In spite of the dire predictions of up to 70 percent chance of rain during the weekend, the grandstands were filled to capacity on both sides of the quarter mile race track each day win fans enjoying the 2011 edition of the NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals, held at Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, GA on May 13-15. A couple of rain showers did delay the action for a few minutes during the weekend. An untimely oil down by the lowest qualified Funny Car actually cost a great deal more time than the rain on Saturday. Antron Brown (Top Fuel Dragster) and Jack Beckman (Funny Car), both racers under the Team Schumacher umbrella, enjoyed wins in their class, along with Jason Line (Pro Stock) and L. E. Tonglet in Pro Stock Motorcycle. These Full Throttle Series racers were joined in the winner's circle by seven of the Lucas Oil Series racers.
Atlanta Dragway's local racers also enjoyed participating in the Southern Nationals, with some of the Lucas Oil Series racers going a couple of rounds, including Jeremy Hancock and Jerry Sosebee. James Noel, P.J. Raines, Jacob Rutledge, David Simmons, Keith Fulp and Arnold Reed bowed out of action in round one. In the Full Throttle Series, Bob Vandergriff Jr. (Top Fuel) and Melanie Troxel (Pro Modified) made it to the quarterfinal round. Warren Johnson bowed out in round one in Pro Stock. Kurt Johnson just missed the cut for Pro Stock, along with Junior Pippin, who also came close to making the final cut in Pro Stock Motorcycle. Four Atlanta Dragway Junior Dragster racers, Hailey Metzler, Trey Butler, Brittney Hellemn and Blake Griffith enjoyed making exhibition passes in front of the capacity crowd just prior to the final round of racing.
Racers and fans joined forces to help out the Red Cross with relief efforts in the Southeast. Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Steve Johnson donned the Red Cross colors on both his uniform and motorcycle to bring awareness to the fans. He was joined by Pro Stock racer Allen Johnson who challenged racers and fans to donate at the Red Cross booth. By the end of the event, over $10,000 had been raised for the affected communities in Alabama, Tennessee and other Southeastern states, thanks to donations from fans, racers and the event sponsor, Summit Racing Equipment.
Antron Brown was thrilled with winning his fourth Southern Nationals and 27th overall NHRA "Wally" winner's trophy after defeating yet another Don Schumacher Racing stable mate, Tony Schumacher. Brown turned on the win light in his Matco Tools machine with a decisive 3.85 at 318.96mph to Tony's otherwise good 3.90 at 315.86mph. Both had run identical 3.880 second times in the semi-final round, with Schumacher's higher speed giving him final round lane choice. Brown has now won two Pro Stock Motorcycle and two Top Fuel Southern Nationals events at Atlanta Dragway (both against Tony Schumacher), leaving Schumacher still winless at Atlanta Dragway. Although Brown seems to have Schumacher's number, beating him in six of eight final round pairings, he noted, "Tony has 67 Top Fuel "Wallys" to my 11 (in Top Fuel). You better bring your "A–Game" or you don't take the "Wally" home. When asked if the lanes were different, Brown commented, "The lanes have been close all day." He then added, "I want to give the glory to God for this win".
Fresh off a win at Charlotte, Jack Beckman's Don Schumacher Racing Funny Car operation teamed up with Atlanta based Aaron's for the Southern Nationals, and immediately took his Valvoline / Aaron's dream machine to the winner's circle. Although the Aaron's lucky dog entertained fans in the pits all weekend, Beckman's crew made their own luck all day, running the quickest elapsed time in every round, including the final round against the Force racing team member Mike "Zippy" Neff. The final round times were only eight thousandths of a second apart, with Beckman's 4.111 second at 311.05mph getting the win light. Neff was right there at the finish line, posting a 4.119 second pass at 305.49mph. Beckman credited crew chief Rahn Tobler, adding, "beating a John Force Racing car is topping on that ice cream sundae". When asked to compare racing a Top Fuel Dragster to a Funny Car, Beckman said that driving a Top Fuel Dragster is like driving a BMW on the Autobahn, and driving a Funny Car can be compared to driving a Winnebago with a flat front tire on the same road.
"It's all Summit all the time," announced Bob Frey after Jason Line and Greg Anderson both won their semi-final rounds, setting up an all Summit Racing Equipment team final. Coming in to the final, Anderson (who used to be Warren Johnson's crew chief) had the edge in wins against Line (21 to 15 overall). However, Line used a better reaction time and slightly quicker 6.600 at 208.42mph to Anderson's 6.610 at 208.33mph for the win and the bragging rights. "This Wally's going to my mom, Maxine," Line stated. He then added, "To win in front of all the Summit Folks here is really cool."
Young L.E. Tonglet IV had already earned the 2010 Pro Stock Motorcycle championship, and notched his first 2011 win today against Karen Stoffer, who had just knocked off Jim Underdahl in the semi-finals with a 6.99 second time. Stoffer stepped her game up with a 6.97 at 192.30mph in the final, but it wasn't enough against Tonglet's 6.92 second pass at 191.62mph. Tonglet thanked his dad Gary, brother GT and the Nitro Fish group for their help. Today's final marked the first time in a while that two Suzukis made it to the final round.
Following what happened during the semi-final round in Stock Eliminator, one would think eventual winner Mickey Whaley would have relaxed knowing he had a virtually guaranteed win, but he did not. Due to an odd car count, Britt Cummings had the semi-final bye run to the final, but after his car refused to start (it turned out to be a simple, but faulty, $5000 fuse) Cummings was marked in the 2011 Southern Nationals book as a semi-finalist. To the contrary, Whaley knew that anything could happen, so he didn't even start his car until just before the final. He then eased it up to the starting line, broke the starting line beams very cautiously, and posted the race winning pass of 25.55 seconds at 54.06mph, celebrating only after the victory was his. "I kept looking for him (after his semi-final round win), and even after my dad told me he broke and wouldn't be in the final I thought I'll believe it when I see it. For the final, I went around the waterbox and staged as fast as I could so nothing else could happen," added Whaley.
Competition Eliminator winner Bruno Massel met none other than 74 time national event winner David Rampy in the final, but showed that he was more than ready by defeating Rampy by crossing the finish line in his '08 Cobalt 14 thousandths of a second in front of Rampy's '32 Bantam. Massel's time was 7.109 at 183.17mph (7.74 index) to Rampy's 7.261 at 179.42mph (7.78 index). Massel gave some credit to his four year old son Bruno Jr, who he called between rounds to let him know what was happening. When his son heard he was going to face Rampy in the final, the words were clear and concise. "Dad, beat Rampy." When dad tried to explain about how tough Rampy was, the answer again was clear and emphatic. "Dad, BEAT Rampy!" After that, Massel actually didn't have much choice.
The rest of the class winners and runner up are as follows:
Super Stock Time MPH Index
Win: Mike Crutchfield 8.91 143.87 (8.90)
R/U: James Caro 10.04 128.93 (10.03)
Super Gas
Win: Matt Cooke 11.94 102.64 (9.90)
R/U: David Tatum III 9.97 149.23 (9.90) foul
Super Comp
Win: Roger Warren 8.90 173.65 (8.90)
R/U: Jeff Brooks 8.89 172.96 (8.90)
Top Sportsman
Win: Mark Pickens 7.82 130.38 (7.10)
R/U: Billy Vaughn 7.24 153.93 (7.01) foul
Pro Modified
Win: Ed Hoover 5.95 240.51
R/U: Mike Castellana 12.12 67.97 (foul)
For more information and results on the Southern Nationals, please log on to www.nhra.com.
Tim Glover
