NHRA SUPERNATIONALS - EVENT NOTEBOOK
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SUNDAY FINAL - A TOUGH DAY FOR DRAG RACERS
RACERS MOURN KALITTA - There were no driver introductions and quite simply, no one was offended – racers or fans.
Many race fans and racers filed into the Sunday morning Racers for Christ chapel service and the large congregation listened to Pastor Larry Smiley deliver a message on how to cope with the tragedy.
Smiley explained the protective instincts the second-generation Kalitta had for Hillary Will in the first season she raced Top Fuel. He explained how Kalitta wrote notes and followed up with special instructions.
The Oberhofer brothers, longtime Kalitta Racing figures, spoke on behalf of the team. There was a roller coaster of emotions as Jim and Jon both shared their feelings and fond memories of racing with the Kalitta family.
Jim, tuner for Will, shared a memory he experienced with Kalitta on Friday. Kalitta ribbed him about the special crew shirts they were given to promote K2M and spinal awareness.
The ice blue colored shirts inspired a chuckle from Kalitta.
“Scott said, ‘Jim O, you know what you look like with that shirt? You look like the iceberg that took down the Titanic.”
The remaining Team Kalitta teams elected to sit out Sunday’s final eliminations in honor of their fallen comrade.
Bob Vandergriff [Hillary Will], Cory McClenathan [Doug Kalitta] and Larry Dixon Jr. [David Grubnic] all won their first round races on single passes.
Many of the drivers raced on this somber day because that is what they do; they race.
“I can’t think of anything else I’d rather do today,” Dixon said. “Driving back to Indianapolis today would really suck.”
Funny Car eliminations opened with what was scheduled to be the match between Kalitta and Robert Hight.
Replacing the yellow DHL-sponsored Toyota Solara the left lane was nearly three-dozen members of the Team Kalitta operation. Hight burned out in the same right lane Kalitta had made his final run and took the green light amidst a standing ovation from the Raceway Park race fans.
Hight idled down the track at 75 miles per hour in tribute to his fallen competitor. The John Force Racing team driver remembered all too well the pain invading the Kalitta camp after losing teammate Eric Medlen during testing last year.
“It wasn’t much when you consider what the Kalitta family is going through,” Hight said of his efforts to honor his scheduled first round opponent. “I have a good idea what they are going through. There wasn’t much to get up for this morning when you don’t have a friend or a good racer in the other lane.
“When you were racing the guy [Scott Kalitta], you had better be up for it or he’ll whip you.”
Defending Funny Car world champion Tony Pedregon won the first round and expressed the emotional grief many of his fellow racers were experiencing.
“[I’m] kind of numb,” Pedregon sobbed. “It’s hard to get in the car and I don’t know if I’ve ever got in the car when I didn’t care about anything. God bless the Kalitta family and all of the people who come out here and make this sport what it is. We’ve got a great product; we just have to find a way to make it better and safer.”
THE KID FROM LONG ISLAND - Mike Ashley remembers a day when a promoter told him he couldn’t race. The promoter, Ashley recalled, was Duane Nichols and his United States Super Circuit presented one of the earliest exhibitions of the Pro Modified division.
“I called and asked if I could run with them, and he asked, 'Who are you?'” Ashley recalled. “He told me he had enough cars and didn’t need me. I told him that even though he wouldn’t let me run I was coming anyway and I’d just enter the sportsman classes and make his cars look foolish.”
Ashley's motive for his desire to race with the USSC was simple, he wanted to race at Old Bridge Raceway Park when the tour came to town. The opening weekend for the USSC featured an event at Budds Creek, Md., on Saturday and Englishtown, N.J., on Sunday.
Ashley traveled south to Maryland and showed up prepared to run in the track’s bracket division, albeit at 200-miles per hour.
“They ended up hurting a few cars and came over and asked if I’d like to be part of the show,” Ashley said. “That put us on the map because I was the second quickest car in the field. We came out the next day in Englishtown and won the race and set a new speed record.”
Ashley said from that point he never had to worry about getting turned down again.
“He was writing me letters and everything from that point on,” Ashley added. “I think it was a lesson that God taught me to be persistent in life. Sometimes God will give you obstacles so you learn to not accept no for an answer. You can always apply that to other areas of your life.”
From the earliest of memories, Ashley always wanted to be a drag racer. He often exhibited that insatiable desire to race and win in his earliest experiences. The two-time Pro Modified driver once drove a Top Sportsman car at 211-miles per hour through the grass.
