EVENT RESULTS EVENT NOTEBOOK			FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY

SATURDAY NOTEBOOK

BLUE MAX SPECTACULAR - Ron Capps was fast and spectacular, in true Blue Max fashion, during first round eliminations at the Bakersfield March Meet. A supercharger backfire at the finish line sent the classic Mustang II nostalgia Funny Car body skyward and the efforts of the all-star team in question for Sunday’s second round of eliminations.

Capps was uninjured; no bruises, scratches or anything. His only pain was losing what he felt was his best chance to win the Bakersfield March Meet. At this time, according to Capps, it remains uncertain whether the Worsham Blue Max tribute team will return for their match against Mike Sanders.

“We are not sure what happened and in what sequence,” explained Capps, disappointment present in his voice. “The car left great and started to make a move and the motor freewheeled itself. Del’s real good [at tuning]. He could run a big show car easily. He went right up on the computer and found some things that happened in sequence.”

In the moments after the incident, Capps could only speculate.

“Might have had a little fuel on something – it vibrated loose,” Capps said. “It knocked the burst panel out of it and it was slow motion. I saw a little bit of daylight and the body was starting to come loose. I was off of the throttle, saw the daylight and said to myself, ‘Oh no, don’t tell me.”

Then the body separated from the chassis and went airborne, and crashed to the Bakersfield racing surface.

“There was nothing but disappointment for me … this is the Blue Max,” Capps said. “All I was thinking about was that we were going to cross the finish line, get the win.”

The team has been granted permission by race officials to bring out a back-up car citing the “Eddie Hill Rule”.

Unless the team can repair the body before Sunday’s second round, they are done and Sanders will single. However, if the rain falls victim to rain as forecast on Sunday, the team can return with a repaired or new car.

“I was hoping the body wasn’t that bad but it is,” Capps explained. “When you get close to it, you see that it did damage structurally. It’s a bummer.”

On the upside, Capps believes the car was on its best run of the weekend.

“It was on a pass,” Capps said. “It’s a bummer for Del.”

HANDS-ON, THE BOWSER STYLE – Maintaining a modern day drag strip with a historic theme requires a bit of tight-rope walking. Just ask Auto Club Famoso Raceway’s Bake Bowser.

The 43-year old track Bowser fulfills the dual general manager and co-owner of the historic facility with his father John. He also walks a fine line of modern day and preserving a measure of yesteryear.

“That is a challenge,” Bowser admits. “We want to keep our nostalgic feel but want to be modern in every other way including safety equipment, modern walls and racing surface – everything we can do to offer the modern comforts to the racer. Our bread and butter is nostalgia racing.”

And the Bowser family has done well to uphold the Bakersfield legacy by making subtle improvements from the track’s profits.

“There’s a lot of stuff behind the scenes,” Bowser said. “Whether it’s putting in wiring or a timing system or buying a new computer system. Those are $10,000 to $15,000 items that people have no idea that we are doing because we don’t promote it. We just do what needs to be done. Whether it’s asphalt in the shutdown area, but a lot of people aren’t aware of that. We’re guilty of doing things and not making a big deal of it. There’s a lot of that we do that we just don’t publicize.”

Bowser believes the track’s transformation is a continual work in progress. A good portion of Bakersfield’s pit area was resurfaced following last year’s California Hot Rod Reunion in October.

“Every year we do more and more. Our goal is to be entirely paved. But, a task like that is like painting the Golden Gate Bridge. You finish the whole thing and then you go back and start all over. It’s going to be a long process. We have a lot of good ideas, just not enough money to pay for them.”

Some of those idea include a newly improved tower, luxury suites and a modern state-of-the-art media center to help spread the good word about drag racing of a different era while in a modern setting.

“The challenge is keeping the racers happy,” Bowser advises. “Building a tower doesn’t help them directly but indirectly it can if we bring in more sponsors and media to expose their races.”

