Wed, 1 Jun 2011, 12:00 AM It's One Of The Majors

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2011 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Connie Kalitta

I have said for a while that drag racing needs something like golf. No, I don't mean quiet fans and polite clapping, but I do mean a focus on some of the more historic races. Golf has its major championships and we should, too. Pomona, Gainesville, Indy and Englishtown would all be on my list of major events, and if you win one of them you would get a whole pile of money. Or, maybe we should be like horse racing. No, I don't mean the really wacky hats and mint juleps, but I do mean a Triple Crown. If you win the first of those three events, and you can select three of the four from the above list, you have a leg up on history. If you win the second race the entire drag racing world starts getting excited and they begin talking about the possibilities at the next race. And if you should win all three, the Triple Crown, you would win a whole pile of money. Now I know this might just be a dream, but then it is my column and I can dream, can't I? I bring this up because we are getting ready for the 42^nd running of the NHRA national event at Englishtown, and in all due respect to the recently completed Topeka event, to a lot of us Englishtown will always be the site of the Summernationals. Call it what you will, the annual race in New Jersey has been part of the landscape for a long time, and to me it is and always will be one of the majors....Now that I think about it, the closest we ever came in drag racing to having a Triple Crown winner was back in 1967, the year Connie Kalitta won the NHRA, the AHRA and the NASCAR Winternationals. It was a great accomplishment at the time and every magazine that covered the sport credited Connie with winning the Triple Crown. I wonder if he got a whole pile of money for doing it.

Gwynn vs. Garlits in specially prepared electric cars.

The event in Englishtown will have a few special attractions this year and one of them will take place on Thursday. The annual Racer's Appreciation party / barbecue will be held at the track on Thursday night and this year it will take on added significance. Darrell Gwynn, who has been a big part of the history of this event, will be conducting an auction, sort of, at the party. Darrell, who will be giving away two very special wheelchairs over the course of the weekend, will be trying to raise money for his foundation. Racers, crews, friends and family members are encouraged to stop by and bid on parts of the chairs. You won't actually get something physical in return, but you will get the satisfaction of helping someone who is in need of one of these chairs. You can get more information about the auction by going to www.darrellgwynnfoundation.org. Darrell will also be part of a special match race with his friend and arch-rival, "Big Daddy" Don Garlits in specially prepared electric cars. If you weren't in Gainesville to see these two go at it you're in for a treat, and if you think "Big" and Darrell are just out to have fun you're in for a surprise. Did you know that Darrell was in the other lane when Don had his historic blow-over at Englishtown in 1986?.....Later in the week, on Saturday night, the annual DRAW auction will be held at Englishtown for the first time. In advance I want to thank everyone at the track for helping make this happen and the folks at Castrol who are letting DRAW use their tent for the affair. Hopefully the weather will cooperate, lots of people will stop by and we'll raise a lot of money to help injured racers. It's DRAW's biggest fund raiser of the year and I hope the New Jersey fans hang around on Saturday night to support it.

"Jungle" Jim Liberman

I mentioned that the race in Englishtown is one of the longest running on the NHRA tour, and that alone makes it special. Did you know that of all the races NHRA only three, Indy, the Winternationals and the NHRA Finals have been around longer than the New Jersey event? It's been held at various times of the year, in several different months, but it always attracts a great crowd and it has provided us with some of the best racing in history. The blow-over by "Big Daddy," the wildly popular win by "Jungle" Jim Liberman and a Pro Stock win by a four-door car are just a few of the moments that come to mind. Oh yeah, we also had a race that finished at about two in the morning, a Top Fuel final that only featured one car because the heat was so bad that one of the finalists passed out before the final round and a Top Fuel race that was won by a driver who didn't even qualify for the field. More recently we also had a Funny Car winner who didn't win even though the scoreboard said he did.

The start of "Big Daddy's" blow-over. Photo by NHRA

Now I ask you, what other event has had all of those things happen?....In case you were wondering, the Top Fuel winner who didn't qualify was Clayton Harris. The year was 1973 and Clayton, who was inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame earlier this year, was the 18^th quickest car after qualifying. Since the race was a 16-car field, being number 18 wasn't anything to get excited about. But when Gary Beck couldn't answer the call for round one, and when the first alternate, Chuck Kurzawa also couldn't make it, Clayton was inserted in the lineup and promptly beat Herm Peterson, Dave Settles, Marvin Schwartz and Jim Bucher. Did you know that turned out to be Clayton's only NHRA national event win?....The race where the driver couldn't make it for the final round because of the heat was in 1971 when Jim Harnsberger was supposed to race Arnie Behling. That year Englishtown really lived up to its Summernationals name and the heat was so oppressive that Jim fell ill and couldn't make it to the starting line for the final round. Did you know that, as fate would have it, that was Jim's one and only final round appearance? Like I said, things happen in New Jersey that don't happen anywhere else.

