Larry Dixon

David Baca

Another Top Fuel team that has made some progress over the past few races will be having a homecoming of sorts this weekend. The “American Racing” car of Rick Henkelman and David Baca will be running in front of the home crowd and maybe that will propel them to their first win of the year. With a couple of round wins at the last two races the team has begun an upward movement in the points and they now sit in 8^th place just twelve points out of seventh place and only sixteen points out of sixth. And, if anyone should know this track it’s the two guys from the bay area. Did you know that David Baca won his first NHRA divisional race at this track back in 1989? He did it in the alcohol funny car class and he beat Brad Anderson in the final. Brad, by the way, had beaten a guy by the name of Rick Henkelman in the first round of that race while some guy named Cruz Pedregon was the runner-up in the alcohol dragster class at that event. All of that kind of got lost in the shuffle though because that is the race where Steve Faria ran the first five-second run in an alcohol dragster, but all in all it was still a good weekend for David. With a bunch of folks from American Racing on hand, as well as a lot of their friends and family, let’s hope for a good weekend for the H & B team in Sonoma…..The track at Infineon currently has one of the longest standing track records in the dragster class, a 4.552 that was set by Bob Vandergriff back in 1999. Ray Alley was the crew chief on that car if my memory serves me correctly. And the track speed mark is 320.74 and it’s held by Tony Schumacher and it was also set in 1999. What are the odds that those two marks are still standing by the end of the event?

John Force will be looking to go to his 5^th final round in a row when he strolls (or struts) into Sonoma this weekend. After four consecutive final round appearances the champ is now up to third place in the points, an amazing recovery after his brutal start. Did you know that the last time John went to five straight finals was back in the 1996 season, a year when he clinched the championship at Indy, I believe. At that time John actually strung together seven finals in a row, six of them being wins with the only runner-up spot coming at, you guessed it, Sonoma. Right now, in case you’re counting, John is 178 points behind Whit Bazemore in the battle for second place and he’s 241 points behind the leader, Tony Pedregon. Whit, by the way, has shaved a healthy 80 points off Tony’s lead since the St. Louis race, but he has also lost ground to John Force. So, what once appeared to be a two car battle for the title now has to be considered a three car joust, especially when the third car is driven by John Force and I never thought I’d being saying

Rendering of the Skuza Meat Loaf car.

that this year….Dean Skuza, who has fouled out at the last two races, will be partial to meat loaf this weekend. Actually, that should be Meat Loaf with a capital “M” and “L.” The singer turned pop culture icon will be at the track with Dean and his picture (Meat’s…or is it Loaf’s?...whatever) will be on the side of Dean’s car. The “Cornwell Tools” car really has been running better lately and if Dean can see green he may be able to see the winner’s circle this weekend and then it’s free meat loaf for everyone. OK, free cheeseburgers. Those red lights are very unusual for Dean since he only had six of them in his entire career before this western swing started. Did you know that only once, in 1994, had Dean ever fouled out twice in an entire season, let alone at consecutive races? For his sake, and for everyone who loves meat loaf (or Meat Loaf), let’s hope that he’s got that fouling all out of his system now. One more thing before we leave Dean. Just to show you how much improved he has been over the past three races, did you know that he has qualified in the top half of the field at each of those events, and that it’s the first time he’s done that since the end of the 2001 season? Nice going, Dean….The Funny Car point’s leader has something in common with the Top Fuel leader. Did you know that Tony Pedregon has never won a race in Sonoma, either? And just to wrap all of this up in one neat little package, Tony did make it to the final round in 2000 where he lost when he fouled out, after beating Dean Skuza the round before when Dean fouled out. Amazing…

Greg Anderson

Just to complete the deal, Greg Anderson, the Pro Stock point’s leader has never won at Infineon Raceway, either. Of course he has only raced there twice and he has a round one loss and a runner-up to his credit at those two events. The runner-up spot was last year when he lost the closest race of the year to Larry Morgan, a .0002 margin of victory. It’s interesting that Morgan and Anderson have only faced each other twice in their careers and both times it was in a final round, last year at Infineon and last week in Seattle. If Larry is harboring any thoughts of repeating his 2002 win he may want to think about this, Darrell Alderman is the only Pro Stock driver to win this event in consecutive years and he did it in 1990 & 1991. Good luck, Larry. Of course Harry Scribner also won this race and Dester Cambron went to the final round so it should be anyone’s race this weekend…..In case you didn’t notice, Greg Stanfield has moved into the POWERade Top 10 in the Pro Stock class for the first time since Pomona. Congrats to the Bart Price team for their climb from the 17^th spot after Houston. And did you know that was an old Tom Martino car that Nick Drazyich was driving this weekend in Seattle? Equipped with a Warren Johnson motor, Nick almost made the field and you’ll be able to read more about him this Thursday in my “From The Tower” column….The bikes return to action in Sonoma and watch for a renewed spirit among the U.S. Army team. While both Angelle Savoie and Antron Brown lost in Denver, look for them to rebound well this weekend. Steve Tartaglia, who has a vast knowledge of the bikes and who has worked for the Vance & Hines team for years, is now on the Army team to help Mark Peiser and that should be a huge plus for the duo…..And if you see some really happy young dude riding his custom street cruiser into the track at Infineon this weekend, that’ll be the Pro Stock Bike point’s leader Geno Scali (who has never won there). Geno took some time off after Denver and hopped on his specially made bike and should be cruising into Sonoma right about now.

And I know he may not want me making a big thing of it, but I have to mention one of the greats of all time…Herm Peterson. Herm, who always comes to the Seattle race with a big smile, a great attitude and some wonderful stories about both racing and fishing, came this time with a story of some health problems that he is having. After all he has been through Herm has learned that he needs a liver transplant and he is waiting for all of the details to be worked out. Herm has been such an inspiration to a lot of us and I ask you to keep him in your thoughts and prayers. The world needs more people like Herm Peterson and the sport of drag racing is much better because of him….Now, before I forget, the other two tracks where Larry Dixon has never won, are St. Louis and Maple Grove. There, now you know!!

By Bob Frey