Wed, 7 May 2008, 10:22 AM Next Time I'll Forget to Introduce You

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2008 Auto Imagery, Inc.

For whatever wacky reason, and to this day I can't figure out what happened (other than the fact that I'm a dope), I forgot to include Rod Fuller in the driver's introductions before the race on Sunday at Gateway International Raceway. I also forgot Larry Dixon but he came out and reminded me that I was a dope (not in so many words) so he got to wave to the crowd even if it was a little late. But I didn't realize that I skipped over Rod until he mentioned it during an interview at the end of the track. Rod went on and won the race and, since drivers are a little superstitious, I guess I have to forget to introduce him in Bristol next week, too. Believe it or not, I've already had three different drivers ask me to forget to introduce them next week. Hey, I guess if it worked for Rod it could work for someone else, too.

Fuller vs. Schumacher

Rod Fuller's win was his first of the year and his first since Las Vegas at the end of last year and it puts him right back in the thick of the things in the battle for the top spot in the points standings. Rod did another great job of driving and that's just one of the many positive things he brings to the Caterpillar team. Did you know that Rod averaged a .074 reaction time during eliminations and that includes his .071 in the final round? And did you know that for his seven final rounds he has average that exact same .071 for his reaction times? His team also gave him a very good race car and that included one that ran 4.525 in the final round against Tony Schumacher. Rob Flynn, who missed Saturday at the races with a little medical problem, was back on Sunday and he did a wonderful job with the team and I'm sure they are relieved to finally get that first win of the year...Tony Schumacher continues to run well and he has now been in four final rounds in the first seven races of the year. He, too, drives well with the money on the line and his .061 reaction time in the final was exactly the same as his r/t in the finals in Atlanta and Gainesville. It's that kind of consistency that champions are made of. It should also be noted that in the four races

Brown vs. Schumacher

where he has been to the finals Tony has only had the best car one time. He set low elapsed time in Atlanta but other than that he hasn't been the number one qualifier, set low elapsed time or top speed at any of the races where he went to the final round. That just shows how good and consistent his car is and it underscores the fact that the Army team rarely, if ever, beat themselves on the track. Speaking of consistency, did you know that Tony and Antron Brown are the only two of the touring regulars in Top Fuel who have not lost in the first round this year? When you are looking to pick up points in order to make the top ten and survive the cut for the Countdown after Indy, winning the first round is a great way to do it. Winning his first round matches is nothing new for Antron. Did you know that over the course of his career "AB" has won seventy-five percent of his opening round encounters? There aren't many drivers in any class who can make that statement....David Grubnic qualified number one and you know what that means, of course, he didn't win the race. For David it was the eighth time that he has been the top qualifier and the eighth time he didn't win the race, but then, from what we've seen lately, that isn't unusual

Alan Bradshaw

for the number one guy in Top Fuel. Did you know that this was David's first number one spot since Gainesville in 2005? In the twelve year history of the St. Louis race the number one driver has only won once in Top Fuel and that was Gary Scelzi in 1999...Dexter Tuttle's team, with Alan Bradshaw driving, won their first round of the year when Alan beat JR Todd. It was another one of those times when you thought that fate would step in and Alan would go to the final round carrying the special tribute to Darrell Russell on the car. The unveiling of the car on Friday and their performance on the track was very special and Dexter and his primary sponsor, Vis Viva, get a lot of credit for giving up their space to honor one of the truly nice people in the sport, Darrell Russell. You still have time to go to e-bay and bid on the helmet and the fire suit that Alan was wearing this past weekend. All you have to do is enter "Alan Bradshaw" and the items will pop up. All the proceeds go to charity so it's a worthy cause and I hope they raise a lot of money. And again, thanks Dexter for everything you and your team did this weekend, and you looked so good in those uniforms.

Wilkerson vs. Neff

The two big moments for "Team Force" are now in the books so they can move on and concentrate on the real job at hand, winning rounds and races. Ashley won her first race in Atlanta and John won his 1,000^th round in St. Louis and I know that both of those things had to be major distractions to everyone in the Castrol pit area. There was almost another Ford in the winner's circle in St. Louis when Mike Neff made it to the money round but the home town boy, Tim Wilkerson took care of that. Tim, with his friend and sponsor, Dick Levi looking on (not to mention hundreds of employees of Levi, Ray & Shoup), went from the top spot to the winner's circle and he did it in dominating fashion. Did you know that this was the fourteenth time that Tim has qualified number one and it's the first time that he won the race from the top spot? Those fourteen number one spots put him ninth on the all-time Funny Car list in that category. Tim had the best car on Sunday in every round except the first, when his 4.82 was second

