NHRA Midwest Nationals Coverage From St. Louis

Factory Super Cars runner Stephen Bell, from Shreveport, Louisiana, went for a ride in the opening round of eliminations yesterday when fluid got under the rear tires of his 2015 COPO Camaro, sending him careening into the wall nose-first near the half-track marker. Bell slid t a stop and kept the car upright, restricting the damage to the front end of the car. Bell had qualified No. 2 with a 8.108 at 167.70 mph. After a brief delay to gather his senses, Bell climbed from the car unhurt and surveyed the damage. His opponent, Kevin Skinner, advanced on with an 8.15.

Later in the round, with the season championship on the line, Chuck Watson fouled out to Pennsylvania’s David Barton, handing the title to Barton.

John Force recorded a career-best 3.832 during qualifying to position himself second on the ladder for today’s eliminations. Force, who fell in the opening round last weekend at Reading, is trying to remain within reach of a 17th title — two points during Friday evening’s session and two more in Saturday’s third session helping his cause.

Lacking the consistency seen by teammates Robert Hight and daughter Courtney Force, Force’s crew chief Mike Neff and co-crew chief Jon Schaffer have been working with Jimmy Prock and Hight co-crew chief Chris Cunningham to turn the program around in the season’s final four races.

In what has become a title bout for the ages, Troy Coughlin claimed the points lead in Pro Modified with a final round victory over Khalid al Balooshi, 5.79 to a 5.85. Coughlin, in his Steve Petty-tuned JEGS.com twin-turbo C7 Corvette, gained the advantage out of the gate on Balooshi’s Rickie Smith-owned and tuned Camaro and never looked back, in the process taking the points lead away from Mike Castellana, who has been on top of the standings since the season opener in Gainesville, Florida. Coughlin now leads the championship chase by 26 points, with one race remaining next month in Las Vegas.

Coughlin defeated Rickie Smith, Steven Whiteley, and Pete Farber to outlast what may have been the toughest field of Pro Modified cars ever assembled.

Steve Torrence drove to his 16th career Top Fuel victory and increased his lead in the Countdown with a final round defeat of Doug Kalitta, who trails him in the standings. With just .006-seconds separating them at the tree, Torrence drove his CAPCO dragster past Kalitta in a close race, 3.684 to 3.698. This was Torrence’s eighth win in 2017 and second final round in a row. He last won at the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis last month. Torrence now leads Kalitta by 42 points.

“We got here by doing what we do all year long and doing it ourselves,” Torrence said. “We went out and we just took those guys out and put them back in the trailer. We’re leaving here with a bigger points lead and a trophy. You’re going to have to come in here and do everything you can to get every possible point because this thing could come down to one or two points at the end of the season.”

In Funny Car, Ron Capps took a solid step toward a second consecutive championship, earning his eighth victory on the season after edging out Jonnie Lindberg in the final, 3.87 to 3.90, after nearly identical reaction times. Capps defeated Jim Campbell, teammate Jack Beckman, and John Force en route to the money round.

Greg Anderson defeated teammate Jason Line for his 89th victory and third of 2017 and did it on a holeshot, his 6.57 defeating a quicker-but-losing 6.54. Anderson was .030 to .059 on the tree. With the win, Anderson overtook teammate Bo Butner for the points lead by a mere three points. Anderson, Line, and Butner are all separated by just 76 points, or less than four rounds of racing.

It was just a dream weekend, and we gained a lot of points against some tough competition.

“It’s hard to win out here, but my racecar worked great all weekend,” said Anderson, who earned his second Gateway Motorsports Park trophy in his fifth final at the St. Louis-area facility. “I had a little issue – I was just a bit off, speed-wise – so even though the car was working great, I was getting passed by my teammates. I knew I was in deep in the final, and it would take a stroke of luck to win it. Everything just fell into place. I refused to look over all the way down the track. I couldn’t believe it when my win light came on.

“Jason had a great racecar all weekend, and I’ve got three runner-ups and a win in the last four finals. I’ve been telling people all year that you need to peak at the right time, and I believe I have. It’s all you can ask. It’s going to take finishes like that the rest of the way out to have a chance to win this thing, but this was a great day. We executed at the highest level. There are so many cars that can win it, and that’s what’s so great about NHRA Pro Stock racing. That’s why I love it.”

LE Tonglet also helped his cause in the Countdown standings in Pro Stock Motorcycle as he closed the gap to leader Eddie Krawiec with a final round victory over Vance & Hines rider Andrew Hines on what announcer Alan Reinhart would call “a little baby holeshot”, 6.792 to 6.790. Tonglet had earlier disposed of Krawiec himself and then ousted Matt Smith in the semis to advance to his seventh final round of the season (he’s won six of them). The 2010 Pro Stock Motorcycle champion, this was Tonglet’s 16th career win and first here at Gateway.

