Capps qualifies in the middle of the pack at #8 and leads off the DSR Saturday report
Morrison, CO – Ron Capps has been to drag racing’s mountaintop every year since 1997 and his experience has led to a disciplined 
routine when he heads to Bandimere Speedway outside of Denver for the Mopar Mile-High Nationals.
The driver of Don Schumacher Racing’s NAPA AUTO PARTS Funny Car won at Bandimere in 2009 when he also won the pole. He has been runner-up twice.
Racing in mile-high altitude like at Bandimere chokes the power of the supercharged, nitro-fueled engines and can have a similar effect on people more accustomed to sea-level.
“It’s completely different from any track we race at,” said Capps, who qualified No. 8 with a best time of 4.152 seconds at 300.33 mph and will face DSR teammate and NHRA Mello Yello Series points-leader Matt Hagan in Sunday’s opening round.
“On most runs it’s sort of embedded in your mind that if something doesn’t sound right or feel right in these engines to shut it off so it doesn’t get worse.
“But every run here almost sounds like something is wrong with the engine. On the mountain they idle funny and kind of flutter; it’s not the clean sound we have at sea level. In the back of your mind you’re thinking ‘Is something wrong? Should I shut it off.’
“I picture (crew chief Rahn) Tobler’s face in my helmet and I tell him it doesn’t sound good but I don’t want to shut it off. Then you cross the finish line and pull the chutes and they tell you if was a good run. It’s pretty strange.”
But the NAPA AUTO PARTS engine isn’t all that gets special attention in high altitude.
“If you’re going to go rounds on Sunday you have to take care of yourself once you hit town,” he said. “If you have a big sponsor like I do with NAPA there are a lot of dinners and events you do. But you have to eat properly and get plenty of sleep.
“You have to pay attention and pace yourself. I’ve learned over the years that it won’t affect you until Sunday. The altitude takes its toll.
“You’re a better driver up here on Sunday if you take care of yourself on Thursday, Friday and Saturday without a doubt.”
– The scenery at Bandimere Speedway is picture perfect, but qualifying at the Mopar Mile-High Nationals wasn’t for Spencer Massey’s Battery Extender Powered by Schumacher team.
Thunder Mountain, as the track is known, deprives the typically 10,000-horsepower machines of precious oxygen, adding another element of difficulty for the crew chiefs’ tune-up.
The thin air coupled with temperatures in the mid-80s produced 130-degree track temperatures.
Massey produced his best run of the weekend, a 4.002-second pass at 307 mph during the first qualifying session to earn the No. 9 qualifying spot for Sunday’s 16-car eliminations. He was unable to improve in the Friday night session when his dragster overpowered the track and hazed the tires.
Saturday at Bandimere featured 80-degree temperatures and a clear blue sky, making track conditions tough but the team was able to make a clean pass for their second best of the weekend in the final session on Saturday.
“Obviously it’s hot and it’s greasy,” Massey said. “It’s a crew chief’s nightmare because they have to try and back these dragsters down. For a driver, you know there’s a chance you’re going to have to pedal the car. It’s going to make for an interesting race day. It’s going to be a hot race track again tomorrow and there’s going to be some tire smoke.”
The Battery Extender dragster team with crew chief Phil Shuler will spend Saturday evening checking their data and coming up with a game plan to tame the tricky track near Denver.
“We just have to calm our high-horsepower Battery Extender dragster down and tame it to be able to get down the race track,” Massey said. “That’s what happened to us on Friday night when the conditions were the best. We were just trying to go too fast for what was out there.
“We had a good first run, a decent run in the third session and pretty good in the last session. We wanted a little bit more than that but we also didn’t want to overpower the track again. It doesn’t matter how fast it runs as long as it turns on the win light.
“We’ve got data for race day that Phil can look at for tomorrow and we’ll be trying to get that Wally (trophy) just like we did here in 2011.”
– Bandimere Speedway near Denver borders the famous Red Rocks concert venue but that’s not where the best show will be on Sunday. Don Schumacher Racing teammates Matt Hagan and Ron Capps will battle in the first round of Sunday’s Mopar Mile-High Nationals.
The track nicknamed Thunder Mountain has challenged crew chiefs and drivers in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. Thin air and air temperatures in the mid-80s created tricky conditions throughout qualifying.
“It’s just hot and there’s no air up here,” Hagan said. “It’s hard on the cars, it’s hard on the guys. It’s easy to get tired and I know these guys are working hard and they’re probably tired.”
But the team who holds the No. 1 spot in NHRA Mello Yello standings will rally to take on their teammate Capps. The Magneti Marelli Offered by Mopar/Rocky Funny Car produced two qualifying runs in the 4.2-second range and their best effort came during the Friday night session with a 4.158-second pass.
“We don’t want to run teammates in the first round out here,” he said. “It is what it is. All these cars are tough no matter where you qualify. It’s just tough up here on the mountain. We went out there for that last session and were trying to improve but we just didn’t get it done. We ran a good, clean lap but it wasn’t enough to improve.
“We’re going to make the best out of it no matter what the situation is, no matter who we race. The important thing to do is race your lane and have all the right data for the condition. I think we’ll go out there tomorrow and it’ll be a great race between two DSR cars.
“It’s just tough up here being a mile high, but it’s conditions like these where the cream rises to the top and that’s what we’ll try to do tomorrow.”
Beckman with crew chief Todd Smith, assistant Terry Snyder and the MTS Mail for Wounded Warriors/Valvoline MaxLife Dodge Charger R/T team and NAPA AUTO PARTS’ Ron Capps are the only two of seven Don Schumacher Racing teams to qualify in the top-8.
Beckman’s best run was Friday night with a time of 4.097 seconds at a track-record speed of 309.91 mph.
The most interesting first-round match-up among DSR Funny Cars will be when Capps faces No. 9 qualifier and series points leader Matt Hagan.
Drama shadowed the last of four qualifying runs by seven-time Top Fuel world champion Tony Schumacher, who did not qualify for Sunday until his last run on Saturday with a time of 4.007 seconds at 306.74 mph to earn the No. 10 position.
Schumacher’s last-second effort with crew chief Mike Green and assistant Neal Strausbaugh enabled the U.S. Army team to extend its best NHRA Mello Yello Series active consecutive qualifying streak at 237 events dating to 2003 at Englishtown, N.J. It is the fourth longest of all time.
It was a not very good qualifying performance by the three DSR dragsters. Bandimere marks the first time this season when at least one DSR dragster driver did not qualify in the top-8, and the first time DSR did not have at least two Top Fuel drivers in the top-8.
