Race Wrap: Epping Experience Spreads NHRA Gospel, Rejuvenates Racers

Sunday’s winners at the NHRA New England Nationals at Epping, N.H., took their Wally trophies home to Texas, California, Tennessee, and Connecticut. But a big part of their hearts will stay at New England Dragway.
 
This race that drew hundreds of first-time spectators from the drag-racing-starved Northeast — along with the Midwest and Southeast and across eastern Canada to the Maritime provinces — was one that also energized the rather jaded Mello Yello Drag Racing Series participants.
 
Reporter Allen Lessels, of the Manchester Union-Leader, quoted Doreen Schibbelhute, an EMT assigned to the event, as saying, “Everyone is so excited to have the NHRA here. Excited is an understatement. The public is all talking about it. Anyone who knows you work here is asking about it. They don’t stop talking about it.”
 
Canaan, Maine, resident Dickie Jacobs, one of those first-time attendees, told the paper about what the racers like to call “sensory overload.” He said, “It  just rushes through your body — like you’re a human vibrator.”
 
The influx of visitors certainly rocked the community.
 
No dollar figure ever was announced or published that estimated the economic impact on this community that has hosted its share of International Hot Rod Association events and ones with the defunct American Hot Rod Association but never anything like this. But the packed hotels, restaurants, and shopping centers enjoyed the wave, along with the New England Dragway management. Police from nearby communities came in to help beef up security.
 
For nearly a year, track and local law-enforcement officials developed a traffic-flow plan, and the NHRA issued a traffic advisory a week before the race started to minimize entrance and exit problems. But Top Fuel No. 1 qualifier Doug Kalitta (a pilot and charter-airline owner who, granted, is used to flying into where he needs to go) mentioned traffic congestion Saturday.
 
“I’m confident that somebody will realize how hard it was to get in and will get that worked out,” he said, adding. “The fans are great. Hopefully this is an event we’ll keep on the schedule.”
 
His fellow racers backed him up.
 
Tony Schumacher said, “Oh my goodness, the fans were fantastic here this weekend. That track’s great. It’s almost 100 degrees out and we ran an 84 [a 3.84-second elapsed time], an 86 and an 83. The people seem to want to come here, so we’ll be back and keep giving them what they want. And the track will just keep getting better.”

 
Schumacher’s DSR colleague Spencer Massey, the Top Fuel winner Sunday, won in a dragster at Epping at a 2010 IHRA race and worked on a crew there in 2008. So he had a unique perspective. And he said, “This is probably four, five, 10 times bigger than what I’ve seen in 2008 and 2010.
 
“This track and this whole area have been so diehard-ready for NHRA drag racing. Every time I came here for IHRA racing — it’s a great, great organization — they’d always want to see John Force come race. They want to see Tony Schumacher. They want to see 20 Top Fuel cars, not just eight or 10,” Massey said, not intending any disrespect for the sanctioning body in which he won the 2008 Top Fuel crown.
 
“The fans . . . they see NHRA drag racing. It’s the best of the best. They can’t get any louder, any faster, anything more exciting. They couldn’t see it anywhere else. This is it.”
 
What thrilled the racers most is what Pro Stock Motorcycle finalist Adam Arana noticed: “I like this track. It is smooth and has a lot of shutdown. The fans have been great, and the stands have been packed.”
 
The mutual outreach wasn’t lost on Funny Car driver Tim Wilkerson, who said, “These New England fans packed the place elbow-to-elbow, and I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Amazing crowds, and I can’t count how many times people thanked me for being here as part of the NHRA Mello Yello tour. Every time, I was quick to tell them they had it backward, because we’re all thanking them for coming out in such huge numbers. This place is going to grow and get updated, and the event is going to keep growing, too.”
 
The fans got to see some memorable racing, as Massey, Courtney Force (Funny Car), Allen Johnson (Pro Stock), and John Hall (Pro Stock Motorcycle) earned the first Wally statues from Epping.

 
DSR TOPS AL-ANABI – Massey defeated new points leader Shawn Langdon for his second victory of the season. In a showdown that pitted arguably the NHRA’s two best “leavers,” Massey jumped out first and led all the way with a 4.105-second E.T. at 271.57 mph on the 1,000-foot course in the Battery Extender Dragster. Langdon, seeking his fourth victory in 11 tries, had traction trouble early and could muster only a 9.694, 81.50 in response in the Al-Anabi Dragster. He was making his sixth final-round appearance this season and his fifth in seven races. This marked the third Don Schumacher Racing-Al-Anabi showdown of the season and the first time DSR, with this 208th victory, won. Langdon had beaten Tony Schumacher at both Pomona and Topeka.
 
