POMONA, Calif. – Persistent rain showers forced NHRA officials to cancel Friday’s racing at the Kragen O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.
Qualifying will resume Saturday, weather permitting, for the season-opening NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event with two sessions scheduled. Sunday’s eliminations start at 11 a.m.
The qualifying leaders after Thursday’s first session include Antron Brown in Top Fuel, Johnny Gray in Funny Car and Erica Enders in Pro Stock.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Kopp Motorsports to debut new combination, new sponsors in 2011
Team will compete for the Quick 32 Sportsman Series Championship in Top Dragster
Burlington, ON (February 25, 2011) – As the 2011 season quickly approaches, preparations are in full swing for the Kopp Motorsports drag racing team as it prepares to enter its first full season of competition in the Quick 32 Sportsman Series presented by NAPA Auto Parts. The team, led by owner and driver Rick Kopp, will introduce a new major sponsor to the world of drag racing.
"These guys are really excited to be onboard with our program and are looking forward to utilizing every marketing advantage drag racing has to offer." said Kopp. "Although the sponsorship is completely finalized, an official announcement won't be made until closer to our first event." Also new for the 2011 season is a potent drivetrain upgrade in the 2001 Mike Bos built dragster.
"In past years we've run a pretty basic motor and tranny combination and produced some pretty impressive numbers, but with the level of competition in the Quick 32 Sportsman Series we felt the need to really step up our program." stated Kopp. "Our sponsors expect us to be one of the best cars in our division every time out and we intend to compete for the top qualifying spot at every race we attend."
Look for the Kopp Motorsports team to make a big splash in 2011 as it aims to win the 2011 Quick 32 Sportsman Series Championship in just its first full year with the series.
For more information on the team visit www.koppmotorsports.ca
Today's Drag Racing News
| CMS announces Four-Wide Legends Walk Motorsport.com 24, 2011) - Die-hard drag racing fans' dreams will come true when they have the opportunity to walk alongside drag racing legends Kenny Bernstein, Don Garlits, Connie Kalitta and Shirley Muldowney on the world's only four-lane concrete drag strip, ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| ESPN's NHRA coverage to air live on ESPN3.com San Antonio Express When the National Hot Rod Association kicks off their 60th anniversary season this weekend in Pomona, Calif., drag racing fans will now be able to see live coverage of the elimination rounds for all 22 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series events on ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| Victory Planning Demo Rides, Drag Strip Event During Daytona Bike Week RoadracingWorld.com Victory Riders Will Be Busy With Riding, Attending Parties, Drag Racing & More During Daytona Bike Week 2011. MEDINA, MN – Victory motorcycle riders will be kept busy throughout Daytona Bike Week, the traditional kickoff to the new riding season. ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| Rumble to the Summit UTV Drag Racing Hits Glamis on March 11 and 12, 2011 UTV Guide There will be a few official UTV classes at the Glamis Four Stroke Association drag race March 12, 2011 at Oldsmobile Hill. Test & Tune will be Friday the 11th. Not only will we be offering one, but three classes for the event. ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| Chris Demke and Maddern Racing 2011 Race Ready PR.com (press release) Los Angeles, CA, February 24, 2011 --(PR.com)-- Repeating a successful drag racing season is a tough act for any team. Following the success of 2010, the main goal for Chris Demke and The Peen Rite Top Alcohol Dragster Racing Team is to not only repeat ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| ||
| ||
| Pomona: NHRA Series Thursday qualifying report Motorsport.com Johnny Gray and Erica Enders also were qualifying leaders in their respective categories at the first of 22 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. Brown powered his Matco Tools dragster to a leading run of 3.804 at 319.98, just in front ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| Drag racers set to burn rubber this weekend at BIC Bahrain News Agency 23 (BNA) -- Bahrain International Circuit, 'The Home of Motorsport in the Middle East', hosts this weekend another round of the 2010/2011 Bahrain National Drag Racing Championship. The event, which will mark the third meeting of the season, ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| No more Funny stuff Inland Valley Daily Bulletin Del Worsham is not unlike every other competitor in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series when the calendar pages flip to late February. It's time for the Winternationals at Pomona Raceway and the optimism associated with a new season. ... See all stories on this topic » |
Thursday, February 24, 2011
ADRL Reveals Significant Event Payout Increases In All Classes For 2011 Tour
The world's top eighth-mile drag racing league announced on Thursday that it will increase the purse and payouts for all five professional classes (Pro Extreme, Pro Nitrous, Extreme 10.5, Pro Extreme Motorcycle and Extreme Pro Stock) at each national event on the 2011 ADRL Tour.
In all, there will be a $330,000 increase in purse payouts from 2010, a sign that the ADRL continues to grow and build lasting partnerships with numerous sponsors, and provide even more opportunities for its competitors.
"The level of competition just keeps getting better in the ADRL and we know that requires more investment from our competitors," ADRL Executive Vice President Jeff Fortune said. "By working closely with our sponsors, we were able to significantly increase our payouts, and we are confident this exciting move will lead to even more memorable action in the ADRL in 2011."
Every class received a payout increase and some finishing places received as much as a 100 percent increase.
Event winners in Pro Extreme and Pro Nitrous will now earn $10,000 for their victories, while runner-ups in each class will be awarded $5,000. Semifinalists will get $2,500; quarterfinalists will earn $2,000 and qualifiers will earn $1,500, all of which is an increase over previous seasons.
In Extreme 10.5, champions at each event will now get $8,000, with $3,500 now going to the runner-up. An increased sum of $1,500 will be awarded to semifinalists, while $1,250 and $1,000 will now go to quarterfinalists and qualifiers, respectively.
Winners in Pro Extreme Motorcycle will get $5,000, while the runner-up will now get $2,000. Semifinalists will earn $1,000; $750 will go to quarterfinalists and qualifiers will be awarded $500, which are all increases from 2010.
In Extreme Pro Stock, single-event victors will now see a payout of $8,000. The runner-up at each race will now earn $3,500, while the semifinalists will get $2,000. Racers who advance to the quarterfinals will get $1,500, while qualifiers will earn $1,250.
Additionally, the ADRL officially announced Low Qualifier Programs in three classes (Pro Extreme, Pro Nitrous and Extreme 10.5).
Larry Jeffers Pro Cars will sponsor the program in Pro Extreme and Mickey Thompson Tires is the official sponsor of the program in Extreme 10.5. RJ Race Cars and Quarter-Max was announced as the program sponsor in Pro Nitrous earlier this month.
The low qualifier at each event in Pro Extreme and Pro Nitrous will earn $1,000, while $500 will go to the top qualifier at every race in Extreme 10.5.
The increased payouts and low qualifier program will begin at the first race of the 2011 season, which begins on March 25-26 with CarSafe Dragpalooza VII presented by LenMar Motorsports at Royal Purple Raceway in Baytown, Texas.
"This is the first of several big announcements the ADRL will have leading into the first event of the year in Baytown," Fortune said. "This is another step in our growth towards becoming one of the top motorsports series in the world."
Harry "The Hat" to be at six Super Chevy Shows in 2011
KANSAS CITY, Mo (Feb. 24, 2011) - The Super Chevy Show is the Smorgasbord of motorsports, offering a little bit of everything for car enthusiasts, from the finest sportsman drag races to one of the best car shows around.
But for some, a Super Chevy Show is the perfect place to locate that hard-to-find part for their custom car, and for them, the vendor swap meet at Super Chevy Shows is a Godsend. And this season, they will feel like they've hit the motherload as Super Chevy Show has brought in custom car guru Harry "The Hat" LaPlatte, who has organized swap meets at various racing events for more than 20 years. He will direct swap meets at six of the series' 12 events. His schedule will begin with season-opener at Palm Beach International Raceway in Jupiter, Fla. on April 8-10. LaPlatte will also lead the swap meet vendors' row for the Super Chevy Shows in Petersburg, Va. on May 20-22; Texas Motorplex in Ennis, Texas on June 3-5; Maple Grove Raceway in Mohnton, Pa. on July 14-17, Bristol (Tenn.) Dragway on Sept. 23-25 and Rockingham (N.C.) Dragway on Oct. 21-23.
One of the key factors for the swap meet side of Super Chevy Shows is that they also offer a specific audience. Just like racers and fans come just for the sportsman races, and car enthusiasts come just for the car shows, the same can be said for some of the custom car set, who want to see what special part they can get for their unique ride. And the Super Chevy Shows offer some of the top quality parts from the top brands in the country.
"Yes, there are (fans) who come to the event specifically for the swap meet," said LaPlatte, whose wide knowledge in this field is his own attraction, with a rather big following. "Rockingham is having (a program) where it's just $5 to go to the swap meet. You don't have to go to the races (or car shows). A lot of the swap meet fans don't care to go to the races."
LaPlatte also said that a big key for the Super Chevy Show swap meets this season comes from some of the track operators, specifically Rockingham's Steve Earwood and Palm Beach's Jason Rittenberry, who both have a history of knowing the importance of putting together a quality swap meet.
"Steve is unbelievable," LaPlatte said. "He's been doing this stuff since the beginning of Super Chevy as far as swap meet's go. Jason (came from Memphis), and Memphis had the largest swap meet (vendor count) ever. "
Virginia Motorsports Park, which brought in LaPlatte, put on one of the bigger swap meets last season, along with the show at Maple Grove. LaPlatte, who also said the key is planning ahead, is also looking forward to the show in Texas, which should add its own flair to the Super Chevy Show.
"Last year, I started at Virginia and it sold out," said LaPlatte, who in addition to his swap meet expertise has found time to create a website that honors cars of the past at dragracehalloffame.com. "It was amazing to be part of that energy. When I got the call from Texas, it was a great feeling. Billy Meyer, being one of my drag race heroes in the 1970s and 80s, well, it was a good phone call. I just want (everyone) to load up and come to the Texas Motorplex."
