Capps Sonoma Funny Car Victory leads off DSR Race Report
Capps reacts quicker at line to beat John Force for Sonoma title; NAPA’s Capps, DSR teammate Massey moves up to 2nd in points
– Ron Capps had quite the homecoming Sunday at Sonoma Raceway when his better reaction time at the start of the Funny Car final propelled him and his NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T team into the winners circle for the second time this season and first since the second race of the season in February.
Capps’ quicker reaction to the starting line Christmas Tree enabled his 4.085-second run at 307.79 mph to beat 15-time world champion John Force’s 4.072 (311.13) for the holeshot win.
“A holeshot-win only comes with a great car,” Capps said. “That 4.04 we ran to beat Courtney (Force in the semifinals) was stout.”
The tune-up by NAPA AUTO PARTS crew chief Rahn Tobler and assistant John Collins helped Capps move up two positions in the championship standings to second behind Don Schumacher Racing teammate Matt Hagan, who was upset in the first round as the No. 1 qualifier.
It is the 40th NHRA Mello Yello Series title for Capps, whose hometown is in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
In Top Fuel, DSR’s Spencer Massey and Antron Brown each advanced to the semifinals. Massey’s performance allowed him to move to second in points behind Al-Anabi Racing’s Shawn Langdon, who won his fourth event title of the year.
Massey passed teammate Tony Schumacher, who lost to Massey in the opening round.
DSR has won 16 of a possible 30 NHRA nitro titles this season and 213 national event titles since 1970.
The series moves to Kent, Wash., next weekend for the third and final stop of the NHRA Western Swing.
Hagan, Magneti Marelli team hold on to NHRA Funny Car points lead despite first-round loss at Sonoma Raceway
– On paper it shows that Matt Hagan’s Magneti Marelli Offered by Mopar/Rocky Boots Funny Car team is struggling in eliminations.
For the second consecutive NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing event, Hagan suffered a first-round loss during Sunday’s eliminations. But things aren’t as they look on paper.
The Magneti Marelli/Rocky Boots team had a great qualifying effort, including a 3.986-second pass that earned them the No.1 starting spot for the third time this season. They followed that up with an impressive 4.070-second pass to close out qualifying Saturday in the NHRA Sonoma Nationals.
Sunday morning conditions at Sonoma Raceway started out cool and overcast, but that quickly changed when eliminations began at 11 a.m. (P)T. The sun came out and the track heated up when crew chief Dickie Venables was making the final calls on the 10,000-horespower Dodge Charger R/T.
Hagan’s car launched well but suffered tire smoke, just before his opponent Alexis DeJoria’s car did the same. DeJoria had more momentum and held on for the win, ending Hagan’s day early.
“Obviously this car is mechanical and sometimes it does what you want it to or tell it to,” Hagan said. “I think after talking to Dickie (Venables) we were trying to push it a little harder on our 60-foot times and just get it back to where it used to be at the beginning of the year.
“The way Dickie explained it to me was that we might have been a little too aggressive and that we’re going to go back to what we’ve been running lately. Maybe our 60-foot times will suffer from it a little bit but the end result was that we turned on a lot of win lights from our previous tune-up.”
Hagan has three event titles in five final-found appearances in 2013.
“What makes me feel good about it is that Dickie knows exactly what is going on,” he said. “He knows what happened. They pulled it apart and looked at it and it revved up about 500 rpm more than what it was supposed to.
“It had a little bit more snot to it this morning than what we expected and it just kind of bit us. They’ve been hitting it dead on every lap and it just kind of got away from us on that lap. At least Dickie knows what’s going on and I felt a lot more comfortable about it after he explained it to me.”
The final stop on the NHRA three-race Western Swing is Aug. 2-4 near Seattle. The following are Hagan’s results and other event notes from the NHRA Sonoma Nationals.
Battery Extender dragster moves into second in points en route to semifinal finish at NHRA Sonoma Nationals
– At the beginning of the 2013 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season Spencer Massey’s Battery Extender Powered by Schumacher team set a goal of going rounds and racking up points toward an NHRA Top Fuel championship.
The NHRA Sonoma Nationals on Sunday was another step toward completing the mission. The Battery Extender dragster reached its sixth semifinals of the season and moved into second place in NHRA Top Fuel standings, around Don Schumacher Racing teammate Tony Schumacher.
Massey defeated Schumacher in the opening round of Sunday’s eliminations.
“We could’ve had a lot worse of a day,” said Massey. “Our first-round match-up with Tony was like a final round. We both smoked the tires, it wasn’t a pretty run for either of us and it was a pedal fest but we held on for the win.
“Then we had another tough race in the second round against the Al-Anabi team (of Khalid alBalooshi). It was a close race but we made it to another semifinal round. We just got beat by Morgan (Lucas) in the semis. They ran well and it was close. It was a good drag race.”
Any hopes of the Battery Extender team, which won a week ago near Denver, sweeping NHRA’s three-race Western Swing were dashed when Lucas posted a 3.808-second pass to Massey’s 3.832 in the semifinals. The Western Swing concludes next week near Seattle.
“Obviously we wanted to get the win and try to contend for the Western Swing sweep but we are focused on getting round wins and gaining points and we did both of those things today.
“We’re ready for Seattle. We’ve got our good dragster back and it’s going to be a fun final half of the season for this Battery Extender dragster team.”
