DSR Gaining Momentum with Recent Victories
BROWNSBURG, IN – It’s a busy time of the year for Matt Hagan but he wouldn’t have it any other way.After securing the first event title of the season for the Rocky Boots/Mopar Express Lane team on Sunday near Chicago, he traveled to his home near Christiansburg, Va., for one night before leaving on Monday afternoon for pre-event media work.
“We got home late on Sunday night and I left again on Monday afternoon to head out and do some media for Mopar and Rocky and the folks that support us,” he said.
On Wednesday, Matt will visit Rocky Boots headquarters in Nelsonville, Ohio, before 150 employees in southern Ohio head north to join him at Summit Motorsports Park for the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals this weekend in Norwalk, Ohio.
“It’ll be awesome going to the Rocky headquarters and checking in with everyone and I can’t wait to have them out at the racetrack this weekend. We’ll entertain them and try to turn on four win lights.”
On Wednesday evening, Matt and the Rocky Boots Dodge Charger R/T will be at Fin, Feather, Fur (652 US 250, Ashland, Ohio 44805) from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. to meet fans and sign autographs.
After enjoying a day to catch his breath, Matt and the Rocky Boots team will head to the track in Norwalk to begin qualifying on the Fourth of July.
“It’s going to be awesome qualifying on Friday night under the lights at Norwalk and on the Fourth of July. The Bader family put on a great fireworks show last year and I can’t wait to see it again.”
But Matt is looking forward more to strapping into his 10,000-horsepower Dodge Charger R/T.
“I can’t wait to get back in this race car,” he said. “After getting that win on Sunday it’s just something I didn’t want to end. This team has worked so hard and we finally got a trophy this year.”
It was the first event title of the season for the team led by crew chief Dickie Venables after a tough 11 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series events. The win moved the team from 10th to eighth in NHRA Funny Car standings.
“It couldn’t have come at a better time. We had some struggles and were sitting there in the 10th spot in points and that’s exactly where you don’t want to me. Hopefully we can make it two in a row for all the folks at Rocky Boots and make an even bigger jump in the standings.”
– The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series kicks of the second half of its 24-race season this weekend at the 8th annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio.
The first half of the 2014 season could be considered a success for Spencer Massey and the Battery Extender Powered by Schumacher team. With two event titles (Atlanta, Topeka) and a round win-loss record of 17-10, Massey is fourth in NHRA Top Fuel standings.
“You know, I wouldn’t say it was our best first half of a season but we’re satisfied with it,” Spencer said. “We’re in the top-five in points and that’s really important for us and we picked up two trophies already this season.
“The competition is stout this year. There are a lot of good cars out there and to be in the top-five in points is a huge testament to this team.”
The Norwalk event is the fourth consecutive event in as many weeks for teams on the NHRA tour. The series visited Bristol, Tenn., Epping, N.H., and Chicago before traveling to Ohio.
“It’s been a grueling start to the summer,” he said. “But these Battery Extender guys have done a great job. They’re working hard. We’ve had a couple of hot, humid races but they made it through. I know they’re looking forward to a weekend off after Norwalk to rest up.”
But first the Battery Extender team led by crew chiefs Phil Shuler and Todd Okuhara will try to score their second Norwalk title. Massey was the event winner in 2012 after being runner-up in 2011.
“We have really good track record at Norwalk,” he said. “We’ll just go out there and try to get qualified in the top-half of the field and be ready for race day. We need to go some rounds and close out this four in a row on a high note and get some momentum going before we head out west for the Western Swing.
“I love going to Norwalk. What a great facility, great fans. The Bader family does such an outstanding job and I can’t wait to get back. I can’t think of anything better than Friday night qualifying on the Fourth of July. That’s just going to be cool to experience as a driver.”
This weekend could be another turnaround chapter for Jack in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series event at Norwalk, Ohio.
His crew chief and crew were swapped early in 2012 and the Valvoline Dodge Charger R/T team went on to win the NHRA Funny Car world championship.
Although Jack never made it to the winner’s circle last season, he finished an impressive third in the final Mello Yello standings.
After his streak of not winning a national title reached 38 events and he fell to 11th in points after the event two weeks ago at Epping, N.H., team owner Don Schumacher hired veteran crew chief Chris Cunningham a week ago to assist Jack’s crew chief, Rob Flynn.
With less than one week to renew their previously successful relationship, Rob and Chris qualified sixth for last weekend’s event at Route 66 Raceway but lost in the first round to DSR teammate Matt Hagan, who went on to win the event title.
As the second half of the season begins at Norwalk, only six events remain before the top-10 drivers are determined to be contenders in the six-race NHRA Countdown to the Championship that begins Sept. 12-14 at Charlotte.
“Don shook it up and in the long run it will be a good call to get some different chemistry going to see if we can get this car more predictable,” Jack said. “We’re just running out of time. You don’t know if every round is important but we know we can’t afford to keep losing early on Sunday.