Ashley recalled a multitude of those experiences while strapped into his Funny Car awaiting his first qualifying run on Friday in Englishtown. Two weeks ago, he announced his hometown event would be the last one for the foreseeable future.
Those memories served as a reminder of just how far he’d come.
“I hate to think most of those memories happened twenty years ago because it makes me feel old, but when you look at it, I have been blessed to get older,” Ashley admitted. “Twenty years ago I loved racing so much that I remember sitting down with my dad and telling him he’ll never understand it. You’ll never know how it feels to love something as much as I love to race.”
Ashley admitted his decision to step away from racing should be considered a sabbatical and not retirement.
“I made the decision to do this out of respect for Lend-America and the 600 employees,” Ashley said. “While the mortgage industry might be tough right now, I think of Lend-America as a beautiful cruise ship cruising through an unpredictable storm. You never know when a storm is going to come your way and you have to be there to watch. I think it’s more important to focus on business now.”
Ashley was unqualified headed into Saturday’s final session and as fate would have it, his Lend-America-sponsored entry was in line behind Scott Kalitta attempting qualifying. With his family standing nearby, his first love ahead of racing, the mortgage banker pulled out of line and called an end to the day before officials canceled the day’s activities.
Racing just didn’t seem important at that point.
"This is an absolute tragedy," Ashley said. I don't care about qualifying - it's just a race. I care about my friends, my family - this whole community out here. It's hard for me to even find words to describe how I feel.
"For me, it's a physical feeling of sadness inside - pain for Scotty's wife and two sons, his family and team. We all know this is dangerous, and we take as many precautions as possible, but nothing, nothing at all can prepare you for this. I just pray for them that God will somehow give them peace - eventually.
"When something like this happens, I have to take time to really examine my life and what I'm doing. For me, this just solidifies my decision to step out of the car for this season - not out of fear, because I never let fear drive me. It's more out of the importance of focusing on where I can do the most good for my family and all of those people who rely on me to do my job well.”
TOUGH DAY FOR A FATHER - Father’s Day was last week but Tim Wilkerson felt a special need this weekend to be a dad.
After watching Scott Kalitta lose his life in a racing accident on Saturday afternoon, he felt the need to call his son Daniel.
The 20-year old, second-generation Wilkerson has aspirations to become a nitro Funny Car driver and has piloted his dad’s car on occasion.
Wilkerson just wanted to remind his son how dangerous the sport can be. He tried his best to understand how Connie Kalitta was feeling. Such a thought was too painful for him to imagine.
“I told my son I love him and make sure he knew how dangerous this is,” Wilkerson recalled. “Being 20 years old this is the perfect answer I thought I’d get out of him…’Oh well Dad you know it’s okay.’ So you know he wanted to make sure I was alright.
“For all fathers out there it was a tough day. Here at the race track, even crew members. I talked to every crew member before the finals between every round; everyone had a somber look on their face.”
Lost in the pain was Wilkerson’s tenth national event victory, and ninth in the nitro Funny Car division. He extended his point lead over second place Ashley Force to 132 points.
Points were the least of Wilkerson’s concern. His concerns were clearly focused on the shutdown area of the track which has led many racers in the pits to call for a reduction from the standard 1320-foot racing surface.
“I went down and looked at the end and no I wasn’t confident,” Wilkerson said. “I don’t like the net, I think it’s too short. The sand trap is too short. That’s the bottom line. It was before and it still is. I’m not going to sugarcoat that. In my opinion, Scott’s tragedy at the speed he was going, I don’t know if anything would’ve saved his life but there needs to be standards – and this place is below them.
“That’s all there is to it for a shutdown area. So I’m not going to talk about that anymore because I’m not going to slam the track. It’s a great facility and a great family. If you look at it, it’s too short. Especially if you drive down there, you look and say holy moly; it’s a lot shorter than anything we’ve had.”
In the end, Wilkerson put the weekend’s experience in perspective.
“You come to the race track, you always think there is a chance of something happening to somebody but you never believe that,” Wilkerson said. “You just race the race and we all enjoy it. It’s what we do for a living. It sounds cliché but after some tragedy goes on, it really puts it in perspective that there needs to be a safer way to make a living if this is what’s going to happen from time to time.
