SUNDAY UPDATE - HIGHT READY TO CONQUER AGAIN IN FUNNY CAR; LANGDON’S WINNING DRAGSTER BACK ON TRACK – IN DISGUISE; COURTNEY FORCE WANTS BACK IN COUNTDOWN; FUNNY CAR ‘FRENEMIES’ APPLAUD WORSHAM’S CHAMPIONSHIP

ROBERT HIGHT has been the inspiration for competitors in all four pro classes on the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series tour. Even racers in the Pro Stock car and motorcycle classes will say by way of self-encouragement, “If Robert Hight can come from 10th place to win the championship, all you have to do is qualify for the Countdown.” But Hight pulled off that feat in 2009, seven years ago.

And the John Force Racing President and Funny Car driver said, “It’s too long. We should have won more championships since then. That’s how you’ve got to think of it.”

Never has he doubted himself, though, and he said 2016 could be his year again: “You’ve always got to believe that.”

Besides, he has some convincing evidence.

“It’s the whole combination – the car, the team, everything,” he said while demonstrating one of the two practice Christmas tree electronic devices he uses to make sure his part of the equation is sharp.

“I look at all the pieces we have in play. I’ve got the same team I’ve had for about three years, same crew chief [Mike Neff, who also tuned Gary Scelzi to the 2005 Funny Car championship for Don Schumacher Racing]. I feel I’ve got the best sponsor out here. I don’t believe there are any deals that are bigger than the Auto Club’s, money-wise. So we have no excuses,” Hight said.

“We’ve got to do our job and get a championship for them,” he said. Hight closed last season in sixth place but was as high in the standings as third last spring. “We’ve worked hard over the winter, harder than we have in the past few years, especially last year, working on the car to get better. It’s starting to show here in testing.

“Last year it was all about survival, finding sponsors, making a makeshift body to where you could show up and race. Just a lot of things had to come together, and we weren’t necessarily worried about the car’s performance. It was everything else. This winter’s totally different,” Hight said. “We’re focused on performance and getting our cars competitive, where they need to be. That’s what happen when the competition rises. It makes everybody work harder. We’re used to being on the other side, making everybody chase us. We don’t like that [the reversal of roles]. So we’re going to try to turn that around.”

He said JFR needs “to have three strong Funny Cars. That’ how we’re going to win – [that] and working together as a team. If you took back at [20]14, John Force Racing didn’t win the championship – John finished No. 2 – but we won half the races in Funny Car: 12 of the 24 the three cars won. In 2015, not so good. We won only four races with our three cars. We’re going to turn that around this year.”

He said the addition of Alan Johnson has taken a load off his mind, for several reasons.

“Big-time. Big-time,” Hight said. “He’s already talking to Mike Neff and has some ideas on Funny Car stuff. He and Mike Neff worked side by side before over at Schumacher’s. They have a lot of respect for each other. I just believe that this is an A-plus that we got him.”

His obvious contributions to the Top Fuel team that BRITTANY FORCE headlines were public Saturday at Phoenix. She drove the Monster Energy Dragster to the class’ best pass of the day, a 3.721-second elapsed time at 319.07 mph. She had three of the 10 quickest runs of the day, also posting 3.747,  325.53 and 3.758, 317.64, thanks to new crew chief Brian Husen’s tuning and Johnson’s guidance.

She said, “There have differently been some big changes for the entire Monster Energy team. “I’m excited to be out here. We all needed this testing, especially me. I’ve been out of the seat a few months. It feels good to get back in the car. Things are a little different, a whole new system. I’m learning that.  We had some great runs. We’re ready to get to Pomona.”

Hight said that’s a huge boost for JFR.

“We want to continue with four cars. If you lose one car, that’s 25 percent of the cars. Now, how do you justify that, with all the employees we have in Indianapolis and California? All four cars maintaining funding is important for all of us,” Hight said. “We’re all set up with our machine shop and our fab shop and everything we have for four cars. Now if you lose that, that affects everybody.”

The data-sharing with STEVE TORRENCE’S Capco Contractors Dragster team – which rents space from JFR in Brownsburg, Ind. – also is a boon for the Monster Energy crew.

“I think it’s good,” Hight said. “I don’t think you’re going to have much chance of beating these other teams out here with just one car. To have another car that you can share data with and compare [is necessary].”  

This marks the first time JFR has paired or co-operated with any other organization when it comes to the dragster. She has been a bit of a lone wolf in the class. “And now she’s not,” Hight said.

Hight said Johnson told him Friday night that Torrence’s car is set up a particular way and Forces dragster is set up a certain way and that they both appear to be running similarly. “In the long run, it’s going to help,” Hight said. “we’re going to help them as much as they help us. It’s got to be a two-way street.”

COURTNEY FORCE’S goal this year, more than anything, is to qualify for the Countdown. She started last season in fifth place but dropped from the top 10 for good by the May race at Topeka and found herself in no more juicy a role than spoiler during the six-event playoffs. This year, with a renewed excitement and brother-in-law Dan Hood (husband of sister Ashley Force Hood) and under-heralded nitro veteran Ronnie Thompson as co-crew chiefs for her Traxxas Chevy Camaro, she stands a strong chance.