The feeling is mutual for Texas Motorplex officials, who believe they have struck gold by bringing in LaPlatte, who also makes it fun for the fans, giving away a variety of products and show stickers.
"Having someone like Harry on board is a tremendous benefit for the Super Chevy Show series and especially the participants coming to Texas Motorplex,” said Gabrielle Stevenson, Texas Motorplex general manager. “He has incredible amounts of knowledge and experience and that is going to be a huge advantage to our show participants and fans. In our first conversation I could tell how enthusiastic Harry was to join our team and make this the best Super Chevy Show ever at Texas Motorplex."
But for some, a Super Chevy Show is the perfect place to locate that hard-to-find part for their custom car, and for them, the vendor swap meet at Super Chevy Shows is a Godsend. And this season, they will feel like they've hit the motherload as Super Chevy Show has brought in custom car guru Harry "The Hat" LaPlatte, who has organized swap meets at various racing events for more than 20 years. He will direct swap meets at six of the series' 12 events. His schedule will begin with season-opener at Palm Beach International Raceway in Jupiter, Fla. on April 8-10. LaPlatte will also lead the swap meet vendors' row for the Super Chevy Shows in Petersburg, Va. on May 20-22; Texas Motorplex in Ennis, Texas on June 3-5; Maple Grove Raceway in Mohnton, Pa. on July 14-17, Bristol (Tenn.) Dragway on Sept. 23-25 and Rockingham (N.C.) Dragway on Oct. 21-23.
One of the key factors for the swap meet side of Super Chevy Shows is that they also offer a specific audience. Just like racers and fans come just for the sportsman races, and car enthusiasts come just for the car shows, the same can be said for some of the custom car set, who want to see what special part they can get for their unique ride. And the Super Chevy Shows offer some of the top quality parts from the top brands in the country.
"Yes, there are (fans) who come to the event specifically for the swap meet," said LaPlatte, whose wide knowledge in this field is his own attraction, with a rather big following. "Rockingham is having (a program) where it's just $5 to go to the swap meet. You don't have to go to the races (or car shows). A lot of the swap meet fans don't care to go to the races."
LaPlatte also said that a big key for the Super Chevy Show swap meets this season comes from some of the track operators, specifically Rockingham's Steve Earwood and Palm Beach's Jason Rittenberry, who both have a history of knowing the importance of putting together a quality swap meet.
"Steve is unbelievable," LaPlatte said. "He's been doing this stuff since the beginning of Super Chevy as far as swap meet's go. Jason (came from Memphis), and Memphis had the largest swap meet (vendor count) ever. "
Virginia Motorsports Park, which brought in LaPlatte, put on one of the bigger swap meets last season, along with the show at Maple Grove. LaPlatte, who also said the key is planning ahead, is also looking forward to the show in Texas, which should add its own flair to the Super Chevy Show.
"Last year, I started at Virginia and it sold out," said LaPlatte, who in addition to his swap meet expertise has found time to create a website that honors cars of the past at dragracehalloffame.com. "It was amazing to be part of that energy. When I got the call from Texas, it was a great feeling. Billy Meyer, being one of my drag race heroes in the 1970s and 80s, well, it was a good phone call. I just want (everyone) to load up and come to the Texas Motorplex."
The feeling is mutual for Texas Motorplex officials, who believe they have struck gold by bringing in LaPlatte, who also makes it fun for the fans, giving away a variety of products and show stickers.
"Having someone like Harry on board is a tremendous benefit for the Super Chevy Show series and especially the participants coming to Texas Motorplex,” said Gabrielle Stevenson, Texas Motorplex general manager. “He has incredible amounts of knowledge and experience and that is going to be a huge advantage to our show participants and fans. In our first conversation I could tell how enthusiastic Harry was to join our team and make this the best Super Chevy Show ever at Texas Motorplex."
THURSDAY FULL THROTTLE SERIES RESULTS FROM POMONA
BROWN, GRAY AND ENDERS LEAD NHRA FULL THROTTLE SERIES QUALIFYING AT KRAGEN O'REILLY WINTERNATIONALS
POMONA, Calif. – Antron Brown raced to the qualifying lead Thursday in Top Fuel at the Kragen O’Reilly NHRA Auto Parts Winternationals presented by Valvoline as NHRA opened its 60th anniversary season at the birthplace of hot rodding, historic Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.
Johnny Gray and Erica Enders also were qualifying leaders in their respective categories at the first of 22 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.
Brown powered his Matco Tools dragster to a leading run of 3.804 at 319.98, just in front of teammates Spencer Massey and Tony Schumacher, who posted identical 3.804 second runs in their Prestone/FRAM and U.S. Army dragsters. Brown claimed the top spot by virtue of his faster speed.
"All of our crew chiefs really work well together, and that’s really showing right now, and that’s what you really need if you want to beat that Al-Anabi team for that championship,” Brown said. “You’ve got so many good teams out here. Look at how many people ran the same E.T. Our field is definitely stacked this year. I mean, you’ve got the Al-Anabi guys and all three of our DSR teams, including Tony [Schumacher], Spencer [Massey], and myself, and the Kalittas, Morgan [Lucas], Shawn [Langdon], Brandon [Bernstein] — there’s just so many cars. It’s going to be a heck of a battle this year. We just want to start the year off right. We struggled a little bit at the beginning of last year, and then we came on strong the last four races of last year. We’re still just riding off what we did at the end of last year, and we’re just coming here and take it one round at a time and race as strong as we can because we want to be there at the end for that championship.”
Gray moved to the top of the Funny Car order with a 4.079 at 306.33 in his Service Central Dodge Charger. If the run stands through Saturday’s final two qualifying sessions, it will be Gray’s first No. 1 qualifying position in his 14 year career.
“There was nothing wrong with that deal,” Gray said. “You know, Don [Schumacher] put together a great team over there. I’ve got some great guys. [Crew chief] Lee Beard, Rob Wendland, what can you say? All I have to do is get in there and pull the trigger and hang on. Lee and Don and Rob have provided me with a hot rod here. We’re going to ruin some peoples’ days.”
Gray spent the last three seasons competing in Pro Stock, where he advanced to three final rounds and posted two top 10 points finishes. He advanced to three finals during five seasons of Funny Car competition in the early 2000s.
“I don’t have many laps since I came back,” Gray said. “So I was probably a little ways behind the car and probably didn’t drive it the best, but, hey, we got it down there.”
Two-time champ Cruz Pedregon was second in his Snap-on Tools Toyota Camry with a 4.088 at 307.86 and defending world champ John Force was third in his Castrol GTX High-Mileage Ford Mustang with a 4.093 at 305.84.
Enders led the Pro Stock order with a performance of 6.553 at a track record speed of 211.69 in her Za Za Energy Chevy Cobalt.
“That run was awesome,” Enders said. “My crew chief came on the radio and let me know what we had run. I had never official run a 6.5 before — we had run it in testing — and I had never been 210, either, and he came on the radio, and he’s like, ‘Well, you skipped right over 210 and went 211.69.’ It’s just awesome.”
Enders is the most successful female competitor in the history of NHRA Pro Stock, as she has two career runner-up finishes and a No. 1 qualifying position (2006 Topeka) on her resume. This season she has reunited with former team Cagnazzi Racing after spending last season driving part-time for Cunningham Motorsports.
“To be back with Victor Cagnazzi, I’m so excited,” Enders said. “I haven’t stopped smiling [since rejoining Cagnazzi Racing]. To be back where I started with a team of that caliber and the type of people they are is awesome. I’m excited about the opportunity, and I think we have a lot to be optimistic about.”
Ron Krisher was second with a 6.562 at 211.26 in his Valvoline Cobalt, while Greg Stanfield was third in his Safety Sentry Pontiac GXP with a 6.562 at 210.77.
POMONA, Calif. -- Thursday's results following the first of four rounds of qualifying for the 51st annual Kragen O'Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals presented by Valvoline at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, first of 22 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. Qualifying will continue Friday for Sunday's final eliminations.
Top Fuel -- 1. Antron Brown, 3.804 seconds, 319.98 mph; 2. Spencer Massey, 3.804, 319.90; 3. Tony Schumacher, 3.804, 316.38; 4. Del Worsham, 3.814, 321.96; 5. Larry Dixon, 3.818, 318.47; 6. Shawn Langdon, 3.847, 314.31; 7. T.J. Zizzo, 3.870, 312.57; 8. Steve Torrence, 3.871, 315.12; 9. Doug Kalitta, 3.880, 311.77; 10. Bob Vandergriff, 3.959, 305.29; 11. Ron August, 3.967, 306.19; 12. Terry McMillen, 4.030, 239.70. Not Qualified: 13. Terry Sainty, 4.053, 280.31; 14. Steven Chrisman, 4.143, 265.33; 15. Brandon Bernstein, 5.216, 199.35; 16. Steve Faria, 5.539, 119.38; 17. Morgan Lucas, 8.242, 85.55; 18. David Grubnic, 8.364, 69.87; 19. Troy Buff, 8.885, 79.18; 20. Mike Strasburg, 11.189, 74.92.
Funny Car -- 1. Johnny Gray, Dodge Charger, 4.079, 306.33; 2. Cruz Pedregon, Toyota Solara, 4.088, 307.86; 3. John Force, Ford Mustang, 4.093, 305.84; 4. Robert Hight, Mustang, 4.097, 310.41; 5. Mike Neff, Mustang, 4.103, 311.20; 6. Bob Bode, Chevy Impala, 4.121, 299.86; 7. Gary Densham, Charger, 4.160, 298.67; 8. Jim Head, Solara, 4.161, 301.94; 9. Bob Tasca III, Mustang, 4.191, 296.76; 10. Tony Pedregon, Chevy Impala SS, 4.191, 278.00; 11. Tim Wilkerson, Mustang, 4.211, 296.11; 12. Matt Hagan, Charger, 4.367, 292.96. Not Qualified: 13. Paul Lee, 4.411, 241.20; 14. Ron Capps, 4.459, 195.87; 15. Melanie Troxel, 5.278, 200.32; 16. Brian Thiel, 6.320, 106.53; 17. Jeff Arend, 7.929, 81.51; 18. Grant Downing, 9.522, 68.14; 19. Jack Beckman, 9.913, 79.75.
