SMALLER, PRIVATE NITRO TESTS ON THE EAST COAST MAY BE PRESEASON'S FUTURE
Thu, 2010-01-21 16:32
Off-season testing, no matter where it takes place, is essential to NHRA teams winning world championships, especially for Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars.
Several of the top crew chiefs from these two classes believe the balance of prominence in testing has switched from the West Coast to the East Coast in recent years.
The Al-Anabi Racing team sent its two cars – the Top Fuel dragster driven by Larry Dixon and Top Fuel Funny Car driven by Del Worsham – to Palm Beach (Fla.) International Raceway Jan. 11-15 for testing. The Al-Anabi Racing team rented the track exclusively and also invited 12 other teams to join them at the test session.
and Funny Cars.
Several of the top crew chiefs from these two classes believe the balance of prominence in testing has switched from the West Coast to the East Coast in recent years.
The Al-Anabi Racing team sent its two cars – the Top Fuel dragster driven by Larry Dixon and Top Fuel Funny Car driven by Del Worsham – to Palm Beach (Fla.) International Raceway Jan. 11-15 for testing. The Al-Anabi Racing team rented the track exclusively and also invited 12 other teams to join them at the test session.
The Don Schumacher Racing Top Fuel dragsters driven by Tony Schumacher, Cory McClenathan and Antron Brown were at the test as were the DSR Funny Cars driven by Ron Capps, Jack Beckman and Matt Hagan.
Kalitta Motorsports Top Fuel dragster drivers Doug Kalitta and Dave Grubnic and Funny Car driver Jeff Arend also tested at Palm Beach as did both of the Lucas Oil Racing Top Fuel teams.
This Friday through Sunday, several NHRA teams will be at Firebird International Raceway in Phoenix for an open test session. The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway also has an open NHRA test session Jan. 29-31.
“I think testing in Florida has become more prominent than testing in Phoenix because it’s a test session for Top Fuel and Funny Cars and that's it,” said Jim Oberhofer, crew chief for Doug Kalitta. “We pay the track for the week and go make laps. It seems like every year we go to Phoenix to test it becomes more and more of a hassle. At PBIR when we were ready to run we pulled up and ran, very rarely did you have to wait more that 10 minutes to run. At Phoenix we would have to wait sometimes over an hour and then there was always the issue that the track would want you to run against someone which meant you were always running a different lane and arguing with track personnel over which lane you should be in. At PBIR we could make as much as 5 runs a day and at Phoenix you are lucky to make 3 runs a day Friday through Sunday because they were trying to make an event out of testing. I still think Vegas could be an option but some of the teams have fears that the Vegas track is too good that time of the year and we hurt too many tires (by chunking them).”
Mike Green, Tony Schumacher’s crew chief, also thought Palm Beach was a better option for his team.
“The biggest difference is track prep,” Green said. “We go to PBIR and lease the track and control the number of cars and don't have to wait to run. We can run when we're ready to go. In the past, we've had to sit in the lanes and wait two hours to run. It's not like that at PBIR. We can control the track prep and the cars that run on it and it's a better test session. The conditions were very good at Palm Beach. The R&D that we worked on in the off-season worked out great for us. Everything that we wanted to test worked well, and the new in-house DSR chassis respond very well.”
Chad Head, the director of racing operations for the Al-Anabi Racing team, was diplomatic in his response to East Coast testing vs. West Coast testing.
“I think it’s whatever comes up best for you,” Head said. “I don’t think we look at East Coast vs. West Coast. We just looked at what we did last year at Palm Beach worked out, so we went there again this year. Phoenix got moved back a week, which hurts us trying to go out there. We look at each year individually and make a plan.”
According to Head, Al-Anabi Racing isn’t going to test at Phoenix or Vegas.
Kenny Bernstein’s Top Fuel dragster driven by his son Brandon Bernstein is testing at Phoenix, and the elder Bernstein downplayed East Coast vs. West Coast testing issue.
“I don’t think that there’s an advantage either way,” said Bernstein, a legendary driver and team owner. “The track in Florida is very good and usually the weather in Florida is good and you could go down there early enough, and leave yourself time to go Phoenix if you felt it was necessary and that’s a plus. Especially since we don’t have the testing now during the season that we used to have. It’s not open testing. Consequently, the testing is open until the season starts, so guys will take as much as advantage of the testing as they possibly can. There are more cars in Phoenix, and not so much Top Fuel and Funny Cars, they have other kind of cars there as well. Down in Florida, you might have a little more time on the race track and that might be an advantage. But as far as the track goes both (Palm Beach and Phoenix) are prepared as good as they can be prepared and some come in faster than others, and that’s immaterial. That’s just the nature of the beast. One reason we like to test at Phoenix is because we run a national event there in about four or five weeks. It’s nice to be able test where you’re going to run a national event, especially when it’s going to happen the third weekend of February.”