“This is the second week we’re out of the top-10 and it is going to get harder to catch the cars ahead of us as they start solidifying their spots for the Countdown. We don’t want to sneak in; we want to be solidly in the middle of the pack.”
The upside for Jack and his team is they are only 22 points out of 10th and 70 out of ninth. Each eliminations round win is worth 20 points in addition to earning up to 12 points in qualifying and then between one and eight depending where you rank between first and 16th for the first elimination round.
“We have to take advantage of each qualifying session because those three (quickest), two, one bonus points in each session might be how we get back into the top-10.
“We’re putting our backs to the wall and we’re getting to the position where we have to win two or three events to jump back into this thing. We’ll see. We get to do it again this weekend in Norwalk,” said Jack, who won the 2009 Funny Car title at the track in northern Ohio.
“Chris will have more time to digest computer data and now he’s been able to see the car go down the track in person. I know Rob has spent a lot of time with Chris getting him acclimated to our tune-up program and looking at notes but it’s not the same as standing on the starting line and watching the car go down the track.”
The popular driver of the Matco Tools Top Fuel dragster went on to add his 501st in his fifth championship round of the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season by winning his series-best fourth event title of the year.
That provides momentum for when he arrives Friday at Norwalk, Ohio, to start the second half of the 24-race Mello Yello series ranked second in points. More incentive will be in his tank because the track in northern Ohio is one of the few where he has not visited a winner’s circle.
Entering the second half of the season, Antron and the Matco Tools team led by crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald with assistant Brad Mason have won four of the year’s first 12 titles. Making it more impressive is that they’ve raced with three different dragsters and the current addition might be the best. The new model replaced the car he won with three times but lost in a crash at Atlanta in May.
“We had a great car and it was gone. Gone. The only thing we got out of it was the cockpit stuff,” said Antron, who has won 45 event titles including 29 in Top Fuel. “It was working well, and that was the car we wanted to run for the championship. But the Good Lord had a different story. He goes, ‘We’re going to give you a better one.’
“The boys back at our Don Schumacher Racing shop went to work, and they gave us this new car. We came out with it at Bristol, and it ran phenomenal. We could have won that race, but it slipped away from us. And it ran great in Epping (N.H.). Our teammate (eventual event winner Tony Schumacher) just took us out in the second round.
In addition to the importance of getting his fifth Wally trophy of the year, the visit to Norwalk is a homecoming for three members of his Matco Tools team and the closest race to Matco headquarters in Stow, Ohio.
Corradi is a native of Middleburg Heights near Cleveland and lives in Medina he lives with his family and operates the Master Pizza restaurant; Oswald is a native of Cincinnati. Wayne “Red” Waite, the team’s car chief , is from nearby Elyria.
“We have to go to Norwalk and win for our Ohio boys,” Antron added with enthusiasm.
Ron will be flying a red, white and blue paint scheme to complement his NAPA colors on the 320-mph stage over the Fourth of July weekend to help kickoff the month-long “NAPA Get Back Give Back” campaign to raise funds for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund that provides support for the families of U.S. military personnel lost in service to our nation, and for those severely wounded in the performance of their duties in Afghanistan and/or Iraq.
The NAPA Get Back and Give Back campaign raised $1,000,000 last year for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund.
(Details below on how consumers can help the NAPA Get Back Give Back campaign.)
“There’s no greater honor than to celebrate our Independence Day by having the Stars and Stripes on our NAPA Dodge as a salute to American heroes and to help those who gave much more than anyone could have asked,” he said.
“Our NAPA team works hard trying to win every race we enter but when we’re helping NAPA help the Intrepid Fallen Heroes we push even harder. The more runs we win on Sunday at Norwalk means the more our fans will learn about the Fallen Heroes during the ESPN2 show.”
As the second half of the season begins only six events remain before the top-10 drivers are determined to be contenders in the six-race NHRA Countdown to the Champion that begins Sept. 12-14 at Charlotte.
“We’re getting our mojo back at DSR,” Ron said after his semifinals loss Sunday to teammate Matt Hagan who went on to give DSR its third straight Funny Car event title.
The teams faced humid, hot conditions last weekend near Chicago. The NAPA team only made one complete pass in four qualifying tries but it was a stellar time of 4.040 seconds that earned the No. 6 seed. Tobler and assistant crew chief Eric Lane formulated a tune-up for Sunday that enabled Ron to win in the first-round then followed up by eliminating points leader Robert Hight before Hagan was able to slip passed by 7 feet at the finish line with both cars racing at 305 mph.
“I’m just excited to go right to Norwalk,” said Ron, who has not been to the winner’s circle at the track but has advanced to the championship round twice including a year ago. “We’ll see more hot conditions and with what Tobler learned at Joliet we’ll be ready.
“We showed ourselves that we can bounce back from a difficult qualifying performance. That’s when a team shows heart. When things are going good and everything is clicking then everybody is in a good mood but when you’re struggling a little bit you find out what your team is all about.”