“I’m excited,” she said while complying with a swarm of autograph- and photo-seekers by her pit at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park.

“We didn’t get in [the Countdown] last year, but I think everybody kind of has their up-and-down seasons. I’m hoping that was our down one,” Force said. “We’re looking to improve this year. It’s going to be a lot of fun. We’ve got a good group of guys. And we ran 3.90 [Friday], so that got me excited. Hopefully we can have a more consistent race car this season.”

Her team is relatively intact, save the addition of two crew members. “A couple of them have switched positions. So it’s a little bit of a new process, getting used to their new routines and getting in synch with everybody else. But so far it’s been all right. That’s the whole point of testing, to get the rhythm,” Force said.

Force, who will race under her maiden name after marrying IndyCar driver Graham Rahal in November, blew off any talk that planning her wedding had any effect on her drag-racing concentration last year.

“That had nothing to do with it,” she said. “You keep your personal life personal and your work life separate. Everyone has something going on in their life, and you come out here and get your game face on when you do your job. Every driver knows you’re going to have to live two lives. That [the marriage and wedding-planning] had nothing to do with it. If anything, it was fun to have that going on last year. We’re looking forward to a new season and seeing what we can do.”  

They didn’t say they’d like to see a repeat performance. But both CRUZ PEDREGON and ROBERT HIGHT said they were happy for DEL WORSHAM last November when he won the Funny Car title to become only the third driver to win championships in both nitro classes.

“I’m a fan of Jimmy Prock [Jack Beckman’s crew chief at Don Schumacher Racing] and Del’s team [at Kalitta Motorsports]. I’m still a fan. My hat’s off those guys, man. They raised the bar. It’s a credit to these teams that they’ve done what they’ve done,” Pedregon said. “Del won a championship. I consider him a friend.  I was happy to see him [win] – very well deserved. As they like to say, they kicked a--.”

Hight was a mechanic for Del Worsham with the Roger Primm-owned Top Fuel dragster in the early 1990s. And he said during preseason testing that “it was nice to see Del win – and he did it in dominating fashion. I mean, he was unstoppable in the Countdown.”

Worsham’s achievement means that when the Circle K Winternationals opens the 2016 season this weekend, the Funny Car class will have six champions in the mix: Pedregon, Worsham, Hight, Beckman, Matt Hagan, and John Force. They have combined for 23 series titles.

SATURDAY NOTEBOOK - JOHNSON JR. STUNS WITH QUICKEST FUNNY CAR PASS EVER; WILKERSON, HARTMAN TANDEM KEEPING UNDERDOGS OVER-DELIVERING

 

Is this TOMMY JOHNSON JR.’S year? The Make-A-Wish Dodge driver from the Don Schumacher Racing said Wednesday evening following the first day of the PRO-sponsored preseason testing at Arizona’s Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park that he thinks it just might be. Then he convinced a lot of onlookers Saturday with – unofficially – the Funny Car class’ quickest run ever. His 3.874-second elapsed time at 318.47 mph was five-thousandths of a tick quicker than the official quickest run, the 3.879-second pass Johnson’s DSR mate Matt Hagan recorded last August at Brainerd, Minn.

Evidently crew chief John Collins knew how much was left in the car before the final day at Chandler, site of the Feb. 26-28 Carquest Auto Parts Nationals.   

“We ran really well all week and John kept saying we weren’t really leaning on it, [that] we were just testing parts to learn some things,” Johnson said Saturday. “This afternoon he said we’re going to make one more run and we’re going to lean on it a little bit. It was a really good run early and it didn’t run as well at the top end as we were expecting, but a 3.12 to the eighth-mile is pretty awesome.”

Even though he said he spent more time in the off-season at Lowe’s home-improvement center, picking up handyman supplies for projects at his family’s home in Charlotte, than he did at the DSR shop home at Brownsburg, Ind., Johnson knew his team was grinding.

That’s why as early as Wednesday he said, “I think we’re a competitive enough team that we have a legitimate shot [at the Funny Car championship] and we should make it happen.”

Johnson’s said his team is the only one among the seven at DSR that remained completely intact from last season, when they won twice in eight final rounds, posted three top-qualifying positions, and finished third in the standings. He was third in the final 2014 tally, as well.

“I like the consistency. It didn’t happen overnight. It wasn’t a fluke. We did it two years in a row,” Johnson said of his recent performance since returning to the Funny Car class in 2014.

“Things change, because people now know you. Now they know that you’re tough. Now they know they’ve got to run better,” he said. “It’s almost like by performing well you create your own luck. But you’re not getting lucky. People are screwing up against you – they’re trying harder because they know you’re tough. I think it’s to that point where maybe that will fall our way.”

No one could argue with that Saturday.

He said he was “just happy for the guys to make a run like that to close out testing. It’s a good reward for them for all their hard work.”

Earlier in the week, he had tried to explain what racers mean when they say their crews work hard.

“It’s hard. These guys work so hard. There has to be some reward to be able to keep ’em [in the sport],” Johnson said. “It’s hours and hours of work for a very short payoff. And it’s monotonous, because it’s the same work all the time. There’s some new things thrown in there, but it’s being perfect time after time after time after time on the same job. And you have to do it the same, and it has to be perfect. It’s a lot of hard work, a lot of long hours. There’s no punching a clock: ‘I’m done. I’m out of here. See ya!’ There’s stuff to be done, and you stay till it’s done.”