“I think we really need to address that and if we don’t learn something from the tragedies, it’s not a good race. Knowing Scott the way I knew Scott, he would’ve wanted us to come out here and race because he was that kind of guy. You know he’s part of Connie and Connie is a racer and he loves the sport like we all do. With that in mind, we all came to the race track with the intention of winning. That’s the only way you get through these tragedies, in my opinion, is to put your heart and soul into what you do and you hope for the best.”
A TROPHY FOR A TRUE CHAMPION - One might say that Tony Schumacher had extra incentive to win the trophy at the NHRA
Supernationals in Englishtown, N.J. He wanted to give the award away.
Schumacher’s team and the U.S. Army made a joint presentation to Team Kalitta in honor of Scott Kalitta, killed in a high-speed accident on Saturday afternoon.
The five-time world champion has history with the Kalitta family and that was usually in taking away victories and two seasons ago, a world champion.
Today he wanted to give back to a family he said has given so much to the sport and the country. The family’s Kalitta Air Services regularly transports fallen soldiers back home.
“Before we went out there, the ARMY guys came to me and said, 'you know, Kalitta flies all fallen comrades back,” Schumacher explained. “If you pull this off, just giving them the trophy make sure its from us, it's from the soldiers.' And, that's what it was. It was from the soldiers and the families. Right now he's (Connie Kalitta) understanding it because he's going through what he flies home every week and it’s hard. He takes that to heart. It's not just his boy. He takes it to heart when he's bringing people home.”
They're such great rivals, such great friends. It's devastating.”
This was the first career victory for Schumacher at historic Raceway Park. He’s now reduced the list of tracks where he has failed to win to three – Atlanta Dragway, Virginia Motorsports Park and Heartland Park Topeka.
“It was nice to go deep into the day for once here,” he said. “Admittedly, this track has given us fits. Maybe, we have finally disposed of the hard times in New Jersey.”
Next Sunday’s race will mark the official halfway point of the 24-race NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series.
“It’s hard to believe that we’ve reached that stage of the season already,” said Schumacher. “It would be kind of neat if we could say that we led the points from the season opener through the 12th race.”
With his 46th career win, Schumacher is now six wins short of tying Joe Amato for the all-time Top Fuel victory record.
A SEASONED VETERAN – Schumacher was once a rookie and for him, the late Scott Kalitta provided his first win. How fitting was the fact Schumacher’s first national event came during the 1999 NHRA Fallnationals in Dallas, Texas, at the expense of Kalitta.
“I was watching him pull away,” Schumacher recalled of that fateful day. “He was just kicking my butt and then he smoked the tires. And, I had been to nine finals and I was like 'here goes another one' and bam he was gone and I thought alright. I won my first race at the right time to win the championship.”
Schumacher hated to see Kalitta move over to the Funny Car division. He still smiles when he recalls the two-time champion’s assessment.
“He used to say, ‘You guys win too much, I’m going over to Funny Car.”
THE MORTALITY OF RACING – A little known factoid is Schumacher’s first national event as a NHRA Top Fuel driver was at the 1996 NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis. The rookie driver qualified sixteenth and was to face the top qualifier in the first round.
The top qualifier, Blaine Johnson, was killed on the final day of qualifying at that event. Schumacher was to meet him in the first round and instead made a single.
Johnson’s brother Alan is Schumacher’s tuner and the loss of Kalitta struck him hard.
“Last night he was torn up,” Schumacher said. “He was just shook up and told the guys we'll decide in the morning if we're running or not. I was, fine, I'm going to bed do my normal deal, get up and tell me what to do. I got here, he looked at me and just nodded and said, 'you alright' and I said I was alright and he said, 'let's race.'
“What would have been right? For all of us to sit it out and one guy runs and gets the trophy. We had to move on. And, you think it's only been a couple hours. We had to race. There has to be a winner. If one of us or five of us would've sat out, you would be the jerk if you'd went off and won. If five of us had sat out and one car went down the track it just would have been a bad way to win.
“I think amongst the group of people we said we gotta go, we gotta race and we gotta give the trophy and it's gotta be earned. It's gotta be a group of guys battling it out and it was. I feel the race today was extremely difficult to win and the trophy will sit in the right place.”
Schumacher has taken the opportunity on more than one occasion to put himself in Kalitta’s shoes.
