Tue, 5 May 2009, 09:22 PM Let's All Think Green

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2009 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Pedregon vs. Tasca

I don't claim to know all of the details about the new "tree variance system" on the starting system, the one that was supposed to stop drivers from guessing on the line. I don't know how it works other than it is supposed to put a random delay in the tree once the cars stage. That, from what I understand, means that the time from when the drivers stage to when the tree is activated will vary from run to run and from day to day. There is a minimum and a maximum in the delay system and it is in effect in the top three pro classes. Having admitted that I don't know all the technical details about it, what I do know is that there were a lot of fouls this weekend in St. Louis. Twelve drivers in all fouled out including two in Top Fuel, one in Funny Car, four in Pro Stock and five in Pro Stock Motorcycle. All the drivers are dealing with the same tree so they have to adapt but twelve red lights is a bunch at one race. Did you know that there were thirteen red lights at the second Las Vegas race in 2006 and that eleven of them came in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class? Hey, and that was before the changes to the tree, wasn't it? OK, forget everything I just said about the new system.

Chris Karamesines

One of those foul starts came when Chris Karamesines jumped the tree in round one of Top Fuel. The "Greek," who first qualified for a Top Fuel show in 1964, was racing against Cory McClenathan when he staged and just took off. For Cory, who then lost to Antron Brown in the second round, it was his first meeting against Chris, one of the real legends in the sport, and the fact was not lost on Cory who said after the run, "Hey, did you know there were a total of 123 years on the starting line in that run?" That would be the seventy-seven that Chris admits to and the forty-six that we know Cory is. At the other end of the spectrum was the red light by TJ Zizzo, who is much younger than the "Greek." TJ, who was making his first NHRA appearance of the year, jumped the lights in his match with Shawn Langdon. Shawn then went on to the semi-finals where he lost to Brandon Bernstein....If I had one person I had, well, two, come up and ask me who I think the Rookie of the Year would be if the votes were cast today? Just the fact that people are talking about that is very interesting because I can't tell you the last time the rookie question came up this early in the season or this often. Shawn certainly

TJ Zizzo

has to be in the mix and his semi-final finish kept him solidly in the top ten in the points. Since I mentioned the tree and the foul starts, how about a little credit to Shawn who has been very good on the line, especially for a rookie. Did you know that Shawn has been first off the line in eleven of his thirteen rounds this year (that involved green lights)?...With his win Antron Brown went to the top of the pack while Tony Schumacher dropped to second place and Brandon is in third....Following his win in Atlanta, Morgan Lucas continued his good showing

Brown vs. Bernstein

by qualifying number one. Did you know that this was the third time that Morgan qualified at the top of the pack and now, in all three cases he lost in the second round? Of course being the quickest qualifier in Top Fuel at Gateway has not worked out well for those who preceded Morgan. Did you know that the number one TF driver has won exactly once in the thirteen year history of the event? Gary Scelzi went the distance in 1999 but other than that the top qualifier hasn't done too well at this event....As I have mentioned several times before, like it or not, the

Scelzi won in '99.

1,000 foot racing has produced some great racing and the dragsters proved that this week, most notably, the final round where Antron beat Brandon with a 3.850 to a losing 3.888. There were several other races that produced very close finishes and that is what I, as a fan, look for in a drag race....Tony Schumacher ran his round-one winning streak to a very impressive thirty-three when he beat Todd Simpson. The "Sarge" also ran his consecutive qualifying streak to 138. Also, very impressive. Did you know that the last time he failed to qualify was at Englishtown in 2003? Ironically, that's also the last time that Andrew Hines failed to qualify and he currently has the longest consecutive qualifying streak in the motorcycle class. What are the odds?