Tim Grose

only to Del Worsham's 4.81 and that meant that when the two met in round two Tim didn't even have lane choice. But his 4.82 was good enough to beat Del, and another 4.82 was enough to beat Cruz Pedregon in the semi-finals. Tim "slowed" to a 4.87 in the final round but that was good enough to beat Mike's strong 4.88. With the win Tim took over the points lead for the first time in his career. Did you know that Tim is only the 36^th driver to ever lead the Funny Car points? Most of the names on that list are very familiar but there are a few that may be surprises, like Tim Grose, Dale Emery and Al Segrini for example. Tim has the best car in the class this year and it's no surprise that he finally has moved to the top of the list. Tim's son, Daniel, will drive the fuel car at an upcoming IHRA race and Tim had a good line in the press room when asked about it. He said that he told his son that the car is an animal to handle and he'll have to be careful when he drives it. "He

Al Segrini

just looked at me and said, 'You tune it up and I'll drive it,'" Tim said. Tim and his family are real credits to our sport and it was great to see him win in front of his home crowd and his sponsors.John Force's 1,000^th round win came over Ron Capps when John's 4.862 beat Ron's 4.856, which, in the record books, will go down as a holeshot win. John pointed out that he deep-staged and that does have an effect on the numbers but as far as the fans are concerned, it's a holeshot. Did you know that at the very first race of his career John lost on a holeshot? That was a long time ago and he hasn't lost many since then on holeshots, in fact he hasn't lost many at all when you look at his overall total. Did you know that for his entire career John has lost only twenty-nine times on a holeshot? And when you consider that he has competed in 1,363 rounds that's pretty impressive. On the other side of the ledger John has won forty-four races on holeshots, with his first one coming back in 1979 at the World Finals. I'm sure that he is glad to have all the hoopla surrounding the 1,000^th round win behind him and now he can move on and make a run for another championship. First things first, though, and that is to keep qualifying so he

Force vs. Capps

can earn a spot on the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Showdown at Indy. As of right now John is not in that field, in fact, he's not even in the top ten in the points so he has some work to do before Indy..Cruz Pedregon continues to do well and he is solidly in third place in the points. Cruz will be the first one to tell you that he didn't over power anyone on Sunday but then you don't have to do you? All you have to do is win rounds and that's what makes a good championship team, one that can win even when they are not at the top of their game. Rahn Tobler and the Advance Auto Parts team are doing well and right now, after seven races, it sure looks like Cruz will be one of the top ten to run for the championship later this year. Cruz beat his brother, Tony, in the second round and that's one of the few times that he has beaten Tony in his career. OK, so maybe "few" is not the right word, but did you know that other than John Force nobody has beaten Cruz more times than his brother, Tony?....Mike Neff almost got to put his Old Spice towel on the auction block. After not winning a round in his first nine tries, Mike beat Melanie Troxel, Mike Ashley and Robert Hight before losing to Tim in the finals. Did you know that, coming into the race Mike had nine rounds of racing against nine different drivers? And now, the only person to beat him more than once is Tim Wilkerson.

Johnson vs. Connolly

It was, perhaps, the weirdest day that I've seen in Pro Stock in quite some time. After having at least one car in the every final round so far this year, the two Summit Racing entries of Greg Anderson and Jason Line were both on the sidelines by the time Kurt Johnson and Dave Connolly met in the finals. Jason blew an engine in round one and Greg shook the tires so badly that he coasted across the finish line without even recording a speed in the semi-finals. We also saw a 9.32 time not only win but get lane choice along with a bunch of cars that recorded double-digit elapsed times. We even saw Warren Johnson fail to qualify and that surprised everyone since the "Professor" has had a very good car all year. In the end, we also saw Kurt Johnson get his first win of the year and his first since Arizona last year. With the win, Kurt has now recorded twenty-seven wins in a Chevrolet