By qualifying for Sunday’s eliminations, Massey joins Shawn Langdon and DSR teammate Tony Schumacher as those having clinched spots in the NHRA Countdown to the Championship playoff.
DSR’s Beckman upset in second round by Courtney Force, will take quick Dodge Charger R/T on to Seattle next week
– Jack Beckman’s tank of nitro always is half full and never half empty, and the reigning NHRA Funny Car world champion remained optimistic despite a disappointing second-round loss Sunday in the Sonoma Nationals about 60 miles from San Francisco.
After running his NHRA-best fourth sub-4-second run to qualify second at Sonoma Raceway on Friday night, Beckman was upset in the second round of eliminations on Sunday when Courtney Force used a quicker reaction time at the starting line to win with an elapsed time of 4.089 seconds at 315.34 mph to Beckman’s quicker 4.067 (313.51).
“We laid down a good lap,” Beckman said. “Courtney did everything perfect in the other lane, and she got ahead of us.
“We’ve got a good runnin’ hot rod. It’s disappointing. My god, we’ve got the world’s greatest running second-round race car right now.”
Beckman and the Valvoline MaxLife/MTS Mail for Wounded Warriors Dodge Charger R/T has continued to improve over the past few events. In the first round, Beckman with crew chief Todd Smith and assistant Terry Snyder opened the day with a 4.057 (313.29) that tied for the second best run of the round.
“Our Dodge is responding to changes on a consistent basis. We’ll drag it up north and get a trophy there,” he said of next weekend’s NHRA Mello Yello Series event at Kent, Wash., which will end the three-event Western Swing.
Brown’s best run since April shows Matco Tools team back on championship pace despite semifinals loss at Sonoma
– Sunday didn’t end like it did a year ago at Sonoma Raceway for Antron Brown and the Matco Tools Top Fuel dragster team, but the way things have gone for the team recently they will head to the next race feeling pretty good.
Brown, who won the Sonoma Nationals title a year ago, advanced to the semifinals when his Don Schumacher Racing dragster lost traction and lost to NHRA Mello Yello Series points leader Shawn Langdon, who went on to win the event title for Al-Anabi Racing.
What will have the Matco team eager to arrive next week for the Northwest Nationals at Kent, Wash., was crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald tuned the car to a 3.787-second run which was the team’s best over the past 50 runs and since Brown won the pole in April at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
“Everybody was happy to go out there in the first round and put up our best pass of the weekend,” Brown said. “We were building toward that and there is nothing better than when you make changes to the car and it responds by working exactly the way you hoped it would. That really builds confidence in everyone involved from our crew chiefs to the crew guys and the driver. That’s the biggest benefit.
“It was a good weekend for this entire team,” Brown said. “We’ll build from it and keep taking it one step at a time. We came out and qualified in the top half of the field (seventh) and we were going rounds. At the end of the day, going rounds is what we wanted to accomplish this weekend.
“The car has definitely turned the corner. People are pushing and working hard.”
Capps reacts quickly to special win with NAPA AUTO PARTS team at his hometown track during NHRA Sonoma Nationals
– Ron Capps always credits his crew chief Rahn Tobler and the NAPA AUTO PARTS Funny Car team after a race for their great work whether they win or lose.
On Sunday, Capps could start by giving himself a big slap on the back for using a better reaction time on the starting line at Sonoma Raceway to beat a quicker car that enabled him to win his second NHRA Mello Yello title of the year.
And it happened at the closest racetrack on the NHRA tour to his hometown of San Luis Obispo, Calif.
Capps’ quicker reaction to the starting line Christmas Tree enabled his 4.085-second run at 307.79 mph to beat 15-time world champion John Force’s 4.072 (311.13) for the holeshot win in the championship round.
“A holeshot-win only comes with a great car,” Capps said. “That 4.04 we ran to beat Courtney (Force in the semifinals) was stout.”
The tune-up by Tobler and assistant John Collins helped Capps move up two positions in the championship standings to second behind Don Schumacher Racing teammate Matt Hagan, who was upset in the first round as the No. 1 qualifier.
It is the 40th NHRA Mello Yello Series title for Capps and fourth at Sonoma.
Capps and the NAPA team, which qualified third, started the day with a 4.066 to beat Del Worsham and followed with a 4.099 to eliminate Jeff Arend before meeting Courtney Force in the semis.
It was Capps’ fourth championship round of the season, and while ending a streak of going 12 events without a title, the victory had greater meaning to Capps.
“I’ve been thinking all weekend that if I won here I would dedicate it John Cardinale,” Capps said of the Sonoma Raceway’s vice president of media and marketing who was 47 when he lost a valiant two-year battle with cancer in March.
“It was sad to be here and not see John. That’s the best part about winning; to be able to dedicate a win to him and let his family and friends know a lot of us out here will always remember him.”
It also was a special place because Capps has attended every NHRA national event at Sonoma since the first NHRA event 25 years ago as either a fan or racer.
“It meant so much to have all of my family here this weekend. This is where I grew up, met my wife and got married. There are so many great memories for me here, and this is the latest one.”
The victory by the NAPA team is the 17th of the season by DSR out of a possible 30 nitro titles, a winning rate of 56 percent.
The series moves to Kent, Wash., next weekend for the third and final stop of the NHRA Western Swing.