“If it happened to me; I've talked to my guys,” Schumacher said. “There is not a thing I can think of that I haven't done in my life. I want to see my grandkids. I'm not stupid. I'm not out here being dumb. I do whatever it takes to protect myself to the max. We all do it, but it could happen. And if it does happen, understand I am doing what I love. I wouldn't know what to do without it. I wouldn't be alive without it. I get in that car and that makes me alive. It makes me who I am. It made Scott who he was. It makes Connie who he is. It makes all of us. We get it and when that happens it’s devastating but its part of reality, unfortunately.”
WINNING FOR SCOTT – Greg Anderson stated at the onset of Sunday’s final eliminations that he wanted to win for friend and
indirect teammate Scott Kalitta. His victory over Dave Connolly in the final round ensured he was a man of his word.
"It's been a tough couple of days," Anderson said. "We did a lot of preparation for the race and kind of sprang back on Friday, but everything changed yesterday. After Scott's accident you kind of lose focus on what you have to get done at the track - it's no longer important. It was a tough deal to come out here and race today, and I don't know how we did it, but right now we're praying for the family."
"God bless Connie Kalitta," Wilkerson said. "I hope that we can all be there for him in the future months because he's going to need it. That win was for all the fathers out here, John Medlen included. I know they have a lot of faith and every one of them are teaching me. Hopefully we can all learn to get through this, and with some faith, I think we will."
Anderson came into today's Pro Stock eliminator with his Summit Racing Equipment Pontiac GXP qualified in the No. 1 position after running low elapsed time of the weekend at 6.599 seconds. The three-time POWERade champion defeated Johnny Gray in round one with a 6.641 e.t. at 207.88 mph, Larry Morgan in the closest contest of the day (only one inch separated the two cars at the finish line) with a 6.644 second run at 207.91 mph, and Mike Edwards in the semifinals with a 6.665 e.t. at 207.91 mph. In the finals against Dave Connolly's Chevy Cobalt, both cars shook hard off the line. Anderson got back in the throttle and struggled to the finish line making it there first with a 7.578 e.t. at 200.23 mph. Connolly couldn't recover in time and coasted to the stripe with a 20.285 second run.
"I don't know how I won in the finals," Anderson said. "Obviously something happened to the race track there - we missed it bad but Dave (Connolly) did too. I owe that win to Jason Line. He stuck his head into the cockpit right at the starting line and said, 'If it shakes, get back in it. Don't lift.' I did that a few races and gave one up. It was a pedal fest and it was ugly, but I got the win.
"Two or three races ago the same thing happened where Dave and I were racing, I aborted the run, he got back in it and won. I forgot about it until Jason gave me a heads up before the final round. He told me if you have to get back in it, pedal it and get down the racetrack. If Jason hadn't said that, I'd probably still be sitting there. Things worked out for the best and somehow the Summit Racing Pontiac is in the winner's circle."
It was Anderson's third victory this season and his fourth overall at Englishtown.
SWEET REVENGE - Chip Ellis said a lot of people felt the Suzuki combination couldn’t win any more. He believes they greatly
underestimated the resolve of Steve Tartaglia.
The final round during the NHRA Supernationals in Englishtown, N.J. represented far more than a show of brand supremacy. This represented the first head-to-head match for Ellis against his former employer G2 Motorsports.
G2 declined to renew the Ellis contract after he lost on a hole shot at the NHRA Auto Club Finals in Pomona.
Ellis, 38, of Brownsburg, Ind., scored his sixth national event victory when Chris Rivas fouled.
“This was awesome and I know what George Smith is capable of because I rode his bike all last year,” Ellis admitted. “He’s a great tuner and Chris is doing a great job riding for him. One the other hand, I feel like I have the best tuner. That man is Steve Tartaglia.
“We are winning on a bike that no one can says we can win with. If you know how hard this guys works and how much he puts into this program, you would know why our bike is so fast. My hobby is in riding dirt bikes and going out with my family. His hobby is working on those engines.
“If he’s not at the shop working on those engines, he’s at his house with all of his paperwork scattered across his desk looking at ways to make this bike faster. He’s not afraid to work. I am really proud to be a part of such a great organization such as Don Schumacher Racing and I’m honored they gave me this opportunity.”
This marked the second final round of the season for Ellis and his first one in Englishtown.
“We should have won a few more races here this year already,’ Ellis said. “But all that matters is today and now.”
The victory moved Ellis into second place in the championship points standings.
FOUR-TIMER - Gary Densham has qualified sixteenth for the last four events. In each instance, the seasoned Funny Car driver has eliminated the top qualifier. He pulled off the feat Sunday when Jim Head shook and smoked the tires.
