Wed, 14 May 2008, 12:22 AM Bristol Here We Come

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2008 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Even though it has only been on the schedule for a few years the race at Bristol is always special for me. And, for those who follow the history of the sport, it should be special to them, too. That's because they have been racing at Bristol for a long time. I have a copy of the very rare and hard to find (e-bay terms, not mine), official souvenir program from the 1^st Annual NHRA Springnationals at Bristol. The dates were June 3-6, 1965 and the cover of the program shows the new tower at Bristol which was, at the time, a state-of-the-art building. Fast forward to 2008 and the track is still one of the best in the country and it will be the center of the drag racing world this weekend.

Before I talk about the importance of this year's race in Bristol I wanted to mention a few things that made that 1965 race so special. First of all, back in "those days," they ran class eliminations at the national events. Now I know what you're thinking, so what, they do that today. Yeah, but they don't do it in Top Fuel eliminator. In the early days of the sport, and 1965 falls into that category, all the Top Fuel cars would run on Saturday to determine the class winner. That driver would then get to sit out Sunday's eliminations until they determined a winner from the standard eliminations format. The "sit out" driver would then make one run on Sunday to determine the overall Top Fuel champion. And, more often than not, that "sit out" driver would win the race. Hey, he only had to make one run while the other guy had already gone through a full day of racing. It was even stranger at the '65 Bristol race because one of the semi-final winners couldn't even make it to the final round. Tom Hoover beat Jimmy Nix in the semis and earned the right to face Connie Kalitta in the final round. Connie, who had already set top speed of the meet with a run of 209.78 miles per hour, had beaten the Ramchargers and Don Westerdale in his semi-final match. But Tom blew his engine and couldn't return so it was Connie and the "sit out" class winner, Maynard Rupp for the title. As usually happened, the "sit out" team won the race and Maynard stopped Connie, 7.59 to a losing 7.82 to get the trophy. Rupp had beaten Connie in the semi-finals on Saturday before stopping Chris Karamesines to win the class championship and earn the "sit out" spot. In another little bit of "I can't believe they did that" back then, did you know that Jimmy Nix drove two cars in the final elimination program? He had his own, blown Chevy-powered car and he also drove the famous Carroll Brothers and Oxman car from Dallas, Texas. By the way, as far as I know, the big, and I mean BIG trophy that Connie got for setting top speed can still be seen in the suites at Bristol....Some of my favorite cars in the other classes at the '65 Bristol race include the "Wheely Healy" of Neil Mahr, the "Lick'm & Stick'M" car of Norm Ries, the "Jersey Jimmy" of Bridgeton, New Jersey's Charlie Seabrook and Tommy Pearson's K/S '62 Triumph. Oh yeah, I also can't forget the "Donkey Farmer." Really!!

Connie Medina (Worsham), Bob Wilber, Grant Downing, Marc Denner, Steve "Fuel Boy" Brown, Chuck Worsham, Larry Liu, Del, Grandma, John Fink, and Frank Gilchrist

This is the eighth race of the season and, with the new Countdown format, it does take on added significance. Bob Wilber, the outstanding PR person for Del Worsham, included an interesting fact in his pre-race press release. He was talking about how Del missed the cut for the Countdown last year by a mere 38 points. He then said that the difference between qualifying sixth or thirteenth at the next eleven races leading up to the cut to ten teams is 33 points, or almost the margin that cost Del a shot at the playoffs last year. With that as a background, he goes on to say how important every run is to his team and all the others. Del said that each run is like "crunch time and panic mode and all that stuff." As a guy who knows what it's like to be so close yet so far, Del knows what he's talking about. Bob also sent along a really neat picture from 1998 that includes a shot of the Checker, Schucks & Kragen team at that time. The interesting thing is that all but one of those people are still with the team today. Now I ask you, how many teams can say that?...The general consensus is that the Funny Car class has never been stronger and that means that we will have some of the top drivers failing to qualify at every race. It's already happened this year with only a handful, really, a handful of drivers having made the cut at all seven races so far this year. With Jack Beckman failing to qualify in St. Louis that means that Ron Capps and Tony Pedregon lead the way with twenty-two consecutive starts. Did you know that, before his death, Eric Medlen had made the field at 72 straight races? And did you know that Eric is still the track record holder at Bristol in the Funny Car class? For Ron or Tony to catch and pass Eric's mark they will have to qualify at every race for

