Superheated Seattle Tests the Teams
Written by Sheila Scarborough · July 23, 2006
Schumacher, Bazemore and Allen Johnson in the Seattle winner’s circle.
The reigning Top Fuel champion, Tony Schumacher, had a rough start to this season. Lately, however, he has shown a champion’s mettle, and today in brutally hot conditions, Don Schumacher’s son took the Seattle Wally with a run of 4.690 seconds, 321.96 mph. This win, his 2nd of the season and 32nd of his career, moves him to within 150 of the points lead currently held by Doug Kalitta.
“We’re only 150 points back with nine races to go,” said Schumacher, who defeated Bob Vandergriff, Alan Bradshaw, and J.R. Todd to advance to the final round.
“This is very doable. Now that we have a good handle on the racecar I feel a lot of confidence. I’d rather be on my team in the position we’re in right now than anywhere else. I wouldn’t change places with anyone.”
The run against JR Todd was a repeat of the Denver final (which Todd won) but this time Todd was late getting up to the staging lanes and then he and Tony were smoking and pedaling like mad until Todd finally went sideways.
Conditions were scorching at the NHRA Schuck’s Auto Supply Nationals, with air temperatures over 100 and track temps above 120 degrees.
NHRA.com Sunday recap.
(The NHRA site has been having some problems. An alternative is the recap at Drag Race Central.)
In Funny Car, Whit Bazemore finally ended a long win drought when he was faster off of the starting line than teammate Ron Capps and then never looked back, with a 5.036-second, 309.42-mph win. This was also his crew chief Todd Okuhara’s first win as the head guy. Capps put a cylinder out at about half track but Bazemore simply looked great.
“Just to get back in the winner’s circle feel so good,” Bazemore said, “especially for the team. To suffer like we have, to be less than perfect and have to rebuild ourselves over the last three months, to finally get the result is very gratifying.
“We have all the things you need to win — a great sponsor in Matco, all the resources of Don Schumacher Racing, the technology of Dodge — sooner or later the pressure builds up, especially when you have a streak like we’ve had. You have to find a way to persevere and focus. You just need to suck it up and stay positive. Today, each member of my team did that. They all executed their jobs perfectly; that’s what it takes to win.”
Allen Johnson has also gone a long time without a Pro Stock win, but tonight he and his father Roy, his co-crew chief, can celebrate after a solid win over the amazing Tom Martino (who has raced only twice this year but won once in Gainesville and then got to the finals here.)
“We’ve had the best car for the last four races — Englishtown, St. Louis, Denver, and here — so this isn’t a big surprise to me,” Johnson said. “We’ve struggled a little with our race day tune-up and we especially stubbed our toe in Denver in the first round but that mistake really taught us what we needed to know to get down these hot, gummy racetracks. If we hadn’t done that there we probably wouldn’t have learned enough to do well here.
“Pro Stock is the toughest class. The top six racers all went out in Round 1 and the No. 7 car wasn’t racing today. You see it every week; you have to be perfect to win one of these things. We’re excited and we feel like we have the confidence to run on these hot tracks.”
The next stop on the Western Swing is in Sonoma 28 July. Top Fuel’s Doug Kalitta has won 5 times there; can he repeat and pad his points lead?
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