SUNDAY EDITION - ANOTHER GREAT RACE IN THE HIGH COUNTRY

Yesterday we suggested that if the weather changed so could every aspect of the Mopar Mile-High Nationals, and it kinda, sorta did come to pass – for a while. The day dawned sunny and hot, hotter than it had been all weekend, so the first round of eliminations was tough on the tuners, who had to do some guessing about what the track might hold. But, as the day wore on some cloud cover drifted over and the temperatures dropped just enough to make the racing great.

The spectator turnout for Sunday was exceptional and may have been one of the best Sundays of the year. That’s particularly worth mentioning if you saw even five minutes of the Brickyard 400 NASCAR race from Indy, which took place in front of a sea of empty seats. One prominent NASCAR shooter sent out a photo of the cars coming down the main straight for the start with a caption reading, “The fan stands for the start of the race!”

But there’ something to remember here, and that’s that the excellent turnout is a credit to the promotional efforts made by the entire Bandimere Speedway staff. Like few other tracks on the NHRA Mello Yello circuit, this facility recognizes that the ticket-buying public are their customers and, more importantly, their guests. Other facilities could learn valuable lessons from the Bandimere family.

Before we go one more paragraph it must be told – Allen Johnson did not win Pro Stock. In fact, he didn’t even make it out of the first round, losing to eventual runner-up Bo Butner. But in a very nice touch, and one we’re sure he couldn’t hear at the finish line, the fans gave Johnson a huge round of applause anyway. He is probably more appreciated at Bandimere Speedway than anywhere else in the country.

 

With only 14 cars on the grounds the single in Pro Stock came in the second round, and the guy who got it, Drew Skillman, earned it. He not only earned the single, he earned the event title, stopping the aforementioned Butner in an all-Camaro finale, 6.916/198.15 to a 6.953/198.88. Butner, by the way, had a ten light in that finale, but it wasn’t enough.

Well, you can’t say we didn’t warn you! We said that when the Vance & Hines boys got their new Harley Street Rods straightened out things would get very tough for everyone else. Clearly, this has happened. Eddie Krawiec stunned the crowd – and the competition – with a mind-blowing (for up on The Mountain) 7.145/188.28 in the finale. Yes, it was both ends of the track record. Yes, it’s a portent of things to come. Matt Smith bulbed in the finale and was obviously upset with himself at the top end of the track, but let’s get real here. His best run of the day was a 7.214, and that was definitely not going to get it done.

We have seen this movie before, as have you, so you know what could come to pass from now until the end of the season – a series of dominant performances from the Harley-Davidsons that leave everyone else just hoping to reach the semifinals.

Yesterday we neglected to report that several drivers were forced into backup cars for eliminations after suffering chassis damage due to wheelstands. That absolutely included Tim Wilkerson, who said on Sunday morning, “If it had been in eliminations I just would have set the toe (the front wheel alignment) and gone back out there. It was better to bring out the other car.” Wilk lost in the first round, with his car again going into a substantial wheelstand near the lights, forcing him to lift against J.R. Todd. That means crew chief Richard Hartman and the team will have two cars to weld on before next weekend.

 

 

 

We also suggested that if Matt Hagan could slide past John Force he might be a player for the title. Well, he managed that, then changed back to the Express Lane Dodge shell for the second round, where Cruz Pedregon sent him packing.

Robert Hight was crushed by his defeat in the final round of the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals in Norwalk a few weeks back, saying at the finish line, “Whada we have to do to win one of these things?” Well, now he knows, ‘cause he crushed ‘em right back in Denver, stopping Tommy Johnson, Jr. in the finale.

Hight’s Camaro was strong all weekend, and today, when it was pretty much a four second affair, his was one of just two cars to crack into the threes. TJ, Jr’s was the other. Hight had a forty-six light on the finale, which is plenty darn good in a Funny Car, and Johnson was also good, notching a fifty-five Reaction Time. Didn’t matter. Robert had the 3.995 elapsed time, and Tommy didn’t with a 4.099. End of story.

We learned decades ago that no matter what happens in qualifying, anyone can win on race day. It could be said that Leah Pritchett should have won Top Fuel – but she didn’t, and that’s why they race. With Todd Okuhara making the calls she’s got the right people and the right hardware – but so does teammate Antron Brown with Mark Oswald. In Don Schumacher Racing they have what could be termed the premier operation in professional drag racing, but they raced for it, and Antron won with a stellar 3.792 to 3.816 margin. Both were exceptional runs considering the conditions.

