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Phoenix Testing
SUNDAY NOTES - Scott Kalitta Gets Rude Reception Back To Funny Car Class; Good-time Charlie Gets Kudos; No Flu In Drag Racing; DSR Skipping Las Vegas; Top Fuel Champs Says, 'Cheers!'; Miller Puts Bradshaw On Mute
(1-29-2006) - Sunday morning coming down -- Scott Kalitta miraculously was more angry than injured after his Funny Car malfunctioned, slingshotted him across the track and into the wall at full speed in Sunday morning's first session.
The Kalitta Air Funny Car's burst panel came off at the first hit, slid up and jammed into the injector. That caused the throttle to stick open. The car, which has shown a tendency to drift to the left on just about every pass and had sent Kalitta into the wall at Las Vegas a week ago, veered from the right lane into the left retaining wall about 100 feet past the finish line. The car made contact twice with the wall at full speed, spraying shrapnel into the air, then caught fire. It stopped beyond the sand pit.
"The throttle hung wide open," Larry Meyer, co-crew chief with Johnny West, said. "He was going over 260. He ran 250 at half-track. It could have been as high as 280. When I turned around from the starting line, I thought it was all over. It was pretty bad. "I guess it was kind of a stroke of luck," Meyer said. "He almost had it straight when it hit the wall. It didn't head into the wall. It was skidding sideways. It banged the wall almost flat. That was the good part. He was just mad, upset." Kalitta was uninjured and opted not to go to a hospital as a precaution. He returned immediately to his Kalitta Motorsports pit. Because Kalitta does not like to use a radio inside the Funny Car, the crew had no contact with him during the accident or in the seconds afterward. "He said he was coherent all the time, knew what was going on, grabbed the 'chutes, pulled the fire bottles, brought 'er to a stop, grabbed the brake," Meyer said. He said the car "barely went into the sand trap, maybe two car lengths or something like that." Scott Kalitta declined to comment about the accident. But Connie Kalitta, Scott Kalitta's father and team owner, said his son mostly damaged his ego. Surprisingly, the car will be ready within six or seven days. Said Meyer, "Anything can be fixed. It depends on how bad you want to fix it. We're going to fix that body, just so we can put it on and get his license next week in Las Vegas. We just lasered the chassis, and it seems to be just fine." All Kalitta needs to do to renew his Funny Car license is make one full pass at more than 255 mph. "You wouldn't think it'd be that hard," Meyer said with a bit of laugh. He said he thinks the Kalitta braintrust has the problem figured out. "The body was flexing so bad, it was coming down and rubbing on that left front tire. It slows it down, and the right one drives him to the left all the time. We just didn't catch it before." Racers For Christ's Linda Smiley said, "He's mad -- but good. When they get feisty and cantankerous, you say, 'Whew!' " The underside of the chassis scraped the pavement as it was towed back to the pits. The scorched and torn body rode back on a flatbed truck. "He's all right," teammate Dave Grubnic said of Scott Kalitta minutes after the crash. "They have evidence [about what went wrong], and they'll get it fixed." Funny Car driver Ron Capps said Head's effort made all the difference this year. "Charlie Allen hired him to come in and prep the track before this test session, and it's the best thing Charlie's ever done. Every year we come here and the track doesn't show up any good until Monday or Tuesday. And it was ready right away. I have to say kudos to Chad Head. That was a good call by Charlie Allen." He said he has made full runs only when lining up against teammate Gary Scelzi in the "Seattle" and "Pittsburgh" bodies during the filming for a Coca-Cola/Powerade/Full Throttle Super Bowl-themed promotional appearance. "We haven't run to the finish line yet in a test session. We were happy with a (4.)77 [Friday], and I was shutting it off before 1,000 foot." Still, he said, he and crew chief Ed "Ace" McCulloch are happy enough with the performance of the Brut Dodge Stratus Funny Car that the Don Schumacher contingent doesn't plan to attend this weekend's Las Vegas. "We tested the Charger body in December and the new tire. Made four runs and all of them were in the low-70s/high-60s. Then we came back to preseason testing in Las Vegas and ran (4.)72 and a couple of other 70s and shut it off early. Then we came here and ran an 86, shutting off early, then a 77," Capps said. "So everything's great, man." He said one of the reasons he's optimistic is that his crew remained intact during the winter. "All the guys are back, so it's an exciting time right now." Because Capps had been battling the flu since Friday, the Don Schumacher Racing contingent left Capps behind when they flew in Army Dragster crew chief Alan Johnson's jet to a Matco Tools function in Cancun, on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. That -- and the fact the Brut car was under control -- freed up Capps to drive the Torco/Skull Gear Dragster Sunday in Melanie Troxel's absence. The car lost traction and posted a 6.44/126.22 showing in the first pass and . Dale Pulde took a couple of tire-smoking spins in Whit Bazemore's Matco Tools Dodge Stratus.
