Fast Take Compiled by Dwight Drum
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NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series
NHRA: TF & FC winners > Antron Brown, Robert Hight
NHRA: PSC & PSM winner > Jason Line, (Gainesville PSM)
Brown, Hight, and Line win at Phoenix
Antron Brown raced to his first win of the season in Top Fuel Sunday as racing came to an end at the NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird International Raceway.
Robert Hight and Jason Line were also winners in their respective categories at the second of 23 races in the 2012 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing season.
Brown held off fellow Don Schumacher Racing teammate Tony Schumacher in the final round when he powered his Matco Tools dragster to a 3.793-second pass at 319.82 mph. It was Brown’s first win of the season in his second consecutive final round appearance. It was also his 32nd career win, with 16 wins in Top Fuel and 16 wins in Pro Stock Motorcycle.
“It was an incredible day,” said Brown. “The competition in Top Fuel now, pound for pound, is like a 324 mph Pro Stock class. Even though the odds were against us, we dug down deep and believed in our Matco Tools boys. We took it one round at a time and really had to battle with these guys. Making it to the final round for the second race in a row is a real huge statement. But it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish especially when the Countdown gets tight.”
The win moved Brown to the top spot in the Top Fuel standings, 32 points ahead of second-place Schumacher, who continued his winless streak to eight final round appearances. Schumacher’s last win came in Las Vegas in Oct. 2010. Fellow Don Schumacher Racing teammate Spencer Massey sits third after his second round appearance.
In Funny Car, Hight powered his Auto Club Ford Mustang past fellow John Force Racing teammate Mike Neff when he posted a 4.139 at 307.07 in the final round. It was Hight’s first win at Firebird International Raceway and 24th win of his career.
“It’s pretty exciting two weekends in a row having all-John Force Fords in the final,” said Hight. “You have to cherish that because you know that’s not going to keep happening. It’s tough to do. What’s really cool is I got in that Traxxas (Nitro) Shootout. When they show you the rules and there’s seven guaranteed in there – the first seven winners – that isn’t that easy. There’s a lot of good Funny Cars out here, so to get it this early, it’s a little relief.”
With the win Hight moved to second in the point standings behind teammate Neff. Team owner John Force sits third in the point standings, four points behind Hight. Force fell first round to daughter Courtney Force, who went on to her first career semifinal appearance.
Defending Pro Stock world champion Line held off fellow KB Racing teammate Greg Anderson to secure his first win of the season. Line drove his Summit Racing Pontiac GXP to a 6.558 at 211.69 past Anderson to secure his 28th career win and first at Firebird International Raceway.
“This is a great start,” said Line. “I felt like I had the best car at both races, but we just didn’t get the job done in Pomona. This was the first off-season we’ve had in a while without any tragedies, and I think it shows in how we’ve started off the year. All in all, it was a great day and a great weekend.”
With the win Line moved to second in the point standings, one point behind leader Anderson who made his second consecutive final round appearance of the season. Recent runner-up finisher Jeg Coughlin sits fifth in the point standings after his first round loss to Line.
The NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series will return March 8-11 for the Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals presented by NapaFilters.com.
NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series
Hot Brown wins Arizona Nationals for Matco Tools
If Antron Brown were any hotter he'd melt the North Pole or Antarctica or Iceland.
Actually, he just might be able to melt them all.
The 35-year-old New Jersey native living near Indianapolis won his 16th NHRA Top Fuel title Sunday when he defeated Don Schumacher Racing teammate Tony Schumacher to win the NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird International Raceway.
Brown and his Matco Tools team also left the track near Phoenix with the points lead in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series after two of 23 national events. He advanced to the final of the series opener a week before at Pomona, Calif., when he lost to Spencer Massey, another DSR teammate.
"When you win, it never gets old," Brown said.
Brown won for the fifth time in the past 12 Full Throttle events when he defeated teammate Schumacher with a run of 3.793 seconds at 319.82 mph to just edge the seven-time world champion's 3.813 (318.17).
