NHRA SUMMIT NATIONALS - ASHER'S NOTEBOOK
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SUNDAY NOTEBOOK - DON SCHUMACHER’S RESPONSE TO NHRA’S ACTION AGAINST HIM
Team
owner Don Schumacher addressed the media at The Strip at Las Vegas
Motor Speedway following the announcement by NHRA that he was being
fined $100,000 “for possessing nitromethane fuel in (his) professional
pit clearly in violation of the fuel regulations…” He also answered a
few pointed questions on the subject. Obviously, Schumacher views the
fine in a completely different light than does the NHRA. Here, with
very minor editing, is his statement:
“I received notification from NHRA this morning that they have imposed
a $100,000 fine (on) Don Schumacher Racing because we possessed
nitromethane that is Pro Nitro methane at the facility on Saturday. It
was removed Saturday off site. I (was) also told at Gainesville, and
prior to Gainesville, by both (NHRA president) Tom Compton and Graham
Light that Pro Nitro is now an accepted nitromethane in NHRA.
“We’ll appeal the fine through the proper process, and go forward from there.
“Homeland Security has put a program in place that anybody can possess
nitromethane, but if you possess more than 400 lbs., which is
approximately 42 gallons anywhere, whether that be at your home, your
shop or anywhere, you must be Top Screened. Don Schumacher Racing is
the only team that I’m aware of that is Top Screened -- at my facility
in Brownsburg (Indiana) and at every NHRA facility, so I am not
violating Homeland Security regs in any way at all. I have all of the
numbers, I am Top Screened, and have been Top Screened because of Pro
Nitro, and I am in (a) position that I follow the laws.
“The fine speaks to itself. My teams were in possession of nitromethane
that we had brought to test with in Las Vegas last October prior to the
(AC Delco Nationals) race. That’s where this fuel has come from. We
moved some fuel out here that we utilized in that test session. We
didn’t use all of it then, so we kept it here in Las Vegas, not here in
my race rigs or any place like that. We stored it here in town, and we
brought it back to the pits yesterday, to be able to test with it on
Monday.
“Pro Nitro, based on verbal conversations between Tom Compton and
myself, Graham Light and myself, is an accepted nitromethane to be
utilized in NHRA events, and in fact a (shipping) container of Pro
Nitro was distributed by VP (Racing Fuels) earlier this year and
utilized in (NHRA) national events.
A member of the media then asked Schumacher if VP was a manufacturer or
distributor of nitromethane, to which Schumacher replied, “Darned if I
can answer. That’s between NHRA and VP.”
He was then asked if Pro Nitro had to be sold through VP Racing Fuels.
“Today, and based on my conversation with Graham (Light) today, I can
sell Pro Nitro to VP at X amount of dollars and then turn around and
have them mark it up $500 or $600 a drum and sell it back to me so I
could use my own nitro, I guess, but that isn’t what’s written in the
rule book, from my reading the rule book. We’re being forced to accept
the sources of nitromethane that NHRA has mandated. There used to be
Dow Chemical and Wego. Dow pulled out of the sport a year and a half
ago, which left only Wego, and prior to Gainesville is when Tom Compton
and Graham notified me that Pro Nitro was now a legal nitro to be used
at NHRA events, and that I could sell nitromethane to VP and certainly
VP could distribute it. But all of the other areas in distribution and
that kind of stuff, I can’t speak to that, you’ll have to get that from
NHRA. VP is the only distributor they allow on site here distributing
gasoline and nitromethane.”
A member of the media tried to press Schumacher as to where the nitro
had been stored, but he refused to be specific as to its storage
location. CompetitionPlus.com has learned from reliable sources that
LVMS was indeed the site of that storage. “I don’t want to get anybody
else involved in this,” he said. “This is a Don Schumacher Racing
situation and NHRA and doesn’t involve anybody else at all.”
He was then asked why he thought this action had been taken against
him, to which he replied, “I’m not going to make any guesses at all
about this. I’m a businessman and certain business situations puts a
target on my chest, so I just deal with it.”
Schumacher made no estimate on when his appeal might be heard, citing
the busy racing and travel schedule the principals would be facing as
obstacles to a quick solution.
Schumacher was previously fined for a hospitality violation at Columbus
not too many years ago for circumventing NHRA’s “required” catering
services. He appealed that fine and lost.
Schumacher was then asked about what had taken place during this
weekend’s PRO Board of Directors meeting, but he cited confidentiality
in refusing to answer. He did, however, say that it would be safe to
assume that areas like track preparation, safety, “the quality of the
show,” and other areas were discussed.