Bowser believes if his job has a measure of frustration, it stems from the inability to control what is uncontrollable.

“The uncertainty is the most frustrating part of the job,” said Bowser. “Sometimes I wake up and can’t brush my teeth because I am so fearful of what is going to happen that day, not that I am afraid of the track and something going wrong, it’s more along the lines of who’s going to show up. The personnel assignments … the weather. My dad are hands on for every event. The challenge is not micromanaging but overseeing the job and letting out staff do their jobs. That’s tough when you are such a hands-on team as we are.”

It’s tough one-upping a legend, as Bowser will attest.

HEREEEEEE’S TARZAN – John “Tarzan” Austin feels good today. So good in fact, the Top Fuel legend of the 60s and 70s would love to drive a nitro-burning dragster again, if only to experience 300 miles per hour.

There’s one stipulation. The run has to be to the 1320 feet.

However, he knows this opportunity isn’t likely to present itself.

Austin is at home this weekend attending the Bakersfield March Meet, his first since suffering a heart attack back in December. He underwent surgery to repair damage to his left main coronary artery often referred to as the “widowmaker”.

The experience of returning to a sport which has meant everything to him leaves Austin, known for his colorful personality, appreciative of yet another experience.

“I came to Bakersfield for the first time in 1965 and the only thing I liked out of the experience was Top Fuel dragster,” Austin explained. “I didn’t like Funny Car or Fuel Altered, no doorslammers – just Top Fuel dragster. I still love them.

“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about drag racing, either a car, somebody or someplace, or something about drag racing. Every day of my life I have thought about it.”

Austin was best known for his exploits in racing with TV Tommy Ivo, and even quit one time on the former child television star in mid-race. He laughs about the experience and his fan interactions over the years.

For Austin, the best part of drag racing has always been the people.

“I loved the people,” Austin said. “I loved them even though most of them didn’t know my real name. I would love to run 300 miles per hour in a quarter of a mile. Drag racing is a quarter-mile, ya know.”

Then Austin smiled, he was back in his element.

STRONG ENOUGH FOR A MAN, BUT MADE BY A WOMAN – Debra Covern knew early on with her business of making racing/hot rod-themed Hawaiian shirts that her name couldn’t be associated with the brand name.

It wasn’t a soiled image or talent which prevented her from doing so. She learned early on a valuable lesson.

“Men just wouldn’t wear a shirt with a woman’s name on them,” explained Cover, who is the founder and driving force behind the Matt Rider brand.

“I just made up the name Matt Rider and the men flocked to buy them then,” she continued, smiling and shaking her head. “The drag racing designed shirts took off and people are still asking who Matt Rider is. There is no Matt Rider.”

Of ten Covern has customers who ask her if her name is Mattie.

“Nope, I’m Debra,” she reassures them.

Covern’s growing business began from her original hobby of designing and sewing custom Hawaiian shirts for her husband. A few trips to the car shows and she was convinced there was a void when it came to street rods and vintage race cars.

“I just started buying fabric with cars on them,” Covern explained. “Anything I could get. I started making them into Hawaiian shirts. Then everyone [in the industry] began making them. I just decided it was time to do something different.”

Covern approached many of drag racing’s legends and with their permission created various designs with their likeness on them. She has three prominent designs, one with front-engine dragsters, another with classic Funny Cars and most recently added a Fuel Altered design.

“I figured if I put stuff on them that no one else had, like dragsters, they’d be popular,” she said. “People loved it. The legends all had suggestions.”

Covern is a clothing designer by trade and assisted in the design. As the designs are created, the printing is outsourced overseas. The printed fabric is shipped back to Covern where she and her team do the sewing and complete the product.

“We go over and over the design to make sure everything is perfect,” she confirmed. “I started off as a teenaged design, designing bikinis. I did that for many years. I feel like I am doing my part to preserve drag racing history.”

And for Covern, that’s very important.

