Wed, 26 Jul 2006, 05:37 PM I'm A Believer!!

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2006 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Schumacher vs Grubnic

A few weeks ago I, and I'm sure a lot of other folks, thought that Tony Schumacher's Army team had about as much chance of winning the Top Fuel championship as, well, "Kansas" John Wiebe. And since John hasn't raced a car in about twenty years, and as far as I know has no plans to race one this year, you can pretty much figure out what I thought about Tony's chances. Now, after going to the final round at three consecutive races, and after winning two of them, Tony is right back in the thick of things and he has a real shot at a third consecutive championship. Of course, Doug Kalitta, Melanie Troxel and Brandon Bernstein will all have something to say about that and they can all make a statement this weekend at Infineon Raceway. With his win over Dave Grubnic in Seattle Tony moved to within 150 points of the leader, or about seven and a half rounds, and that's not a lot for a team the caliber of that Army team. The real trouble for Tony and his crew chief, Alan Johnson, will be dealing with the fact that there are three teams in front of him and not just one. After all, you can't expect all three of them to just roll over and let the Army team come through, can you? It should make for an interesting battle and the race this weekend will be huge in the overall realm of things in the Top Fuel point's battle....Here are the cold hard facts behind Tony's amazing run. Since the Chicago

Doug Kalitta

race, and over the span of the last four events, Tony has won twelve rounds, Doug Kalitta has won six, Brandon Bernstein has won five and Melanie has won one. You do the math. Tony has come from 336 points behind to his current level of 150 points and if he gains ground on the leaders this weekend it really will be a great run down the stretch....If there ever was a place for Doug and the MAC Tools car to make a statement it would be at Infineon Raceway. Did you know that Doug won his first race there back in 1998 and since then he has added four more wins at the California track? His five wins, including one over Tony in 1999, ranks as the best in the dragster class and is second only to John Force's six wins in any class. It should be fun to watch and this weekend's events could go a long way toward deciding who wins the 2006 POWERade Top Fuel championship....I spoke with Alan Johnson after the Seattle race when I did an interview with him for the POWERade podcast, and it was interesting to hear how his determination and resolve never wavered during the team's rough start. Even Tony, ever the optimist, told me on another podcast interview that he always knew that "AJ" would get it figured out and that his team would be a contender before the year was over. Like I said, they've made a believer out of me...It was interesting to hear Alan talk about the bye run that he got when Alan Bradshaw and the Bill Miller Engineering team couldn't show for round two. "I can't remember if I ever had a bye run like that," Alan said. Well, that got me thinking and the best that I could find was that the last time an Alan Johnson prepared team had a bye run was back in 1996 when Alan and his brother, Blaine, qualified number one at the Phoenix race and they were scheduled to race Robert Reehl in round one. When Robert didn't show up for the first round encounter, Blaine got the bye run. Historically, there are not a lot of bye runs in a Top Fuel elimination program... JR Todd and his Skull Shine team, with crew chief Jimmy Walsh, aren't in the hunt for the championship but they sure could have a lot to do with who does win it. They have been among the hottest teams out there over the past few races and right now I'm not sure that any of the contenders want to race them in the early rounds on Sunday, or in any round for that matter. I know that Tony was aware of what JR could do when he lined up against him in the semi-finals last weekend. "Sure I remembered what he did to us the week before," Tony said referring to the final round in Denver. "And we didn't want that to happen again." Tony won in a tire-smoking contest with JR and that showed what a great team the Army has. If Alan doesn't beat

David Baca

you with horsepower, like he did in round one against Bob Vandergriff with a stunning 4.599, Tony can beat you with his driving..David Baca, a northern California native, will return to one of his favorite tracks this weekend. Did you know that David won the first race of his career at what was then called Sears Point in 1989? David won the Top Alcohol Funny Car class over Brad Anderson at the Division 7 race that year. And did you know that David also went to his first final round in Top Fuel at Infineon Raceway in 2003? Maybe he can manage another first with his first professional win this weekend. David has been running well lately with the Mach 1 machine and it's only a matter of time before he wins one of these....Hillary Will also recorded a first at Infineon Raceway. Did you know that she went to the first final round of her drag racing career when she made it to the Super Street final round at the D-7 race in 1999?....Aaron Olivarez, who has been racing in the Top Alcohol Dragster class this year, stopped by the ESPN booth during the sportsman show on Sunday and announced that he has signed a deal that will enable him to race Top Fuel next year. While he didn't say who the sponsor was he did say that the official announcement should come very soon, maybe even as early as this week. Now all we have to do is wait and see what Steve Torrence has planned for the future.

