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John Force clinched his NHRA-record 15th Funny Car championship on Sunday to complete an improbable and emotional comeback from the horrific accident in Dallas three years ago that left his racing future in serious jeopardy.
The 61-year-old Force – who also won the race, his sixth of 2010 – became the oldest champion in NHRA history on the same day that the Series crowned its youngest champion as well, 20-year-old Pro Stock Motorcycle rider LE Tonglet. Earlier Sunday, Larry Dixon clinched his third Top Fuel championship and first since winning back-to-back titles in 2002-03.
With the championships decided by the semifinals, attention turned to the individual event champions and the three drivers who joined Force in the Winner’s Circle at the 46th annual Auto Club NHRA Finals, the 23rd and final race in the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Series season, were: Antron Brown (Top Fuel), rookie Shane Gray (Pro Stock) and Eddie Krawiec (Pro Stock Motorcycle).
Data courtesy: Lanny Maglizzi/John Force Racing
Eliminations at Pomona began under the warmest conditions seen thus far during the weekend, with an air temperature of 74 degrees, humidity 26 percent, barometer 28.94 inches, corrected altitude of 2,464 feet, and a track temperature of 100 degrees. This in turn led to Track Meter recordings at the baseline of 300 in-lbs off the starting line, but losing significant grip from the 100’ mark on. Despite that, with plenty of tuning data on hand, racers handled the conditions well, albeit several hundredths off the torrid qualifying pace.
Round two saw an even warmer temperature reading, with an air temperature of 76 degrees, 102 degree track temperature, and corrected altitude of 2,705 feet. Track Meter data shows an even lower torque readout, at 280 in-lbs on the starting line and dropping to a weekend-low 240 at the 100’ clocks. By the semifinals, the sun was getting low in the sky with a more than 10 degree drop in the track temperature, affording racers the tackiest surface at the first 60’ seen all weekend, and improved conditions at 100’ and beyond, albeit lower than those recorded during qualifying.
In the money round, as expected with the sun now set, the track surface had by far the strongest teeth seen all weekend, with a surface temperature of just 79 degrees, with an air temperature of 74 degrees, 28 percent humidity, and a corrected altitude of 2,638 feet. Track Meter readings turned up numbers of 340 in-lbs out of the gate and 340 at 100’ and 150’, markedly better than those seen during the quick final qualifying session.
Force came into eliminations trailing 27-year-old Matt Hagan by 38 points and since he was on the opposite side of the draw from Hagan, he needed help if he was to get around Hagan and win his 15th title.
And he got it. Right away.
Hagan met longtime Force ally Bob Tasca, who qualified 13th, in the first round and Tasca stunned the angus cattle farmer with in impressive 4.148-second pass in his Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang. Hagan led through the 660-foot timer in his DieHard Dodge Charger, but he was losing power near the finish and slowed to a losing 4.162.
“The shot around the world was by Bobby Tasca in the first round,” Force said. “We knew we couldn’t get him until the final round (and that was too late) so somebody had to get him and Bobby got him.”
With the door open, Force blew through by defeating Gary Densham with the second-quickest pass of R1 (4.116) and Bob Bode with the quickest pass of the quarterfinals (4.162). Bode actually kept Force honest with a 4.225 at 295.34 mph.
“To come back… this is my life, if they took the driving away from me I’d get so big, I’d turn into Marlon Brando,” said Force, who defeated Jeff Arend in a photo finish in the Funny Car final. “I’m going to be another five years so you’re all stuck with me.”
The Top Fuel championship went according to form with Dixon clinching the title with his first-round win over Mike Strasburg.
“I’ve never had so much excitement for a first-round win in my life,” said Dixon, who drives the Al-Anabi dragster for team manager and renowned tuner Alan Johnson, crew chief Jason McCulloch and team owner Sheik Khalid Al-Thani.
“If you want to win in this sport you have to surround yourself with talent and I believe we have the best in the business,” Dixon said. “(Alan), he has his own team again, so I’m very proud of him. And I know if (his brother) Blaine (Johnson) was still here, he’d be the one talking to you right now.”
Tonglet, like Force, got an assist along the way to his championship, but his came from the rider in front of him in the standings, Andrew Hines, who red-lighted aboard his Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson in the first round.
Tonglet did not let the opportunity slip, powering his NitroFish Gear Suzuki to the second-quickest runs in each respective session en route to the first-round win over Matt Guidera and quarterfinal, championship-clinching win over Steve Johnson.
“It feels awesome. The way the year started, we didn’t think this was possible. It’s just been unbelievable since Indy. I can’t thank Kenny Koretsky and NitroFish enough,” Tonglet said.
The Pro Stock championship was decided on Saturday when Greg Anderson successfully qualified into the field. The title was Anderson’s first since he won three straight from 2003-05.
Among the event winners, Brown (3.840 at 311.99) defeated Shawn Langdon (4.185 at 306.46) to win repeat as Top Fuel champion of the Auto Club NHRA Finals. Brown became the first driver not named Dixon, Schumacher, Kalitta or McClenathan to win a Top Fuel race this season.
In Pro Stock, Gray capped off his impressive rookie season with the first win of his career, holeshotting one of the best in the business (Jeg Coughlin), 6.566 (.010 RT) at 209.20 mph to 6.568 at 210.18.
In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Hector Arana red-lighted, but it wouldn’t likely have mattered because Krawiec delivered the quickest run in the history of the Pro Stock Motorcycle class aboard his Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson, a national-record pass of 6.811 seconds.
