EVENT RESULTS EVENT NOTEBOOK POINTS AFTER EVENT ROUND-BY-ROUND RESULTS SPORTSMAN RESULTS

EVENT GALLERY

 

TOP FUEL WINNER CRAMPTON WANTS MORE, GETS MORE - Richie Crampton has competed in only 46 National Hot Rod Association Top Fuel races.

But with his $50,000 AAA Texas Fall Nationals triumph Sunday over Steve Torrence, the Lucas Oil Dragster driver is perfect in seven career final-round appearances.

He has compiled a 32-16 race-day record, meaning he has won two-thirds of his elimination round-wins.

“It's already been a dream season, but we want more,” the Las Vegas, Topeka, Bristol, and Brainerd winner said.

And he got more – earned more – at the Texas Motorplex.

His winning 3.972-second elapsed time at 283.07 mph on the 1,000-foot course at Ennis, south of Dallas, gained him a place in the standings. He leapfrogged Brittany Force and leads her by four points – and has pulled within 71 points of No. 2 Tony Schumacher.

With his semifinal victory over Antron Brown, Crampton snapped the point leader’s record streak of 14 consecutive round wins that opened the Countdown to the Championship.

In the first two rounds he ousted Countdown contender Doug Kalitta and No. 3-ranked Brittany Force.

Against Kalitta, Crampton set the track E.T. record at 3.705 seconds.

“You qualify in the top half, you think might have an easy first round, but we pulled Doug Kalitta. They’re tough, and we’re just really lucky we were able to lay that 3.70 down and get around him,” Crampton said. “From that point on, our race car fought us all day long.

“I was helping the guys change the clutch control between rounds twice today. That’s a pretty big process. At the end of this day, I’m just beat. It was a long, hot day of racing – and pretty rewarding. For some reason the clutch control malfunctioned in the second round, and Brittany went red so we were able to beat her. Even against Antron, things just weren’t quite right.”

He said he “could hear Steve-O over there next to me in the final” and said he thought, “Aw, man, he’s going to blow by me any second here.” He said it was gratifying “to pedal it and to win here in Texas and get myself a cowboy hat.”   

He won from the No. 6 qualifying position in his first final round at Dallas.     

Crampton joined Del Worsham (Funny Car), Erica Enders (Pro Stock), and Jerry Savoie (Pro Stock Motorcycle) in the winners circle.

The former clutch specialist at Morgan Lucas Racing who still helps the team work on the car and helps build the MLR chassis said once again that “whenever you give [crew chief] Aaron Brooks and my Lucas Oil guys three shots at a racetrack on Sunday, you’re probably going to have a good car for the final round. I just fed off of that confidence that we haven’t been beaten in the final round yet. It’s still surreal to be sitting here and have that stat.”   

Said Crampton, "The thing about winning races is it makes you that much hungrier to do it again. You know, the fans see that little bit of action when we're out there on the strip, but the real work is what happens back in the pits and home at the race shop when we're preparing for each run. That's when you earn your money.

"The racing part is fun. It's what we all live for. But none of that happens without the hard work these guys put in behind the scenes. That's why it's so gratifying when you do win a race, because we all know how much has gone into that moment. It's not easy, by any means, which is what makes it so special."

Crampton and Torrence have alternated beating each other in their seven meetings this year.

Torrence, in the Capco Contractors Dragster, clocked a 4.074-second, 267.32-mph pass as he sought his second victory of the year. He won July 26 at Denver, but this time he and crew chief Richard Hogan have tuning help during the Countdown from temporarily idle Alan Johnson and Brian Husen. Torrence opened the weekend in ninth place in the standings and jumped up to sixth.

Brown will take a 132-point lead into the season's final two races, at Las Vegas and Pomona, Calif.

“It was a great day. You want to win every race, but with as competitive as it is out there, that’s not going to happen,” the Matco Tools Toyota Dragster driver said. “With the track heating up, we worked hard to slow the car down but couldn’t slow it quite enough. There’s only 24 rounds total in the Countdown, and to think we have already won 14 rounds is just a tribute to the whole Matco Tools Toyota team. We’re not looking at race wins – we’re looking at round wins.” Susan Wade

WORSHAM REMAINS ON A ROLL - Funny Car driver Del Worsham got hot at the right time, and it could give him a championship.

In a homecoming of sorts for the Villa Park, California resident, Worsham won for the third time in four Countdown to the Championship races, defeating Jack Beckman in the final round at the Texas NHRA Fall Nationals at Texas Motorplex.

Worsham earned his license at Texas Motorplex in 1990 when he was 20 years old, and his win made him the first driver with eight Funny Car wins since 2003.

“I think we may have stolen this one today,” Worsham said. “It was definitely a challenge because we didn’t have the fastest car all day, so in between rounds the whole DHL Toyota team had to go to work.”

Worsham came to Texas Motorplex with a thin 16-point lead over Beckman. They qualified 1-2 (with Worsham on top) and dispatched all competitors to set up a final round for the points lead.

In the final, Beckman left first and had the lead until close to half-track, where he briefly lost traction. Worsham drove around him before HE lost traction. Both cars hooked up, but Worsham was able to stay in front the rest of the way.

The final numbers were less-than-impressive. Worsham clocked a .097-induced 4.041 at 272.17 miles per hour to top Beckman’s .066/4.077/286.25 package.

“The final was crazy,” Worsham said. “We got a good start and were cruising along. All of a sudden the car just made a hard right-hand turn. I let off and we hit the finish line. I didn’t know if we had won or not until I heard it on the radio.”

The win gives Worsham a 38-point lead over Beckman heading to Vegas, with just Vegas and Pomona left on the 2015 schedule.

“Now we’ve got a week off and we aren’t looking at the championship,” Worsham said. “We are just going to prepare for Las Vegas. That’s the only thing that matters.”

Even though Worsham is not looking at the championship right now, there could be history in the making if he can bring the Funny Car championship home. He would become just the third driver in NHRA history, along with Kenny Bernstein and Gary Scelzi, to win championships in both Nitro classes.

“I’d be totally lying if I said you didn’t feel pressure,” Worsham said about the final. “Is it just another round? Well, kind of.  But the reality of it is that there aren’t a whole lot of another rounds left. We’re trying to get as many of them as we can.

“It reminds me of 2011. You would think a guy that won three races out of four in the Countdown would have somewhat of a lead. I don’t feel like we have much of a lead at all. Jack is well within striking distance very easily right now.”

In 2011 Worsham won the NHRA Top Fuel championship while driving in the class for the first time since the 1995 season.

“Las Vegas is going to be a very interesting race,” Worsham said. “There are a lot of Schumacher cars out there…they just keep coming at you.”

One thing Worsham did want to talk about was the headers that have helped increase performance in the Funny Car class, but have caused some difficult runs in the process.

“These new headers Jimmy Prock and them brought out, they increase our performance to a certain degree…they’re very directional,” he said. “When a car drops a cylinder or does something it really steers you hard, harder than anything I’ve driven in my 25 years.

“You saw Jack over there, out of the groove, and you saw my car making these huge moves. These new headers, which increase performance, when there’s a problem they also compound that problem.” Mike Perry

ENDERS MOVES ONE STEP CLOSER - With her eighth Pro Stock win of the season, Erica Enders put herself into fantastic shape to claim a second consecutive NHRA Mello Yello Pro Stock world championship.

Enders knocked off Jonathan Gray in the final round at the AAA Texas NHRA FallNationals at Texas Motorplex, overcoming a little gamesmanship and plenty of talk on the way to the event title. With the win she leaves Texas Motorplex with a 154-point cushion atop the Pro Stock standings with two events remaining.

“We were able to extend our lead, but by no means is it over yet,” Enders said. “There are eight rounds of racing left and there are bonus points out there to be gotten. We still have to go out there and do our job. We’re not going to change the way we race just because of our points lead.

“We want to win the final two and the championship and that’s what we’re going to set our goals as.”

It was a big weekend for Enders’ Elite Motorsports team. Drew Skillman was the No. 1 qualifier and advanced to the semifinals, where he lost to Enders. Greg Anderson, Enders’ closest competition in the points chase, lost in the first round to Chris McGaha.

