Wed, 12 Nov 2003, 08:25 PM Hail To The Champions!!

By Bob Frey Photo by:Auto Imagery, Inc.

Tony Pedregon

With the 2003 season now officially over I’d like to congratulate all of the champions. To win a POWERade championship takes a lot of effort and a great team and as almost every winner said at the award’s ceremony on Monday night, “you can’t do it alone.” Even so, I thought one of the best lines of the night was turned in by Tony Pedregon who said that “I dedicate this to my team. We won this as a team, but if you want to see the trophy, you’ll have to come to my house.” If all goes according to plan, Tony will be part of the Quaker State press conference that will be held at the upcoming PRI show in Indianapolis on December 4^th. With the announcement that John Force has let Tony out of his contract it appears that the announcement will be that Tony is joining his brother Cruz to field a two-car team next year with one of them being sponsored by Quaker State. Having said that, the next big subject for discussion will be about who will be driving the cars for “Team Force” next year. As of this moment I honestly don’t think that John has a real idea about who that will be although I can tell you that he has interviewed dozens of drivers ranging from Pro Stock and Pro Mod drivers to Funny Car and dragster drivers. I can also tell you that no decision has been made yet and may not be made for a couple of weeks. Leave it to John to be the center of the media attention even when he doesn’t win the championship…..One of the reasons that John didn’t win the championship this year is because of the four red light starts that he had during the season, including the final one on Sunday. Did you know that in his entire career before this season John Force had fouled out exactly four times? And he doubled that total with four in 2003 which I find amazing. And, in another little bit of irony, exactly half of John’s fouls have come at two tracks, Columbus and Pomona. He fouled out twice in Columbus and twice at the final race of the season at Pomona. It’s also surprising that John had more red lights than any other driver in the Funny Car class this year.

Worsham vs Lee

Del Worsham’s final round win over Cory Lee was rather bizarre, wasn’t it? I mean, how many times do you see a guy foul out and then get reinstated when the opponent crosses the center line and gets disqualified? And how many times does that happen in the final round? Actually the answer is never, at least as far as I can find. Cory Lee was DQ’d in Dallas in 1999 in the third round for crossing the center line while Dean Skuza was DQ’d in the final round at St. Louis in 1999 and Bruce Larson was tossed out for crossing the center line against Ed McCulloch in the finals at Gainesville in 1989 but all of their opponents got the green light. So, Del will go down in the record books as winning a race even though he fouled out and Cory Lee will spend the winter wondering what went wrong. The win pushed Del into forth place in the final standings ahead of Gary Densham who went out in the first round…By the way, I spoke with Arnie Karp after the race in Pomona and he said that the Artisan Home Entertainment folks were very pleased with the exposure they got this year and he expects them to return to the NHRA tour in 2004….Tony Pedregon just missed setting the national record this weekend when he ran 4.721 which tied the current mark but he wasn’t able to go any quicker to set the record. Still, Tony set the low elapsed time of the event and that was the tenth time this year that he did that which is one of the reasons why he is the Funny Car Champion. Throw in eight #1 qualifying efforts and it’s easy to see that the Castrol Syntec car was pretty strong all season long. Which ever team he is with next year, Tony Pedregon will make a great champion and a great spokesman for his sponsors and the sport.

Tony Schumacher

Even though he didn’t win in Pomona, Tony Schumacher again showed the power of the US Army dragster. Tony went 4.455 and that gave him three of the quickest four time cards in the sport. Doug Kalitta, who won the Budweiser Shootout and went 333.25 has the other quick time card with his 4.428 in Chicago and he has three of the top five speeds in the class, too. Did you know that Tony Schumacher qualified number one more times this year than he had in his entire career coming into 2003? His five top spots this year brings his career total to nine and should serve notice to the rest of the field that the “Sarge” will be tough to beat next year. Tony, who made seven runs in the 4.40 range this weekend, came away empty handed in what has to be one of the real shockers of the year. His final round loss to Doug in the “Shootout” will go down in the record books as one of the great runs of all time, a 4.479 to a losing 4.471. I’m sure that you’ll see a lot of shots of those scoreboards in the weeks to come…Just like Tony, Doug set a couple of personal bests this year including recording top speed at ten of the races, and that’s more than he had in his entire career coming into this year. I guess that means that the MAC Tools dragster will also be tough to beat next year, doesn’t it? Of course that all depends on if they can harness all of that power and keep away from those costly first round losses. Did you know that Doug has averaged over six round one losses per year in the first six years of his career? By comparison, Larry Dixon dropped one opening round encounter this year, three last year and none the year before that and that’s the stuff that champions are made of. Having said that, I’m still scared if the MAC Tools car is in the other lane because that car can fly….Scott Kalitta made his first foray in the 4.40 range this weekend when he ripped off a 4.497 in round two to beat Larry. Scott, who made it to two final rounds in his seven races since returning should also be a factor in the championship chase next year, a year that’s already shaping up to be one of the best ever….And let’s give huge