Worsham vs. Capps

Del Worsham won for the first time in over a year and for the first time as part of the Al-Anabi team for Alan Johnson when he beat Ron Capps in the final round. Del, who qualified third, ran well all weekend long, and when asked if he was surprised it took him this long to win this year he was a little surprised. "Hey, we've only been together for seven races and we have run well this year," he said. "We just hadn't won any races yet. But I'll tell you, this is a very good team." Already this year Del has qualified in the top four spots five times and that shows you how good the car is. Del ranked this win up there with some of the top moments in his career. He included his first win in Atlanta in 1991 and his big Indy weekend in 2005 on that list. He also said that his 2003 win in St. Louis was huge

Capps vs. Worsham in '07.

because he beat John Force in that final round and he did it all after qualifying last in the field. Of course, for Del, just to beat Ron Capps in any round has been a struggle over the years. Did you know that coming into the final round this weekend Del was just 9-28 against Ron and he once lost thirteen races in a row to the driver of the NAPA car?...We often wonder where the next wave of top notch crew chiefs will come from and I would have to say that Alan Johnson has found one in Aaron Brooks. With the quality of the cars in the Funny Car class right now, to qualify as well as they have and to win in just their seventh race together is very impressive and I'm sure we haven't heard the last from Aaron, Del and the rest of the AJR team this year....The Funny Car final was a rematch of the 2007 final round in St. Louis, a round that Ron won. His meeting with Del marks the eighth different driver that Ron has faced in his last eight final rounds. Just like the dragster final, the Funny Car final round was great and the fans saw a very good race between two of the top teams in the sport. Del's 4.135 held off Ron's 4.121 and the margin of victory was just a couple hundredths of a second. With the win Del upped his total of round wins to 349 while Ron, who won three rounds on Sunday also finished with a total of 349 round wins. The two

Hagan vs. Arend

are, obviously, among the best drivers in the history of the sport and both have a lot of good years ahead of them...Matt Hagan, another one of the great rookie crop of 2009, qualified second and recorded the first low elapsed time and the first top speed of his brief career. Matt ran 4.104 at 303.64 in his first round win over Jeff Arend and those ended up to be the best numbers in the class. Did you know that Matt becomes the 80^th driver to record low elapsed time and the 87^th to set top speed in the FC class? To show you how good that is for a rookie, did you know that Jack Beckman and Mike Neff have each recorded low E/T just one time in their careers? And since I like throwing out some other names, did you know that Paul Smith and Kosty Ivanoff each set top speed once in their careers?....I know you've heard this before, but the Funny Car class really is strong top to bottom this year and some very good teams are not going to make the "Countdown" at the end of the year. For example, right now, did you know that Mike Neff and Cruz Pedregon are not among the top ten teams in the standings?

Coughlin vs. Line

Jeg Coughlin just continues rolling along and he picked up his third win in five final rounds and he did it in just seven races this year. Jeg also continues to drive well and he was first off the line against his first three opponents before Jason Line fouled out in the final round. The win was the 44^th for Jeg who has now won 408 rounds in Pro Stock, which just happens to be the exact same amount as Greg Anderson. Greg won his 408 rounds in 228 races while Jeg has competed in 243 national events...Tom Hammonds, Allen Johnson and Mike Edwards all fouled out in round one and that took a couple of good cars out of play, if you know what I mean. For Mike it was his second red light of the year while Tom fouled out for the third time in 2009. Did you know that this was Allen Johnson's first red light start since the Atlanta race in 2007? That's a span of

Jones vs. Johnson

forty-seven races between fouls and that's pretty good in the Pro Stock class....The red light by Jason Line in the final round was his only the second time that he fouled out in thirty-seven final round appearances. "You hate to lose that way," Jason told me after the race. "I guess I was just a little too amped-up for the final and left a little too soon. No excuses." That's refreshing, isn't it?....Jeg was quick to give credit to his entire Victor Cagnazzi team, from the "guys at the shop" to his team at the track. "They all did a good job and, if you notice, our car is starting to run better, too and that will be good as the season goes on." Jeg made that comment in reference to several stories that had run recently about the fact that he keeps winning even when it doesn't appear that he is driving the best car out there....It appeared that Greg Stanfield did have the best car out there, at least this week. Greg qualified number one and recorded a personal best to go along with low elapsed time and top speed of the event in Pro Stock. Did you know that this was the first time that Greg has set low E/T and recorded top speed? Greg becomes just the 54^th driver