After McGaha’s win over Anderson and Enders’ first-round win over V Gaines, things got interesting. In the second round Enders feels like McGaha tried to throw her off her game with some shenanigans at the starting line.

“In the second round I had to race Chris, who was right behind Greg (in the points chase),” Enders said. “There has been a lot of crap talking in the pits from those guys. We decided to rise above it and let the scoreboard do our talking. You can bet your butt, when I went up there, there was a little extra want to win because of what’s been said.

“Then, to make matters worse, he goes up and double-bulbs me. That kind of pissed me off a bit and allowed me to be .008 on the tree. We were able to send them packing, which was a huge round for us. After that it became fun again.”

The field set up perfectly for Enders, with her two closest competitors squaring off in the first round. She was pleased with how things unfolded.

“It was very interesting competition, the way that the ladder fell with Greg and Chris having to run each other the first round…with them second and third in points, trailing me by 70 and 100,” she said. “That was interesting to watch.

“They were the pair in front of me and when I saw Chris beat Greg on a hole-shot I was excited because Greg was right behind me.”

Enders used pure power in the final two rounds, starting second both times.

“I knew I missed the tree in the semis and I really missed it in the finals,” she said. “Thankfully we were able to get around Jonathan down there, just by two thou. That’s not typical of me on the starting line. I’ll get my act together and be back in Vegas.”

She barely got around Gray. He left in .010 compared to Enders’ .030. Gray led the entire way down the track until just before the finish line, when Enders nipped him by less than 10 inches.

“I’ve been racing here at the Motorplex since I was eight years old in 1992, and I grew up watching my dad race here and in Houston, being that we’re only four hours from here,” Enders said. “This place definitely holds a special place in my heart.

“I’ve wanted a cowboy hat and a brick for a really long time and we were able to finally get it done today.”

As for the trash talk, Enders said her team will always rise above it.

“There is animosity between a lot of teams out there, but that’s just natural with competition,” she said. “It’s more than just winning and losing, it’s more than just points…it’s our livelihoods. We pour out blood, sweat and tears into this, it costs a lot of money and we’re on the road 300 days a year, away from our families.

“It’s all about business so tempers get heated at times. At the end of the day my team owner has done such a great job keeping our focus all about positive things. I think that’s what causes some of the animosity from the other side. They see how much fun we have together.

“It’s not worth talking about…it’s like high school. I say NHRA is like high school with money and we don’t have time for it. I don’t have time for it, my guys don’t have time for it. They can talk all they want, we’ll just continue to work hard. While they’re talking about us we’re working. We’ll leave it at that.” Mike Perry

SAVOIE MORE THAN GOOD ENOUGH, CHALLENGES BIKE LEADERS - Jerry Savoie said he used to watch Antron Brown and the rest of the National Hot Rod Association’s Pro Stock Motorcycle class and wonder if he was good enough to race alongside them.

His buddy, Paul Miller, told him, “You can do this. I know you can.”

Savoie, an alligator farmer from Cut Off, La., stepped out of his comfort zone and gave it a try. At first, he said, “My goal was to win one race, only one race.”

But his racing career has propelled him to center stage. And after his $10,000 victory Sunday at the Texas Motorplex in the AAA Texas Fall Nationals, he finds himself merely 31 points out of the lead in the Countdown to the Championship.

The weekend’s No. 1 qualifier literally was on stage after defeating Eddie Krawiec in the final round and clocking performance milestones along the way to join Richie Crampton (Top Fuel), Del Worsham (Funny Car), and Erica Enders (Pro Stock) as winners.

Savoie’s triumphant 6.744-second, 198.44-mph pass on the quarter-mile at Ennis, south of Dallas, set low elapsed time and top speed of the meet.

His time was fourth-quickest in class history, and his speed was eighth fastest ever.

Krawiec countered with a 6.915-second E.T. at 196.30 mph and had a jump on Savoie, but the White Alligator Racing Suzuki ambushed him and won by a margin of about 30 feet.

“That’s one fast motor scooter,” Savoie said. “I keep telling everybody, ‘I wish I could see it.’ ”

With crew chief Tim Kulungian’s handiwork keeping his bike consistently quick, Savoie improved from fourth place to third and matched the Vance & Hines duo of Krawiec and Andrew Hines with three victories.   

The victory was his first in four final-round attempts against Krawiec.

But Savoie isn’t puffed up with pride. Instead he said he’s “humbled to be here” and said he isn’t going to fuss over points in the two weeks before the series resumes at Las Vegas for the penultimate race of the year.

“There’s only one person that controls it, and that’s God. And I thank Him for everything,” Savoie said. “We’ll keep plugging away.”

He expressed respect for Andrew Hines and Krawiec, the two racers ahead of him in the standings with just two events remaining in the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season.

“You’ve got Mr. Ice Man, Andrew Hines, and you’ve got Eddie. You can’t shake, rattle, and roll either one of them, so there’s no sense in playing games with them,” he said of the two Screamin’ Eagle Harley-Davidson racers who freshen his engines.

“Look, I’m blessed to be here. I’m not counting points,”Savoie said, sharing that he didn’t know where he was in the standings until a reporter told him.

Of the championship, he said, “If it comes my way, I’m going to take it. If it doesn’t come my way, I’m not going to cry over it. I’m just not into that. If we win the championship, you’ll see one excited person. But it’s all good. It’s all good.”

Krawiec maintained his second-place status in the standings as playoff action continues to move west, in a return to Las Vegas and Pomona, Calif. Susan Wade
 

SUNDAY RANDOM NOTES

CONFUSION ABOUT PRO STOCK RECORD BRINGS PROCEDURE TO LIGHT - Will the real Pro Stock track elapsed-time record-holder please stand up?

Is he Drew Skillman or Jason Line?

For awhile this weekend at the AAA Texas Fall Nationals near Dallas, even the NHRA couldn’t tell for certain who has the quickest time on the Texas Motorplex quarter-mile.

Top qualifier Drew Skillman and No. 2 Jason Line each recorded 6.471-second elapsed times Saturday. Skillman was awarded the top starting position because his 213.47-mph speed trumped Line’s oh-so-close 213.40 mph. But Line got the distinction of the track E.T. record because he made his run first.

At least that was the decision Saturday night – for awhile.

Then officials weren’t sure.

Late Saturday, the sanctioning body said, “Not so fast . . .”

It turned out, unbeknown to everyone in the NHRA Communications Department except Director of Media Relations Anthony Vestal (who isn’t on site this weekend), their department and not their Competition counterparts are in charge of keeping track of such matters. However, Graham Light, senior vice-president of racing operations, emphasized that while the rulebook doesn’t address track records, the decision-making process needs to follow the rules regarding national records.

That procedure says, “If two drivers tie for the elapsed-time record to the thousandth of a second at the same event, the tie-breaker will be the fastest mile-per-hour reading for the run that established the record. (In the event a tie still exists, the driver accomplishing the record run earlier in the event will be awarded the record.)”

That settled it: Drew Skillman owns the E.T. mark.

Or did that settle it? The NHRA officials wanted to mull that over some more.

While they were wrestling with the issue, Greg Anderson made the decision for everyone.

He clocked the second-quickest E.T. in Pro Stock history (6.457 seconds) to claim the Texas Motorplex mark. That E.T. came at 214.59 mph, which rewrote the track speed record, as well.

To add to the crazy nature of the whole matter, Anderson lost the round. (Because a record, track or national, isn’t official until the event is finished, Anderson faced the possibility his record could fall, as well.)  

McGAHA SHOCKS ANDERSON – A couple of first-round Pro Stock pairings carried championship implications. Points leader Erica Enders faced V Gaines, while the Nos. 2- and 3-ranked racers, Greg Anderson (the No. 5 qualifier) and Chris McGaha (the No. 12 starter) drew each other. Enders would have to race the winner of the Anderson-McGaha match-up. So the ladder guaranteed that only one of the top three drivers in the standings would reach the semifinal round Sunday.

Of the two pairings, Anderson and McGaha rolled to the line first. Anderson recorded the second-quickest elapsed time in class history at 6.457 seconds on the Texas Motorplex quarter-mile – and lost to McGaha on a holeshot. Although Anderson’s 6.457 at 214.59 mph was quicker and faster than McGaha’s 6.504, 213.20, McGaha traded on his better reaction time at the Christmas tree to win the pivotal pairing. The Harlow Sammons of Odessa Chevy Camaro driver launched in .012 of a second, and the KB/Summit Racing driver cut a .060 light.