Johnson described his crew as a “good mixture” of young and experienced. “If you get an all-young team, there’s no experience. They might not know how to handle certain situations. If you get an older team, well, it’s hard work and they’re running out of gas. They may have some bad habits, too,” he said. So the key is “the right chemistry. You have to find the right people and put ‘em all together. There has to be a common goal, and everybody needs to focus on that and everybody work together, because it doesn’t happen if they don’t.”

The Make-A-Wish crew did it and did it in eye-popping style – and just in time. The season-opening Circle K Winternationals will begin in less than a week at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, Calif.
 

Richard Hartman, crew chief for TIM WILKERSON’S Levi, Ray & Shoup Shelby Ford Mustang Funny Car, said the Springfield, Ill., owner-driver is in “a lot better shape than last year, [when] only one person on the team was doing the same job as the previous year.”

Wilkerson has no factory funding or tech support for the lone Ford body in the field. And he has no alliances with the absence of Bob Tasca III and John Force Racing’s switch to Chevrolet. But the privateer, who in 2008 made a serious run at the championship, hopes once again this year to strike a blow for the smaller-budgeted teams. And Hartman said he thinks Wilkerson can keep pace with the perennial frontrunners.

“You always think you can compete with them. I think we proved it,” Hartman said. “On average last year, we were the fourth quickest Funny Car all year and the third fastest. I think we’ve got the power. We just need to learn a little consistency. We spent the last part of last year trying to fix that. We were just trying to be aggressive, and when you’re aggressive, you lose consistency. But you go fast when everything’s right. Now we’ve got to figure out how to make everything right every run.”

The way Hartman figured it, Wilkerson might have gotten head start on his testing.

“We got to try a lot of stuff the last three or four races last year. Tim had all winter to sit there and look at his notes and figure out, ‘OK. This works.’ ”

Hartman has found the secret – which he said he doesn’t think is so secret – to getting along with the boss:

“I do what he wants me to do, and I let him do his thing. That frees him up, and he doesn’t have to worry. I don’t question him. Some guys would come in with egos and they’re going to show him how to do everything. I just came in with the mindset that I’m here to help him,” he said.

And it has been a great fit. Hartman said he felt in the grove with Wilkerson and his team “right off the bat. We’ve known each other for so long. We never worked together before. I never enjoyed racing more than last year, and I think this year will be even better. In the past 10 or 15 years, other than with my nostalgia Funny Car, this is the happiest I’ve been racing in quite a long time. He treats me like family, and he treats my family like they’re his. It’s wonderful.”

FRIDAY NOTEBOOK - CRUZ PEDREGON FOCUSING ON OIL CONTAINMENT, TOP-FIVE QUALIFYING; TURNAROUND TIME FOR LIVE TV NOT A CONCERN, CAPPS SAYS; UPGRADED PALMER TO PROMOTE LUCAS OIL DRAG BOAT SERIES AT THREE RACES; CAPPS, CRUZ PEDREGON GIVE KUDOS TO NEW TV ANALYST TONY PEDREGON  

The core of CRUZ PEDREGON’S Snap-on Toyota Funny Car crew is back, with Donnie Bender and Chris Kullberg in the lead and Jay Ryskey and John Ferguson returning some experience. He has three new hands on his eight-man crew.

“We’re plugging along,” he said after a dropped cylinder aborted his only Wednesday test pass at the PRO-sponsored event at Arizona’s Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park. Like many of his peers, his three runs Thursday didn’t net a full run. He had three and possibly four attempts planned Friday and at least three Saturday. We’re going to test extensively.” However, he said he plans mostly half- and three-quarter-track spurts to learn what he needs to know. “The last thing you want to do is blow the body off of it in testing,” he said. Then with a comedic twist, he said, “We’ll save that for when there’s people around.”

For Pedregon, a new work trailer brings its benefits but has eaten up a lot of off-season time to set up and a new Snap-on car wrap offers a snappy look. Otherwise, Pedregon said, he’s not making a lot of changes in the car itself. He did build a new carbon-fiber oil-containment system, because he is, he said, “as everybody should be, trying to do our part to make the show keep rolling.” The NHRA’s crucial live-TV initiative this year, Pedregon said, poses no extra prep burdens: “We’ve done that for years. I remember in 2008 when we won our championship with Rahn Tobler, there was an emphasis back then. We blew the engine up probably four or five times that year, didn’t get one drop [of oil or other fluid] on the track. So it can be done. These engines are 10,000 horsepower, and you’re going to break parts. For the fans’ sake, I don’t like when the show is held up, so I think everybody has to do their part making sure the show goes smoothly and seamlessly. The ideal thing is to not blow the engine up. But with the wide-open rule package that we have and everybody, basically, making career-best E.T.s every week, if you’re going to win – which we plan on doing – you can’t worry about blowing anything up. Unfortunately, we’re pretty confident we’re going to blow the engine up a few times this year, so we might as well try to contain it. It’s not ideal by any stretch of the imagination. The engines are making more power than they ever have. And unlike NASCAR and other forms of motorsports, it’s still pretty wide open.”

