Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals
Reading, PA
(August 16-19)
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by Rob Geiger, NHRA.com
Whit Bazemore, Kurt Johnson, Chip Ellis, and Karen Stoffer finished qualifying for the 23rd annual Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals Saturday by securing positions in the Countdown to the Championship, the new playoff-style format to decide the 2007 POWERade Drag Racing Series champions. The next phase of the Countdown -- the Countdown to Four -- begins Aug. 29 at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals. The final seven open slots will be filled Sunday at Maple Grove Raceway. Top Fuel points leader "Hot Rod" Fuller, Funny Car Countdown hopeful Del Worsham, three-time Pro Stock champion Greg Anderson, and Pro Stock Motorcycle maven Angelle Sampey remained in control of their respective categories. Sampey (pictured) impressed the most in Saturday's cooler conditions, running a 6.901 on her Suzuki, which is tied for the second quickest elapsed time in history.
The only bummer for Fuller is that he'll face his David Powers Motorsports teammate Whit Bazemore in Round 1 of eliminations. Bazemore is 16th here in his Matco Tools rail after a 4.668 at 320.28 mph but managed to clinch a Countdown spot because of the way the ladder sets up. "I'm here to race," Fuller said, when asked about racing his teammate in Round 1. "We're teammates but we both have sponsors to answer to. We're trying to get Caterpillar on full-time and they're excited to be with us this race and he's got all the Matco people pulling for him. "We're all on one team but there's a lot of pride between the two sides. Those guys want to beat us and we want to beat them when we have to race each other. You want to be the king of the pit, so to speak. Otherwise we'll do whatever we can to help them, and vice versa." Tony Schumacher remained second with a best of 4.526 at 332.75 mph in his U.S. Army rail. Running a special one-off Stanley Tools scheme this weekend, Doug Kalitta made the biggest jump Saturday, climbing to third overall with a 4.545 at 331.20 mph. Countdown hopefuls Dave Grubnic and Melanie Troxel are fourth and fifth, Grubnic with a 4.545 at 330.88 mph in his Zantrex-3 dragster and Troxel with a 4.549 at 326.08 mph in the Filling in for Brandon Bernstein, who had surgery to remove a kidney stone at 11 a.m. this morning at
"This weekend is huge," Worsham said. "Coming into this race, I don't want to say I had completely lost hope but I had just put the whole Countdown thing out of my head. It was just driving me crazy. Then we got the No. 1 qualifier yesterday for just the fourth time in my career and it was like, 'Maybe there's something there.' It's gonna take a miracle but we do have a chance. "We've been talking about [our race with Arend] but we haven't made any decisions. It's a tough, tough call. I hate team orders. We've had the best car all weekend but it's so hard to say what we're going to do. I don't want to say it's not going to happen and make a liar of myself but I'm leaning towards racing him straight up. "The car's solid, it's mechanically good, and it doesn’t hurt parts any more. We're competitive again and that's exciting. I think we'll be competitive for the rest of the year." Jack Beckman was pleased with his second-place qualifying effort in his Mail Terminal Services Dodge Charger R/T. Beckman matched Worsham's elapsed time of 4.800 but was slightly slower with a 322.81 mph top speed.
Top Fuel leader Fuller will try to break the curse of the No. 1 qualifier -- none have won this year -- for the fourth time this year. Fuller's Friday night pass of 4.521 at 327.19 mph in his Ransome Caterpillar dragster was mostly unchallenged Saturday.
Rod Fuller
Worsham's supporters are still holding out hope that the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen racer can somehow pull off a miracle win in his Chevrolet Impala SS, which qualified him on top of the Funny Car ladder for the first time this year with a 4.800 at 323.97 mph. Should Worsham win the race and No. 12 qualifier Jim Head lose in the first round, Worsham would earn the last Countdown spot. Tommy Johnson Jr., who could face Worsham in Round 2, is also alive in the chase. Worsham squares off against teammate Jeff Arend in Round 1.
Del Worsham
Tim Wilkerson had his second-best qualifying effort of the season by finishing third with a 4.819 at 323.43 mph in the Levi, Ray, and Shoup Chevrolet Impala. Points leader Ron Capps wound up fourth with a 4.838 at 312.28 mph in the Brut Test Drive Dodge Charger.
For the first time ever, there are three John Force Racing Mustangs on the bottom half of the ladder. Ashley Force is 10th with a 4.870 in her Castrol ride, Robert Hight is 11th with a 4.875 in his Auto Club Ford, and John Force is 15th with a 4.899 in his Castrol GTX High Mileage hot rod.
Mike Ashley, a low qualifier several times this season, failed to qualify and dropped from second to sixth in the Countdown standings.
Anderson
Greg Anderson
"I had no idea how good it was going to get today,"
"The bad news is we have to race each other early. Cry all you want; we made our bed and we have to live with it. We'll get his car fixed and we'll be ready to put on a good race tomorrow, I'm sure of that.
"I'm leaving here and heading straight to Indy to test his car. Jason will be going back to the shop to work on the motors. We have to hit the ground running when the Countdown starts and we want to have that 1-2 punch."
Victor Cagnazzi racing teammates Dave Connolly and Jeg Coughlin Jr., who have managed to keep pace with
Kendall Dodge racer Vieri Gaines snuck between Connolly and Coughlin with a 6.610 of his own, this one at 208.62 mph.
Kurt Johnson locked up his spot in the Countdown to the Championship by simply making a single qualifying attempt at this event. He took it one step further with his Round 4 pass of 6.641 at 208.49 mph, which placed him 13th on the sheets. There are only two spots left in Pro Stock's Countdown field.
Sampey matched the second quickest Pro Stock Motorcycle run of all-time in the final session of qualifying to re-take the No. 1 spot in the elimination field. Sampey's 6.901 at 193.96 mph on her U.S. Army Suzuki reset Maple Grove's elapsed time record and marks her fifth low qualifying effort of the season and 44th of her career.
Angelle Sampey
"I was determined to get that No. 1 spot," Sampey said. "I did a poor job of riding in the first session and I really wanted to make up for it because I knew I had a bike capable of being No. 1 in the field. I need to do a better job of riding overall if I want to win the championship this year.
"I'm really proud of [crew chief] Steve Tartaglia for getting this bike to run so quick when he's spending the majority of his time getting Antron [Brown] up to speed on that side of the team. We're a true team and that showed today.
"I want to thank the track people for fixing that bump down there because it was a lot better today. I don't know what they did but whatever it was, it worked."
Chip Ellis had surged into the lead in Saturday's opening session with a career-best 6.906 at 192.03 mph on his Drag Specialties S&S Buell V-Twin, but Sampey answered back in the fourth round.
Peggy Llewellyn continues her torrid pace of late with a third-best 6.940 at 193.24 mph on her Klement Racing Buell.
Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson V-Rod rider Eddie Krawiec, who holds the last position in the provisional Countdown field, is fourth with a 6.962.
By qualifying for this event, Ellis and Karen Stoffer successfully earned spots in the Countdown to the Championship field, leaving just three more up for grabs Sunday. Stoffer is the No. 15 qualifier here with a 7.059 on her Geico Motorcycle Suzuki.
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