A dejected Anderson shouldered responsibility for the loss. “I can’t point the finger at anybody but myself,” he said. “It’s definitely a low. I can’t deny it – it hurts. I don’t quit. I’ll never give up. It’s a tough pill to swallow. But the sun will come up tomorrow.”

McGaha still was soaking in his achievement when he said, “I don’t even know what to say. That’s a pretty big deal, right there. We’ve got the red car now [referring to Enders’ Camaro]. I always said I had to beat her when it counts. I guess it’s fixing to count.”       

McGaha, who owns his team, and Enders boss Richard Freeman, who owns Elite Motorsports, have been feuding since McGaha’s crew chief defected to work with Elite and longtime friend Freeman.

Houston native Enders fired the latest salvo as she anticipated the “Don’t Mess With Texas” quarterfinal match-up between herself and Odessa’s McGaha.

She said, “I couldn’t be more excited. I’ve got the best team in the world, and they hate that.”

Make that a “Don’t Mess With Enders” match-up. McGaha “double-bulbed” her at the starting line, forcing her to stag more quickly than maybe she had planned. It backfired, as she responded with a .008 light and used a 6.461-second, 214.45-mph performance to defeat McGaha, who put up a 6.512, 213.03.

And she relished letting him know he couldn’t rattle her. “I say bring it on,” she challenged. “They do everything they can to try to get is off our game, whether it’s trash-talking or double-bulbing. We’ll bring it every time, and I will, too.”

MONUMENTAL TIMES – Three of the top-10 all-time Pro Stock elapsed times came in the first round of eliminations Sunday at the Texas Motorplex. Greg Anderson’s (losing) 6.457-second E.T. is second-quickest ever. The 6.467-second E.T. from both Erica Enders and Jason Line ranks eighth on the list. Others running 6.4-second E.T.s in the first round were Drew Skillman, Larry Morgan, Allen Johnson, Bo Butner, and Jonathan Gray.  

 

NO MAGIC IN THAT 3.9 – Cruz Pedregon remarked Saturday after blasting into the field on his last chance to qualify 12th with a 4.029-second elapsed time, “Anybody can run in the threes.” For the first time all weekend, Pedregon did it in the first round of eliminations. He clocked a 3.96 – and lost to Ron Capps’ 3.940.

He could ask Alexis DeJoria how that feels. She was the first Funny Car driver at this event and at the Texas Motorplex to post a three-second E.T. And she ended up ninth in the order as Friday-night action produced eight more sub-four-second passes. So she started the wave of threes and started Sunday without lane choice against Tim Wilkerson. But she defeated Wilkerson, who had earned lane choice over her by a one-thousandth of a second.     

DeJoria's .005-second reaction time in the first round was the quickest by any Funny Car driver this season. It surpassed Cruz Pedregon's .020 at Seattle.

 

TEXANS ON TRACK – Five of the eight Top Fuel match-ups featured a Texan, and one – the fourth off the line Sunday morning – pitted a pair of home-state racers, Billy Torrence (Kilgore) and Kebin Kinsley (Kennedale). Two Texas residents, John Hale (Addison) and Alexis DeJoria (Austin), qualified for the Funny Car field. The Pro Stock lineup included three Texans (Erica Enders of Houston, Chris McGaha of Odessa, and Alex Laughlin of Granbury). Michael Ray was the lone Lone Star State Pro Stock Motorcycle qualifier.

 

SATURDAY NOTEBOOK - BROWN STAYING EVEN-KEEL, McMILLEN IMPROVING, FORCES TO RACE EACH OTHER IN FIRST ROUND, PRO STOCK’S TOP THREE GET UNPLEASANT DRAW, SAVOIE STUNS IN FINAL BIKE SESSION

TOP FUEL

BROWN NOT COCKY – Despite winning three Top Fuel finals in a row to start the Countdown, Antron Brown said he can’t afford to become overconfident.

“You just can’t get that way in our sport, especially in nitro cars,” the Matco Tools Dragster driver said as once again he carried the name on his car of 262 women who have battled breast cancer.

“In any type of racing, because the way the competition has been right now, it’s just been incredibly tough. Tough, where I mean, look at the race I had with Larry Dixon (in the Reading semifinal). He runs a 71 (3.71 seconds), we run a 71. And then look at the race we had with Billy Torrence in St. Louis, and Tony and the rest of them were all running low 70s. I mean, every car out there, even part-time cars. We raced Dom Lagana – he’s only been in his Top Fuel car I think not even once. He raced a Funny Car all this year. He comes out there and he runs a 78. I mean, all these teams are coming out now and they’re not playing anymore,” Brown said.

“Everybody has the technology. Everybody has the resources. And everybody is putting them to use because they want to win,” he said. “There are no more people talking about doing it – they’re about it now, and you have to raise and elevate yourself, and that’s what I think is making our NHRA racing so exciting and so fun right now, that we’re all just raising that level to an all-time high.”

IT’S TODD, BROWN AGAIN - J.R. Todd, driver of the Red Line Oil Top Fuel Dragster, joined Kalitta Motorsports teammate Del Worsham in the final round here last season. This weekend, Todd will start as the No. 10 qualifier. In Sunday’s first round of eliminations, he’ll race No. 7 Antron Brown in a rematch of their Charlotte final round. This is their fifth race-day pairing in nine races.

MONKEYING AROUND – “Retired” public-address announcer Bob Frey, back at the races to emcee Saturday night’s DRAW Auction, got a kick out of Kebin Kinsley’s Gas Monkey Garage team sponsorship and enthusiastic Gas Monkey Garage mastermind Richard Rawlings. And he offered his services to Rawlings for his television show. ‘I’m here for you,” Frey said over the loudspeaker.

Booth buddy Alan Reinhart challenged him. “You would be the Tim Taylor of Gas Monkey Garage,” he said, referring to the old “Home Improvement” TV show starring Tim Allen as bumbling Taylor.

“Well, they’ve got to have a monkey somewhere,” shot back Frey.

In the meantime, Kinsley qualified No. 15 in the lineup and will face No. 2 Billy Torrence, a fellow Texan and fellow part-time racer. Kinsley is from Kennedale, Torrence from Kilgore.

HADDOCK MARCHES INTO FIELD – Jenna Haddock, her dragster washed in pink to highlight breast-cancer awareness month, will bring some publicity to another worthy cause when she lines up in the first round of eliminations against top qualifier Dave Connolly. She swiped the No. 16 spot, acing out Top Fuel newcomer Shawn Reed and veteran racers Cory McClenathan and Pat Dakin.

Haddock also is promoting Boots4Troops, a charity whose mission is “to uplift and empower the overall morale and mental well-being of all deployed U.S. service members defending our freedom.” The organization sends care packages to deployed service men and women filled with a new pair of personal boots and other morale-boosting gifts.

 

PAIRINGS – Tony Schumacher (8) and Clay Millican (9) will meet in Round 1. Other pairs are Shawn Langdon (4) and Troy Buff (13), Steve Torrence (5) and Larry Dixon (12), and Richie Crampton (6) and Doug Kalitta (11).

FUNNY CAR

WORSHAM STAYS NO. 1 – DHL Toyota Camry driver Del Worsham kept his No. 1 qualifying spot with his track-record with a 3.917-second run from Friday, marking the first time all season he will lead the field.

He also earned bonus points for finishing in the top three in all four qualifying sessions this weekend. Worsham, racing out of Kalitta Motorsports, has qualified in the top two in three of the past four events.   

“We’re all making the best runs we think we can,” Worsham said as he takes an 18-point lead in the standings into Sunday’s eliminations. “All we can do is get as many points a week as we can. You have to earn every point that’s yours, and hopefully when it’s all said and done and we leave Las Vegas and head to Pomona, we’ll be in a position to race for the NHRA Mello Yello Funny Car championship. That’s really my goal.”

CONGRATULATIONS! – Funny Car owner-driver John Bojec was entered to compete with his Speed City Racing Toyota at the AAA Texas Fall Nationals. But he withdrew for a sensible reason. He needed to be with wife Diana, the Top Alcohol Dragster and Funny Car racer, as she delivered their child.

