Denver Race Wrap: Pro Stock Winners Sizzle; Massey, Pedregon Triumph

Shawn Gann ended a nine-year drought with his National Hot Rod Association Pro Stock Motorcycle victory Sunday at the Mopar Mile-High Nationals, while Pro Stock’s Allen Johnson continued his domination at Bandimere Speedway.
 
They joined nitro-class winners Spencer Massey (Top Fuel) and Cruz Pedregon (Funny Car) in the winners circle at this first stop on the Western Swing that featured triple-digit temperatures for part of the weekend and a thermometer reading near 100 for the final rounds.
 

KING OF THUNDER MOUNTAIN – In Pro Stock, Allen Johnson repeated his 2012 victory here and recorded his fifth triumph at Bandimere Speedway in seven years. He registered his fourth victory of the season and 20th of his career, denying Lakewood, Colo., resident V Gaines a chance to shine before his hometown crowd.
 
After using a 6.989-second elapsed time at 196.87 mph to beat Gaines’ 7.015, 196.67, Johnson extended his hot streak to five final-round appearances in seven races. This all-Mopar final came on the 25th anniversary of the Mopar brand’s title sponsorship of the event. And Johnson said, “We wanted to win it for that marriage” of Mopar/Chrysler Group LLC and Bandimere Speedway.
 
Johnson said he gave “all the glory to the Mopar Express Lane Dodge Avenger team and The Man Upstairs.” Johnson was one round short of sweeping the Western Swing last season. He said “It’d be an honor to do it” this year, becoming the only Pro Stock driver besides Greg Anderson to win the Denver-Sonoma-Seattle trifecta. Johnson, who also owned low E.T. and top speed of the weekend (6.949 seconds, 198.23 mph), closed Mike Edwards’ lead in the standings to 79 points.
 
WORLD ACCORDING TO GANN – After winning for the first time since he scored a Wally statue at Denver in 2004, Pro Stock Motorcycle’s Shawn Gann expounded on the state of the class and his own operation, why he opted out of two of the race’s four qualifying sessions, and the awesomeness of his father, Blake.

 “The parity in this class, this is the first year it’s been true. I really believe for the past few years, it’s not been exactly right. But it’s right now, and that’s all that matters,” the PiranaZ/Gann Speed Suzuki rider said in the wake of his 7.351-second, 181.08-mph victory over points leader Hector Arana Jr.
 
Gann, who said he’s the heaviest bike rider at 175 pounds, explained that he sat out two qualifying sessions because “being on the mountain, you can only leave so hard — and fat people can only move that much mass so quick.”

 
He said, “I got a bunch of power. I’ve always had a bunch of power. Nothing’s changed. If you got power, you can’t hide it. You can’t lie about it. You can’t sweep it under the rug. If you got it, you got it. And the mountain shows it.” Gann said he makes his own clutch. So not only do I have a whole bunch of [power] to stick it to the ground, I got the clutch to tell it what to do — [the clutch] that I made.”

I got a bunch of power. I’ve always had a bunch of power. Nothing’s changed. If you got power, you can’t hide it. – Shawn Gann

He said his crew chief dad Blake amazes him. “My daddy is unbelievable,” the Stoneville, N.C., rider said. “It don’t matter if it’s making a doghouse, making something out of popsicle sticks, making it out of titanium or magnesium, making something out of a volcano or nuclear waste — it don’t matter. My daddy can make anything.”
 
Arana secured his Countdown spot on a day that ended with his snoozy 0.197-second reaction time and 7.376-second E.T. at 182.11 mph. His rookie brother, Adam Arana, qualified No. 1 with the meet’s low E.T. (7.242 seconds) and top speed (184.47 mph).
 
MASSEY GETS THIRD WIN – Massey drove his Battery Extender Dragster to his third victory of the season and 13th of his NHRA career with a 3.974-second, 309.27-mph pass, defeating final-round foe Bob Vandergriff’s 4.029, 304.67 in the C&J Energy Services Dragster.
 
“We’re almost a mile up from sea level and that means the crew chiefs have to change everything on the race car from (engine) compression to the supercharger to all the clutch settings,” Massey said, explaining how much went into this winning effort. “Everything that is in the trailer and on the car right now is going to be taken apart and put aside for next year. Everything is completely changed, and it makes it that much tougher for the crew chief and the crew to be able to get these race cars performing the way they should.”
 
But he came from the No. 9 position to produce better times than they had throughout four rounds of qualifying.
 
“We didn’t perform like we should’ve in qualifying. We knew it was going to be hot. We knew it was going to be a tricky racetrack. You don’t have to have all the horsepower up here on the mountain. You just have to make sure you get it down the track. Phil [crew chief Shuler] did a great job.”
 
Massey also won this event win in 2011.

