Wed, 17 Nov 2004, 03:15 PM It’s All Over

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2004 Auto Imagery, Inc.

The twenty-three race NHRA POWERade season is finally over and I firmly believe that everyone is looking forward to a few weeks off, or at least a few weeks off from actually racing. A lot of the teams will take a one or two week break with trips to Hawaii, the Caribbean, Mexico and Florida apparently being the destinations of choice for most. Then, after that brief respite, they will all actively begin preparing for the ’05 season and based on what we saw this year I believe that next year will be even more exciting than ever.

Tony Schumacher

Tony Schumacher accepted his second championship trophy at the award’s ceremony on Monday night and he promptly thanked all of his crew members who helped him destroy the competition this year. While a lot of the focus was on the record setting season that Greg Anderson had this year, Tony’s win on Sunday capped off one of the most impressive Top Fuel seasons in history. His win was the tenth of the year and that’s more than any other dragster driver in history and his sixty round wins was second only to Kenny Bernstein’s sixty one in his championship year of 2001. Ironically, even though he won the championship, did you know that Tony wasn’t the most dominant car from a performance standpoint this year? Tony qualified number one twice this year, while Doug Kalitta was the quickest guy in qualifying seven times. Tony set low elapsed time only three times compared to Doug’s seven, while Tony was the top speed guy six times to Doug’s three. But, where it counted, in the all important rounds won category, Tony was by far the best in the class. His sixty round wins compares to Doug’s forty-two and that’s a huge difference, plus Tony only dropped two round one encounters while Doug was beaten in the opening round four times and all of that adds up to the championship for the U.S. Army team. Tony spoke about the Army’s involvement with his team at the ceremony and when he does that it really does come from the heart. Tony has visited the troops overseas and he had a U.S. Army Major with him as his guest last night. We should all be proud of what the men and women in the army are doing for us and we should all be proud of what Tony did in the 2004 season. Now the question is, what can he do next year and will he have a Top Fuel teammate in his camp? I can almost tell you this for sure, he will have another Funny Car in his pit area in 2005 and that announcement should come by the first of December….There was a lot of talk about the track and how it was a “one lane race track” this past weekend. Of the thirty runs in the two top fuel classes only four winners came from the right lane. And as tough as that seems, it’s nothing compared to the 1979 NHRA Finals. Did you know that going into the final round at the last race in 1979 there had not been a single winner in the right lane all day? And when Rob Bruins had lane choice going into the last round and took the left lane it looked like the race was all over, but it was Don Garlits in the right lane and, to the surprise of everyone, “Big Daddy” won the race and he became the only guy to win in the right lane for the entire event.

John Force

John Force was, well, vintage John Force at the award’s ceremony, joking about his season and his battles with Del Worsham and Gary Scelzi. He also talked about several conversations that he had with God this year and that was entertaining to say the least. Whether he really did talk to God or not, it is apparent that John has adopted a new outlook on life this year and that may be due to the fact that his daughter, Ashley, is racing at 270 miles per hour or it may simply be a part of the aging process. Now don’t take that wrong, I’m not saying that John is getting old, but he is beginning to take a little different look at life as we all do as we advance in years. One thing is sure, he had a bad hot rod this year and he deserved the championship although I do have to admit that I was surprised that he won it this year. I said early in the year that John had a lot of distractions that I thought would keep him from the main job at hand, the job of winning. Among those distractions were the Gary Densham situation, the Eric Medlen debut, the Tony Pedregon departure and Ashley’s racing schedule. But, like the true champion that he is, John and his entire team responded and came from behind and secured their thirteenth POWERade title. Did you know that John’s win this past weekend, his114th, combined with all of Tony’s wins, Gary’s and Eric’s one win gives “Team Force” a grand total of 150 national event victories? Impressive, huh?....By the way, where did that .188 reaction time come from for John in the semi-finals? It’s hard to believe that he still won the round after spotting Gary Scelzi more than a tenth of a second on the starting line. Did you know that in the entire 2004 season there were only seven reaction times that were slower than that in the Funny Car class? And did you know that of those that were slower, two actually won their races. Strange but true… Del Worsham faced a tough decision in his second round match with his teammate Phil Burkart, and that is, does he race him heads up as he had done in every match this year, or does he let Phil take one for the team and help Del in his quest for second place? Actually it was a no-brainer and Phil and his “blue team” made the right decision, and make no mistake about it, it was their decision, and they took the less favored right lane and then smoked the tires as Del went on for the win. I know there are some people who still can’t quite understand this philosophy and no amount of discussion will change their mind about these tactics but it simply makes sense on every level. There was a $50,000 difference between second and third place, so I would like those of you who opposed the decision to tell me what you would have done if it had been your team?....The Funny Car class was alive and very healthy this year with no less than nine different winners and with the way that Del and Gary Scelzi ran you have to believe that the 2005 season will be even better and more competitive than this year.

