Tue, 18 Sep 2001, 05:22 PM
Life, And Racing, Do Go On
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By Bob Frey
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It’s been a week since the tragedies in New York and Washington, and, as you all
know, like most of America, virtually all of the sports industry came to a halt last
Tuesday. Now, for most of us, it’s back to our normal routine. And that’s not
because anyone is less caring, less concerned or less saddened by the incidents, but
because life must go on. So, with that in mind, let’s take a look at where we stand
as the NHRA Winston tour heads in to Memphis this weekend.
Of course, Memphis, like it or not, will always be remembered for some of the most
spectacular accidents and incidents in NHRA’s history. It was here, years ago, that
John Force "saw Elvis at 1,000 feet." That single crash, fire and
flip, maybe more than any others in his career, defined John and helped create
and/or perpetuate the image that surrounds him to this day. That, despite the fact
that it’s been years, literally, since John has had a really bad crash or fire. It
was in Memphis that Jerry Caminto hit the wall, went over the wall or through
the wall at 260 mph. And, of course, it was in Memphis, just last year, that both
Larry Dixon and Tony Schumacher had their horrendous accidents. Forget
the fact that Scott Geoffrion set the national Pro Stock record in Memphis
last year, or that John Force and Kenny Bernstein both set Funny Car records
at the track in previous seasons, Memphis will always be remembered for some of the
more spectacular moments in NHRA’s 50 years.
Larry Dixon
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As we head into Memphis, it seems like the
Top Fuel battle will come down to
two guys, Kenny Bernstein and Larry Dixon. Although several other teams have a
mathematical chance to win it, if the title goes to anyone other than those two, I
would be stunned. Even
Gary Scelzi, right now, admits that he is, basically,
running for third place. Kenny, who led the points for quite some time, has slowed
just a bit over the last few races, while Larry has put back-to-back wins on the
board. Kenny, of course, had his own incident in Memphis in 1999, when he crashed in
the second round and was unable to return. And, I believe, that single incident
probably kept Kenny from winning the title that year. With all of his success,
did you know that Kenny Bernstein has never won in Memphis in Top
Fuel? In fact, he only has one final round appearance in the dragster class at all,
and that was in 1998. True, he did win in Funny Car, but that was way back in 1989.
Larry hasn’t fared much better at this facility, but at least he has been to two
finals, in ’97 and last year. Of course, Larry has never won three races in a row,
but, for him and the rest of the Miller Lite team, this would be a great time to set
a new, team record, wouldn’t it? Dixon’s car, with
Dick LaHaie tuning, has
been the hottest car on the track lately, and not only in winning races.
Did
you know that Larry has set the low elapsed time in each of the last eight
rounds of racing? Plus, he had the quickest times in the last two rounds of
qualifying at Indy, so, I’d say, he is the man to beat this weekend. Also,
did
you know that Larry hasn’t lost in the first round since the Houston race at
the end of last year? That’s a string of 19 races in a row without an opening round
loss and, if you look at the points, he leads Kenny by 45, that’s huge. Kenny, by
comparison, has dropped two, round one encounters this year, including the red light
at the Winternationals. Just winning those two rounds would have meant another 40
points for the "King," and, well, you do the math.….Now, if you want to
pick a "sleeper" in the field this weekend, how about
Mike Dunn?
Did you know that Mike has won in Memphis in both Top Fuel and
Funny Car? He took the FC title in 1991 (over
Tom Hoover), and won in TF in
1996, beating
Joe Amato. Plus, he added a runner-up finish in 1995, losing to
Cory McClenathan. Of course,
Darrell Gwynn also won there in 1988, so
the team has a history of success in Tennessee, and, coming off their Indy
performance, you have to like their chances.
Whit Bazemore
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In Funny Car, as hard as it may be to believe,
Whit Bazemore has, all of a
sudden, made a race of the points chase. OK, so maybe saying it’s a "race"
is a little strong, but he has certainly gotten everyone’s attention over the past
six weeks. Still, as well as he has done,
did you know
that he has only trimmed 111 points off of the lead that John had prior to the
Pep Boys Nationals in Pomona? And most of that came at Indy where Whit won
and John went out in the first round. Whit is still 243 points out of first place,
and, even though he’s climbed from 6
th to 2
nd in the
standings, he has a long way to go to really make this a race.
