Tue, 19 Feb 2008, 07:50 PM You're Not Going to Make That. Yes I am

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2008 Auto Imagery, Inc. & BME Photography

I had a really nice conversation with Tony Pedregon today and we talked at length about his explosion and fire in Pomona. Tony told me about his thoughts during the incident and after it and about his whirlwind media tour for the next few days. But of all the things he said one thing made me laugh out loud. Tony told me about talking to a doctor right after it happened and the doctor looked at Tony's hand and fingers and said "Well, you're going to be out of action for a little while." Tony said, "Yeah, until next week when I have another race." The doc then said, "Oh, you're not going to make that." To which Tony responded, "Oh yes I am." By the way, that was on the first day after the incident and Tony has made significant progress on a daily basis since then. "The doctor gave me the OK to race and I'm looking forward to this weekend," he said. Tony and his team will be ready for action this week in Arizona with only a few modifications to his car, like a push brake instead of a pull brake. Or is that a pull brake instead of a push brake? Oh well, as long as Tony knows the difference.

Gene Snow at Phoenix in '85.

Firebird International Raceway in Phoenix could be like the Rodney Dangerfield of drag strips. At least on the national event level it could feel that way. Several of the other tracks on the schedule get a lot of attention as the quickest or fastest venues on tour and yet, almost every year when we leave Phoenix, there have been new records established for either elapsed time, speed, the quality of the fields and things like that. So the question is, with the fuel cars back up to ninety percent in the nitro department, what surprises do the teams have in store for us this weekend? Based on past history at Charlie Allen's track, there will be some amazing runs and they're bound to please the fans as the 24^th running of the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Nationals gets under way.

Looking back, a lot of fans don't remember that this race used to be the next to last on the schedule instead of the second race of the year. It first made its way to the schedule in 1985 when a young man by the name of Gary Ormsby qualified at the top of the pack in Top Fuel. That set in motion one of the major upsets or surprises at this race, because in the first round Gary's car got a flat tire and he was beaten by Dave Miller. Miller then beat Darrell Gwynn in the next round and he went to the semi-finals where he lost to Dick LaHaie. Dick then lost to Gene Snow in the final round in one of the best TF finals in the long history of the event. Did you know that not one driver who qualified for that TF field in 1985 is still actively driving? Actually, I should amend that to say that they are not still actively driving in Top Fuel, since Dennis Taylor qualified 15^th for the show that year and he is still very active as a driver in the Top Alcohol Funny Car ranks. Anyway, LaHaie would come back in

LaHaie in '86 Phoenix WC.

1986 & '87 to win the race and until Brandon Bernstein won consecutive races in 2003 and 2004, that was the last time anyone had won back-to-back races at Firebird in Top Fuel. Ironically, Rod Fuller would then win in 2006 and 2007, beating Melanie Troxel in both years, and so "Hot Rod" comes in with a chance to become the first dragster driver to "three-peat" at Firebird. Toss in a Super Gas win at the track in 2004 and you have one hot "Caterpillar" coming to what has to be his favorite track...Brandon, when he won the race in 2003, joined several drivers who have recorded their first win at F.I.R. Did you know that Larry Dixon won his first race there in 1995 and, like Brandon, he did it in his second start in a Top Fuel dragster? Brandon, in fact, beat Larry in the final round to win his race and they both beat Jim Head on the way to their

Kenny Bernstein at Phoenix in '91.

first win, Brandon in round two and Larry in round one...Kenny Bernstein won his first Top Fuel race here in 1991 and Cruz Pedregon won his first race here in 1988. Cruz's win came in the Top Alcohol Dragster class when he was driving for Gary Turner and he beat Jay Payne in the final round. Did you know that it was only an eight car field in the TAD class at that time? And did you know that Leyder Ness didn't qualify for the show that year? Hey, when was the last time I got to make a Leyder Ness reference?. Throw in the sport's first 330 mile per hour run by Tony Schumacher in 1999, Pat Austin's "double-up" win in 1992, Scott Geoffrion and Darrell Alderman in the sport's first-ever all Dodge Pro Stock final round and, well, you get the idea. Firebird Raceway should get a lot of credit for providing us with some of the great moments in the sport over the last quarter of a century and I see no reason why this year shouldn't produce more of the same.

