Tue, 16 Feb 2010, 11:16 PM What A Weekend

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2010 Auto Imagery, Inc. & Jim Luikens

Bob Muravez and Frey

For the first time in a long time, a really long time, I can honestly say that I wish I hadn't been assigned to work at an NHRA national event. Ok, so that may be a bit of a stretch, but there was so much going on off the track in Pomona this past weekend that it would have been nice to have had the time to take it all in. As it was, I got to spend precious few moments in the Golden Corral, at the Wally Parks NHRA Museum, at the Night of Champions, at the Legends dinner and mingling with all the stars who were at the race. I thoroughly enjoyed my time away from the tower but, in the future, I may just have to call in sick when there's an event like this. It was truly a historic weekend and I hope that those who were there enjoyed it as much as I did. The big question is, where to start talking about it?

On Friday night I was doing some preparation for the Legends dinner that was scheduled for Saturday evening. It promised to be a fun time and it really delivered, but more on that in a bit. Since I was pre-occupied I had to pass the baton to "Big Mac" Dave McClelland so he could host the Night of Champions at the museum on Friday evening. As always he did a great job and, as always, the Night of Champions was a big hit with the fans. Let's face it, it's free, it features some of the great champions of the past and you always get to hear stories that have never been told before, and that's exactly what took place this year. When Bob Muravez, aka Floyd Lippencott, told the story about how he was ostracized by his family after wining the 1963 Winternationals, there wasn't a dry eye in the place, especially on stage. It was quite a tale, but away from the stage, if you took just a simple stroll around the museum you ran into a "Who's Who" of drag racing. Everywhere I turned I bumped into someone who is either in the Hall of Fame or should be. I got to spend some time with Carolyn Safford, Kenny's wife, and she is always good for a few really great stories. Hugh Tucker and his wife were there and he actually offered to give me a ride in his car when we come to Seattle later this year. If you remember last week I mentioned that his roadster always was one of my favorite cars so that invitation was extra special....When I continued my tour after talking with Hugh, I bumped into Merek Chertcow, the former Top Fuel driver who spent some time behind the wheel of the Ramchargers dragster. It's always a pleasure to talk with him and his presence at the museum was just another indication of the stars who stopped by on Friday night.I also got to spend some time with a lot of the British contingent who were there, including Andy Carter, Brian Taylor and Roger Gorringe. You may be familiar with Andy since he has raced at a couple of NHRA events, but Brian and Roger may be new names to you. They were there promoting their book, "Crazy Horses, The History of British Drag Racing." Brian is the author of the book and Roger did most of the photography for it, and I have to say that as a historical document it is wonderful and it covers a whole lot of history. Peter Crane, who made the fist five-second run in British drag racing history (on a run where he was paired up with Don Garlits) was also there. Like I said, it was a great night and I'm sure everyone who was there really enjoyed themselves.

Frey with the Smirnoff car.

On Saturday, between qualifying for the pro cars, I did get to leave the tower for a few minutes and I made it to the Golden Corral which was absolutely mobbed. The display of cars was a good as anything I have ever seen. If you love drag racing (and if you were at Pomona you love drag racing), you had to be awed by what you saw in the corral. I got to see so many cars that I haven't seen in years, cars that I announced when they ran in their original form, and it was the highlight of my weekend. Well, one of them. I can't begin to tell you about each car, but I can tell you that it was a fun place to be, especially if you got to spend some time with the owners and drivers and if you had some time to talk drag racing with them. Gassers, roadsters, altereds, Top Fuel cars, Funny Cars, exhibition vehicles, you name it and it was in the corral. I tried several times to catch up with Clare Sanders who was there with the 1969 winning "Jungle Jim" Nova but never did. I guess when you're a big star like Clare you spend most of your day in the autograph tent. Speaking of which, the lines for autographs was huge, but the fans waited patiently and so did the drivers until everyone got something signed (although some people wanted everything signed and that slowed the line down a little). I hope the folks were getting autographs because they love the drivers and not so they can put something on ebay. Really....