Did you
know that the 243-point deficit is the closest anyone has been to John since
after the Topeka race in May? At that time,
Ron Capps was in second place and
was, believe it or not, 243 points back, the same as Whit is today.
Did you
know that five, different drivers have been in second place this year?
Obviously, Whit and Ron are two of them, but, so are
Del Worsham,
Bruce
Sarver and John Force. If Whit, and the rest of the Funny Car guys have any
hope, it may come from the fact that John has lost in the first round at two of the
past three races. John has already lost four times in the first round this year,
and,
did you know, that that is the most times he’s gone out in round
one in any year since 1990? And,
did you know that the last time that
he went out in the first round in consecutive races was in 1999 when he lost at
Maple Grove the race after he lost in round one at Indy. Hmmmmm…..
Tommy
Johnson could be the spoiler here, since he, like Dunn, has won at Memphis in
both fuel classes.
Warren Johnson
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The Pro Stock battle, like Top Fuel, appears to be a two-car deal, also.
Warren
Johnson is just 80 points, or four rounds, in front of
Jim Yates heading
into Memphis. And Yates, in an effort to bolster his title hopes, has re-hired
Rickie Smith to drive a second car and serve as the crew chief on both
vehicles. Contrary to some rumors that are going around,
Richard Maskin is
not doing the engines for Yates,
Bob Ingles is. W.J. has had great success in
Memphis, winning the race four times, one of them coming over Yates back in 1996. Of
course, you have to watch the Dodges here too, since
Darrell Alderman and
Mark Osborne have both been to the finals, with D.A. winning in 1994. And, it
was here last year, that Scott Geoffrion stunned everyone with a national record in
the class with his Mopar
….Jeg Coughlin should be competing this week with a
complete, "top to bottom" engine from the Jeg’s in-house engine shop.
Mike Coughlin used that home built power to win at Indy and, ironically, this
is one team who may have actually benefited from the week off. Now, the yellow and
black team can come with four cars and trucks all with Jeg’s power, ready and rarin’
to go.
Did you know that it was here, last year, where Jeggie locked
up his first NHRA Winston Championship? With Jeg not making the field at Indy, his
consecutive qualifying streak came to an end at 55 races in a row.
Did you
know that the second, longest, consecutive qualifying streak in Pro Stock
now belongs to
Ron Krisher, who has made the cut 41 times in a row? W.J.
leads the way, and the sport, with 282 straight, and, as you may know, his last DNQ
came at the Gatornationals in 1987. But,
did you know that there are
only two drivers who made that ’87 Gators’ field who are still racing? Do you know
who they are? I’ll give you a hint, they have both been to final rounds this year.
Give up? Well, I’ll tell you at the end of this column. No cheating…In addition to
Mike Coughlin, the defending Memphis champion, the rest of the Pro Stock Truck
brigade will be in town and that point’s battle is a three-way affair, with
Bob
Panella,
Randy Daniels and
Greg Stanfield all having a chance to
win it. Randy certainly helped himself with a first round win over Greg at Indy, and
a semi-final round win over Panella. In between, he beat Bob’s teammate,
Jeff
Gracia. With only four races left in the season for the trucks, Memphis will be
big, very big.
Speaking of big, the weather should be considerably better this year in Memphis than
it has been in the past couple of years. The cold weather last year may not have
been the only factor in the freak occurrences, but it certainly didn’t help. Even
Bob Gilbertson, who is fighting for a spot in the Winston Top 10 in Funny
Car, was a victim of the cold in Memphis, when his windshield caved in on his last
qualifying run, cracking, Paul Smith said, because it was just too, cold.
Brrrrr…Now, the two guys who qualified when Warren Johnson could not at the 1987
Gatornationals, were Bruce Allen and Darrell Alderman, and they’re the only
two from that field who are still racing regularly…. Finally, I understand that one
of Kenny Koretsky’s cars (his), was totaled in a testing accident this past
week. Kenny wasn’t driving, but his status is up in the air for this week, and the
rest of the year. By the way, Kenny didn’t qualify for that ’87 Florida field,
either. He was 34th…Let’s hope and pray for a good, safe race this
weekend, and let’s never forget the folks who were immediately touched by the
tragedies of last week.
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