Competition Plus’ Water-Cooler Topics From The NHRA Reading Nationals in Reading, Pa. 

1 – BROWN SHINES IN TOP FUEL ACTION – Home-track hero Antron Brown, of Chesterfield, N.J., defeated Shawn Langdon in Sunday’s Top Fuel final round at the NHRA Pep Boys Nationals. The triumph at Maple Grove Raceway allowed Brown to remain perfect in four final rounds this season.

With Doug Kalitta’s early loss to upstart Dan Mercier, Brown made a leap toward a fourth series crown and shook up the standings a bit.

“Going into raceday, we knew we were going to have something, but the track got a little bit trickier than we thought it was. It was medieval out there. A lot of people were spinning the tires, but we made it far enough down the track,” Brown said. “Brian Corradi, Mark (Oswald), all of our Matco boys gave me a car that went the distance. We were just better than everybody that we raced at that time. When we got to the final, we knew it was going to be a monster matchup. 

“I knew Shawn was going to run about the same E.T. and it was going to be who can leave the starting line. Lo and behold, I was able to keep my head down and we got a little bit of an advantage right there and the car outran him. It was one of those deals, we got the win and the car was smooth down the racetrack. It felt really good when that win light came on, we needed a start like that if we wanted to be in this race to win this championship.”

When the Mission Foods Drag Racing Series action shifts next weekend to the Betway Carolina Nationals at zMAX Dragway, Brown will be in second place, trailing new leader Justin Ashley – his Toyota teammate – by a single point.

Langdon is now in third place, five points behind Brown. Kalitta dropped from first to fourth, and after the opening race of the Countdown and heading to Charlotte, just 33 points separates the top four.

2 – PROCK IS FUNNY CAR WINNER IN ALL-FORCE FINAL – Austin Prock maintained his firm grip on the Funny Car lead, edging Jack Beckman in an all-John Force Racing final round in a showdown of substitute drivers.

Neither Beckman nor Prock had a clue at the first of the year that they’d be driving an NHRA Funny Car this fall, let alone battling each other in the Countdown to the Championship. Prock wasn’t sure if he’d have funding for another Top Fuel season, and Beckman was out of racing entirely, having returned to his job in Southern California with an elevator company. 

Fast forward to Sept. 15 at Maple Grove Raceway, and the duo carried the JFR banner into the final round against each other. Both have been substitutes – Prock all year for three-time champion Robert Hight (medical leave) and Beckman since July for the injured namesake team owner.

Prock’s conquest of his teammate marked his sixth victory of the season and the 10th of his career, including Top Fuel.

“It surprises me every time I hold one of these,” he said after claiming his second Wally in three years at Maple Grove Raceway.  He won the Top Fuel final in 2022 with Joe Barlam and Rahn Tobler as his crew chiefs. The fourth-generation racer celebrated his victory on the 81st birthday of his grandfather, Tom Prock, a former Funny Car racer. Austin is atop the standings by 86 points over second-place Bob Tasca III.

“This place loves the Prock family,” the winner said after giving his team a third straight victory here. 

 

 

WANT TO SEE "THE TEN" FROM QUALIFYING? - CLICK HERE

 

4 – ARANA CLAIMS HOME-TRACK VICTORY – Long Island, New York, resident Hector Arana Jr. reveled in his home-track visit, defeating Richard Gadson. It didn’t scramble the Countdown leaderboard much, though. Gaige Herrera remains No. 1 and Matt Smith No. 2, just 17 points apart, and Gadson is third, two behind Smith. Nineteen points covers the first three in the bike standings, with the Vance & Hines team fielding two of the top three racers in Herrera and Gadson.  Arana’s triumph was his second at Reading and his 19th overall.   

“We have a great team and we have a great motorcycle that everybody works hard,” Arana Jr. “We tried a bunch of things this year leading up to the Countdown and now it's time to turn it on. We collected everything, got it together, and here we are in the winner's circle holding up a Wally. I couldn't imagine a better day. 

“Fortunately for us, we were able to stay green and here we are in the winner's circle. But we have some more power to make to fight with them. I came in here with confidence. We had a great bike and I said it all weekend, you have to have a good consistent bike in order to win the race, and that's what we did.”