QUICK WHITE- Entering the second day of qualifying at the March Meet, provisional No. 1 qualifier Rick White was ready to stand guard of his low number. The San Diego, Calif., resident ran a quick 5.664 at 251.53 mph on Friday for the top spot. You could say that he’s had a bit of practice behind the wheel of fast machines.

“I’ve been racing my whole life,” said White. “I was a Bonneville racer, I’ve run 400 mph at Bonneville, and then I went to an Alcohol dragster before we went up to the Top Fuel class. Been doing this for quite a while.”

So how many March Meets has the longtime go-fast-fella been to?

“I don’t know if I can count that high,” he laughed.” We haven’t won this one, though. We’ve won the Hot Rod Reunion, we’ve won the championship, we’ve won a lot of races, but we haven’t won the March Meet, and this is a pretty special race for us to try to pull it off.

“I knew that [5.66] was in this car, and it ran real nice. I think there are even some better numbers there before the weekend is over.”

BARTONE AT BAKERSFIELD – NHRA’s Top Alcohol Funny Car racer Tony Bartone is driving the No. 457 Nostalgia Top Fuel dragster at the March Meet this year. Bartone got his start in a Nostalgia rail last year with the encouragement of his brother Michael and will try to run every event in the Hot Rod Heritage Series this year.

CANDIES & HUGHES – Tucson, Ariz., driver Mike Savage, the pilot of the Candies & Hughes Funny Car, used to run the SpeedSport entry and has been with his current team since 2000, but a couple of years ago, current owner Jim Broom asked Paul Candies for his blessing to run the scheme of his favorite car on his own Nostalgia Funny Car. Candies gave it the green light, and Savage has been driving it since.

“Last year was the first full season we ran the Candies & Hughes car,” said Savage. “Sometimes we put an altered body on the car and race like that, and that’s cool, too. As long as I’m racing, I’m happy.”

IN NEW TERRITORY - He’s been at this drag racing deal for a long time, but the Poverty Stricken Vega, driven by Peter Gallen, probably isn’t a familiar car to the West Coasters; the Broomall, Penn., racer typically sticks to his home turf on the East Coast.

“This is the first time I’ve been past Indy,” said Gallen. “I’ve been reading about this event for over 40 years, and I’m not getting any younger. I said, ‘Let’s throw it in box, drag our butts over there, and see what this left coast is like. I’m pinching myself; we’re just having a fabulous time. The people are wonderful, the weather is wonderful, the track owners are very accommodating and we’re just having a great time.”

Gallen ran an alcohol Funny Car in the 70s and 80s on the NHRA circuit and won three national events. His first was the 1987 GrandNational, the same event where a 15-time Funny Car world champion won his first.

“After that, we kind of went our separate ways,” laughed Gallen.

RETURNING FAVORS - The Roger Garten driven War Horse is getting a little help from the Taylor family this weekend out in Bakersfield. According to Justin Taylor, son of NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car driver Dennis Taylor, the connection began long ago, when Roger Garten used his influence to help Dennis drive his first race car at Orange County Int’l Raceway (OCIR) at the age of 15. Garten’s influence continued as he signed Taylor’s first competition license.

Justin is working on the War Horse this weekend at the March Meet and will travel with the team as a crewmember for 8-10 nostalgia races this year. Of course, Dennis is here pitching in as well.

FRIDAY NOTEBOOK -

LEAPFROGGING .70s - Jason Rupert, driving the Mert Littlefield tribute Funny Car, blasted to a 5.69 in the first session of qualifying for the provisional No. 1 spot. Just before jumping in his Nostalgia Funny Car to warm it up between sessions, Rupert said, “We tested yesterday and it ran 5.82. I didn’t really think it would run a .69; we skipped the whole 5.70 range.

Every year I wonder, ’Why do I keep doing this?’ Business hasn’t been good for the last couple of years, and it’s been that way for a lot of people. But when you come out here and do something like that, it’s like, okay. That’s why we do it.”

