Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals
Denver, CO
(July 15-17)
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By Rob Geiger, NHRA.com
A wild day of racing on Schumacher used a stunning track record top speed of 331.45 mph during a 4.6-second pass to dismiss Morgan Lucas, and Hight steered straight down Bandimere Speedway to score his second win of the year, this one over Phil Burkart Jr. After a 90-second burndown, the savvy Johnson schooled upstart Dave Connolly, who red-lighted, and Schnitz coolly trailered Antron Brown, who moved to within one point of the Pro Stock Motorcycle lead with his third straight final-round showing.
This was the second final in a row for Lucas and the fifth of his career. He remains winless in his 21 starts. "Morgan's a good driver and they've been running well, and when the numbers start stacking up of final rounds without a win, it makes you real nervous because you know it's gonna go their way at some point," Schumacher said. "I hope it happens against someone else. "How could I ask for more? We start the second half of the season and the first race of three in a row with a win. Plus, we get the points lead back and we leave here and go to a track where I won last year. "We brought out a new car and we have a new teammate, which the Kalittas have shown definitely helps you. It didn't actually help either team this weekend, but it will. I wasn't super excited about it until Alan [Johnson, crew chief] said it was going to do nothing but help us. If he says that, I believe him." Lane choice for the Top Fuel final was decided on speed because both Schumacher and Lucas posted 4.712s in the semi’s. Schumacher got the nod in his U.S. Army car with a clocking of 325.85 mph compared to Lucas' 316.90-mph pass. Schumacher beat Don Sosenka, Doug Herbert, and Cory McClenathan to get to his fourth final of the year and 48th of his career. Lucas rode his Lucas Oil dragster past Scott Weis, former points leader Kalitta, and Dave Grubnic. Brandon Bernstein lost in the opening round despite the fact Rob Passey didn't show up for the race. The engine in Bernstein's Bud machine backfired after an odd burnout attempt, and he had to be pushed off the track. "The track temperature was well above 130 degrees, and I took it a little bit too far out on the track out of the water box, and it dried the tires up," Bernstein said. "I hit the throttle, and it just brought the motor to its knees. It didn't turn the tires; it just backfired and quit."
The final was close until about half-track when Burkart drifted toward the retaining wall and had to lift off the accelerator. That's all Hight needed as he sailed away for the win, crossing in 4.897 seconds at 316.60 mph to Burkart's surrendering 5.650 at 187.57 mph. "Everyone's been asking me what it's like to come to "I'm going to give this trophy to John [Force, team owner and father-in-law]. In 1995, he gave me my first trophy when he won here and I was doing his clutch. Every time he wins he gives the trophy to a crew guy, and that was my first. Now I'm going to give him my trophy. I don't know if anyone's ever done that, but for all he's done for me it's the least I can do." Hight's third final-round run of the year put him in the points lead for the first time. Emerging from the No. 1 position, the Auto Club of Southern California Ford Mustang driver beat Jeff Arend, Tommy Johnson Jr., and Gary Scelzi to take the lead over Force by two points. His final-round victory added 20 more points to that margin. After not winning a single eliminations round since the Phoenix event, defending Denver champion Burkart came to life Sunday in his Checker Schuck's Kragen Chevrolet Monte Carlo and went toe to toe with heavyweights Force, Ron Capps, and Tim Wilkerson to get a chance at the trophy. Burkart was runner-up in
The crowd reached full throat one minute in, but neither driver would budge. Finally, when the timer reached a minute and a half, Johnson crept in and then took the victory when Connolly followed and promptly red-lighted by .001-second. "Sometimes you have to teach a brat a lesson," Johnson said. "We knew he was going to do that, so we packed the engine with ice and filled the fuel cell up all the way. They did that before, and we sat there for almost two minutes. I'll go for the record next time. We probably could have sat there four minutes before worrying about being light at the scales. "It reached a point where enough was enough. I felt like we had the best car and there was no reason to push the issue any further. Certainly the adrenaline gets pumping and you think someone's going to end up red. But I've played this game a few more times than he has." Like Hight's Funny Car, Johnson's GM Performance Parts Pontiac was the quickest of every round Sunday as he dismissed Erica Enders, a red-lighting Ron Krisher, and Jim Yates to reach his class-record 148th final. By beating Yates in the semifinals, Johnson regained the POWERade points lead he held after six other races this season and became the first Pro to accumulate more than 1,000 points this year. He finished the day with 1,030 and is now 31 up on second-place runner Greg Anderson. Connolly began from the bottom half of the field but drove his Skull Gear Chevrolet Cobalt past Mike Thomas, No. 1 qualifier and defending series champ Anderson, and Kurt Johnson. The wins over Anderson and K.J. both were on holeshots.
Schnitz's big day lifted him from seventh to third in the points standings. GT Tonglet remains in front for the sixth consecutive event, but his lead was pared to just one point over Brown. Schnitz follows just 49 markers off the lead. "My focus right now is to win the championship," Schnitz said. "When we started, I think we would have been ecstatic with a top-five finish. But once we won in "The bike was great all weekend, really. We were No. 1 qualifier Friday before a couple of guys got around us yesterday. Then we just ran great through eliminations. Our focus has definitely changed." Brown and his U.S. Army Suzuki zoomed to a third straight final with wins over Karen Stoffer, low qualifier Andrew Hines, and Craig Treble. This was his 28th final overall. Schnitz was happy to get to his second final on his Muzzys.com Buell V-Twin. He beat Michael Phillips, Tonglet, and Chip Ellis before facing Brown.
Schumacher remained a perfect 4-0 in Top Fuel finals this year with his win over Lucas. He also regained the points lead he held for the first four races and became the first four-time winner in the class. He now leads Doug Kalitta by 20 points.He was certainly up for the final, posting a better reaction time (.074 to .093) and a quicker e.t. (4.617 to 4.778) to win this one from wire to wire.
Tony Schumacher
Hight simply had the best Funny Car on the property this weekend. After qualifying No. 1 with a pair of track records, he marched through the field with the quickest pass of each eliminations round for the second victory of his rookie campaign.
Robert Hight
The Pro Stock final was a thriller, not so much for the race itself but for the 90-second staging duel between Johnson and Connolly. Just as they did earlier this year in the semifinal round of the Houston race, neither driver wanted to fully stage after lighting the pre-stage bulbs on the Christmas Tree. Starter Rick Stewart tried in vain to wave them in before pulling up a chair and taking a seat to wait them out.
Warren Johnson
Soft-spoken Schnitz let his huge Buell V-Twin do his talking for him Sunday. The final was indicative of his entire outing as he simply rode away from Brown to win with a 7.513 at 184.37 mph to Brown's game but losing 7.555 at 176.60 mph.
Ryan Schnitz
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