5 – KALITTA FORFEITS POINTS LEAD WITH SECOND STRAIGHT STUMBLE – Doug Kalitta, the 2023 Top Fuel champion and No. 1 seed for the Countdown, appeared to be rebounding from his failure to qualify at the previous race, the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis. He qualified third and left the starting line ahead of Montreal-area businessman Dan Mercier in Sunday’s opening round. But right away, Kalitta ran into tire smoke, and saw the duel slip away to part-time racer Mercier — and his points lead to Justin Ashley.

The next seven racers behind him in the standings advanced in eliminations, but by the end of the quarterfinals, only Ashley and Langdon remained.

Once Ashley realized he was the new points leader, he said, “The opportunity’s there, no matter what. Doug’s great. Unfortunately, he didn’t win there [in the opening round]. We can’t focus on that. We have to focus on ourselves and take advantage of every opportunity we have.”      

After Mercier’s cruel reminder for Kalitta that anything can happen on race day, Serge Blanchette, Mercier’s crew chief, said, “We are blessed to race here in the USA with all of you. It is a shame for Mr. Kalitta.”

Kalitta said, “We qualified real well, and the Mac Tools car was running well. For whatever reason, the thing smoked the tires at the hit. It was one of those deals, and, unfortunately, we let one get away. Hopefully we can just shake it off and be ready for Charlotte. We have a lot of racing left.”

Mercier then eliminated four-time champion Steve Torrence in the second round in an ugly pedalfest, and Blanchette said, “Sometimes you better be lucky than good.” 

Mercier’s first reaction was to say, “Thanks a lot to the American customs officer. He say OK to pass customs for this beautiful country.” Mercier gushed, “For the first time in my life, I pedaled. It’s fun.”  He lost in the semifinal round to Antron Brown.   

At the June race at Joliet, Ill., Mercier advanced to his career-first semifinal, defeating 10-time champion Tony Schumacher and No. 1 qualifier T.J. Zizzo.

6 – SAMPEY RECORDS FIRST TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER VICTORY - Three-time Pro Stock Motorcycle champion Angelle Sampey was poised to race for her first Top Alcohol Dragster trophy at the previous event, the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis. An oil line broke at the starting line, and she was forced to watch as Hunter Green claimed the victory on a solo pass. But Sunday, she got her another chance — and took advantage of it.

Driving the Michalek Brothers Racing-owned entry, she defeated Mike Coughlin by an eyelash — five 10-thousandths of a second — for a victory. The win was extra-special because Maple Grove is where she earned her first of 46 Pro Stock Motorcycle victories in 1996.

Sampey said her goal this weekend was to “finish what we started at Indy. Everything happens for a reason, and so that I could come to [the site of] my very first win and do it all over again in a Top Alcohol Dragster. I thank you, Antron Brown, for talking me into doing this, because I didn’t want to do it. Now I’m glad I’m doing it.”

The Brown - Sampey win represented the first double-up victory for the three-year-old AB Motorsports.

"To come here and pull off a win against all the tough competition she raced, and the Mahalek brothers, they're just growing," Brown said. "The car goes down the race track every lap, and they're getting better and better. She's just showing that she needs to be a fuel car. If we get the right partnership, the right partners, give us a call. Hey, abracing@antronbrown.com. Talk to me. We could put her in a car tomorrow. I'm not joking."

 

WANT TO SEE "THE TEN" FROM QUALIFYING? - CLICK HERE

 

7 – RACE TO 340 MPH DOESN’T BELONG TO JUST TASCA – Funny Car whiz kid Austin Prock has driven his way into the first-to-340-mph conversation. It no longer is an entitlement for Funny Car title contender Bob Tasca III, even though he surpassed that (at 341.68) at the PRO Superstar Shootout in February. The talk this season naturally has centered on Tasca, but his newest Funny Car rival Prock is threatening to beat him to it first in NHRA competition. Prock clocked a 338.43-mph run Friday night that remained the fastest during qualifying in both nitro classes.