Despite the NHRA yanking away bonus points for elapsed-time national records, Pedregon said he still will try to throw down the big numbers. “Oh, of course. To me, before you can win a race, you need to have a fast car. So yeah, we’re always going to be pushing to be the quickest.” Although Pedregon years ago angled back his exhaust headers, last year’s Jimmy Prock tweak caused a stir with Jack Beckman’s parade of national E.T. standards. But Pedregon pooh-poohed the fuss. “The header thing was a little bit overblown. It gave everybody something to talk about. It’s got a nice ring to it. But headers are headers. There’s a lot of cars that have laid-back headers and they still go slow. I wish it were just a matter of headers. I’d have them suckers pointed straight back if I could. It’s a combination of things [that makes a car consistently quick]. And the tracks got better through the sticky compound. A lot of people don’t talk about the racetracks. But you only can go as fast as the track will allow you to go. Got to thank the NHRA for doing their homework and making the tracks better. The NHRA has done what racers have done: they’ve stepped up their game.”

This year, he said, he hopes to capitalize on better starting positons. He said it turned out “some faulty equipment” plunged him into a slump that cost too much recovery time. “So I’m looking forward to starting out fresh,” he said, staying focused on his goal to qualify in the top five at every race. “It’s an attainable goal,” Pedregon said.

While packing the parachute of the NAPA Dodge for another test pass, Funny Car’s RON CAPPS said the critically quick turnaround time for live TV coverage doesn’t pose any sort of problem. “No, I don’t think so. I don’t think it’ll be an issue for anybody, really. It depends – certain races they’re going to push a little harder, depending on what part of the country we’re in, he said. Furthermore, he said he’s not too worried about the occasional oildown or weather hold. “You know what? It’s like any other sport that’s live – they’re going to have to have filler material. And you can’t control the weather. Any sport that has rain delays, for me as a fan, those pieces where they run as filler material, to get to know people, sometimes the rainouts are pretty cool. During the races, they don’t have time [to show personalities]. So it’s not all a bad thing if we have weather delays, because we can’t do anything about it,” Capps said.

Top Fuel racer SCOTT PALMER isn’t sure how many national events he’ll attend this year, possibly between six and 10 – including, he hopes, Topeka and St. Louis. But he knows for sure that at Pomona, Phoenix, and the spring Las Vegas event he’ll drive the Lucas Oil Drag Boat Racing Series Top Fuel Dragster.

“We’ve got a deal with Lucas Oil, since we run a Top Fuel hydro now, too. We ran it last year, so we didn’t run a lot of NHRA stuff. We ran one race and some match races. We were concentrating on the boat,” he said.

The first two races of the 2016 Lucas Oil Drag Boat Series are at Phoenix and Parker, Ariz. So with the NHRA’s first two races at Pomona, Calif., and here at Chandler, Ariz.’s Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park, the timing is perfect for Lucas Oil to brand Palmer’s car with its boat racing series logo.    

Palmer has the rather complicated logistics figured out. “The first one is here, three weeks after we run Phoenix NHRA. Then the weekend after Vegas (NHRA) is Parker, Ariz., which is two hours away from Vegas,” he said. Two friend will help him bring the boat here to Arizona from Cassville, Mo. “We’ll go home after this [Phoenix NHRA] race and bring the boat back and work on it, get it ready, run the boat series race here. The car will be here [in Phoenix]. We’ll go to Vegas and run Vegas and then take it all to Parker, Ariz., to the second boat race. Then we’ll go home.”

He shrugged off the rather burdensome transportation strategy, saying, “If you’re not a big team, you’d better be finding a way to make it happen.” Besides, he doesn’t have time to lament the logistics. He has to hit the marketing trail for both the boat and race car. “That’s what you do. You go from town to town. We are lucky that we’ve met enough friends who have businesses. We have about 200 boat teams or fans coming to Pomona who have never been to an NHRA race.”

Ashley Fye, Palmer’s girlfriend, still doubles as his crew chief. The one-time engineering student at Purdue University has just two more qualifying passes to go to earn her Top Fuel driver’s license. “We’ll get it eventually,” Palmer said. “Nobody realizes just how much she does. She doesn’t get near the credit she deserves.” The fear factor for her is real, Palmer said, “What I compare it to is when Dom Lagana started driving, me and Bobby [Lagana] and Ashley would be standing on the starting line. We were sick to our stomachs. He’s a kid. To us, he’s just a kid. Now he’s grownup and he’s doing such a great job. But we were all nervous. We still are. He’s good. We’re so proud of him. He’s like family.”

And so are the Lucases. Palmer said, “It’s good to promote the boat series for Lucas Oil. Because he [Forrest Lucas] helps us out so much on the car. We’re a little team. He doesn’t need us. We need him. All us little guys need him. It’s amazing that he helps so many small guys still. Not many DON’T forget where they came from, but he does not forget. He knows. He worked hard to get where he’s at. He knows we survive race to race. We can’t make plans too far ahead of time. We operate on a small budget. You’ve got two options in this deal: You can take your sponsorship money and drive for someone else or you can have your own team – but you’re probably never going to be a big shot out here. It just doesn’t work that way.”          

