Competition Plus’ random water-cooler topics from the Muckleshoot Casino Resort NHRA Northwest Nationals at Seattle’s Pacific Raceways
1 – KALITTA, FORCE THRILL IN ROUND 1 – Brittany Force and Doug Kalitta took advantage of the cool temperatures Sunday morning to deliver top-flight Top Fuel entertainment to the crowd. Force, whose qualifying runs included a 340.47-mph speed, improved that in the first round to 340.82. Then Kalitta, on a solo pass, stole the opening-round act two pairs later with a 3.628-second elapsed time at 341.34 mph. The time matched Clay Millican’s second-quickest time in Top Fuel history, and his speed was the third-fastest in class history, behind Force’s two 341s at Charlotte (341.59) and Epping, N.H. (341.42).
And that was just the beginning.
Alan Johnson, Kalitta’s crew chief, said of the Mac Tools dragster, “The car just does it. The thing’s set up really well. Those numbers have been coming. We run a lot of 64s, and all those 64s weren’t perfect runs. Apparently that was pretty perfect.”
Then Force reset her own national speed record (341.59 mph) in a semifinal victory over Kalitta with her eye-popping 341.85. She finished the day as runner-up to Shawn Langdon.
2 – SHAWN REED UPDATE – Word early Sunday from Top Fuel owner-driver Shawn Reed’s crew was that the native Washingtonian underwent surgery at Seattle’ Harborview Medical Center to repair his hand that was injured during his violent qualifying crash Saturday. A prepared statement issued Sunday from the NHRA said: “Shawn is in stable condition with non-life-threatening injuries and remains in medical care for further evaluation.”
However, a team press release issued at the end of the race Sunday revealed that “in addition to two fractured ribs, the Washington native sustained injuries to his left hand, resulting in the loss of his left pointer [index] finger and requiring that a pin be placed in his thumb.”
Reed said in the statement, “Obviously, you never want a race weekend to go like that, but I’m already on the mend. First of all, I want to thank the Safety Safari and the whole NHRA team for everything they do to keep us safe out there. We have the best fans in the world, and I appreciate all the thoughts and prayers from our extended racing family.”
He indicated he’s eager to return to competition. “I’m going to be back out there as soon as I can. I don’t have a target return date as of yet, and it may require a little adjusting, but it’d take a lot more than one missing digit to keep me down,” he said. “There’s nowhere I’d rather be than back out at the track, behind the wheel of my dragster, chasing that Wally.”
Reed was cleared to leave the hospital Sunday afternoon.
He had been scheduled to meet Justin Ashley in the opening round, so Ashley made a traction-troubled spurt, and in the second round lost to Doug Kalitta.
3 – INJURED SPECTATOR RECOVERING – The injured spectator struck by debris from Shawn Reed’s Top Fuel accident Saturday and airlifted from Pacific Raceways to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle is home and recovering. “She has a heck of a headache, and she got some stitches,” Pacific Raceways President Jason Fiorito said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with her family because they’re part of our family. They were at our track, and they were watching the sport we all love. They’re part of our motorhome fan base.” Fiorito rushed to the scene of her accident, stayed with the family until she was transported to the hospital, has stayed in contact with her husband, and pledged “to be there for her and for the family.” Fiorito said the woman was transported by helicopter as a precaution for a potential head injury. She was released from Harborview around 2 a.m. Sunday. “We’re glad her injuries aren’t as severe as they could have been,” the racetrack president said. “This pulls on my heartstrings. The safety of our fans is paramount,” he added. And generally speaking, he said, the safety measures in place at the facility are satisfactory. “It’s an unusual incident. Parts don’t usually fly around.” He said he and his staff will “analyze everything” and see what measures the track might be able to implement to make it even safer.
4 – HOMETOWN HERO GLENN FULFILLS LONGTIME WISH – Dallas Glenn finally was crowned Homecoming King.
The Pro Stock title contender, four-time winner and four-time runner-up in the season’s 11 races in hand scored his 17th triumph Sunday – but the first at his home track in the Seattle suburb of Kent, Wash.
Glenn, who grew up one exit east down Highway 18 from Pacific Raceways, defeated red-lighting defending race winner Jeg Coughlin at the Muckleshoot Casino Resort Northwest Nationals, but he drove into tire shake right away and coasted to victory.
He called it “an ugly win,” but he set the track elapsed-time record for the fourth time this weekend with the second-quickest pass in Pro Stock history at 6.446 seconds. Only Greg Anderson’s 6.443-second elapsed time at the Gainesville, Fla., season-opener in March has been quicker.
This is the track on which his grandfather, father, and brothers raced for years and the dragstrip on which he made the first-ever pass. “This track’s always going to be special to us. I grew up racing here. The first time I ever went down a dragstrip was here,” Glenn said.
It’s also the track on which his grandfather passed away when Dallas was about six or seven years old. He had an El Camino that he spent 10 to 15 years with Dallas’ dad, Steve, “kind of rebuilding it, and the first time he had taken it out, he had a heart attack, like his third run in the car at the top end of the track. Just before he exited the track, he had a heart attack and passed away. I used to bracket race it here on weekends, and I would drive it to the track and drive it home at night. I have it in North Carolina now. I still race it.”
But his memories of Pacific Raceways – known as Seattle International Raceway when the family began frequenting the facility – today are “all good,” he said: “I won my first races here, my first Wally here, so everything’s always been pretty special here.”
