Thu, 15 Nov 2001, 01:19 PM It's All Over, It's All Over!!

By Bob Frey

Well, the 2001, and last, NHRA Winston Drag Racing is over, and all of the champions are crowned…finally. Kenny Bernstein, John Force, Warren Johnson, Angelle Savoie and Bob Panella are this year’s champs, and they highlight a pretty, spectacular season. From the Top Fuel battle, to the last hurrah for the trucks, 2001 was, truly, a season to remember.

Before talking about the champions and the season, I want to take a moment to thank all of the folks from R.J. Reynolds, Winston and Sports Marketing Enterprises for 27 great years. Their participation in the sport helped it grow into the huge success that it is today. From Ralph Seagraves, who started the program, to Rick Sanders, who saw it through to its conclusion, NHRA couldn’t have asked for a better partner over the years than Winston. And, when the new series sponsor is announced on December 3^rd, they’ll have a real, tough act to follow. We wish all of the folks at S.M.E. nothing but the best as they go their own way in 2002, and we can only hope that the new series sponsor will be as enthused about drag racing as a sport as the folks at Winston were. Good luck, Winston, and thanks for 27 great years. We’ll miss you!

Bernstein and Rick Sanders

Kenny Bernstein’s win in the Top Fuel class solidifies his spot as one of the top drivers of all time. His four wins in Funny Car, and the 1996 dragster championship, were great, but this season was something special. First of all, Kenny broke all of his own, single season records en route to the title. Did you know that he won more events than ever before in his career (8), set an NHRA season record for the number of finals in the dragster class (12), blew away the record for number of rounds won in a season (61) and he just missed tying Gary Scelzi’s record for the most wins in a season by a Top Fuel driver? All in all, not a bad year for the "King of Speed." Oh yeah, did you know that he also ends the year holding both ends of the TF record? His 4.477 elapsed time at Joliet, followed by his 332.18mph blast at Maple Grove, will be the marks that the other dragster teams will shoot for in 2002. One driver holding both ends of the record doesn’t happen that often, at least not at year’s end. In fact, it’s only happened twice in the last ten years and Kenny did it one of those times (1992). The other driver to accomplish that feat was Gary Scelzi in the 1998 season. As he announced his "Forever Red" tour, that will be his final season in 2002, Kenny can be pretty proud of what he’s accomplished this year and it’s gotta be nice to do your farewell tour as the reigning, Top Fuel champion, don’t you think?

With all of the hoopla surrounding Kenny, let’s not forget the year that Larry Dixon had. Did you know that his point’s total would have been good enough to win the TF crown in any other year? 2,007 points is a lot and it just goes to show what a great year the "Miller Lite" team had. Like Kenny, Larry had a career year in 2001. He won more races than ever before (6), went to more finals (9), won more rounds (56) and had more number one qualifying spots (4) than ever before in one season. Plus, he won the U.S. Nationals and the Budweiser Shootout, both for the second time. All in all, not bad, huh? Of course, his line after he won the shootout at Pomona was priceless. After winning $100,00 Larry said, "Wow, now I get to ride the horseys!" Honest. And I’ll bet the picture of him on top of the Budweiser Clydesdales will be in every Miller Beer office before you finish reading this story. And, I almost forgot, Larry also continued his streak of first round wins that he started last year. Did you know that Larry has now won 26 first round races in a row, and that’s one more than Tony Schumacher did in the ’99 and 2000 seasons? Larry has the record of 34 rounds-one wins in a row well within his sights. Did you know that John Force set that mark when he went from Brainerd in 1995 to Topeka in 1997 without losing in the first round? Anyway, congratulations to both Kenny and Larry for a great season, it was fun to watch.