Bruce Allen

and that is the best ever for anyone driving one of the "bowtie" model cars. Did you know that Lee Shepherd won twenty-six times in a Chevy and that had been the best until Kurt's win this weekend? With racers like Bruce Allen (12), Frank Iaconio (10) and others all having driven Chevrolet Pro Stock cars, that's a mark that Kurt should be really proud of. And here's another one. Did you know that Kurt has now won at least one race for each of the past fourteen years? His AC Delco Cobalt ran very well on Sunday, in fact, Kurt made the quickest run of his Pro Stock career in round one when he went 6.581 against Todd Hoerner. Todd was also one of the eleven drivers who recorded their career best runs at Gateway and he made a very good showing with his Performance Auto Dodge..Dave Connolly showed what everyone thought and that is that he and his new look Charter Communications team will be a factor in the battle for a spot in the top ten. Even though he sat out the first five races of the season, Dave already has 130 points and that moves him to within 156 points of the tenth place driver, Justin Humphreys. Dave admitted to just messing up in the final round on the starting line and we'll never know if he would have or could have beaten Kurt if he got off the line cleanly. I do know this, Kurt ran 6.631 in the final round and Dave hadn't been that quick all day long. Dave recorded the only holeshot win of the day in Pro Stock when he beat Ron Krisher in round one. Did you know that this was the 38^th such win for Dave to go against only nine holeshot losses in his career? When you realize that Dave has won 165 rounds you can see that almost a quarter of his wins come on a holeshot. Like I always say, that's why they pay the drivers the big bucks.

Hines vs. Smith

Andrew Hines completed what may be the best two races in the history of the Pro Stock Motorcycle class when he won in St. Louis. Even though he didn't win from the number one spot, he did everything else. He set low elapsed time and top speed and he ran his string of consecutive six-second runs to a staggering sixteen in a row. When you consider that his worst run on Sunday was a 6.905, it's easy to see why he left the track with the trophy. From a performance stand point, this may have been one of the best ever in the bike class. Did you know that only three races of the fifteen contested in the motorcycle class were won with times that weren't in the six-second range on Sunday? And all of those races were won with times of 7.00..Unlike the other pro classes all four of the top qualifiers advanced to the semi-finals in the PSM class. Matt Smith was number one, Chip Ellis was two, Andrew qualified third and Eddie Krawiec was fourth. Prior to Sunday all three races in the bike class this year were won by the top qualifier. Did you know that in the entire year of 2007 only three number one qualifiers won in the motorcycle class and we've already had that many in 2008?....Chris Rivas, who qualified ninth, turned in a perfect reaction time in round one and he was the only one from the bottom half of the field to win in round one. Chris followed that with a .008 reaction time in round two but even that wasn't enough to beat Matt Smith's 6.936.Historically the motorcycles record more perfect reaction times than any other class and this was the first one for Chris in his career. Did you know that since 1985 there have been more perfect

David Hope

reaction times turned in by motorcycles than the other three top professional classes combined?...I know that you will never get everyone to agree that there is parity in any class where you have different rules, but there were three Suzuki's, three Buell's and two Harley-Davidson's in round two in St. Louis. Sounds pretty even to me but then I don't have to race a motorcycle, do I?...Congratulations to David Hope who qualified for the first race of his NHRA career. Along with John Hammock and the Vroom Racing team, David, who lives near the St. Louis track, became the 167^th person to qualify for an NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle race. He was also one of the eight riders in the class who set a personal best this weekend..Among those eight was Joe Desantis who made his first six-second run. For a guy who has been doing this for so long and who loves racing as much as he does, it was great to see Joe go in the sixes. Congratulations... Now the bikes have a lengthy gap before they return to action in Chicago next month.

Cordis vs. Michael Johnson

Cordis Johnson beat his son, Michael in the Competition Eliminator finals and, in the process, joined a very select group. Did you know that Cordis, his son Michael and his daughter Maryann have all won national events? They join the Hyland family, (John, Tiffany and Shawn) and the Anderson family (Brad, Randy and Shelly) as the only families to have a father, son and daughter all win national events? Cordis and Michael also join the Waldo's, the Seipel's, the Kalitta's and the Johnson's (Warren & Kurt) as families who have had a father and son race in the final round..Frank Manzo ran his consecutive round winning streak to thirty-six with his win over Marty Nothstein at the Lucas Oil race in Richmond this past weekend. Frank actually broke but he still had enough momentum to hold off Marty who had problems of his own in Jay Blake's "Follow a Dream" car..Toby Lang picked up his third win of the season and that's going to make it really tough for anyone else to win the Stock eliminator title this year. Toby, who had already won the first two national races of the year, won the Division 7 race in Fontana to take a commanding lead in the points. As Dan Fletcher (who also won in Fontana) said in his latest column in National Dragster, "Tony Lang is like an ATM machine on wheels." I wish I had thought of that line. I guess if Dan is going to do some more writing I will have to learn to drive a race car. Then again, maybe not!