ROCK ON - Sebastian Bach was in attendance for the Lucas Oil SuperNationals as a guest of Morgan Lucas Racing. The rock and roll singer thoroughly enjoyed his day.
"It was great to have such a great rocker like Sebastian Bach here," said Lucas, who was assisting the talented artist promote his latest collection of music, /Angel Down/. "This being his first race of any kind, I think he had a pretty good time."
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SATURDAY NOTEBOOK - SCOTT KALITTA SUCCOMBS TO INJURIES IN QUALIFYING CRASH
Scott Kalitta was fatally
injured in a high-speed crash during the NHRA Lucas Oil Supernationals in
The remnants of the race car then
sped towards the sandtrap and cleared the catch net.
Kalitta, 46, of Palmetto,
Kalitta’s first
professional start came ironically in 1982 at
Ironically Kalitta was in
the opposite lane when Top Fuel driver Darrell
Russell [2004] encountered his fatal accident.
Kalitta is survived by
wife Kathy, sons Cory (14) and Colin (9). He was the son of drag racing legend
Connie Kalitta and cousin to current Top Fuel racer Doug Kalitta.
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FRIDAY NOTEBOOK – ANTRON’S GRANDMA AND HER TEETH, HEAD’S GAMES AND ANDERSON ROCKS AND ROLLS
GOTTA SHINE, GRANDMA’S HERE –
Even Grandma Lossie [who earned her nickname by getting lost in New York] was here to see her grandson run 4.502 seconds at 326.24 miles per hour.
“She promised she wouldn’t embarrass me and said she’d even wear her teeth,” Brown said. “I could see her; she was smiling and messing with me. My grandma and I are just alike.”
Grandma Lossie got a chance to watch her grandson realize a dream.
“You know I came here some 22 years ago and I saw the guys like Kenny Bernstein and the Snake, and I always had that dream that I could do that. You never are able to put that in perspective really. It just doesn’t seem real. How was I ever going to get a Top Fuel ride because my last name wasn’t Bernstein and it sure wasn’t Force. My dad and my uncle had a sportsman car and they still haven’t let me drive to this day. I was lucky that I went the motorcycle route.
"Just to come out here and drive a Top Fuel dragster at home with Lee Beard tuning doesn’t seem real.”
HEAD GAMES - The last time Jim Head made his way to the top of the qualifying list at an Englishtown race he was in a Top Fuel dragster. Even on that day in 2003, he knew the key to his success was having the right conditions at the right time.
Head found the perfect mix as he staged his Funny Car at sundown.
“I saw the sun go down behind the stands and the track temperature was perfect 93-degrees,” Head recalled. “At the very last minute, I made a decision to slow it down.”
He was looking to run a high 4.70-something.
“We had upchucked last weekend in Chicago and that just about broke my heart,” Head said, recalling his DNQ at the last event. “I just went out there and tuned to the track temperature, nothing else. I feel comfortable when the race track is 110 or 120, if we do that, there’s the bragging rights.”
The crew chief in Head commands low elapsed time over win lights.
“I want to be low elapsed time eight times in a weekend,” Head admitted. “I’m a crew chief, not a driver. I could care less about the win and loss deal.”
The NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tenn., represented his finest qualifying effort up to this point. He was second quickest.
TURN THE HIGH BEAMS ON – With an hour before the 10 PM curfew, the left-side lighting at Raceway Park went black leaving four Top Fuel cars waiting. Three of the four cars ran with only one side illuminated.
Steve Torrence was the only driver who elected to skip the run.
STILL HAD SOME IN IT – Greg Anderson admitted there was a little left on the table when he drove his way to the top spot in Pro Stock Friday qualifying with a run of 6.599 seconds at 209.23 mph.
"We made two real good runs today in the Summit Racing Pontiac GXP," Anderson said. "We ran low e.t. on the first run and kind of surprised ourselves. We didn't understand that the track was going to be as good as it was and it was fantastic. The sun was baking on the track all day, it was probably 125 degrees and it was still great out there. We knew coming into tonight that it was going to be a special session and it proved to be just that. These Pro Stock cars are so close right now that it all depends on who makes the right call at the right time and we were able to do that."
Anderson's Pontiac GXP posted the quickest elapsed time in both qualifying sessions today including a 6.622 second run at 208.52 mph in the first round of time trials. Anderson's most recent No. 1 qualifying effort came at the NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, Calif., in February and he currently has 63 career race day pole awards.