Robert Hight

the next two years. Every time we say that Eric will be missed and that he'll always be with us, something like this pops up to show us how true it is....Robert Hight, who is having another good year, will be part of the huge Team Force entourage that comes to Bristol this week. Robert is always a threat to win and Bristol is a place where he hasn't done that yet. In fact, he hasn't had much success at all at the Tennessee track. Did you know that in his three trips to Bristol Robert has not won a single round? He even qualified in the bottom half of the field once and he almost never does that. Did you know that in seventy-two starts in his career Robert has only been in the bottom half of the field ten times and one of those was at Bristol? Go figure!!...John Force, coming off that historic 1,000^th round win, always enjoys coming to Bristol. Whether it's in his Superman-themed car or simply as Superman himself, John often finds the winner's circle at Bristol. Did you know that in two of

Tim Wilkerson

the last four years John's first win of the season came at this track? In 2004 he won for the first time when he beat Whit Bazemore and last year, his first win came here over Cruz Pedregon. John and Ron Capps share the lead with two wins each at this event, but, if someone asks you who was the first Funny Car winner at Bristol, don't be fooled because it is a trick question. Tommy Grove would be the correct answer since he won the FC class at the 1967 Springnationals which were held in Bristol, and he beat the aforementioned Maynard Rupp who was then driving a Funny Car after his earlier success in the dragster class..With all of the hype and hoopla surrounding John and Ashley Force this year, let's not forget who the points leader is in Funny Car, that's right, it's Tim Wilkerson. Did you know that Tim has already matched his best season ever with two wins? And the way I do the math, we have seventeen races still to go so I like Tim's chances of adding to that total. With his top qualifying spots this year Tim has also moved to the number one spot in the U.S. Smokeless Showdown that is set for Indy. I know, that's a long way away but I just wanted to point out that Tim leads the way so far. Hey, like I always say, enjoy it while you can and Tim can right now.

Antron Brown

Antron Brown will make his first appearance in Bristol since back in the year 2000 when the bikes raced here. "AB" is the talk of the Top Fuel pit area right now, or at least he should be. OK, so there are a lot of teams that deserve some attention in the dragster pits and that just shows how well balanced the class is. Doug Kalitta has won three times at this event while Brandon Bernstein has won twice and they are the best in the Top Fuel class. Larry Dixon and Tony Schumacher also have wins here and it wouldn't surprise anyone if one of those four drivers won again this weekend....Antron's David Powers' teammate, Rod Fuller, is coming in off his win in St. Louis that included a jump up to fourth place in the points. David has to get a lot of credit for what he has done with these teams and he also gets high marks for the work he is doing with Randy Meyer and the Dunkin' Donuts "developmental program" in the alcohol dragster ranks. With two drivers in the top four spots I'd say that everyone in David's camp should be very happy right now. While Antron will be experiencing his first Top Fuel ride in Thunder Valley, Rod will be looking to improve on some pretty good finishes here in the past. Did you know that in the last three years the worst that Rod has done in Bristol is a semi-final finish? He was runner-up in 2005 and 2006 and went to the

Rod Fuller

semi-finals last year. Not bad, huh? Now we'll see if he can keep the momentum that he has from the St. Louis event. ...Tony Schumacher and his Army team will be unveiling a special tribute car on Friday night. As always, it will be dedicated to the men and women of the armed forces, especially the Army, and Tony always seems to do well with those theme cars. Did you know that in his Bristol history it's either feast or famine for the "Sarge?" Tony has been here seven times with two final round appearances and four first round losses. Only a semi-final appearance in 2006 keeps it from really being "all or nothing" for the Army team..Doug Herbert continues to crusade for safe driving and he'll make a special appearance this week prior to going to Bristol. Along with NASCAR stars Elliott Sadler and team owner, Ray Evernham, Doug will visit North Mecklenburg High School and talk about safe driving. After losing his two sons in a car accident earlier this year, Doug has spent a great deal of time with his program, BRAKES, and with others in an effort to tell teens about safe driving. Doug's program, which stands for Be Responsible and Keep Everyone Safe, is especially on target at this time of year with all the school proms that take place. I can't imagine what Doug and his family have gone through this year but every time I hear about him doing one of these special programs I realize how special he is and we should all be proud to have him as part of our drag racing community. For more information about Doug's program go to www.putonthebrakes.com.

