Tue, 17 Aug 2010, 09:34 PM Now That Was Fun

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2010 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Underdahl vs. Hines

I don't know if it was Bob Bode winning his first race, Larry Dixon remaining perfect in final rounds this year, Jim Underdahl making it to his first final round or the drama surrounding the drivers who were trying to secure a spot in the "Countdown," but the 29^th Annual Lucas Oil Nationals in Brainerd was one, very exciting race. Of course I'm speaking for myself but I felt a certain electricity in the air (besides the lightning) for most of the weekend, and when it was all over I sat back and said, "Wow, that was fun." Sometimes, in my opinion, a race is just a race, but the one in Brainerd was thrilling from start to finish, and we haven't had a better finish than the one in Minnesota in a long time. First, Andrew Hines won in Pro Stock Motorcycle and he grabbed the top spot in the playoffs in the process. Then Jeg Coughlin continued his run through the Pro Stock ranks by beating a very strong Rookie of the Year candidate, Shane Gray. That was followed by the wildly popular win by Bob Bode over Jack Beckman and it all wrapped up with one of the quickest side-by-side runs in history when Larry beat Cory McClenathan, 3.786 to 3.810. Along the way were the battles for position in the Countdown" and that included David Grubnic edging Terry McMillen and Tony Pedregon holding off Jeff Arend and the stunning round-one upsets that included Ashley and John Force along with Mike Edwards and Matt Smith. Like I said, it was a very exciting weekend, one of the best of the year and that's including the fact that it rained, again, on one of the national events.

Dixon celebrate win.

Larry Dixon ran his streak to 9-0 in final rounds this year and that equals the best mark that anyone has ever had in the history of the Full Throttle Drag Racing series. John Force and Dave Schultz both won nine consecutive finals in 1994, but other than that, nobody has been as good in final rounds as Larry has this year and he still has six races remaining on the schedule. Now before you write to me and say what about Frank Manzo who has now won a staggering twenty-nine consecutive finals, remember that even the "Great One" never won nine races in a year, at least not nine national races in a year. Besides, I'll get to Frank later..Larry began the day with a nasty little run, a 3.917 win over Steve Torrence, a run that gave little or no indication of what was to come from the Al-Anabi team. What came was a 3.823 in round two, a 3.794 in the semi-finals and that 3.786 in the finals, a run that gave Larry and his team the low elapsed time of the meet in addition to the win. Did you know that this was the forty-first time that Larry has recorded low elapsed time of the meet but it's only the second time that he did it in a final round? And believe it or not the other time also came this year when he did it at Chicago....Since a lot of you know that I have a rather

Larry Dixon Sr.

extensive collection of "stuff," it was a fun week for me. When going through my archives recently I found a picture of Larry Dixon's father on the cover of a 1967 Drag News paper. The senior Mr. Dixon, driving the famous "Fireside Inn" Roadster, had just set low elapsed time at Lions Drag Strip. The picture on the cover couldn't have looked more like Larry and I showed it to him in Brainerd. I figured that he had seen it before (and he had) but it was still a neat moment. By the way, the two Dixon's, senior and junior, couldn't look more alike and that's what I liked about the picture, and the elapsed time that set the world buzzing back then, a staggering 7.39. One more thing, during the course of that event Larry beat the Butters and Gerard car, a car that was fielded by Dave Gerard who now writes and covers races for us right here at DragRaceCentral. Just thought I'd pass that along...Larry's final round opponent was Cory McClenathan, who hit a milestone on Sunday when he won the second-round match against Tony Schumacher. Did you know that was the 500^th round win of

McClenathan vs. Schumacher

Cory's career? And did you know that he is only the fourth Top Fuel driver to reach that lofty number? Larry has 583 round wins, Tony has 537 and Joe Amato has 527. Congratulations to Cory, his current team and all the other teams and crew chiefs that he has worked with over the years. Cory's semi-final appearance actually moved him past Tony Schumacher and into second place as the "Countdown" begins in Indy in two weeks...It shouldn't come as much of a surprise that Larry and Jeg have won a lot of the same races, but I have to admit that I was surprised that the number was so big. Did you know that this was the fourteenth time that these two great drivers have shared the winner's circle? It's also the second time that they have done

Grubnic vs. Haddock

it in Brainerd, the other one being the 1999 event....David Grubnic held on to the tenth spot when a combination of things happened. First, he won two rounds, and second, Terry McMillen lost in the first round. So, as I mentioned last week, the head-to-head meeting between the two, which would have been a great way to settle it, never occurred. David picked a good time to get hot, since this was his first trip to the semi-finals since the Phoenix race in 2008..Even though he didn't make the "Countdown" Terry gets a lot of credit for keeping it close, and for those who never did (and never will) like the playoff format, you have to admit that it kept Terry in the playoff picture a lot longer than he would have been under the old rules. He's a fun guy, has a good team and I'm glad he decided to run the full tour this year.