They welcomed a son Saturday afternoon in Cleveland at University Hospitals’ Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital – all while the family had the NHRA audiocast playing on the computer in the birthing room.

They were listening as Steve Harker, Diana’s dad and the reigning Top Alcohol Funny Car champion, qualified sixth. Harker, Sean Bellemeur, and Annie Whiteley all clocked 5.453-second elapsed times, but Bellemeur (272.28 mph) and Whiteley (266.90 mph) took the Nos. 3 and 4 starting positions, respectively, based on their speeds.  In the first round of eliminations Saturday afternoon, Harker lost to Shane Westerfield.

TRIBUTE TO PIONEER – Funny Car racer John Hale invited team owner “Big Jim” Dunn to a barbecue lunch at his nostalgia Funny Car pit Friday and served up a fun surprise. He unveiled a body wrapped with the “Fireman’s Quickie” scheme to commemorate the car Dunn campaigned in the 1980s.

“He’s the Grand Marshal of the 2015 Hot Rod Reunion in Bakersfield next week, and we thought we’d honor him with a tribute car. I don’t think anybody else has ever done that, not that I know of, in the nostalgia scene,” Hale, of Addison, Texas, said.

He said he “talked it over with Jon and Diane [Dunn] and had their blessing to do it. We didn’t want to do it behind everybody’s back.”

Before showing Dunn the car, Hale told him this was in honor of his Grand Marshal status “and your dedication to the sport.”

Said Hale, “He liked it. He really did. He gave me a hug. That made it all worth it, right there.”

He credited Jon Dunn with the idea of using the “Texan” body for the nitro Funny Car this weekend. “That’s my car that I’m running this year in the nostalgia class [in the Hot Rod Heritage Series]. We decided to put it on the big car.”

Despite its tip-of-the-Stetson to Texas, the nitro Funny Car had an ignition problem in the first session Friday, Hale said. “The car shut off for a second and came back on. When it did, it popped the blower.”

It turned out to have a wire whose coating had worn off. “The insulation had come off and it was grounding out on something,” Hale said. The crew fixed the problem but elected not to make a Friday night pass.

“We thought we’d sit out the night session, anyway. We knew we were all going to run quick. We said we’ll just save it for today [Saturday]. We had the car fixed in time. We just decided to sit out that session,” he said.

Hale drove the Dodge Charger to the tentative 14th place in the order in the third overall qualifying session Saturday with a 4.257-second, 276.58 mph run. He grabbed the final spot in the lineup, setting the bump time at 4.140 seconds.

JOHNSON WANTS MORE HAPPY TEXAS MEMORIES – Tommy Johnson Jr. put the Terry Chandler-sponsored Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger into the field at No. 6 and will face No. 11 Chad Head in the first round of eliminations. As the No. 4-ranked Funny Car driver, Johnson came here 98 points out of first place.

"I'd love to have been running away with it by now, but it's going to be a battle to the end," he said. "We have ourselves in the mix, and we have a shot. That's all you can ask for at this point."

Johnson’s only final-round appearance here was in 1999, when he lost to John Force.
 
"That is actually probably one of my best memories so far in Dallas," he said. Force ran a 4.827-second lap at 319.60 mph, and Johnson challenged with his then-career best 4.843, 319.82. "At the time, it was the quickest side-by-side race in Funny Car history. I would have like to have come out on top, but it was a great race, and it was good for fans. Hopefully, we can get to the winners circle this weekend and really have something to celebrate. I haven't yet had the success there that I would like, but I have some history there, and the track itself is known for some really good performances."

Johnson said, "We've been able to continue to improve throughout the season, and if that continues for the rest of the year, I would happy. You want to improve each year, and we set the bar pretty high last year finishing third. Of course, we want to do better than that – and that actually doesn’t leave a lot of room. It brings us a little bit of pressure, but it is a good pressure. The opportunity is there. We just have to keep pushing."

FATHER-DAUGHTER BATTLE: HE SAID/SHE SAID – The John Force Racing team had a disappointing draw, with No. 7 John Force set to face daughter Courtney, the No. 10 qualifier.

“All our Chevy hot rods are running quick,” he said. “It is tough I am going to have to race Courtney, but we’ll have two Traxxas Chevys going at it. The good news is one of these Camaros will go to the second round, and we want to get a win so the fans can get that Traxxas Double-Up promotion. Texas has been good to me, and then I had my crash in 2007. I have said I’m not going to quit racing until I win again at the Texas Motorplex. I’ll have to beat my daughter in the first round if I want to get that win here, but I know it will be a tough race.”

She said, “We’re probably going to have to push the car a little bit harder to outrun him, but we’re up for the challenge and excited to face my dad in Round 1. It’s never fun racing a teammate, but on the plus side, it will definitely make it exciting for fans since we have this special Traxxas promotion going on this weekend. We’re going to be fighting really hard to get one of these Traxxas cars into the final round so the fans can take full advantage of this promotion and get the discounts [on the radio-controlled vehicles] offered up this weekend. But I think we have a pretty good race car, as well.”    

RICHARDS MAKES FIELD – Wellington, Fla., resident Dave Richards has driven the Richards Family Racing Toyota Solara in four events before this weekend’s race, and thanks to thanks to friends Brian and Janie Mahoney and their son, Shawn, he’s competing at the Texas Motorplex for the first time.
 
"They came to Charlotte this year and loved it," Richards said. "Brian offered to help us get to another race, and we decided to hold off and get a little bit more prepared so that we could really race to the best of our abilities in Dallas.”

He was last among the racers in both Friday sessions so didn’t have a time when Saturday’s final day opened. But with tuning consultant Paul Smith’s help (when he could take a break from working on Blake Alexander’s Dodge Charger Funny Car, Richards used a 4.556-second pass at 205.98 mph to jump into the field on the bump spot.

But John Hale nosed him out of the field. Richards was 17th quickest, missing the field by one place. Joining Richards on the DNQ list are Brian Stewart, Todd Simpson, and Terry Haddock (who will tune the dragster wife Jenna will race in the Top Fuel class).

"It was really neat to see how much Brian and Janie loved the Charlotte race," Richards said. "They really recognized the family atmosphere and how this is a group of people who take time off from their regular jobs to come and do this because we all love it. We're really happy that somebody noticed the great dynamics of our team.
 
"I'm just the lucky guy who gets to drive the race car, and this isn't just about me – it's about all of the hard work and dedication that everybody in our group puts into the program. We're grateful that Brian and Janie saw that and now they are part of it,” he said.

Because the car “has been running pretty well,” Richards said he didn’t change much for this appearance.  He said he’s “definitely feeling better and better in the car, and we're becoming more confident as we go on. As a driver, I'm gaining confidence and am especially happy that I don't have to wait four months to get back in the seat this time.”

Richards thanks Prestige Corporate Headquarters, Hedman Hedders, and Florida Brake and Truck Parts for the sponsorship help, as well as the Mahoneys. With the extra funding, he predicted correctly that he would be able to make all four qualifying runs. “That means we'll be comfortable a lot quicker with what is a new environment for us in Texas," he said.

Richards made his Funny Car debut at the 2013 New England Nationals at Epping, N.H. He’s expecting this to be his final race of this season.

CAPPS OPTIMISTIC – Ron Capps, driver of the NAPA Dodge Charger, counts this stop at the Texas Motrplex as crucial. He entered this race 105 points behind leader Del Worsham.

But, Capps said, "This is drag racing and anything can happen," he said. "We know we have a good NAPA Dodge, and that showed with our performances at the last two races. This NAPA team will never give up. There are 150 points we can win at each of the last three races, and we're just focusing on this weekend.”

Capps won here in 1998 and was runner-up in 2011.

He’ll begin his quest Sunday as the No. 5 starter, racing Cruz Pedregon.

Pedregon, a four-time winner at the Texas Motorplex, was unqualified after the third session Saturday but leaped into the No. 12 starting position with a fourth-session run of 4.029 seconds in the Snap-on Tools Toyota Camry car with the “Scarface” body.

An excited Pedregon, who admitted he was “plenty nervous” awaiting his Q4 run, said, “We’re trying to do something special. Anybody can run in the threes. We’re trying to put it out of reach. We’ve got something here.”