John Force

Since the Funny Car title was decided, as it usually is, before Pomona, there wasn’t a lot of suspense in the class, other than who would win the race. When he took the number one spot in qualifying, it looked like Whit Bazemore would be the guy, but a red light did him in in the finals, allowing Del Worsham to win the race and finish in third place in the points. Actually, Del accomplished that when he beat Ron Capps in the opening round. Did you know that Del has only beaten Ron twice in their careers, and that both times, he went on to win the race? He beat him in Sonoma for the first time in his career, and won the race, and he beat him this week and won the race. Both times, he stopped Ron in the first round and, both times, he also beat Whit Bazemore along the way. Del’s third place finish is the best of his career and so are the four wins that he racked up this season. In fact, did you know that Del won more races this year than he had in his entire career up to this time? His four victories in 2001 are one more than he had in his career prior to the start of this season. Also, did you know that Johnny Gray will be the new driver of the C.S. K. "blue car" for 2002? While it doesn’t add a car to the Funny Car total, it should make for a very, formidable team. Good luck to the C.S.K. team in 2002, and good luck to Frank Pedregon who is leaving the team….Speaking of Whit, did you know that he finishes the season having recorded seven of the top ten runs in the class? His string of 4.70 runs over the weekend was remarkable, and it’ll be interesting to see how the Matco Tools team starts off 2002. And, did you know that Whit will be tying the knot on December the 8^th? That’s right, Mr. Bazemore will add a Mrs. Bazemore on that day, when he marries a beautiful girl from Indianapolis. Of course, Whit will also add a teammate when Scotty Cannon joins the Schumacher team next year and that should be very interesting. Again, while it doesn’t add a car to the count, it does keep a very good driver and team (Scotty & the Oakley sponsorship) on the NHRA trail. Let’s hope 2002 is a breakout season for Scotty. When Whit looks back on this year, I’m sure he’ll look at some of the final rounds that got away from him and his team. Did you know that he went to eight final rounds this season and won just three of them? While that’s a great season (the 8 finals), when you have the opposition down, you’ve got to keep ‘em down and that should be a goal of this team next year….By the way, with his semifinal finish, Dean Skuza got by Tommy Johnson for the 9^th spot in the points, and he did it by just one point! Watch for the Mopar team to have the new, Stratus body at the Winternationals and that should be a big help for that team.

Warren Johnson

Pro Stock went to the "Professor" Warren Johnson, but it wasn’t a typical, dominating, W.J. performance. In fact, did you know that Warren lost 11 times this year in the first round and he still won the championship?! As he said after Sunday’s round one loss, "When you’re winning ugly, you might as well make it really ugly." Still, Warren did what he had to do and he had a great final round record, winning all six, championship rounds that he was in. His final point’s total, by the way, was the smallest, championship total since Darrell Alderman back in 1990 (accounting for the change in points structure). Of course, it’ll be a long while, I think, before we see fifteen, different winners in one season again. Brad Jeter almost made it sixteen when he went to the finals Sunday, but Bruce Allen was simply too much for him on the line and on the track. Bruce’s .406 reaction time was the best of the day in the class and it wrapped up a great driving day for the Texan. Did you know that Bruce averaged a .429 reaction time throughout the eliminations, and that included a sluggish .475 in his semi-final match with Jeg Coughlin? With the win, Bruce became the fourth driver this year to win two or more races in the class, joining Warren, Greg Anderson and Jeg Coughlin in that select group. Plus, Bruce finished third in the points and that’s his highest finish since he placed second back in 1989. By the way, did you know that the Pro Stock field was bunched up within .029 seconds, and that made it the closest field in Pro Stock history?

Angelle Savoie

Angelle Savoie became the fourth rider in Pro Stock Motorcycle history to win the season championship more than once when she clinched in Pomona. Dave Schultz, John Myers and Matt Hines are the others who did it. Angelle punctuated her championship by demolishing the competition in Pomona, qualifying number one and running low elapsed time on the way to her win, plus she ran in the 7-teens on every run on Sunday. Now that’s dominating. Angelle, of course, also won her second, Winston championship thanks, mainly, to a 7-1 record in final rounds this year. Did you know that her only loss of the season came at Rt. 66 Raceway when she fouled out against Antron Brown? Other than that she was perfect in the finals…. And let’s give credit to Bob Panella, Jr. who won his third Pro Stock Truck title. Not only did he continue to be the best in the class, but he also ended his career as the only driver to qualify at every truck race. But more than that, I thought he handled himself extremely well at the award’s ceremony on Monday night. Of course he made reference to the fact that the trucks would not run again as a pro class, but, other than that, he thanked his family and his sponsors and he couldn’t have shown more class.

Bob Panella

Nice job, Bob, both on and off the track.

Next week we’ll have some more thoughts on the season and we’ll tell you about some of the big announcements that are coming up. For now, let’s enjoy the season and congratulate the winners, which, of course, includes all of the sportsman winners, too. Speaking of that, how about the job turned in by Don Stratton in Competition Eliminator? Here’s a guy who had to go to the finals at Pomona to win the championship and, not only did he do that, he went one better and won the race. Talk about a clutch performance. To Don and all of the Federal Mogul champions, congratulations on another, great year.