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! – Courtney Force concluded her 25th-birthday week by defeating 15-time champion father John Force for her second victory of the season — and “getting even” with him for beating her in the first round the previous week to grab a Fathers Day triumph at Bristol. The final had plenty of drama, with dad leading daughter before his engine starting acting up. She took over by the 660-foot mark but started having engine trouble herself. She won their first final-round meeting by about 10 feet, with a 4.301-second pass at 261.67 mph in her Ford Traxxas Mustang to his 4.367, 262.28 in his Castrol GTX Mustang. “I’m not really sure what was happening,” Courtney Force said. “I think I was spinning tires, or I might have dropped a cylinder. I didn’t want to make my car even more angry at me. I was so close to the finish line I wanted to hang on and get that win.” Following the organization’s 220th victory, John Force called his loss “driver error.” Dad is 0-3 in final rounds against his daughters. He lost twice in the money round to Ashley Force Hood in past seasons.

 
IN RACE MODE – Allen Johnson declared after beating Shane Gray on a holeshot for his third victory this year, “We’ve done a lot of testing, and now the testing is over. We’re in race form for the rest of the regular season and heading into the Countdown. Working with Jeggy [Jeg Coughlin] and Vincent [Nobile] has made us all stronger. We’re all clicking and working together, and we’re going to start our championship march here.”

He didn’t elaborate but said he and his Mopar Express Lane Dodge Avenger crew “made a radical change after the semifinals to get ready for the finals, and it really worked. We found something that will help the rest of the year.” Against Gray, Johnson ran a 6.642, 205.38 on the quarter-mile to Gray’s quicker, faster 6.633, 210.34.
 
REGION NATIVE PREVAILS – Hamden, Conn., racer John Hall’s winning 6.924-second, 193.93-mph pass on the quarter-mile aboard the Viper Motorcycle Buell was immaterial, because rookie Adam Arana fouled out on the ProtectTheHarvest.com/MAVTV Buell. Both were making their first NHRA final-round appearances. “We needed it. It came at the right time, close to home,” he said on behalf of matt Smith Racing. He called New England Drag way “a great place. The fans are thanking us for being here. We’re just happy they put this on the schedule.”
 
SPORTSMAN DOUBLE-DOWN – Anthony Bertozzi went home with a Wally statue in each hand, winning in both the Super Stock and Stock Eliminator classes. Mike Sawyer won the Super Gas final and was runner-up in the Super Street class. Other sportsman winners were Ken LeBlanc (Top Dragster), Kent Hanley (Super Comp), and Eddie Brooks (Super Street).

We just have to work hard until we figure it out, keep on pressing, pressing, pressing, and get our combination worked out. You can’t let it get the best of you. – Antron Brown

BROWN IN A SLUMP – Current Top Fuel champion Antron Brown and his Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster team absorbed his fourth consecutive first-round loss and sixth in the past seven races. For the third race in a row, Brown qualified in the bottom half of the field. “We just have to work hard until we figure it out, keep on pressing, pressing, pressing, and get our combination worked out,” Brown said. “You can’t let it get the best of you. It’s just a matter of time if we keep on working and working and working. It’s like a problem. The only way you lose is when you give up, and our team is nowhere near giving up on anything.”
 
EDWARDS EXPRESS SLOWS DOWN – Once again, Jeg Coughlin Jr. interrupted Mike Edwards’ streak of No. 1 qualifiers. Coughlin, who turned 43 on race day, said his semifinal finish was “not the way I dreamed of celebrating my birthday.” But he’s third as the tour heads to Joliet, Ill., this weekend for the O’Reilly Route 66 Nationals.
 
KALITTA ON A MISSION – Doug Kalitta seized his fourth No. 1 qualifying position of the season and had hoped to earn his first victory since July 2010 in honor of Tammy Oberhofer. She passed away Tuesday, losing her struggle with cancer. She had been the team’s public-relations representative and office manager years ago and was the wife of Kalitta’s crew chief, Jim Oberhofer, who doubles as Kalitta Motorsports vice-president.
“She was one of our biggest fans,” Kalitta said. “We’d love to honor her with a win here.”
He reached the semifinals.
 
ENDERS-STEVENS ABSENT – Funding problems kept Pro Stock’s Erica Enders-Stevens on the sidelines last weekend. “We’re very hopeful of getting back out there and competing as soon as we can,” she said. “I’d love to be back next week for Chicago, which obviously holds a lot of great memories for me after winning there last year. We’re doing everything we can to be there.” She slipped from fourth place to fifth.