A Top Fuel driver could steal the honor, too, of course, but it's logical everyone is looking at the Funny Car class as the more likely source of the driver to break what could be drag racing’s last speed barrier. Since Robert Hight posted the national-record 339.87 mph speed in 2017 at Sonoma, Calif., the Top Fuel class has been unable to match or improve that. Doug Kalitta, who had the top speed during qualifying this weekend, clocked 336.73 mph.

Brittany Force set the Top Fuel national speed mark at 338.94 in Nov. 2022 at Pomona, California. She has hit the 338 plateau three more times, and Justin Ashley, Clay Millican, and Mike Salinas have recorded that speed. But on the Funny Car side – at Reading’s Maple Grove Raceway – Ron Capps and Hight have registered runs of more than 339 mph (Capps, 339.28 in 2019, and Hight, 339.02, two years earlier). 

“The ol’ Prock Rocket was on fire tonight,” Prock said after his Friday feat. That speed was the third-fastest overall this season, and faster than any Top Fuel dragster. The only car that’s been faster is Bob Tasca’s Ford Mustang, which ran 338.51 mph at Seattle and 338.77 at Sonoma, Calif.

 8 – PROCK COULD ERASE ONE OF JOHN FORCE’S LONGTIME RECORDS – With five more events remaining in the season, Austin Prock needs to top the starting lineup just three more times this season to eclipse boss John Force’s record that has stood since 1996.

Prock, who was barely a year old when Force set the Funny Car record of 13 No. 1 qualifiers in a single season, has 11 this year. In 1996 — the year he became the first drag racer recognized as Driver of the Year for all American motorsports — Force was the No. 1 starter in 13 of 19 events. (For added perspective, Robert Hight, who cited medical reasons for stepping out of the seat this year and yielded his seat to Prock, was the No. 1 qualifier nine times in his second pro season in 2006.)

“It’s pretty nuts when you think about it,” Prock said of his opportunity. “We haven’t done it yet, but if everything works out, it would be incredible. But, honestly, it’s all about the guys who give me an outstanding car every run. All I can do is not screw up in qualifying, and I’ve been doing all right with that so far.”

 

 

WANT TO SEE "THE TEN" FROM QUALIFYING? - CLICK HERE

 

9 – IF I HAD A NICKEL …  – Jack Beckman, substituting for the injured John Force, said Sunday that he hoped the team owner-driver was watching the broadcast. “I love you, John. Everybody misses you. If I had a dollar for everyone who asked, ‘When’s John coming back?’, I’d have enough to run a fuel Funny Car for a few years.”

10 – OVERHEARD –

“I hope we can get [title No. 7]. If we can get seven, I said before I'll probably quit. I don't know. I mean, I think Gaige wants me out here, so if I can get seven, I might come back and still try to beat up on him.” — Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Matt Smith, aware that nemesis Gaige Herrera is motivated more by the idea of keeping him from winning Championship No. 7 than he is scoring back-to-back titles for himself —  just to ensure that his crew chief Andrew Hines remains unsurpassed as a six-time champion. Hines, Smith, and the late Dave Schultz lead the category.

“I must really like the John Force Racing team. I keep giving them wins. Two times in a Funny Car, and I gave it to both of them [Austin Prock and Jack Beckman]. I red-lit against [Prock at Norwalk, Ohio], and I go bowling for cones with [Beckman].” — Joe Morrison, after capitalizing on Beckman’s opening-round bobble but then being disqualified for striking a timing cone toward the top end of the track. Morrison, the former Top Fuel racer, debuted in a Funny Car at Norwalk, and this was his second appearance of the season.

10 (A) – SO CLOSE – Top Fuel rookie Ida Zetterström posted the second-quickest elapsed time of the opening round (3.745 seconds) — and her career-best time —  but lost on a holeshot to Shawn Langdon in just her third NHRA event. Afterward, she said, “Shawn is a great driver. We’re still testing stuff. We came up on the short side of a holeshot. It sucks.” Langdon’s crew chief, Brian Husen, said after that narrow victory over Zetterström, “Shit, I’m real lucky to have Shawn as a driver.”

 

WANT TO SEE "THE TEN" FROM QUALIFYING? - CLICK HERE