Palmer said it never was his intention to “be a big shot” in the NHRA: “No. Never. I want to run a Top Fuel dragster. I want to run at the top of the class. You’ve got to know your place out here or you’ll get yourself in big trouble.”

Palmer isn’t in any trouble. In fact, with help from his many friends in the sport, he’s more confident than ever in his equipment. “We’ve upgraded the car,” he said of his Marck Recycling Dragster. “Bobby Lagana and Dom Lagana and Aaron Brooks and a bunch of those guys  . . . We went to Indy and we switched it all over, basically similar to a combination that Dom Lagana runs on his car, which runs so good. Bobby Lagana, we go back to when we didn’t have any money.”

Glancing at the car, Palmer said, “Just looking at it, it’s new. It was a bare chassis in Indy three weeks ago. There wasn’t a wire on it. It’s an older McKinney car, but we redid the whole thing. There’s not one wire on it the same. That’s all due to Bobby Lagana and [Steve] Torrence’s team.”

He said he undertook this upgrade project because “I’m tired of counting cars. I don’t want people calling, saying, ‘Hey Scott, there’s only 15 cars entered at this race. You ought to come up here.’ We’re tired of counting cars. We’re going to whatever racetracks we want to go to, no matter how many cars are entered. That’s our goal. And we want to have a car that’s competitive enough that when you leave the house you’ve got a really good chance of qualifying. I’m not talking about winning. I’m talking about qualifying. And then if you go out there and run a high [3.]80 and you don’t get in, you can hold your head up high and go home. We want you [the opponent] to have to go to the finish line to win.”  

So that’s what the Laganas and the Capco Contractors Dragster team have been helping him prepare to do. Palmer said, “They have gone out of their way.”        

So have Woody from Woody’s Headers (the one whose handiwork with exhaust headers turned the Funny Car class upside down last season) here in Payson, Ariz., and Marck Recycling, of Cassville, Mo. “Woody was mounting and welding the tabs on the belly pan for us. He helps us out a lot. Great guy,” the owner-driver said. The owner of Marck Recycling, he said, is a longtime friend: “We’ve been friends since his business ran out of a pick-up truck. Now he has seven plants across the country and is building a plant in Monterrey, Mexico. He knows that it has been a struggle. He’s not a sponsor – he’s a friend.”

Palmer said he had planned to make one run Friday in the Marck Recycling Dragster and a couple during Saturday’s session that’s open to the public. He wasn’t ready to roll out the car Friday.     
 

Tony Pedregon’s move from Funny Car driver to FOX Sports analyst has left older brother CRUZ PEDREGON with mixed feelings.

“On one hand, I miss him. I was a fan of his, and I still am, of his abilities. Especially in his heyday, when he had his own car, [and before that] when he was driving for John Force, Tony was a formidable opponent,” Cruz Pedregon said. “We’ve lost a great competitor, but we’ve gained in another area.”

In a conversation during preseason testing at Chandler, Ariz., Cruz Pedregon said, “I’ll miss Tony on the track as a competitor and as a brother. It’ll be different. But I’m happy that he’s going to be a part of making [happen] what’s been desperately needed for many, many years: a quality TV production.”

He said he’s proud his brother will be an instrument of positive change.

“We’ve all suffered. There’s a lot of good drivers on the sidelines that have paid the price through lack of sponsorships – good drivers, young drivers who should be out there and are not out here. If you look at the trickle effects, definitely the economics drive the sport. If you don’t have the proper audience and the audience to justify the corporate expenditures, we all suffer,” Pedregon said. “So I’m looking forward to Tony getting up there and doing his thing. I look forward to him showing his stuff.

“He has the credentials. He has the background. He’s very qualified. And he’s with a group that, from what I’m gathering, are professionals. They understand the value of television, and they know what they’re doing. So I’m going to be, like a lot of people, looking forward to the end product,” he said.

RON CAPPS knows that at least one dangerous Pedregon is off the track but is excited to have the youngest of the three racing brothers in the broadcast booth. “He’s bit us more times as an underfunded racer here in the last few years. I always told my team when we raced him, ‘I don’t care where he was qualified. If he was lucky and got by a round, that didn’t matter.’ That guy found a way – always,” the NAPA Dodge driver said. “He’s always been a great speaker, too. He’s going to be good. Some people questioned Mike Dunn being gone, and it’s a bummer. They questioned Tony Pedregon’s capabilities. If you haven’t heard him speak, he’s eloquent, he’s good, and hopefully he has the guts to be honest, like Mike Dunn was. I think he will. You’ve got be thick-skinned up there. Mike Dunn was great about that. He’d call guys out for deep-staging. He would call people out for staying in the throttle, me included – things that he noticed. I have no issues with Tony being up there. It’s going to be great.”       

From Cruz Pedregon’s reports, brother Tony has been doing his homework.  “He’s been watching a lot of greats – Chris Economaki, Steve Evans, Dave McClelland. Competition Plus show a lot of those older races, like the 1979 Gatornationals, and those are great shows, because it demonstrates that the way they used to present drag racing is different than how it has been presented recently. Not taking shots at anybody, but those guys were great,” he said. Then Pedregon, a longtime and avid Oakland Raiders fan, said, “They’re like Howard Cossell [legendary Monday Night Football TV-show anchor]. They don’t make ‘em like that anymore. There aren’t a lot of them walking around all over the place. There were just a few, select guys who really knew how to present our sport. And I look forward to hearing that. I’m still a fan.

