Tue, 22 Mar 2005, 10:15 PM What A Show!!

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2005 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Whit Bazemore

Last week I told you that I have dubbed the MAC Tools Gatornationals as the "Big Go East" and it certainly lived up to that billing this week. Even with a couple of cold, nasty days to begin with the Gatornationals lived up to all expectations on Saturday and Sunday complete with great racing, some stunning upsets, fantastic weather and maybe, the biggest crowds in the history of the event. In a word it was magnificent. When it was all over we saw a new points leader in Funny Car and a first time leader in Pro Stock Motorcycle. The weather had a great deal to do with all of the performance records, even though it wasn't great for the fans on Thursday and Friday, and it was one of the reasons why we had so many personal best numbers recorded. But here's an interesting point, did you know that there were twenty one Pro Stock drivers and twenty motorcycle drivers who improved on their career best numbers in Florida? And how many fuel cars do you think set career bests? The answer would be exactly none. Zero. Zip. Zilch. None. Amazing, isn't it?

David Grubnic

To begin with, the track record at Gainesville was beaten, no, it was battered, by a trio of drivers who stormed into the 4.40 range. Among them were David Grubnic, Doug Kalitta and Cory McClenathan who all went into uncharted waters in Florida, and along the way they took the track record away from Mike Dunn who had held the mark since 1999. Did you know that, in addition to his great qualifying elapsed time, Cory also made the first 330 mile per hour run in Gainesville history as he took the "Carrier Boyz" Fram AirHog car all the way to the semi-finals. For his part, David Grubnic took the top qualifying spot for the second consecutive year at Florida but he wasn't able to turn that into a win. Another thing that happened for the second consecutive year at Gainesville was Brandon Bernstein fouling out in the first round. Did you know that Brandon has a grand total of three red light starts in his career and that

Dixon vs Kalitta

two of them have come in Gainesville?...Doug Kalitta, who hadn't won a round in his first two starts this year, rebounded in grand fashion as he won for the 20^th time in his career with the beautiful MAC Tools / West Coast Customs Top Fuel car. With his win Doug moved past Gary Beck and into eighth place on the all-time TF win list. Doug and Larry Dixon treated the fans to an old fashioned, tire smoking final round that was among the most exciting we've seen in a long time..Tony Schumacher provided a lot of the drama by not being qualified going into the final round on Saturday. The U.S. Army team, led by Alan Johnson, rebounded like the true champions they are to break into the field and set the track record at an amazing 333.95 miles per hour. On race day Tony beat Rod Fuller before losing in a second round "battle of the champions" to Larry Dixon but he still left Florida with the points lead although it's now only an eight point lead over Morgan Lucas. Since I mentioned Rod Fuller, you have to like what you've seen from that first year team, don't you? They qualified for the quickest field in history in Pomona and made another nice showing this weekend. Keep your eyes on the David Powers / Valvoline car because they're going to start beating people very soon..Clay Millican, despite missing the Phoenix race, moved into the top ten in points with his fine showing which carried him to the semi-finals. The Werner Enterprises car stopped two of the three Kalitta cars in the opening rounds before losing to Larry in the semi-finals. For the record, Clay is now 36 - 35 in his NHRA career.

Robert Hight

The Funny Car class was absolutely spectacular this weekend and it all started out with Robert Hight qualifying number one for the first time in his career, a career that only spans three races. Did you know that Robert qualified number one quicker than any other member of "Team Force" did in their careers? And did you know that Robert became the 78^th driver to claim the top spot in Funny Car qualifying history? Right behind him were his "Team Force" partners, Eric Medlen and John Force. Did you know that this was the fourth time that John's three cars had locked up the top three spots and it was also the fourth time that they failed to win the race after ending up one, two and three in the field? Hard to believe, but true.Whit Bazemore moved into the top spot in the points with his win in the Matco Tools car. While Gainesville Raceway had a special place in Whit's heart it hadn't been one of the better tracks for him over the years. Whit went to the races at Gainesville when he was just a young pup and he attended the Frank Hawley Drag Racing school there, but he never had good luck racing there. Did you know that in his previous fifteen races in Florida Whit had only gone past the second round twice? Whit's win ties him with Ed McCulloch and Mark Oswald for seventh place on the all-time win list in the FC class. Whit said the win capped the best eight days of his life, referring to the birth of his son, Dashiell, eight days before his win in Florida. Whit told me he always liked the name "Dashiell" and made reference to the great author, Dashiell Hammett. Did you know that Hammett wrote a novel called "The Thin Man" and a radio series called "The Fat Man?" I don't know what that has to do with drag racing but I don't get to work many authors into my columns.. Bob Gilbertson subscribed to that famous Bob Frey theory that if you can't win, be spectacular. His semi-final round win over John Force was only the third time in twenty one meetings between the