The Team Force cars come into Firebird with about as much ammunition as a team could have. Last year Robert Hight made the quickest Funny Car run in history, a stunning 4.636, and still he didn't set the record or win the race. Tony Pedregon accomplished both of those feats, beating Robert in the money round and leaving town with the national record, a record that still stands. Of course Tony will be coming into the race on the injured list after his wild ride in Pomona but he will be

Force vs John Collins.

coming in as the defending champion. John Force, who was a one-man injured list for a while, comes to Phoenix and he has to like his chances of winning, after all, he's done it an amazing eight times and that's a Firebird record. John was part of the original Funny Car field back in 1985 and the only other guy who made the show that year and who is still actively driving a Funny Car is Gary Densham. John qualified second at the inaugural Phoenix race while Gary checked in at #12. John went to the final round that year where he lost to John Collins, but he has been making a living out of going rounds in Phoenix ever since. He even had that "near miss" in 1995 when he wasn't qualified going into the last round. Well, as only John can do, he dramatically made the field and then beat Brad Platt, Chuck Etchells, Al Hofmann and Tom Hoover to get the win. And, just for the record, for all of the folks in the "sky is falling" camp, did you know

Della Woods

that there wasn't a full field of Top Fuel cars at that race in 1995?...Ashley Force returns to Phoenix, the sight of one of her wild rides last year. I will say this, when Phil Burkart and I were calling the action in Pomona two weeks ago, we both commented on what an major improvement we both noticed in her driving this year. She did a great job to save one run and both of us mentioned that we're not sure she would have been able to do that a year ago. Like John said in his interview after the run, "she looks like her mother and drives like her father." Yes she does and it's only a matter of time before she wins that elusive first race in the Funny Car class. Of course Melanie Troxel is also in quest of that and it will be very interesting to see which lady gets their name in the history and record books first. Did you know that Della Woods, who was the first woman to try to make an NHRA national event field in the Funny Car class, also was part of the first race at Firebird in 1985? While she didn't make the show she wasn't alone because neither did ten other drivers. Among them was Johnny West and I only mention that because I saw Johnny on the History Channel last week. Right after my little rant about all the coverage we get because of spectacular crashes and fires, Johnny was on the "Shockwave" show doing both. His crash in the finals at Englishtown in 1990 will always go down as one of the most spectacular in history and, thankfully, to coin a phrase, he walked away. He doesn't remember much but at least he walked away. Johnny also stopped by the tower in Pomona and he is always such a delight to talk to. He would tell me what most of the fuel cars were going to do before they did it. Hey, maybe if Mike Dunn gets a driving job Johnny could work in the TV booth. And maybe if I hit the lottery....Del Worsham comes to town with the flagship of the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen racing team and how he would love to break his long dry spell at his

Worsham at Phoenix in '02.

sponsor's race. Del had a weekend much like John Force's in 2002. That's the year where Del wasn't qualified going into the last round and yet he not only made the show but he won the race. It's been a long time between wins for Del and if he could pick one up here this weekend it would have to go down as one of the biggest of his career. ...Johnny Gray also ran at that 2002 race in Funny Car, in fact, he was Del's teammate with the CSK group. Since I wrote last week, National Dragster's John Jodauga and I came up with a couple more guys who, like Johnny, have qualified at NHRA national events in both Funny Car and Pro Stock. The original "Professor," Kelly Chadwick would be one and the 1989 Funny Car champ, Bruce Larson would be another. I'm sure we'll come up with more in the days ahead.

