Western Swing continues in Seattle
Written by Sheila Scarborough · July 21, 2008
Three races over three weekends in three western US cities - it’s the challenging Western Swing in drag racing.
This weekend - Seattle.
In Top Fuel, low qualifier Tony Schumacher and the Army rail continue to march along as Schumacher defeated Brandon Bernstein for the win at Pacific Raceway.
“It’s a blast,” said Schumacher. “We’ve been a pressure team for years. Under pressure we step up; we do good. Right now, for whatever reason, we’re just having a great time and the car is running good. When you get on a roll like this, watch out. You see those football teams, when they start smiling and start playing together really as a team, like we do, we’re hard to beat. It’s been outstanding.
“We’re setting records that nobody thought possible. We’re doing amazing things together. It’s hard to believe, but it’s great to be part of.”
Funny Car competition brought a first-time win for Tony Bartone in only his second Funny Car final round, as he outran a tire-striking Ron Capps for the Wally.
“Looking back at last weekend in Denver, we had an extreme amount of trouble getting down the track, but we were able to turn our program around and put together a pretty good racecar to race with today and we went four rounds and brought home the bacon,” Bartone said. “We were lucky enough to come up with a good raceday tune-up today [after sitting out Saturday’s qualifying sessions]; it wasn’t perfect, but it went rounds.
“This [winning as an NHRA Professional] is what you dream about; this is what you work your whole career to do. Winning was great in the Alcohol ranks: we did a lot of winning, we won championships, and we won national events and divisional races. But this is a special moment. It’s a culmination of what you try to accomplish as a racer.”
Capps was still happy to get into his first final of the season, and examined what he needs to do for a win, particularly given the new 1000-foot track length.
“Ace (crew chief Ed McCulloch) was surprised it [struck the tires], I was surprised and Tony Bartone was surprised his pulled them loose. Our crew chiefs and our track guy Lanny (Miglizzi) kept saying the sun will take its turn at this track at 5 o’clock. That’s the hottest part of the day here. So, the track temperature was at its warmest [and] it was a little bit of poker, more than anything. Ace was probably thinking [he] could maybe get away with running an .18 or a .20 and Jim Dunn was probably thinking the same thing.
“One bad thing about the 1000-foot (finish line) is I started pedaling and I was catching him and then I thought, man, I don’t have a full track anymore and that was the one downside. Had I had a full track, maybe, but it doesn’t matter. It was fun.
“We got past first round and every round was tight,” added Capps. “I have to really thank NHRA, and especially the track here at Pacific Raceway and the Safety Safari. Guys were running great ETs in both lanes and it’s hard to come by. And [racing to] the 1000-foot, look how quick our day went by [without] oildowns. If we keep this up we may go to live TV sometime soon. So I’m real excited about the future.
“Much of the story this weekend was about all the guys on the edge in the point standings, like Scelzi and Beckman, and they’re my teammates and we wanted them in, but we needed to focus on getting in deeper (in the standings). This gained us a little bit more room. Unfortunately, Force didn’t qualify and we went around him in points, which is huge. We know he’ll be one of the contenders at the end.”
In Pro Stock, Jason Line claimed his second win of the season and his first at Pacific Raceways, defeating Allen Johnson.
“It feels great to win, especially here in Seattle,” Line said. “I’ve been out here, I don’t know how many times, and never had any success whatsoever even when I raced in Stock eliminator. It feels really good to win here and it felt really good to drive well today. We didn’t have the greatest car in qualifying - we had some issues. We tested some parts along the way, which is kind of cool, although you don’t want to be testing at national events. But it all worked out and the guys did a great job, especially getting down that left lane, which was a little bit tricky.
“I was nervous about racing Allen Johnson. He’s been pretty good these last two weeks, but I felt like we had a chance. Before the race I asked Greg [Anderson] if he thought we could get down that left lane and he just said, ‘I don’t know.’ Whenever he says that it usually means that we can, and fortunately it worked. I looked over in high gear and didn’t see Allen’s Dodge there. I knew he wasn’t going to catch this Pontiac.”
The next event is the Fram Autolite NHRA Nationals in Sonoma CA, July 25-27.
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