Greg Anderson

Greg Anderson had a career year in 2004 and it will be hard to duplicate but then we thought that same thing at the end of the 2003 season, didn’t we? The Summit Racing Pontiac was awesome all season long and you know that Greg and his team have already begun working on their plans for next year. With the announcement of Warren Johnson’s retirement at the end of 2005 you begin to wonder who the challengers to Greg will be. Well, you should get an idea when there is a big announcement that will drastically change the face of the Pro Stock class and that announcement should come this weekend on the last NHRA 2day show of the year. Plus, despite what you may have heard on television this past weekend, Jim Yates not only isn’t cutting back on his racing next year, he’s going full speed ahead. In fact, Jim told me that he is going to add to his own engine program and that includes the addition on more space at the shop, new machinery, a new engine dyno and several new key people. For a guy who missed finishing in the top ten for the first time since 1993, Jim was extremely upbeat when I spoke with him at the award’s ceremony and I look for him to be a real factor in ’05....Jason Line won the “Rookie of the Year” title this season and that should come as a surprise to absolutely nobody. Jason had a year that most veterans would be proud of and he deserved the honor. Jason’s family was on hand for the festivities and when I talked with them they couldn’t have been prouder of Jason, and rightfully so. I would have to put Jason in the same category as Ashley Force, Morgan Lucas and Brandon Bernstein, and that is they are just a few of the reasons why the future of this sport looks so bright....If you want to look for an early candidate for the 2005 season “Rookie of the Year,” look no further than Chip Ellis. Remember you heard it first right here, he’s a lock for the award next season.

Andrew Hines

Congratulations to Andrew Hines and the Vance & Hines Screamin’ Eagle program for their championship season. There may not be a company or a sponsor who more fully supported their team than the folks at Harley-Davidson this year and we can look for that support to continue in 2005. We can also look for the bike class to continue to grow and prosper as it has in the past few seasons with the addition some great young drivers and new teams….Angelle Savoie finished the season in second place and her four national event wins was the best in the class, followed by Andrew’s three victories. It’s no secret that the Harley’s were slowed by the addition of the forty pounds that they received in the middle of the season but they were still very competitive and extremely popular with the fans….Geno Scali, the 2003 POWERade champ, finished the season in seventh place and he didn’t win a race or make a final round. Did you know that Mark Oswald did the same thing after his championship season of 1984? In 1985 Mark didn’t win a race, make a final round or even finish in the top ten in the points and that just goes to show you how tough it is to repeat as a champion in any class. Having said that, Geno represented himself very well as the champ this year and he made one of his strongest showings at the final race of the season so he could be primed to rebound in 2005….One of the nice moments of the award’s ceremony was when the folks from DRAW were given the Blaine Johnson award for service to the drag racing community. As great as the auction was for Darrell Russell on Saturday night, and it was really special, don’t forget that the DRAW organization has been working for almost two decades to help the families of injured racers at tracks, big and small, all over the country and the recognition for the group was richly deserved….It was a great year and we’ll take a look back at it in the upcoming weeks when we will also spotlight the Lucas Oil champions for 2004.