Bob Bode's win may have been the most popular win in a long while. Say what you want about Ashley Force, John, and of the Team Schumacher drivers, but you'd be hard-pressed to find fan reaction like we saw in Brainerd every time Bob won a round. With his wife,

Bode celebrates win.

Alice, son, Bobby, crew chief Walt Przybyl, and the rest of his team, he has run well all year and he certainly had a good car in Brainerd. Did you know that Bob became just the second driver to win a Funny Car race after qualifying twelfth in the field since we went to 1,000 feet? Cruz Pedregon was the other one when he won the Auto Club Finals in 2008. After qualifying twelfth in the field, Bob beat Cruz, Bob Tasca on a holeshot, Tim Wilkerson and then Jack Beckman. Did you know that the win over Bob Tasca was the first holeshot win in Bob's career? Of course he hasn't been a regular on tour so he doesn't have a lot of rounds of competition, but that second round win over Bob was huge, and just for the record, Bob Bode has never lost a race on a holeshot. Whether he wins again or not, and I certainly hope that he does and think that he will, Bob will always be in a select group, or at least a relatively select group, of just eighty-seven people who have won an NHRA national event in a Funny Car. Just for fun, some of the others who won one race include Sherm Gunn, Sammy Miller, Larry Fullerton and Mike Neff....Bob became the eighth different driver to win in the

Bode vs. Tasca

Funny Car class this year and that just shows how competitive the class is. 2006 had the most different winners when eleven drivers picked up a Funny Car national event win, and of those eleven, only three have won this year. John Force, Robert Hight and Jack Beckman were all part of the class of 2006 and they have also won this year. Did you know that since the turn of the century there have been at least eight winners in the Funny Car class in every year except 2002 when just six drivers visited the winner's circle?....After watching every higher qualified car win in the first round of Top Fuel, only four of the top eight moved on in Funny Car. Ashley Force (#1) lost to Paul Lee, Jeff Arend (#8) lost to Tim Wilkerson, Cruz Pedregon (#5) lost to Bob Bode and Ron Capps (#7) lost to Jim Head. Those upsets, if you can call some of them upsets, just reinforce what I have been saying all year and that is that the Funny Car class is loaded, top to bottom, and that any car in the

Tony Pedregon

"Countdown" could win the championship....John Force will go into the playoffs as the top seed in the class and he edged Robert Hight by one point....Tony Pedregon didn't win a round but he did make the "Countdown" and his car looked good while doing it. With a lot of the Charter Communications folks in the house, Tony, all decked out in purple and gold, qualified fourteenth before losing to Robert Hight in round one. Did you know that was the 796^th round of his career for Tony and that moves him past Joe Amato and into eighth place on the list for the most rounds of racing in the Full Throttle series? Only seven drivers in history have participated in 800 or more rounds of racing and Tony will hit that mark before the end of the year. Of course he hopes he hits it by the end of the U.S. Nationals....Ashley Force didn't win the race after qualifying number one, in fact, she didn't win a round after qualifying number one and that continues a little mini-drought for her. First of all she has never won the race, any race, after starting from the top spot, and she has never won a round at Brainerd. Sure she has only raced there four times, but still she'd like to get at least a round in the win column. Did you know that the last time the number one qualifier won in Funny Car in Brainerd was when Eric Medlen did it in 2005?

Brogdon vs. Edwards

As tough as Brainerd has been for Ashley it has been just as bad for Mike Edwards. This was the twelfth race in Brainerd for Mike and he has now won exactly six rounds of racing. In those twelve years he has qualified in the top half of the field just four times, failed to make the show twice and lost in the first round six times. I have often said I can never figure out why some drivers do very well at certain tracks and then really struggle at others, but maybe next year Mike and Ashley can just take the Brainerd weekend off. When Rodger Brogdon beat Mike in round one it was the first time that the "Pistonator" had beaten the champ in eight tries and it solidified a spot in the "Countdown" for Rodger. Did you know that the number sixteen qualifier has only won twice in round one this year and both times it was Rodger who did it? And in the twenty-nine year history of the Brainerd race this was only the fourth time that the sixteenth qualifier won an opening round match in Pro Stock. I did mention last week that it has been since 1986 that the top qualifier won in Pro Stock in Minnesota and that's just an amazing little stat.....Of course Mike had already locked up the top spot and he will go into the "Countdown" as the number one guy, but he'll do it with a lot smaller lead than he had going into

