As noted in the first article in this series comparing the new NHRA points system for 2007 with the current allocation and applying the new scenario to this year’s chase, the NHRA’s Graham Light applied the new allocation to past years’ battles and in most cases the result was the same at the sharp end.  The idea was to foster more interest in the championships and avoid having the titles’ outcome settled earlier in the year as has been the case in the past, especially in Funny Car and Pro Stock. That said, I doubt that there could be a more exciting finale to the Top Fuel championship than what took place at Pomona this past weekend.
 
Years back the Amato/Ormsby fight went down to the wire with the final round settling the outcome but this time not only did Tony Schumacher need to win (less of a problem with a team car in the opposite lane) but he also had to set the national record to beat out Doug Kalitta. No amount of engineered points resetting in the last quarter of the year is likely to present that scenario again although the tightening of the points margins prior to Indy and Las Vegas will certainly negate the chance of one team dominating and clinching the title early.
  
As you will note from the listings the end result was the same in all of the pro categories with the same winners and runners up but Pro Stock was the only category where the top four were in the same order under both systems. In T/F  Rod Fuller trailed Melanie Troxel this year whereas under the new system  Troxel would have been eliminated at the cut to four cars and even her final round appearance at Pomona would not have helped her in the standings. Tony Schumacher won easily with the new allocation with a 103 point margin over Kalitta who was fourth in the new order coming into the Finals and eked out a slim 9 point margin over Brandon Bernstein to take the second spot.
     
In Funny Car Force’s margin over teammate Robert Hight would have been reduced from 112 to 48 markers while Capps’ loss to Force would have helped Eric Medlen hold on the third in the final standing to give the Force team a sweep of the category.

Greg Anderson’s Pro Stock victory would still  not have been enough to edge Jason Line with the final margin being 14 points, or less than one round of racing rather than the final 123 split under the current system  although in this case there was a definite chance for the champ to repeat.

The bikes were tight either way with a two round split in both cases although the current system gave Antron Brown more of a shot as the 23 point split could have been reduced to a single round margin by a better qualifying performance. Karen Stoffer was the winner here as she slipped to sixth in the final order whereas she could do no worse that fourth under the new scenario.

FINAL POINTS FOR THE CHASE - 2006

TOP FUEL

FUNNY CAR

PRO STOCK 

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE

  TORCO'S COMPETITIONPLUS.COM PRE-SEASON PICS

Top Fuel - Doug Kalitta

2. Tony Schumacher
3. Morgan Lucas
4. David Grubnic

Funny Car -John Force

2. Ron Capps
3. Gary Scelzi
4. Robert Hight

Pro Stock - Kurt Johnson

2. Greg Anderson
3. Jason Line
4. Warren Johnson

Pro Stock Motorcycle - Chip Ellis

2. Andrew Hines
3. Angelle Sampey
4. G.T. Tonglet