 CRUZIN’ – Cruz Pedregon’s victory against Bob Tasca was a perfect antidote to his three-race slump, and it came with a 4.233-second run at 295.46 mph to Tasca’s 4.408, 257.04 in the Motorcraft/QuickLane Shelby Ford Mustang. But the Snap-on Tools Toyota Camry owner-driver said he was especially proud that he broke his own two-year-old track record elapsed time in qualifying No. 1 (at 4.073 seconds) and had the quickest time in three of four eliminations rounds Sunday.

 
“That’s a big deal here. It’s pretty cool to win in that fashion. This win couldn’t have come at a better time,” Pedregon said. “This is a good race for us to come back and redeem ourselves.”
 
Jack Beckman was fastest in the class all weekend with a track-record 309.91-mph qualifying pass.
 
COUNTDOWN CLINCHERS – Shawn Langdon and Tony Schumacher clinched Top Fuel berths in the Countdown to the Championship with their first-round victories. And despite his opening-round defeat in Pro Stock, Jeg Coughlin earned a spot. Mike Edwards and Allen Johnson also are in the field of 10 eligible drivers. Hector Arana Jr. has a spot in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class. No one has qualified yet from the Funny Car ranks.
 
SPORTSMAN VICTORIES – Todd Patterson, of Augusta, Kan., was top qualifier in the Stock class with his Chevy Camaro, but he drove his Cobalt to the Competition Eliminator victory. Dan Fletcher took the Super Stock trophy over Justin Lamb, who won the Stock final. Other winners were Chris Bombard (Super Comp), Trevor Larson (Super Gas), Jim White (Top Sportsman), and Jeff Koron (Top Dragster).

I’m kind of lost, because I’ve been so many years with [crew chief] Jimmy Prock and my guys that have stuck together for so long I kind of feel a little lost. – Robert Hight

CHANGE HELPS – Funny Car driver Robert Hight’s first pass with Mike Neff tuning the Auto Club Ford Mustang yielded positive results. He zipped to the provisional No. 1 qualifying spot early Friday. Although he didn’t stay there, yielding that honor to Cruz Pedregon, he did start seventh. Moreover, he reached the semifinals for the first time since Topeka (six races prior to this one). With seven first-round losses in the first 13 races, Hight and the Auto Club Ford needed a successful weekend to break into the top 10 in the standings. He was in the top 10 for awhile this past weekend, thanks to qualifying bonus points, but will head to Sonoma in 11th place.
 
Boss John Force shifted longtime Hight-team crew chief Jimmy Prock and crew to his own Castrol GTX operation and sent Neff and his team to Hight’s pit.

Hight did admit “I’m kind of lost, because I’ve been so many years with [crew chief] Jimmy Prock and my guys that have stuck together for so long I kind of feel a little lost. The truth is, I didn’t abandon them. I didn’t leave them. We’re still all on the same team. It’s one big team, and we’re still all going to work together. Mike Neff has always been good. I’ve known him since he started here, and he’s an easy-going guy. He motivates you, just like Jimmy did. We’re not going to have any problems whatsoever, I promise. It’s exciting. And maybe John (Force) shuffling and moving people is going to get the best out of everybody.”
 
Force seemed to think so. “Our crew chiefs, they’re our family. And I loved working with Mike Neff. The change just needed to be made,” he said.” I knew Jimmy Prock when he was a little kid. I watched him with his dad (Tom Prock) with The Detroit Tiger and Tom and Jerry’s Funny Car. I just love being over here with him. I think this is going to be a good change. I’m having fun. I had fun with Neff, but sometimes you got to stir it up. This team over here opened their arms to me. I’m pretty old, but they still like me.”
 
MOPAR MARKS SILVER ANNIVERSARY – NHRA President Tom Compton, Bandimere Speedway owner John Bandimere, and Trish Hecker, head of marketing for Chrysler Group LLC’s Mopar brand shared a starting-line ceremony between qualifying sessions Friday to mark the sponsor’s 25th anniversary with the sanctioning body. It is the longest title sponsorship in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series and among the longest in all of motorsports. Hecker said, “The way we think about it, we were born at the track. We go back to 1962, with the introduction of the HEMI [engine]. That’s when people started calling their cars ‘Mopar.’ “Drag racing, she said, “really is part of our brand. We have every intention of continuing this wonderful partnership.”

 TORRENCE CARS SHINE – Steve Torrence set Top Fuel’s track speed record and qualified No. 1 in his Torrence Racing/Capco Dragster at 3.880 seconds, 319.60 mph. But he wasn’t the only driver to fare well in one of his cars. Brittany Force, whose team is building her a brand-new Castrol EDGE Dragster, was borrowing one of Torrence’s Brad Hadman-made cars. She said hers “wasn’t going to be ready in time for the Western Swing, so Steve Torrence was kind enough to give us one of his,” she said. “I flew out to Indianapolis [from California] last week and got fitted for it.” She qualified third, her best so far in this rookie season, and advanced to the quarterfinals.