Gray vs. Coughlin

Brainerd. To make the loss even tougher on Mike he recorded low elapsed time of the meet on that run, a strong 6.593. To further illustrate how the Brainerd jinx continues for Mike, did you know that this was the second consecutive year that he lost on the same run where he set low elapsed time? Last year he went 6.630 in the semi-finals against Jason Line, a time that stood as low of the weekend, only to lose on a holeshot? What's a guy have to do to win in Minnesota? In an effort to try to make Mike feel better I should point out that he's in pretty good company, since both Warren Johnson (1997) and Bob Glidden (1989) also lost in Brainerd on a run where they set low elapsed time of the meet, and Bob's loss came in the final round. There Mike, feel better? I didn't think so....Like Funny Car there were four drivers who qualified in the bottom half of the field who won their first-round matches. Among them were Rodger over Mike, Greg Anderson (#9) over his brother-in-law Ronnie Humphrey, Jeg Coughlin (#12) over Ron Krisher and V. Gaines (#10) over Larry Morgan

DeSantis vs. Smith

....Shane Grey may have attracted a few more votes in the battle for Rookie of the Year. This was Shane's second final round of the year and he is sixth in the points, while LE Tonglet, the other main rival for the rookie honor, has won a race, been to two finals and is seventh in the standings. Your pick?

Very few classes were wackier than the Pro Stock Motorcycles in Minnesota. Sure the number one qualifier won the race, in fact Andrew Hines swept the event by setting low elapsed time and top speed in addition to winning, but there were some strange races in the bike class. Like Steve Johnson beating Eddie Krawiec in round one, or Jim Underdahl beating Craig Treble in that same round. Mike Berry's win over LE had to be considered an upset but none were bigger than Joe DeSantis beating Matt Smith. Joe, who won the 1974 Springnationals in Modified Eliminator, just loves racing and he told me before the round that he and his team had found a little electrical gremlin that had been bothering them all year. He then went out and put a perfect reaction time on the board and he used that, and a good running bike, to beat Matt. It's always great to see a guy like Joe win, and I'm taking nothing away from Matt

Buddy Robinson

by saying that. I wonder who had the bigger smile after round one, Joe or Bob Bode?...Jim Underdahl, running in front of his home crowd, had a great weekend and he just came up a bit short in the final round against Andrew..Buddy Robinson, also from Minnesota, had his best day as a pro when he qualified for a national event for the first time. He then joined a long list of motorcycle racers who have fouled out when he turned the red light on against Andrew in round one, but it was still a good weekend for Buddy and his team...The final four in Brainerd just shows how unpredictable the class can be, with Angie Smith, Underdahl and Mike Berry joining Andrew in the semi-finals. Like I said, it was a wacky but fun weekend in Minnesota.

Chris Demke is having a career year in the Top Alcohol Dragster class and his win keeps him right in the thick of things for a Lucas Oil Championship. The Jerry Maddern-owned car ran well, in fact they swept the

Sportsman winners.

race, and they have closed the gap on Bill Reichert in the standings. Did you know that this was the first time that Chris has swept to victory by being the top qualifier, setting low elapsed time and top speed while winning the race? And while he may not be putting Larry Dixon numbers on the board, Chris is 3-0 in finals this year and that's very good for any class, especially an alky dragster. Chris was 0-8 in finals coming into 2010 and now he has won three consecutive final rounds. Way to go Chris and your entire team..Despite his rare first round loss, Bill still leads but he is now just nineteen points ahead of Chris with a lot of racing left to go. For Bill it has been a case of all or nothing in Brainerd. Did you know that this was his eighteenth race at BIR and in eleven of those races he either went to the final round or lost in round one. Go figure!!....Frank Manzo did his thing again and his thing is winning. Frank won his twenty-ninth consecutive final round and that's simply amazing, and when he beat Thomas Carter in the final round it was the forty-fifth different driver that he has met in the last round at a race. Thomas, by the way, has been to two finals this year, one national and one divisional, and has lost to Frank at both of them. Welcome to the club, Thomas....Lance Trujillo, who will be the subject of one of my columns in the weeks ahead, won his first national race and that comes just weeks after hitting an antelope in the shut-down area at a track in Wyoming. Really....And Rick Johnson, driving a car that was formerly owned by the DeFrank family, beat Jimmy DeFrank in the Super Stock final for his fourth national event win. It was also the second win for Rick in Brainerd, with the other coming back in 1982 when he shared the winner's circle with, you guessed it, Frank Manzo.