Pro Stock -- 1. Erica Enders, Chevy Cobalt, 6.553, 211.69; 2. Ron Krisher, Pontiac GXP, 6.562, 211.26; 3. Greg Stanfield, GXP, 6.562, 210.77; 4. Allen Johnson, Dodge Avenger, 6.568, 211.36; 5. Greg Anderson, GXP, 6.569, 210.60; 6. Kurt Johnson, GXP, 6.571, 210.21; 7. Warren Johnson, GXP, 6.572, 210.80; 8. Buddy Perkinson, Ford Mustang, 6.593, 209.14; 9. Jason Line, GXP, 6.597, 210.44; 10. Ronnie Humphrey, GXP, 6.598, 210.44; 11. Rodger Brogdon, GXP, 6.600, 209.79; 12. Larry Morgan, Mustang, 6.602, 209.69. Not Qualified: 13. Shane Gray, 6.747, 209.88; 14. V. Gaines, 7.103, 204.42; 15. Mike Edwards, 12.586, 59.78; 16. Bob Yonke, 14.166, 61.25; 17. Richard Freeman, 24.481, 4.15; 18. Vincent Nobile, 24.607, 32.87.
POMONA, Calif. – Antron Brown raced to the qualifying lead Thursday in Top Fuel at the Kragen O’Reilly NHRA Auto Parts Winternationals presented by Valvoline as NHRA opened its 60th anniversary season at the birthplace of hot rodding, historic Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.
Johnny Gray and Erica Enders also were qualifying leaders in their respective categories at the first of 22 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.
Brown powered his Matco Tools dragster to a leading run of 3.804 at 319.98, just in front of teammates Spencer Massey and Tony Schumacher, who posted identical 3.804 second runs in their Prestone/FRAM and U.S. Army dragsters. Brown claimed the top spot by virtue of his faster speed.
"All of our crew chiefs really work well together, and that’s really showing right now, and that’s what you really need if you want to beat that Al-Anabi team for that championship,” Brown said. “You’ve got so many good teams out here. Look at how many people ran the same E.T. Our field is definitely stacked this year. I mean, you’ve got the Al-Anabi guys and all three of our DSR teams, including Tony [Schumacher], Spencer [Massey], and myself, and the Kalittas, Morgan [Lucas], Shawn [Langdon], Brandon [Bernstein] — there’s just so many cars. It’s going to be a heck of a battle this year. We just want to start the year off right. We struggled a little bit at the beginning of last year, and then we came on strong the last four races of last year. We’re still just riding off what we did at the end of last year, and we’re just coming here and take it one round at a time and race as strong as we can because we want to be there at the end for that championship.”
Gray moved to the top of the Funny Car order with a 4.079 at 306.33 in his Service Central Dodge Charger. If the run stands through Saturday’s final two qualifying sessions, it will be Gray’s first No. 1 qualifying position in his 14 year career.
“There was nothing wrong with that deal,” Gray said. “You know, Don [Schumacher] put together a great team over there. I’ve got some great guys. [Crew chief] Lee Beard, Rob Wendland, what can you say? All I have to do is get in there and pull the trigger and hang on. Lee and Don and Rob have provided me with a hot rod here. We’re going to ruin some peoples’ days.”
Gray spent the last three seasons competing in Pro Stock, where he advanced to three final rounds and posted two top 10 points finishes. He advanced to three finals during five seasons of Funny Car competition in the early 2000s.
“I don’t have many laps since I came back,” Gray said. “So I was probably a little ways behind the car and probably didn’t drive it the best, but, hey, we got it down there.”
Two-time champ Cruz Pedregon was second in his Snap-on Tools Toyota Camry with a 4.088 at 307.86 and defending world champ John Force was third in his Castrol GTX High-Mileage Ford Mustang with a 4.093 at 305.84.
Enders led the Pro Stock order with a performance of 6.553 at a track record speed of 211.69 in her Za Za Energy Chevy Cobalt.
“That run was awesome,” Enders said. “My crew chief came on the radio and let me know what we had run. I had never official run a 6.5 before — we had run it in testing — and I had never been 210, either, and he came on the radio, and he’s like, ‘Well, you skipped right over 210 and went 211.69.’ It’s just awesome.”
Enders is the most successful female competitor in the history of NHRA Pro Stock, as she has two career runner-up finishes and a No. 1 qualifying position (2006 Topeka) on her resume. This season she has reunited with former team Cagnazzi Racing after spending last season driving part-time for Cunningham Motorsports.
“To be back with Victor Cagnazzi, I’m so excited,” Enders said. “I haven’t stopped smiling [since rejoining Cagnazzi Racing]. To be back where I started with a team of that caliber and the type of people they are is awesome. I’m excited about the opportunity, and I think we have a lot to be optimistic about.”
Ron Krisher was second with a 6.562 at 211.26 in his Valvoline Cobalt, while Greg Stanfield was third in his Safety Sentry Pontiac GXP with a 6.562 at 210.77.
POMONA, Calif. -- Thursday's results following the first of four rounds of qualifying for the 51st annual Kragen O'Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals presented by Valvoline at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, first of 22 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. Qualifying will continue Friday for Sunday's final eliminations.
Top Fuel -- 1. Antron Brown, 3.804 seconds, 319.98 mph; 2. Spencer Massey, 3.804, 319.90; 3. Tony Schumacher, 3.804, 316.38; 4. Del Worsham, 3.814, 321.96; 5. Larry Dixon, 3.818, 318.47; 6. Shawn Langdon, 3.847, 314.31; 7. T.J. Zizzo, 3.870, 312.57; 8. Steve Torrence, 3.871, 315.12; 9. Doug Kalitta, 3.880, 311.77; 10. Bob Vandergriff, 3.959, 305.29; 11. Ron August, 3.967, 306.19; 12. Terry McMillen, 4.030, 239.70. Not Qualified: 13. Terry Sainty, 4.053, 280.31; 14. Steven Chrisman, 4.143, 265.33; 15. Brandon Bernstein, 5.216, 199.35; 16. Steve Faria, 5.539, 119.38; 17. Morgan Lucas, 8.242, 85.55; 18. David Grubnic, 8.364, 69.87; 19. Troy Buff, 8.885, 79.18; 20. Mike Strasburg, 11.189, 74.92.
Funny Car -- 1. Johnny Gray, Dodge Charger, 4.079, 306.33; 2. Cruz Pedregon, Toyota Solara, 4.088, 307.86; 3. John Force, Ford Mustang, 4.093, 305.84; 4. Robert Hight, Mustang, 4.097, 310.41; 5. Mike Neff, Mustang, 4.103, 311.20; 6. Bob Bode, Chevy Impala, 4.121, 299.86; 7. Gary Densham, Charger, 4.160, 298.67; 8. Jim Head, Solara, 4.161, 301.94; 9. Bob Tasca III, Mustang, 4.191, 296.76; 10. Tony Pedregon, Chevy Impala SS, 4.191, 278.00; 11. Tim Wilkerson, Mustang, 4.211, 296.11; 12. Matt Hagan, Charger, 4.367, 292.96. Not Qualified: 13. Paul Lee, 4.411, 241.20; 14. Ron Capps, 4.459, 195.87; 15. Melanie Troxel, 5.278, 200.32; 16. Brian Thiel, 6.320, 106.53; 17. Jeff Arend, 7.929, 81.51; 18. Grant Downing, 9.522, 68.14; 19. Jack Beckman, 9.913, 79.75.
Pro Stock -- 1. Erica Enders, Chevy Cobalt, 6.553, 211.69; 2. Ron Krisher, Pontiac GXP, 6.562, 211.26; 3. Greg Stanfield, GXP, 6.562, 210.77; 4. Allen Johnson, Dodge Avenger, 6.568, 211.36; 5. Greg Anderson, GXP, 6.569, 210.60; 6. Kurt Johnson, GXP, 6.571, 210.21; 7. Warren Johnson, GXP, 6.572, 210.80; 8. Buddy Perkinson, Ford Mustang, 6.593, 209.14; 9. Jason Line, GXP, 6.597, 210.44; 10. Ronnie Humphrey, GXP, 6.598, 210.44; 11. Rodger Brogdon, GXP, 6.600, 209.79; 12. Larry Morgan, Mustang, 6.602, 209.69. Not Qualified: 13. Shane Gray, 6.747, 209.88; 14. V. Gaines, 7.103, 204.42; 15. Mike Edwards, 12.586, 59.78; 16. Bob Yonke, 14.166, 61.25; 17. Richard Freeman, 24.481, 4.15; 18. Vincent Nobile, 24.607, 32.87.
VIDEO FEATURE NOW AVAILABLE ON NHRA MOBILE
GLENDORA, Calif. (Feb. 24, 2011) – NHRA Mobile, the popular mobile application that gives NHRA fans access to real-time results, news, driver blogs, track overviews, race schedules, team reports and points standings through their cell phones and mobile devices, will now offer video highlights from each NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event.
The NHRA Mobile video package will include race action highlights from No. 1 qualifiers in each NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series category as well as eliminations highlights featuring the final-round runs for each pro category. Other video clips will feature winning drivers’ interviews as well as footage of any eventful activities that may occur during a race weekend.
