Mon, 10 Nov 2003, 01:57 PM Pit Notes from the NHRA AAASoCal Finals

Courtesy of Keith Burgan

POMONA, Calif. -- Although it has been common knowledge in the pits since the penultimate event at Las Vegas the official announcement regarding F/C champion elect Tony Pedregon's defection from the Force camp will not come until after the race here. Tony planned to reveal the deal last Wednesday at the SEMA show but that press conference was cancelled on Monday. For those who have not been privy to the inside story Tony will be teaming with his brother Cruz in 2004 with backing from Quaker State. The fact that a rival oil company was involved in the deal, putting somewhat of a damper on any Castrol celebrations regarding Tony's title was behind the request from the Force camp for the press conference to be postponed.

Pedregon's defection has left the Force camp with three cars and only one driver at this time. There are plenty of applicants for the ride in what was Tony's car but the list has been clipped by Ford's criteria, leaving several potential shoes out in the cold.

What is definite from the Force camp is that John's daughter Ashley will step up to TAD in 2004, driving Jerry Darien's injected nitro entry. As late in the season as the U. S. Nationals Ashley was planning to do another season in her super comp dragster but the defection of Morgan Lucas from the Darien camp to a family owned operation put the Darien ride on the market and John decided to accelerate (no pun intended) Ashley's drag racing education.

In even more Force camp news "C" team crew chief Jimmy Prock was toughing it out at the event after undergoing surgery on Tuesday to remove his appendix. Despite the handicap Prock tuned Gary Densham to the #2 qualifying spot in what is probably his final appearance in the third team Force entry.

During the final qualifying session a couple of funnycars suffered from directional instability on the top end. After smoking the tires early on all three of his prior attempts Tony Bartone finally got going cleanly but put a cylinder out and had the steering cut all the way as he approached the traps. Just short of the finish line Bartone clicked it but had built up enough momentum to card a 4.897 at only 292 mph to qualify 12th.

The fact that Bartone was even here in a fuel car is due to Frank Pedregon's somewhat abrupt departure from the Jim Dunn owned K & N Filters team immediately prior to the race here. Bartone stepped in to pinch-hit but his future with the team following this race is uncertain.

Cruz Pedregon also had problems staying in between the lines during that final session. Running against Bob Bode the Advance Auto Parts car drifted toward the centerline from the left lane and took out the elapsed time clocks at the finish line to negate a stout 4.82 run. That pass was a full tenth better than Pedregon's earlier best and would have moved him off the bump had it not been negated by the infraction. Bode also had a good run going but it too was scrubbed by Cruz's misdemeanor and he stayed just one place ahead of Pedregon in the final order.

Just making the top fuel show here was tough as it took a 4.639 to make the cut, the quickest ever bump.

It was even tougher at the sharp end of the field as both Tony Schumacher and Doug Kalitta were in the 4.4's with a surprising Paul Romine third in the order at a career best 4.509. The final round of the Big Bud Shootout produced the quickest side by side run in the history of the sport with a pair of 4.47's but as this was actually a round of qualifying rather than a round of Powerade series eliminations this one will not be in the official stats list when the media guide for the 2004 season is printed.

As noted by statistics maven Bob Frey, another landmark run this year that did not merit official recognition was Marty Thacker's 270 mph blown alky dragster run at Route 66. That run came during the Jegs backed All Stars race that was also not a part of series eliminations.

Larry Morgan's Mopar backed pro stock team ran a third car this weekend for Bob Glidden. The veteran driver's last outing came in Steve Schmidt's car with Glidden stepping out of that ride after decreeing that he was no longer capable of driving effectively. As a crew chief/consultant Bob has really turned Morgan's operation around since coming on board and he has obviously no lost the ability to drive as evidenced by his 6.812/203.98 effort in the final round of qualifying. That run fell some 9 thousandth short of making the show but was impressive none the less.

The official announcement will not be made immediately but look for Jerry Toliver to team with Alan Johnson to run Toyota funnycars in 2004. The program will utilize Johnson's rolling stock that has been idle since Alan shut down his own team early this year. The exact structure of the team is unclear at this time as Johnson will continue to tune the Army dragster for the Schumacher camp while the funny car will run in opposition to that team's Bazemore and Scelzi driven Dodges.

In more Schumacher team news Brad Hadman has a funny car on the jig to join the dragsters currently driven by Tony Schumacher. Prior to Alan Johnson's mid season arrival at the Army team all of the operation's rolling stock had come from Murf McKinney's shop but Johnson has long been a Hadman devotee and he was very familiar with the Pacific Northwest builder's equipment. Alan's knowledge of the characteristics of the Hadman chassis was partly responsible for the stunning numbers turned in by Schumacher's Army car during this event. Prior to his semi final round loss every run that Schumacher made was in the 4.4 second zone and even the losing run was a 4.508.