Frey, Don Prudhomme, Don Garlits, Bill Jenkins, Bob Glidden, Shirley Muldowney, Joe Amato, Kenny Bernstein, John Force, Larry Dixon and Tony Schumacher

Next up was the Legends dinner on Saturday night and that was one of those events where you simply had to be there. It was a sell out and everyone who was there more than got their money's worth. Let's face it, when you have a panel that includes Don Prudhomme, Don Garlits, Bill Jenkins, Bob Glidden, Shirley Muldowney, Joe Amato, Kenny Bernstein, John Force, Larry Dixon and Tony Schumacher it's hard to not be a success. The veteran drivers told some great stories, John Force was John Force, and the younger drivers, Larry and Tony, were actually in awe, I think, of the other drivers on stage. I am not speaking for them, of course, but that's the feeling that I got. Awe and respect, a lot of respect. We did learn a few things on Saturday night, Don Prudhomme is not coming back, Don Garlits (and several others) do believe in alien beings and everyone had great memories of the past. For the sold-out crowd that was in attendance it was a very special night. The folks at NHRA (and there were a lot of them) who put this together deserve a lot of credit because it took a great deal of planning and I congratulate them for pulling it off..As you might imagine, in addition to the stars on stage, there were, literally, hundreds more in the audience it was nice to get to acknowledge some of them. Dave McClelland did his usual masterful job of picking out the celebrities in

Bob Muravez and Dave McClelland

the crowd during the evening and I thank him for that....There were two real highlights of the evening, well, two among many. First, NHRA surprised Bob Muravez with a "Wally" trophy to honor his 1963 win. To say that Bob and his wife were surprised and thankful would be a gross understatement. Bob was speechless, almost, and he didn't let go of the trophy for the rest of the night. His wife said that he would sleep with it. "There will be four people in bed tonight, me, Bob, Floyd and Wally."..Another special moment came at the very end of the evening when we auctioned off a guitar that was autographed by Eric Clapton. After some spirited bidding the guitar finally sold for $20,000 and the winning bidder wasn't even there. Mr. Tom Hanna, the great car builder, Hall of Fame member and Grand Marshall for this year's California Hot Rod Reunion, was the winning bidder. Tom was out visiting some sick friends but he sent the bid in. Turns out he has a grandson who loves music and now he's going to love having this great guitar to play. Thanks, Tom, you truly are one of the greats in the sport, for more reasons than one. It should be noted that the proceeds from the auction went to the Wally Parks NHRA Museum..There was so much more going on all weekend and all I can say is that, as a drag racing fan, I hope you were there. Oh yeah, the book and the DVD about the 50^th Winternationals sold out at the track, but if you want to get them you can order the book on Amazon.com and you can still get the DVD at NHRA.com. Hurry before they are all gone.

Dixon vs. Schumacher

As far as the racing goes, it was great. The finals in all three pro classes were about as good as you could get, and I always say that the last impression the fans have of the race if very important. Well, the fans in Pomona saw some great final rounds. In Top Fuel, after beating Tony Schumacher in a race that featured identical elapsed times and speeds, Larry Dixon went on to beat the defending champ, Doug Kalitta in the final round. Doug found out how tough it is to repeat at Pomona but he still had a good weekend with his new-look Technicoat dragster. Did you know that Larry is the only TF driver to ever win the Winternationals in consecutive years? He did it in 2002 and 2003 (in addition to winning it in 1998) and that's the only time a dragster driver has won the season-opening race in back-to-back years. Doug came so close, didn't he?...It's hard to believe that in the entire history of Top Fuel racing, this was only the third time that two drivers have posted the identical numbers during eliminations. It's even harder to believe that it has now happened twice in two years after not happening at all for over thirty years. Did you know that Tony

Dixon vs. Kalitta

Schumacher has been involved in two of those three races? Last year in Houston he beat Morgan Lucas with identical times and speeds and this year he lost to Larry the same way. What are the odds?....The final round in Top Fuel featured two of the top ten drivers on the all-time NHRA win list. In fact, did you know that all three of the pro finals featured top ten drivers in their respective classes?....Cory McClenathan was the top qualifier and that's the 34^th time that he has held down the top spot going into eliminations. But, like so many number one qualifiers before him at Pomona, Cory wasn't able to win the race. Did you know

Cory McClenathan and Frey

that in the entire history of the race, the top qualifier has won the dragster class just five times? This was Cory's third time as the number one guy at Pomona and it's the third time he wasn't able to close the deal. Cory also set low elapsed time and top speed of the meet in his new-look orange Fram dragster. Now here's an amazing little tidbit (at least I think it is). Did you know that in the long and storied history of TF at the Winternationals, there have only been six drivers, including Cory, who have been number one, set low elapsed time and top speed? And do you know how many of them won the race? How about one!! As hard as it may be to believe, did you know that Blaine Johnson, in 1996, is the only Top Fuel driver to ever sweep the Winternationals by qualifying number one, recording low elapsed time, setting top speed and winning the race?