In order to trim costs this weekend, Rupert is sharing space with Steven Densham, who is here driving the Teacher’s Pet. “Plus,” said Rupert, “It’s just twice as much fun.”

IMPRESSIVE DEBUT – NHRA Funny Car racer Jeff Arend, who is normally behind the wheel of the Kalitta Motorsports DHL Funny Car driving in the Full Throttle Series, is here in Bakersfield filling in as the pilot of Dale Pulde’s War Eagle. Arend had never before driven a Nostalgia Funny Car, but seemed to be right at home in his first run when he clocked a quick 5.82 to temporarily jump into the No. 1 spot.

“Yesterday was the first time I had sat in the car,” said Arend. “I got belted in, got things to where I could reach and was comfortable. They told me what I had to do, so I sat in the car for like 10 minutes and visualized, made like five runs [in my head.] Everything is a little bit different in this car: you push the fuel shut-off forward to turn them on – in my car you push them forward to shut them off; there are two fuel levers that you use, you want one on when you do the burnout, and then you take it back off; and of course you have to shift it. There isn’t a button on the steering wheel that would make it easy; you have to shift between your legs. It’s old school stuff, and after making the run I can say that it’s pretty cool.”

Following his first pass, Arend got out of the car in unfamiliar territory.

“There wasn’t anyone up there, maybe just one person, and they didn’t know what it ran,” he said. “So I got out and thought, ‘I guess no one is going to roll my ‘chutes up, I guess I’ll do that.’ It took about five minutes for [the crew] to get down there, and I was thinking maybe it would have ran like a low 6.00 or something because I short-shifted it, but they were all excited and told me it ran 5.82. Dale Pulde called me right away. I shifted pretty early on that run, so next time I’ll shift it later and maybe go a little bit faster.”

THE CRASHING OF A TRIBUTE -

MIGHTY SPIFFY UNI’S – Years back Ron Capps had a tribute t-shirt made for his former crewchief Ed McCulloch as a means of showing the veteran tuner’s fighting spirit as he dealt with cancer. This weekend in anticipation of McCulloch’s attendance at the March Meet, Capps decided to bring out the highly sought after shirt as a crew shirt for his all-star gathering of big show participants.

What’s so special about this black t-shirt?

Across the front, there’s an Ace of Spades. On the back, a youthful McCulloch in the process of knocking out the late Funny Car racer “Flash” Gordon Mineo.

“I had heard the folklore of a picture where Ace was knocking out Gordon Mineo,” said Capps. “I contacted Teresa Long [of NHRA] and she was able to get the picture. She let me use it to make a t-shirt, under the stipulation that it wouldn’t be sold.”

Capps knew the shirt would be a big hit because of its mere nature and of course, there was McCulloch’s testy temperament.

“Back in the day if you messed around with Ace in staging or something else, you paid for it,” explained Capps with a smile. “It’s such a great element, it’s him in his element. When he had the cancer and was going through the chemo, he was a fighter. I’ve made three runs of the shirts already.”

HONORING THE GRAND MARSHAL – Bakersfield March Meet Grand Marshal Shirley Muldowney came to the event expecting to meet and greet fans and serve in whatever capacity the race officials needed. What she didn’t expect was the opportunity to sit in the first car she won a Top Fuel championship with.

Ms. Muldowney did just that on Friday afternoon during the most prestigious of all nostalgia events.

“It was a good car for me,” said Muldowney, who added the car was also used in match races. “I can’t imagine where all the car had been  all of these years and then it popped up.”

Muldowney ran the car through the 1978 season before parking it in 1979 when the NHRA made a score of chassis requirements which made it most logical to go with a new car.

Dave Mandella is the owner of the car and commissioned the original chassis builder Ron Attebury to pull off the restoration. Muldowney is impressed to say the least.

“They are restoring this car right down to the letter,” Muldowney proclaimed.

