DSR Houston Report – Teams are Ready for Battle
Houston, TX – Jack Beckman knows his Don Schumacher Racing Funny Car team still is developing into a championship contender in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.
No one is more supportive than Jack of his Dodge Charger R/T team led by crew chief Rob Flynn and assistant Terry Snyder.
And no one is more disappointed that they will arrive near Houston this weekend for the sixth Mello Yello event of the season ranked 10th in points with its last event title going back 33 races to September 2012, the year he won the NHRA Funny Car world championship.
“We’re five races in and we haven’t seen a semifinal yet.
“I’m optimistic. I think we have all the parts and the talent here to get this done. We need to get a better handle on the predictability of the car. Once we get that there isn’t any reason why we can’t be one of the quickest cars out here again.”
This weekend at Baytown, Texas, Jack and his team have even more motivation to extend their work deep into Sunday’s championship eliminations.
The race near Houston will be the first of six events this year when Jack’s traditional red, white and blue Dodge sporting the logo for Valvoline MaxLife switches to purple, gold and black to support the Infinite Hero Foundation, the non-profit organization’s campaign to provide funding to combat mental and physical issues facing returning military personnel and their families.
“Not a dime of the money that would go to the soldiers goes into this race car,” Jack said. “Our Dodge will be used as an awareness tool to help raise money for these soldiers.”
Funding the Infinite Hero Funny Car are Terry Chandler and Don Schumacher with marketing support from Oakley. Chandler also is funding the DSR Funny Car driven by Tommy Johnson Jr. to further raise awareness and support for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
“Oakley has been tremendous. They started the Infinite Hero Foundation and continue to support it. It’s an excellent and highly impactful way to get the message across to our fans to continue to help our injured veterans.”
The foundation has donated $1.3 million to eight different soldier-support organizations across the country and plan to donate $1 million more by Veterans Day (Nov. 11).
“Infinite Hero was founded to drive innovation, accessibility and collaboration among organizations combating the most critical issues facing the returning military community,” said Infinite Hero Foundation President and Oakley CEO, Colin Baden. “We are pleased to celebrate our shared progress with the NHRA community and commit to continuing to map a plan for driving change and long-term solutions to improve the lives of veterans across America.”
The program has added meaning for Jack, a four-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force. He often visits Veterans Hospitals while on the NHRA tour.
“I’ve always been proud of my military service and on every trip to Las Vegas since 2005 I visit the military hospital there to check on the active-duty troops, the veterans and support personnel at the hospital.
“I’ve never stopped supporting the military and never will.”
Matt is hopeful the matte red and black 10,000-horsepower Funny Car will bring a renewed energy to the team that has suffered three first-round losses in the first five NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing series events this season.
“It’s the first race with Rocky Boots on the car this season and we really want to put a win on the board for them,” Matt said. “We have five races with them this year and we’re back to our old combination clutch-wise and our old race car, so I’m hoping now we can really start to fine tune the car and get more consistent and turn on some win lights.
“We started the season out so high with that runner-up in Pomona and we have really struggled since then. The boys back at the shop have been working hard and they are all itching to go rounds like I am.”
Royal Purple Raceway was the site of Matt’s first career NHRA Funny Car victory in 2010.
“I got my first Funny Car win there a few years back and maybe that’s where we’ll get our first one for Rocky. I’m just looking forward to it, seeing all of the Rocky folks at the racetrack again. Hopefully we can grow that program with them and get a win for them.”
“The car is awesome,” he said. “It looks mean, looks fast. Dickie (Venables) will put a mean and fast tune-up in it and we’ll get after it in Texas this weekend.”
Quick test session has Capps, NAPA team ready for Houston
Moments after Ron Capps and the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T won the Funny Car pole for the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals, the veteran driver couldn’t have been more upbeat.
He remained optimistic a few days later on April 13 when his team led by crew chief Rahn Tobler, a former Houston resident, and assistant Eric Lane lost traction midway through their first-round loss in the unique Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway on the world’s only four-lane dragstrip.
“What I love about Rahn Tobler is the minute we got back to our pit after the first round he had our NAPA guys tearing our Dodge apart looking for what caused it to chatter so bad around half-track when the clutch was trying to lock up.