“You’ve just got to stay calm and go rounds,” Tonglet said. “This is make or break for us. We felt that if we lost this race that our Championship hunt was over. We just haven’t been qualifying that great, but Tim (Kulungian, crew chief) figures it out by Sunday and it just hauls butt and we’re able to get round wins.”

Cruz Pedregon had a less-than-stellar debut for his bright pink “Socket to Breast Cancer” Snap-On Toyota body in yesterday’s opening session of Funny Car qualifying when he ended up well into the sand trap after his parachutes failed to deploy on a 3.978-second run. The good news, of course, is that the A-to-B run put him in the show, but it spelled an early end to the special edition body. Pedregon’s team was able to clean the excess sand from the chassis and replace the body in time or the evening session, where Pedregon struck the tires and slowed. Ironically, his opponent in the other lane in the evening session, Jonnie Lindberg, also took a trip into the sand after his parachutes did not deploy in the Jim Head owned and tuned machine.

Fan-favorite Clay Millican closed the Friday evening top qualifying session out in style with the quickest elapsed time in the 1,000-foot era, a 3.631 at 330.39 mph, in his Great Clips/Parts Plus dragster. The national record elapsed time was particularly special to team owner Doug Stringer, who calls nearby McLeansboro, Illinois home.

“That run is 100 percent [crew chief] David Grubnic doing his thing. He is the baddest dude out here right now and I don’t think anyone can argue that. We just set the national record. He does it his way and there’s no shared information and it’s done with a group of young guys that the only way they know how to put that car together is the way David and Mac Savage tell them to. I haver nothing to do with this — I get to have the fun part of stomping on the loud pedal,” Millican said.

Millican proclaimed to the assembled media, “That’s the least amount of work I’ve ever done,”  referencing his all-time quick pass.

“We just went 8.12 to the 60-foot — we’ve been quicker than that, once — and 2.05 to the 330, which I’m pretty sure is the quickest ever to 330, and the river was testing out the traction over by the right side.”

As impressive as Millican’s performance was, he’s confident there’s more left in his dragster.

“I said in the media conference the other day that I believed we could set the national record. I’ve truly believed we could do it for a while, but the weather forecast I thought was going to be cooler than this. I really thought we could do it in Reading since it’s normally so cold there, but this year it wasn’t. This was really good, obviously the best ever, but I didn’t think it was good enough to go .63. There’s more there, that’s all I can tell you.”

Mike Castellana maintains a scant 48-point lead in the Pro Modified standings over Troy Coughlin at this, the penultimate race on the 2017 calendar. Castellana, the national record holder in his Frank Manzo-tuned, Al-Anabi Performance Camaro, paced the field in both of Friday’s sessions, running 5.74 in the opening round and 5.71 in the final pair of cars down the track in the evening session.

“It’s great. I mean, my team worked hard getting the car ready,” said Castelana, who is the points leader and holds the national elapsed time record. “We did some testing and set the car up good. Hopefully we can remain consistent this weekend.”

Chip King anchors the record field with a 5.823. Twenty-nine cars are here on the property — a field that includes newcomers Jeffrey Barker and Melanie Salemi.

Greg Anderson leads a 1-2 Summit Racing punch in Pro Stock after two rounds of qualifying, as his 6.525 at 211.06 mph leads teammate Jason Line’s 6.533. Drew Skillman, at 6.525, sits sandwiched in between the Ken Black-powered cars, as Bo Butner closed out the night fourth at 6.542.

“The conditions, weather and atmosphere didn’t change that much between the first run and second run,” Anderson stated. “The race track is maxing out the track gripper and it’s as good of a race track you’ll ever ever get and when you get conditions like that you need to just throw everything at it.”

A number of oildowns in the nitro ranks and an incident in the Factory Stock Showdown pushed this evening’s final session of Funny Car qualifying well beyond the scheduled hour, giving the crew chiefs prime conditions to once again swing for the proverbial fences and gain qualifying bonus points toward the Countdown the Championship. That, of course, included performance front-runner-of-late Robert Hight, whose Jimmy Prock-tuned Camaro nabbed the pole last night with a 3.83. But Hight, like the rest of the field, found the conditions to be less conducive to the big numbers, as he smoked the tires early and coasted to a 7.4 elapsed time. Only three three-second runs were recorded in the session, led by Jonnie Lindberg’s 3.87.