Driving the Matco Tools dragster, he won the 32nd NHRA title of his career including 16 in Top Fuel - including at Firebird in 2009 - and 16 in Pro Stock Motorcycle
.It is the 14th time since 2005 that DSR Top Fuel teammates met in a final round of eliminations and a total of 26 times when DSR drivers ran for the Wally trophy in Top Fuel and Funny Car.
It was the eighth runner-up for Schumacher since the second race of 2011.
It's the fourth time since the start of last season that they have met in the final round; Brown now has won four straight.
"Tony's running good and (Massey's) Prestone/FRAM team is running on mean," he said. "We have three strong cars at DSR and we bow out against each other. That's what pushes us."
Brown's win marked the 176th NHRA national event title for DSR. All three DSR dragsters are in the top three in points standings in the Top Fuel category.
Brown, who qualified No. 5, said crew chiefs Mark Oswald and Brian Corradi were confident heading to the last round despite knowing Schumacher's U.S. Army had the choice of lanes because it ran had quicker in the semifinals than the Matco team.
NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series
Robert Hight wins Arizona Nationals
Robert Hight and the Auto Club Ford Mustang raced into the record books extending a number of personal best streaks today winning the 28th annual Arizona NHRA Nationals in a great all John Force Racing final round against teammate Mike Neff. In the final Hight’s Ford Mustang outran Neff’s Castrol GTX backed Mustang 4.139 seconds to 4.168 seconds, in the first all JFR final round at Firebird Raceway. Until today, no other JFR driver other than John Force had won at Phoenix and he had won eight times.
“I’ll be honest with you. We did not have a chance if Mike Neff was running like he was running all day. I am not sure what kind of a problem he had on that last run but Jimmy just made it go down the left lane. We picked it up a little from the round before,” said Hight. “We were having trouble out there because there was a little bump that just upset our car because that was right where we were giving it some clutch. I’ll be honest I would not have bet on a 4.13 beating Neff in the final.”
Hight has appeared in two previous finals at Firebird Raceway losing to Tony Pedregon in 2007 and then to Jack Beckman in 2008. Today’s win was the 24th of Hight’s career in 38 final round appearance. He has won at least one race every year of his career. This is the 16th different tour event Robert has won and it’s the 14th different track on which he has won. In the last two rounds Hight was relegated to the trickier left lane.
“I have been to the final here a couple times but I never got the job done. This is big. We had some runs going over there that could have run 4.07 but they weren’t good enough to run that. Those bumps (in the left lane) were just tricky. I had to pedal it second round. We slowed it down against Courtney (Force) in the semis and we got by her. It wasn’t a great run but we got by her to get into the final. Going into the final (crew chief) Jimmy (Prock) said he was going to pick it up a little more but he didn’t want to give it away. I honestly thought Neff in that right lane would run 4.07 or go low like he has been doing. That has been a tough, tough car.”
This was also the second straight week Neff has posted quick time 4.072 seconds and top speed 309.91 only to lose in the final. Last week at the O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals it was 4.036 seconds and 316.97. This is also the first time JFR has been 1-2-3 in points in the Funny Car standings.
Coming into the race Neff and Hight both have been runner-ups at Phoenix but neither had won. Hight now has a 2-0 final round record over his teammate winning today and Topeka last year which was JFR’s 200th Funny Car national event win. This is the second straight year the two have raced at Phoenix. Neff won in the first round last year. HIght equaled his round win record at 6-6 with Neff.
This was the 37th all-JFR Funny Car final and this is just the third time that JFR drivers have opposed one another in consecutive final rounds. The last time that happened was 2001 when Tony Pedregon beat John Force at Englishtown, N.J., on May 20 and then next week (May 27) beat him again in the final round at Topeka, Kan. The only other time that there have been consecutive all-JFR finals was 1996 and again it was Force versus Tony. Force won both times, on Aug. 4 at Seattle, Wash., and on Aug. 18 at Brainerd, Minn.