“Technology and things move forward, but sometimes you need to take a step back and say, ‘Hey, what made us great? What made us a great sport?’ Obviously the cars – they still go fast and they still make noise. But in order to grow the audience – again, it’s the economics that drive professional sports – that’s wat it’s going to take. If we could clone those guys – Chris Economaki, Steve Evans, Dave McClelland – we might not be in this predicament. But we’ve lost some great guys,” Pedregon said.

“I think Tony will bring that back to a certain degree. I’m not saying he’s in their league or anything like that. But if you pay attention those guys and listen to how they presented it, it’s going to be great,” he said.

Cruz Pedregon has developed young circle-track talent. His brother’s departure for the TV team hasn’t inspired him yet to plan to step from his race car and either move into the corporate end of the sport or become solely a team owner to a young charger.

“That will come in time. I’m open for that down the road,” he said. “I’m still good at what I do. In fact, I think I’m better than I’ve ever been because of my experience level. I still have a desire to go out and do it. I feel like I have some unfinished business. At the same time, I’m getting better. I’ve become a better owner. I’m a better tuner. It’s like that Carpenters song, ‘We’ve Only Just Begun.’ In due time, that’s definitely something I’ll entertain.”

But this year Cruz Pedregon is planning to expand his 35-victory portfolio. (He already is ahead of Tony Pedregon’s 33.) He said he’s ready to “dust ourselves off a little bit, shake it off, and come out swinging. It’ll be tough.”

 

THURSDAY NOTEBOOK - NHRA MELLO YELLO RACERS KICK OFF PRESEASON TESTING

DOM LAGANA is helping brother Bobby Lagana on Steve Torrence's Capco Contractor’s Dragster “until maybe Topeka or earlier,” he said. Two weekends before the NHRA event at Epping, N.H., Dom Lagana has a match race against Warsaw, Ind.’s Kyle Wurtzel at Martin, Mich. He said he definitely plans to enter the family-owned dragster at the NHRA races at Epping; Englishtown, N.J.; and Reading, Pa. “Over the summer, we have a bunch of match races in Upstate New York, Englishtown, Iowa, and all over the place,” Lagana, of Scarsdale, N.Y., said. Beginning in May, when he has an off-weekend, he’ll return to Europe to help tune Finnish Top Fuel racer Anita Mäkelä, FIA’s 2015 runner-up and record-setter at 3.87 seconds.

SHAWN LANGDON and Tim Wilkerson were working hard in the pits Thursday but had a day of rest, of sorts. Their race cars didn’t, though. With guidance from crew chiefs Phil Shuler and Todd Okuhara, T.J. (Troy Jr.) Coughlin earned his Top Fuel license in the Red Fuel/Sandvik Coromant Dragster that Langdon drives. Coughlin, who most recently competed in the J & A Service Pro Modified series on the NHRA tour, began in Jr. Dragster and has raced – and won – also in the Super Comp and Super Gas classes and excelled in E.T. bracket racing.

The journey wasn’t over, Coughlin said. “It’s just begun. There’s a lot of work to be done. We still have a lot of driver . . . errors I made today that I want to get better at. We’re just getting started.”

Coughlin said Jeg Coughlin Sr., the grandfather he calls “Pappy,” planted the seed of excitement about Top Fuel dragsters in his mind late this past summer, sometime in September. Thursday the grandson found out why his granddad thought he’d get a kick out of it.  

“It’s tight. It’s fast. You leave hard,” T.J. Coughlin said. “And the next thing you know, it’s like 100 feet and you’re in a slingshot. You though the initial launch was tough – you go another 100 feet and it’s a whole new story. “

He acknowledged that “there’s a big intimidation factor with something this fast” but said, “I think the more I go, the more those two will balance themselves out.”

Coughlin has watched videos of his grandfather’s runs in a Top Fuel dragster and said, “Sometimes I thought it would be really neat, because the class is full of history. And I’m really into the history of drag racing. It was definitely a neat time. The pioneers of the sport don’t get enough praise. They went through hell to make it good for us. The pioneers of this sport tried things that make things better today.”

Both Troy Coughlins, father and son, said they were unafraid because of their faith in Don Schumacher Racing’s commitment to safety.

“It’s a very safe feeling,” Troy Jr. said. “Those Don Schumacher Racing guys are the best in the business. They’re extremely tenacious in everything they do.”

Dad agreed. “I know with Don Schumacher Racing, their cars are the best quality pieces. The safety aspect is all there. And T.J.’s got a sense of what he’s learned from his family when to let off the gas.” He said given the family’s history it’s emotional to see a Top Fuel racer in the Coughlin mix again. However, he said with his son, “It was just a matter of time.”  

Team JEGS spokesman Scott “Woody” Woodruff said that within two days of his inquiry on behalf of the third-generation driver, Coughlin was at the Don Schumacher Racing shop at Brownsburg, Ind. – a three-hour drive from his Delaware, Ohio, home – having his custom seat poured. “T.J.’s very grateful for the opportunity,” Woodruff said, adding Coughlin has no set plans yet for putting a Top Fuel license to use.

