Championship Drag Racing

Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals
Atlanta, GA
(May 12-15)

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OReilly NHRA Midwest Nationals
Sunday
Force, Kalitta, Anderson, and Tonglet reign after the rain in Atlanta

By Rob Geiger, NHRA.com

Funny Car legend John Force pushed his NHRA record to 116 national event victories by winning the closest race of the weekend against his teammate and son-in-law, Robert Hight, under the lights of Atlanta Dragway. The Pro finals were run just after 10 p.m. following a trying day of rain delays. Force, who assumed the POWERade points lead with his win, was joined in the winner's circle by Top Fuel leader Doug Kalitta, back-to-back Pro Stock champ Greg Anderson, and first-time Pro Stock Motorcycle leader GT Tonglet.

Force reached the finish line just .0021-second ahead of Hight, a leading Rookie of the Year candidate in the series. Kalitta had no trouble with surprise finalist David Baca, who barely made it to the line for the Top Fuel trophy run. Anderson faced teammate Jason Line in Pro Stock and came away with his first win of the season, and Tonglet put a different Harley in the spotlight with a victory over freshman Chris Rivas.

 
Doug Kalitta

Kalitta's win looked relatively easy as Baca's crewmembers barely got their man to the starting line in time, entering the launchpad area from the side chute rather than the staging lanes. The stress was magnified when the top pre-stage bulb on the Christmas Tree malfunctioned and flickered out as Baca staged, which appeared to take a toll on the popular driver as he launched with a .114-second start behind Kalitta's .067-second reaction time. It might not have mattered: Kalitta's Mac Tools rail zipped to a 4.567 at 325.69 mph, quicker than anything Baca had posted during the weekend, including his resigned 4.851 in the final.

The victory pushed Kalitta to a three-round lead over reigning champ Tony Schumacher, who led the points for four races earlier in the year. It also helped move the former USAC sprint car champ to a level 22-22 record in final-round appearances.

"I'm a lucky dog today," Kalitta said. "To get by my two teammates was tough, and then that race against Schumacher was so close. There's a lot of racing to do and you can't go crazy counting points just yet, but to run that team and beat them when they were running as strong as they were today is a big confidence booster. It'll take a few more rounds like that to get the momentum we need to win the championship. There's still a long way to go.

"[Team owner] Connie [Kalitta] isn't shy about telling you how it is, and right now he'd tell you there are no team orders at all -- maybe later in the year if the championship is on the line, but right now we're racing because we all have a shot at the title. I'm glad because it's aggravating when people start talking about that stuff."

After not winning a round all season, Baca came to life Sunday and drove to his second final with wins over Doug Herbert, low qualifier Morgan Lucas, and Brandon Bernstein. Both Herbert and Bernstein smoked their tires very early into their runs. Baca's runner-up finish placed him 10th in the POWERade points.

Kalitta did all of his heavy lifting in the semifinals when he went head to head with fellow championship front-runner Schumacher and took a close 4.53 to 4.54, wire-to-wire win that kept him in the POWERade points lead. Prior to that, he had beaten teammates Scott Kalitta and Dave Grubnic. Scott smoked his tires, and Grubnic red-lighted. This was Doug's 44th final, his fourth of the year, and third in a row.

 
John Force

In a race that's sure to add some spice to the next family gathering, old dog Force taught young pup Hight a few tricks in a spectacular, side-by-side Funny Car final that was decided by just 11 inches. Hight used his youth to post a better reaction time -- .097 to Force's .119 -- but the 13-time champion kept his car dead straight and made up the difference with air to spare, crossing the timers in 4.772 seconds at 325.61 mph to Hight's 4.796 at 323.04 mph.

Force now leads the class by 24 points over Whit Bazemore, whom he beat in the opening round. Bazemore dropped to second, and Hight scooted all the way up to third, just 11 markers behind Bazemore and 35 behind Force. This was the 23rd all-John Force Racing final round. Force has won 13 of them.