Hight qualified No. 8 and had to outrun Bob Tasca III in the opening round He survived a close tire-smoking battle with the No. 1 qualifier Johnny Gray to advance to the semi-finals.
In the semi-finals he had to race teammate Courtney Force who in addition to being one of the favorites for the Auto Club Road to the Future Award, as NHRA rookie of the year has a tremendously consistent race car.
"If she keeps this pace going next race she will be in the finals. She is doing a great job. It is not as much fun having to race your teammate knowing that they can step up and run good. She had lane choice against me and she had run 4.09 the round before. We knew we couldn’t run 4.09 against her. I asked Jimmy to just make it go, let’s just see what happens. Luckily it worked out. She is doing a great job. She is loving it. I can tell you right now she is ready to go to Gainesville.”
After winning against Courtney Robert was eager to get to the final with another teammate Neff.
“This is a good comeback for us. It was pretty exciting watching Neff run 4.09 right in front of us. Seeing him get to the final guaranteed an all JFR final. It is two Ford Mustangs in the final just like Pomona. I am glad we were not out in the first round and we are racing in the final. It is going to be a great race between Neff and I. We’ll see what happens.”
By getting his first win of 2012 Hight qualified for the inaugural Traxxas Nitro Shootout. Knowing that the first seven slots could be locked up by race winners Hight wanted to ensure his Auto Club Ford Mustang was one of those seven race cars sooner rather than later.
“It is pretty exciting two weekends in a row having all John Force Racing Fords in the final. You have to cherish that because you know that is not going to keep happening. It is so tough to do. What is really cool is I got in the Traxxas Shootout. When they show you the rules and there are seven guaranteed spots for seven winners. That isn’t that easy. There are a lot of good Funny Cars out here. To get it this early that is a little bit of a relief,” said Hight.
This was the second final in a row for Neff and his only consolation today was he will leave with the Full Throttle Funny Car points lead. Neff now has led the points after 16 of the last 23 races. He led for the first time after last year's NHRA Tire Kingdom Gatornationals which was the second race of the year.
Neff’s route to the final round started when he dispatched Bob Bode in the first round, then Ron Capps and Jack Beckman in consecutive rounds. After the final round Neff was philosophical about the day’s results.
“All in all, anytime you go to the final it’s a good day; especially to be leaving here with the points lead. That’s always a good thing, but still I’m frustrated with letting one slip away last week and then I feel like I let this one slip away here too. It was a good opportunity to win the race today,” said Neff. “Our car has been running great and to just have it not do what we wanted it to and shake and I had to peddle it an just barely lose it, you know, it’s frustrating. We want to win, we work hard, but on the positive side we’ve had two races with two Force cars in each of the finals. We’re definitely satisfied with that. We’re happy about it. We’re just a little frustrated that we haven’t won either of those two, but we’ll just keep on keepin’ on.”
In the most anticipated first round match-up of the day Courtney Force outran her father John Force and moved to the second round for the second race in a row. For Force the first round loss on the heels of his season opening win at the Winternationals was bittersweet.
“I went through it with Ashley. There is just a difference in emotion. You love your kids. You want them to do well. I want her to do well for her sponsor Traxxas. I had the points lead which I haven’t had in a while. I just choked it out there. The car dropped a cylinder. It wasn’t going to run anyway no matter what I did,” said Force. “You have to get your energy up every run. It is hard to get in that fight mode where you want to drill the competition; it is hard to get that way against your family. No matter how hard I try.”
The first round was the third consecutive time the pair had gone down the track side by side and each lap had a little bit of playful drama according to the veteran Force.
