Torrence earns first ever Top Fuel Dragster win, Skillman scores unprecedented first time double win in Stock and Super Stock at 2012 NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals
by Tim Glover
It wouldn't be a Southern Nationals without some rain in the picture, and the 2012 event wasn't any different. Some early Friday morning rain delayed the action for a couple of hours, but after that the show went on without a hitch for the rest of the weekend. Young Drew Skillman scored an unprecedented double win with a pair of 2012 Cobra Jet Mustangs in his first final round appearance, in Stock Eliminator and also the Super Stock class. Other racers have "doubled up" NHRA national event wins before, but only after many years and final round appearances. Steve Torrence's Capco Contractors Top Fuel Dragster team scored its first win in only its tenth outing.
In between rounds, fans enjoyed a wide selection of activities on the manufacturer's midway. Harley Davidson had a booth where anyone over 18 could do a test ride of a statically mounted FLST FB Fat Boy, starting, shifting and going up to 60mph. The Fram booth allowed fans to get pictures of themselves in the cockpit of Spencer Massey's Top Fuel car. There was a '69 Camaro under the Summit Racing Equipment tent featuring a wide selection of Summit supplied performance parts. Many other aftermarket performance part vendors had booths displaying their products. The Army had a presence there, with a large booth full of interactive displays.
Further down the midway was a group of Atlanta Dragway Junior Dragsters and the drivers, ready to meet and greet anyone interested in the weekly Junior Dragster program. Wesley Mayfield, Madison Lee, Jackson Earwood and Austin Bowden received a thrill of a lifetime when they got to race their cars down the track in front of the Southern Nationals crowd.
Several Atlanta Dragway regulars enjoyed competing in the Southern Nationals, including David Simmons, who made it down to the quarterfinals in Super Stock with his '98 S-10. Bob Vandergriff also made it to the quarterfinals with his C&J Energy Top Fuel Dragster.
Top Fuel Dragster winner and cancer survivor Steve Torrence enjoyed his first "victory" when he overcame cancer at the age of 17. He then earned the 2005 Lucas Oil Series Top Alcohol dragster championship along with four Top Alcohol event wins. Now 29 years old, Torrence was awed by the fact he was going to race one of his heroes, Tony "The Sarge" Schumacher in the final round. However, he said he was confident in himself, and went into the final thinking he had the better car, as he had gone quicker than Schumacher's Army car during each previous round. For the final, Torrence's Capco Contractors machine posted its second 3.89 in a row, with a 3.893 at 320.66mph. Schumacher had qualified number one earlier in the weekend with a 3.81, and his quickest race day pass was 3.85 in round one. However, his Army car began spinning the tires mid-track, and slowed dramatically to a 4.913 at 169.44mph, giving him his fourth runner-up finish of the 2012 season. "I give all the glory to God for making this possible," added Torrence. He then thanked his parents, crew chief Richard Hogan and the NHRA Safety Safari for excellent track preparation. Schumacher did move into the 2012 points lead with the runner-up finish.
Ron Capps put the "NAPA Brakes" to the John Force Racing (JFR) domination of the 2012 Top Fuel Funny Car class in the final round. Capps met Robert Hight's AAA backed JFR 2012 Mustang in the final, and took the win light in his '10 Charger with his third 4.16 pass in a row, a 4.166 at 303.91mph. Hight's mount, which had qualified number one earlier in the weekend, slowed a little to a 4.399 at 273.44mph. Jim Head ('10 Toyota) and Jeff Arend ('10 Toyota) finished their day in the semifinal round. Capps quickly gave credit to crew chief Rahn Tobler, who tuned Shirley Muldowney to four NHRA world championships, along with several others. "I heard there is going to be a bracket race here in a couple of weeks. I'm going to bring my car and enter it in Bracket One. It has probably run 30 4.16 passes recently," Capps added happily.
Summit Pro Stock racer Greg Anderson met his teammate Jason Line in the Pro Stock final round, a repeat of the 2011 Southern Nationals final. However, unlike last year, Anderson "treed" Line with a superior reaction time (0.039 seconds to Line's 0.081 react) and took his fourth Southern Nationals win stripe 0.011 seconds in front of Line with his '09 Pontiac GXP. Line's '09 GXP was actually quicker than Anderson's car all day by a couple of hundredths of a second, and posted a 6.618 at 209.62mph to Anderson's 6.649 at 208.26mph. Another Summit car made it to the semi-final round (Ronnie Humphrey – '09 GXP), along with Allen Johnson's 2012 Avenger. The humble Anderson said, "I wasn't anything special today. I just kept digging in and let others make a mistake."
Eddie Krawiec overcame the restrictions caused by the extra 20 pounds recently mandated by NHRA for his 2011 Harley V-Rod, and took a decisive Pro Stock Motorcycle win, as well as the 2012 points lead, against first time finalist Michael Ray. Krawiec's mount went 6.905 at 195.53mph, to Ray's time of 7.036 at 187.94mph on an '07 Buell. Shawn Gann ('09 Buell XB9R) and Hector Arana ('09 Buell XB9R) ended their day in the semifinal round. "I actually thought it was going to be me and Hector in the final, but something went wrong with his bike in the semis, maybe an electrical problem," added Krawiec.
Any racer will let you know quickly that it is hard enough to win even one NHRA event in a lifetime. To win two on the same day, and having never won a race before, is unprecedented in NHRA history. However, third generation racer Drew Skillman accomplished just that today by winning both the Stock Eliminator and Super Stock class.
Twenty four year old Drew Skillman began racing just two years ago, and until today, had never won a drag race. He did finish runner up in two bracket events and the Stock final at Norwalk in 2011. Skillman's first win of the day came in Stock, where he met Doug Duell's '09 Challenger. Skillman's 2012 Cobra Jet Mustang carded its second 9.14 second time in a row, with a 9.141 at 149.33mph (9.13 dial) to Duell's otherwise good 10.134 at 121.03mph (10.10 dial). Sterling Simmons ('98 Camaro) was the lone semifinalist.
Skillman then faced off against Drew Allen's '05 S-10 in the Super Stock final. Knowing he had an ailing engine, which had slowed down several tenths of a second during eliminations, Skillman dialed his 2012 Cobra Jet up to an 8.79 time. The car, which had run in the 8.60 range previously in the day, posted the winning 8.837 at 146.18mph on the scoreboards. Allen's machine broke out with a 10.211 at 126.98mph on a 10.23 dial trying to stay ahead of Skillman. James Hoover ('01 S-10) and Gary Coccaro ('05 Sunfire) finished in the semifinal round.
The rest of the class winners and runner up are as follows:
Super Comp
Win: Ed Richardson 8.900 165.97 (8.90)
R/U: Brad Plourd 8.867 165.76 (8.90)
Super Gas
Win: Billy Upton 11.29 96.53 (9.90)
R/U: Steven Furr 9.932 153.68 (9.90) foul
Super Street Time MPH Index
Win: Jeff Money 10.94 131.01 (10.90)
R/U: Dennis Hill 10.91 134.82 (10.90)
Top Sportsman
Win: Jeffrey Barker 6.933 199.37 (6.92)
R/U: Billy Vaughn 7.377 147.76 (7.02) foul
Top Dragster
Win: Nick Folk 7.175 186.89 (7.17)
R/U: Dylan Stott 6.804 193.27 (6.76)
For more information and results on the Southern Nationals, please log on to www.nhra.com.