That’s tall Texas talk, for Pedregon hasn’t run in the three-second range all weekend, and he’ll have to plow through the field to “put it out of reach” on a weekend when the top nine qualifiers registered sub-four-second runs.

“Time and again this season we’ve had strong runs, but we need that good Lone Star State mojo to work in our favor again,” Pedregon said. “Some of the biggest races of my career have happened on this track, and the team is eager for everything to come together beyond Friday and Saturday. We’re all really ready for a Sunday playoff victory.”

Car chief Chris “Warrior” Kullberg said, “The Texas Motorplex track is hot and fast. We’re paying attention to the conditions, because the Snap-on Toyota performs well in the heat. Cruz really knows how to handle the car when we see the type of environment this track affords.”

THE MATCH-UPS – Other Funny Car pairings are Tim Wilkerson (8) vs. Alexis DeJoria (9), Robert Hight (4) vs. Cory Lee (13), Jack Beckman (2) vs. Tony Pedregon (15), and Matt Hagan (3) vs. Blake Alexander (14).   

PRO STOCK

LOOKING FOR GLITCH – John Gaydosh could be frustrated all winter.

He said he hadn’t planned to enter this event but decided he couldn’t stand not knowing until February if what ailed his Pypes Performance Chevy Camaro was a glitch with the car or some drawback to his driving. With an EFI system soon to go into his car, as per the new NHRA rules that take effect Jan. 1, Gaydosh said he didn’t want one more factor in the equation to wonder about. He wanted all the car’s troubles to be erased before making the inevitable changes in the car.    

So he and a couple of his team members loaded into the trailer their pink-painted Chevy (the lone Pro Stock car to pay tribute to October’s breast-cancer awareness push, partly as a tribute to Gaydosh’s  grandmother, who fought the illness). They drove 24 hours nonstop from Baltimore to Ennis, Texas, and arrived Thursday to start sorting things out in their Texas Motorplex pit.

With some parts from friend Chris McGaha, Gaydosh was able by Saturday afternoon to nail down the No. 14 spot. Whether he discovered everything he had hoped to discover is another matter. He likely will learn some more things in Sunday’s first round when he lines up against No. 3 qualifier Bo Butner from the KB / Summit Racing team.

AJ: ‘LOT OF BITE IN THIS DOG’ – A first-round loss at the rain-marred Reading event significantly eroded Allen Johnson’s strong chances for a second Pro Stock championship. It dropped him in the standings from third to fifth place, 150 points behind leader Erica Enders. The Mopar / Magneti Marelli Dodge owner-driver is well aware time is running out, and he has a daunting agenda. “I think we have to win two of the next three races and at worst go to the semis at the other,” Johnson said. “That’s the goal. We can only control what we do. My mindset is to be and stay aggressive. That will be key. There is still a lot of bite left in this dog, and we’re not ready to give up the hunt for that prize.

“Reading did not go as we had hoped, but no one should count us out,” he said. “We did the best we could and made a good run, but we just got whooped. We took that one on the chin and it hurt. What softens the blow a little is that we only lost 20 more points to the leader so we are still in there.”

With four qualifying chances here at Dallas this weekend, Johnson is a mid-packer at No. 10, with a first-round race against Vincent Nobile set for Sunday morning.

“I like the nerves and the feeling of competition at its highest level,” Johnson, the 2012 winner here, said. “There is a lot on the line. We have to get aggressive and go for maximum points. We’ve won there before, and we can do it again. Last time, I sat on the hood scoop and rode our HEMI like a bull in the winner’s circle. I’d like to be able to do that again. A win would be big for our Mopar team - and I hear they like things big in Texas. I have always loved going to Dallas and racing at Texas Motorplex and want another hat – bad!”

KEY RACES SUNDAY – Erica Enders, Greg Anderson, and Chris McGaha – the top three ranked Pro Stock racers – find themselves collectively in a precarious spot. Anderson and McGaha drew each other on the first-round ladder, Anderson as the No. 5 starter and McGaha as 12th. Enders qualified No. 4 and will race V Gaines in the opening round Sunday. But should Enders hold off Gaines, she would face the winner of the Anderson-McGaha match-up. So that means only one of the top three in the Pro Stock standings will advance to the semifinal round. And entering this race, the point spread between No. 1 Enders and No. 3 McGaha was only 104.

THIS TITLE RUN DIFFERENT FOR ANDERSON – Four-time series champion Greg Anderson said this run at the title “is very different. Not only am I older, but I went through that complete rebuilding year last year. There were certainly times there where I wondered if I'd ever be able to get in a race car again and drive one, let alone compete for a championship. I'm a very lucky man, and you know, everything is on a silver platter for me to go ahead and capitalize on it and go back to the top again, which I had no earthly idea if I'd ever be able to do again. So very special, very unique opportunity, and you know, at this point in my career, you just never know when it's going to be your last race or last championship, so you've got to try and make the most of it. I would like nothing better than to finish this year off on top. It would be a great story for me personally and all my support group here, what we've gone through the last year and a half. It would really be a neat story. It would probably be my most special championship ever if I can get it done.”

FORM COMING BACK FOR LINE - Jason Line qualified second in the Pro Stock lineup and will meet 15th-qualified Alan Prusiensky in the first round of runoffs Sunday. While that might sound like a familiar scenario with Line near the top of the order, it is Line’s best qualifying effort since the Atlanta race this spring. That Atlanta Dragway feat capped a streak of three consecutive top starts.

His tuner – and on-track rival – Greg Anderson vouched for Line that his dip in performance (or a perceived dip by the relentlessly diligent team) was not a reflection on Line.

“Unfortunately we've just been off with his race car for the last really two, three months. Somehow we lost our way with his race car, and the performance hasn't been there,” Anderson said. “When the performance isn't there, sometimes you get a little crossed up in your mind, too, and you get dejected, you get disgusted, and you're struggling to drive again.

He's struggled a little bit on the driving end and lost a few races on holeshots, but more times than not for the last two, three months, we haven't had the performance in his car.

“I think we've finally turned the corner this weekend and learned some things about what we've been doing wrong on his car,” he said.

Anderson said he “fully expected” to land his three team cars in the top four in the starting order. His guess was close. Line fared the best of the three, in the No. 2 starting position. Butner followed at No. 3, and Anderson will start from the No. 5 berth.

“I think finally we'll have three equal cars,” Anderson said, “and when that happens, Jason's mind comes right back into focus, too, and he becomes a great driver. Looking forward to the future for him, too.”

Line has two wins in four final rounds this year and has two of KB Racing’s six victories at Texas Motorplex. He won in 2011 and 2013.

"I think one of the coolest things about winning this race is getting that cowboy hat in the winner's circle," Line said. "We've been able to do that a couple of times at Texas Motorplex, and it's always a lot of fun. It's something special that you really don't get anywhere else, and this year for the 30th anniversary, they've got a really nice belt buckle to go with it. It's something any one of us would like to have, but only one driver is going to get it."
 
OTHER PAIRINGS – Top qualifier Drew Skillman, arguably the leading rookie-of-the-year candidate, will put his Elite Chevy Camaro on the line against No. 16 Deric Kramer in the first round of eliminations. The Gray brothers will have their chances Sunday, too – No. 6 Jonathan Gray, the Friday provisional class leader, will go against No. 11 Alex Laughlin, and No. 8 Shane Gray will meet No. 9 Larry Morgan, his Gary Motorsports engine-program client.  

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE

SAVOIE STUNS IN LAST SESSION – Jerry Savoie saved his best for last, dominating Pro Stock Motorcycle qualifying Saturday with a final-session 6.765-second, 197.74-mph quarter-mile pass that set both ends of the Texas Motorplex performance record on his White Alligator Racing Suzuki.

With his Sunday Round 1 date against No. 16 Scotty Pollacheck awaiting, Savoie said, “We’re chipping away. It doesn’t come easy.” He credited his Tim Kulungian-led team and Vance & Hines, who prepares his engine.

For Savoie, of Cut Off, La., it was the second No. 1 qualifying position of the season and his first at Dallas.

He said he “never was a guy who worries about numbers.” But while he said he recognized his chance at a championship is “not out of the picture,” he also said he’s at the point where he really needs to step up his performance.