"This is fun," Anderson said. “We, as drivers, love racing in conditions like this. You know it's going to be fast, you know the racetrack is going to be great and you know you can throw everything you have at it. Luckily we got it close on the first run, we got a good tune up off of that, we threw the dice and came up with sevens on the second run as well."
ANDERSON TIRES - Ask Anderson about his “illegal” tires and he smiles. The three-time Pro Stock world champion from Mooresville, N.C., knows such a question centers around his front tires which the NHRA’s technical department forced him to change out.
The problem was the NHRA deemed the tires unsafe because they have been “shaven” down by the team.
“The NHRA felt that I had them down a little too thin,” Anderson said. “They thought the tires were going to blow out on me, but obviously there was a ton a rubber on them.”
Anderson’s opinion didn’t matter in the issue.
“They were just doing it for safety reasons,” Anderson admitted. “We generally don’t replace these front tires because they last forever. There’s not much weight on the front of these cars.”
Anderson pointed out no performance advantage to shaving down the front tires. He added this process is done primarily to true the tire.
“This is essentially the same as balancing a tire except instead of a three pound weight, you shave down areas of the tire to equal the thicker rubber on one side. You trim the outside of the tire where the high spots are. It makes it easier to balance and the tire rounder.”
He adds that when he did trade out the front tires he couldn’t tell a difference.
“The only reason we did it before is that it felt like the right thing to do,” Anderson said. “Right is right and wrong is wrong and I clearly couldn’t tell a difference.”
DON’T CHANGE A THING - Chris Rivas rode to a personal best en route to capturing the top spot in Pro Stock Bike, qualifying with a 6.932 seconds at 191.21 miles per hour run.
Rivas followed up this initial round with a lap of 6.940 seconds at 191.13- mph, the second quickest he has traveled the quarter mile since joining the NHRA POWERade Pro Stock Motorcycle series in 2005.
"This is a fast track and after what we did in Chicago, I thought we would run well here," he said referring to his win from the top qualifying spot at the last event in the series. "After Chicago, I told the guys, don't touch the bike. We did not hurt one thing in Chicago, and if they didn't change what they were doing, I wouldn't change what I was doing.
"The team, led by (crew chief) George Smith along with Ken Johnson and Derrell Mullis, just made some adjustments, but basically we ran what we won with in Chicago."
WELCOME BACK -
“I had told her that I was just going to put it in God’s hands and leave it alone,” Torrence said. “I just kind of put it on the back burner and went on with life. Short of going to every race, I didn’t know what else to do.”
Torrence said the prayer was the best thing he could have done.
“It just feels good to be back out here,” Torrence said. “I really tried to keep my composure and not really let on to everyone just how nervous I was.”
Friday’s opening run went to the top of the session and represented the first time since February 2006 he’d driven a Top Fuel dragster, or any dragster for that matter.
Torrence was formerly a teammate of J.R. Todd on Dexter Tuttle’s team then.
“I can definitely tell that I hadn’t been driving for a while,” Torrence said. “I had built it up in my mind to be a lot faster than it was. You know these cars are running 4.40s and 4.50s and you build up in your mind that it’s going to be so much quicker.
“The car ran a strong sixty foot and I have to admit that I was surprised I was up with the car. I figured that I would be behind it a little and it would take me a few runs to get caught up. I surprised myself. I felt it go out there and waddle the tires a bit. Then I felt it get on the high side and I was so excited about that I almost forgot to pull the parachutes.
“I think we are going to do well and I realize there will be a learning curve because it has been two years since. I’ll take it one lap at a time and hopefully by eliminations time I’ll be up to speed.”
Torrence went to the top spot in the first session with a 4.579 elapsed time at 315.42 miles per hour.
HE NEVER LEFT - Here’s a tip to drag racing fans. Don’t tell Pro Stock driver Larry Morgan, “Welcome back.”
“I never left,” Morgan responded.
Race fans were likely referring to the first eight races Morgan had failed to qualify in. Morgan failed to qualify, but his engine lease customers were flat flying. In fact, one of them won a race.
“We’ve been trying a lot of things to make our rental program better,” Morgan said. “When you have a bunch of guys out here running, you just have to move forward with the program.”
Morgan admitted he was trying to change the way he ran the engines.
“That put me behind,” Morgan added.
Failing to qualify isn’t easy for a competitive driver to stomach and in any other situation the sixteen-time national event winner would have a problem. Morgan was investing in his future and he adds, that’s made him all the better.
