Wed, 15 Nov 2006, 11:47 AM WOW!!

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2006 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Schumacher vs Troxel

What can you say about the race, "The Run," the awards ceremony and the last week in general? It was simply the best five days in the sport in quite some time, with the professional and sportsman racers giving us some moments that we will long remember. Of course a lot of talk is and will be, for a long while to come, about Tony Schumacher's final round win over Melanie Troxel and the national record that went with it. His 4.428 final round run, backed up his previous best run, a 4.458 in qualifying, and gave the "Sarge" the national record and, as you all know by now, the 2006 POWERade Top Fuel championship. Tony's come from behind title has to be considered the most amazing in the history of the sport, especially when you consider that he was trying to catch a really good team with a great driver. I spoke with people who were in the grandstands waiting for the run and the general consensus was that he wouldn't do it, he wouldn't both win the race and set the record. I told them that it reminded me of 1967 when I was a young man in the grandstands at Indy waiting for Don Garlits to make his final run. "Big" vowed not to shave his beard until he ran in the six-second zone and not many people thought he would do it. Well, like Tony, Don did it and one of the most legendary moments in the history of the sport was born. Well, another such moment occurred Sunday and if you were in the stands consider yourself among those who witnessed history. And if you were there, like my 1967 tale, you'll never forget it....Speaking of the "Sarge," one of the more interesting moments at the awards ceremony came when Tony said that, while he was in the staging lanes getting ready for the final round, one of his crew members came up and said that they had just received a phone call from Iraq. The call was from soldiers who said that they were circling Bagdad in a Blackhawk helicopter and they were waiting to hear the results of the final round. How neat is that for the driver of the Army Top Fuel car? After the race Tony came up to me and mentioned the article that I wrote last week where I pointed out that the national record had only been set once at the final race of the season. He just held up two fingers and said that the record now had been set twice!!...One of the other poignant moments of the awards ceremony came when we introduced the drivers who finished numbers two through ten in the Top Fuel class. When we got to Doug Kalitta, the entire room stood up in unison and gave Doug a standing ovation that lasted for a long while. Doug is one of the classiest guys in the sport and to lose that way had to be a devastating blow to him and his team, but he handled it with the class of a true champion and the guests at the ceremony let him know just how they feel about him. It was touching and it was very well deserved.

Jeb Allen

Tony's run to the championship is something that will go down in drag racing history as one of the great stories of all time. The fact that he was able to complete the comeback sets him apart from others who came from way behind only to fall short. The most notable would probably be the 1981 title chase which included Jeb Allen, Johnny Abbott and Gary Beck. Jeb led the points coming into the final race but both Johnny and Gary could win if they won the race, set low elapsed time and top speed. Johnny went out in round two but Gary made it to the final round where he won the race, made the quickest run in drag racing history, a 5.573, but came up two miles per hour short of recording top speed and Jeb Allen won the championship by thirty-one points, which would be three points in today's system. And I just thought I would point out that Connie Kalitta was also in that field in 1981..Tony's winning margin this year was fourteen points over Doug. It should also be pointed out that Tony made all four runs in the 4.4 range during eliminations on Sunday and he joins Scott Kalitta as the only guys to do that on race day..Tony said during his acceptance speech that a couple of his guys will be leaving the team next year and that they will be hard to replace. It will be interesting to see how the team responds next year, because no matter how good your crew chief is, and make no mistake about it, Alan Johnson is really good, you need good people working with you to make

Rahn Tobler

everything fall into place and to eliminate simple mistakes....Speaking of Alan Johnson, anyone who thinks that he is leaving the team next year to go to the Kalitta camp needs to read some more stories on the internet, like the ones about the earth being flat, because they are probably closer to the truth..Going into that final round Alan had to be thinking about the final round at this race in 1995. At that race, Alan and his brother, Blaine, were in the same lane at about the same time of the day and they did almost the same thing, that is, they ran low elapsed time and won the race, the first for Blaine and Alan in the Top Fuel class. I guess that means that Alan has been really good at this for a really long time, doesn't it?...Doug Kalitta's MAC Tools team won the Full Throttle Pit Crew championship in the dragster class and that just goes to show how good the Rahn Tobler-led team really is..It's ironic that Tony was put into a position to win when his teammate, Melanie Troxel, beat Doug on a holeshot in the semi-final round. And with all the talk about Melanie leaving to go to an Evan Knoll owned team next year, I was impressed with how much praise both Tony and Don Schumacher heaped on her during the ceremony Monday night. Could that mean that she may be staying with the "Don" next year? Stay tuned....Melanie said after the race that she "doesn't put much stock in that holeshot stuff." She meant that when drivers deep stage or shallow stage it can throw off the numbers and, while that's true, all the average fan knows is that a 4.502 beat a 4.500 in that run and that, in my book, is a holeshot. By the way, did you know that Melanie's .026 reaction time in that all important semi-final round was her best reaction time of the year.by a bunch? It's all about timing, isn't it?

