Photos by Ron Lewis, Todd Dziadosz
SATURDAY NOTEBOOK – JFR TEAM MARKS ANNIVERSARY OF BOSS’ CRASH WITH STELLAR PERFORMANCES, FLYNN TO TUNE SCHUMACHER, DAVIS CONTINUES TO WOW IN PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE
1 – JFR TEAM THRIVES IN YEAR WITHOUT FORCE – When Funny Car racer Jack Beckman pulled to the starting line to make his first of three qualifying chances Saturday at the American Rebel Light NHRA Virginia Nationals, it was a bit of a pensive, but joyful, moment.
As the Mission Foods Drag Racing Series was preparing to revisit Virginia Motorsports Park, south of Richmond at Dinwiddie, Beckman said, “For us, Richmond represents a shot at redemption.” He was referring to his car-crunching mishap in the first round at Epping, N.H., and his opening-round loss to class-debuting Julie Nataas at Bristol at the two most-recent events.
But certainly it can apply to the memory of one year ago – June 23, 2024 – when 16-time Funny Car champion and 157-time winner John Force suffered a career-altering accident that sent him to Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center with a traumatic brain injury. The crash – which, ironically, happened just five days shy of the happier 37th anniversary of his first NHRA victory (June 28, 1987, at Montreal) – still haunts, especially on this first return to the scene.
However, the team, which has replaced Force in the seat of the Peak Chevrolet Camaro with 2012 Funny Car champion Beckman, is concentrating not on the past but rather on the present at this ninth of 20 races on the Mission Foods Drag Racing Series calendar.
Austin Prock, too, wants to wipe from memory his past two races and that pair of opening-round defeats. “We’ve got a little bit of a chip on our shoulder after the last two weekends, but I believe we’re going to bounce back and prove why we’re the points leader. It would be huge for our team,” he said. Recalling his victory last June that was hard to celebrate, knowing his mentor had been airlifted to Richmond with serious injuries, Prock said, “It was an emotional win, so we’re looking to defend our title.”
And Brittany Force – who showed strength and poise as she continued her 2024 season and was in the spotlight constantly, fielding questions about her father’s progress and health – said, “After a devastating departure from Richmond last season, I’m eager to leave something good behind this time around.”
Beckman said, “We really would like some closure at the end of the week.”
And judging by Saturday’s performances in this lone two-day event of the season, they already are making some fresh and happier memories. Beckman and Prock were 1-2 in the Funny Car line-up all day, and Brittany Force leapfrogged Clay Millican in the second, heat-of-the-day session and held on to capture the No. 1 spot in Top Fuel. It was a John Force Racing sweep of nitro qualifying.
A year ago, no one could imagine what NHRA drag racing would be without John Force. And it seems odd, for sure, that Force is limited to managing the three-car team. But the team continues to flourish, with Prock as the reigning class champion, fastest race car driver on Earth (341.68 mph), and current points leader. Beckman won the 2024 season finale at Pomona last November to grab the No. 2 place in the final standings, and is one of the favorites to challenge for the regular-season and overall championship in ’25. Brittany Force is the only driver to clock two 341-plus-mph passes and the lone woman to register at least 300 round-wins in Top Fuel.
She and Beckman and Prock are putting a positive punctuation on the NHRA’s trip here for the American Rebel Light Virginia Nationals.
The trio of drivers is supporting the new philanthropic initiative of the Graham and Courtney Rahal Foundation (GCRF) and Graham Rahal Performance (GRP). The season-long initiative seeks to raise funds for the Optimal Brain Health for Warfighters program at the University of Texas-Dallas, which addresses specific and unique brain-health issues of military members.
2 – FLYNN TO BE SCHUMACHER’S CREW CHIEF – Veteran tuner Rob Flynn confirmed Saturday at the American Rebel Light Virginia Nationals that he will be the crew chief for Tony Schumacher when the Top Fuel class’ most successful driver returns to action later this season with Rick Ware Racing as a teammate to Clay Millican.
