Wed, 5 Aug 2009, 12:58 AM Time To Lend A Helping Hand

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2009 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Last week I mentioned the health problems facing Todd Bevis, the car and chassis builder who does most, if not all, of the work for Victor Cagnazzi's team. Todd has cancer and is in need of our prayers as well as our financial assistance (in that order). We can all take care of the prayer part, and it doesn't cost you any money and only a very little time. Others, if they are so inclined, can help with the financial part by participating in some way, shape or form in the upcoming event that is being planned by Todd's wife, Gaylene, together with Cheri Simmons, the wife of Roy Simmons, crew chief on the yellow and black Jeg's car that runs out of Victor's shop. The event will take place this Saturday, August 8 at Victor's shop in Mooresville, North Carolina. There will be a live and silent auction, dinner, cash bar and more and it only costs ten dollars to get in. Already they have some really special auction items including a four day stay at a mountain home and a beach home, airplane rides, and lots of racing items from drag racing, the World of Outlaws and NASCAR. As always, the auction will probably generate the most money, but you must be there to bid, so, if you can't physically make it, you can help the cause, and Todd, by sending your donation to the Todd Bevis Cancer Fund, 136 Hardwick Rd., Mooresville, NC 28115. You'd be surprised how much every little donation helps, so do what you can, even if it's only a few bucks, and even if it's only offering a prayer. Todd is still undergoing radiation and he has had a series of chemotherapy treatments already but he won't know for a while how successful they were. His form of cancer is very severe and he is a long way from being out of the woods, and as you imagine these treatments aren't cheap. So let's all pitch in and do what we can. I heard a long time ago that, in situations like this, we all have something to offer, whether it's our time, our talents or our treasures, so whatever you have to offer and share, please do it....I'm sure you will start to see the "Get Well" stickers on cars next weekend in Brainerd and I want to join with everybody in the racing community and send my get well wishes to Todd. I know you may not think that even a little gesture could make a difference, but believe me, it can. So take a minute and do what you can to help out, I know Todd and his wife and family will really appreciate it.

Louie backing up Force.

I was intrigued by the "NAPA Night Under Fire" event at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park in Norwalk this past week. OK, maybe intrigued isn't the right word, maybe impressed would be a better description. That's because there aren't that many, if any, tracks in the country these days that hold a good, old fashioned "match race" like they do at Norwalk. Even if it wasn't in the old "best two out of three" match race madness that was so prevalent in the late 1960's and early 1970's, it still was a great night with the feel of an old time match race to it, or at least I think it was. I wasn't there, I was in Pierre, South Dakota at Oahe Speedway having a wonderful time watching the drag races there, but for everything that I have seen and heard the Norwalk affair was a real big success. You have to give the Bader family a lot of credit for staging an event like this in these tough economic times, but they have built a great history of delivering wonderful evenings of entertainment at their facility and the fans know that they will get their money's worth when they travel to Norwalk. All you have to do is look at the pictures of the crowd that hung around on the starting line after the race to know that's true. And the fact that John Force won the race had to make it more enjoyable for a lot of the fans, and I'm not taking anything away from the other drivers when I say that. Actually, now that I think about it, I don't know who was more excited after the race, the fans, the Baders or John Force. OK, so it's only a match race, but a win is a win and for John to do it with his brother Louie there had to make it even sweeter. And, as we all know, and as a wise man once told me, "it's all about the die casts." John ran the "Night Stalker" Funny Car and that will be the only time that he will race the car that was a tribute to the very first Funny Car that he ever raced. That original car wasn't a thing of beauty, but it did get John into the sport and the rest, as they say, is history. As I mentioned in an earlier article this year, the "Night Stalker" die cast cars will be available for a limited time and I'm sure that the John Force fans all over the country will be scooping them up as fast as they can. I should also mention that John ran Cruz Pedregon in the final round so that had to be special for everyone, too. That's because, as I often say, if there is a "Force" in one lane and a "Pedregon" in the other lane it's going to be a good race, whether it's at Norwalk, Brainerd next week or the final round at Indy..When I mentioned John's "Night Stalker" in an earlier article, I touched on the fact that it was originally built for Jack Chrisman, who never actually raced the car in competition. Hard to believe that a guy with Jack's background would look at a chain-driven Funny Car and decide to go another route, isn't it? But the mere mention of Jack's name, and match races, made me think about the very first, really big match race show that I ever announced. It was the first Wednesday night spectacular at Atco Dragway, my home track in New Jersey. Let me take you back..

Al Joniec's Cobra Jet

Remember, I started my drag racing announcing career at Atco in 1966, at a time when match races were big and so were Funny Cars. The management at Atco decided to stage a big race on a Wednesday night, and while it wasn't as historic or as iconic or as talked about as the legendary Super Stock Nationals at York a year earlier, it was a huge event. All of the top names were there including Jack Chrisman, "Dyno" Don Nicholson, "Fast" Eddie Schartman, Ronnie Sox, Cecil Yother, Al Joniec in the "Bat Car" and, as every drag racing commercial back then said, "many, many more." By way of a short summary, Cecil Yother in the topless "Melrose Missile" beat Ronnie Sox for the overall Funny Car honors while Jack took his topless Mercury Comet to the top spot in the supercharged class. There is a classic picture in an old Super Stock magazine of Jack coming back up the track, in front of the packed grandstands, and I'm sure that it's his son, Steve, who is riding in the car with him. Much like the picture of Larry Dixon with his dad when he won the Winternationals, I'm sure this picture brings back a lot of memories for Steve..As I recall the race, it went into the wee hours of the morning and finally had to be stopped when the fans came onto the track en masse. Still, with the caliber of cars and drivers that were there, and with all the excitement of any major meet in the country, I remember it fondly and I will always remember it as the first, big race that I announced..In case you were wondering, Eddie Schartman set low elapsed time of the meet for the fuel injected cars when he ran 8.63. Hey, at the time that was very fast and very exciting. One last thing, a week after that race I went down to Cecil County in Maryland and watched another classic match race between Dick Landy and Bill Lawton and the Tasca Ford, a race that was won by Lawton three straight..Since I mentioned Tasca Ford it was good to see that Ford has been named the "Official Car & Truck" of the National Hot Rod Association for the next few years. I know that will spur sales because several fans have already told me they would like to drive a Ford, especially one with that Tasca label on the back. Now how cool would that be?

