once in eight
years it's really difficult..Like Joe
DeSantis, who is still going strong at seventy-one years of age and who is
entered for the event this week, Sam has been at this a long time. He is a
former top ten rider on the AMA ProStar
circuit and I'm sure he will enjoy being back in action even if it is only for
this one race. Did you know
that Sam's first NHRA race came at Columbus
in 1989?
Todd Veney
Photo copyright 2013 David Smith Photos
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Along with all the pro classes there will be a full slate of
Lucas Oil activity this week and
that comes on the heels of three divisional races that were held this past
weekend. Jim Whiteley continued to
run well and he won the race in Denver
over first-time finalist Greg Hunter.
Going into eliminations Jim was running 5.40's and the next best car checked in
with a 5.70 time card...Tony Bartone
took the Funny Car portion of the Denver
race when he beat Jay Payne. Did you
know that was Tony's first win on the regional level since August of
2011?...Back East it was John Finke
and Todd Veney getting the trophies
at the Division 1 race at Lebanon Valley while Ray Martin and Steve
Gasparrelli scored at the D-6 event in Canada..While the alky cars are not
racing in New England there will be a lot of great sportsman racing to go along
with the action in the Mello Yello classes. I hope they have good weather and a
great race in Epping as the NHRA returns to New England Dragway. Oh, and no
traffic jams. Hey, a guy can dream, can't he?
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