Better Late Than Never in Memphis
Written by Sheila Scarborough · August 21, 2006
Kalitta, Force, KJ and Hines take the winner’s trophies at O’Reilly Mid-South Nationals.
After significant rain delays reshuffled the qualifying schedule and then shoved eliminations to Monday, the nail-biter in Tennessee is finally over.
NHRA.com Monday recap.
Here’s how it felt from the perspective of one team, the Checker Schuck’s Kragen Funny Car guys, as quoted in their team blog:
“They finally let us out of prison just after 9:00 p.m. Sunday night, and we hustled back to the hotel to sleep as fast as we could, because the oddball nature of this race was scheduled to continue at 9:00 this morning. That meant leaving the hotel before 7:00…Let me say, it’s very weird to be at the racetrack, with almost no fans and with half the teams packed up and gone, getting ready to run the second round at 9:00 in the morning. Very weird.”
The big news in Top Fuel was Doug Kalitta’s sedond-round holeshot win over the recently resurgent Tony Schumacher. The US Army rail has been coming on strong to try to take the top spot in points, but this gives Kalitta a 136-point lead and a bit more breathing room.
“It was a good old-fashioned drag race,” Schumacher said. “We’ll bounce back, I guarantee you that. With six races to go, there’s plenty of time to complete our mission of winning a third straight title.”
Hillary Will reached her first final and recorded a lightning-quick .044 on the tree, but Kalitta ran her down with a 4.604 and 313.95 mph. This also makes the Rookie of the Year contest more interesting, although JR Todd’s two victories will still carry a lot of weight.
Kalitta is happy with the outcome, obviously, and at least his finals opponent was a teammate.
“I’ve struggled here over the years [so] to finally get a win here was huge,” said Kalitta. “It was a real close race with Tony. To have to run those guys and get by makes it more special to get that first win here at Memphis.
“We’re coming out of here with a few more points than we came in with. It’s really what we’ve needed to do, because we’ve been fading a little the last few races.”
Funny Car’s John Force is feeling relief that he and his team put all of the pieces together for a win, despite the horrid weather and many schedule changes. Maybe the old warhorse’s years of experience paid off when things got crazy.
“I ain’t trying to play it cool here but let’s not get too excited about being in the lead by a few points,” Force said. “The heat’s still killing us. It just wasn’t too bad today. I guess I ran a track record there in the final so that proves it. Still, we all know Capps and them will be right there. Tony’s coming on strong now. Eric [Medlen] and Robert [Hight] are in it. The fight will probably go down to the end.
“I won’t lie, the A&E show [”Driving Force”] has had me on overload but I’m figuring out how to put everything aside at least when I’m at a race and focus on what I’m doing. Today was good, I didn’t see Elvis at 1,000 feet and we got the win. They still feel just as good as the first one did.”
Kurt Johnson found the third time to be the charm, as he took the Pro Stock Wally after two previous runner-up finishes in Memphis. KJ’s .013 at the tree helped to give him the victory over Jason Line.
“I’ve never been able to win here on Sunday,” said Johnson. “Maybe we should always race on Mondays instead. We’re still figuring out a new car. We ran it at Brainerd and here, so it’s only got a few passes on it, but it seems to be happy at the moment. It reacts well, goes fast, and runs quick.
“I want to win the next six races, but there are so many good drivers and crews out here. We’re all human. We want to hit home runs every time up, but it usually doesn’t work that way. You have to do the best you can and see what happens.
“This win is great, but I really feel bad for the fans. Dealing with the heat and the rain all weekend and then most of them not able to come back today, that’s just a bummer for them.”
Andrew Hines got something of a gimme victory in Pro Stock Motorcycle when Antron Brown red-lighted by .006, but he and Brown are still the two to beat in this class. They have a points lead of over 100 on their nearest competitors.
“I saw Antron’s red-light come on, and everything just went blank,” Hines said. “To come in here and get the win and the POWERade points lead back is such an awesome feeling. Hopefully, this is the momentum we need to finish the year strong and defend the championship we need. I hope it’s hot the rest of the year because we’ve done really well at the two hottest places we raced this year, here and Denver.
“This is the first time I’ve ever doubled up at a race. Last year was awesome because GT [Tonglet, Screamin’ Eagle Harley teammate] and I qualified 1-2 and then raced through to the final and got after it for the trophy. To come back a year later and win it again is special.”
Next up is the biggie, the Mac Tools US Nationals at O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis on Labor Day weekend.
Pro Stock Motorcycle Final Ladder
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John Force Is The Man!