“Yesterday she had flickered the light on me and in the next session I flickered the light on her. I don’t do it to screw her up. If I screw her up and hurt her as a driver then I could have sponsor problems. I don’t want to screw her up. When I did it I wanted her to see what it was like. I’ll be honest it distracted me a little bit in the first session yesterday. When I rolled in her light flickered and instead of thinking ‘OK, whatever,’ like I would have against another driver and I’d have gone on in. With her I was like is she screwed up. I didn’t think she was screwing with me. I thought, ‘Was is she in trouble?’ What she may not realize is if you don’t light that bulb and the tree comes down you won’t get a time. I remember I was thinking get her in there, get her in there. That was in qualifying so I went back against her in the second session so she could see it from my side.”
In the first round race the student took her shot at the master and waited for the 15-time champ to stage which is highly unusual for any driver to attempt. Force traditionally has a habit of staging second.
“She doesn’t seem to be bothered by much. Even up there staging I asked her what took her so long to get in. She told me she knows that I sit. She said everybody told her that. I told her OK so this early in the game we are sitting. She said no I was just going to go in and let you go in. She is not losing her focus with all that thinking. She is probably smarter than me. She is like her mom that way,” said Force through a broad smile.
The youngest Force qualified 12th and successfully went up against her father for the first time ever in eliminations winning with a 4.146 ET at over 307 mph.
“Coming up here for first round I had my dad and I knew it was going to be tough. I raced him in qualifying a couple times. We both had fun and kind of messed with each other on the tree and then we were able to do it again first round. I don’t know if it threw him off, but I was able to get the win. My car went out and ran pretty good and he got in trouble early in the right lane,” said Force.
Courtney got a great lead off the line and never had to look back, as the Castrol Ford Mustang got sideways and the elder Force spent time trying to correct the car.
“I hate beating him (John Force). He is my dad and I have dreamed about racing him for such a long time. The fact that I can go out there against him first round was pretty amazing. We have had a pretty consistent car all weekend. I know he was trying to step it up that run to try and outrun me. I know we have a good car and it got a little lose at the top end. We just want to go from A to B and not make any mistakes. I waited on him a little bit. He wasn’t going to go in to stage so I waited a little longer because I know he likes to be second. We definitely had some fun on the starting line. That was a good win for Traxxas and Ford plus Auto Club, BrandSource, Mac Tools and Castrol. I hate beating up on Dad, but that was fun,” said Force.
The largely-celebrated win sent her into a quarterfinals match-up where the youngest Force would have lane choice over new full-time racer Todd Lesenko. Alongside Lesenko, Force recorded her career-best ET with a 4.099 at 306 mph and proceeded to turn on her win light for the second time today.
“Second round we had Lesenko. I actually ran my career-best ET, a 4.09, and the best of the round so that definitely gave me a lot more confidence going into the semis. I was excited to get my first second-round win in a Pro category. It must be rookie luck because I am still in shock that I am even out here driving one of these. That was awesome,” said Force.
Despite the team’s constant efforts to improve, Force lost in the semifinals to teammate and brother-in-law Robert Hight. Force ran a 4.199 ET at 299.93 mph to Hight’s 4.158 ET at 304.32 mph.
NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series
Line Earns First Firebird Win in All-Summit Final
Defending champion Jason Line and the Summit Racing team continued their strong start to the 2012 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing season on Sunday, capturing the Pro Stock title at Sunday’s 28th annual NHRA Arizona Nationals in Chandler, Ariz. Starting from the second position, Line defeated Jeg Coughlin Jr., Erica Enders and Greg Stanfield in the early rounds before squaring off against his teammate Greg Anderson in the final.
Historically, the all-Summit encounters have been very close races, and the championship round in Phoenix was no exception. The two drivers left the starting line within a thousandth of a second of each other and rocketed down the quarter-mile as if welded together, with Line’s 6.558-second, 211.69 mph pass pulling out the narrow victory over Anderson’s 6.570-second, 211.06 mph run. This marks the 28th win of his career (which ties Darrell Alderman for 7th on the all-time Pro Stock wins list), first of the 2012 season and first at Firebird Raceway.