Seeing the car, sitting in it and serving as the honored guest at an event where she reached the finals three times makes for an unforgettable event for the drag racing icon.

“Winning Bakersfield was as prestigious as winning a national event,” said Muldowney of the independent event. “[Connie] Kalitta won it back in the 1960s and it basically put him on the map. It’s a race that you always wanted to put on your resume.”

Muldowney reached those three finals consecutively, losing the last one of the three to Lucille Lee, a fellow female racer of the era.

“I just got outrun,” Muldowney admitted. “We made up for it in Columbus, Ohio, fighting for a championship. Lucille Lee went on to become one of my best friends. Lots of class … a friend, sincere friend. That’s what made her so different than the rest.”

INAUSPICIOUS START - Of the first three cars in the Hot Rod division,  which is essentially a bracket race, two broke axles at the launch and one crashed in the shutdown.

HAVING A BLAST - Ron Capps wouldn’t immediately describe the scene as controlled chaos, but the more he looked at the gathering of big show tuners and drivers converging in Del Worsham’s Blue Max tribute pits, he began to see the picture clearer.

“I guess you could describe it that way,” Capps said with a smile, as he watched team owner Del Worsham, decked out in his Al Anabi sweat shirt, working on the right side cylinder heads of his Nostalgia Funny Car engine. The left side of the engine was under maintenance by DieHard Funny Car tuner Tommy Delago. Off in the background, Jon Oberhofer was cleaning oil out of a spare oil pan.

Capps was handling the driver duties such as fixing the on-board camera and watching the team wrenching the classic Mustang II flopper in preparation for Friday qualifying at the Bakersfield March Meet.

“They’ve all got smiles on their faces because they are all in there with the motor torn apart,” Capps explained. “No matter what, they’re all smiling. We are just having a good time.”

No pressures. No NHRA Full Throttle points. No corporate demands. It’s just fun racing for the group.

Of course, some of the group might be a little out of “tune” for their roles. Suddenly Worsham, the most recent Top Fuel winner on the NHRA tour, drops his wrench – possibly out of a lack of practice.

“He is a bit out of practice,” Capps confirms. “But the funny thing is, the rest of us have been getting text messages from him all week and he was working on the fuel flow bench for the last two. He was putting together lines for this car. Then he went out and won Gainesville, I was thinking maybe I ought to do that. He was up early and running around getting parts and stuff ready.”

No sooner than he uttered those words than he looked down at his greasy hands, a byproduct of working on Worsham’s nostalgia car.

“Yeah,” Capps said with a smile. “I used to get to work on these cars.”

Worsham did too.

During Friday's opening qualifying session, Capps ran a 6.19, 202.39.

FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS - Second-generation drag race Will Martin sat on the back of his truck staring out at his classic Mustang Funny Car. Never has he seen a better looking race car since his dad’s Jam Air Special nitro flopper from the 1980s.

For the first time in his career, Martin plans to suit up for nitro, racing just as his father John did. John Martin is the last of the modern era Bakersfield March Meet winners dating back to 1988 before the event became a nostalgia showcase.

Will would like nothing better than to win the event, thereby becoming the first father and son Bakersfield Funny Car winners.

“This is a bit of an unreal experience right now,” Martin explains. “This car is brand new and the guys have worked countless hours just to make sure it was here for this event. Right now, we just want to creep up on this thing and hopefully qualify.”

Martin dreamed of one day following in his father’s footsteps of racing a nitro car but never gave the desire more credence than just a dream.

The four-time world champion will experience a dream come true when qualifying begins on Friday.

“I never thought I’d get the chance, to be honest,” said Martin. “Steven Densham and I used to race our plastic dragsters down the back of our dad’s trailers at Pomona. We never thought we would get that chance and now here we are, both us, racing at the March Meet.”