The season-opening 50th annual Kragen O'Reilly NHRA Winternationals are on tap Feb. 11-14 in Pomona. The national event in Phoenix is Feb. 19-21. The NHRA testing policy, meanwhile, still is four days per team during the season.
“We would have probably gone to both (the test in Florida and Phoenix), but we just couldn’t get ready,” Bernstein said. “We’re completely changing over from red to blue. We were putting decals on Saturday morning as the trucks were rolling out the door from our shop in Indianapolis for Phoenix, and that’s the absolute truth.”
Bernstein’s team now has Copart, an online auto auction company as its primary sponsor, replacing Budweiser.
John Bisci, the public relations manager at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, says his test session has a wide range of cars.
“We get a variety of all pro classes,” Bisci said. “We get Top Fuel, Funny Cars, Pro Stock, Top Alcohol dragsters and Funny cars and tons of Sportsman cars. If we don’t get as many Top Fuel and Funny Cars, that’s more of a reflection of the economy. These nitro guys are saving parts and don’t want to blow stuff up. Plus, a lot of the teams are based in Indianapolis, so it’s not like they’re traveling from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. We will just have to see who shows up. I know a lot of the big teams make decisions at the last minute to come here.”
Kenny Bernstein had the same thoughts as Bisci when it comes to the expense of testing.
“If you got everything done that you need to get done, wherever you are testing, there’s no sense to go on,” Bernstein said. “It just cost more money and it dilutes your people and dilutes your parts. You go into a test program with several things to try and learn and accomplish. Once you get to that point and we all know about when that happens, and when it does you say that’s enough. Some guys may have gone to Florida and may be happy and say they’re ready and not go to Phoenix. Some guys might have gone to Florida and struggled and say we better go to Phoenix. It’s just a matter of how you feel about your testing program and how much you got accomplished. If we feel that we’ve left something on the table that we can’t run at Phoenix, then we will have to go to Vegas, but we’re not planning on it.”
Tommy DeLago, the crew chief for Matt Hagan’s DSR Funny Car, says testing at Vegas does cause some time constraints.
“We tested at Palm Beach twice last year, so we had some info to go off of,” DeLago said. “Some of the tracks that offer testing are older, as far as surface quality, and (Las) Vegas is scheduled late. It's nice that it's there if you need it, but to make it your only test is too last minute.”
East Coast or West Coast testing, the bottom line is getting the data needed to get a successful start to the season.
Several of the top crew chiefs from these two classes believe the balance of prominence in testing has switched from the West Coast to the East Coast in recent years.
The Al-Anabi Racing team sent its two cars – the Top Fuel dragster driven by Larry Dixon and Top Fuel Funny Car driven by Del Worsham – to Palm Beach (Fla.) International Raceway Jan. 11-15 for testing. The Al-Anabi Racing team rented the track exclusively and also invited 12 other teams to join them at the test session.
Off-season testing, no matter where it takes place, is essential to NHRA teams winning world championships, especially for Top Fuel dragsters
Chad Head, Racing Operations Manager for Al-Anabi Racing, believes the teams will stick to what works best for them. The teams who tested at PBIR credited Head's daily track prep as a contributing factor to the success of the event along with the incredible atmospheric conditions.
Several of the top crew chiefs from these two classes believe the balance of prominence in testing has switched from the West Coast to the East Coast in recent years.
The Al-Anabi Racing team sent its two cars – the Top Fuel dragster driven by Larry Dixon and Top Fuel Funny Car driven by Del Worsham – to Palm Beach (Fla.) International Raceway Jan. 11-15 for testing. The Al-Anabi Racing team rented the track exclusively and also invited 12 other teams to join them at the test session.
The Don Schumacher Racing Top Fuel dragsters driven by Tony Schumacher, Cory McClenathan and Antron Brown were at the test as were the DSR Funny Cars driven by Ron Capps, Jack Beckman and Matt Hagan.
Kalitta Motorsports Top Fuel dragster drivers Doug Kalitta and Dave Grubnic and Funny Car driver Jeff Arend also tested at Palm Beach as did both of the Lucas Oil Racing Top Fuel teams.
This Friday through Sunday, several NHRA teams will be at Firebird International Raceway in Phoenix for an open test session. The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway also has an open NHRA test session Jan. 29-31.