“We are excited to add video capabilities to our popular NHRA Mobile application,” said Gary Darcy, senior vice president of sales and marketing, NHRA. “As technology continues to evolve we feel it is very important to take advantage of the latest in new media and give our fans a variety of ways to keep up with the racing action in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.”
The service is currently available on popular mobile devices worldwide. To find NHRA Mobile, check with your device content portal and search “NHRA” to locate the download or go to m.nhra.com on your phone. NHRA Mobile is a subscription service, and cost varies by application and carrier. For more information, please visit www.nhra.com/multimedia/mobile.aspx.
The NHRA Mobile video package will include race action highlights from No. 1 qualifiers in each NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series category as well as eliminations highlights featuring the final-round runs for each pro category. Other video clips will feature winning drivers’ interviews as well as footage of any eventful activities that may occur during a race weekend.
“We are excited to add video capabilities to our popular NHRA Mobile application,” said Gary Darcy, senior vice president of sales and marketing, NHRA. “As technology continues to evolve we feel it is very important to take advantage of the latest in new media and give our fans a variety of ways to keep up with the racing action in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.”
The service is currently available on popular mobile devices worldwide. To find NHRA Mobile, check with your device content portal and search “NHRA” to locate the download or go to m.nhra.com on your phone. NHRA Mobile is a subscription service, and cost varies by application and carrier. For more information, please visit www.nhra.com/multimedia/mobile.aspx.
Today's Drag Racing News
| ||
| NHRA drag-racing season opens with Winternationals in Pomona Los Angeles Times Big-league drag racing kicks off its season with the Winternationals this weekend in Pomona as the National Hot Rod Assn. celebrates its 60 th anniversary. In the sport's premier top-fuel class, where the cars routinely exceed 300 mph, a key question ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| Victory Riders Will Be Busy With Riding, Attending Parties, Drag Racing & More ... Motorcyclist Magazine MEDINA, MN (Feb. 23, 2011) – Victory motorcycle riders will be kept busy throughout Daytona Bike Week, the traditional kickoff to the new riding season. They'll be taking scenic rides and Victory Demo Rides, making runs on the drag strip and entering ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| Leaf Racewear Continues to Play Vital Role in Drag Racing Safety WhoWon.com Drag racing offers some of the most exciting and colorful racing in all of motorsport, but safety is an important element and cannot be overlooked.' Now in its 27th year of operation, Leaf provides personal safety attire for the racing industry ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| ||
| ||
| Rain to soon return Inland Valley Daily Bulletin It has become almost a tradition that two events seem to happen at the same time in late February: The NHRA Winternationals drag racing season opens at Fairplex in Pomona and rain pounds the Inland Valley. Accuweather is predicting a fair chance of ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| ||
| Red Lights Don't Mean 'Stop' for B1 Racing WhoWon.com by Matthew Brammer DOHA, Qatar -- Despite disappointing red-light starts in the Arabian Drag Racing League's Battle for the Belts by both of B1 Racing's entries, the future is all green for the veteran-laced Pro Mod team from Bahrain. ... See all stories on this topic » |
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Today's Drag Racing News
| Pomona: John Force preview Motorsport.com At age 61, drag racing's biggest winner rolls into the 51st annual Kragen O'Reilly Winternationals in a new car prepared by a new crew managed by two new crew chiefs, new to him at least. After 25 seasons with Austin Coil as point man, Force won his ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| Langdon Loving Life Now That Drag Racing Season Is Set To Begin PaddockTalk "You sit at home in the offseason and get accustomed to just going to the shop every day, talking on the phone, and answering e-mails," Langdon said. "It's boring for me. I need to be racing. I can't wait to get started and get that race mentality back ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| Dixon, Muldowney, Tubbs, Reinhart Tonight on WFORadio WhoWon.com Reigning Top Fuel World Champion, Larry Dixon, three time World Champion and drag racing legend, Shirley Muldowney, and FTTV host Abby Tubbs will join Joe Castello along with the NHRA's Alan Reinhart, live at 7 pm ET on WFO Radio NHRA Tuesday. ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| ||
| ||
| E-Tickets Now Available Online for ADRL's CarSafe Dragpalooza VII Presented by ... WhoWon.com The American Drag Racing League (ADRL) announced on Monday that e-tickets are now available for the first race of the 2011 season, CarSafe Dragpalooza VII presented by LenMar Motorsports, which takes place on March 25-26 at Royal Purple Raceway in ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| ADRL Releases its 2011 Competition Licensing Policy WhoWon.com The American Drag Racing League (ADRL) has announced its 2011 Competition Licensing Policy, which goes into effect for the first race of the 2011 ADRL Tour. The season starts on March 25-26 at Royal Purple Raceway in Baytown, Texas with CarSafe ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| Lake County: Mud bogging can continue at Renninger's, despite Mount Dora's ... Orlando Sentinel By Martin E. Comas, Orlando Sentinel TAVARES — Lake County commissioners on Tuesday approved an ordinance that would allow mud bogging and drag racing on 44 acres of pastureland behind Renninger's Twin Markets, despite protests from nearby Mount Dora. ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| 2011 Toyota Pro/Celeb Race Star Driver Lineup Announced autoevolution Other pros going for the title include drifting champion Kenshiro Gushi, top import drag-racing professional and founder of WORLD Motorsports Christian Rado and USAC National midget car series champion Kody Swanson. Other celebrities include Anthony ... See all stories on this topic » |
| The new TVNZ U guide | TVNZ U | News | Throng By regan Kings Of Nitro follows the adventures of drag racer and European custom motorbike supremo Urs Erbacher and his team of tattooed nitro-heads as they aim to become European drag racing champions. 10.30 pm Ginx: Faster ... Recaps + Rants + Raves + News... - http://www.throng.co.nz/taxonomy/term/1%202%203%204%205%207/0 |
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Transcript from today's Ford Racing Teleconference with Bob Tasca III and John Force
NHRA's 60th season kicks off this weekend with the 51st annual NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, Calif.
Bob Tasca, driver and owner of the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center Ford Shelby Mustang Funny Car, and John Force, who last season earned his 15th Full Throttle Series championship title at the wheel of the Castrol GTX High-Mileage Ford Mustang, joined Ford Racing on a teleconference to kick off the 2011 season. Among the topics they discussed were the keys to keeping the Championship title in the Ford Family, the importance of family (most notably the Tasca's) in NHRA Drag Racing, and major moments in NHRA's first 60 years.
JOHN FORCE – 15-time NHRA Full Throttle Series World Champion/ Castrol GTX High Mileage Ford Mustang Funny Car - IT'S BEEN THREE MONTHS SINCE YOU WON THE CHAMPIONSHIP AT POMONA WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM BOB (TASCA, WHO ELIMINATED 2010 CHAMPIONSHIP HOPEFUL MATT HAGAN), AND A LOT HAS CHANGED SINCE THEN FOR YOUR TEAM. HOW DO YOU CARRY THAT CHAMPIONSHIP MENTALITY INTO A NEW SEASON? "You just don't take a vacation. Like Tasca, he finally stole a day to take his kids to Disneyland. Me, I spent the winter in the gym, but I have some time for the family. Mainly it is about the transition for some employees – you lose a handful, you got to replace them. New technology – working on a new injector to make these cars react quicker. And the new BOSS 500 motor program. That's what we've been doing all winter. Tasca's taken delivery of some new stuff out of John Force Racing there in Indy, out of the BOSS 500 program. We just keep motivated. It's time to leap into the fire. It's been too long."
TALK ABOUT THE FAMILY DYNAMICS THAT PLAY IN TO THE TASCA FORCE RELATIONSHIP. YOU'VE BEEN LONG-TIME FAMILY FRIEND AND FORD PARTNER, AND ARE INDEPENDENT ON THE TRACK, BUT ARE YOU ALSO INTERDEPENDENT? "My introduction to Ford Motor Company, even though I was with Ford in my early days with local dealers, was through the Tasca family. And from that, from Grandpa Tasca (Bob Tasca Sr.), I learned about being a team and being a family. I took it one-step further to the ranks of even Ford's thinking today, and our program with 'One Ford.' We all race together. I don't know exactly how it works in NASCAR, but to see (the Wood Brothers), who had struggled for so many years, to jump up with that Motorcraft and Quick Lane car and get a win (with Trevor Bayne, at the Daytona 500) to kick off the season, it was exciting for me. I believe the Roush teams and the Petty's – everybody is working together. That's what we're doing at John Force Racing, and Tasca, the family, is part of that. We'll have meetings this weekend with our crew chiefs. Even though we all race together, in the end, even my crew chief said there's a lot of our technology and things that we learn that go over there (to Tasca's team). I said 'Yeah, but if you build a good Ford race car, one day it'll pay.' I joke, but I'm really serious. 'The shot heard 'round the world' was when Tasca opened the door at Pomona last year to allow our Ford to win the championship when he took out Hagan. But the key was that motor program [Ford BOSS 500], which his crew chiefs worked on with mine…even though we're separate teams, Tasca's hot rod was flying, he got the win that opened the door for me. So it even made my own people understand - if Ford's going to invest money in this technology, we have to share it with the Ford personnel, and the Tasca family is part of that."
WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IS THE BIGGEST MOMENT IN THE 60 YEARS OF NHRA'S HISTORY? "Looking back, Don Prudhomme, [Don] Garlits, Shirley Muldowney, Bob Glidden in the early days of Ford Pro Stock – those were my heroes. Even when I went into Tasca Ford, I looked at the wall and saw a lot of the names and the Tasca Ford car and their drivers. There's so much history in drag racing, because it's American. It's the automobile. It's what it's all about. But when I look back, seeing Don Prudhomme race in Indy one year, in the final round against Tom 'the Mongoose' McEwen, when McEwen had just lost his son, and all of a sudden McEwen wins the biggest race in the circuit. That was a major moment to me, just because it was like God willed it to happen to a person who had sacrificed. We [JFR] know because, with the loss of Eric Medlen, we've been through it. That's why I fought so hard to get back myself. It was like I owed a debt back, to come back and build better racecars through the Eric Medlen Project. Don Garlits…Shirley Muldowney is a lady who did what women dreamed of doing, stepping into a sport like this. Danica Patrick, trying to go from IndyCar into NASCAR, it's a tough battle. In drag racing, Shirley Muldowney was a lady that won championships. My daughter Ashley (Force Hood) and Courtney and Brittany, they set their goals after those women, after those sites. To beat the men. But Garlits, as an innovator, the rear-engine dragster…again, that was engineering, technology things, the evolution of the car. But putting the motor behind the driver, that was really a cool deal."
WAS LAST YEAR'S CHAMPIONSHIP THE SWEETEST FOR YOU? "They all mean something to me. There are so many. But probably in my career, your first is always your greatest win. But to come back after my crash and then to be champion. Everybody laughed, a Castrol driver danced on the hood of the Ford Motorcraft because I was there. Robert Hight worked all year to help me win that championship. You know that Ashley Force Hood, my daughter, she fought to help. They all wanted to win, but we took out the competition. Down at the end, they were all hoping, praying, trying. Robert was trying to motivate me to stay in the fight. All that energy around me, and then Tasca – when he stepped up and did what he did, it was just a mental thing to me, that this whole thing made sense. Through hard work, through dedication, through people sticking together. That's the Ford concept – 'One Ford.' We pulled it off, right Tasca?"
BOB TASCA III – Motorcraft/Quick Lane Auto and Tire Center Ford Shelby Mustang Funny Car – JOHN CALLED IT 'A SHOT HEARD 'ROUND THE WORLD,' BUT YOU HAD A STRONG SEASON ALREADY IN THE BOOKS PRIOR TO 'THE MOMENT' IN POMONA. YOUR TEAM RETURNS EVERYONE FROM YOUR CREW. WHAT IS THE KEY FOR YOU TO BE HOISTING (THE CHAMPIONSHIP TROPHY) IN POMONA THIS YEAR? "I think it's just picking up where we left off. This is the first time we end a season with the tune-up that we start a season with. Over the last three years we've gone through a lot of transitions with different set-ups and combinations and we made that 'One Ford'announcement last year, and it was a huge momentum boost for our program. Just for Marc (Denner, Co-Crew Chief), Chris (Cunningham, Crew Chief) and the guys to roll into Pomona with basically the same set-up we left with, with some minor changes…we are running the all-new JFR (John Force Racing) Ford chassis. We did a lot of testing at Palm Beach (International Raceway) and had some of the quickest 330 times of my career, so we're real happy with how that car's reacting, and really, truthfully just can't wait until Pomona."
TALK ABOUT THE FAMILY DYNAMICS THAT PLAY IN BETWEEN THE FORCES AND YOU. YOU'VE BEEN LONG-TIME FAMILY FRIENDS AND ARE INDEPENDENT ON THE TRACK, BUT ARE YOU ALSO INTERDEPENDENT? "I've described my relationship with John a number of different ways. If you're a basketball player, you dream of maybe working with Michael Jordan. If you're a baseball player, maybe it's Babe Ruth. In our sport of drag racing, there is none other other than John Force. I have the ultimate respect for him, as a family man, as a business man and as a racer. What I've been able to learn from John – it ain't no secret. I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for John Force."
JOHN FORCE CONTINUED – YOU MENTIONED THE HISTORY AND THE TASCA FAMILY'S INFLUENCE IN THE NHRA. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE TASCA AND FORCE ROLE IN THE NHRA ON THIS 60TH ANNIVERSARY? "I had known of the Tasca name. I knew the Tasca's were big but I'm a West Coaster, I had never been over the East Coast. When I went into that dealership that day, the Tasca family walked up, Grandpa, Bobby's dad, and all of his brothers, they looked like the Wyatt Earp family, I thought who are these guys? I was there to either rent a car or buy a car because I needed a four-wheeler in the snow. It was the way that they had taken me in, and to listen to Grandpa preach the gospel. We're raising all of the girls here in Yorba Linda and Bobby's family, he has four sons, and we're going to have plenty of drivers for Ford in the future. What was really amazing was to look at the history on their wall, all their drivers. I've read Grandpa Tasca's book, you will be satisfied with it. Grandpa said you need to 'Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday.' Bobby I'm going to turn it over to you to give that history on the NHRA."
BOB TASCA III CONTINUED – "My grandfather had such a passion for NHRA drag racing. I remember him telling the story back in the 60s when he recognized this sport as a great opportunity. It's when he coined the phrase 'Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday.' At the time he was very close to Henry Ford II and Ford wasn't that involved in drag racing at all. He passed out Henry's mailing address to a lot of people in drag racing and the letters started rolling into Henry about drag racing. Finally he called my Grandpa and said, stop the letters, let's go drag racing. I remember the early programs that they had with Ford and how they activated at the track. He always recognized that not only do the fans have unprecedented access to the teams, but to the sponsors and the relationships to the sponsors as fans. It's pretty unprecedented in any other form of motorsports. It's a 60-year tradition that lives on today. Certainly the business model and the dynamics are very different than they were in the 60s, but the whole slogan 'Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday' is alive and well in NHRA Drag Racing and obviously for Ford, Motorcraft and Quick Lane. They've been able to leverage this opportunity over the last couple of years."
JOHN FORCE CONTINUED – "What's amazing to me, and I don't do politics, but I read in the USA Today, politicians talking about the Army trying to pull out of NASCAR and why they invest money with the world economy the way it is, but it's the perfect place to recruit, as is drag racing. You've got the young kids coming out of school going into college all loving cars, the majority drives an automobile. It's the perfect demographic in drag racing and NASCAR. What amazed me was to watch, I was in a show with BrandSource lst weekend and our sponsors down in Orlando with Courtney, and I couldn't get over to the NASCAR race but I got back in time to see it. I watched Edsel Ford, hug his driver, this young kid Trevor Bayne. How it all happens I don't know, but they got the job done, and a lot of it is luck. I'll take luck anytime. It was amazing, not because he won the race, but because all of the people at Ford, the family, the Tascas, John Force Racing, we love to race, but we know our job is to sell. Here we are preaching the gospel because Ford is making changes, like Bobby said before. They brought this company back and continue to survive and grow and help us keep our programs. We alone at Ford can deliver. Edsel Ford is still in the emotion of that this company is going to be okay. It made changes, they've done things. We've invested in NHRA and NASCAR. At the end of the day we're delivering for them. That's what it's all about, winning races and that goes to the fans that buy the program."
BOB TASCA III CONTINUED— TONY STEWART AT NASCAR SAYS THAT IT TAKES ABOUT FOUR OR FIVE RACES INTO THE SEASON TO SEE WHAT TEAM OR TEAMS WILL PROSPER. DO YOU GUYS AGREE WITH THAT IN NHRA? "I've broken the season down into three parts. You've got the first four races or so where the conditions are pretty idea. You have to run the big number to have the chance to win those races. Then you have the summer time where you really just have to stay alive in these hot rods. They make so much power; you've really got to pull them back. Then good Lord willing you're in the Top 10, and in our sport it's pretty much proven that you can go in number one and end up number 10 and you can go in number 10 and end up number one. I think that's what makes it so exciting. The first couple of races are critical because those play into the conditions that you're going to be seeing at the end of the season to really run for that championship. One of the things that makes our sport so exciting is that if you make it into the Top 10, anything can happen."
JOHN FORCE CONTINUED – "A lot of the teams, especially in this economy, they cannot afford to run the test sessions. NHRA has cut us back to four. You're open before Pomona to test all that you want. We went to Florida and our cars ran good, Bobby did too. You have to build your combination and you have to train your teams. You take these kids and prepare them. They're in cold weather right now and yet we put them into the heat of summer down in Florida. That was tough on them. It was like boot camp. They're going to hit Pomona running and you're going to be in different conditions. It's not just the way your race car runs, but also how your men run. Then it's the budget, you've got to watch your money. You have to budget your money for the whole season. You can have all of the points you want in the beginning of the season, but then you run out of money. I've actually beat teams because they've run out of budgets to buy the parts whether they were lower budgeted teams, or they broke all of their stuff early. You've got to win. You have to find a balance. That's what I like about the Countdown. Even if you struggle in the beginning, as long as you make the Countdown, as long as you're in that 10 spot, you can win the championship. It's just like running a foot race. If you want to get out ahead of everybody in the beginning and out-run them, they're just going to run past you later if you don't have the energy to stay out there. Financial is a big part of that."
BOB TASCA III CONTINUED – WHAT WOULD BE A DREAM SEASON FOR YOU AND WHAT WOULD BE A NIGHTMARE SEASON FOR YOU? "A dream season for me would be to win the championship. That's the only reason why I'm out here. At the end of the day, I love to win as many races as I can, but if I get into the Top 10 without a win and won the championship, that's a dream season. A nightmare season we won't think about that, we'll just keep our sights on winning the championship."
JOHN FORCE CONTINUED – "I've lived a nightmare season. We lost Eric [Medlen] in 2007. It used to be that when you set a car on fire and you showed how tough you were, Superman Drag Racer. You just go out there and you build another car. I had no money in the first 15 years of my career. I worked hard for companies like Castrol, Auto Club and Ford Motor Company, whatever it took to do the shows and to have the money to run the cars, in later years to have enough money to test them, and hire the good crew chiefs. When we lost Eric, when we woke up, nobody wanted to race. The trophies didn't have a meaning. It was really hard to say 'go back.' What do you do? Go back and work hard so you can have money so you can have a nice house? Go back to it so you can have money to send your kids off to college? Go back so you can win championships without Eric? It didn't make sense. It was the safety that came out of it that made sense.