“It feels good to get my first win here in Phoenix,” said Line. “We’ve had one of the best cars in the class for the first two races, but weren’t able to close the deal in Pomona, so it’s great to get the job done today.
“Of course, going into the final we knew a Summit car was going to win, which took some of the pressure off. Still, anytime you go up against Greg, you know you’re going up against one of the very best, so you have to be on your very best game if you hope to beat him. Fortunately, we were able to make a good run and get the win.”Line’s pursuit of victory was challenged from the start, as he opened against former champion Coughlin. Although his opponent was able to gain the advantage at the start, the KB Racing driver used the quickest elapsed time of eliminations at 6.549 seconds to reel him in and advance to the second round. He then returned to form against Enders, leaving first and once again posting the quickest time of the round to advance to the semifinals, where another strong 6.556-second, 211.23 mph run propelled him into the 57th final round of his career.
“Going into the first round, I knew how good he can be on the tree, but I also felt we had a significant performance advantage, so I was looking for a safe light – just not that safe,” said Line. “Fortunately, he had some trouble, we ran well and were able to pull out the win and move on. This car is absolutely phenomenal right now, and it’s taken a lot of hard work by everyone on this team, both here at the track and back at the shop to get us in this position, so I’m glad we were able to get this win for them today.
“I’m also happy to win this race for (team owners) Ken and Judy Black, as well as our sponsors, Summit Racing Equipment, Red Line Oil, Cometic Gaskets, Mac Tools, PAC Valve Springs, Wilson Manifolds, Diamond Pistons, K&N Filters, SpeedDawg Shift Knobs, Wiley X and everyone else who supports us.
“All in all, today was a really good day, but I’m looking forward to getting home and spending a little time with my family, who I haven’t seen since before Pomona. After that, it will be time to get back to work. We have a couple weeks before the Gatornationals and just like everyone else, we’re going to be spending some long hours looking to make these cars run even better. We’ve gotten off to a good start, and we want to keep it going.”
NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series
Point standings (top 10) for NHRA professional categories following the 52nd annual O'Reilly NHRA Winternationals presented by Super Start Batteries at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, the first of 23 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series
NHRA Full Throttle Series Points
[After Race 2 of 23]
Includes Points Behind Leader
Top Fuel Dragster
1. Antron Brown (Leader) [212 points]
2. Tony Schumacher [-32]
3. Spencer Massey [-36]
4. Morgan Lucas [-69]
5. Shawn Langdon [-73]
6. Clay Millican [-86]
7. Steve Torrence [-123]
8. Bob Vandergriff [-123]
9. Brandon Bernstein [-127]
10. Doug Kalitta [-127]
Funny Car
1. John Force (Leader) [196 points]
2. Mike Neff [-42]
3. John Force [-46]
4. Jack Beckman [-59]
5. Ron Capps [-71]
6. Courtney Force [-72]
7. Todd Lesenko [-94]
8. Johnny Gray [-97]
9. Jeff Arend [-112]
10. Gary Densham [-113]
Pro Stock Car
1. Greg Anderson (Leader) [209 points]
2. Jason Line [-1]
3. Mike Edwards [-62]
4. Roger Brogdon [-84]
5. Jeg Coughlin Jr. [-87]
6. Vincent Nobile [-98]
7. Roger Brogdon [-106]
8. Allen Johnson [-116]
9. Erica Anders [-125]
10. Shane Gray [-125]
Pro Stock Motorcycle
1. Eddie Krawiec (Champion) [2691 points]
2. Hector Arana Jr. [-90]
3. Andrew Hines [-180]
4. Matt Smith [-235]
5. Hector Arana [-302]
6. Karen Stoffer [-331]
7. L.E. Tonglet [-337]
8. Jerry Savoie [-354]
9. Michael Phillips [-414]
10. James Underdahl [-459]
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