Larry Dixon at 1995 E-town.

Larry Dixon is the reigning Top Fuel champion, he is in third place in the points and he's just four points out of second place and yet he hasn't won a race yet this year. Well, if Larry ever wanted to break that winless streak he couldn't have picked a better place to do it than Old Bridge Township Raceway Park. Did you know that Larry has six wins in Englishtown and that ties him with Joe Amato for the most in the dragster class? Larry has won the race in each of the last two years and he has amassed a remarkable 44-10 record. Did you know that is, by far, the most round wins for Larry at any single event on the tour? His back-to-back wins also make him one of only four TF drivers to ever win the E'town race in consecutive years. The others are Joe Amato, Jeb Allen and Kenny Bernstein. By the way, in addition to his six wins Larry has also been to five other final rounds. Did you know this is also where Larry made a spectacular, record-setting 4.66 pass in 1995? Like I said, if Larry wants a "get healthy" weekend, New

Schumacher vs. Brandon Bernstein in the '08 final.

Jersey's the place to do it.....Tony Schumacher also hasn't won this year, although like Larry, he continues to run well. Did you know that Tony and his father, Don Schumacher, have something in common at this race? They both won once in New Jersey, Tony in 2008 and Don in 1972 when he beat Ed McCulloch in the final round....The fact that neither Tony nor Larry have won this year just goes to show the quality of the teams in the dragster class this year, doesn't it?...I was in Maui this past weekend and I ran into Bruce Wheeler there. Now I know what you're thinking...tough life, Bob, but I was working, really, and I caught up with Bruce at Maui Raceway Park. I mention this for a couple of reasons. First, it was great to see Bruce who owned the "Wheeler Dealer" dragster in the 1960's. Second, did you know that Bruce and his driver, Bub Reese, qualified at Englishtown in 1968? Of course the race was the Springnationals at that time, but still, to see him a week before the New Jersey race, and to talk some drag racing with him was really cool.

"Jungle" Jim does a burnout.

As you would expect, with a race that has been around for four decades, there have been a lot of exciting and wacky things in the Funny Car class, too. Of course "Jungle" Jim's one and only NHRA national event win in 1975 will always be part of the Englishtown folk lore, and the more years that pass the longer his wheelstand at the 1974 event gets. The wheelstand came against Al Segrini and the win came at the expense of Tom Prock, whose son, Jimmy Prock, is now the crew chief for Robert Hight....John Force loves coming to a lot of tracks, but there are very few that mean more to him than Englishtown. A longtime friend of Vinny Napp and the entire Napp family, John used to make a living match-racing at the Jersey track and he has done well at the national event, too. Did you know that John has won the race four times, but not since 1999? John's four wins are good, but

Etchells celebrates win.

that's not the best in the Funny Car class. Don Prudhomme holds that distinction with six wins while Kenny Bernstein also has four FC wins in New Jersey. Did you know there have been 23 different drivers to win in the Funny Car class in Englishtown and six of them will be in competition this week? Seven if you count Del Worsham....In that "wacky" department that I have mentioned I guess you would have to throw in the 1990 Funny Car finale. That's the one where Chuck Etchells recorded his first national event win. Did you know that Paul Smith was Chuck's crew chief at that race? But that's not the wacky part. Johnny West was in the other lane and he got out of shape right off the line, hit the wall, got knocked out and then was just along for the ride, a ride that ended with his car bursting into flames at the end of the track. Johnny was ok and that, in itself, was a miracle. Did you know that the only Funny Car driver who qualified for that race and who will be driving this week is John Force?....Another Funny Car driver recorded a first at Englishtown and that is Tony Pedregon. Tony, who needs to start winning some rounds if he wants to continue his streak of top ten finishes, qualified number one at the 1996 race and that was the first top spot of his career.... There's been a lot of talk this year (and last) about the number of drivers racing in the fuel classes these days. Well, did you know

Kurt Johnson celebrates first 6-second run.

that at that 1996 race there were only 16 Funny Cars on the grounds and just 17 dragsters? So maybe the sky isn't falling, after all....One note to finish up the Topeka race. When Jack Beckman (#1), Johnny Gray (#2), Robert Hight (#3) and Mike Neff (#4) all made it to the semi-finals it marked the first time since the Dallas race at the end of the 2006 season that the top four qualifiers in Funny Car all advanced to round three. You would think it happens more often than that, but it doesn't. By the way, Robert won the Dallas race, too.