 

Pritchett ran a seventy-nine-seven in the first round, with the only other driver in the seventies being Clay Millican, and sure enough, they faced each other in the second round. Both slowed slightly, but she got there first. In the semis she ran another seventy-nine as did teammate Tony Schumacher (his was slightly quicker), but she won again.

While some people may bemoan the super teams of Schumacher, Force and Kalitta, drag racing can’t survive without them, and there are positives about them that are often overlooked. For one thing, multi-car teams generally perform better than single car operations simply because they can share information and even parts. For another it’s been a very long time since anyone leveled charges of dumping races to help teammates, and that’s also a very good thing. There’s only one thing holding back the introduction of more multi-car super teams, and that’s a lack of sponsorship support. If you can sell it, you can build one of those teams yourself, and please stop laughing at our naivety!

It’s worth noting that some national events are merely races. They’re not particularly great, nor are they bad. They are what they are. Then there are a handful of very special events, events that become special because of where they take place, how the fans turn out, and how the racers themselves react to competing in them. The NHRA Mopar Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Colorado is positively one of them.

 

 

 

 

SATURDAY EDITION – ROLLING WITH THE DREAM CHASERS

Every single racer, from the kids in the Jr. Dragsters to the adults in the fuel cars, is chasing a dream. For some the dream is to win a race, for others it’s a championship. And for a few outliers, the goal may be to secure a good job in the sport that will keep them gainfully employed until retirement. Everyone has a dream, and we’ll wager that the vast majority of the fans who jammed Bandimere Speedway for the second day of the Mopar Mile-High Nationals have, for at least a few moments, dreamt of being involved in the sport in a big way. And who are we to dash anyone’s dreams? How could we, when we pursued our own dreams and have been fortunate to have been involved for a very long time.

Tomorrow a handful of men and women will attain their dreams. Almost everyone else is going to leave Denver disappointed at best, or emotionally crushed at worst. Drag racing isn’t easy. It’s going to fight you all the way. It doesn’t give up round wins easily. It will find a way of crushing you time after time. But, for the truly dedicated, those setbacks are mere inconveniences, and that’s what it takes to get to the top – total dedication. If we’ve learned one thing from our time trackside it’s that the men and women who succeed in this sport are among the toughest on earth. They may not have bulging muscles, but they have something even better – their own inner strength that will keep them coming back for more until they succeed. How many times could you get your teeth kicked in before you’d quit? We’re sure there are one or two out there, but by and large no one wins a race their first time out. Heck, there are pro drivers who have gone years without winning, yet they keep coming back, keep fighting. You have to respect that, and we absolutely do.

 

Yesterday we repeated the rumor we’d heard that Mountain Motors could be coming to Pro Stock, so today we sought out the man with the answers, NHRA competition director Graham Light. “We’re looking at a multitude of options,” he told us. “A lot of those options have come from the race community. Obviously there’s a car count problem in Pro Stock. We did a 20-year history of the class, and entries have basically been in decline. If we do nothing we’re going to be facing the day when we have to do something drastic, which we don’t want to do. NHRA, the racers and the sponsors want Pro Stock to survive, so that’s what we want.

“We’ve been talking to team owners, manufacturers and drivers to try and come up with some ideas. The consensus is that there needs to be some changes, but that’s where the consensus ends. A multitude of suggestions have been made, such as going to a NASCAR-style engine, or reducing the schedule from 24 to 16 or 18 races. Nothing has been decided at this time, so the announcement that was talked about won’t be made.

“One of the suggestions that was made was to bring Mountain Motor cars to Pro Stock, but with that there would obviously be some parity issues like weight breaks and the like that we’d have to work through and consider, because the sheer nature of those bigger engines means they’d be quicker and faster. That seems to be a widely accepted idea. It’s okay with a lot of the teams, but not all of the teams. It’s not even close to being 100 percent of the teams, so those are the kinds of things we’re trying to work through.”

When the quality of the Pro Stock show was brought up Light responded by saying, “That’s a different topic,” one he declined to specifically address. He then added, “Racers are doing what they have to do. We’ve created a sport where the idea is to go from Point A to Point B as quickly as you can, and if you’re going up (in a wheelstand) or something like that you’re not going as quick as you can. They do what they have to do to win races.