SUNDAY - Scott Kalitta uninjured in fiery Phoenix testing crash(1-29-2006) - Initial reports are coming in that Scott Kalitta has been involved in a devastating crash in which his Funny Car made hard contact with the wall and the car burst into flames. Photos show the burst panel ejected and lodged into the throttle, forcing it wide open. Kalitta was checked out by local EMT Michael McKinney and released. Kalitta appeared to be more concerned with the fact he'd destroyed his car. We'll post photos as soon as our photographers on site upload them. - Bobby Bennett
SATURDAY NOTES - Grubnic and Teammate Will Shine; Force's Wild Mustang; What's New With Cory Mac? Everything!; Schumacher Eager For Pomona, Aware Of Target On Him; New Parts Betray Lucas
Grubnic drove the StriVectin Dragster to 327.98 mph as he led three Top Fuel drivers in the 4.4-second range. Tony Schumacher (4.482 seconds) and Doug Kalitta (4.490) followed.
The happiest news for the Top Fuel veteran is that he has gotten a complete green light from his doctor after slogging through a wave of health issues last fall. Because the car has changed names from the FRAM Air Hog Dragster to the FRAM Boost Dragster, McClenathan has had to preside over a host of decal switches on the car and trailer. Jeg's came on board as an associate sponsor, and Torco Race Fuels re-signed its deal with Mark and Andy Carrier. The crew has seen a flurry of arrivals and departures. All but two members are new. Back are all-around worker Gary Walters of the Bay Area, who first worked with McClenathan when he drove for David Baca., and motor builder Tim Dillon. Wes Parker will be available only until the Gatornationals in March, for he will return to his duties as a camera-crew coordinator for ESPN. Tony Shortall, who worked most recently with Rod Fuller and Lee Beard on the David Powers-owned dragster and also has worked for Big Daddy Don Garlits, Jim Dunn, and Cruz Pedregon, is the new assistant crew chief to ace tuner West Cerny. McClenathan, an Arizona native, saw the Carrier Boyz operation move from East Tennessee to Brownsburg, Indiana. On-track rival Larry Dixon is his landlord in the new building on so-called Nitro Alley there that sits next door to the Midwest headquarters of Don Prudhomme's Snake Racing. Top Fuel driver Morgan Lucas and Pro Stock's Bob Panella also work out of the same building. "I did a lot of hands-on stuff this winter. Business-wise, I did twice as much as ever," McClenathan said. He said his sponsors, who knew toward the end of the 2005 season that the changes were coming, had worried, among other things, that the artwork wasn't going to be designed and approved in time to deck out the hauler with the new vinyl wrap and the car with its new look. However, because of the way he has had to scramble just for a ride in several recent off-seasons, McClenathan said, "I feel kind of ahead of the game! I'm happy!" Although he would like to earn a fourth championship and defend the honor he has had for the last two years, Schumacher indicated that he is focusing on Pomona -- and trying to remain humble. "We're going to go with the No. 1 on the car, but we're still just another one of the 20 or 24 other unqualified cars when we show up for the first run," he said. "We have to make sure that we stay ahead of the game, that we have the machine we ended the season with. It's no longer just fun. It's expected." "We made two runs yesterday [Friday]. We had just outstanding numbers. We were just doing half-tracks," Schumacher said. "Today we smoked the tires [in the first session]. We were going to the finish line. " He said he "tore the tires up a little bit" with the new set and smoked them with the older version. "We're just trying to figure out which ones we want to use." Regarding the new ones, he said, "I don’t know that much about them. I haven't had enough runs on them right now. My reactions have been outstanding. I'm not really sure what it is." Schumacher understands the value of momentum. As far as changes or new parts on the U.S. Army Dragster, Schumacher indicated, that it was But she hardly could have been more impressive -- or been a brighter testiment to Jim Oberhofer's tuning excellence -- than she has in these two testing events. The rookie from Fortuna, California, led the Top Fuel class at the Las Vegas ice-breaker with a stout 4.483-second pass at 324.83. Then she clocked a 4.56-second E.T. at 306.33 at Firebird for the fourth-best Saturday and fifth-quickest for the event. "She's going to attract a lot of attention. I think she'll do a really good job, and I think she'll work hard at it," colleague Cory McClenathan said. "She's well-versed and well-spoken. But she does a lot of listening and not a lot of talking, and sometimes that's smarter. "At that age, I was young and dumb. I wanted to have a good time. It's not like that anymore," the 44-year-old veteran said. "She'll be fine if she keeps it straight and respects the car and the power it has and knows when to shut it off." Will said she has received advice on a variety of subjects from a variety of sources, some solicited and some not. One of her best tutors, she said, is teammate Dave Grubnic: "Dave Grubnic gives me a lot of driving pointers. He can tell you exactly what he does, and he can answer questions very thoroughly."