“I wasn’t looking to change jobs,” the former Scrappers Racing crew chief said, “but when the Salinas family quit racing, I wasn’t ready to retire. I gave Jim O (Oberhofer) a call, and we started talking. Went to Bristol and hung out with them, and everything just seemed to fit together.”
Flynn has worked with Oberhofer, Nicky Boninfante at Kalitta Motorsports, and has previously worked with Millican. Jesse Snyder, who was Doug Kalitta’s car chief, has joined Rick Ware Racing, as well. “A bunch of Kalitta people from the past [are] over there. It just feels good, and it fits,” Flynn said.
This will be Flynn’s first time working with eight-time Top Fuel champion and 88-time winner Schumacher.
“He always was the opposition, so it should be interesting,” Flynn said. “Certainly his credentials speak for themselves.
“The set-up these guys have, we’re going to run these cars pretty similar. Tony’s going to be in a canopy car. That might be the only thing we don’t know anything about,” he said.
According to Flynn, no timetable for Schumacher’s season debut is in place, but that the team will be testing “shortly.”
3 – TURNING ON HEAT IN THE HEAT – Saying that crew chief Dave Grubnic “figured it out,” Brittany Force said she is especially proud that her Chevrolet Accessories dragster is running well in the heat as she secured the No. 1 qualifying position in the Top Fuel class with a 3.839-second, 327.98-mph showing. “That’s been our focus for the last couple of years. That’s where we’ve struggled,” she said after performing well “on one of the hottest racetracks we’ve been on all season.” She said the two-day format of the event has her thrown off her game: “I’m usually very routine – I don’t like to change up my routine. I’m already mixed up about what day it is.” But she said having three qualifying sessions “sets you up for race day.”
Force will start her quest for a second victory of the season against Tony Stewart, the No. 16 qualifier. Force said she was excited to qualify No. 1, but wondered what she had to do to catch a break: “We’re running well in these conditions, but it’s to go No. 1 and find out you have Stewart first round, it’s like, ‘C’mon.’”
Force said, “It’s definitely tough, coming back to this racetrack.” Although she won the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge bonus race here last season and won at VMP in 2022, she said, “The only memories I have from this place (are of the trauma of 2024), and all that I really remember is Sunday last year, that wreck and everything that came up. So it’s tough to come out here. Everywhere I look, I see something that reminds me of that day, so it’s hard to let it go. But again, he’s great. He’s out here with all our teams. Actually, one of our nurses that spent a lot of time with us at VCU is here spending the day with her husband. So we had her up on the starting line, and she’ll be here tomorrow. And it’s just great to see her outside of the hospital.”
4 – BECKMAN, PEAK CHEVY DIGGIN’ HEAT – Jack Beckman will lead the Funny Car field for Sunday’s eliminations, which will begin at 11 a.m. (EDT), racing his best buddy Jim Campbell. He used a 3.988-second elapsed time to confirm his opinion that “I actually think our car’s even better on hot racetracks. I think we’ve proven that a few times.” He predicted conditions Sunday are “going to be … I think ‘miserable’ would be too big a stretch there … It’s just going to be hot and humid, and it’s going to be nasty. But Richmond is the smoothest racetrack on tour.”
He said the two-day format for this weekend “is the first time for me, and it’s really different. You would think we normally do two. How big a difference is three? The answer is it’s a big difference. Sunday you’re ready for four rounds, right? It starts at 11, it wraps up about four o’clock, and there’s a pace to Sunday. Today just felt weird. After the second run, I was kind of ready to take all my stuff out of the tow vehicle and start packing up. I went, ‘Oh! It’s Saturday. We have three runs to do.’”
As for the emotion of John Force’s 2024 accident, Beckman said, “I don’t want that stuff in my head. … John’s going to be here, and it might be an emotional few minutes there. But once that happens, once you tow the race car up here, you hear the invocation then the national anthem, that’s just the time to start walking up the steps to start getting yourself into that mental zone here. So this is John’s race.