 

“If we were to bring Mountain Motors in it might create the variety of big blocks and small blocks, kind of like the big guys against the little guys that people might like. If it creates spectator interest that will translate into sponsor interest, television interest and so-on. Our ultimate goal is to try and boost this category up so that it continues to be an NHRA Mello Yello championship caliber category.”

Clearly, NHRA is spending time on trying to find a solution for the declining entries and the lack of an emotionally riveting show. The next few months will be critical for Pro Stock’s future, because it’s evident that things can’t continue on in the direction they’re now going.

Drew Skillman remains atop the abbreviated entry list, and actually improved by a thousandth of a second or two. A total of 11 cars ran in the six-nineties, but even those who failed to run that quickly improved so that the bottom three cars are all in the seven-ohs. But will it even matter? Everyone from the announcers to the spectators seems to believe that once eliminations begin Allen Johnson’s Dodge is going to be the dominant machine. Johnson’s record in Denver is nothing short of stunning, including something like 10 straight final round appearances with seven wins. But this is like saying that the last 10 times Kansas City played Dallas they lost. That means doodley. It’s the current race, that Number 11, that matters. It’s the same thing here. People may see Johnson as the winner, but 13 other drivers see it another way – and they could be right. We’ll just have to wait and see.

The only “real” qualifying took place on two wheels, where 18 riders vied for 16 starting spots. Lance Bonham and Andie Rawlings were the two disappointed riders, while at the other end of the list Eddie Krawiec’s Harley blistered the track with a 7.178, just 0.001 second quicker than Hector Arana, Jr. and his Buell. L.E. Tonglet, Matt Smith, Scotty Pollacheck and Andrew Hines all carded seven-teens, which sets up a very competitive set of eliminations on Sunday. We could say, “Let the best man win,” but the problem with that is there are four young women in the field, and they’re all very good riders on very competitive motorcycles, so we’ll just say “Let the best and luckiest competitor win!”

Leah Pritchett blew up Doug Kalitta’ one-day old track record of 3.767 with a superior 3.733, so it’s Papa John’s for everyone (she’s buying, guys, not us!). Knowing that there were just 16 cars entered, several teams opted to sit out until today, and who could blame them? It may be hard for us to fathom, but it absolutely does cost thousands of dollars to make a run in a nitro-burner. When you figure in parts attrition, the cost of fuel, how much Diesel it took to get the rig to Denver, crew salaries and a thousand other things, you’ve got to really love drag racing to compete with a fuel car. It is definitely not for the financially faint of heart.

John Force Racing continued its domination of Funny Car with Courtney, John and Robert Hight remaining in the top spots. As in Top Fuel, everyone’s going to race tomorrow. Ten cars notched three second elapsed times, and only Jim Campbell in Jim Dunn’s machine is in the fives. Yesterday we said that Matt Hagan’s Dodge would do a lot better today. We lied. Yeah, he improved, but not by much, with only a 4.942 time slip to show for his efforts. Still, there’s just something about his Dodge and this being the Mopar Mile-Highs. Maybe we’re crazy, but if he can slide by John Force in the first round, well, anything could happen.

This is a very tough place to race. The altitude can be a killer, but on the other hand, this continues to be one of the finest race plants in North America. From the huge crowd of loyal fans who jam Bandimere Speedway every day, this is one of the prime stops on the Mello Yello tour. And for the last two days the temperatures have been pleasantly in the low 80s. If it stays this way on Sunday, man this will be some race!

 

 

 

 

FRIDAY EDITION - IT’S ALWAYS A GOOD SHOW UP ON THE MOUNTAIN

We can name at least a dozen tracks that, when it rains, lose the majority of their fans. It’s difficult to say exactly why this happens. Maybe those fans have learned the hard way that their track’s crew isn’t really capable of properly cleaning and drying the track, or maybe they think it will take too long. Or maybe it’s something else altogether. But it just does not happen at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Colo. – and we know why. For one thing, the Bandimere crew is among the best equipped and trained on the circuit. As an example of how good they are, are you familiar with the big black tractors with the four slicks on the back rotating against the way they’re going to help prep the track? They were invented, designed and built here at Bandimere.

The Denver fans learned long ago that when there’s supposed to be a show at Bandimere, by gosh there’s going to be one, no matter how long it takes. And, before we move on to the racing action, let’s not forget the tireless workers of the NHRA Safety Safari, because they deserve most of the credit for the rapidity with which the track was dried, prepped and made ready for the balance of the evening professional qualifying.