“We’ll see how this goes,” he said. How it went was this: His first run was a 3.999-second blast at 229.98 mph. His second was his best of the day at 3.853, 321.81, and he clocked a 3.8-second E.T. also in his third pass (3.870, 289.14).

He had made some initial runs in November at Bakersfield, Calif., in the dragster that Del Worsham and dad Chuck Worsham own, but cold weather intervened (along with his commitment to run in the Street Car Nationals) and kept him from completing his licensing process.

Jack Wyatt, the former NHRA and IHRA Funny Car driver who served on the U.S. Nationals-winning crew of MORGAN LUCAS last year, has a variety of jobs on his resume, including delivering firetrucks and restoring a vintage airplane. Now he’s a tutor - for CLAY MILLICAN’S younger and inexperienced crew members. “I’m another set of eyes in the pits,” Wyatt said. “Lance [team General Manager Lance Larsen] is real busy in the clutch department and at the shop [when the car is being serviced at the team’s McLeansboro, Ill., headquarters for Stringer Performance].So they brought me in to kind of keep an eye on the guys and help organize it a little bit and try to make things run smooth so they can go fast.”

While bringing younger crew members up to snuff can be challenging for a team like Millican’s, one that’s poised for a breakout season, Wyatt instead said he was energized by it. “We’ve got young kids coming back in [the sport],” he said, observing a trend. “We haven’t seen [that], and it’s really nice to be able to work with them – nice, fresh, new faces – and try to share something I know. This is a great bunch of guys to work with, and they’re doing real well.”

The pack of newcomers numbers about four or five, Wyatt said, which represents a significant influx of raw enthusiasm. “You can bring one or two in and it’s not too bad. You can adjust around them,” he said. “But this is a big hurdle right now.”

Wyatt will remain with Millican’s Parts Plus/Great Clips Dragster team through the March Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla. After that, he said, “Maybe I’ll find another gig like this, and maybe these guys will need some more help down the road. I really like this kind of role. I’m a mechanic. That’s all I’ve ever been since I was a kid. I like what I’m doing.

The primary exercise in Millican’s pit this week, he said, is “crew orientation.” Said Wyatt, “We’re trying to get them used to them putting it together, starting it, running it, and then coming back and servicing it. As we go along, we’re going to speed things up. That’s the focus.”

Of the team as a whole, Wyatt said, “They know they can do it. They need a couple of breaks, things going their way. Anything can happen. They’ve got the equipment and they do have [the routine] down. We’ve just got to get them up to speed quick and they’ll be fine.

“They started out last year with a whole new team. So last year they kind of ran the thing behind the eight-ball. So they spent the whole winter trying to get up to speed, so they had spare stuff. So now they’re in position to be competitive.”

Stringer Performance bought a Brad Hadman-built chassis from Steve Torrence as a back-up car. The primary car also is a Hadman that came from Torrence.

Dave Grubnic has settled into his role more comfortably. Wyatt said, “He started as a mechanic-tuner. He’s one of those guys who can know every inch of this car. He comes out and works on it. He’s very talented.”

He just might have to show these young crew members what he’s talking about. “I haven’t given up running my Funny Car. Been match-racing it every year,” Wyatt said. “I’m going to come to Topeka,” he said, referring to the May 20-22 Kansas Nationals, the freshest update to the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series schedule. “I can’t run 3.80s with those guys [the tour regulars]. We just don’t have the financial backing,” he said. “But as long as you can stay out here and run with ’em  . . . I can still be involved with my car a little bit more. I’ve got a lot of [crew] guys back home who miss going. So I’m going to put them back to work.”    

TORRENCE AND BECKMAN QUICKEST IN NHRA NITRO SPRING TRAINING THURSDAY

 
Steve Torrence and Jack Beckman were the quickest in their respective categories Thursday during the second day of NHRA Nitro Spring Training at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park near Phoenix.
 
NHRA Top Fuel and Funny Car teams are utilizing the four-day pre-season test session to prepare for the season-opening Circle K NHRA Winternationals, next weekend (Feb. 11-14) at historic Auto Club Raceway at Pomona in Southern California. The tradition-rich race near Los Angeles is the season-opening event for the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.
 
Torrence, who finished eighth in points last season, stole the show in Top Fuel, powering his Capco Contractors dragster to four low 3.7-second runs during the day, with a best of 3.729 seconds at 326.08 mph.
 
“That's going to be my career fastest run, at least through today,” said Torrence, who also posted times of 3.739, 3.750 and 3.753 seconds. “We didn't even go all the way to the end, clicked it at about 700-750 feet. Went 2.96 to half-track, and I am really impressed with the way the car is running. This new Morgan Lucas Racing chassis is working wonders for us. My team has worked their tails off all winter to get this car going. I'm glad all of this hard work is coming to fruition."
 
Shawn Langdon followed Torrence with his 3.733 at 315.49 in the Red Fuel dragster, while Richie Crampton was third quickest in his Lucas Oil dragster with a 3.747 at 298.47. Brittany Force was fourth-quickest, posting a pair of 3.75-second runs in her Monster dragster. Defending world champ Antron Brown posted a best of 3.758 at 292.20 in his Matco Tools dragster.
 
