Ashley Force Hood became the first female winner in Nirto Funny Car at the US Nationals on Monday while tempers flared between champion drivers John Force and Tony Pedregon. The event featured incredible racing, spectacular crashes and moments that everyone walked away from, and allegations of cheating and race fixing.
Friday: The weekend opened with everybody muttering “Countdown” and “Rain”.
While there was plenty of On-Track action on Friday, there were no incidents to report, other thanJim Head having some problems relating to popping the blower.
Saturday:
Top Alchohol Dragster Qualifying Session 2: Brandon Booher shook the tires and turned his dragster into a 3500 HorsePower Bicycle as he headed for the wall. The car did come back onto all 4 wheels, however, he did make contact with the wall, but was able to climb out without injury.
In the First round of the Ringers Gloves Pro Bike Battle, Arana defeated Guidera, Smith defeated Stoffer, Hines defeated Johnson, and Krawiec defeated Treble.
In Session 2 of Funny Car Qualifying, John Force runs a 4.17, but is DQ’s because his body does not meet the requirements of the NHRA Rule Book for body height. This is only one of many issues that John will have this weekend.
In the Second round of the Bike Battle, Hines’ 6.95 defeated Krawiec’s 7.02, while Smith gave away a 7.01 to Arana’s 7.02, via a -.008 Red Light.
In Qualifying Session 3 for Top Fuel Dragster, Joe Hartley grenades a motor en route to a 3.91 pass, while Haddock hangs his throttle open past the finish line, eventually has the bottom end come out of his engine.
In the Pro Bike Battle’s Final Round, Andrew Hines is able to tie his brother’s mark of 4 Pro Bike Battle wins, and Arana went red on the tree.
Saturday closes out with the third session of Funny Car qualifying. Everybody keeps the cars intact, and John Force Racing manages to Occupy all top 4 spots in the order: Hight goes #1 with a 4.08, Ashley Force-Hood takes Second with a 4.09, John Force lands Third with a 4.10 but is then bumped down as Mike Neff slices the pie and sticks Third position, putting Force in 4th.
Sunday:
RAIN. The word that anyone in motorsports, except maybe Road Racing fans, absolutely loathe.
During the rain storm, it is announced that KENNY BERSTEIN RACING will have a new sponsor next year, COPART.COM.
It is announced that the Fourth qualifying sessions have been scraped due to the rain, and track scheduling heads right into the fifth sessions.
Session 5, PSM: In the opening pass, Matt Smith takes the provisional pole with a 6.91. Smith’s team did an overnight engine change and killing their origional bullet.
Session 5, PS: Warren Johnson is currently not Qualified. And his run of a 6.70, does not change this. This locks Johnny Gray and Rickie Jones into the Countdown for the championship.
Now, for Saturday’s set of fireworks: Bob Bode has something go amiss in his motor, causing the supercharger to dismiss itself from the engine block. This results in the 400+ pound Funny Car body getting peeled away from the chassis, eventually flying over 100 feet into the air and coming apart. Shortly thereafter, Bob Tasca has a valvetrain issue, causing his engine to come apart, ad break his body in half. Cruz Pedregon runs a 4.098, which steals 4th from John Force, and breaking up the 4 car stronghold on the qualifying order.
In Top Fuel Session 5, Antron Brown makes a run of 319.22 MPH, second only to his 319.75 MPH pass at Bristol earlier this year.
Monday:
Round 1:
In Top Fuel, Tony Schumacher takes low ET with a 3.816, after Zizzo has the reverser malfunction after his burnout. Moving on to Round 2: Massey, Langdon, Dixon, Lucas, Schumacher, Fuller, Bernstein, McClenathan. Also, NASCAR Star Tony Stewart is an honorary guest of Team schumacher, as a mutual sponsorship by the US ARMY.