“If God gives it to me, I’ll take a championship,” Savoie said.

“If it isn’t meant to be,” he said, he can live with that.

 

 

OTHER MATCH-UPS – The remaining first-round pairings have Friday leader Karen Stoffer (No. 5) facing Jim Underdahl (No. 12), Hector Arana Jr. (No. 7) racing Mike Berry (No. 10), Chip Ellis (No. 3) lining up against Michael Ray (No. 14), and points leader Andrew Hines (No. 6) taking on Hector Arana (No. 11).

FRIDAY NOTEBOOK - TORRENCE HOPING, BROWN LOOKING OVER SHOULDER FOR SCHUMACHER, BUSY CORY MAC BACK AND PLANNING FOR 2016, KINSLEY CREW MEMBER PASSES AWAY FOLLOWING HIGHWAY ACCIDENT, FUNNY CAR RECORDS FALL IN 3.9-SECOND DERBY, WILKERSON RACING FOR BIGGER PAYCHECK, JOHNSON RACING BIKE WITH BROKEN ANKLE, ‘DIRTY HARRY’ RULES IN BIKE CLASS

TOP FUEL

TORRENCE STILL HOPING – Capco Contractors Dragster driver Steve Torrence isn’t letting his first-round defeat to Larry Dixon in Reading’s first round squash his title hopes. In what he calls “a home game” here at Texas Motorplex, the native of nearby Kilgore has taken heart that he has a fresh chassis, multi-time championship architect Alan Johnson still advising crew chief Richard Hogan, dad Billy in a second dragster for added data and possible help in eliminations, and a hole that’s not too deep to overcome.

“We haven’t given up on this championship,” No. 9-ranked Torrence said.  “We’re only two rounds out of fifth place and four out of third, but we know we’re going to have to do some damage this week” to stay in the hunt.

He has a Texas-large cheering section, too. “It’s always good to race in front of family and friends,” Torrence said.  “This is a home game for us, and that always raises expectations.  Not only are there going to be a lot of employees and friends from Capco, but we have a lot of people from the Chris Kyle Frog Foundation, too.”

If Torrence could pull off a run to the top, he’d be the first driver to win championships in both the Top Fuel and Top Alcohol Dragster classes.

BROWN NOT RELAXING – Antron Brown knows he can’t wallow in his achievements – ever, but certainly not at this point in the Countdown. The points leader, who two weeks ago at Reading, Pa., became the first Top Fuel driver ever to win three consecutive races to open the Countdown to the Championship, wants to keep his mind focused and his foot on the gas pedal.

Making it four straight this weekend, he knows, won’t be a cinch. He’s well aware second-ranked Tony Schumacher, with his U.S. Army Dragster, lurks just 90 points behind him in the standings.

“We have won three races in a row, but now we can go out there [and] something could break on our car and we could lose the first round of the last three races in a row, and if Tony goes to the final in all those, he wins the championship. That’s how that Army team rolls. We’ve won three races and yet we’re still only 90 points ahead of Tony. And that’s what I always said: We’re only 90 points ahead of him because we’re working hard, but the guy knows how to win. He knows how to get it done, and that’s the hard part about it. We’ve got to remain focused and keep doing what we do, because we can peel off three wins, without a doubt.

“The Motorplex has always been a special place for me because that was my first race win on Pro Stock Motorcycles back in 1999. That place always has a special place in my heart,” Brown said. “We’ve won there once (in Top Fuel in 2012), but Tony is an animal, man. That U.S. Army team, Mike Green (crew chief) and Neal (Strausbaugh, assistant crew chief), the two people who run the car, they know how to win. They know how to put it together, and they work very great in high-pressure situations where, you know, at the end of the day you can never count them out. We had like a 160- or 180-point lead with two races left (in 2012) and everybody wrote them off. We didn’t write them off, and they came out and they’re just like animals.”

Brown has a personal single-season best seven victories and has won six races or more five times in the last seven years. The latter is a feat no other Top Fuel driver has accomplished more than once during that span. Since 2009, Brown has won 36 races – 12 more than any other driver in the series.  One of those victories came in Dallas in 2012 on the way to the Top Fuel championship.

IMPROVING LANGDON WANTS DSR WIN – Shawn Langdon is making only his fourth appearance in the the Sandvik Coromant /Red Fuel Powered by Schumacher Dragster. After a first-round loss and two quarterfinal finishes, he said he wants to bring Don Schumacher Racing – and crew chiefs Todd Okuhara and Phil Shuler, as well as his sponsors – a victory.

"We're getting better with each run," he said. "Reading was just an incredibly tricky race for crew chiefs. It was cold [with] conditions that we rarely see and we won't have to worry about that this weekend. It's warm, and we're ready to get back to conditions that we typically see and go out and see what we can do.”

Langdon, the 2013 champion, is seventh in the standings but less than four rounds out of the top three.

"A win would do a lot for us right now," he said as he looks for his first triumph at Texas Motorplex. "It would probably mean a jump in the standings that are so tight right now from third through 10th and coming over here to DSR, I would really like to get a win with this team before the season is over. That's the ultimate goal and it would mean a lot to me to be able to get a win here for all the folks at Sandvik. It's the last race with them on as primary sponsor for this year and they have a lot of guests coming out. So we'd love to show them into the winner's circle."

SO WHAT’S 94 POINTS? – One year ago, in his first visit here since moving to Austin from Chicago and adopting the Texas Motorplex as his home track, Tony Schumacher became only the second NHRA pro racer to win two event titles in a 24-hour span. Pro Stock Motorcycle’s Eddie Krawiec was the first, winning the rain-delayed final round of the 2012 Reading race as well as the fall Las Vegas event at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

That victory from the Charlotte-race postponement and the regularly scheduled Texas AAA Fall Nationals lifted him from fourth place to first, and he never surrendered the lead. He went on to win his eighth Top Fuel championship.

That Dallas weekend began with him 50 points off Doug Kalitta’s pace and ended with him in front by 106 points with two events remaining. This time, the U.S. Army Dragster driver trails leader Antron Brown by 94 points, but steep odds against Schumacher seem to play in his favor. They did in 2006, when he made up a 336-point deficit and capped his heroics with a national-record-setting run on the final pass of the year to win the crown by 14 points. The next season, he again used the final pairing of the year to clinch his fourth straight and fifth overall championship.

As if Brown didn’t already know all about that before he entered the Top Fuel class in 2008, he got a personal taste of the Schumacher threat in 2012. Brown won the 2012 championship, but not before Schumacher threw a scare into him. In a scenario jarringly similar to the current one, Brown had an 83-point lead with three races to go and a 136-point advantage with two events remaining. But Schumacher closed the gap to seven points in the end, coming within eight-thousandths of a second of beating Brandon Bernstein in the Pomona final to earn another title.

So this time it’s 94 points that separate leader Brown and No. 2 Schumacher with three races (counting this weekend’s) left. Schumacher said he knows what he has to do and will do his best to control what he can control.

“Obviously, it would be incredible to wipe out the entire deficit at Dallas and then hit Vegas and Pomona on equal ground,” Schumacher said. “It’s mathematically possible but is it likely? I would think not, especially with the way that team has been performing the first half of the Countdown. But you never know. The way we approach it is to take care of what we can control, and that is to go out and try to be fastest in every qualifying session, then run the table on Sunday. That’s the best we can do. The rest is out of our control, because you never know what’s going to happen with those guys and girls in the other lane and the other matchups on Sunday. It’s all about being in the right place at the right time and, if that happens, odds are we can at least take significant chunks out of the points deficit over the next three race weekends.”

He said his U.S. Army sponsor provides motivation enough.

“Wearing those Army colors week in and week out makes it easy to want to be the absolute best in everything we do. That’s all the motivation my nine guys and I will ever need to keep us fighting to be the best. All nine of my guys are the absolute best at what they do and, with all the experience we have working together, good things are bound to happen,” Schumacher said. “We know what it takes to achieve the ultimate goal and we’re motivated to chase after it relentlessly. I always say it is a gift to be able to do what we do, and it is a gift to be presented with the opportunity to come to bat with the bases loaded with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and your team needing a grand slam to win the game, to win the championship. Some people wilt under that kind of pressure. This Army team has proven time and again that it is at its best when those opportunities come around, and we have one of those in front of us right now. It’s time to go out and get it done.”

