Wed, 20 Oct 2004, 10:53 AM Greg Says, Come On In, The Water’s Fine

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2004 Auto Imagery, Inc. & Robert Grice

Anderson celebrates second championship.

Greg Anderson was the first of the four POWERade professional champions to be crowned this year and he did it in stunning fashion. With back-to-back titles and the two best years in the history of the class he served notice that he is the power to be reckoned with in the years ahead in Pro Stock. His stunning loss to Jason Line at Maple Grove kept him from setting a single season mark for wins in a pro class and now he only has two races remaining and he needs to win one of them to set the mark. Currently John Force and Greg hold the record at thirteen wins in one year. John did it in ’96 and Greg tied the mark this season. Greg will give it his best shot in Las Vegas next week and don’t bet against him winning the race and accomplishing his goal. Or, if you want, you can bet on it, but that’s another story for next week. Meanwhile, since Greg’s domination began have you noticed that there has been a marked drop off in the number of Pro Stock cars in the fields? Where we were getting well over thirty cars a race a year ago the number has dwindled to the mid-twenties this year. In fact, two years ago we averaged thirty-six cars a race in the Pro Stock class with four events drawing over forty cars and only one race not going over the thirty car mark. This year, the second of the “Greg era,” the average count is down to about twenty-eight and the biggest field of the year has been Indy which drew thirty-eight cars. Now, having said that, I want to welcome to the Las Vegas field a couple of drivers who will be new to the Pro Stock field and one veteran who will be making his return. Scott Geoffrion will race at the A.C. Delco Nationals along with his teammate and engine builder, Bob Panella. The two are testing in Vegas today and were there yesterday prior to making the start in Las Vegas next week. Both cars are owned by Hurley Blakeney, both are Fords, both are Don Ness cars and both will have Bob Panella engines in them. With those little bits of information it should

Fourcade in Vegas earlier this year.

come as no surprise when both qualify next week. A long shot, you say? Well, have you ever known anything that the Panella family has trotted out to the track that wasn’t top of the line? The car that Scott will drive actually qualified in Vegas earlier this year when Vince Fourcade was driving it and I can only guess that Scott will have a better motor in it than Vince did. Bob’s car will be making its first competitive runs down the track next week and it could surprise a lot of folks. Both cars will be “refrigerator white” and should be easy to spot. Scott told me that he and Bob intend to run the next two races in order to let people know what they can do and what their intentions are for next year. In other words, they’re looking for sponsors. Hey, a competitive Ford should always get some attention, if not from the Ford headquarters, then from some other interested parties. Good luck to both guys. By the way, our best to Hurley who had some health problems earlier this year but is back in shape and enjoying life right now. Hurley is one, cool dude!!...I did mention another new Pro Stock guy and that will be Pete Carbery who will enter the battle using the engine that Steve Schmidt used to run over 206 mph in Chicago two weeks ago. Its always nice to see new teams out there and Pete, who has run full-bodied cars in Competition Eliminator for years, should fit right in. One things for sure, he’ll have a whole pile of horsepower. A whole pile!! So you see, even though we may have gone through a little dip in participation this year, the Pro Stock class appears to be alive and well and it will continue to attract new racers and teams for a long while, and that’s good, because it still offers great competition.

Hines celebrates one of his wins.

With a coupe of weekends off and the points battles over, at least for the top spots, it will be interesting to see how the fuel teams approach the race next week. The number two and three spots are up for grabs in the top three pro categories while the number one position is still not locked up in the bike class. Andrew Hines, who has been slowed by the addition of those forty pounds a few race ago, only needs to outscore Antron Brown by six points and he’ll wrap up the championship. Imagine what he could have done without the weight breaks, or even if the weight had been leveled off at 600 pounds for all the bikes. Still, he looks like the guy to beat and I can only imagine how excited the folks at Vance & Hines and Harley-Davidson must be with the prospect of having a POWERade champion in their camp. Anyone who has followed the class for any amount of time knew that once Byron Hines and Terry Vance got a hold of those bikes that it would only be a matter of time before they turned them into championship contenders. Wouldn’t it be something if Andrew does win the championship and becomes the youngest champ in the history of the NHRA pro classes? Did you know that, at the ripe old age of twenty-one, Andrew would be the youngest champ by a full four years. Oh, the previous youngest champ, Andrew’s brother, Matt, who won the title at age twenty-five. Oh those Hines’ kids!!....