He was then asked if this fine was the result of a safety violation,
but he responded by briefly outlining how VP had increased the price of
nitromethane about 40 percent some years ago. “I found that to be
displeasing, so I arranged to import nitromethane myself from China
into the United States just to supply the teams and supply the sport. A
rule was written by NHRA that there were only two accepted suppliers of
nitromethane. I believe that’s written, but it was certainly
transmitted to the teams, probably in letter form, and it was
transmitted to the teams verbally, that only Dow-Angus and Wego were
the accepted suppliers of nitromethane. At that time I think Steve
Leseur was still in the fuel business. Shortly after that Steve started
to use VP as his distributor of nitromethane. He went to VP, and I
continued to bring nitro in, so they wrote a rule that only the
Dow-Angus and the Wego nitro was allowed here at the races. They said
fine, your fuel can be used at the test sessions. My fuel was the fuel
that was supplied to the IHRA for all these years. The reasoning why
the (Dow-Angus and Wego exclusivity was allowed) is something that
would have to be answered by the NHRA. I know (NHRA) is concerned about
nitromethane being supplied to the sport because without nitromethane
we can’t race. It would be an alcohol show which may not draw the fans
that this draws. That’s always a concern. Nitromethane, insurance and
tires. Those are the big issues, and I certainly understand that.
“I believe competition is a beneficial situation in a world wide
economy, and when you make it where there’s only one supplier, they can
charge whatever they want to. I know what nitromethane costs in China.
A drum delivered to my shop in Brownsburg, we’re talking just over
$500. Less than $525 for a drum of nitro. That’s with freight, product
costs – everything. I believe that as our economy goes into the
troubles that it’s in, all raw materials, including nitromethane, will
get a little cheaper. Steel, copper, aluminum, gas – all of the things
that we use in our everyday lives will get cheaper.”
Schumacher was then asked for an opinion as why there’s been such a
massive price increase in the costs of nitromethane from VP Racing
Fuels. “They can increase it because they’re the only guys that are
allowed out here.
“God, I love NHRA drag racing!”
“Yesterday we discovered nitromethane in Don Schumacher Racing’s pits
that was not purchased through the official distributor and that is
clearly in violation of the rules,” Graham Light said, in an interview
with ESPN2 during the event telecast Sunday evening. “As stewards of
that product we take our responsibility very seriously. There are very
strict guidelines as to the purchase and use of nitromethane. As a
result of this violation, a $100,000 fine has been levied against Don
Schumacher’s team.”
Light confirmed this as the largest fine ever levied against a team in NHRA POWERade Drag Racing.
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SATURDAY NOTEBOOK - OVERVIEW OF QUALIFYING; ANDERSON'S TOUGH DAY IN THE OFFICE AND STILL CONFUSED WITH QUALIFYING
SATURDAY OVERVIEW - Under crystal blue skies and moderate temperatures the NHRA Summitracing.com Nationals
With two runs today the “expected” hitters in Pro Stock finally stepped up and made the field, leaving only those unfortunately accustomed to DNQ status occupying the sixteenth through twenty-third positions. Larry Morgan’s personal struggles continued, while all of his customer cars save Vinnie Deceglie made the show. Jeg Coughlin, Jr. had to abort his first run today after someone on the crew forgot to install the rearend cap back in the pits, with Jeggie oiling the track on his burnout, resulting in a lengthy clean-up. It would be far from the first such delay of the day, and from the comments overheard from the spectators, they were less than pleased with the quality of the show they witnessed. Greg Anderson. Who was on the outside looking in when the day began, finally locked up the ninth slot (see additional story for more details on Anderson’s weekend thus far).
Alan Johnson continues to be the tuning master. Although Tony Schumacher didn’t improve on yesterday’s 4.510, he ran extremely well and easily held on to the Number 1 position. Of the five cars than ran four-fifties yesterday the most impressive of the bunch was probably Morgan Lucas, who has not had the greatest season to date. One wonders if Las Vegas is going to be the turning point for the young driver of the Lucas Oil dragster. We shall see on the morrow!
As of last night John Force was 15th in Funny Car, meaning he had no guarantee of being part of Sunday’s eliminations when this day began, but come on, you knew he and tuners Austin Coil and Bernie Fedderly would get the big Ford in the show, and that’s exactly what they – wait a minute. They didn’t! Force could only muster a best of 5.020 – and the bump was a 4.997 by Jack Beckman. Also destined for “no-racing-today-only-autographs” status tomorrow are Jerry Tolliver, Terry Haddock and Tony Bartone – who had another disastrous outing in Jim Dunn’s Canidaie All Natural Pet Foods Chevrolet, coming past the finish line on fire in his last attempt. Okay, it wasn’t a major conflagration, but as you can see in the photo, it was on fire! Scott Kalitta also DNQ’d, but since he rarely signs autographs anyway…oh, never mind.