In Funny Car, Worsham and T. Pedregon are the first pair out. Worsham blows the tires off his Monte Carlo, while Tony has a parachute fall out of it’s pack, slowing him to 250 MPH but still claims the win. Pair 2 is Force and Head, and Head makes a repeat performance, in grenading a motor. For being a pocket-ran team, he sure could use some help… Nitro motors aren’t cheap. Pair 3 are Neff and Beckman, and they promptly enduce a pedal fest, which Neff wins. Pair 4 are High and Downing, and High wins out. Pair 5- Force-Hood and Haga, and Ashley makes it 4-for-4 for team Force. Pair 6, Cruz Pedregon and Capps go head to head, with C.Ped getting the win. Pair 7, Arend defeats Toliver, and for pair 8, Tasca defeats Wilkerson.
Pro Stock, Jim Yates’ prodigy Ryan Ondrejko gets his first round win ever by defeating Vinnie Deceglie, while the polar opposite matchup of Jeg Coughlin and Greg Anderson goes to Jeggy. Moving on to Round 2: Edwards, Ondrejko, Brogdon, Coughlin, Line, Gray, Morgan, Stanfield.
As many have become accustomed to, The keyword for the Pro Stock Bike Class is “Red Light”. Stoffer defeats LE Tonglet, while Johnson red-lights to Stoffer and Andrew Hines red-lights to Treble. This locks Stoffer and Gann into the countdown. Moving to Round 2: Smith, Horne, Phillips, Gann, Arana, Stoffer, Trble, Ellis.
Round 2:
TF: McClenathan grenades a motor, giving the round win to Bernstein. Massey, who qualified #16, defeats Langdon. Dixon defeats Lucas, and Schumacher continues his reign of Indy terror by defeating Fuller.
FC: Tony Pedregon defeats Mike Neff, while Force defeats a tire-smoking Cruz. Hight gets around Bob Tasca, who had his bodywork repaired overnight, you can’t even tell it’s the same body. Moving to the Semi’s: High, Force, Force-Hood, T.Pedregon.
PS: The opening pair is Jeg Coughlin, who blows the rear tires off of his Chevy. In a lucky break, his opponent Brogdon went red. Mike Edwards drives around Odrejko, with a Margin of Victory of 0.0018 seconds. Line and Stanfield also defeat their opponents, and are moving on to the Semifinals.
PSB: Doug Horne defeats Matt Smith on a holeshot, Phillips over Gann, Ellis over Treble, Aranna over Stoffer.
Semi Finals:
TF: Bernstein smokes tires, Schumacher moves on to the Finals. Dixon and Massey have a peddalfest, and Dixon wins out.
FC: Ashley Force-Hood defeated T.Ped in pair 1. And the fireworks begin for Pair 2. Between Rounds, Tony Pedregon said on ESPN that it was a for-sure item that Force would give High the win, so that Hight could be locked into the countdown. Sure enough, Force drives the car out of the groove at the green light, and smokes the tires. At the top end, a bar-style brawl comes about between T-ped and Force, resulting in forceful (no pun intended) removements of NHRA officials by Force, as he attempted to speak his mind directly to T-Ped’s face. Fines are predicted.
PS: Stanfield defeated Jason Line in a holeshot (How often does that happen??), and Edwards red-lights, giving Coughlin the win.
PSB: Phillips defeats Horne, Arana defeats Ellis
Finals:
PSB: Arana’s 7.02 over Phillips 7.08
PS: Coughlin’s 6.689 over Stanfield’s 6.691
FC: Robert Hight has an explosion on the top end, Allowing Ashley Force Hood to become the first female Nitro driver since Shirly Muldowney to get a Wally at the US Nationals.
TF: Schumacher and Dixon are the only 2 drivers that have Won Indy since 2000. Schumacher has 7 Indy wins, only Don Garlits has more, with 8. They are now Tied, with 8, as Dixon tried to rotate the earth, and the earth won.
ESPN TV and RacingForTheWin.com’s Drag Racing insider Andy Marquis contributed to this report.