Bazemore vs Capps

The Funny Cars running out of "Team Schumacher" had a very good weekend in Seattle with Mike Ashley qualifying a career-best fourth, with Gary Scelzi beating John Force in round one and with Whit Bazemore and Ron Capps both going to the final round. Whit managed to win the race, his first of the year, and Ron managed to extend his point's lead over John Force to eighty-eight so it really couldn't get much better for those teams. For Whit, the win was the twentieth of his career and that places him eighth on the all-time list and it extends Whit's streak to ten consecutive years with at least one win. The victory also gave crew chief, Todd Okuhara his first win as a crew chief. As important as Whit's win was for him, Todd and the entire Matco Tools team, Gary's win over John was just as important for team "Don." Gary has now stopped John at two consecutive races and that's surprising when you consider that the two of them hadn't even raced each other for over a year. But if that "team concept" is going to work out for Don Schumacher, this is exactly what has to happen, that is, Don's cars have to win and along the way they have to take out the other contenders, namely the "Team Force" cars. Did you know that so far this year John is 5 - 7 against Capps, Scelzi and Bazemore?...Tony Pedregon went to the semi-finals in

Pedregon vs Hight

Seattle and with that performance he moved to within one point of Robert Hight in the battle for third place in the standings. Did you know that this is the best showing for Tony since his championship year of 2003? Robert, meanwhile, continued the "curse of the number one qualifiers" in the fuel classes this year. Did you know that the top qualifier has not won a race this year in either Top Fuel or Funny Car? And did you know that you have to go all the way back to Brainerd of last year to find the last time that the number one qualifier won in the Funny Car class? Eric Medlen turned the trick there and that's the last time the top qualifier in Funny Car went four rounds on Sunday....John Force, whose television show the "Driving Force" is doing extremely well on the A & E network, is still in the chase for the title despite that first round loss in Seattle and despite the fact that he has only won one race so far this season. Just like Doug Kalitta, who is coming to a track he likes, John loves racing and winning at Infineon Raceway and I expect him to rebound from the opening round loss to Gary last week. I also look for the Brut team to fight off any challenge from John or anyone else who wants to replace them at the top of the pack. Just for the record, Ron leads the way with his five wins while John is only a few rounds back despite the fact that he only has one win this year. For Ron, did you know that his eight final round appearances are the best for his entire career? He had been to seven finals several times but, even with nine races to go, Ron has already set a career high in the number of final round appearances....Just like the Top Fuel class, this is an important weekend for Ron and John and any other team that wants to run for the championship. Although, as I have said numerous times, it will take a great stretch drive for anyone to challenge the top two guys in the FC class. Of course, I believe I said that about Top Fuel at one time, too, didn't I?

Jason Line

As hard as it was to believe, after one round in Seattle the top seven teams in the Pro Stock points were on the sidelines. Six of them lost in round one while the seventh, Erica Enders, failed to qualify. That, in a nutshell, should tell you how competitive the Pro Stock class is this year. Jason Line has taken over the points lead while his teammate, Greg Anderson, is in second place. When both of them lost in round one last week it opened the door for Dave Connolly to make a big move but a broken engine kept him from advancing and it kept the points rather stagnant following the fourteenth race of the season. Kurt Johnson, who is in fifth place right now, is 168 points behind the leader and that's just about as close as Tony is in Top Fuel. Using that logic you have to figure that there are five teams, and maybe six if you include Mike Edwards who is just a round behind Kurt, who could make a run for the title in Pro Stock. And just who is the favorite right now? Well, your guess is as good as mine although right now it looks like Jason has the best car, Dave's been doing the best job on the line while Allen Johnson, who won in Seattle, has been good both on the track and on the line so he could be a factor down the stretch. Allen told me after the race in Seattle that he and his

Johnson vs Martino

dad have "really found some power" and they should be able to run with anyone the rest of the year. Did you know that when he qualified third at Seattle it marked the eight consecutive race where he has been in the top half of the field? And did you know that only Greg Anderson has a better record over that period of time? With that in mind, and the fact that Allen has accounted for two of the last three wins by a Mopar Pro Stock car, he should be considered a factor at every race for the rest of the year....Tom Martino, Richard Maskin and Bob Glidden certainly brought a pretty good race car to Seattle, didn't they? Of course when Tom got a little loose at the end of his run in round one and when Ron Krisher jumped out to a big lead in round two it almost looked like Tom's day would end early a couple of times. On average Tom is having a pretty good year with three races entered resulting in a win, a runner-up and a DNQ. Average that out over a full season and you have the stuff that championships re made of. It will be interesting to see how Tom does this weekend at a track where he has won in the past. And just how long do you think Greg Anderson will go without another win?

Tommy Gaynor

The sportsman racers provided their own kind of excitement in Seattle and a lot of that came in the form of five drivers who won their first national event. Only Sean O'Bannon, Brian Hough and Kevin Kleineweber had won before while Jirka Kaplan, John Hennessay, Tommy Gaynor, Ross Souza and John Dalrymple all won for the first time. If you get a chance to watch the sportsman show on ESPN this weekend you may get to see Tommy Gaynor's cartwheel at the end of the track. Tommy, who said that he modeled his gymnastic career after that of Gary Scelzi, put on quite a display and it's always great to see a racer enjoying himself, especially after he wins his first race..With his win Sean O'Bannon made quite a statement and that statement is "I'm running for the championship." Even after blowing an engine during eliminations, Sean came back to win the race and establish himself as the driver of the best supercharged car in the class this year. Now if he can go rounds this weekend he could leave Sonoma as the point's leader. Stay tuned.