We didn't know where to go. We had never tried to change the car that had evolved over 50 years. My car that I drove 30 years looked identical to the car that I crashed in and that Eric crashed in. The Ford engineers started looking at it, like building a bridge and like building a Ford car that they built today. They said here's what you need to do. We worked with Murf McKinney, who was one of the best chassis builders and it started evolving in the Eric Medlen project. I crashed four months later and I can tell you that I would not be standing here if it wasn't for Eric Medlen's crash. It was like the Lord took him to save me. I don't know why it makes no sense, but maybe it was to continue to work with Ford and their engineers who made it financially possible to put race cars out so I could look my wife in the eye and say, I believe in that car and your child who's in it will be safe. You can't get any more than that. It saved my life. It did break my arms and legs, but we continued with that car and out of it came the three-rail chassis that my daughters, Robert Hight and Bob Tasca all drive that they said would be too heavy, too expensive, but these hot rods will out-run anybody. They'll win championships and they'll save lives. They're like six to seven times stronger. NHRA has changed the rules on how we do stuff but now we have to stay in that game and continue to change. Dale Earnhardt was a perfect example. He died and all of a sudden everyone woke up and said we have to save these drivers. Maybe it's changed the face of racing and it's changed our numbers a bit, but you just can't go around knowing that you're going to lose somebody. We changed that at Ford and at John Force Racing."
BOB TASCA III CONTINUED – "I remember building my program. We didn't even have a race car at the time that John crashed. My wife and father said what are you doing? Are you sure this is what you want to do? Look what happened to Eric Medlen and look at what happened to John. We flew down and John was in the hospital bed and you've seen the pictures. He called me to the side of the bed with as much energy and passion as I've ever seen, and he told me what they were going to build. He had the plans for the three-rail chassis, I'll never forget this. I remember telling my Dad that John wouldn't get back in the car he didn't think was safe. To sit in that three-rail car it's like a fortress around you. Your whole body is encapsulated in steel instead of a two-rail and I think that's a big reason why I continued to race, seeing John in the hospital and seeing how much energy that he had and Ford had in building this safer car."
JOHN FORCE CONTINUED – RACING A FORD BODY CAR, WITH A FORD CHASSIS AND A FORD ENGINE, HOW MUCH DID IT MEAN TO FORD FOR YOU TO WIN THIS CHAMPIONSHIP? "We're all out there to sell our brands and our products, that's really what it's all about. The investments made by Ford Motor Company and I really mean that sincerely, they offered the engineers and testing in Detroit. We have a dragster up there right now because my daughter crashed in the dragster last year. The wheel came off the car and it was just a terrible deal. It was the weekend that we had another driver that we lost there. Once again, back to the drawing board. When we talked to NASCAR, I talked to some of those people and asked what do you do? The words were surround your driver with armor. I thought if you do that the car will be too heavy. Then they said, change the rules. The NHRA sometimes doesn't get credit. They're the ones that worked with us and gave us money to invest in tire testing, work with the chassis. It was a lot of people. Everyone got together to build a car that we can put our children in. That's really what it's all about."
BOB TASCA III CONTINUED – "I was at the starting line and played as a small role. I give John and his team the credit on winning the championship. Henry Ford III was at Pomona and it shows the Ford family and their love and support for their racers. He was there at the starting line. To have our Ford beat a Dodge and open the door, and John come and run the table the way that he did, I've been in a lot of Ford boardrooms and I can tell you this, there wasn't a dry eye. Everyone had an ear-to-ear grin on their face."
JOHN FORCE CONTINUED – "I don't know [Alan] Mulally, the gentleman that runs Ford. I've met him a few times and he's always taken the time and respect to talk to us and I really appreciate it. The guys that I dealt with everyday, the group of guys that changed our programs and worked with the guys along with Jamie Allison, said we got to make change. We've got to cut cost at Ford Motor Company and we have to build better cars. You might say well how do you build better cars and cut costs and win championships? I took their game plan, what they were doing at Ford and put it into my own program. I had a few people leave me, but things had to be done to make this thing function. It worked because we still won, we came back. The Wood Brothers, they came back and survived because of Ford, the Roush's, the Petty's, we all survived. I'm going in today to finally offer my employees increases because I found ways to cut costs. I've been going to rental cars for the past 30 years. I quit doing that and go to the dealers now and they give me a car because I work with them. There are so many ways, if I just open my eyes, on how to save money to make this thing cost effective, and yet we still deliver championships. It will be Tasca, Robert Hight, Mike Neff or myself. These Fords will deliver a championship. It's just going to keep on happening because we work as a team. "
Bob Tasca, driver and owner of the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center Ford Shelby Mustang Funny Car, and John Force, who last season earned his 15th Full Throttle Series championship title at the wheel of the Castrol GTX High-Mileage Ford Mustang, joined Ford Racing on a teleconference to kick off the 2011 season. Among the topics they discussed were the keys to keeping the Championship title in the Ford Family, the importance of family (most notably the Tasca's) in NHRA Drag Racing, and major moments in NHRA's first 60 years.
JOHN FORCE – 15-time NHRA Full Throttle Series World Champion/ Castrol GTX High Mileage Ford Mustang Funny Car - IT'S BEEN THREE MONTHS SINCE YOU WON THE CHAMPIONSHIP AT POMONA WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM BOB (TASCA, WHO ELIMINATED 2010 CHAMPIONSHIP HOPEFUL MATT HAGAN), AND A LOT HAS CHANGED SINCE THEN FOR YOUR TEAM. HOW DO YOU CARRY THAT CHAMPIONSHIP MENTALITY INTO A NEW SEASON? "You just don't take a vacation. Like Tasca, he finally stole a day to take his kids to Disneyland. Me, I spent the winter in the gym, but I have some time for the family. Mainly it is about the transition for some employees – you lose a handful, you got to replace them. New technology – working on a new injector to make these cars react quicker. And the new BOSS 500 motor program. That's what we've been doing all winter. Tasca's taken delivery of some new stuff out of John Force Racing there in Indy, out of the BOSS 500 program. We just keep motivated. It's time to leap into the fire. It's been too long."
TALK ABOUT THE FAMILY DYNAMICS THAT PLAY IN TO THE TASCA FORCE RELATIONSHIP. YOU'VE BEEN LONG-TIME FAMILY FRIEND AND FORD PARTNER, AND ARE INDEPENDENT ON THE TRACK, BUT ARE YOU ALSO INTERDEPENDENT? "My introduction to Ford Motor Company, even though I was with Ford in my early days with local dealers, was through the Tasca family. And from that, from Grandpa Tasca (Bob Tasca Sr.), I learned about being a team and being a family. I took it one-step further to the ranks of even Ford's thinking today, and our program with 'One Ford.' We all race together. I don't know exactly how it works in NASCAR, but to see (the Wood Brothers), who had struggled for so many years, to jump up with that Motorcraft and Quick Lane car and get a win (with Trevor Bayne, at the Daytona 500) to kick off the season, it was exciting for me. I believe the Roush teams and the Petty's – everybody is working together. That's what we're doing at John Force Racing, and Tasca, the family, is part of that. We'll have meetings this weekend with our crew chiefs. Even though we all race together, in the end, even my crew chief said there's a lot of our technology and things that we learn that go over there (to Tasca's team). I said 'Yeah, but if you build a good Ford race car, one day it'll pay.' I joke, but I'm really serious. 'The shot heard 'round the world' was when Tasca opened the door at Pomona last year to allow our Ford to win the championship when he took out Hagan. But the key was that motor program [Ford BOSS 500], which his crew chiefs worked on with mine…even though we're separate teams, Tasca's hot rod was flying, he got the win that opened the door for me. So it even made my own people understand - if Ford's going to invest money in this technology, we have to share it with the Ford personnel, and the Tasca family is part of that."
WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IS THE BIGGEST MOMENT IN THE 60 YEARS OF NHRA'S HISTORY? "Looking back, Don Prudhomme, [Don] Garlits, Shirley Muldowney, Bob Glidden in the early days of Ford Pro Stock – those were my heroes. Even when I went into Tasca Ford, I looked at the wall and saw a lot of the names and the Tasca Ford car and their drivers. There's so much history in drag racing, because it's American. It's the automobile. It's what it's all about. But when I look back, seeing Don Prudhomme race in Indy one year, in the final round against Tom 'the Mongoose' McEwen, when McEwen had just lost his son, and all of a sudden McEwen wins the biggest race in the circuit. That was a major moment to me, just because it was like God willed it to happen to a person who had sacrificed. We [JFR] know because, with the loss of Eric Medlen, we've been through it. That's why I fought so hard to get back myself. It was like I owed a debt back, to come back and build better racecars through the Eric Medlen Project. Don Garlits…Shirley Muldowney is a lady who did what women dreamed of doing, stepping into a sport like this. Danica Patrick, trying to go from IndyCar into NASCAR, it's a tough battle. In drag racing, Shirley Muldowney was a lady that won championships. My daughter Ashley (Force Hood) and Courtney and Brittany, they set their goals after those women, after those sites. To beat the men. But Garlits, as an innovator, the rear-engine dragster…again, that was engineering, technology things, the evolution of the car. But putting the motor behind the driver, that was really a cool deal."
WAS LAST YEAR'S CHAMPIONSHIP THE SWEETEST FOR YOU? "They all mean something to me. There are so many. But probably in my career, your first is always your greatest win. But to come back after my crash and then to be champion. Everybody laughed, a Castrol driver danced on the hood of the Ford Motorcraft because I was there. Robert Hight worked all year to help me win that championship. You know that Ashley Force Hood, my daughter, she fought to help. They all wanted to win, but we took out the competition. Down at the end, they were all hoping, praying, trying. Robert was trying to motivate me to stay in the fight. All that energy around me, and then Tasca – when he stepped up and did what he did, it was just a mental thing to me, that this whole thing made sense. Through hard work, through dedication, through people sticking together. That's the Ford concept – 'One Ford.' We pulled it off, right Tasca?"