“I feel like the man went out at the top of his game. Whether he gets in a car or not later, I don’t know. But at 75 years old, the guy was still kicking butt. He was second in the points. He won two races, came here, had a 300-mile-an-hour accident, and Superman got hurt. It’s just something that you just never thought would happen. I never wanted that to happen.
“But somebody was going to get the call to drive John Force’s car. And I’m just unbelievably … I didn’t even know I could put it into words. Humbled to have gotten that opportunity and to get to come back out here. It’s a second chance at the dream for me. I was three years, nine months out of the seat, fixing elevators, and knew I was never going to go back driving. I just didn’t have the money or the wherewithal to market this to find that money. And here I am, out here with a yellow hat on (as No. 1 qualifier), driving the Peak Chevy. Life’s pretty good.”
5 – BIKE STANDOUT BEING CAREFUL NOT TO JINX HIMSELF – Brayden Davis is being careful about what he says after earning his second straight Pro Stock Motorcycle No. 1 qualifying spot and winning the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge on Saturday. He won’t say he’s poised to claim his first event victory Sunday: “I don’t want to necessarily go that far with it yet, because karma has always come back to bite me, but I’m enjoying the moment and the ride while I have it. And I really feel like we have a good shot at it.”
He made a mistake at the starting line at Bristol two weekends ago, and he said that has been eating at him ever since. A victory would ease his conscience. But he did allow that “it’s going to be interesting. But I think if I stay 22 to the tree (cutting an .022-second reaction time) and the bike stays consistent and stays healthy, then we should make it interesting.”
When he heard the comment that he is starting to perform like two-time and reigning class champion Gaige Herrera has been doing – winning and starting No. 1 consistently – Davis said, “I mean, it’s racing. You go out there, and everybody does their best every single pass. And all I do is I get on the bike and ride and hit my shifts.” He said he does what his Vance & Hines mentor Andrew Hines suggests, and it seems to be working well so far.
But he quickly added that his teammates and a handful of competitors from other teams are not far behind. “They’re right there, and they’ll show it tomorrow. It’s going to be some tight racing. It’s going to be a dogfight. And then you got Matt (Smith) that stepped up and I think, yeah, John Hall, all of them. I mean, they’re stepping up.”
He said riding for the Vance & Hines organization “is pretty fun. You have top-notch equipment, and with Andrew on the keyboard, when he says it’s going to do something, it’s going to do it, and it’s proved it every pass this weekend. We’re still looking for marketing partners. I love racing out here, and I know I can make a good career out of it. I just need somebody to trust me enough to invest in this great opportunity. And I’m going to make an interesting day tomorrow. I said that in Bristol and I goofed up, but it feels good that I beat Gaige in the Mission deal.”
Class newcomer Brandon Litten is the odd man out in this weekend as the only non-qualifier.
6 – TORRENCE ON HIS WAY BACK TO EXCELLENCE – Bristol winner Steve Torrence has a higher winning percentage here – 12-2 in the past four appearances – than he does at any facility on the tour. And he brought his magic once again Saturday, winning the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge for the Top Fuel class by defeating Shawn Langdon in the final round. The latest challenge for this driver who swept all six Countdown events en route to four consecutive championships is to record back-to-back victories for the first time since his last championship season (2021).
“We don’t have the race car we had when we won all those championships,” he said, “but we’ve been working hard to get it back, and Bristol was a good step in that direction.”
So was Saturday’s result. Torrence will start eliminations Sunday from the third-place berth in the order against Josh Hart.