Scott Weis

There has been a lot of talk about the new format for the Budweiser Shootout which will take place at Las Vegas next week and I, for one, think it’s great. I have always said that you need to keep fine-tuning your programs, changing them up a little bit in order to keep them fresh and that’s exactly what the folks at Budweiser have done with the Shootout. I think that the eight drivers who are eligible for the wildcard spot will tell you that they think it’s a great innovation, too. Imagine, Scott Weis in the Race Girl team or Mike Strasburg getting into the Shootout if they draw the right number on Thursday night. Or what would it mean to Brady Kalivoda in the Bill Miller Engineering car to make the field? Or Morgan Lucas, David Baca or either one of the Smith family drivers? And let’s not forget about Larry Dixon who may be the only guy who isn’t real excited about the new format. If my numbers are correct, Larry would have been the eighth and final starter in the field under the old rules. But if I know Larry, he’ll say that, hey, we all had the same opportunity to get in the top seven spots and we didn’t get it done, so we’ll just have to take our chances. OK, maybe not, but I know that he’ll be rather philosophical about the whole thing….Speaking of the Top fuel class, I’d like to pass along my best wishes to the family of Scott Negley who passed away this past weekend. Those who follow the class religiously will recognize the name “Negley Electric” since it has appeared on a lot of cars over the years. For the past couple of seasons the name could be found on any car that was driven by Cory McClenathan, including the “Carrier Boyz” entry this year. The Negley Electric name has also been on the cars of Gary Scelzi, Tim Wilkerson and others in the past. Scott passed away this past weekend at the way too young age of forty-two. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his wife, Audrey, and his children, Natalie and John. Scott was a great supporter of this sport that we all love and he will be greatly missed.

Fred Hahn

The AMS Staff Leasing Pro Mod cars return to action in Las Vegas and it bears mentioning that one of the great drivers of all time has announced that he will be retiring at the end

Force celebrates win.

of this year. Fred Hahn, one of the most naturally talented drivers in the sport, has announced that he will retire at the end of the year. Along with team owner and engine builder, Jim Oddy, Fred set the standard for all the other Pro Mod drivers in the class. And, while I know you will always get an argument when you make a statement like that, all you have to do is look at the record. Wins in NHRA, IHRA, Super Chevy and everywhere else they raced followed Jim and Fred, and without going into a litany of their success, let me just say that to me and a lot of other people, they were Pro Mod. Of course this is coming from a guy who watched Jim Oddy run some really nasty (that’s good nasty) supercharged gas cars back in the late 60’s and early 70’s. And more than just their success on the track, they always conducted themselves with class. I’m sure the applications are already pouring in but I’ll tell you this, no matter who gets to drive that car next year (and I assume that Jim will race next year), he’ll have big shoes to fill. Really big shoes. In addition to racing Fred also held down a full time job and changes there just won’t allow him to continue to pursue the rigorous schedule that he has for the past fifteen years. Pro Mod will continue but it just won’t quite be the same without Fred Hahn behind the wheel of Jim Oddy’s car. Did you know that Jim Oddy won his first NHRA points race back in 1965? And I was fortunate enough to be announcing when he won the lucrative Atco Division 1 meet in 1969, the same race that was won by Fred Forkner and Carmen Rotunda, among others. Those were the days….

Since I mentioned the Lucas Oil divisional races last week, congratulations to Ashley Force for wining in Belle Rose, Louisiana last week and, in the process, clinching the Division 4 championship. As far as I can tell, Ashley is only the third woman to win a D-4 title. The others, Shelly Howard whom she beat for the championship this year, and Terri Kent who won the Super Comp title in 1995. There have been Bubba’s, Dal’s Billy Joe’s and others, but this is the first Ashley ever to win a D-4 championship. Gee, I wonder if her dad will go to the D-4 banquet this year? If so, they better get a bigger hall.