Tue, 16 Oct 2007, 10:46 PM Testing, Testing!!

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2007 Auto Imagery, Inc., Bob Johnson, Darryl Jackman & NHRA

Mike Neff

Normally all of the talk that surrounds a test session happens early in the year at either Phoenix or Las Vegas, but that will all change this week when the Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway hosts a test session a little more than a week before the running of the AC Delco Nationals. One of the main attractions at the test session will be the Team Force cars, including Robert Hight, Ashley Force, Mike Neff and Phil Burkart. Yes, Phil Burkart. When Phil was working with me on the P.A. at Richmond he all but came out and said that he had been talking with John Force and his crew chiefs about joining the team. Of course, with John sidelined, everyone with a driver's license has probably contacted John about stepping in for him. Now that John has made public what we all knew since Dallas, or at least suspected, and that is the fact that John won't drive for the rest of the season, the big question is this... if the testing goes well will Phil drive the car in Vegas and Pomona? I'm sure that John would like to see the car out there and, according to what we've read, he is planning on being in Vegas for the race. Of course all of that depends on John's schedule which, as of this moment, has him staying in Texas until this weekend and then heading home to California to continue his rehab. If he is physically up to it he will go to Vegas for the event, but that isn't a guarantee as of right now. Anyway, with John probably monitoring every move, the Team Force Mustangs will be in Vegas testing, checking out the changes they have made to the cars, watching Mike Neff go through the paces and keeping an eye on Phil to see how he does. It should be interesting and it may be the most important test session since the pre-season ones back in January...By the way, just to show you how much emphasis John and his team are putting on safety, Phil told me that not only is he going to test John's car, but they brought him out to Indy last week to have one of the new form-fitted seats made just for him. They also had the company that's making the new head restraint systems form fit him so that he would be as safe in the car as any of the other drivers. In other words, it's not just bringing Phil in and putting him in the car, they are serious about safety and that will take priority over everything and anything that happens in their camp and John and his team are to be commended for that. Phil ended our conversation by saying that this is "the highlight of my career. It's truly an honor to be asked to drive this car." Like I said, good luck to Phil and get well John.

Ed McCulloch

It also looks like the Team Schumacher cars will be in Vegas and that adds another dimension to the three day test session. With Tony Schumacher struggling to win a round since his Indy win, and with two of Don Schumacher's three funny cars in the Countdown to One, this will be a very important three days for those guys. Ron Capps and Gary Scelzi, the two who will run for the championship, will make some runs along with Jack Beckman. Ed McCulloch, Ron's crew chief, said that they have a few things they would like to try on the Brut Dodge and "the test session gives you a chance to try things without the pressure of a national event." By the way, congratulations to the "Ace" who was honored this past weekend at the California Hot Rod Reunion. In addition to the richly deserved honor, Ed also got a chance to sit in one of his first cars, the "Northwind" front-engine dragster and participate in the Cacklefest in Bakersfield. Along with Steve Krieger, Dave Jeffers and Jim Albrich, the "Northwind" was one of the toughest TF cars of its day and it once sat atop the Drag News

Northwind in 1965.

#1 poll. If you happen to be fortunate enough to have a copy of Hot Rod Magazine from October, 1965, you can read all about the "Northwind" car that's featured in a center spread story. Way to go, Ed, and keep up the good work and congratulations on the honor at the reunion....Speaking of the "Don," he will make at least one announcement in Las Vegas about the status of his funny car teams for next year. Despite all the things you may have heard, Brut will be involved with Don and the Ron Capps car next year, even if they do re-structure their program. The popular "Brut Essence of the Race" program, which awards deserving sportsman teams at each race, will return for 2008 along with several other of the Brut programs. Having said that, the car that Ron drives will have a new look next year and it will be one that reminds the long term drag racing fans of some of the top funny cars of days gone by. It will also remind race fans of one of the NASCAR teams, too, but you'll find out more about that next week. Let me just say, when it comes to Don's teams, as the popular new expression goes, "it's all good."....Other rumors that are circulating center around Jack Beckman and the Mail Terminal Services car and I can tell you that, regardless of what you may have read elsewhere, the MTS team and sponsorship will return in 2008. It's been a great program that has worked well for everyone and, with a

