TOBLER’S CROWNING CHALLENGE
No Funny Car Experience and a Willingness to Learn Crowned Tobler in 2008 …
His experience was non-existent. His challenge was monumental.
Neither prevented Rahn Tobler, a world championship tuner from the Top Fuel ranks, from learning how to make a Funny Car work.
Tobler, the former tuner for four-time Top Fuel champion Shirley
Muldowney and later championship contender Doug Kalitta, not only
accepted a challenge from Cruz Pedregon late in 2007, but also made the
decision by his employer rank as a move of sheer genius.
The then past Funny Car world champion wanted Tobler to tune his Funny Car.
No Funny Car Experience and a Willingness to Learn Crowned Tobler in 2008 …
His experience was non-existent. His challenge was monumental.
Neither prevented Rahn Tobler, a world championship tuner from the Top Fuel ranks, from learning how to make a Funny Car work.
Tobler, the former tuner for four-time Top Fuel champion Shirley Muldowney and later championship contender Doug Kalitta, not only accepted a challenge from Cruz Pedregon late in 2007, but also made the decision by his employer rank as a move of sheer genius.
The then past Funny Car world champion wanted Tobler to tune his Funny Car.
Pedregon had developed a reputation of making his crew chief position a revolving door concept. The addition of Tobler brought a new thought process.
Tobler brought in “Toblerizing”, a term coined by Pedregon to describe his tuner’s approach. In the world of win at all costs, Tobler made the task of bending but not breaking acceptable.
When he had to, he leaned on it. The end result was a second championship for Pedregon and a third title he could rightfully call his own.
Tobler remembers being concerned when he accepted Pedregon's offer.
“I don’t know if I was intimidated as much as I was just uncomfortable,” Tobler said. “One of the key factors is in getting comfortable with a car and in my time in working with Doug Kalitta I got comfortable with the car. Therefore whenever we went into the staging lanes, no matter what the conditions were like, I was confident I could find the best combination so that we could put down the best run for the given conditions. I think from that standpoint it was hard for me in the beginning to get to where I felt that comfortable.”
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He also had him running quicker and faster than usual without blowing everything to smithereens.
Even though the car was producing positive results, Tobler admitted a sense of comfort began to permeate his mindset following Indy. Indy was the first race headed into the Countdown to the Championship and marked his first full year under Pedregon’s employ.
“When you go up there and you have some conditions that you have, you go back and you’re like ‘Gee, we did this back in Bristol’ or ‘Gee, we did this back in Topeka,” Tobler admitted. “It’s been nice to gather a database, and to be able to carry that into next year. I’m certainly pleased that the rules are going to stay the same and the race tracks are going to stay the same. For once, in recent memory that I can remember, we’re not going into 2009 with any major rule changes.”
Rule changes would throw a huge monkey wrench into the equation considering the margin of error in tuning a Funny Car is a much smaller window than that of a Top Fuel dragster.
“That’s what those who have tuned both would say,” Tobler said, comparing the Funny Car to the intricacies of a Top Fuel dragster. “Whereas before if you’d have put two or three degrees in a dragster to make it slow down you’re probably talking degree or half a degree (to slow the Funny Car). That’s as far as the tune up goes. I do things differently with a Funny Car than what I used to do with a dragster, as far as the clutch goes and as far as tuning it goes.
“Before, with a dragster, it was all about how much weight you had bolted on the clutch. We tend to leave the Funny Car alone in those regards. Overall, the wheelbase and not having the load on the rear end and the weight on the rear end, I think, is one of the major things that’s different. Once you get it going you don’t think of it as being a Funny Car; you learn from your mistakes. It’s a vehicle you receive data from and you tune on it. It’s just a matter of tuning on it in the increments that the car will accept and not going in a window that’s beyond what you’re capable of doing.”
Tobler credits on-the-job training from Tony Pedregon tuners Dickie Venables and Tony Elliot as key factors in advancing his tuning expertise.
That training came in handy for Tobler, who up until Pedregon’s proposal never entertained the thought of tuning a flopper. Even when he worked at Kalitta’s and the team ran their Funny Car, his interaction with that program was limited by design.
Tobler was focused on the task at hand.
“I really tried to stay focused on Doug’s car,” Tobler admitted. “There were times when we would talk about what we all thought about it but I never got my hand in it or got enough into it that I actually learned anything about it.”
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“I’ve been sheltered in my career for a long time racing with Shirley as long as I did,” Tobler explained. “Then when I went out with Kalitta that was the first real jump I ever had to make out into big time drag racing. I think from my knowledge base and my future in this sport, it’s been great. Now I think my opportunities have doubled what they were because somehow now we can do this Funny Car thing, so it helps me and I’m not saying that I want to go anywhere. I’d love to stay in the same job I’m at until I’m done racing. But if I do have to go out there and make my way in this business this has been nothing but a plus for me and proves I can do it. When you’re able to do both of them it certainly opens up your opportunities a lot.”
Don’t think the competition didn’t take notice and come courting. Tobler was approached by other teams but in the end remained with Pedregon when sponsor Advance Auto committed to keeping the noted tuner aboard.
“Some of the inquiries I had were interesting and some of them were even to go back and do a dragster again,” Tobler said. “But I’m comfortable where I’m at. I’m comfortable from a team owner’s standpoint, I’m comfortable from a sponsorship package, and I’m comfortable with the crew and the set-up that we have.
“I’m just now getting comfortable here. I can’t imagine having to start all over again. Aside from liking Cruz and enjoying working here, those are a few things that I considered as well.”
One of the key factors for Tobler was in learning to coexist with Pedregon. The diametrically opposite personalities learned how to give each their space.
“I think what probably works the best for us is that I’ve owned my own stuff and I’ve paid the bills,” Tobler admitted. “I understand what it’s like to be a car owner. Certainly for the years that Shirley and I were beating it up and down on the match race trail, you learn to watch your pace. I learned to approach any job that I’ve had, whether it be Doug’s car and certainly Cruz’s car; I’m trying to run it as if it’s my own. I think he really fully appreciates that. I don’t think he’s had that before and I think he’s really had to watch over what was happening.”
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“I realize without our sponsors and without him finding enough money to keep us going out there none of us are going to have jobs so I think that’s where our relationship works really well,” Tobler added. “He’s a good veteran driver and that’s one of the reasons I came here. I knew that if he had a car under him he would step up to the plate and he has. He’s a very emotional guy and sometimes he’ll be a wreck, either before or after a run. But when he’s in that car he’s a machine; and I don’t think there’s anyone out there better.”
With three victories in five final rounds this past season, Tobler enters 2009 with the mindset that he simply wants to provide his driver with the best opportunity to win. The rest he’ll leave to fate.
“I said to my guys there’s only one place to go from here and that’s downward, maybe,” Tobler said. “There are people that have won this back-to-back. We’ll just go out and continue to work as hard as we have and continue to go out there on Sundays and try and deliver a competitive car to him. Wherever the chips fall, we’ve had a great 2008 and we’ll give it our best in 2009.”
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