As we wrote yesterday about today, tomorrow’s going to be an interesting day because the tuners are still going to be fighting a very tricky race track, the temperature’s supposed to be in the high 80s and a plague of locusts is expected right after the National Anthem. Okay, we made up that last part, but look, if you’re looking for straight, staid and boring copy, better look elsewhere. We’re al trying to have a little fun here, and we hope you are too!
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PRESSURE? YOU DON’T KNOW THE MEANING OF THE WORD! - Greg Anderson is a winner in every sense of the word. He wins
Take, for example, this little outing at The Strip. For probably 90 percent of the competitors it’s just another race they desperately want to win, but for Anderson it’s far more. Just listen to his words about pressure.
“I can’t lie. Sure, there’s more pressure, not just because it’s a Summit race, but it’s (car owner) Ken Black’s home town, and all of his family and friends are out here. And a lot of our other sponsors are from out here, so this is not only a Summit race, it’s a home town race for us. There’s a lot on the line here, and this is certainly not the place we want to make any mistakes. We want to come here and shine if we shine at no other place in the country.”
“It always hurts if you miss that first run,” he said in a considerable understatement. “It really sets you behind if you don’t get that information from the first run. Now we have to make some major guesses about the track today, and that’s not a comfortable feeling, but we’ve had to do it before.
“Yeah, the pressure’s high, but we’ve got to come through.”
They did.
CATCHING UP WITH CAPPS - The arrival of NAPA Auto Parts as a major sponsor in drag racing may have more importance
than is immediately evident. It’s more than “just” another team sponsor, because it has the potential for producing wide-ranging impact, impact that may never be visibly evident, but will nonetheless be important for the sport. For example, most companies thrive on competition, liking nothing better than “showing up” their rivals in any number of ways. Cruz Pedregon (Advance Auto Parts) and Del Worsham (CSK Auto parts) could actually benefit because of NAPA’s involvement by having their sponsorships enhanced or extended, for example. NAPA couldn’t have done much better than to have the likes of Ron Capps as its driver and trackside representative. He’s well-spoken, good looking, popular with fans of all ages, and is also, for what it’s worth – and that’s a lot – one heck of a good driver. Matched with Hall of Fame tuner Ed McCulloch, they’ve become one of the better combinations on the circuit – although this year has been a struggle at times.
Yesterday was one of those tough ones. “The car put a cylinder out right away,” Capps said, “and like a lot of other guys, we didn’t get down the track. We were early in the (first) session because of where we are in the points, and in the second session we were (also) up early and (so we) didn’t get to watch a lot of cars run. That’s our fault for being where we were. Tony Bartone had a big oildown right after us, and that let the air get cooler for everyone else. That’s just proof that timing’s everything. Without a night session, as the air got cooler, the track got better for the other guys. It’s just our own fault for being where we were. Beyond that, I feel good!”
On Sunday morning in Houston McCulloch went back to an older tune-up from last year. “He went back to his old clutch, and everything he knows,” said Capps. “(The car) responded the way he thought it should, which it hasn’t been doing, so I felt good, and I still feel good coming in (to Las Vegas). Time will tell. Today’s the test”
They “passed” with a 4.887 for the sixth spot.
Like a number of competitors, Capps and McCulloch are somewhat confused by the 12-car qualifying situation in which those top 12 cars are “locked in” after Friday night. We asked him if he though the fans understand the program.
“Heck no, they don’t understand it,” he said. “We don’t understand it either. It’s a good plan to a certain extent, but a perfect example is that Ace and I spent 10 minutes up in his computer are in the rig trying to figure out exactly what it means, and I know it’s not that hard, but you still have to question what’s going on with it. NHRA tried to do something that was going to help, and I think that the idea is good, but when we’re trying to make this sport easier on the fans we just made it harder. All they did was confuse the fans and confuse the racers more. That’s a bummer, because as it is the fans are confused by things like Reaction Times, the roll-out on the starting line, how a car can win on a holeshot, deep staging or not deep staging. All that stuff is confusing enough for the racers, let alone the fans. We had a chance to make things a little more mainstream, a little less confusing, and we didn’t. But the idea is good!”
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ASK A SILLY QUESTION… - Del Worsham’s victory in Houston was overdue and, to some people, unfortunate in that he 
denied Ashley Force her first NHRA national event victory. But, shed no tears for Ms. Force because, like her father before her, once she gets that first win she might become unstoppable.