She said that sometimes she catches herself trying to do things by herself, forgetting that she has lots of help. "Sometimes I say, 'I'm tough enough' or 'I can figure it out on my own,' But they're a resource to me, and I need to utilize their knowledge." She said Scott Kalitta has told her, "You can come to me. Ask me advice -- ask me anything you want. I'm here. Ask me a question." Teased fellow Top Fuel driver Cory McClenathan, who observed Scott Kalitta's protective behavior, "He needs a big brother. That's what he ought to be looking for!" "The first pass was probably on track to go (4.)51 or 52," Lucas said. "We were finally getting the fuel system figured out and go around the right way, and we were going to go to half-track now because we were trying to creep up on it so we don’t hurt anything. We made it about 10 feet and we hurt everything." Lucas said, "The money side of it's not what bothers me. Whenever you have stuff that you pay a lot of money for . . . It just sucks. When people buy things from Kragen [the auto parts store], 95 percent of the time it'll be fine. Out here, you pay 10 times he price, and 15 percent of the time it's fine. It's just the world we live in. It's what we do to ourselves." He said the problem now isn't fixing the Lucas Oil Dragster. "We have enough stuff. We'll be fine. It's just aggravating, because we don’t know how many lifters are in that state. How many time are we going to step on that pedal and have that happen this weekend? "The problem is we came out there with six complete motors," Lucas said, "and we'll have all the parts at Pomona to put together another two. We only had four blowers and now we're down to one already, and we still got three more days of testing to go." a
d v e r t i s e m e n t And the Force goes Boom!
(1-29-2006) - The one thing john Force and Austin Coil afraid of happening happened during testing. The damage was minimal to the 2006 Mustang body despite a lifted burst panel. a
d v e r t i s e m e n t What The Heck Is That?
(1-28-2006) - Of course, testing brings out the odd things. Pro Modified further intensifies that notion as evidenced by Troy Critchley with the AMS Corvette. a
d v e r t i s e m e n t
FRIDAY NOTES - Carlson or Corvo? We Should Know By Mid-Week; Bernstein Quickest And Most Shocking; Dodge Charger Bodies Coming Soon; Doug Kalitta Comes Through In Clutch |
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Good call by track operator -- Firebird International Raceway operator Charlie Allen took a pro-active approach to this 16th annual National Time Trials event, and his effort did not go unnoticed by the drivers.
The flu is for sissies -- Funny Car's Ron Capps struggled through the weekend, not with his Don Schumacher-owned Brut Dodge Stratus but with the flu. 
I'll drink to that! -- The Top Fuel "Beer Wars" between the Budweiser entries of Kenny and Brandon Bernstein and the Miller Lite Dragster of Larry Dixon are well-documented. But drag-racing fans can add one more dragster driver to the mix -- sort of.
Capps said McCulloch "was happy and we were going to pack it up, but unfortunately, Saturday morning the guys had a little fire here in the pit area and it burned a couple of wires on the car. I wasn't here. I guess they were brake-cleaning the car and something caught fire. It burned a couple of hoses and wires. So today, to make sure that we go into Pomona and everything's OK, we re-wired everything and made a fscheck-out run."