Jack Beckman

year under his belt, Jack should and probably will contend for the championship next year. Hey let's face it, he didn't do too badly this year, did he? With three final rounds and a couple of wins Jack had himself in title contention right up to the last race of the Countdown to Four. Nice job, Jack. By the way, you can bank on those things that I just mentioned because they are facts....really!!....Chuck Worsham will be recovering from shoulder surgery when he visits Las Vegas next week. Chuck, who has been bothered by a couple of bad shoulders, had surgery on his left shoulder last week and will be in recovery mode for a few weeks. One thing that will change for Chuck and Del will be the fact that, for the first time in his career, Chuck won't be the one strapping his son into the race car. "I've done it ever since we started racing but one of the crew guys will do it for the last two races of this year." Chuck should be back and ready to go by the time the next testing sessions begin, in January of 2008. And I guess this means there will be no bowling for him either, at least for a while.

Larry Dixon

It's interesting to see that the readers on nhra.com have overwhelmingly installed Larry Dixon as the favorite to win the championship. Dare I say that, at the start of the year, very few people had Larry as the favorite to win it all. Don Bender has the Skytel car running well and Todd Smith has become a real asset to that team and it would be hard to bet against them over the last two races of the Countdown. Since I always say that this is a real team sport, and since I have mentioned several times what a nice job Don and Todd are doing with the Don Prudhomme-owned Top Fuel car, I think I should give some credit to Larry, too. Since he did an interview a few years ago in which he said that, "I have one job to do, don't screw up," I thought I would point out what a good job he has done this year. Did you know that Larry has been in fifty-one rounds of racing so far this year and he has been first off the starting line in thirty-five of those rounds? If you do the math, no don't, I'll do it for you, that means that Larry is first off the line almost 70% of the time. Not bad, huh? And did you know that Larry's .009 reaction time in round one in Richmond two weeks ago was the best reaction time in the Top Fuel class this year? Plus, in the won or lost on a holeshot category, Larry is a "plus two," which means that he has won three times on holeshots and lost once that way. Let's see, it's a good car that has been to at least the semi-finals at ten of the

David Grubnic

twenty-one races so far this year, they have an excellent driver and a team that doesn't make a lot of mistakes. Now that I think about it maybe that's why he has the largest percentage of votes on the nhra.com poll. And, despite what you may have read elsewhere, Larry will return and drive for the "Snake," Don Prudhomme next year...Good luck to Ers Erbacher in Las Vegas. I always wanted to say that....By the way, I wonder how the guy did who won the golf date with David Grubnic last week? There was an item up for bids on e-bay and the winner got to play a round of golf with the driver of the Zantrex-3 car. The top bid was over $800 so I hope the winner had a good time....Antron Brown, who has expressed a desire to drive a Top Fuel car for years, will get the opportunity this week at the test session in Las Vegas. Antron, a naturally gifted athlete, has been a fixture on the Pro Stock Motorcycle scene for the past decade and it will be interesting to see how he handles a dragster. Antron has a lot to offer a sponsor but the big question in our sport these days is, can someone get a job simply because he or she has the ability to drive, or do they have to bring money to an owner for the chance to move up to the big time?...David Powers probably knows how Don Schumacher feels right now. By that I mean that, with the release of Whit Bazemore, David has probably received applications from everyone with a license to drive his car next year. And the winner is......? I guess we'll know by the time we get to Pomona....David Baca, meanwhile, gets the opportunity to drive for the next two races and it will be good to see David back on tour again even if it is only for two races.

Line vs. Anderson

Greg Anderson and Jason Line will both be spending the week in Las Vegas testing their Summit Racing Pontiacs. Greg will be preparing to enter the Countdown to One while Jason will be looking to see what he can do to help Greg and car owner Ken Black retain the championship. Of course, when they all get to race in Vegas next week, Dave Connolly will be the focus of everyone's attention. Winner of five straight races, Dave will be starting from the number one spot in the points as we go into the last two races of the year. Dave has been very tough and he certainly would have to be installed as the favorite going into the last two races. The folks voting on nhra.com have given him a staggering seventy percent of the vote and it's not hard to see why. Like Larry Dixon, Dave has a very good car, a team that doesn't make mistakes and he is driving very well. Of course the same could be said about Greg, Jeg Coughlin and Allen Johnson, the other three title contenders. Although, based on what I've seen this year, Dave is going to be tough and, at the age of twenty-four, he could become the youngest Pro Stock champion ever. Did you know that Larry Lombardo was the youngest professional champion when he won the Pro Stock title back in 1976 at the age of twenty-seven?...The rest of the Pro Stock teams will be gunning for

