Tony Schumacher ran the quickest Top Fuel pass of the year - a 4.447 at
327.27 mph - to lead a record-setting two days of professional
qualifying at the CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals at Route 66
Raceway. Qualifying ended Saturday with three of the quickest
professional fields ever assembled.
Schumacher, a three-time and defending series champion, has now earned
six low qualifier awards this year for his U.S. Army team, but he'd
gladly trade them in for his first victory of the season.
"The win is the thing," Schumacher said. "We know we have the car and
we know it'll turn around at some point for us. When it does this car
is going to fly and we'll win a bunch of races."
Tommy Johnson Jr., Richie Stevens Jr., and Chip Ellis all topped record
groups in their respective categories, with Ellis becoming only the
second rider in NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle history to clock a
sub-seven-second run. Johnson's 4.672 spanned to Tim Wilkerson's
16th-best 4.802 in Funny Car. Stevens' 6.635 bracketed Steve Schmidt's
6.700 in Pro Stock, and Ellis' 6.988 was anchored by Geno Scali's 7.119
on the bottom of the Pro Stock Motorcycle grid.
Johnson's 4.672 at 328.70 looked untouchable Friday, but Whit Bazemore
gave him a run in the day's only Funny Car session when he dipped to a
4.674 at 330.88 mph. Still, Johnson remained the low qualifier in his
Skoal Chevrolet Monte Carlo, the first time he's earned the No. 1 spot
in five and a half years.
"We got the quickest field in NHRA history," Johnson said. "To lead
after qualifying is impressive. To win the race against the quickest 16
ever would really be something. I hope we can get it done. We'd love to
be the first No. 1 qualifier to win a race this year."
Nitro points leaders Melanie Troxel and Ron Capps sweated out
Saturday's numerous rain delays and shortened schedule to move from out
of the field to the top 16 in each of their categories. Troxel's 4.555
and Capps' 4.771 slotted them both in 12th place.
FIRST ROUND PAIRINGS
First-round pairings for professional eliminations Sunday for the Ninth
annual CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway, the
tenth of 23 events in the $50 million NHRA.
POWERade Drag Racing Series. Pairings based on results in qualifying,
which ended Saturday.
Top Fuel
1. Tony Schumacher, 4.447 seconds, 329.50 mph vs. 16. Alan Bradshaw,
4.640, 315.64
( The 4.447 ET was the second fastest in NHRA history)
2. Doug Kalitta, 4.496, 326.71 vs. 15. Joe Hartley, 4.611, 316.82
7. John Force, Mustang, 4.731, 320.97 vs. 10. Tony Bartone, Monte
Carlo, 4.761, 325.92
8. Gary Scelzi, Charger, 4.742, 329.50 vs. 9. Mike Ashley, Monte Carlo,
4.756, 329.83.
Bazemore's previous career-best ET was a 4.713, established here
at Route 66 Raceway in 2004, along with his career-best 333.25 mph run.
His 330.88 mph pass today was top speed for the meet so far.
The two-time U.S. Nationals champion put together a string of three
solid passes today before NHRA cancelled the final round because
of a long rain delay. They included a 4.766/327.59, a 4.700/329.99
(career-best ET at the time), and finally the 4.674/330.88, the
quickest and fastest of the round.
"It's refreshing to be at a track like this where the surface is good
and then to be blessed with good weather. Good weather for
running a car, that is. And it's worth waiting around all day to do
that. It was a long day," he said.
"We wanted to run a .60. We've tried since (crew chiefs) Todd (Okuhara)
and Brian (Corradi) have been here. We've tried a few times when we've
had the opportunity. We tuned the car up to the point where we thought,
OK it should do this, and it's always been
a couple of hundredths (of a second) off. Including last night,
when we ran .700.
"The Matco Tools Dodge team really stood on it today and it's still
plenty safe in terms of making it down the race track. It's a great job
by the team and they deserve the credit, as well as all the Matco Tools
people who stand behind us. We've definitely suffered some this year
and they've stood behind us and the second half of the year is
certainly shaping up to look a lot more productive than the first half."
Bazemore will square off with Phil Burkart Jr. in first round of
eliminations on Sunday.
Reigning NHRA POWERade Drag Racing SeriesFunny Car champion Gary Scelzi
is famous for his sense of humor and quickwit. That was evidenced once
more today when the driver of the Mopar/Oakley Dodge Charger R/T Funny
Car qualified No. 8
for the CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway with a
consistent string of 4.7-second passes in the
quickest Funny Car field in NHRA history, while the top six cars were
posting passes in the 4.6-second range.
"We're consistent," he laughed. "I told them down there (at the top
end), I said, People are out there running their personal-bests, 4.83s,
jumping up and down, and we're running a 4.75 and it's like somebody
called our mother a dirty name.
"It's got a governor on it. We'll be fine tomorrow, but it's kind of
comical that we ran a .76, a .74, a .75, and (in mph) a 329, a 329.
"Somewhere there's a little gremlin in there. Tonight we're going
on a gremlin hunt. We're going to kill that little bastard."
"We'll see what happens tomorrow. We're in the show, it's a tough
field, and anything can happen. Who knows what it's going to bring, but
we're fine, we're in good shape."
Scelzi faces Mike Ashley in first round of eliminations on Sunday.
Pro Stock
1. Richie Stevens, Dodge Stratus, 6.635, 207.40 vs. 16. Steve Schmidt,
Pontiac GTO, 6.700, 206.10
2. Mike Edwards, GTO, 6.650, 207.27 vs. 15. Dave Northrop, Stratus,
6.698, 205.13
3. Dave Connolly, Chevy Cobalt, 6.653, 206.80 vs. 14. Dave Howard,
Cobalt, 6.691, 206.99
4. Allen Johnson, Stratus, 6.659, 207.27 vs. 13. Ron Krisher, Cobalt,
6.686, 206.20
5. Angelle Sampey, Suzuki, 7.058, 189.15 vs. 12. Joe DeSantis, Suzuki,
7.102, 189.04
6. Antron Brown, Suzuki, 7.073, 189.28 vs. 11. Tom Bradford, Buell, 7.085, 187.55
7. Craig Treble, Suzuki, 7.079, 190.35 vs. 10. Ryan Schnitz, Buell, 7.081, 187.00
8. Michael Phillips, Suzuki, 7.080, 189.15 vs. 9. Karen Stoffer,
Suzuki, 7.081, 189.12.
Pro Stock Bike
quotes:
Chip Ellis' 6.988-second run on his Drag Specialties S&S Cycle
Buell V-Twin made him just the second Pro Stock Motorcycle rider to
record a six-second pass.
"The thing of it is you need a bike that's good and you got to ride it
good," Ellis said. "I'm really just glad we got to make a run at all
the way the weather was. I've ridden a Funny Bike at 6.5-seconds and
200-plus mph a hundred times so it wasn't that big a deal to me. It was
cool to do it on a Pro Stock Bike. I guess it just hasn't sunk in yet."