Wilkerson vs. Pedregon

Next week it will be back to the real world for John and the rest of his team and, with the exception of Ashley Force, the Team Force Mustangs will all be in search of a couple of good round wins in order to either secure a spot in the "Countdown" or get one in the first place. John is in eighth place, Mike Neff is in ninth while Robert Hight, who was also at Norwalk, is just outside of the top ten..While the Team Force cars look for a couple of good races, there are two drivers who have to be very happy with their situations right now. Tim Wilkerson, winner of two of the three races on the "Western Swing," and Tony Pedregon who was in the other lane when Tim won those two races, are the two hottest guys in the class right now. Tony, who was also in Norwalk, is in first place and he has already secured a spot in the "Countdown," while Tim has made a big move in the points with those two wins. If getting to the final round once is tough, doing it at back-to-back races is really hard. And, if you take that one step further, having the same two drivers meet in the final round with the same result at consecutive races just doesn't happen that often. Did you know that it has only occurred five times this decade? Ironically it has now happened twice in the last six races. In addition to Tim and Tony in Seattle and Sonoma, Tony also had the same opponent in consecutive finals in Chicago and Englishtown when he beat Ashley Force. From there, you have to go back to 2004 (Gary Scelzi over John Force), 2001 (Tony over John) and 2000 (John Force over Ron Capps) to find the only other times this decade that the same two drivers met in a Funny Car final with the same result. And what are the odds that a "Force" would be involved in four of those five incidents?

Antron Brown

Antron Brown has been getting a lot of attention since his sweep of the "Swing." Antron, who does a really good job with the media, was on the "Wind Tunnel" show over the weekend and that was some good exposure for himself, the sport and his main sponsor, Matco Tools. Since there is nothing to compare him to, that is, a Pro Stock Motorcycle rider switching to Top Fuel, you just have to be amazed at what he has done. And what about the decision initially to give a bike rider a shot at a Top Fuel car? That, in itself, couldn't have been an easy decision. I will say this, when I have done some press functions with Antron he has been wonderful and he always comes up with at least one or two good lines that the media folks just love. I'm not saying that he's John Force, but then, who is, but I will say that he is just as comfortable answering questions as he is behind the wheel of the dragster..Antron had a very good rookie season behind the wheel of the dragster and he finished with an overall record of 36-21 and a very impressive fifth place in the points. Did you know that he has already won more rounds this year than he did in the entire '08 season? That's right, after just fifteen races the Matco Tools team, led by Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald, has posted a record of 38-10. Not bad, huh? Those thirty-eight round wins represent the most for Antron in any year of his racing career. Of course the bikes don't race at all of the events but, for the record, his best year on two wheels came in 2001 when he won thirty-two rounds. One of the reasons for the improvement this year, besides the fact that he has a very good car and an excellent team, is the fact that "AB" is driving better. In 2008 he was first off the line 58% of the time while this year he has upped that mark to an impressive 70%. Did you know that the best year he ever had on a motorcycle was in 2004 when he was first off the line 71% of the time? As good as that number is for Antron it is not the best in the dragster class this year. Did you know that, among the top ten drivers in the class, Spencer Massey has the best record, leaving first a full 83% of the time and Shawn Langdon is right behind him at 82%. Must be great to be young, huh?

Green in Sturgis

As I mentioned, I was in South Dakota this past weekend enjoying myself at Oahe Speedway, a really nice track just outside of Pierre. Mr. Milton Morris and the rest of his family and staff have done a great job with the track and I enjoyed my time there immensely. If you're ever in the area, stop by. And even if you're not, if you want to visit a track where they really treat their racers well, I can recommend a trip to Oahe Speedway, a "Dam Fast Track" as they call it. They call it that because it's just down the road from the Oahe Dam, which is a big part of the area and one of the great fishing spots in South Dakota. In addition to my time at the track I watched a lot, and I mean a lot of motorcycles heading to Sturgis for the motorcycle rally there. Our own DragRaceCentral.com guru, Rick Green is there and, I assume, behaving himself. Of course I also assume that I'm going to hit the lottery someday....Congratulations to Cody Perkins (TAD) and Steve Gasparrelli (TAFC) who were the big winners at the Division 7 race in Sonoma. Other winners included Mike DePalma, who is having a very good year in Competition Eliminator, Jimmy DeFrank in Super Stock and Jody Lang in Stock. The Torres brothers, Gabe and Val took the Super categories while Steve Older won in Super Street, J. Wayne Silva won in his second consecutive trip to the finals in Top Sportsman and Ryan Priddy won in Top Dragster.Also, did you know that the TAFC field at Sonoma was the quickest ever for a divisional event? The bump of 5.659 beat the old mark that had been set at, believe it or not, Sonoma in 2007. And how about this little tidbit? Did you know that the previous quickest field, at that Sonoma '07 race, had Jason Rupert as the number one guy and the previous best before that, which was Phoenix in 2007, also had Jason Rupert as the number one guy? And guess who didn't make the quick field in Sonoma? You guessed it, Jason Rupert. Oh well, two out of three isn't bad, is it?