McCLENATHAN STAYING BUSY – A mere five years ago Cory McClenathan and Larry Dixon were battling for the Top Fuel championship, with McClenathan pulling within 89 points of leader Dixon with two races to go. Dixon won his third title that year, but since then, both have struggled to maintain full-year rides until this season. Dixon has one. McClenathan doesn’t.

But the racer known to fans as “Cory Mac” is working on a return to fulltime action in 2016, possibly with team owner Dexter Tuttle, whose car he’s driving this weekend. It might be with Mike Dakin, with whom he was teamed for a scheduled eight races before the program “kind of ran out of gas” and left him thinking “it was time to do something different.” (He said it wasn’t a matter of Dakin not wanting to keep racing. “Their business has suffered a little bit, like a lot of businesses in America. They decided to park it, because they want to do it right if they can do it at all. They’d like to come back out again next year,” he said.) It might be with a new team he’ll establish himself.

“I’m hoping we can come back to a full schedule next year,” McClenathan said. “That’s my biggest thing. With whoever. I’m working on some things on my own. We’ll see who really wants to kind take the reins and do a full-circuit deal, because I know I’d be willing to. [Potential] sponsors are getting easier now [to find]. They want to talk right now. They realize we have a great package for people out here. With the FOX deal coming on and changes with the NHRA, people are really starting to take notice. Motorsports in general, it’s pretty tough. But drag racing in general, you can get a lot for your money.”

No matter what, he has been busy racing – an off-road-racing truck in a regional series, even earning a podium finish. And he has been busy at his parents’ home, doing home-improvement projects.

“We did a whole redo of their house, put in a residential elevator. So I learned way more about construction than I ever wanted to.” He joked that he could have used the expertise of DIYer (and former elevator repairman Jack Beckman, the No. 2-ranked Funny Car driver. He’s also been looking in on and helping his grandmother, who’s 102 years old and, in his words, “doin’ her thing.”

McClenathan said all along he had spoken with Tuttle about hooking up for this race and the final two events, at Las Vegas and Pomona. ‘Every time I called him, he said, ‘We’re still doing it!’ It worked out good.” Back on the side of his car is the Berryman-owned Chem Tooler logo.

They hadn’t even started the engine on the Liquid MPG Dragster until Friday afternoon, warming it up in their Texas Motorplex pit. “We’ll go out and make a check-out pass,” he said before the opening session. “And tonight we’ll try to throw down and go 1,000 foot and see how she turns out.”   

KINSLEY CREW MEMBER KILLED IN HIGHWAY ACCIDENT – Kevin Draper, a longtime friend of Kebin Kinsley and crew member on Kinsley’s Gas Monkey Garage Dragster, was killed Thursday on Highway 287 in front of the Texas Motorplex near Ennis, reportedly struck by a driver fleeing from police in a high-speed chase.

Draper, who was riding a motorcycle, was airlifted to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. There he died during emergency surgery.

Kinsley said his team was “broken up” but that Draper would have wanted them to compete. He said they were dedicating their performance this weekend to Draper’s memory.   

Draper, of Waco, was a Vietnam War veteran of the U.S. Navy, who survived esophageal cancer attributed to his contact with the toxic herbicide / defoliant Agent Orange.

He recently sold his Majestic Turbocharger business and was dividing his energy, helping Kinsley work on his dragster several nights a week at the shop in Kennedale and building (along with friend Benny Bridger) a land-speed vehicle for running at the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Kinsley said he and Draper has talked about Kinsley driving that car – a 600-horsepower, open-wheel blown-fuel Lakester – at Bonneville.

Draper is survived by his wife, Linda.

The John “Bodie” Smith-led team had another unfortunate piece of news Friday when Kinsley made his first qualifying attempt.

His dragster got off the starting line cleanly but suffered a massive engine explosion about midway through the run. He pulled the car to the wall and got it stopped, but the fire continued to burn, causing massive damage for the crew to try to fix before the evening session. The crew came through and patched the car together, although Kinsley posted a dismal 10-second pass.

FUNNY CAR

RECORDS FALL – Courtney Force was right. Before qualifying opened for the AAA Texas Fall Nationals, the Traxxas Camaro driver said her year-old track records of 4.039 seconds and 314.90 mph would not last. “Seeing the progression the Funny Cars have made throughout this season, I would be shocked if my records held up. I'm definitely going to try and beat my own records,” she said.

That makes her 1-1 in pre-race predictions. The Don Schumacher Racing team reset her marks in the first qualifying session. Jack Beckman took the provisional lead with a 4.000-second pass in the Infinite Hero Dodge, and Matt Hagan raised the speed standard to 315.12 mph in the Mopar / Rocky Boots Dodge.

The night session rewrote the record book again. Del Worsham won the 3.9-second derby with his 3.917-second elapsed time to take the provisional No. 1 qualifying position. Robert Hight, running in the opposite lane, set the speed mark at 325.14 mph.

Worsham, in the DHL Toyota, was the best of eight Funny Car racers to run in the three-second range in the night session. His Kalitta Motorsports teammate, Alexis DeJoria, started the flurry, but her 3.969-second E.T. was the slowest of them and wound up eighth overnight. In between, in order, were Jack Beckman (3.919), Matt Hagan (3.921), Hight (3.941), Ron Capps (3.942), John Force (3.960), and Tim Wilkerson (3.968). So the first half of the field is bunched up within .052 of a second after one day of qualifying.  

Courtney Force just missed joining the 3.9 group. She clocked a 4.043 that would have been second-best in the field at the outset of the second session Friday. But it was good enough only for 10th place Friday night, as Tommy Johnson Jr. wedged his way into 4.002.

Chad Head, with a 4.074, and Cory Lee, who posted his career-best 4.076, rounded out the top 12 whose times will carry over to Saturday.

Starting Saturday with a blank slate will be Cruz Pedregon, Tony Pedregon, Brian Stewart (who hit the wall on his evening run), Terry Haddock, Todd Simpson, and Dave Richards.

ON TOP – Tentative No. 1 qualifier Del Worsham acknowledged that he “hadn’t been down the track in basically a month,” reciting his troubled runs in the Countdown. But after what he called a “conservative run” in the first session that put him No. 3 in the order, he made up for his aborted trips by setting the Motorplex elapsed-time record at 3.917 seconds on the 1,000-foot course. He said he grew up loving this facility south of Dallas and watching his driving heroes set records on this all-concrete marvel. “The place lives up to the hype,” he said.

The two-time Dallas winner (2002, 2004) came into this event leading Jack Beckman by a mere 16 points. And he said, “I think we should go back to the mindset of going into Charlotte,” Worsham said. “We need points.” He got four more Friday.

The 2011 Top Fuel champion is on pace to become just the third driver in NHRA history to win championships in both Top Fuel and Funny Car. He would join Kenny Bernstein and Gary Scelzi.

Worsham has led the standings for the past three events. That’s his longest consecutive reign in the Funny Car class since 2004.

BAD MEMORIES GONE – Although Courtney Force didn’t get a 3.9-second E.T. Friday, she did indicate she already has exorcised her bad memories from the Motorplex, from her dad John’s wicked 2007 crash here. She won last year’s AAA Texas Fall Nationals from the No. 1 starting position. That sixth victory tied her with the late Eric Medlen, her former John Force Racing teammate who passed away in 2007 from injuries suffered in a testing accident.

“This is a very memorable race track for me and my team after picking up the win here last year and tying Eric Medlen’s six Funny Car wins. Winning back-to-back races was a huge accomplishment as well. Our success here as turned the difficult memories of my dad’s crash into more positive ones,” Force said.

That 2014 victory also tied her with Alexis DeJoria for the most Funny Car victories by a female in a season. Force broke the tie the very next weekend when she won at St. Louis to become the first woman to win back-to-back Funny Car races.

 “It helps going into a race knowing that you've had really good luck there,” she said before staking herself to the tentative No. 4 spot at her primary sponsor’s home race in her special-edition pink car that signifies breast-cancer research month.

 

SHOW ME THE MONEY! - Tim Wilkerson figured that “we're in the Countdown, so we'll be in Hollywood at the NHRA Awards Ceremony after Pomona and I'll be on-stage with the rest of the drivers in the top 10. All that's left to decide is which position I'll be standing in and the dollar amount on the bonus check, so why not go for it? This isn't the time to play safe and be conservative.”