Whit Bazemore

two that he beat John, but it came at a price. As he crossed the finish line his new Autolite XP Extreme Monte Carlo burst into flames in a fire that Bob described as the worst of his career. With the help of crewmembers from Del Worsham's team, Tony Pedregon's, Scott Weis, the "Carrier Boyz" and more, Bob got his car repaired in time to make the final round but it was more symbolic than anything else. From the time he did the burnout you knew that he wouldn't mount much of a threat but he has to get a lot of credit just for making it back at all. The entire "Gilby" incident was reminiscent of the Dean Skuza fire at Memphis in 2003. At that race, Dean won the semi-final round, burst into flames, had a lot of help from other teams to make the finals, and then lost. But there's more to the similarities than that. Did you know that in his semi-final race in Memphis Dean Skuza beat John Force, and so did Gilbertson? And in his final round Dean lost to Whit Bazemore and so did Gilbertson. And after his Memphis win Whit moved into first place in the points, just like he did this weekend. Strange, but true..Phil Burkart failed to qualify in Florida after coming in as the points leader and that dropped the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen "blue team" into fourth place in the points. Did you know the last time that a points leader didn't qualify for a race was in Phoenix last year when Jerry Toliver, who had won the Winternationals, didn't make the cut in Arizona?

Line vs Connolly

Jason Line won Pro Stock this week when he drove around Dave Connolly in the final round. Despite a great .006 reaction time, Connolly had to watch as the Pontiac in the other lane went by him to take the win. Jason had stopped Warren Johnson in the semi-finals despite "W.J." making his quickest and fastest run ever. The "Professor," who had stopped Greg Anderson in round two, ran 6.679 at 206.70 but it wasn't enough to hold off Jason whose 6.719 and .033 reaction time were enough to beat Warren. If you were in the packed stands at Gainesville you know that the reaction from the fans after that semi-final race between Jason and Warren was probably the biggest and loudest of the entire weekend. The Florida fans love their Pro Stock racing..If it wasn't bad enough that his dragster wasn't qualified going into the final round, neither of Don Schumacher's Pro Stock cars were in the field after three rounds either. But Jeg Coughlin and Richie Stevens both responded by making the quickest PS field in history. The final bump spot of 6.709 eclipsed the old mark of 6.718 that was recorded at the second Chicago race last year. That 6.709 bump spot was held by Rickie Smith who was making his first start of the year in the Richard Maskin prepared Pontiac. Mark Whisnant and Dave Northrop also ran 6.709 but they failed to make the field based on speed, which is the tie-breaker when cars run the exact same elapsed time. Did you know that the last time three Pro Stock cars ran the same elapsed time in an effort to nail down the last qualifying spot was at this very same race one year ago? At the 2004 Gatornationals race Steve Schmidt, Allen Johnson and Ron Krisher all went 6.814 but only Steve made the field.

Johnson vs Treble

Pro Stock Motorcycle history was made when Andrew Hines became the first driver to make a six-second pass. The Vance & Hines Screamin' Eagle bike entered history when he went 6.991 during qualifying and the folks at Mickey Thompson Tires then gave Andrew a check for $10,000 for his efforts. Following that pass it looked like Andrew was the odds on favorite to win the race, but as we've seen in the past that doesn't always translate into victory. Andrew fouled out in the second round against the eventual winner Steve Johnson who now has two national event wins to his credit and they have both come against the same rider, Craig Treble. After Andrew went out it looked like Angelle Sampey had a clear shot to the money round but she also fouled out in the second round..Karen Stoffer debuted her new look Geico motorcycle and it is beautiful and Karen took it all the way to the semi-finals before losing to Treble..Like the cars, the motorcycles also recorded the sixteen quickest runs in history during qualifying and the bump spot ended up at 7.149. It should be noted that in addition to his six-second run Andrew also went an amazing 197.45 mph.

Force vs Olivarez

Congratulations to Aaron Olivarez who picked up his first round win and then his first race win in just his fourth start in an alcohol dragster. Aaron edged out Ashley Force in the final round, 5.408 to a very close, but losing 5.401 to become the 104^th driver to win in the Top Alcohol Dragster class..Bob Newberry had his new Monte Carlo car running very well and he added another Gatornationals win to his already impressive list of accomplishments. The body was worked on by the folks at Roush Racing and was mounted by the talented craftsmen at the S & W shop in Pennsylvania. Bob gave the new Chevy body a lot of the credit for his win and the fact that he made his fastest run ever..Frank Manzo had qualified number one in the alky FC field but he didn't race in the eliminations due to a medical condition. After Frank made his 5.523 pass in qualifying he felt a little light headed so he went to the hospital where he was checked over. The doctors wanted to keep Frank over night but the "Ace" checked himself out and returned to the track. The NHRA folks then checked with the doctor and the hospital and they determined that some more tests were needed before Frank could get back behind the wheel. When I spoke with him today Frank said that "NHRA did the right thing. I was a little upset then but I know now that they made the right decision." Frank went to the hospital today and took a whole pile of tests including a stress test and when I asked him how he did, in typical Frank Manzo fashion he said "I had that machine smoking. I think I set a record." Frank said that he is going to take whatever time is required to get into perfect shape and until then "my car is sidelined. At this point I'm number one, no race is that important that I'll get back in the car before the doctors tell me it's OK." Look for a leaner Frank Manzo the next time you see him at the races. And good luck, Frank.