BOB TASCA III – Motorcraft/Quick Lane Auto and Tire Center Ford Shelby Mustang Funny Car – JOHN CALLED IT 'A SHOT HEARD 'ROUND THE WORLD,' BUT YOU HAD A STRONG SEASON ALREADY IN THE BOOKS PRIOR TO 'THE MOMENT' IN POMONA. YOUR TEAM RETURNS EVERYONE FROM YOUR CREW. WHAT IS THE KEY FOR YOU TO BE HOISTING (THE CHAMPIONSHIP TROPHY) IN POMONA THIS YEAR? "I think it's just picking up where we left off. This is the first time we end a season with the tune-up that we start a season with. Over the last three years we've gone through a lot of transitions with different set-ups and combinations and we made that 'One Ford'announcement last year, and it was a huge momentum boost for our program. Just for Marc (Denner, Co-Crew Chief), Chris (Cunningham, Crew Chief) and the guys to roll into Pomona with basically the same set-up we left with, with some minor changes…we are running the all-new JFR (John Force Racing) Ford chassis. We did a lot of testing at Palm Beach (International Raceway) and had some of the quickest 330 times of my career, so we're real happy with how that car's reacting, and really, truthfully just can't wait until Pomona."
TALK ABOUT THE FAMILY DYNAMICS THAT PLAY IN BETWEEN THE FORCES AND YOU. YOU'VE BEEN LONG-TIME FAMILY FRIENDS AND ARE INDEPENDENT ON THE TRACK, BUT ARE YOU ALSO INTERDEPENDENT? "I've described my relationship with John a number of different ways. If you're a basketball player, you dream of maybe working with Michael Jordan. If you're a baseball player, maybe it's Babe Ruth. In our sport of drag racing, there is none other other than John Force. I have the ultimate respect for him, as a family man, as a business man and as a racer. What I've been able to learn from John – it ain't no secret. I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for John Force."
JOHN FORCE CONTINUED – YOU MENTIONED THE HISTORY AND THE TASCA FAMILY'S INFLUENCE IN THE NHRA. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE TASCA AND FORCE ROLE IN THE NHRA ON THIS 60TH ANNIVERSARY? "I had known of the Tasca name. I knew the Tasca's were big but I'm a West Coaster, I had never been over the East Coast. When I went into that dealership that day, the Tasca family walked up, Grandpa, Bobby's dad, and all of his brothers, they looked like the Wyatt Earp family, I thought who are these guys? I was there to either rent a car or buy a car because I needed a four-wheeler in the snow. It was the way that they had taken me in, and to listen to Grandpa preach the gospel. We're raising all of the girls here in Yorba Linda and Bobby's family, he has four sons, and we're going to have plenty of drivers for Ford in the future. What was really amazing was to look at the history on their wall, all their drivers. I've read Grandpa Tasca's book, you will be satisfied with it. Grandpa said you need to 'Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday.' Bobby I'm going to turn it over to you to give that history on the NHRA."
BOB TASCA III CONTINUED – "My grandfather had such a passion for NHRA drag racing. I remember him telling the story back in the 60s when he recognized this sport as a great opportunity. It's when he coined the phrase 'Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday.' At the time he was very close to Henry Ford II and Ford wasn't that involved in drag racing at all. He passed out Henry's mailing address to a lot of people in drag racing and the letters started rolling into Henry about drag racing. Finally he called my Grandpa and said, stop the letters, let's go drag racing. I remember the early programs that they had with Ford and how they activated at the track. He always recognized that not only do the fans have unprecedented access to the teams, but to the sponsors and the relationships to the sponsors as fans. It's pretty unprecedented in any other form of motorsports. It's a 60-year tradition that lives on today. Certainly the business model and the dynamics are very different than they were in the 60s, but the whole slogan 'Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday' is alive and well in NHRA Drag Racing and obviously for Ford, Motorcraft and Quick Lane. They've been able to leverage this opportunity over the last couple of years."
JOHN FORCE CONTINUED – "What's amazing to me, and I don't do politics, but I read in the USA Today, politicians talking about the Army trying to pull out of NASCAR and why they invest money with the world economy the way it is, but it's the perfect place to recruit, as is drag racing. You've got the young kids coming out of school going into college all loving cars, the majority drives an automobile. It's the perfect demographic in drag racing and NASCAR. What amazed me was to watch, I was in a show with BrandSource lst weekend and our sponsors down in Orlando with Courtney, and I couldn't get over to the NASCAR race but I got back in time to see it. I watched Edsel Ford, hug his driver, this young kid Trevor Bayne. How it all happens I don't know, but they got the job done, and a lot of it is luck. I'll take luck anytime. It was amazing, not because he won the race, but because all of the people at Ford, the family, the Tascas, John Force Racing, we love to race, but we know our job is to sell. Here we are preaching the gospel because Ford is making changes, like Bobby said before. They brought this company back and continue to survive and grow and help us keep our programs. We alone at Ford can deliver. Edsel Ford is still in the emotion of that this company is going to be okay. It made changes, they've done things. We've invested in NHRA and NASCAR. At the end of the day we're delivering for them. That's what it's all about, winning races and that goes to the fans that buy the program."
BOB TASCA III CONTINUED— TONY STEWART AT NASCAR SAYS THAT IT TAKES ABOUT FOUR OR FIVE RACES INTO THE SEASON TO SEE WHAT TEAM OR TEAMS WILL PROSPER. DO YOU GUYS AGREE WITH THAT IN NHRA? "I've broken the season down into three parts. You've got the first four races or so where the conditions are pretty idea. You have to run the big number to have the chance to win those races. Then you have the summer time where you really just have to stay alive in these hot rods. They make so much power; you've really got to pull them back. Then good Lord willing you're in the Top 10, and in our sport it's pretty much proven that you can go in number one and end up number 10 and you can go in number 10 and end up number one. I think that's what makes it so exciting. The first couple of races are critical because those play into the conditions that you're going to be seeing at the end of the season to really run for that championship. One of the things that makes our sport so exciting is that if you make it into the Top 10, anything can happen."
JOHN FORCE CONTINUED – "A lot of the teams, especially in this economy, they cannot afford to run the test sessions. NHRA has cut us back to four. You're open before Pomona to test all that you want. We went to Florida and our cars ran good, Bobby did too. You have to build your combination and you have to train your teams. You take these kids and prepare them. They're in cold weather right now and yet we put them into the heat of summer down in Florida. That was tough on them. It was like boot camp. They're going to hit Pomona running and you're going to be in different conditions. It's not just the way your race car runs, but also how your men run. Then it's the budget, you've got to watch your money. You have to budget your money for the whole season. You can have all of the points you want in the beginning of the season, but then you run out of money. I've actually beat teams because they've run out of budgets to buy the parts whether they were lower budgeted teams, or they broke all of their stuff early. You've got to win. You have to find a balance. That's what I like about the Countdown. Even if you struggle in the beginning, as long as you make the Countdown, as long as you're in that 10 spot, you can win the championship. It's just like running a foot race. If you want to get out ahead of everybody in the beginning and out-run them, they're just going to run past you later if you don't have the energy to stay out there. Financial is a big part of that."
BOB TASCA III CONTINUED – WHAT WOULD BE A DREAM SEASON FOR YOU AND WHAT WOULD BE A NIGHTMARE SEASON FOR YOU? "A dream season for me would be to win the championship. That's the only reason why I'm out here. At the end of the day, I love to win as many races as I can, but if I get into the Top 10 without a win and won the championship, that's a dream season. A nightmare season we won't think about that, we'll just keep our sights on winning the championship."
JOHN FORCE CONTINUED – "I've lived a nightmare season. We lost Eric [Medlen] in 2007. It used to be that when you set a car on fire and you showed how tough you were, Superman Drag Racer. You just go out there and you build another car. I had no money in the first 15 years of my career. I worked hard for companies like Castrol, Auto Club and Ford Motor Company, whatever it took to do the shows and to have the money to run the cars, in later years to have enough money to test them, and hire the good crew chiefs. When we lost Eric, when we woke up, nobody wanted to race. The trophies didn't have a meaning. It was really hard to say 'go back.' What do you do? Go back and work hard so you can have money so you can have a nice house? Go back to it so you can have money to send your kids off to college? Go back so you can win championships without Eric? It didn't make sense. It was the safety that came out of it that made sense.
We didn't know where to go. We had never tried to change the car that had evolved over 50 years. My car that I drove 30 years looked identical to the car that I crashed in and that Eric crashed in. The Ford engineers started looking at it, like building a bridge and like building a Ford car that they built today. They said here's what you need to do. We worked with Murf McKinney, who was one of the best chassis builders and it started evolving in the Eric Medlen project. I crashed four months later and I can tell you that I would not be standing here if it wasn't for Eric Medlen's crash. It was like the Lord took him to save me. I don't know why it makes no sense, but maybe it was to continue to work with Ford and their engineers who made it financially possible to put race cars out so I could look my wife in the eye and say, I believe in that car and your child who's in it will be safe. You can't get any more than that. It saved my life. It did break my arms and legs, but we continued with that car and out of it came the three-rail chassis that my daughters, Robert Hight and Bob Tasca all drive that they said would be too heavy, too expensive, but these hot rods will out-run anybody. They'll win championships and they'll save lives. They're like six to seven times stronger. NHRA has changed the rules on how we do stuff but now we have to stay in that game and continue to change. Dale Earnhardt was a perfect example. He died and all of a sudden everyone woke up and said we have to save these drivers. Maybe it's changed the face of racing and it's changed our numbers a bit, but you just can't go around knowing that you're going to lose somebody. We changed that at Ford and at John Force Racing."
