Tue, 7 Oct 2008, 11:04 PM Good News and Bad News

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

I actually took some time off this past weekend and, like all people who travel a lot for a living I did the obvious thing.I hopped a plane and went to Florida. It doesn't matter why I went or what I did but I took the weekend off from my computer, e-mails, phone calls and any of the other modern conveniences that we "just can't live without." Well, I can and I thoroughly enjoyed the technology-free weekend. And then I came home and saw two things in the news, one good and one bad. The good news was the official release of the new Full Throttle logo. Full Throttle, which will become the official series sponsor beginning next year, will be a huge plus for our sport. As good as POWERade has been I firmly believe the partnership with Full Throttle will be the best thing to happen to drag racing in years. The company will be fully behind the sport and will use some of the top stars in their ads and point-of-purchase materials and that will give drag racing some much needed exposure, exposure that can only help grow the sport. I really look forward to 2009 and I can't wait to be part of the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, that is, as long as they don't ask me to go home.The

Bobby Martindale

bad news that I received when I got home was about the accident that took the life of Bobby Martindale. Bobby was, in the words of my article on DragRaceCentral.com last week, a "true sportsman" racer. Bobby raced at the Division 2 races for a long time in the Top Alcohol Funny Car class and, even though he didn't win a lot of races, he competed and he had fun. I only spoke with him a few times over the years but I could tell that he enjoyed being at the races and being with his friends and running his car to the best of his ability, and like I said last week, that's the sign of a real sportsman racer. Bobby will be missed by everyone in the drag racing community and we should all keep his wife and family in our prayers.

I guess it's over. By that I mean the battle for the Top Fuel championship. I say that because I read several of the press releases from dragster teams this week and, included in them were words like, "We're running for fun now," or "We want to see how high we can get in the standings" and the ever popular, "We'd like to win a race before the season is over." I don't recall seeing any that said, "We really think we can catch Tony and win the championship." Maybe that's just a dose of

Schumacher vs. McClenathan

reality and it's time to call the engraver and tell him to put Tony's name on that trophy again this year. Let's face it, with three races to go Tony Schumacher is 166 points ahead of Cory McClenathan who is now in second place. Since you can't set a record at the national races this year, the most a driver can get at one race is 118 points which means that Tony only needs to leave Richmond this week with a 237 point lead and he'll be the champion..again. Make no mistake about it, the Army team has certainly earned their championship this year (if, indeed, they do hold on and win it) and they have a good chance of clinching this week. But just for fun and from a fan's point of view, wouldn't it be interesting to see someone upset them in round one this week and then go on and win the race and close to within about four rounds? Yeah, and it would also be fun to watch my stock portfolio go up this week but I don't think that's going to happen, either. Oh well, a guy can dream can't he?...Cory McClenathan, who is in second place, has four wins at the Virginia track and that ties him with John Force and Warren Johnson for the most pro wins at the facility. That, of course, counts both incarnations of races at the track, the current event and the one held between 1995 and 2000.... If that upset scenario doesn't happen and if Tony does win his first round match he will tie his record of twenty-four consecutive races

Larry Dixon in '01.

without a round one loss. He did it back at the end of the 1999 and at the start of the 2000 seasons when he won twenty-four straight round one matches. He has twenty-three now so he could tie his own mark at Richmond. The best in the Top Fuel class was Larry Dixon's thirty in a row spanning three years, beginning at the end of 2000 and continuing through 2002. Did you know that the best streak in the pro classes belongs to Angelle Sampey who once went forty-six consecutive races without losing in the first round? Angelle's streak was even more impressive when you consider that in those forty-six races only eight times did she not go to at least the semi-finals. Now that's a dominating stretch of races. In his current twenty-three race streak Tony has lost in the second round just five times, which is good, but it just goes to show how really impressive Angelle's forty-six races were. Did you know that the last time Tony lost a first round match was in Richmond last year? And before that loss to Morgan Lucas he had dropped two consecutive round one matches to Rod Fuller and Doug Foley..While the top spot may not be up for grabs the number two through six spots are. With only thirty-five points between them, anyone from Cory to Antron Brown, Larry Dixon, Hillary Will and Brandon Bernstein could finish as high as second and this week could go a long way toward determining exactly who will finish second...or sixth.

Wilkerson vs. A. Force

I haven't read any press releases from the Funny Car teams that say they are running for second place, at least not yet I haven't. Maybe that's because there are six teams within 115 points of the lead and that means that anyone of them (as well as a few others) could win the championship this year. Of course the harsh reality of it is that if you leave Virginia with more than a five round deficit you are really in trouble especially if there are several teams in front of you. While it's mathematically possible to overcome a big deficit it's not realistic if there are five or six teams ahead of you. Still, as we have seen in the past anything can happen in a short period of time. Having said that, this week is very important to all of the teams in the Funny Car class and we could see some teams eliminated from title contention in Richmond.Tim Wilkerson has rebounded well from his first round loss in Concord a few weeks ago and he appears to have the best car in the class right now. With back-to-back wins in Dallas and Memphis Tim has gone back to the top of the pack where he has been for a big part of the