“I think testing in Florida has become more prominent than testing in Phoenix because it’s a test session for Top Fuel and Funny Cars and that's it,” said Jim Oberhofer, crew chief for Doug Kalitta. “We pay the track for the week and go make laps. It seems like every year we go to Phoenix to test it becomes more and more of a hassle. At PBIR when we were ready to run we pulled up and ran, very rarely did you have to wait more that 10 minutes to run. At Phoenix we would have to wait sometimes over an hour and then there was always the issue that the track would want you to run against someone which meant you were always running a different lane and arguing with track personnel over which lane you should be in. At PBIR we could make as much as 5 runs a day and at Phoenix you are lucky to make 3 runs a day Friday through Sunday because they were trying to make an event out of testing. I still think Vegas could be an option but some of the teams have fears that the Vegas track is too good that time of the year and we hurt too many tires (by chunking them).”
Mike Green, Tony Schumacher’s crew chief, also thought Palm Beach was a better option for his team.
“The biggest difference is track prep,” Green said. “We go to PBIR and lease the track and control the number of cars and don't have to wait to run. We can run when we're ready to go. In the past, we've had to sit in the lanes and wait two hours to run. It's not like that at PBIR. We can control the track prep and the cars that run on it and it's a better test session. The conditions were very good at Palm Beach. The R&D that we worked on in the off-season worked out great for us. Everything that we wanted to test worked well, and the new in-house DSR chassis respond very well.”
Chad Head, the director of racing operations for the Al-Anabi Racing team, was diplomatic in his response to East Coast testing vs. West Coast testing.
“I think it’s whatever comes up best for you,” Head said. “I don’t think we look at East Coast vs. West Coast. We just looked at what we did last year at Palm Beach worked out, so we went there again this year. Phoenix got moved back a week, which hurts us trying to go out there. We look at each year individually and make a plan.”
According to Head, Al-Anabi Racing isn’t going to test at Phoenix or Vegas.
Kenny Bernstein’s Top Fuel dragster driven by his son Brandon Bernstein is testing at Phoenix, and the elder Bernstein downplayed East Coast vs. West Coast testing issue.
Quicker turnaround time and efficient run schedules make tests like the one at PBIR more conducive to their objectives, believes Mike Green, crew chief for DSR's Tony Schumacher.
“I don’t think that there’s an advantage either way,” said Bernstein, a legendary driver and team owner. “The track in Florida is very good and usually the weather in Florida is good and you could go down there early enough, and leave yourself time to go Phoenix if you felt it was necessary and that’s a plus. Especially since we don’t have the testing now during the season that we used to have. It’s not open testing. Consequently, the testing is open until the season starts, so guys will take as much as advantage of the testing as they possibly can. There are more cars in Phoenix, and not so much Top Fuel and Funny Cars, they have other kind of cars there as well. Down in Florida, you might have a little more time on the race track and that might be an advantage. But as far as the track goes both (Palm Beach and Phoenix) are prepared as good as they can be prepared and some come in faster than others, and that’s immaterial. That’s just the nature of the beast. One reason we like to test at Phoenix is because we run a national event there in about four or five weeks. It’s nice to be able test where you’re going to run a national event, especially when it’s going to happen the third weekend of February.”
The season-opening 50th annual Kragen O'Reilly NHRA Winternationals are on tap Feb. 11-14 in Pomona. The national event in Phoenix is Feb. 19-21. The NHRA testing policy, meanwhile, still is four days per team during the season.
“We would have probably gone to both (the test in Florida and Phoenix), but we just couldn’t get ready,” Bernstein said. “We’re completely changing over from red to blue. We were putting decals on Saturday morning as the trucks were rolling out the door from our shop in Indianapolis for Phoenix, and that’s the absolute truth.”
Bernstein’s team now has Copart, an online auto auction company as its primary sponsor, replacing Budweiser.
John Bisci, the public relations manager at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, says his test session has a wide range of cars.
“We get a variety of all pro classes,” Bisci said. “We get Top Fuel, Funny Cars, Pro Stock, Top Alcohol dragsters and Funny cars and tons of Sportsman cars. If we don’t get as many Top Fuel and Funny Cars, that’s more of a reflection of the economy. These nitro guys are saving parts and don’t want to blow stuff up. Plus, a lot of the teams are based in Indianapolis, so it’s not like they’re traveling from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. We will just have to see who shows up. I know a lot of the big teams make decisions at the last minute to come here.”
Kenny Bernstein had the same thoughts as Bisci when it comes to the expense of testing.
Many of the west coast teams will test this weekend during Firebird Raceway's National Time Trials.
Tommy DeLago, the crew chief for Matt Hagan’s DSR Funny Car, says testing at Vegas does cause some time constraints.
“We tested at Palm Beach twice last year, so we had some info to go off of,” DeLago said. “Some of the tracks that offer testing are older, as far as surface quality, and (Las) Vegas is scheduled late. It's nice that it's there if you need it, but to make it your only test is too last minute.”
East Coast or West Coast testing, the bottom line is getting the data needed to get a successful start to the season.
Advertisement
Categories:
