Thu, 7 Jan 2010, 10:42 AM
Happy New Year
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By Bob Frey
Photo copyright 2010 Auto Imagery, Inc.
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One of my highlights in 2009
was showing Curly Neal how
spin a basketball on your finger.
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By now everyone has their holiday decorations down (or
should), most folks who had some time off over the holidays are back to work
(or should be) and everyone is anxiously waiting the start of the new drag
racing season (or ought to be). About the only thing that remains right now is
for someone, anyone, to decide exactly what we're going to call the
new year. Is it two-thousand-ten or twenty-ten? Come
on, make up your mind so we can all get on with our lives.
One thing that it's not is two-thousand
and
ten. It drove me crazy when everyone called the last nine years
two-thousand and eight or nine. You never said nineteen and ninety-nine did
you? Ok, so that was just a pet peeve of mine. Another thing you don't call
2009 is the end of the decade. Just like the end of the last century (remember
Y2K) was celebrated a year early, so is the end of the decade. Count with me,
there
are "ten" in a decade, right? So two-thousand
ten (or whatever you're calling it) will be the end of the decade, not 2009.
Work with me, people!! As you can tell, the snow that hit our area over the
past few weeks and the cold temperatures
have me a
little cranky. It's that or the fact that I haven't been to a drag race in a while.
Anyway, Happy New Year.
Last week we looked at some of the highlights of 2009, some
of my highlights, and I said that we'd look at a few more this time around.
Once we close the book on last year we'll start looking at what the fans can
expect in the new drag racing season. One thing that did catch my eye over the
past few weeks while I was in the house, snowbound, was the NFL playoffs, and especially the Indianapolis Colts and the New
Orleans Saints. That's because
both teams elected to sit some of their star players in order to rest them for
the playoffs, but when they did that it gave their opponents an unfair
advantage. The New York Jets made
the playoffs because Indianapolis
sat their star players after getting a five point lead. When I was with some
T. Pedregon vs Force
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friends this past weekend they were debating the pros and cons of teams sitting
players out and emotions were high on both sides. I wanted to call
John Force or
Tony Pedregon and get their side of
it,
after all, it's really not that different from what takes place in our sport.
You do what you have to do to put yourself and your team in the best position
to win a championship. That's what the NFL teams are doing (for better or
worse) and that's what happens in our sport (for better or worse). And your feeling
about it really depends on what side of the equation you happen to be on. Did people
who paid good money to sit in the snow and freezing cold weather in
Buffalo last week have a
right to expect to see
Peyton Manning
play?
Probably. Do the Colts have the right not to
play their stars?
Probably. Is
there a right and a wrong to this discussion?
Probably not.
And the same holds true when a couple of team cars square off at one of our
races. Each team decides what the best approach for them might be and they have
to live with it, good or bad. Oh well, we can discuss and debate it forever and
nobody will change their mind, but I just found it interesting that a huge
sport like professional football is facing the same situation now that we have
for years. One thing is for sure, though, once the playoffs start nobody will
be sitting on the bench for Indy or the Saints, and if they make it to the
Super Bowl it will look like they made
the right decision. If they lose in the first or second round, though, the second-guessing
will begin and last until the drag racing season begins (a week after the Super
Bowl).
Larry Dixon
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Now, let's get to drag racing. Once it was finally
determined that there should be records in the fuel classes at the 1,000 foot
distance, the speed mark was set three times in 2009.
Antron Brown did it in Indy when he went 319.22 miles per hour and
then he re-set it in
Richmond at 319.60 before
Larry Dixon put the record over 320 at
Pomona. Larry's 321.59 mph
blast was the fastest ever at 1,000 feet and it will be the record as the
new year begins.
Did
you know that there were only three runs over 320 mph in 2009 and all
of them
came at the last race of the year? Larry's was
the best with
Tony Schumacher going
320.58 and
Cory McClenathan hitting
a top speed of 320.51. Cory just missed being the first driver to go over 320
miles per hour in both a quarter-mile and at 1,000 feet. Story of his life,
isn't it?
Did you know that
Cory was the first TF driver to go over 320 mph at 1,320 feet when he did it in
Dallas back in
1997? Oh yeah, he also won that race....Tony Schumacher's amazing 3.772 at the
final race in
Pomona
was the quickest run of the year and the second best ever at 1,000 feet.
Did you know that Tony's 3.771 at
Richmond in
Tony Schumacher
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2008 is the only run that is quicker? And, he is also good in the speed
department
too, because of the top seven speed runs in
the class at 1,000 feet Tony has recorded six of them. I guess that's why he's
the champion, or at least one of the reasons why..With all of the talk about the
50
th Winternationals coming up it will be interesting to see if we
have another Top Fuel record recorded at that famous race.
Did you know that the very first year that they ran nitro at
Pomona (1963)
the TF record was set three times? Yes, three times. First it was none other
than
"Big Daddy" Don Garlits who set
the elapsed time record at 8.24 at the Winternationals. That was followed by a
national speed mark of 187.86 that was recorded by
Steve Porter in the
Porter
& Reis car. Three months after the Winternationals were in the history
books, Norm Weekly
came back for a points race and upped the speed mark to 188.66 miles per hour
in the
"Frantic Four" dragster.
So three records were set over the course of three months at the
venerable California
track. That divisional race in
Pomona
in May of '63 produced a total of forty-seven national records and they were
recorded by some of the biggest names in the sport including
"Big John" Mazmanian ("Bones" Balough
driving), the
Marrs Brothers (Mel &
Walt) and
Jess Van Deventer. For the hard core drag racing fan that must
Lagana also defeated Brown
in round two advancing to
his
first semifinal appearance.
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have been some race...
NHRA is
really hyping up the 50
th Winternationals and rightfully so. They
even have a special section all about the race and its history on
NHRA.com, and with the history of that
event the 2010 race has a lot to live up to, but I'm sure it will be one of the
truly great races in history. If the only ones who show up are the special people
and the cars from the first fifty years who have been invited for the event it
will be great. I'll have more on the 50
th Winternationals as the
race gets closer. Stay tuned..In addition to the quick runs of the year there
were also a couple of surprise runs in the Top Fuel class, like
Bobby Lagana beating
Spencer Massey in Gainesville and
Terry Haddock upsetting Tony Schumacher
in Chicago.
It's races like that that make this a
great sport.
Alan Johnson
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Last week I mentioned some of the top runs in the Pro Stock
class for 2009 but I would be remiss if I didn't include
Alan Johnson's performance in
Denver
in that group. True,
Greg Anderson
was the first Pro Stock driver to make a six-second run at
Bandimere Speedway, but it was AJ's stunning 6.964 on the very next
pass that got everyone's attention.
Did
you know that not only did Alan make a six-second run but
Mike Edwards did so at the same time in
the other lane? So the
Denver
track went from never having a six-second run to having three of them in the
span of about five minutes. Both Greg and Mike would go in the sixes on their
next qualifying run (and so would
Rodger
Brogdon, Jason Line and
Ron Krisher)
so there would be no less than six drivers in that magic zone going into
eliminations. It was quite amazing. Although Alan did not improve on his final
qualifying attempt, he did go on to make two more six-second runs during
eliminations and he used that power to win the race.
Did you know that it took the Pro Stock teams sixteen years
to trim half a second off their best runs in
Denver?
Scott
Geoffrion was the first to run under 7.50 and that was in 1993, and sixteen
years later they were running sixes like they were giving them away....Speaking
of Alan Johnson, did you see what he got his dad for Christmas? It was a band
Roy with his new toy.
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new Dodge Challenger Drag Pak car.
Really. I got
underwear for Christmas from my kids. Geez!! Besides the car, Allen also had it
painted to look just like the Challenger that
Roy used to race back in his old IHRA days
and that means it had the classic
Chroma
Graphics lettering on it.