Jack Beckman

2008 season. The question is, can he stay there? Jack Beckman is his closest rival and he is seventy-two points back while Robert Hight is seventy-four back and Tony Pedregon is seventy-six behind the leader. When you put it into a round-by-round perspective, that's only a deficit of a little more than three rounds and, with three races to go, it seems simple what the contenders have to do, doesn't it? Pick up a round on Tim at every race and, oh yeah, hope none of the other teams do the same. What you don't want to do is not qualify or lose in the first round. Of the contenders, or at least the top four, only Tim and Tony have qualified for every race this year. And of the top four, Tim has the fewest round one losses (5), while Jack and Robert have lost six times in round one and Tony has dropped seven round one matches. Do that this weekend and your title hopes will take a serious hit..Did you know that in 2007 Tim failed to qualify for seven races and he lost in the first round at six of the races that he did qualify for? He also finished fifteenth in the points last year, so if he should go on to win the championship it would represent one of the biggest turnarounds in drag racing history. Did you know that Cruz Pedregon finished

Cruz Pedregon won Houston in '92.

fifteenth in the points in 1991 before winning the championship in 1992? Of course Cruz finished fifteenth in Top Fuel in '91 and not in the Funny Car class. And Frank Hawley, who ran a very limited schedule in 1981 (two races), ended up thirtieth in the points before coming back to win the championship in 1982....The thing about the Funny Car class this year is that there are no easy rounds anywhere on race day. It used to be that qualifying in the top half of the field got you an easy draw, but now, regardless of where you qualify you're going to run a quality team in every round. Did you know that Tim Wilkerson has run a top ten driver in thirteen of his twenty-one first round matches this year? It's that kind of competition that is making the race for the FC championship so exciting this year. I firmly believe that by the time we leave Richmond on Sunday we'll know which teams have a legitimate shot at winning the championship, while the others will be able to begin sending their press releases out about how much fun they want to have at the last two races of the season.

Dave Connolly

As competitive as the Funny Car class is the Pro Stock class and the championship are also wide open. Seven drivers are within one hundred points and all need a good showing this weekend to keep those title hopes alive. And all you have to do is look at the past nine races to see that anyone can win in the Pro Stock class. Did you know that there have been eight different winners in those past nine races in Pro Stock? Only Dave Connolly has won twice and there has only been one winner who is not in the top ten in that time and that's Justin Humphreys. "If you're in you can win" is more than just a slogan in Pro Stock..It may be too early to tell but I think the alliance between Allen Johnson and Johnny Gray will be a good thing for both of them next year. We've seen how hard it is for single-car teams to win these days and anytime two good teams can get together it has to help both of them. Allen sure could use a good "get healthy" weekend this time around. After three races in the "Countdown"

Allen Johnson celebrates '99 win.

Allen is the guy who is in seventh place an even one hundred points behind Jeg Coughlin, the leader. As you know that's five rounds and we have twelve to go so that doesn't leave much room for error for any of the drivers, does it? Did you know that Allen won his first race at Richmond back in 1999? That win came after a bunch, and I mean a bunch of DNQ's and very few round wins since joining the tour in 1996. Since that time, and especially in recent years, Allen and his dad, Roy, have put together the most consistent Mopar in the Pro Stock class and they are a threat to win at every race. A couple of number one spots and some final rounds this year are proof of that, but they will need to win at least one and probably two of these final three races if they want to win the championship....Greg Anderson will be the first one to tell you that the "Countdown" hasn't gone exactly as he had planned. With no wins and no final rounds in the three races so far, Greg has said that he needs to win this weekend to keep his title hopes alive. "I said going in that someone would have to win at least two and maybe three races to

Ron Krisher

put this thing away," he said. "The good thing for us is that nobody has won twice yet and we're still in the points battle." Since his win in Denver Greg has only been past the second round once and he'll need to improve on that this weekend to keep those title hopes alive....Remember where you heard it first but look for Ron Krisher to have a good outing in Virginia. Ron has struggled over the past three races with a pair of DNQ's but my sources tell me that he will have a much better car in Richmond and I think that means he goes rounds. We'll see if my sources know what they're talking about in a few days. Go get 'em Ron!!....By the way, everyone who thought that, three races into the "Countdown" Jeg Coughlin, Kurt Johnson, Jason Line and Greg Anderson would be winless raise your hand. Just what I thought....My sources also tell me that Warren Johnson is going to win this weekend. OK, so I don't really have any sources but, with four wins already in Virginia and a very good car recently, I like the "Professor's" chance of going all the way this week.

Faul vs. Moreno

The Pacific Sportsnationals were held this weekend and there were a couple of interesting winners out in California. First of all, Matt Blodgett won in Super Street in his very first national event. Matt, whose brother Mike and father have also won national races, drove the family's Chevy Vega to the win. Did you know there are now eight families who have three members with national event wins?...Dave Moreno won in Fontana, too. That's the same Dave Moreno who won Stock Eliminator at the 1985 World Finals. Since that would be twenty-two years and eleven months between wins, that would be the fifth longest gap between national event wins in NHRA history. Al Vanis is still first (over 28 years), Ralph Hope is second (over 26 years), Ken Montgomery is third (over 25 years) and Randy Fabbro is fourth (over 24 years). Congratulations, Dave...Bill Reichert won at the Atlanta divisional race and that gives him a thirty-eight point lead over Jim Whiteley in the battle for the national championship....A couple of the sportsman titles are so close that the difference of a round win here or there could decide them going down the stretch.