There may not be another track on the schedule where the fans love Pro Stock as much as they do in the Garden State. This is one of a very few events that has featured 32-car fields in Pro Stock and the fans loved all five rounds of the action. Of course it is where Kurt Johnson made the first 6-second run in Pro Stock history in 1994. Did you know that like so any other barrier-busting moments, KJ raced into history at the '94 race but he didn't race into the winner's circle? Despite having a very good car Kurt lost in the semi-finals when Larry Morgan beat him on a holeshot. Did you know that Kurt, Larry and Kurt's dad, Warren Johnson, are the only three drivers from that class of '94 who will be racing again this week?....Besides

Glidden celebrates '95 win.

the 32-car fields there is a lot of other Pro Stock history in Jersey. "Dyno" Don Nicolson won the 1971 race and that's special because it was the first win for Ford in the Pro Stock class. Ford drivers went on to win another 90 races and that puts that manufacturer in fourth place in the annals of Pro Stock. Pontiac leads the way with 221 wins, Chevrolet is next with 171 and Oldsmobile is third with an even 100 wins. Did you know that not only did Ford's first Pro Stock win come in Englishtown but so did their last win? Bob Glidden beat Jim Yates at the 1995 Englishtown race, and as hard as it is to believe, that's the last time a Ford was in the winner's circle in Pro Stock. Another thing that is hard to believe is that there have only been four drivers to win Pro Stock driving a Ford. Bob, Wayne Gapp, Don Nicholson and New Jersey's own Frank Iaconio. On the other side of the coin did you know that 25 different drivers have won driving a Pontiac?...A

Richie Stevens celebrates win.

little word to the Pro Stock drivers this week and that is, if you want to win, make sure you qualify in the top half of the field. Why? Because in the 41-year history of this race, the drivers in the top half have won the Pro Stock title 40 times. Did you know that the only driver to win from the bottom half was Richie Stevens who beat Mark Pawuk in the finals in 2001 and he did it with the help of a perfect reaction time in the final round?

It seems like every time we start to get excited about the Pro Stock Motorcycles they get a week off. We saw them in Atlanta and then missed them in Topeka. Now they return to action in New Jersey, a track where they have been part of the action since the class officially became part of the NHRA scene in 1987. Actually, the bikes ran in Englishtown even before that with Terry Vance, Bob Carpenter and Randy Mason winning in the early 1980's under a variety of sanctioning groups, all part of NHRA but none running for World Championship status....If its important for the Pro Stock Car drivers

Russ Collins on his triple-engine Honda.

to start from the top half of the field it's down right mandatory for the riders in the bike class to do it. Did you know that since1987, when the bikes became part of the World Championship points, no rider who started in the bottom half of the field has ever won in Englishtown? None, as in zero!! In fact, only one driver who started lower than fifth in the field has ever won it. Craig Treble won in 2007 after qualifying eighth in the field and that's the lowest starting point for an Englishtown champion...Bikes, in one configuration or another, have been part of the Englishtown race since 1974. That year, Danny Johnson beat Dick Prime in the bike class with a time of 9.06 - 138.46 to a losing 9.41 - 147.39. That race was one of the few where Russ Collins ran his spectacular triple-engine Honda, a bike that was fun to watch but tough to control. Even though the bikes ran under the sanction of AMDRA, Russ walked off with the coveted "Best Engineered" award for the entire Englishtown race that year. That triple-engine monster is just one of the many reasons why the New Jersey fans love those motorcycles.

With a lot of divisional action this week I wanted to congratulate a couple of the racers. First, a big tip of the hat to Jirka Kaplan who became the first Competition Eliminator racer to make a sub-six second pass. Competing at the Division 6 race at Mission Raceway, Jirka qualified with a stunning 5.974 in his AA/AM entry. Although he didn't win, he did make it to the final round and he did make a little bit of history.....At that same race Ray Martin won in the Top Alcohol Dragster class. What makes that so impressive is the fact that this was his first race in the TAD class. Ray, who won a couple of divisional races in the Top Sportsman category, stepped up when he got his license in Steve Federlin's car at the end of last year. Nice way to start your dragster career, isn't it?...Danny Leibham won the Top Sportsman class at the D-4 race in Louisiana over the weekend. Danny, who was profiled here last year, drove well and he had a trio of "00" reaction times in the last three rounds. A little bird told me that his wife may have suggested that he put a little more (like 5) in the delay box after his .003 reaction time in round three, and all he did after that was put a pair of .008 reaction times on the board in the semis and the finals. Nice job, Danny and Debbie, and I still can't believe that his dad isn't in the D-4 Hall of Fame....And finally, Tommy Phillips "doubled-up" at the Division 4 race. As good as he is I was surprised to see that this was the first time he has ever won two classes at the same divisional race. Congratulations to all of the sportsman racers!!