Giant-killers and surprises at Winternationals
Written by Sheila Scarborough · February 11, 2007
JR Todd, Gary Scelzi and Greg Anderson each take home a Winternationals Wally.
One POWERade series race down, only twenty-two more to go, and what a way to start the 2007 season.
NHRA.com Sunday recap.
Rain delays in Pomona meant more tension for everyone, plus a shortened sixty-five minute engine rebuild turnaround for the Pro classes. The delays pushed the finals into the evening hours and kept tuners reacting to a rapidly-cooling track.
Top Fuel had some noteworthy success stories and upsets — Whit Bazemore picked up his first Top Fuel elimination win since his transition from Funny Car (beating Cory Mac in a pedalfest) then he gave “Hot Rod” Fuller a run for his money before Whit went down in Round Two.
Reigning champion and low qualifier Tony Schumacher was knocked out by Joe Hartley, then NHRA 2006 Road to the Future/Rookie of the Year JR Todd came up with a career-best ET to beat Doug Kalitta in Round Two and make it all the way to the final against his friend Brandon Bernstein.
His consistency continued as Todd drove a nice 4.482 at 324.98 mph to beat Bernstein and take his fourth career win.
“I never expected things to happen as suddenly as it has for me,” Todd said. “It’s pretty surprising to me, to be honest. When you have a guy like [crew chief] Jimmy Walsh in your corner you’re going to be good. That guy is the first one in the shop every day and the last one to leave each night. He’s relentless.
“Last year was kind of a Cinderella deal for us but by the end of the year we weren’t surprised by our performance any more. This year we’re for real and I think all the other teams know that now.
“It was an expensive win for me because Jimmy had this board in the trailer and every time he tuned me to a 4.5 pass, I had to put a dollar up there. The money is for the crew guys’ dinner and whatever. Well, last year I told the team that every time I ran a 4.4, I’d put a $100 bill up there. I had to win the race to pay for all the 4.4s we ran this weekend.”
The Force hype balloon finally sagged a little as Cruz Pedregon took down John Force in Funny Car’s Round One (Force is now 46-3 against the Cruzer.)
I have to give eloquence props to one of the trackside commentators after the Round One duel between Scott Kalitta and Tony Pedregon (”At half track, Kalitta’s car darted to the center line and NASA is still tracking the marker. It’s due to reenter on Tuesday.”)
Robert Hight beat Ashley Force in Round One, but it wasn’t pretty on either side with assorted pedaling and coasting. Hight rode crew chief Jimmy Prock’s tuneup all the way to the finals against low qualifier Gary Scelzi, who had had to do a major re-build after an earlier trip into the sand. There was a rainbow of mechanics in his pit from all of Don Schumacher Racing, working to get Schelzi’s team ready.
Scelzi explained, “One of the panels blew out of the parachutes, which made it grab the other ‘chute, so they never opened. They tangled together. At 331 mph you’re just not going to stop it.”
In the final run, Hight beat Scelzi down the strip but ran his car into the center line and was DQ’d, giving the “Wild Thing” his first win of the season with a 4.716 at 332.26 mph. Scelzi joins Don Prudhomme and Kenny Bernstein as the only drivers to win Winternationals in both the Funny Car and Top Fuel classes.
“We didn’t think we had anything for Jimmy [Prock, Hight's crew chief] in the final,” Scelzi said. “We thought we’d try to run a high 4.6 and see what happened. I didn’t see him until 700 feet and then he just went right by me. I saw the win light in his lane and it was a letdown. The guys on the radio told me he beat me on a holeshot and here I was thinking I’d cut a good light. Then they said he was DQ’ed and I thought that was a really cruel joke to play on me.
“Those guys had a great car all weekend but you know what, so did we. Ever since we tested in Phoenix the car’s been going straight down the track. It’s been incredible. Zippy [crew chief Mike Neff] and this team deserve a lot of credit.
“Pomona is either real kind or real rough,” said Scelzi earlier. “But I enjoy it because it’s close to home, I’ve had a lot of success here, I’ve won a lot of races here, won Bud Shootouts here, so it’s a good time. The Winternationals are always exciting because everybody’s stuff is new. Everybody’s got their new trick trailers painted, their races cars are new, new uniforms, everything is new and fresh. You know it’s the beginning of a war.”
The upsets and knockouts continued in Pro Stock. Former Comp Eliminator driver Roger Brogdon took out red-lighting “Kaptain Khaos” Kenny Koretsky in Brogdon’s first Pro Stock start.
Greg Stanfield punched his way past red-lighting reigning champion Jason Line to make it to the finals against low qualifier Greg Anderson, but then it was Anderson all the way with a 6.651 at 207.05 mph for his third straight victory at this track.
“This place is magic for me,” said Anderson. “That was our sixth win here. When it’s 60 degrees like it was today we just love it because you can pour all your power into the track and show off what you built over the winter. It looks like we did just a little bit better job than everyone else.
“We lost three crew guys since last year, including one of our crew chiefs, Jeff Perley. How do you replace him? But the new guys stepped up today and Rob Downing did a great job calling the shots on both Summit cars all day.”
Next on the docket is February 23-25, the Checker Schuck’s Kragen event at Firebird Raceway in Phoenix, Arizona.
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