Did you
know that
Roy
was a two-time IHRA World Champion back in the 1970's and that he won eight
IHRA national events? And
did you know
that he went to six finals at NHRA nationals races, won a pair of them and
finished as high as third in the points in Competition Eliminator? Now he has a
brand new race car and he plans to run it at a couple of divisional races as
well as at the national events in
Atlanta and
Bristol.
Should be fun. Of course "Big Daddy" will race his Dodge
Challenger and so will
Jeg Coughlin so
there could be some really interesting match ups during the season.
Spencer Massey
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One of the highlights of the 2009 season was the battle for
the Rookie of the Year. For the first time in a while there were several
legitimate candidates and all could make a claim for the honor. In the end,
Spencer Massey won it but it could just
have easily gone to any of the other three nominees. Unlike some years where
drivers were nominated simply because they qualified based on the number of
events they had entered, each of the four, including
Shawn Langdon, Matt Hagan and
Douglas Horne, did something to distinguish themselves in the eyes of the
voters. If the economy holds up, and I hope it does, all of them return in
2010, which I hope they will, and we'll see which one has the better sophomore
season...Historically most drivers who win the Rookie of the Year vote have
very good careers, both in quality and quantity of races, but there are a few
exceptions. I wonder where
Danielle
DePorter (1992 ROTY) is these days and what she's doing? The same holds
true for
Don Lampus (2000) and
Gene Wilson (2002). I saw both Don and
Gene last year and would love to see them back in action because they are great
guys and good racers.
Manzo displays plaque he
recieved for winning 100 races
with Charlotte Lucas.
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There were also highlights in the sportsman ranks and
Frank Manzo figured in a couple of them
and so did
Marty Nothstein. Frank
gets credit for just being Frank and winning his 13
th national
championship. In addition to his dominating performance on the national level,
did you know that Frank was
involved in one of the closest races ever at a division race? At the Division 1
race in Englishtown Frank beat Marty in a race that was actually a dead heat!!
When you add up the reaction times and
the actual elapsed times the margin of victory was, well, nothing. By the numbers
that race was a tie but Frank got the win. Apparently those wacky computers
have all kinds of extra numbers inside that we don't see and when it came down
to the "little numbers" Frank got the win. I guess that's why he is the man.
Did you know that if Frank has
another typical Frank Manzo year in 2010 he will pass
Pat Austin on the all-time TAFC list for the number of rounds won?..Marty
also had a wild ride at the Englishtown national event and so did
Alexis DeJoria. As hard as it was to
Chris Foster
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believe (and see) the two of them ran off the end of the track on back-to-back
runs. Alexis came back to have a very good year and she was named the "Most
Improved" sportsman driver by
National Dragster. It's hard to
argue with that because she did have a good year but I also wanted to give a
little credit to
Chris Foster who
also showed great improvement in 2009. Chris, who hadn't won a round coming
into the 2009 season, went to the semi-finals in
Houston
and
Topeka and made it to the final round in
Norwalk. With the help of
his much underrated crew chief,
Will
Hanna, Chris won the tough Division 3 TAFC championship and finished
seventh in the national points. Now that's a big improvement if you ask me.
Nice job Chris and Will.
NHRA: 10 Most Recent Entries [ top ]
Sep 2- INDY - Stock Eliminator Round 2 Class Eliminations
Sep 2- INDY - Stock Eliminator Qualifying, Final Order (Pending Tech)
Sep 2- INDY - Thursday Schedule
Sep 2- INDY - Stock Eliminator Round 1 Class Eliminations
Sep 2- INDY - Top Fuel Preview
Sep 1- INDY - Stock Eliminator Qualifying, Session #3 Order
Sep 1- Jim Dunn Racing to Unveil New Car at U.S. Nationals Kick-Off Party
Sep 1- INDY - Stock Eliminator Qualifying, Session #2 Order
Sep 1- INDY - Super Stock Qualifying, Session #1 Order
Sep 1- INDY - Stock Eliminator Qualifying, Session #1 Order
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