Greg Anderson

Greg Anderson's sweep of the Winternationals can't be good news for the other teams in the class, although a Pomona win doesn't always guarantee success the rest of the year. Still, the way he took his new Summit Racing GXP through the field really made it look kind of easy. It wasn't, I'm sure, but he sure made it look that way. And after the win Greg summed it up by saying that, "I'm the only guy now who can go through the season undefeated." Hey, if you don't think you're going to win you might as well not show up....With all of the talk about tires in the fuel classes over the past few years I think it's only fitting that we give Goodyear a little credit here. Lee Elder, the PR guy for Goodyear, passed me a note in Pomona that said that when Greg qualified number one on Goodyear tires it marked the 334^th time in the last 336 races that a car riding on Goodyear tires qualified number one in Pro Stock. That's a pretty impressive record, isn't it? And they must be pretty good tires if that many Pro Stock teams rely on them..While Greg wasn't racing when the Phoenix race was first contested, a

WJ at Phoenix in '85.

couple of drivers who will be racing this weekend were. Bob Glidden qualified #1 at the '85 race, Warren Johnson was fourth and Gordie Rivera was eleventh. Did you know that Warren Johnson has qualified number one six times in Phoenix and that's more than any other Pro Stock driver? For his part Bob Glidden was the top qualifier five times and he won every one of those races...The Pro Stock fields continue to be very competitive and almost all of the entries this week could make the field. There will be six current or former champions in the field this

Allen Johnson

week including Greg Anderson for Ken Black and Summit Racing, Warren and Kurt Johnson, Allen Johnson, Jeg Coughlin and Jim Yates...Almost lost in all the excitement about Greg's performance and Jeg's runner-up finish in Pomona was the fact that Allen Johnson continues to run well. Of course Allen and his dad, Roy, are returning to the track where Roy had his heart attack last year. How neat would it be for them to return and win the race, and believe me, they are more than capable of doing just that. They have the best running Dodge in the class right now and it sure looks like they'll be in the mix at every race. Of course, as I mentioned before, the class is so competitive that at least one of the "A-list" teams will probably fail to qualify at every race including this one. The question is, who will it be this week?

Hawley at Gainesville in '85.

I saw all the notes about Frank Hawley getting his Funny Car license after making two runs in the span of about fifteen minutes last week in Las Vegas. Frank made one in Mike Ashley's car and then, a few minutes later, he made his second run in Melanie Troxel's car. Frank is expected to race in Gainesville in a few weeks and it will be his first race in a Funny Car since 1985 when he raced at that same Gatornationals. And while Frank is most well known for his stint behind the wheel of the Chi-Town Hustler with Austin Coil, did you know that he went to his first final round at an NHRA divisional race in 1972? That's right, 1972. The then seventeen year old beat Lloyd Noxell and Tom Steed before losing to Fred Forkner in the final round. Hey, how often do I get a chance to work in Lloyd Noxell? I'll have more on Frank right before the Gatornationals but it will be good to see him back in a Funny Car.

Mercier vs. Lucas

The Lucas Oil divisional races got underway this past weekend and Morgan Lucas opened up with a solid effort. Morgan beat Daniel Mercier in the Top Alcohol Dragster final round in Bradenton and he sure looks like he has a car that could win or at least challenge for the national championship this year. Mickey Ferro began the year with a win over Jay Payne and we'll see both of them along with Frank Manzo when we get to Florida....It looks like Bill Reichert will be driving again this year. Bill, the reigning and two-time Lucas Oil World champion, was trying to work a deal to put another driver in the car but he told me in Pomona that it doesn't look like that's going to happen. Bill and his Rislone team have to be the favorites going into the 2008 season but it looks like the alky fields in both classes are going to be loaded this year, so whoever wins the championship will certainly earn it. I will say this, Morgan Lucas could pull off the elusive "double-up" before the year is over. His big car is running well and, like I said, the injected car is as good as any car out there right now. Stay tuned...