Wed, 25 Jun 2008, 08:16 AM There's Nowhere to Begin

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2008 Auto Imagery, Inc.

After the tragedy at Englishtown I spoke with a lot of people including racers, fans, fellow workers and team members and in each case I didn't know what to say to them. When you speak for a living like I do, for some reason you feel that you should be able to come up with something to say that will make them (and you) feel better about what has taken place. Something soothing, something almost religious. Something that will let them (and you) feel like there is some sense to be made from the tragic death of a young man like Scott Kalitta. But there's nothing you can say. Nowhere to begin. You can't figure it out and you certainly can't answer the question "why?" There are no words that can ease the pain. There weren't when we lost Darrell Russell or Eric Medlen. There were none for Doug Herbert who lost his two sons earlier this year. None for Paul Howard and his family when Shelly and her son were killed. None for Dale Creasy years ago when he lost his daughter. None for the families of John Myers or Dave Schultz. Or Wally Parks. And there won't be in the future when we lose a member of our community. All you can really do is offer an ear to listen or a shoulder to cry on. And that's what I have for the members of the Kalitta family, both their immediate and extended family. I've known Connie almost longer than anyone I've known in the sport and I've known Scott since he first started to follow in his dad's footsteps over twenty-five years ago. I remember him leaving a race to go be with his wife while their first son was born and I remember the smile on his face when he won his two championships. And I'll always remember walking through the pits and hearing him yell, "Hey, Frey, come here." He was so much more than a racer, he was a son, a husband and a father and he will be greatly missed. I just wish there was something brilliant I could say to make it better, but there's not. If you want email your condolences to the family,... champion@kalittaracing.com and let them know that you care. That's about all we can do.

Cory McClenathan

I actually thought about not writing a column at all this week, after all, after Scott's death everything else really does seem petty by comparison. And then I heard that Connie's teams would be in Norwalk this week and that they would be racing. "It's what we do," they said. "It's what Scott would want us to do." Cory McClenathan had a great line after his solo run in round one. He was to have raced against Doug Kalitta and he admits to thinking about just easing it down the track. "But if I did that Scott would have called me a wuss," Cory said in his interview with Alan Reinhart. "And I couldn't have that." We all know that "wuss" is probably not what Scott would have said but we get the idea. And I laughed when Cory said it and then I turned my attention to the next pair of cars. Larry Dixon said "I would rather be doing this because if I was in my motor home riding home right now that would suck." Yes it would. So the racing went on and we crowned four professional champions. Now we'll go to Norwalk and the Team Kalitta cars will be there and I, for one, am glad of that. Maybe by them being there we can all feel better. It will be interesting.them helping us!...Tony Schumacher won the race and that,

Schumacher vs. Bernstein

in itself, was noteworthy at Englishtown. Did you know that in ten previous trips to New Jersey Tony had won exactly six rounds? He even commented on his futility in the Garden State several times over the course of the weekend. But in the end, he, Alan Johnson and the very talented Army team did what they do best, they won the race. Tony won from the number nine spot in the field and that doesn't happen very often and it especially doesn't happen often in Englishtown. Did you know this was only the second time that the ninth qualifier has won this race? Larry Dixon won from the nine spot in 2004, but other than that, qualifying in the bottom half of the field hasn't been that good for a Top Fuel driver in Englishtown. With his win that leaves Atlanta, Richmond and Topeka as the only tracks on tour where Tony hasn't won. That's saying something, too, since we have only raced at Norwalk one time, so if you do the math that means that Tony is the defending champion at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park. Tony struggled in qualifying last year at Norwalk, finally making the field in the 14^th spot, but then he went out and won the race beating Rod Fuller in the final round. Did you know that with his win this past week Tony has now won fourteen of his last sixteen final round appearances? Not bad, huh? He is leading the points by a bunch and he is the first pro to go over 1,000 points this year. By comparison, after eleven races last year he had won two races, he had 655 points and was in fifth place. As all the other Top Fuel teams are saying, thank goodness for the "Countdown." Really, that's what they're saying....