“I know Tobler and Eric will have it figured out and ready for Houston,” Ron said of this weekend’s event at Royal Purple Raceway at Baytown, Texas.
Well, Ron was half right. Tobler and the NAPA team solved whatever the problem was but they didn’t wait for Houston. The team remained at the dragstrip near Charlotte Motor Speedway the following Monday and uncorked the quickest run of the entire weekend.
Tobler cracked the mystical 4-second barrier with a time of 3.99 seconds on one of only two runs the team made in the test session,
“There’s always something you’re working on to get better,” said Ron, who owns 41 NHRA nitro titles. “We got the pole at the Four-Wide with a great run and you always learn from those. We got outrun in the first round.
“They took the car apart after we lost in the first round and found out why it slowed down. Then we went out and ran a 3.99, and we shut off the second run early and it was on pace to do what the first one did.
“Testing is testing, and I love our guys’ methodical approach to testing.”
It was the first sub 4-second run under any conditions for a Don Schumacher Racing Funny Car through five racing weekends this year and first for DSR since September 2013. Capps and Tobler, who own the quickest elapsed time for a Funny Car at 3.964 seconds (May 2012), last broke 4 seconds in June 2013 at Route 66 Raceway near Chicago.
“It really doesn’t matter because it was on Monday and we weren’t racing,” Ron said.
“It thought we were on a 3-second run when we won the pole (with a 4.059) the way the car threw me back in my seat, and that 3.99 in testing felt the same but it just kept pulling.
“That makes us feel real good going to Houston,” he said of the track where he won titles in 2006 and 2007 and was runner-up in 2012.
“That track can be really fast and it’s always good to go to a place where you’ve had success.”
Ron, who has won 16 No. 1 qualifying positions, will start the Houston race ranked fourth in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series standings but has not advanced past the semifinals this year through five events but made the semis in two of the last three races.
“We’re not very far away from winning. I can feel it. We’ve had some success at the last two races and it keeps getting better.”
Massey hopeful for first taste of a Texas winner’s circle this weekend at Royal Purple Raceway near Houston
– There couldn’t be a better place for Spencer Massey to score his first victory of the 2014 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season than in his home state of Texas.
Antron, Matco Tools team close in on Top Fuel points lead after winning Four-Wide title for the 43rd of his NHRA career
– Antron Brown and the Matco Tools Top Fuel team have pulled to within 25 points of leader Doug Kalitta in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series standings heading to this weekend’s event near Houston.
The 2012 Top Fuel world champion used his incredible reaction time to win the unique NHRA Four-Wide Nationals near Charlotte on April 13 to become the first double winner of the season through five of 24 Mello Yello events.
That pushed his career total to 43 titles including 16 in Pro Stock Motorcycle from 1999 to 2006. The accomplishment of his team moved Don Schumacher Racing’s total to 222 including 217 since 1999.
Antron is tied with Funny Car driver Tony Pedregon with 43 NHRA Wally trophies, which ranks 12th on the all-time list. Reaching 50 titles would make Antron the 10th driver to reach that milestone in drag racing history.
“I don’t want to think about history or breaking records until my career is over,” said Antron, who is 38. “Hopefully when I look back – one day when I kick the boots off and take the helmet off – I can look back and go, ‘What a career!’ And hopefully I can leave that legacy behind for my kids to look at and say, ‘My dad was somebody.’ ”
Instead of looking that far down the road, the native of New Jersey living near Indianapolis and first African-American driver to win a major American auto racing world championship, isn’t looking past his next race at Royal Purple Raceway at Baytown, Texas. The Baytown track is where he won his first of 27 Top Fuel titles in 2008.
“Hopefully I can make a little bit more history and break some records. We just want to compete at a high level every time we step onto the racetrack. If we do that, we give ourselves a great shot at winning races. That’s what my whole mindset is.
“I don’t worry about the stats we just achieved,” he said. “I worry about achieving more and more.”
After a surprising first-round loss to open the season, Antron and the team led by crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald won the next title and then advanced to three championship rounds in which they won twice.
The streak has made the Matco team the hottest over the past nine Mello Yello events including two titles in the last four races of the past season. In that span, the team has won four titles in six championship rounds.