Force vs. Capps

John Force won the Funny Car race, his first win ever at 1,000 feet, and in the process I firmly believe that he served notice that he was back and ready to run for the championship. Other than the first round, John ran low e/t of every round and he put together runs of 4.120, 4.125 and 4.124 in the last three rounds to get the win. His win over Ron Capps featured the number one driver in terms of wins against the number five guy and it lived up to all the hype. John's win, the 127^th of his great career, is good news for all the John Force fans but bad news for the other Funny Car teams. He looked good and ran well and he'll be in contention all year long for the Funny Car championship..Robert Hight, the reigning champ, was the top qualifier but, like Cory, he couldn't win from the top spot. In fact, Robert didn't even get out of the first round. For only the eighth time in the history of the Funny Cars at Pomona, and that goes back to 1969, the number sixteen qualifier took out the top guy in round one. Did you know that, as rare as

Frey Hight and his daughter.

that is, it has now happened in two of the last three years?...Robert became the eighth driver to set all of the performance marks in the Funny Car class at the Winternationals, but just like the dragsters, completing the sweep is a very tough thing to do. Did you know that only one driver has ever done that and his name is Don Prudhomme? The "Snake" won Pomona in 1976 & 1977 and he did so while sweeping all of the performance marks and he is the only FC driver to ever do that at the Winternationals....From a fan's point of view I think the Funny Car class is wide open this year and that means it should be a lot of fun to watch. I will say this, if John comes out and wins Phoenix, watch out..Did you know that John and Larry Dixon have now won at the same race an amazing fourteen times and it's the second time they have done it at the Winternationals?

Edwards vs. Anderson

One driver who did sweep to victory was Mike Edwards. The reigning champ got his championship jacket and his ring in the pre-race ceremonies and then went out and destroyed the field. Greg Anderson did give him a good run in the finals and that was part of those great final rounds that I mentioned earlier. Mike doesn't seem to have missed a beat during the off-season, and if someone doesn't step up and beat him soon, like in Phoenix or Gainesville, it's going to be a very long season in Pro Stock. Did you know that Mike was the only number one qualifier in any class, pro or sportsman, to make it to the final round this past weekend?..Some of the new cars were very impressive, none more so than Larry Morgan's. His new Lucas Oil Ford not only qualified but he made it to the semi-finals before losing

Larry Morgan

to Greg, and for a guy who started in the 15^th spot, that's pretty good, and for a guy with a new car, that's great. Did you know that in all the years of Pro Stock racing this is only the third time that a number fifteen car made it to the semi-finals in Pro Stock? Kurt Johnson did it in 1993 and Melvin Yow did it in 1971 and now Mr. Morgan. Nice job, Larry..Shane and Johnny Gray also debuted their new cars in fine fashion with Shane qualifying at his very first race and actually winning a round. The two cars were also named the "Best Engineered Cars" at the race and that's some honor for a new operation like Johnny's. I guess right now Shane is the leader in the Rookie of the Year category, isn't he?....Johnny and Shane became part of a very small group when

Johnny and Shane Gray

they qualified in the same Pro Stock field. As father and son combos go, there aren't a lot who can say they made the same starting lineup in Pro Stock. Warren and Kurt Johnson, Bob, Rusty and Bill Glidden, Jim and Jamie Yates come to mind right off the top of my head, while Carl and Carty Beal were at the same races but never made the starting fields together.

Kelly Wade, who is doing some writing for us here at DragRaceCentral.com, did a nice story on the sportsman winners so I will simply add my congratulations to what she had to say. I assume that the celebrating is over in the Jerry Maddern - Chris Demke camp by now, although I can't guarantee it..Duane Shields and Mickey Ferro got off to good starts at the Division 2 race in Florida, even if the weather didn't allow them to complete the entire event. Let's hope all of the nasty weather moves on because they have another division race this week and the Gatornationals in a few weeks.