Wilkerson vs. Neff

Oddly enough Tim Wilkerson is also leading the points, he also won the Lucas Oil Super Nationals and he also qualified number nine. Tim became only the seventh Funny Car driver in the thirty-nine year history of the race to win from the bottom half of the field and the first from the number nine spot. I had a nice conversation with Tim after the race and he truly is a nice person. Not that I needed to talk with him to discover that, but after something like this he was especially nice, thoughtful and extremely caring. The win was the last thing on his mind and he invited all of the Team Kalitta members who were still there to share the winner's circle with him. He also talked about the fact that his son, Daniel, wants to and has raced in the fuel cars and Tim knows that there are inherent risks in driving one of these cars. If there is a more humble and deserving man to be leading the points I don't know who it could be. Tim is the real deal and, right now, he has the best car in the Funny Car class. The Levi, Ray and Shoup Impala makes more full runs than anyone in the class, hardly ever smokes the tires and Tim very rarely, if ever beats himself..Obviously the most poignant moment of the day came when Robert Hight came to the line. Robert was to have raced Scott in round one and when he made his burnout the entire Team Kalitta came to the starting line in the other lane. It was a very touching moment and it was made more so when Robert took the green light and just idled down the race track. The fans, already on their feet for the Kalitta team, gave Robert and his team a huge ovation for the gesture. It cost Robert lane choice and may have cost him the race, we'll never know, but I don't think Robert or any of the Team Force members cared about that in the least. It was a great gesture by a team that knows what Connie and his family are going through. And it's what makes this sport so great..Tim ran 4.88 in round one and then he had low elapsed time of the next three rounds. I'm saying this strictly as an observer of the sport and certainly not as an expert or a mechanic, but Tim seems to be one of the few drivers out there who goes to the line with a game plan in mind, a game plan that is predicated by who is in the other lane and what he thinks they will run. His 4.90 in round two was jus enough to beat Gary Densham's 4.92. His 4.93 in the semi-finals was just enough to beat Del Worsham's 4.95 and his 4.87 in the final was just enough to beat Mike Neff's 4.88. So you tell me if I'm wrong in my observation...Jim Head was the top qualifier in the Funny Car class and that's the first time that he has done that. His only other number one spot also came at this track but that was in Top Fuel in 1993. Did you know that in '93 his

Jim Head

number one time was 4.810 and this week it was 4.803? Jim got the top spot because he ran faster than Ashley Force who also went 4.803. Losing the top spot on speed hardly every happens and yet it's happened to Ashley twice already in her career, Englishtown and last year at Indy. Did you know that in the entire thirty-nine year history of the Englishtown race this is only the second time that two drivers in any pro class ran identical elapsed time in qualifying? The other time was in 1977 when Bob Glidden and Don Nicholson both went 8.642 and Bob got the top spot because he did it first. That's how they decided the spots back in 1977, not by speed but by who ran the time first.. Almost unnoticed was the fact that John Force has slipped into the tenth spot in the battle for a spot in the U.S. Smokeless Showdown at Indy. John is now just sixty points behind the eighth place driver, Jerry Toliver, with lots of races to go before we lock up those eight spots. It could be another come from behind story for John. And if you were at Englishtown on Sunday you may have noticed a solitary figure on the track long after the race was over and that was John Force. He feels passionately about the safety of the sport and the cars and I'm sure he was thinking about what to do in the future as he, alone, paced the track at the end of a long weekend. John doesn't get many moments to himself but I'm sure he relished this time alone.

Anderson vs. Connolly

If you think winning a race from the bottom half of the field is tough in the fuel classes you ought to try to do it in Pro Stock. When Mike Edwards (#12) and V. Gaines (#14) both made it to the semi-finals I thought we might have a little history in the making. But when Greg Anderson (#1) and Dave Connolly (#7) took them out I realized that a little normalcy had been returned to the Pro Stock class. Did you know that in the thirty-nine years of this race only one driver has won from the bottom half of the Pro Stock field? Richie Stevens won from the 15^th spot in 2001 but other than that it's been a shutout for the drivers in spots nine through sixteen. I guess to be perfectly correct I should say it's been a shutout for the drivers in the nine through thirty-two spots. Did you know that in the early years of this race there were thirty-two car Pro Stock fields? Needless to say, not one of the drivers below number sixteen ever made it to a final round either. 1971 featured thirty-two Pro Stock cars and, just for fun, some of the bottom half of the field drivers were Dave Strickler, Richie Zul, Carmen Rotunda and Fred Dellis. Honest!...Greg's win was his fourth at this event and it was the seventh straight time that one of the Summit Racing team cars won the race. It was also the fourteenth time that the top qualifier has won in Pro Stock at the Super Nationals. As you might expect, the list of number one qualifiers who won the race reads like a "Who's Who" of Pro Stock and it includes Bill Jenkins, Wayne Gapp, Larry Lombardo and Bob Glidden just for starters....I

Johnson and team celebrate last years win.

was actually surprised when I went back and saw that this was only the second time this year that Greg Anderson has qualified number one. The other time was in Pomona when he swept the event. Did you know that Greg has qualified number one sixty-four times in his career and he has won the race thirty-two of those times. Hey, even I can figure out that percentage. Greg's four round wins give him 376 for his career and that moved him past Gary Scelzi and into 12^th place on the professional list of most rounds won. With the connection between the Ken Black Summit Racing teams and Team Kalitta, the weekend was especially tough for Greg, who said after his first round win, "I feel it in my bones, we're going to win this thing for Scott." And he did..The eight spots for the K & N Horsepower Challenge were solidified and Ron Krisher held on to the eighth and final spot. Warren Johnson will start that special race from the seventh spot and this will make the 24^th consecutive year that the "Professor" has been in the big money Pro Stock race. Johnson has won it more times than anyone, but it's Kurt Johnson, not Warren. Did you know that KJ won the Pro Stock Challenge event four times and that's the most by any driver in the history of the race?

Ellis vs. Rivas

Chris Rivas went to his second consecutive final round but this time, unlike Chicago when he beat Craig Treble he lost to Chip Ellis. Did you know that Chris went to the final round at the third race of his career and then went forty-five races before getting back to the money round? Now he's done it back-to-back and he has a good chance at a three-peat in Norwalk. Chris, riding the Drag Specialties, G-Squared, S & S powered V-twin, is as hot as any motorcycle rider in the class right now and his last two races have propelled him to the number four spot in the points. Chris fouled out in the final round because he thought that he needed a little edge against Chip. Maybe that's because the Don Schumacher Electric Suzuki had been the best bike in all three previous rounds of competition and he was again in the final even with the red light..Mike Berry competed on the Buell that Angie McBride

Mike Berry

had been running and he did very well. I spoke to Matt Smith about that after the race because it had to be a tough decision for him. Since he and Angie are going together (or whatever the correct word for dating is these days), it couldn't have been easy for him to tell her that he was putting Mike on the bike. Besides wanting to make sure that Angie didn't get hurt Matt wanted to pinpoint the source of the problems that had kept the bike from going straight. Plus, since it's a new chassis that Matt built himself and would like to sell and market to the other bike teams, he couldn't afford to have it not perform. So he made the switch although he did tell me that Angie will be back on the bike later this year. From what I saw the bike went straight, Mike rode well and that can only help Matt in his quest to sell some new bikes to the other teams. Hey, he is the reigning world champion, so he has to know how to make a bike run and it's always good to have another source of equipment, whether it's an engine or a chassis for the teams to choose.

Harker vs. DeAngelis

Frank Manzo did what Frank Manzo does best, he won a race at Englishtown. This was the tenth time that the "Ace" won at his home track and it came in the 100^th final round of his career and that's just on the national event level. Did you know that Frank has been to 127 finals at divisional races in his career? That's a bunch of final rounds, isn't it? Frank swept to victory, that is, he was the number one qualifier, he set top speed and low elapsed time and this was the 30^th time in his career that he ran the table on race day. Frank will now come to Norwalk, the last place that he lost a round in national event competition .Diana Harker won for the first time in her relatively brief driving career when she took Randy Meyer's car past Dave DeAngelis in the final round. Other sportsman winners included Al Ackerman, David Ficacci, John Stover and Mark Rizzo who all won for the first time and Peter Biondo who has done this before..Now let's all get ready for the Norwalk race where Bill Bader and his family will do what they do best, prepare a race track that will be warm, friendly and welcoming to all of us as we try to get on with our lives and our sport. Maybe a little ice cream is what we all need. After all, wasn't it Eric Medlen who said you can't be sad when you're eating ice cream?" I'll see you at the concession stands.