Smith at Norwalk last year.

I see that Rickie Smith is entered in Pro Stock this weekend and that should be interesting. Very few people have made more runs down the Bristol track than Rickie and he could take one of the sixteen spots in the starting field.The Pro Stock field just continues to grow and it looks like there could be as many as twenty-eight cars trying for one of the sixteen spots and that could make for a very interesting weekend...Jason Line leads the points with Jeg Coughlin right behind and Kurt Johnson, on the strength of his win in St. Louis, now in third place. And speaking of guys who have made a lot of runs in Bristol, let's not forget Warren Johnson. "WJ" ran here a lot in the IHRA days and he should be a factor this time around, that is, if he can qualify. Warren missing the field last week was one of the real surprises of the race and I fully expect him to rebound this week. Did you know that Warren won the race three times when it was the IHRA Springnationals in 1979, 1980 and 1981? And did you know that one of the guys he beat to win that race was Rickie Smith? Lee Edwards and Harold Denton were the others, just in case you're counting. And just to conclude the WJ - Rickie Smith notes, did you know that when the race returned to the NHRA national event schedule in 2001 Warren lost in the first round to, you guessed it, Rickie Smith. The "Professor" has won this race twice and Greg Anderson is the only other PS driver who can make that claim..Dave Connolly will be the focal point of a lot of attention at

Dave Connolly

every race from here through Indy as he attempts to play catch-up in the points. His runner-up finish in St. Louis certainly didn't hurt his chances of making the top ten but he needs to continue with that kind of performance almost every week. If any team can do it it's the one that Victor Cagnazzi has put together. I'll say the same thing for him that I said about David Powers, and that is that he has done a wonderful job of assembling a team or teams that can run for the championship. I sure hope the folks at Charter Communications are happy and I really expect to hear Dave give out his social security number when he does his first winning interview this year. That would be a nice plug for his other sponsor, LifeLock, wouldn't it? Dave has had two near misses in Bristol losing races by one and two thousandths of a second in the past few seasons. Maybe this is the week those breaks or close races will go his way.

Tom Kasch

The Lucas Oil divisional races resume this weekend with one in Norwalk, Ohio. If you want another example of how classy the Bader family is consider this. They have this big divisional race planned for this weekend and they have sponsors and everything lined up. It's called the 2^nd Annual B'laster PB 50 Cavalcade of Stars presented by Budweiser and it may be the most well attended points race of the year. Anyway, with everything they have going on they have decided to have a Grand Marshall for the event. Now you would probably think that it's one of their sponsors or who someone who is invested in the track but you would be wrong. The Bader family has asked Tom Kasch to serve as the Grand Marshall for the race. Tom, and his wife, Ruth, have been fixtures on the Division 3 trail since before I can remember. They were married in 1962 and have raced together and raised three children together. They have also gone through some tragic moments, like when Tom lost his leg after a car accident in 1969 and they have come through those trying times with a spirit that should be an inspiration to all of us. How cool is it that Bill Bader and his family have decided to honor this great husband and wife team at their race. Like I said.class. I hope they all have a great time and congratulations to Tom and Ruth and thanks to the Bader's for all they do for the racers at their track and in their division. The sport is so much better because of people like Bill and his family..There is also a divisional race in Houston this week at Houston Raceway Park as the D-4 teams return to action. If you can't make it to Bristol try to catch some of the great sportsman action at the divisional events. I believe Frank Manzo will be among those competing at Norwalk this week as he looks to extend his impressive win streak. Let's see, if memory serves me correctly, it was at Norwalk last year where Frank last lost a round, and I'm sure the D-3 guys would love to end his streak on their home turf.