"My grandbaby is gonna be mad," Force said. "I beat her daddy. For both of us to get to the final was exciting. I didn't see him out there because to be honest it got so foggy and blurry down there I was doing everything I could to stay between the lights. I don't know how far I drove it. I might have been a mile past the finish line, but I figured I wasn't gonna give up until she blew up, and she did.

"Atlanta's Bazemore's town and there was all the hype about us racing for the points lead and all that, but really it was just another round, another race. When we got down there, 'Baze' came around at me with his helmet on and I thought he wanted to fight, but he just patted me on the back and I heard him say, 'Good luck,' so that was cool. He keeps throwing me curve balls, that guy."

Every round seemed like a monster race for Force and his Castrol GTX Start Up Ford Mustang team. He started the day against Bazemore, who entered the race as the points leader. He then beat former champ and teammate Tony Pedregon by five-thousandths of a second before nipping red-hot Cruz Pedregon in the semi's, 4.84 to 4.85.

Starting from the No. 6 position, Hight bolstered his Rookie of the Year bid by reaching his second final of his freshman season in his Auto Club Ford. Hight beat Bristol finalist Jeff Arend, Tommy Johnson Jr., and Ron Capps to get his shot at his wife's father.

 
Greg Anderson

In the seventh final round between KB Racing teammates Anderson and Line, the back-to-back reigning champion came out on top for the fifth time. Both men posted identical 6.781-second passes in the final, but Anderson took the win by virtue of his superior reaction time, .049 to .060.

The final was just icing on the cake for the team as Anderson and Line knocked out both drivers of the rival camp of Warren and Kurt Johnson in the semifinals. Anderson was pumped for his race with W.J., scorching him at the lights and never looking back, winning with a 6.79 to a 6.84.

"I thought [racing Warren] was pretty darned neat and I bet they did, too, at least until the finish line," Anderson said. "I'm sure they were as up for that round as we were. You try to treat everyone the same, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a little extra special when he's in the other lane. Regardless of what's said, I have a lot of respect for that man, and he's had my number all year. It was good to finally beat him.

"This car is still worn out, and we might just park this thing even though we won. I can't beat on it any more. The plan is for me to take over Jason's car and put him back in the blue car he drove last year."

Aside from the blockbuster match with W.J., Anderson drove his Summit Racing Equipment Pontiac past V. Gaines and Greg Stanfield. Line was a demon in his KB Framers Pontiac, beating Bruce Allen, Jeg Coughlin, and Kurt Johnson with an average reaction time of .013-second.

 
GT Tonglet

Pro Stock Motorcycle winner Tonglet assumed the POWERade points lead just by reaching the final. Then he drove around a very game Rivas and padded his lead to 31 points over Steve Johnson, who held the number-one ranking for the first two races of the season.

Rivas, an NHRA newcomer with just three races worth of experience on this circuit, posted a great .024-second reaction time against Tonglet's .089-second launch. But GT's Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson V-Rod had made up the deficit by the 330-foot timer, and he won with a 7.106 at 186.30 mph, well ahead of Rivas' 7.249 at 184.67 mph.

"First time leading the points is awesome," Tonglet said. "First win on a Harley for me is awesome. I have the whole team to thank for getting me here, especially Matt Hines. He worked his butt off today, and to put up that 7.08 in the semi’s was just phenomenal on this track.

"This hasn't sunk in yet. Maybe when I wake up in the morning it will. I think it says a lot that my bike won today after Andrew's bike was No.1 qualifier. Whoever has the fastest bike gets the fastest bike. That's how it works with us. I'm honored to be on this team. Hopefully I'll be back here [in the media room] soon getting another trophy for us."

Tonglet had to beat a pair of former champions to get to his sixth final round and win his second NHRA race. After buzzing past Wesley Wells in round one, he took out three-time champ Angelle Sampey by more than a tenth of a second and 2003 champ Geno Scali with the quickest pass of the weekend, a 7.081, before downing Rivas.

Mohegan Sun Buell rider Rivas was rock-steady in wins over Mike Berry, Chip Ellis, and Craig Treble, who didn't complete his pass after bogging down at the starting line. Rivas' runner-up finish moved him into the POWERade top 10.

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