“I’m still here and a lot of other guys who have tried to do the same things aren’t,” Morgan said. “I think we’ve been successful with our programs but I’ve had to take a beating. I knew going into the situation that I was going to take a beating.”
The beating for the Lucas Oil-sponsored Morgan was not a lack of power. He just hadn’t found the right combination to channel the newfound gains.
“We had plenty of horsepower,” Morgan admitted. “I can tell you that I wouldn’t leave my shop if I didn’t have plenty of horsepower. My crew works very hard to do what they do and we are trying to hop up all of these engines and that’s difficult to do when you have four guys who think differently.
“That’s why I have to go out there and prove the stuff works before they get it. That’s the situation I was in.”
FORCE’S RED PANTS – Blame it on the hot pants.
John Force’s crew waxed a bit nostalgic and brought out the old red pants in an effort to commemorate Castrol GTX sponsorship of the team twenty-one years ago.
They wore those red pants, including his master tuner Austin Coil.
“Oh we got laughed at in the beginning,” Force recalled. “They said we looked like a bowling team. The race teams heckled us.”
The decision to wear the red pants was not a requirement from the sponsor.
“The crew chipped in and bought the pants themselves,” Force added. “They know were on a budget now. Heck, we’re even shutting the Ford Excursions off in the staging lanes to save gas.”
Then Force smiled.
“Castrol came to me and said, ‘We didn’t think anybody wanted them because we hated them.”
“Castrol agreed to pay for them any way and I just think it’s neat they remembered all the way back to our first championship. The red pants and they didn’t hurt us because we went to No. 1 on the first run.”
Force decreed that if he wins or qualifies on top this weekend, expect to see the red pants more.
“I’ll wear them from that point on,” Force said.
One person not adhering to the red pants dress code was Coil, but not because he didn’t like the idea.
“Whoever ordered the pants, ordered my size from back then,” Coil added. “I’m a little bit bigger now.”
QUICK AND SPECTACULAR - New Jersey resident Doug Foley thrilled a hometown crowd Friday night with a top-qualifying effort of 4.532 at 327.43 mph that established both his career-best elapsed time and top speed. Unfortunately, his run down Old Bridge Township Raceway Park was a little too spectacular for the drag racing school instructor as his parachutes failed to deploy and he ended up in the top-end sand-trap with a bent race car.
"We got to experience the exceptional highs and lows of this sport in one run," said Foley, who was uninjured in the incident. "I knew it was a great pass and everything was routine until I threw the (parachute) levers and didn't feel them open. I reached for the levers a second time and then I realized I was running out of real estate so I got on the brakes as hard as I could.
"I went into the sand hard. I would estimate I was going 150 mph at least. The car went all the way through to the back of the sand and I got into the catch-net. That's probably what bent the car because it yanked me sideways a little bit. We're still examining the chassis to see the extent of the damage so we'll have to see what's next."
The good news for Foley is that he's a lofty third on the qualifying ladder. He also is less than an hour away from his race shop in Sewell, N.J., so replacement parts are close at hand.
"We will definitely continue to race," Foley said. "We'll be ready for Sunday no matter what. The question is how much we'll get done tonight and tomorrow morning and whether we'll be able to run the final two qualifying sessions. I'd really like to make a pass before eliminations but we'll have to see how it all comes together."
This is Foley's third race of 2008 and the third time he's flying the colors of FX Caprara Car Companies of Watertown, N.Y. Foley also added GelTech Solutions' FireIce brand, Scherbon Consolidated Inc., and go2geiger.com to his list of sponsors.
FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY - Warren Johnson and the GM Performance Parts GXP crew had an extra degree of difficulty added to their effort at this weekend’s Lucas Oil NHRA Supernationals on Thursday, as the team transporter experienced mechanical difficulties en route to the Englishtown, NJ track.
With their tractor unable to move after suffering engine problems in Winchester, VA, the two-man crew of Adam Drzayich and Bobby Wunderlich scrambled to find an alternative way to get their trailer to the Garden State, receiving welcome assistance from their teammates Justin Belfance and Jarrett Hadorn on the ACDelco Cobalt crew, as well as fellow competitor Justin Humphreys.
First, a dealer was located and arrangements were made to have the truck towed. At the same time, the ACDelco crew doubled back to help their teammates, transferring WJ’s GM Performance Parts GXP to their trailer in case the other unit could not make it to the track.