Four top Fuel cars remained parked under the tower during the rain, and they were the first machines down the track after the drying. While Leah Pritchett did card a low four second elapsed time, the other three made solid three second runs, with Steve Torrence the best of them in just 3.797 seconds. The point here is obvious: The NHRA Safety Safari deserves every bit of praise they’re handed because they earn it each and every weekend. NHRA drag racing wouldn’t be the same without them, and we know what we’re talking about. Years ago, when no financial backer for the Safari could be found, and local help was drafted to fill in the blanks, we remember a Gatornationals that was run with all the efficiency of one of those Thursday night fiascos at “beautiful” U.S. 30 Dragstrip.

One of the coolest things about drag racing is that it’s the one form of motorsports where you can go from goat to hero in the space of less than four seconds. Of course, you can go the other way, too, but this time we’re talking about going the “good way.” Doug Kalitta’s Mac Tools dragster didn’t fire for the first session, but the team certainly wasn’t under the gun in the second because they knew they’d have two more chances Saturday. Nevertheless Jim Oberhofer and the gang straightened things out reasonably well. “Reasonably” in this case meant shooting right to the top of the charts with a track-record 3.767.

 

Only 14 cars answered the call on Friday, although there are 16 entered. The times ran from Kalitta’s killer to Greg Carrillo’s anemic 7.483, and only eight cars ran in the threes. Five of those were in the three-seventies, and that really is impressive because it’s not easy running up here. At one point on Friday the corrected altitude was over 8,000 feet. It’s hard to even start a fuel car at that altitude, much less get one to the finish line in under 3.8 seconds, so give the engineers who manage these cars the credit they deserve.

While Kalitta was impressive, the early favorite has to be Steve Torrence, because after his first session 3.797 he came back and ran a quicker 3.775 in the second. This guy is flying thanks to tuner Richard Hogan and consultant Alan Johnson.

We may be months from the start of the Countdown – okay, so maybe it’s just about two months – but Torrence is having the kind of season that could easily culminate in a title.

If you liked Kalitta’s track Top Fuel mark, you’ll love Courtney Force’s record-setter – which took both ends of the record with a 3.889/328.30. Compared to her run the senior member of the clan was “pathetically” slow with a 3.899. With Robert Hight, three JFR cars dominated the day – but one day does not a weekend make. Others will be heard from, including the other three second runners, Cruz Pedregon, Tim Wilkerson and Johnnie Lindberg. And please don’t be lulled to sleep by the fact that Matt Hagan was dead last with a 5.544. He will improve on that on Saturday, of that you can be sure.

Records didn’t fall in Pro Stock, and with just 14 cars entered qualifying was no more difficult that driving from here to there. If hordes of locusts descend on the track on Saturday, and it rains frogs, Tanner Gray’s 12.716 will still see him racing on Sunday.

The hot rumor in the pits is that NHRA may actually be giving serious consideration to allowing Mountain Motors in Pro Stock next year. That’s a rumor, people, not a fact, but if the class isn’t on the chopping block (and the promised announcement about a reduced 18-race schedule for next year has not yet been made), something needs to be done to increase the number of entries. Bigger engines probably isn’t the answer for producing a better show – but the complete elimination of wheelie bars might be!

For the last month or so people have been suggesting that when Vance & Hines got their new Harley Street Rods figured out they’d fly. Well, it’s that time, folks. Eddie Krawiec blistered the clocks with a 7.178, fully 0.087 seconds quicker than Hector Arana, Jr’s Buell in second. Eighteen two-wheelers ran on Friday, with the only ones on the outside looking in at this point being Angie Smith and Steve Johnson, whose Suzuki died on the hit. Angie’s husband, Matt, is all the way up in fourth with a 7.217. In all 10 bikes ran seven-twenties or better, and for this altitude that’s a very good showing.

Some tracks are just that – a couple of lanes of asphalt, concrete and little else. Bandimere is so very much more than just a track. Like only one other facility on the NHRA Mello Yello tour that we care to name (that would be Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio), a race here is a real event. It’s something special because the Bandimere’s – and the Denver area fans – make it so. The seating is arguably the best on the tour, the view into downtown Denver is singular in nature and the working staff goes out of its way to make its guests comfortable and happy. Who could ask for anything more?