Force vs Beckman

John Force was vintage John Force both on race day and at the awards ceremony. He won the race and, in the process, locked up his record fourteenth POWERade championship and then he wowed the fans at the banquet with some classic John Force lines, most of which I can't print here. The interesting thing about John is that when he does what he does at the banquet (or any speaking engagement) nobody objects to his choice of words, at least nobody whom I have ever met. John's win over "Fast" Jack Beckman in the final round would have been the talk of the town if it had not been for Tony's run. John won the "Finals" race for the seventh time when he beat Jack on, stop me if you've heard this before, a holeshot. John's 4.697, great by most standards, beat Jack's 4.662 which was the quickest run in the history of the class. After the race Jack talked about the vagaries of the starting line too, saying that "if you look at the film, both drivers appear to hit the throttle at the same time." Be that as it may, a 4.697 beat a 4.662 and as far as the average fan knows, that's a holeshot. Jack also ran 333.66 miles per hour which was top speed of the meet in any class. Did you know that the 333.66 speed was not only the fastest run of the weekend but it was also the fastest run of the year in any class? It's only the third time in the history of this event that a Funny Car has set

John Force

top speed of the meet and yet, ironically, it's the second time it's happened in as many years. Jim White ran faster than Don Prudhomme at the 1991 event and Del Worsham ran faster than David Grubnic last year. After joining the list of drivers who have qualified number one in the Funny Car class, Jack had a chance to get out of town with a 138 point event, that is number one, a national record and a win, but when John is in the other lane, you have to be perfect to run the table, don't you? If you want to make Jack feel better, tell him that John's reaction time was his fourth best of the entire season, and then you can point out that two of his better reaction times also came in final rounds, in Kansas and in Joliet. Must be the coffee that John has before the final rounds, don't you think? Still, Jack's run in the Matco Tools car was pretty special and it will be interesting to see how this team starts the 2007 season.John pretty much let the "kids' know who was in charge this weekend when he best Ron Capps and Robert Hight, the two challengers to his throne, before beating Jack in the final round. You know that old expression, "if you want to be the man you have to beat the man." Well, make no mistake about it, John's the man!!

Jason Line

Jason Line is just a nice kid. OK, so I know that he is a good driver and the POWERade champion, but the more I talk to him and those around him, the more it becomes apparent that he is a genuinely nice guy. I spoke with his dad before the awards ceremony and he was beaming, as you might expect, about what his son had accomplished. I interviewed the Line family years ago for an old NHRA 2day show, and they were as much into the sport then as they are now, and they all said how much they loved the Pro Stock class. Well, they really love it now. Jason's margin of victory, 123 points, was the largest margin in any of the pro classes, and if you told me at the beginning of the year that anyone could beat Greg Anderson by double digits I would have looked at you like you had three heads. Jason had a great car this year and, with the announcement that Jeff Perley is leaving the team, it will be interesting to see how the Summit Racing Pontiacs do in 2007. Ken Black has assembled a great team and they will continue to be the class of the field next year, but just like I said about the Army team, any time you change the chemistry on a team it often takes a while to get everyone pulling in the same direction again. With four championships in a row, Ken's drivers have really raised the bar in the class and it will be tough for anyone to stay with them next year, although you know that nobody will stop trying. Plus, if you even cut Jason's holeshot losses in half next year you could make a case for the fact that he could have an even better year next season, and that's scary.Dave Connolly, who had four wins on the season, finished third in the class but, in the end, he was a full 336 points behind the leader..Both Warren Johnson and Tom Martino, who finished outside of the top ten, won races this year which meant that ten different drivers visited the winner's circle in Pro Stock this year. Did you know that fifteen drivers won in the class in 2001 and thirteen won in 2002?...Other than the Summit cars it didn't look like any other team was able to run with any real consistency this year. Kurt Johnson won three times and Richie Stevens won a couple but, generally, most of the teams lacked the consistency needed to challenge Jason and Greg. Will that change next year? Stay tuned..Plus, most of the other teams had at least one DNQ during the year and that's something you just can't have if you want to run for the championship.

Andrew Hines

While not quite as dramatic as Tony's win, or John's for that matter, Andrew Hines did have to wait until the second round to find out his fate. After fouling out in round one, all Andrew could do was sit and wait to see what Antron Brown did during eliminations. When Craig Treble beat "AB" in round two it was all over, and Andrew knew that he wouldn't have to spend the off season thinking about losing the title on a red light. Antron's reaction time in that all important round was one of his slowest of the year, but after all the red lights this season in the class, he had to be certain that he got a green light. He did but it wasn't enough to hold off Treble who took Harry Lartigue's bike into the winner's circle for the first time in over two years. Craig's four round wins on Sunday helped propel him into the top ten in the points and bumped GT Tonglet out..Angelle Sampey, who finished third, was an even one hundred points behind Andrew at the end of the year. Like the car class, the motorcycle teams spread their wins out over a large group with eight different winners this year, although unlike the car class no one team dominated in the motorcycle class this year.

Fred Simmonds and Frank Manzo

The Lucas Oil sportsman champions were crowned and I'll have more on them in the coming weeks. At the ceremony for them, Fred Simmonds from General Motors presented a nice plaque to Frank Manzo for winning his tenth Lucas Oil title and then said that "the check is in the mail." By that he meant that an all new Chevrolet Monte Carlo funny car body was on its way to Frank. Just what his competitors need, Frank getting more new stuff..Iggie Boicesco, the Super Gas champ, told a story about how he almost didn't make it to the ceremony. "Our flight from Philly got 'terminated' in Salt Lake City and they told us we couldn't get to California until Monday afternoon," he said. Well, after a little coaxing, Iggie, his girl friend, his daughter and his long time friend and crew chief, Glen "Lumpy" Schuster, all made it in time and it was a pleasure to see him get his championship trophy.