Kenny Bernstein

credit to Kenny Bernstein and his Budweiser team for what they did over the last five races of the year. Kenny can now retire and enjoy watching his son race knowing that he won in his final race as a driver. With all of the talk about the big numbers this year, did you know that Kenny only qualified number one at one race? He also set low elapsed time just once and was the top speed man at one race and did you know that they all came at the same event? Yep, in St. Louis Kenny won in all of the statistical departments but lost the race when his parachute came out in the first round against Rhonda Hartman Smith. The only other time that he lost in round one the rest of the year was at Maple Grove when Scott Weis beat him. Even with his abbreviated season Kenny still managed to finish the year in sixth place, a true tribute to his team. Did you know that this was the 21st time the “KB” finished sixth or higher in the points in his great career? And that stat becomes even more impressive when you consider that he finished that high in twenty one of the last twenty three years of his career….By the way, did you know that Kenny’s win from the #7 spot was the first time this year that any TF driver had won when qualified lower that fifth?  

Greg Anderson

Greg Anderson took just about everything you could take in Pro Stock and his season certainly will be one for the record books. With the most wins, the most final rounds, the most round wins, the owner’s cup and more the Vegas General Construction team didn’t leave a lot on the table for anyone else. There have been a lot of great seasons in the NHRA’s history, but Greg’s will have to rank right up there with the best of them. Think about it this way…did you know that Greg only failed to make the final round at eight races this season? Eight!! And four of them came in the first six races of the year, which means that he was really good the rest of the way. It will be interesting to see what the rest of the Pro Stock field has in store for him in 2004…if anything. By the way, did you know that Greg swept six of the races this year? By that I mean that he won the race, was the top qualifier, set low elapsed time and recorded top speed all at the same event. Pretty strong, huh?...Possibly lost among the hoopla surrounding the final race were two interesting little tidbits. Mike Corvo won his first round in a Pro Stock car and Jerry Haas won his first round in a Pro Stock car since 1993. Both drivers qualified in the bottom half of the field but both advanced when their opponents had trouble. George Marnell, who qualified fourth for his best starting spot in two years, fouled in round one against Mike while Jerry got the win when David Connolly got out of shape and had to shut off. George’s program has picked up noticeably since he added Mike Elliott to the team while Connolly’s “Bullet Team” is already gearing up for a big assault next year. Let’s give credit to Arnie Klann and Dave Butner, too, for the strength of their “Motown Missile” team over the last couple of races this year….Richie Stevens was seen driving the PS car of Dick Sherman in Pomona and watch for him to be behind the wheel of one of Roy Hill’s Pro Mod cars next year. Maybe we cold get Mr. Sherman to hire Santo Volpe for a full year tour in Pro Stock. Just a thought…Warren Johnson finished the season in 4^th place in the points making this the 22^nd consecutive year in which “The Professor” has made the top five in the points. Did you know that the last time “WJ” didn’t finish in the top five was 1981 when he only raced at four races and he didn’t win a single round?

Geno Scali

Geno Scali is the new Pro Stock Bike champ although Angelle Savoie didn’t give the title up without a fight, especially at the last three races. Angelle, who fouled out in the finals on Sunday, went to the money round at the last three events and that propelled her into second place in the points…The big news in the Pro Stock Bike arena seems to be that Reggie Showers is leaning towards not racing next year while Craig Treble is making noise about running a Harley-Davidson. Reggie told a gathering on Saturday night that he has things he wants to attend to “at home,” while Treble said that he will be back with Matco Tools in ’04 but that he may be riding a Harley. It should be interesting to see how that all plays out. Reggie is a great ambassador for the sport and the bike class and he will be missed if he’s not racing. Treble, one of the best riders out there, could make an instant winner out of a competitive Harley. Did you know that Craig’s win in Pomona over Angelle was his third in four final rounds against her? And that’s interesting when you consider that his overall record against her is 6-12.

"Fast" Jack Beckman

And, finally, congrats to all of the Lucas Oil Sportsman champions, including “Fast” Jack Beckman who won his title on the next to last day of the year. Jack went eight rounds at the Las Vegas point’s race a week earlier and then won five more in Pomona to secure the championship. I guess all of those years of teaching at Frank Hawley’s school really paid off….And Dean Carter’s win in Comp was not only the first time that a front-engine car has won that eliminator in a long time, but it’s also got to be the first time that Holley Carburetors didn’t win the Comp title. Did you know that Dean’s car uses Kinsler fuel injection? Dean could be the poster boy for that company next year. By the way, if you throw in his win at Bakersfield, did you know that Dean won seventeen consecutive rounds at the end of the year? Only that monster run by Vinnie Deceglie in the finals at Pomona kept Dean from being perfect at the end of the year.