Justin Humphreys vs. Mike Edwards

to set low elapsed time and only the 60^th to set top speed. And, to keep a pattern going, did you know that, among those who also did it once were Dave Kanners and Ken Koretsky in the E/T department and Richie Zul and Don Grotheer in the speed department.Greg Anderson lost on a holeshot to Jeg in the semi-finals and that's the fifth holeshot loss for Greg this year. I have often said that a lot of this game is mental and I think that's where Greg might be right now. He told me after the race, "I just have to go up there and put everything out of my mind and drive like I did at the end of the year last year." He will, and when he does watch out, because the Summit Racing Pontiac has plenty of power and will make another run at the championship this year..Mike Edwards, who also has a very good car, fouled out in round one in St. Louis and that means that he has lost four rounds on the starting line, either by holeshot or foul and that'll change soon, too. Greg and Mike are too good to let that bother them for long, so look for a turn around real soon.

Krawiec vs. Treble

I have said several times this year that the Pro Stock Motorcycle class appears to have achieved some measure of parity. I have also said that it's not perfect and, as long as there are different rules for the different brands, there never will be complete parity or unanimity of opinion about the rules. After the last two races I have to say that it sure looks like the Harley-Davidsons have the superior bikes right now. Eddie Krawiec may have won the race but it was his teammate, Andrew Hines, who stunned everyone by making the quickest run in Pro Stock Motorcycle history when he ripped off a 6.860 in qualifying. This is, of course, a career best run for Andrew who really must like the Gateway track since his previous best run, a 6.875, came last year at this same event..Douglas Horne looked like he might make it to another final round in St. Louis

Andrew Hines

but he was beaten in the semi-finals by Craig Treble. Still, it was another good performance for the twenty-one year old who really does look like the real deal. By that I mean that he has a good bike, a good team and he rides very well. Even though he had two opponents foul out against him Douglas still had reaction times of .007 and .002 before his .021 against Treble. Did you know that Doug has been first off the line in every round except one in his rookie year? OK, so it's only been eight rounds (that's eight rounds where both drivers got a green light start), but it's still not bad....Bailey Whitaker made his first start and that means that we have already had a couple of new riders qualify in the class this year. LE Tonglet did it earlier and now Bailey and that's good for the class. While LE may only run selected events, from what I hear Bailey, who is part of the Shawn Gann "Rum Bum" team, is on tour for the rest of the year.

Sharp vs. Vincent

Lee Sharp had a chance to double-up this week, well at least until he lost in the quarter-finals of Super Stock. Even though he didn't win twice Lee did pick up his first national event win when he stopped Shaun Vincent in the Competition Eliminator final round....Jeff Taylor beat Peter Biondo in the semi-finals (Peter fouled) and then went on to win the Super Stock eliminator title and the 40^th national event of his career. It's not often that Peter meets up with someone who has won more races than he has, but that was the case when he squared off against Jeff. Jeff was the one who eliminated Lee from contention in the Super Stock class (Lee fouled) before beating former Super Stock World Champion, Larry Stewart Jr. in the final round..Nick Folk stopped Terry Edwards in a battle of two of the best 8.90 racers in the country and Larry Bernshausen picked up his second national event win and first in twelve years when he took the Super Gas title

Taylor vs. Stewart Jr.

in St. Louis....The Division 1 racers began their Lucas Oil series this past week and Bill Reichert and Duane Shields were the finalists in Top Alcohol Dragster. Gee, that's a wacky looking D-1 final, isn't it?....Frank Manzo opened defense of his Division 1 crown with a win over John Anderika in the alky funny car class while Sal Biondo beat his former employer, Vinny Barone in the Comp final...Anthony Fetch joined the growing list of racers who have won two classes at the same divisional race when he won in both Super Stock and Stock in Virginia...Out west, Division 6 also opened their year and Jeff Lane and Steve Wann were among the winners. Jeff continues to be one of the best and most versatile drivers in the sport and he can win in any car and in any class.