In Funny Car, Beckman was quickest and produced a pair of 3.89-second runs, with his best effort in the Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge Charger a 3.894 at 327.02.
 
“We are trying different parts and a different tune up on the car,” said Beckman, who had a memorable season last year where he raced to seven victories, set the national record four times and finished second in points. “It's not just picking up where we left off in Pomona and trying to tweak the timers on clutch flow or the amount of the degrees in the ignition timing. We're really trying to do things to make a better performing race car here.

“And in testing nobody gets any points, there's no trophy. But there's pride. And a lot of times even when you run poorly, you find something that can help you later in the year. We’ve had three outstanding laps so far this weekend, and there’s no reason to think we can't continue the next two days, I feel good because the guys feel good.”
 
Tommy Johnson Jr. was second-quickest in his Make-A-Wish Dodge with a 3.932 at 321.81 and 16-time world champ John Force was third in his Peak Chevy Camaro with a 3.945 at 323.97 mph. Defending world champ Del Worsham posted a best of 3.956 at 325.77 in his DHL Toyota Camry.
 
Doug Kalitta and Ron Capps both experienced minor on-track engine explosions with flashes of fire during separate attempts.
 
Third-generation racer T.J. Coughlin made three runs in the DSR Red Fuel dragster to complete his Top Fuel license requirement. After competing in NHRA Pro Mod competition last season, TJ is exploring his options in the Top Fuel category and would love to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, Jeg Coughlin Sr., who competed in NHRA Top Fuel racing in the ‘60s and ‘70s.
 
Coughlin made three passes: 3.999 at 229.98, 3.853 at 321.81 and 3.870 at 289.14. Prior to today he had also made several runs in Del Worsham’s Top Fuel car at another track. He is in awe of the massive 10,000 horsepower machines.
 
“It’s pretty wild,” said Coughlin, son of two-time NHRA Pro Mod champ Troy Coughlin. “Thanks to Don Schumacher Racing for giving me the opportunity to do this with them here. It felt great. It was extremely fast and it leaves hard. It takes your shoulders and pushes them back and the further you go the further [your shoulders] go back. You really can feel what you are seeing on the graph of the G-force meter. It’s just unbelievable and very fascinating.”
 
He finished eighth in Pro Mod points last season with a trio of semifinal finishes in his JEGS Corvette. He says there’s a little bit of a comparison to his Pro Mod machine.
 
“It leaves a lot harder than a Pro Mod car but it is similar,” Coughlin said. “The way the power comes in and pushes you back it’s a lot like that location wise on the racetrack, but it’s a lot more dramatic in a Top Fuel car. There’s almost no words for it.”
 
Coughlin says he is still formulating the plan for a Top Fuel career and wants to see what his options are following the licensing procedure. 
 
“I’ve always been into the history of drag racing and I would go to YouTube and watch some older races and I caught one from ‘78 or ‘79 and saw my Grandfather [Jeg Coughlin Sr.] was runner-up to Connie Kalitta and I was like, ‘Wow, that’s really cool,’” Coughlin said. “It made me think about it. I like the history, the amount of work and the effort it takes to be a good driver and good team and working together. I am just really appreciative of the opportunity Don Schumacher and his group have granted me this weekend. They have great equipment and it was a lot of fun today.”
 
Several other drivers made runs today, many of them either shut-off runs or tire-smokers, including Courtney Force, Robert Hight, Matt Hagan, Chad Head, Alexis DeJoria, Cruz Pedregon and Tim Wilkerson in Funny Car and Troy Buff in Top Fuel.
 
Schumacher and Beckman were quickest in their respective categories during the few runs that were attempted on Wednesday. Schumacher powered to a 3.745 at 326.95 in the U.S. Army dragster and Beckman’s best was 3.920 at 316.60.
 
Below are some of the quickest performances from day two of NHRA Nitro Spring Training:
 
TOP FUEL
3.729, 326.08 – Steve Torrence
3.733, 315.49 – Shawn Langdon
3.739, 282.54 – Steve Torrence
3.750, 325.45 – Steve Torrence
3.753, 296.11 – Steve Torrence
3.758, 292.20 – Antron Brown
3.747, 298.47 – Richie Crampton
3.751, 316.38 – Brittany Force
3.758, 320.97 – Brittany Force
3.775, 272.12 – Antron Brown
3.781, 260.21 – Tony Schumacher
3.791, 292.58 – Leah Pritchett
3.795, 272.67 – Leah Pritchett
3.825, 274.00 – Antron Brown
3.853, 321.81 – TJ Coughlin
3.863, 269.03 – Dave Connolly
3.865, 239.82 – Tony Schumacher
3.870, 289.14 – TJ Coughlin
3.930, 256.41 – J.R. Todd
3.936, 252.05 – Dave Connolly
 
FUNNY CAR
3.894, 327.03 – Jack Beckman
3.895, 325.06 – Jack Beckman
3.932, 321.81 – Tommy Johnson Jr.
3.945, 323.97 – John Force
3.956, 325.77 – Del Worsham
3.963, 234.82 – John Force

 

WEDNESDAY NOTEBOOK - NEW COLORS, NEW LOOKS, SAME OLD KICK IN THE PANTS OF NITRO