Justin Humphreys

individual honors as the season winds down. There are some very good teams who have not won this year including V. Gaines, Larry Morgan, Warren Johnson and a host of others. As competitive as the class is I still expect, and I think I said this a few races ago, that someone, other than the championship contenders, will win one of the last two races. I don't know who it will be but any of the aforementioned characters, or Justin Humphreys, Max Naylor, Richie Stevens, you name it, someone will visit the winner's circle in the last two races. The class is so good and the competition is so tough that it's bound to happen. Or not!!....It's been a good year for Chevrolet so far with the bowtie brigade picking up more wins than any other brand. Did you know that Chevrolet has won a dozen Pro Stock races this season while the perennial favorites, the Pontiacs, have won eight times? Allen Johnson's win in Denver is the lone Mopar to visit the winner's circle this year. I don't know exactly how they calculate the points for the NHRA Manufacturer's Cup but I would have to say that all those wins for Chevrolet have to make them a favorite for the title this year. Did you know that the last time Pontiac didn't win the cup was in 2002 when Chevrolet won it? And did you know that the last time a brand other than a General Motors brand won it was way back in 1982 when Ford took the title?

Darren Smith

There are several championships still up for grabs in the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series and they could or should come into focus this week at the last divisional race of the year. Silver Dollar Raceway will host the event and it should draw competitors from several of the seven NHRA divisions. Peter Biondo, the reigning Super Stock world champ, is still alive in that class and he has one divisional race left to claim. Darren Smith, coming off a final round at the Sportsnationals in Fontana, leads the class and he still can add to his total at two national events. Jimmy DeFrank, currently in second place, has one national event left to claim and Jim Harrington, who is in fourth place, also has a national and a divisional remaining to claim. While I don't expect the west coast contingent, Smith and DeFrank to come to Silver Dollar, I fully expect the others to show in an effort to add to their total....Michael Iacono leads the Stock Eliminator points and he has run his full allotment of races but that may not stop him from going to Silver Dollar in an effort to block the other contenders. Chief among them is Jerry Emmons, currently in second place, but with two national and one divisional races at which to add to his total. Jody Lang is in third place, fifty-one points behind the leader and he still has one national event open and he can add enough to his total that he could still win it. Edmond Richardson can catch the leader in Super Comp, Shawn Langdon, but he needs to go four rounds this weekend if he wants to do it. And, by my calculations, Anthony Castillo, the Division 6 hitter, could also add enough points to his total to win the whole thing. Sherman Adcock Jr. is the high points guy in Super Gas but Michael Ruff, fresh off his win in Richmond,

Paul Mayo

could catch him with a good performance at the D-2 race. As always, I should point out that all of my calculations are "unofficial," very unofficial, but I do know this for sure, several championships could be won or lost this weekend at the final divisional race of the year....Over the recent years I had the pleasure of working the Division 7 race at Las Vegas, which was the last points meet of the year, attracted a record number of cars and was, in short, a blast. And, back in my younger days, when I used to work at Atco Dragway in New Jersey, that track always hosted the last divisional race of the year and you would get all the big names in the sport at that one event. Of course, back then, the professional cars, Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock, had to compete on the divisional level and that made the Atco race even more exciting. Stars such as the late Ronnie Sox and Don Nicholson, Larry Dixon Sr. and others all stopped by to see if they could claim a national or divisional title by winning at Atco. It was so cool....Speaking of Atco, one of the truly nice guys who used to race there, Paul Mayo, died this past week. Paul raced a variety of cars but was most well known for his line of Oldsmobiles. He competed at tracks on the east coast and he was one of the nicest guys you would ever want to meet. He was sixty-six at the time of his death and he will be missed by the racing community and by all who knew him. Our condolences go out to his wife and family.