(1-28-2006) -
Grubnic quickest -- Dave Grubnic's 4.454-second pass under the lights in the last Top Fuel run of the day produced not only the best elapsed time of this preseason weekend at Firebird International Raceway near Phoenix but also the quickest of the year.
Body troubles don't stop Force -- Despite a frustrating Phoenix debut for his new Ford Mustang Funny Car body that he and crew chief Austin Coil have been babying for two weeks because it took more than 19 months to complete, John Force ended the day as the elapsed-time leader.
The new Cory Mac? -- Cory McClenathan's off-season has been a whirlwind of changes. 
Top Fuel champ wants momentum -- Tony Schumacher said he's eager to get back to Pomona, and he showed that he is close to being ready with runs of 4.482 seconds at 326.79 mph -- second-quickest of the day -- and 4.654/253.14 in the U.S. Army Dragster.
Will shines in test sessions -- Hillary Will is scheduled to make her professional debut behind the wheel of the KB Racing-owned, Kalitta Motorsports-managed Top Fuel Dragster at the season-opening CARQUEST Auto Parts Nationals February 9-12 in Pomona, California.
Doug Kalitta, Will's teammate, said, "She's doing a good job." He said he, Dave Grubnic, and Scott Kalitta (who vacated the seat in favor of a Funny Car this year) all are available to dispense advice for Will. "It's all about a team effort," Doug Kalitta said, "but I guarantee you, between Hillary and Dave, it's going to be a battle."
Parts coming apart -- Morgan Lucas didn't have spectacular numbers Saturday, but he did have a flashy-looking moment at the beginning of one run Saturday afternoon. Running next to Tony Schumacher and the U.S. Army Dragster, Lucas' family-owned Top Fuel car gave a loud bang and lit up with a small but startling fireball at about 100 feet off the starting line.
(1-27-2006) - And the winner is . . . -- Don Schumacher said he has narrowed his list of candidates for his vacant Pro Stock ride to two: Shawn Carlson and Mike Corvo. And the head of the nine-driver conglomerate that's home to the reigning Top Fuel and Funny Car champions said he could announce his selection as early as next Wednesday.
He said Carlson and Corvo are his final two candidates because "it's clear I race to win world championships. I'm not racing just to race. I want to win in that class and every other one."
Wild hair day -- Brandon Bernstein's association with Budweiser is nothing new. When the beer company this week extended its contract with the Budweiser King team through 2009, the 30-year partnership became the longest consecutive major team sponsorship in motorsports history. What began in 1980 with the sponsorship of Kenny Bernstein's Funny Car surpassed Richard Petty's 29-year sponsorship by STP. Anheuser-Busch established the Budweiser Shootout in 1982, and today the program includes bonus payments to the No. 1 Top Fuel qualifiers. 
Get In Line -- Gary Scelzi will get the first one. Whit Bazemore gets the second. Ron Capps gets the third. But team owner Don Schumacher said the staggered arrival of the new Dodge Charger Funny Car bodies won't affect the championship chances of any of his Funny Car drivers. 
"Ace is his old, ornery self again," team owner Don Schumacher said.
Only a peek -- Don't expect Alan Johnson to show his hand this weekend in the U.S. Army Dragster's 2006 debut. Don Schumacher said his son, current and three-time champion Tony Schumacher, will make partial passes most of the weekend. "Full power, through the lights -- I'd be surprised if he makes more than one pass." 
Cruzin' along -- Cruz Pedregon said he wasn't just saying it because everybody says it. He said he's truly optimistic about his chances to claim a second Funny Car crown this season. After making what he called his "maiden voyage" in the all-new Advance Auto Parts Chevy Monte Carlo, he said he is benefiting from a crew that has stuck together without turnover and can build on the momentum of last year's late surge.
Low score wins here, too -- Melanie Troxel said she "didn't keep score all that much" when she and mom Barb took some golfing instruction and played a few rounds here in Phoenix last weekend while husband Tommy Johnson Jr. and many of their Top Fuel and Funny Car colleagues tested their race cars at Las Vegas.
© Competitionplus 2005
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