7 – CAPPS GOING IN CIRCLES – Funny Car veteran Ron Capps will get to go circle-track racing again soon. This week, the driver of the NAPA Auto Care Toyota Supra, will join Tony Stewart in representing the straight-line sport at the Thursday Night Thunder Heroes race on the paved oval at Indianapolis Raceway Park. The Brownsburg, Ind., venue that also hosts the NHRA U.S. Nationals every Labor Day weekend will showcase some of the biggest names in motorsports. He’ll drive Matt Seymour Racing’s No. 29 Allstar midget. The two-time U.S. Nationals event champion’s machine will be wrapped to resemble his NAPA Auto Care Funny Car livery. Jake Trainor of Medway, Mass., who is fresh off his second Little 500 victory at Anderson, Ind., on Memorial Day weekend, is the regular driver of that car.
“Matt Seymour Racing is synonymous with championships and such a historic name in the open-wheel world,” Capps said. “I’ve got to thank Bentley Warren for putting us together and giving me a chance to drive for the Seymour family. I grew up watching Thursday Night Thunder, which was the midgets at the IRP oval.
“We’ve been pretty busy with our NHRA schedule, but I’ve been home for a few days and was able to jump on my iRacing rig and run some laps in a midget at the IRP oval. Of course, there’s nothing like the real deal, but I feel like at least I got a little bit of seat time heading into next week. I’m beyond excited,” he said. “To be invited to race such a historic track in a midget, and for such a historic name like the Seymour racing family, it just doesn’t get any better.”
8 – SMAX SMITH IS IN THE HOUSE – He sat there a few feet away from his Ant Hill Mob dragster, with his bushy blond mane and a spray of bubbles swirling around his head making him look like a curious cross between a 1960s rock-band frontman and Lawrence Welk.
No one ever would have guessed Smax Smith was mere minutes away from strapping into a race car that’s capable of producing nitromethane-aided 12,000 horsepower.
“We’re the happy team,” Smith said, clearly enjoying the antics by owner Gary Leverich’s young son Garrett.
Smith, who’ll turn 71 years old Aug. 24, is outnumbered by kids at his home in Ontario, and with five grown children and six grandchildren, but he might be the biggest kid. And he has brought his special brand of entertainment to Virginia Motorsports Park for his first NHRA appearance since last September’s race at Maple Grove Raceway in Pennsylvania.
“I never shut up. I have so many stories. Everyone says I should write a book. I should,” Smith said.
But he isn’t here this weekend for just fun and games. “The big goal is to get me over 300” mph, Smith said. “And that’ll be a 3.8 (-second elapsed time), which is probably all we could run in this heat. But believe it or not, I ran 303 miles an hour in 2003, 20-odd years ago, but I’ve never done it to 1,000 feet. It’s always been 297 or something. We went 3.06 to the eighth – 3.06. That’s as good as anything out there, right? So that’s what we’re trying to do today in Virginia.”
He didn’t hit 300, but he did make the field and as the No. 13 qualifier will face No. 2 Clay Millican in the opening round of eliminations.
Smith, who has raced every year in nearly five decades, owns three Top Fuel dragsters that he keeps in Canada and uses to match-race with son Aidan Heatley-Smith. “They won’t pass (NHRA) certification, so I match-race them. It’s just, it’s the thickness of the chassis. So, my chassis was front-halved in 2023 and passed, and then in ’24 they increased the front half by nine-thousandths. So now I’d have to cut it all off and spend another $15,000, and they might change it next year. It’s just getting too high for an underdog team. No sponsors, got nothing, so just whatever we can bring to the table. It’s just that hard.”
9 – WHAT?! – Pro Mod racer Stan Shelton was on a 247.70-mph pass in qualifying – or, by announcer Al Tucci’s description, he was driving “like a chain saw takin’ down a redwood.” But his quick and fast run ended in a bit of a scare when the front end of his Culp Lumber Mustang folded under and generated sparks and a small fire. No one was injured.
10 – A TOAST TO THE CREW CHIEFS – Justin Ashley said this lone two-day national event of the season is “the perfect weekend to highlight the importance of having a good crew. They are so important to having success in this sport, and this weekend should further highlight that point. I am so grateful to have ours.”