But we were talking about Mr. Worsham, weren’t we? “So Del,” we foolishly asked, “did you have a good time in Houston?”
“It was fair,” he deadpanned. “Of course I had a great time in Houston! It was great. Sunday was really great. Qualifying on Saturday we had a lot of problems, but come Sunday, that was really special.”
Worsham acknowledged that the win did a lot to boost his confidence for the rest of the year. “It did a lot for right now,” he amended. “The further we got in eliminations, the better I felt driving.”
Although his CSK backers weren’t in Houston for that victory, they are here in Las Vegas, where Worsham hopes to duplicate that performance. “Man, that would be something, wouldn’t it?” he added.
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FRIDAY NOTEBOOK - GETTING THE LAY OF THE LAND, WHAT'S UP WITH LARRY MORGAN AND MORE ON SCELZI'S HADMAN FUNNY CAR
“There is no way there are 21 stupid crew chiefs out here.” Mired at the back of the field at that point were the likes of drivers like John Force, Ron Capps, Scott Kalitta and Cruz Pedregon.
Top Fuel looked a bit better at the top of the list, with Tony Schumacher leading the way with a 4.605, but with only 16 cars making that first call three drivers made the 12-car Friday cutoff with six second runs.
Pro Stock appeared to be more “normal,” with Kurt Johnson atop the charts with the 6.730/204.63, and max Naylor 12th with a 6.790. In the second session things returned to normal, well, close anyway. Kenny Koretsky was the surprise leader with a 6.724 with a resurgent Ron Krisher right behind him at 6.726. Naylor faded all the way to 12th with a 6.781, but on the outside looking in were the likes of Greg Anderson, Jim Yates and Phoenix winner V. Gaines.
When the shadow of the massive LVMS grandstands helped cool the track a bit the Funny Cars picked up the pace considerably, but again there was a surprise leader in the form of Tim Wilkerson, who said, “We’re
just trying to get along. We’re runnin’ our junk and traying to make it better.” Wilkerson, by the way, brought new sponsorship support to Las Vegas in the form of Diversified Yacht Service.
If Wilkerson’s name atop the list was a surprise, how about Bob Tasca III coming in second with a 4.864. That alone might put to rest the talk that the departure of tuner Mike Kloeber might have been a mistake. Chris Cunningham appears ore than up to the task – at least thus far.
Houston winner Del Worsham took the 12th and final “guaranteed” spot with a 4.941, with Melanie Troxel – breathing a sigh of relief that could be heard all the way from the finish line – right in front of him with a 4.936. But, when you look at the first day’s results you can’t help but wonder, just what the heck is going on here? Not listed among the qualifiers were the likes of Jack Beckman, Tony Bartone, Jerry Tolliver, Ron Capps and (wait for it!) John Force!
Whatever was “wrong” with the track in the first session had obviously been corrected by the time the Top Fuel cars came back around for the second session. Tony Schumacher remained atop the list, but with an improvement all the way to 4.510. Doug Kalitta was right behind him with a fifty-for-one, with Urs Erbacher on the bottom with a 4.826. Not in the show? Two-time Number 1 qualifier Alan Bradshaw, superstar youngster J.R. Todd and – surprise, surprise – Larry Dixon.
Saturday’s going to be a very interesting day!
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Vinnie Deceglie, Max Naylor, Johnny Gray and Phoenix winner V. Gaines and, of course, his own car. The thing is, though, all of Morgan’s customers have been competitive from time to time this year, with Gaines having emerged with one big victory. But the team leader has been spending his Sundays on the sidelines, an ignominious DNQ every time out.
In Morgan’s own words, “Why do I suck? What I’m trying to do is move forward, but you’ve heard that old saying, for every step forward you’ll take one step back. Well, that’s us. I’ve stepped back a long step!
“What we’re trying to do is change the engines so that they’ll turn more RPMs, but we haven’t hit on it right so far, but we will. It’s just a matter of time. When you get something that looks good on the done and then bring it to the track and it sucks, that’s when you know you’ve gone the wrong way. I’m not giving up on what we’re
trying to do, but I’ve got to figure it out.”
Morgan says that at least half the field is spinning their engines faster than ever before, and knows that’s the right way to go. Now he just has to get there.
SCELZI’S HADMAN-BUILT RIDE - After a relatively successful outing in Houston with the car that Brad Hadman engineered for him Gary Scelzi has committed himself to the new machine. Tuner Todd Okuhara likes the car, and feels it has considerable promise. Minor adjustments will be made as they work the wrinkles out, but Scelzi seems relieved to be behind the wheel of the new Dodge.