Fortunately, Humphreys was able to secure a loaner unit from a friend in Maryland, and while part of the team remained in Virginia to oversee the tow, two other crew members headed north in order to pick up the borrowed truck and drive it back to the stranded trailer. After a long and trying day, the two teams pulled into Old Bridge Township Raceway Park at 4:30 a.m. on Friday.
Finally, a rented generator was dropped off at the team’s pit area on Friday, allowing them to get power to their trailer, and function somewhat normally, with The Professor quick to praise both crews for their tremendous efforts, as well as thanking Humphreys for his invaluable assistance.
“I guess you could say our teams gained some valuable experience in surviving on the road. Give the hand they were dealt, everyone did a tremendous job of recovering from it and getting the equipment here. I couldn’t ask for any more than that, and want to thank both the ACDelco and GM Performance Parts teams for pitching in and getting the job done.
“I also want to acknowledge the invaluable assistance provided by Justin Humphreys. He not only found us a truck to use while ours gets repaired, but also helped line up a generator. As the saying goes, a friend in need is a friend indeed, and Justin went above and beyond. He and his team deserve a very big thank you for helping to get us here. If we can be successful here this weekend, it would be even better.”
Incidentally, the news did not improve on Friday afternoon. Word from the repair shop was the truck’s diesel engine had spun the main bearing, incurring an estimated $18,000 repair which is apparently not covered by the manufacturer’s warranty.
DON’T LAUGH, IT WORKED - Del Worsham's Checker, Schuck's, Kragen team had a request for their fearless leader after the most recent NHRA race in Chicago. Short of sacrificing chickens or burning their uniforms, the team wanted a fresh start and "something new" when they took the track here in Englishtown, as a way of exorcising the gremlins that had been possessing their car. Their idea: Switch to the blue CSK Impala body that was traveling in the transporter as the back-up. It didn't take Worsham long to agree, and although he'll surely admit that it's not likely to have had any real impact (the body is actually 15 pounds heavier) something surely turned around in the Worsham camp, as the CSK machine made two clean laps on the first day in E-town, ending the evening in the No. 5 spot with a strong and safe 4.831 at 314.53 mph.
"I'm the first one to tell you anything is possible, but barring a major cold front coming through that no one saw coming, that should be good for the show on Sunday," a relieved Worsham said. "The more important thing, though, is that we made two laps here today, and we got down the track both times without the car, the driver, or the crew doing anything funny. Basically, this is how it's supposed to work, and I'm all for it because the two bodies look exactly the same to me, when I'm inside the car.
"The red CSK body had a few dings and cracks in it, but it wasn't like we couldn't run it. The guys were all just wanting to switch something up, to do something different, and I can't say I didn't agree with them. It's all the same logos in the same place, it's just blue instead of red, so why not give it a shot. Don't get me wrong, it's probably more important that we actually made a change to how we're running the car and that helped it get through the trouble spot, where we've been smoking the tires near the 330 mark, on both shots today. That change probably meant more than what color the car was, but whatever works is fine by me.
"Tomorrow, we'll come out here and just try to keep doing the best we can under the conditions we're faced with. It's supposed to be a little warmer, and we're due to run about three hours earlier than today, so things should slow down a little. I'll tell you this: It sure feels good to feel good. It's been too long, and today made everyone on this team smile a little and get a little excited, including the driver. This is more like it."
WILD DAY OF PRO MOD - Canadian Ray Commisso has only made one full pass down the quarter-mile in his new ProCare
Commisso's run of 5.989 at 239.36 mph was good enough for the No. 1 position in the lone session of qualifying on the Day 1 schedule. Due to time constraints and a strict curfew, only one round of action took place, placing a premium on track time.
"We've been struggling since Houston and after crashing two weeks ago in testing it's great to finally get back on track," Commisso said. "Since we crashed we've made probably 15 or so attempts to get this new car down the track and we never did, so we were a little nervous coming in here. But then we went right out and had a successful pass to get us to number one, so we're real happy."
John Russo of Middletown, Mass., was close behind in second with a 5.993 at 242.80 mph. Only Commisso and Russo posted five-second passes on the day.
Kirk Kuhns (6.018) and Roger Burgess (6.045) rounded out the top four.
Racing on the JEGS ProMod Challenge for the first time, NMCA star Vinny Budano opened with a 6.293 at 222.11 mph, good enough for 10th place. Nick Montana, who like Budano hails from New York, is also in the mix with a13th-best 6.447.
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