5 – TOUGH ON TWO WHEELS – Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Chris Bostick’s first-round upset of No. 1 qualifier John Hall was genuinely upsetting on a whole different level. Hall red-lit, but Bostick had his own troubles. Barely past the finish line, which he crossed at 145.66 mph, Bostick was drifting across the track as he simultaneously tried to balance himself on the bike and adjust his helmet and visor. He took a jarring hit to the opposite-lane wall, but miraculously managed to stay in the seat, albeit a bit wobbly. He got the motorcycle stopped and hopped off, watched the video replay of his wild ride on a top-end monitor, then gave the “OK” sign to TV cameras.
It turned out Bostick hadn’t tightened his helmet strap completely, and wind got up under it and, by his description, “blew the helmet up where I was looking at the chin part of the helmet. [It was] now right across my eyes. I can’t see anything at all. I’m shutting the bike off. Trying to pull my helmet down before I make impact with the wall. But I just wanted to say to everybody at home that I’m fine. Everything’s good.”
He hadn’t realized he won the match, but didn’t hesitate to say he would go get ready for Round 2. “We’re going to go back and either get the other bike out of the trailer or I’m going to get this one back together and we’re going to make another run at it,” Bostick said. “Thank you, Jesus, for keeping us safe. Thank you, fans, for being here. Thank you, everybody. We want to send our prayers and thoughts out to my friend Shawn [Reed] that impacted that same wall yesterday. So God bless him and his family. So, anyway, thank you. Thank you everybody.”
Bostick returned to the starting line for the quarterfinals with his back-up bike, but lost to eventual runner-up Richard Gadson.
Event winner Gaige Herrera said after the race, “It’s awesome he got on the other bike. My hat’s off to him. It takes a lot of courage to bounce off the wall, then to swing your leg over another bike you’ve never ridden.” He said he’s glad Bostick is relatively unscathed but said, “He said he was a little beat up.”
6 – STILL PERTURBED – Taking the edge off Brittany Force’s record-setting performance, leapfrogging Tony Stewart for the points lead, and winning the Top Fuel final round wasn’t really enough to dissolve Shawn Langdon’s anger Sunday.
The Kalitta Air dragster driver still hasn’t shaken the disappointment of having his Virginia Nationals victory in June stripped for a technical violation, and it spilled out in his post-race interviews.
After defeating Force in the final round Sunday, his first remark was “I’m still waiting for my confirmation.” Then, in a later interview, he confessed, “I was pissed. But people don’t come out here to see me get pissed. They pay to see me put down some good laps and kick ass.”
With just three more races remaining in the regular season and a $150,000 bonus if he’s the top seed at the start of the Countdown, Langdon said his team’s strategy is to “put our heads down and work our butts off. If we have a target on our back, we embrace that.”
Counting his sportsman accomplishments, it was Langdon’s 30th overall victory in the sport.
He remarked when congratulated for his 20th Top Fuel victory, “Twenty-one. But who’s counting?”
7 – CAPPS BARELY MISSES CHANCE TO SHARE WINNERS CIRCLE WITH PROTEGE – Maddi Gordon, who became the NHRA’s 100th different woman to win an event at this race last July, repeated her Top Alcohol Funny Car victory Sunday. She had hoped to join Funny Car finalist Ron Capps, whose Top Fuel dragster she will drive next year, in the winners circle. But Matt Hagan spoiled Capps’ effort in recording his 53rd victory. Gordon won in her class from the No. 1 starting spot.
9 – COSTLY KABANG – Tony Stewart’s Round 2 engine explosion was costly in more way than one.
It came against Shawn Langdon, his closest challenger for the points lead. And Langdon went on to win the event, moving Stewart down in the standings and regaining his No. 1 status for the first time since the Charlotte race.
“We had an unfortunate explosion again. It’s a part of racing, and it’s going to happen in this sport. It’s just unfortunate it caught us two events in a row. We’ll rebound from it,” Stewart said. “We lost the points lead, but we’re only 12 points behind, which is only one round down. We’re still in striking distance. It’s hard to be disappointed. Every time I feel frustrated about it, I think about where we were this time last year. This was one of the lowest points of the season when we left Seattle. We’ll carry our heads high, and just keep plugging away at it.”
10 – HUGE STRIDE FOR HYDE – Jim Head Racing’s Spencer Hyde made another strong argument for earning the Rookie of the Year Award this fall, defeating points leader Austin Prock, winner of the previous two races. He wasn’t gloating, though, acknowledging that, “Let’s face it, that’s the best team in drag racing. They won 75 percent of their races last year for a reason. That’s huge for us.”
It marked Hyde’s third trip to the semifinals this season. He said, “This was a solid weekend, even though we didn’t get the win. Getting to the semifinals was big. We are back in the Mission Foods Challenge for Sonoma. I felt really good in the car all weekend.”
Hyde eliminated Paul Lee in the opening round and said, “Beating Paul Lee in the first round was huge, even though it wasn’t our best performance. We caught a break there, and you need those sometimes. Racing Austin in the second round, he’s the points leader and they are a very strong team. Any time you can get around them you are having a good day. We knew we needed a good run, and we got it with our best run of the weekend.”
Ron Capps got the better of him in the semifinals but not by much. Capps was barely able to get around Hyde, winning by .0014 seconds, or just 8 inches.
“The race against Capps was so close,” said Hyde. “We were right there at the finish line, and those are the races we need to find a way to win. We have a great team, and we are running really well. I am looking forward to Sonoma.”
The Mission Foods Drag Racing Series heads to Northern California wine country for the Denso Nationals at Sonoma Raceway this coming weekend (July 25-27).