Saturday Recap Courtesy of NHRA/National Dragster

Sanford Fills In For Newby In Rapisarda Dragster

Top Fuel rookie Ashley Sanford received a surprise phone call earlier this week from Australian Santo Rapisarda to pilot his dragster this weekend in place of veteran Wayne Newby, who is at home tending to his business.

“This deal came about three days ago. I knew about it Monday night that Wayne was unfortunately headed home to work on his CNC machine shop. The Rapisarda’s wanted to come out here and race and needed someone to fill in the seat. The Lagana’s have become very good friends of mine and they’re very close with the Rapisarda’s, and they recommended me, which to me is the greatest honor,” she says.

“They said ‘hey, we believe in this girl, and if you want to give her a shot, we think you should. I knew my name was in the hat with a lot of other drivers here who are licensed and could have easily filled this position, so Monday night I knew there was a possibility. Tuesday morning I was supposed to be expecting a call if anything were to happen, and Tuesday morning goes on and I hadn’t gotten a call, so I thought it was awesome that I was put in the hat, but it just wasn’t meant to be. Then, at about 2:49 p.m. back home in California, a call came in from an Australian area code. In that moment, I was just screaming. I had a feeling this was going to be that call. I had a great conversation, and they asked if I was available and up to the task, and it was the easiest ‘yes’ I’ve ever said.

“It’s an amazing opportunity to be here with the Rapisrada boys. It’s a bummer Santo can’t be here, but he’s watching on the internet, so he’s here in spirit. But this is a great opportunity for me to get more seat time and some exposure, and we want to come out here full-force and run some great numbers. We want to go rounds on raceday. This car is more than capable and I’m ready to do it.”

Sanford made her Top Fuel debut at the U.S. National earlier this month behind the wheel of the Lagana family dragster, where she qualified No. 14 with a 3.77. Despite dropping her first round match to eventual winner Steve Torrence, the race was still a dream come true for the young driver who cut her teeth in and continues to compete in Top Alcohol Dragster with the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series.

“It was a dream weekend. We went out there and really just didn’t want to mess up,” she says with a laugh. “There’s a lot of pressure that goes with your first professional race, and especially because I picked the biggest stage to compete at. So I just wanted to qualify, and beyond that, I was just happy to do my job and not make a fool of myself.”

“In the second round of qualifying, popping a tire wasn’t something we were expecting. I was able to catch it and keep it under control and as the weekend went on, I ran career best numbers all weekend. We gave Steve [Torrence] a race in the first round, and it [the debut] was all I could have ever expected.”

Her role with the Rapisarda’s is, at this time, a one-race deal. She confirms that she’s been in negotiations for 2018 and has a potential team in place for a full-time run, pending proper major sponsorship to make it happen. Until that tine, she will continue to pilot her family-owned alcohol car, at Dallas, Las Vegas, and Pomona.

Chuck Little Thinking Big

Pro Modified racer Chuck Little enjoyed his finest outing to date in the NHRA ranks at Charlotte, qualifying No. 11 and advancing to the semi-final round before eventual winner Jonathan Gray ended his run.

“We had a good one. We made a few changes to the suspension, and that was the big one. We were able to get the car to stop shaking. Hopefully we’ll be able to continue running well, we’ll have to see. We can’t really complain, this is only our second year out here.”

For Little, making the sometimes 30-plus car field is a feat in and of itself.

“The class is getting quicker and quicker all the time. What we ran at Charlotte wouldn’t have even qualified us at Indy. We were 11th at Charlotte with an .85, and at Indy I ran an .85 and that put me 20th.”

Billy Harper Makes Season Debut In Pro Mod

At 73 years of age and “still not grown up,” as he says, Pro Modified veteran Billy Harper is still at it with his nitrous-assisited Dodge Viper, taking part in this weekend’s AAA Midwest Nationals. Harper has competed with the NHRA off and on over the last couple of seasons, having also won the IHRA Pro Mod championship a year ago.

“We ran Indy and Vegas last year, and were just right on the edge of qualifying — it’s tough over here. There some good racers and good racecars.”

Harper says he’s leaving his options open regarding has venue of choice in the future, for now content to move around to various venues, including the NHRA and ADRL.

“We’ve been struggling this year, so we’ll see how the season ends and that works out for next year. I’m hoping the NHRA makes if a full-time class, and we’d love to run here, but we also have a lot of work to do to be competitive with the nitrous combination. Harper built his Viper, the only one of its kind in the NHRA category these days, in 2008, and through some updating here and there, has been able to keep it competitive with the newer chassis in the class.

Friday Qualifying Leaders (video courtesy NHRA)