The Levi, Ray & Shoup Mustang owner-tuner-driver is in eighth place, 94 points out of the top five. He’s seven points behind No. 7 Cruz Pedregon, 49 behind No. 6 John Force, and 94 behind No. 5 Ron Capps.

And from Wilkerson’s point of view, the difference between the payout to the No. 8 finisher and the No. 5 finisher makes a significant difference.

"My dad raised me to understand that a dollar is a dollar, and if you earn it it's yours," he said. "Put it this way: You won't see me turning down an extra thousand or so if we can move up another spot or two. We don't just keep an eye on our dollars around here, we keep an eye on every penny. That's how we're able to run with these big teams on a fraction of the budget. You just have to have all your guys on the same page, doing it right every time, because every part we own is important to us.

"While you're doing that, you also have to be aggressive enough to give yourself a chance. We're not out here just to get on TV and have fun. My guys work as hard as anyone, and if you don't win it's not much fun so we're here to win. You just need to stay with what you know and take what the track will give you,” Wilkerson said. “We've done a pretty good job this year, in that regard, and I'm really proud of my guys for the way they consistently put the car together right.

"The Motorplex lets you do as much as the weather allows, because the surface is fantastic and it's all concrete. If it's not too hot, you can turn up the dial and run as hard as you can. If it is hot, it becomes a tuner's race, where finesse is more important than brute power, and we've always been pretty good at that. We think we can win either way, though."

He qualified ninth in the first session and seventh in the second.

After registering his 3.968-second pass in the night opportunity, Wilkerson said, “We’re proud of that. That’s our 11th three-second run. And considering our budget [which is sufficient but not abundant], that’s pretty dang impressive.”

‘TRYING HARDER?’ REALLY? – Jack Beckman led the first Funny Car qualifying session and ended up second in the evening session in his Infinite Hero Dodge. And he said his team won't do anything more that it has all year. Beckman has elevated performance to a new level this season, and even if he hadn’t, he’d still say the same thing.

"I just don't get that whole 'trying harder thing,' because that means that you haven't been giving it your all up to that point,” he said. “I truly don't understand some of the hyperbole and the sports clichés that people use and try to apply to drag racing.

"I get as a football player going into the fourth quarter and you're exhausted and you can't feel your legs that there's a level of motivation and maybe get some adrenaline going so you can just function at a high level for one more play,” he said.

"We floor the throttle on a race car and try to hold it in the groove for four seconds and then safely slow it down. The demands on us are completely different. They're unique. They are potentially stressful, but I try my hardest every time. I try my hardest in qualifying. I'm just going to continue to do that every single time they tighten the harnesses on me, and that's as good as I can do."

 

PRO STOCK

BEATING UP ON HIMSELF - Jonathan Gray was self-critical Friday, although he enters Saturday’s final qualifying day as the provisional Pro Stock leader. His 6.493, which aced out Drew Skillman by one-thousandth of a second and Erica Enders by two-thousandths, was a track record. Tentative No. 4 qualifier Greg Anderson set the track speed record at 213.13 mph.

He said his Gray Manufacturing Chevy Camaro team has given him a car capable of winning every race in the Countdown, “but I’ve let them down ever since the Countdown started. I’ve dropped the ball every time I turn around. But that’s over. I’m done with that. I’ve got to redeem myself. I made a deal [with the team] that we’ll just go out and win the last three races.”

"At this time last year, we were a whole lot closer to where we wanted to be," said Jonathan. "This year we struggled the first part of the year, and a lot of that was with the way I was driving, but we've got that situated and have been running a whole lot better. Our hope for the championship is gone, but we really want to finish decent.

"I won the Charlotte race at Texas Motorplex last year, and I went to the semifinals at the Fall Nationals on Sunday. I should have doubled-up that weekend,” he said.

As for Friday’s effort, Gray said, “I could not be more satisfied with the guys and the car.”  

ON THE OUTSIDE – Deric Kramer, Alex Laughlin, Alan Prusiensky, and John Gaydosh all posted times but will have to start all over Saturday because they didn’t land in the top 12.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE

‘DIRTY HARRY’ MAKES STOFFER’S DAY – Karen Stoffer calls her favorite engine “Dirty Harry.” However, he has sat idle since the U.S. Nationals in early September. But her team, for which her husband Gary is crew chief, reinstalled it.

She proclaimed it “a happy, happy motor” after running a 6.832-second elapsed time at 195.14 mph to retake her provisional No. 1 starting spot. She had been first after the opening session with a 6.884, 193.52.

Actually, the engine’s name she inherited from previous owner Harry Lartigue. She bought it after Lartigue retired from the sport. Just the same, she said with a reference to Hollywood and Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry character, “Hopefully we can make a lot of people’s day.”

THIS ONE’S FOR YOU JUNIOR – For a slight moment, Buell rider Chip Ellis owned the Pro Stock Motorcycle lead, before Karen Stoffer reclaimed it in the next pairing under the lights at Ennis. And what pleased him most was that he made team owner Junior Pippin, who’s resting at home while battling cancer, happy.

Ellis said that after he took the tentative No. 6 spot in the first qualifying session with a 6.939-second, 192.80-mph run, Pippin phoned and asked him of the bike, “Is there any more in it?” Replied Ellis, “Enough to go to the top.”

So when he rose to the top of the order, with daughter McKenzie working on the clutch, he said with satisfaction, “At least I did what I said we could do.” But Stoffer retook the No. 1 position   

TOUGH BREAK – Steve Johnson started qualifying in fifth place (at 6.934 seconds, 192.06 mph) and dropped in the order to No. 12 overnight (6.933, 193.13). So he made it through Friday with an elapsed time that will carry over to Saturday’s qualifying. What’s remarkable is that he did it with a broken right ankle.

Johnson has been hobbling around with a splint on his ankle ever since last Friday, when he slipped while doing some tree-trimming. He passed a physical exam Friday at the Motorplex and raced with a padded splint inside his right riding shoe.

Normally he parks his hauler inside his shop at Irondale, Ala., but it sat outside last week so a tank could drain. It bugged him that the trees were hitting the hauler, so he decided to scoot up on the hillside there and trim them. On the way down, Johnson miscalculated where his bottom step needed to be. He planted his foot, but his leg went in the other direction, off to the right.

Johnson reminded that he has raced with a broken foot. Several years ago, at Englishtown, he strategized his way through that appearance, staging once to get at least a minimum payout.

 

HINES SECURES GRIP ON POINTS LEAD – Andrew Hines seized the Pro Stock Motorcycle lead at the opening race of the Countdown, at Charlotte. He then won at Reading. But the Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson rider isn’t swaggering. He said, “It can go away just as fast as it happens.”

He entered this race 89 points ahead of teammate Eddie Krawiec. “You’re getting 20 points per round, so if you go out in the second round it just opens the door for someone. We’re trying to be consistent on Sunday and we’ve really worked on that throughout the year. Now we’re running consistent from lap-to-lap. We’ve been putting in a lot of time figuring things out.”

He figured out how to take the tentative No. 6 qualifying slot on the opening day of time trials. He did it with a 6.8999-second elapsed time at 193.46 mph. He was two-thousandths of a second quicker than No. 7 Hector Arana and eight-thousandths of a second slower than No. 5 Matt Smith.

“We had a little stumble in St. Louis and I could have done a better job of reacting on the starting line, and I’m really working to get those reaction times down,” said Hines, who has 41 career victories. “But I feel like things have gone pretty well. We’re making good power and good mile per hour, and we’ve made up a pretty good margin in three races. We were running OK before the Countdown, and we’re running well now. Everything has lined up really well. We have a good motorcycle right now.

“We looked at what was working and pieced it all together, and it’s been running strong since. We just have to keep it rolling,” Hines said. “It’s tough to bring that performance week in and week out, but we’ll go out and try to do the best we can. We’ll be prepared for Sunday and hopefully we can continue this string.”

Hines said, “The goal for Dallas is to get a cowboy hat.” That what winners here traditionally receive. “I would like to get another one. I ran well there last year and I know the bikes like the track. It’s just a matter of bringing the right tune-up.”