BOB TASCA III CONTINUED – "I remember building my program. We didn't even have a race car at the time that John crashed. My wife and father said what are you doing? Are you sure this is what you want to do? Look what happened to Eric Medlen and look at what happened to John. We flew down and John was in the hospital bed and you've seen the pictures. He called me to the side of the bed with as much energy and passion as I've ever seen, and he told me what they were going to build. He had the plans for the three-rail chassis, I'll never forget this. I remember telling my Dad that John wouldn't get back in the car he didn't think was safe. To sit in that three-rail car it's like a fortress around you. Your whole body is encapsulated in steel instead of a two-rail and I think that's a big reason why I continued to race, seeing John in the hospital and seeing how much energy that he had and Ford had in building this safer car."
JOHN FORCE CONTINUED – RACING A FORD BODY CAR, WITH A FORD CHASSIS AND A FORD ENGINE, HOW MUCH DID IT MEAN TO FORD FOR YOU TO WIN THIS CHAMPIONSHIP? "We're all out there to sell our brands and our products, that's really what it's all about. The investments made by Ford Motor Company and I really mean that sincerely, they offered the engineers and testing in Detroit. We have a dragster up there right now because my daughter crashed in the dragster last year. The wheel came off the car and it was just a terrible deal. It was the weekend that we had another driver that we lost there. Once again, back to the drawing board. When we talked to NASCAR, I talked to some of those people and asked what do you do? The words were surround your driver with armor. I thought if you do that the car will be too heavy. Then they said, change the rules. The NHRA sometimes doesn't get credit. They're the ones that worked with us and gave us money to invest in tire testing, work with the chassis. It was a lot of people. Everyone got together to build a car that we can put our children in. That's really what it's all about."
BOB TASCA III CONTINUED – "I was at the starting line and played as a small role. I give John and his team the credit on winning the championship. Henry Ford III was at Pomona and it shows the Ford family and their love and support for their racers. He was there at the starting line. To have our Ford beat a Dodge and open the door, and John come and run the table the way that he did, I've been in a lot of Ford boardrooms and I can tell you this, there wasn't a dry eye. Everyone had an ear-to-ear grin on their face."
JOHN FORCE CONTINUED – "I don't know [Alan] Mulally, the gentleman that runs Ford. I've met him a few times and he's always taken the time and respect to talk to us and I really appreciate it. The guys that I dealt with everyday, the group of guys that changed our programs and worked with the guys along with Jamie Allison, said we got to make change. We've got to cut cost at Ford Motor Company and we have to build better cars. You might say well how do you build better cars and cut costs and win championships? I took their game plan, what they were doing at Ford and put it into my own program. I had a few people leave me, but things had to be done to make this thing function. It worked because we still won, we came back. The Wood Brothers, they came back and survived because of Ford, the Roush's, the Petty's, we all survived. I'm going in today to finally offer my employees increases because I found ways to cut costs. I've been going to rental cars for the past 30 years. I quit doing that and go to the dealers now and they give me a car because I work with them. There are so many ways, if I just open my eyes, on how to save money to make this thing cost effective, and yet we still deliver championships. It will be Tasca, Robert Hight, Mike Neff or myself. These Fords will deliver a championship. It's just going to keep on happening because we work as a team. "
NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, Final Results from Firebird International Raceway
COWIE, O’BANNON WIN AT FIREBIRD
PHOENIX – In the final results from Firebird International Raceway and the NHRA Pacific Division Season Opener Shawn Cowie and Sean O’Bannon took wins and the early lead in the division points battle. Weather pushed final eliminations to Monday as 11 racers made the wait worth wild taking home trophies.
Cowie, Delta, B.C., CAN., qualified No. 3 in Top Alcohol Dragster, then took out a pair of Arizona racers in Art Trautman, Wadell, Ariz., and James Butler, Prescott, Ariz., on his way to a final round match up with last year’s event winner and defending Pacific Division Lucas Oil Champion Jim Whiteley. Cowie went 5.331 seconds at 272.01 mph in defeating Whiteley, Grand Junction, Colo., with a 5.429, 269.51.
O’Bannon of Ontario, Calif., ran 5.50’s (seconds) in defeating John Lombardo Jr. and Ken Webster, Red Deer, Ala., in rounds 1 and 2 of Top Alcohol Funny Car. He then faced off with veteran racer and former alcohol dragster national champion Jay Payne, Claremont, Calif., for the win. O’Bannon clocked in at 5.604 seconds, 258.86 mph taking the win easily as Payne crossed the centerline and was disqualified.
Art Hoover defended his event title from last year in the Hughes Performance Top Dragster class. The Concord, Calif., racer drove to a 6.912 second lap at 195.34 mph taking the win over Randolph Scott, Henderson, Nev.
Two local racers did battle for the Super Street trophies with John Bycroft, Phoenix, taking the win over Ed Breunig, Chandler, Ariz. Bycroft went 10.904, 131.70 in his ’69 Dart to Breunig’s 10.883 at 127.59 in his ’67 Nova. Grabbing wins in the other super classes were Todd Barton, Norwalk, Calif., over Aaron Kinard, San Marcos, Calif., in Super Comp and Thomas Bayer, Fontana, Calif., in Super Gas over Kevin Sexton, Lancaster, Calif.
Other winners included Justin Lamb, Henderson, Nev., in Comp Eliminator against Mike DePalma, Glendale, Ariz.; Mike Cotton, Broken Arrow, Okla., in Super Stock in his ’70 Barracuda; Ryan McClanahan, Alta Loma, Calif., in Stock; Tom Medlin, La Mirada, Calif., in Sportsman Motorcycle presented by Harley Davidson; and Ray Martin out of Anchorage, Alaska, in Top Sportsman.
Most of the Pacific Division racers will head to Auto Club Raceway at Pomona for the Kragen O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals this coming weekend then to The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, March 25-27.
The following are the final results from the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event at Firebird International Raceway and the Pacific Division Season Opener:
TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER:
Round 1
7) James Butler, Prescott, Ariz., 5.548, 255.97 def. 2) Duane Shields, Boulder City, Nev., 5.687, 253.42
3) Shawn Cowie, Delta, B.C., 5.319, 270.54 def. 6) Art Trautman, Wadell, Ariz., 5.640, 243.85
5) Chase Copeland, Gainesville, Texas, 5.361, 271.08 def. 4) Kyle Rizzoli, San Luis Obispo, Calif., 5.461, 263.26
8) Jim Whiteley, Grand Junction, Colo., 5.347, 274.00 def. 1) Chris Demke, Sunland, Calif., broke
Semifinals
Whiteley, 5.335, 273.66 def. Copeland, 5.397, 267.59
Cowie, 5.284, 271.46 def. Butler, broke
Final
Cowie, 5.331, 272.01 def. Whiteley, 5.429, 269.51
TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR:
Round 1
4) Sean O'Bannon, Ontario, Calif., '08 Monte Carlo, 5.564, 259.61 def. 5) John Lombardo Jr., Brea, Calif., '10 Monte Carlo, 13.718, 58.58
3) Doug Gordon, Paso Robles, Calif., '07 Monte Carlo, 5.611, 259.26 def. 6) John Patton, Surprise, Ariz., '10 Mustang, 5.824, 251.81
2) Jay Payne, Claremont, Calif., '10 Mustang, 5.583, 257.92 def. 7) Shane Westerfield, Lake Forest, Calif., '11 Monte Carlo, foul
8) Ken Webster, Red Deer, Alb., '10 Monte Carlo, 5.811, 244.60 def. 1) Tony Bartone, Long Island City, N.Y., '09 Mustang, 7.015, 144.26
Semifinals
Payne, 5.549, 262.08 def. Gordon, 5.821, 212.16
O'Bannon, 5.578, 259.41 def. Webster, broke
Final
O'Bannon, 5.604, 258.86 def. Payne, broke
COMP ELIMINATOR
Justin Lamb, Henderson, Nev., '09 Cobalt, G/SMA, 8.733, 151.68 def. Mike DePalma, Glendale, Ariz., '00 S-10, C/T, 8.160, 163.57.
SUPER STOCK
Mike Cotten, Broken Arrow, Okla., '70 Barracuda, SS/JA, 14.080, 77.62 def. Steve Couch, Sidney, Neb., '09 Challenger, SS/JA, foul.
STOCK ELIMINATOR
Ryan McClanahan, Alta Loma, Calif., '69 Camaro, AA/SA, 11.639, 82.17 def. Kyle Rizzoli, San Luis Obispo, Calif., '69 Camaro, A/SA, foul.
SUPER COMP
Todd Barton, Norwalk, Calif., dragster, 8.906, 170.67 def. Aaron Kinard, San Marcos, Calif., dragster, 8.924, 170.75.
SUPER GAS
Thomas Bayer, Fontana, Calif., '62 Corvette, 10.328, 131.29 def. Kevin Sexton, Lancaster, Calif., '77 Vega Wagon, 10.445, 147.09.
SUPER STREET
John Bycroft, Phoenix, '69 Dart, 10.904, 131.70 def. Ed Breunig, Chandler, Ariz., '67 Nova, 10.883, 127.59
SPORTSMAN MOTORCYCLE
Tom Medlin, La Mirada, Calif., '93 Suzuki, 8.353, 157.83 def. Jay Thompson, Phoenix, '73 Kawasaki, 9.922, 127.80
TOP SPORTSMAN
Ray Martin, Anchorage, Alaska, '63 Corvette, 7.254, 188.67 def. Chip Rumis, Ramona, Calif., '05 Cobalt, 19.403, 47.75
TOP DRAGSTER
Art Hoover, Concord, Calif., dragster, 6.912, 195.34 def. Randolph Scott, Henderson, Nev., dragster, 7.300, 168.62
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)