Martin says the dream wouldn’t have come to fruition if not for major sponsor Multistack [Mark Platt and Charlie Kenyon], a leading modular chiller and compressor technology company. Additional backing from Prolong, AFT and Jackson Auto Parts goes a long way as well.

“In this day and age, it’s tough for an opportunity to be created,” Martin said. “My first ride was with Virgil Hartman back in 1999. That was my first and only experience as a hired driver. In today’s racing you have to bring a lot of money and buy a ride or you have to work really hard to create the funding to build your own ride. At least with your own ride, you control your own destiny.”

Martin is working alongside of his father’s original Jam Air team including Bob Brooks.

“We have a bit of a learning curve ahead of us,” said Martin, who has four runs on the new car headed into this weekend’s Bakersfield event. “Murf McKinney has built us a great car and we couldn’t be happier.”

Click to visit our sponsor's website

AEROMOTIVE’S A2000 FUEL PUMP REMAINS ON TOP OF THE FIELD

For more than 10 years, the Aeromotive A2000 (P/N 11202) Fuel Pump has dominated the world of drag racing. Fueling champion and after champion in multiple classes and multiple sanctions. Never before has a fuel pump celebrated so many wins with such diverse applications.

In 2011, after years of success, Aeromotive is celebrating the A2000’s dominance with a renewed focus. “Its hard to match the durability and performance of the A2000 Fuel Pump,” said Steve Matusek, President and Founder of Aeromotive Fuel System. “We hear from racers all the time, wanting to make sure they still have the latest and greatest from Aeromotive. Its almost as if they figure there has to be some new development in the fuel system world,” Steve continued. “While there has been a lot, the A2000 has remained a constant and it’s hard to argue with its overwhelming success.”

The Aeromotive A2000 has fueled 3 out of the last 4 NHRA Pro Stock World Champions including Mike Edwards and 4-time World Champ, Jeg Coughlin Jr. In fact, Jeggy was a back-to-back World Champion and he fueled his car with same Aeromotive A2000 Fuel Pump, every single pass for 3 straight years. That pump never left the car. Now that is durability!

That is the type durability you can expect from Aeromotive. It’s a value that they hang their hat on. “With every product we design, we identify a problem, engineer a solution to that problem, test the product on our own vehicles and then stand behind our product and the racers that support us,” said Matusek. “The A2000 was no different. We knew we could engineer a ‘big’ carbureted pump that was extremely efficient, provided optimum pressure control and would be durable.” It’s the reason you’ll find the A2000 in car after car at the track. From the sportsman racers to the Pro Mods and Pro Stock, the Aeromotive A2000 is the choice of champions.

Other champions in 2010 include NMCA Pro Street racer, Chris Rini, Super Street 10.5W racer, Tony Nesbit; Mean Street racer, Jeremy Gillam; Open Comp racer, Don Bowles; Late Model EFI racer, Al Corda; LSX All Motor Champ, Judson Massingill; and LSX Rumble Champ, Kurt Anderson. National Champions in the NHRA include NHRA Stock Champ, Brad Burton and NHRA Super Comp Champ, Gary Stinnett. In the NMRA, champions include NMRA Hot Street Champ, Charlie Booze Jr.

Aeromotive Inc. is a true high performance aftermarket manufacturer specializing in fuel delivery and fuel delivery components. Utilizing aerospace tolerances and procedures, 3 generations of track experience and a meticulous approach to engineering, Aeromotive Fuel Systems have become the absolute pinnacle of performance fuel delivery.

For more information on the A2000 Fuel Pump, Aeromotive Fuel Systems or their extensive line of components and the advantages they can provide, go to www.aeromotiveinc.com. To speak with one of the highly qualified technicians, call (913) 647-7300.

a d v e r t i s e m e n t

a d v e r t i s e m e n t

a d v e r t i s e m e n t

Click to visit our sponsor's website

a d v e r t i s e m e n t

Click to visit our sponsor's website

a d v e r t i s e m e n t

Click to visit our sponsor's website