DSR heads into Topeka Leading Top Fuel and Funny Car Points
Beckman wants another NHRA Wally trophy for Infinite Hero team but doesn’t want a unique quality added to a second Topeka title
TOPEKA, KS – Jack Beckman cherishes each of the 16 NHRA Wally trophies he’s won in the Mello Yello Drag Racing 
Series.
The driver of Don Schumacher Racing’s Infinite Hero 2015 Dodge Charger R/T, however, admits that some are a little extra special.
“Every weekend you want to win,” he said. “In football and baseball, every game they play in their regular season is just for stats and record. Every game we play there’s a trophy at the end of it.
“There is a pot of gold every time we go into a facility to race so you don’t need a lot of incentive but the ones that are the coolest to win and maybe extra special are the anniversary races, inaugural races and last races. The problem you don’t know when a race is the last race.”
If the 2012 Funny Car world champion leaves Heartland Park Topeka Sunday as the Kansas Nationals winner for the second time in his career, he hopes it never has added importance as the last one to come from Topeka.
A major conversation throughout the Mello Yello pit area this season has been the status of this year’s 27th annual Kansas Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka and the track’s future. Despite recent action by the Topeka City Council that leaves the event’s long-term plans uncertain, the NHRA stepped in to guarantee it will go on as scheduled this weekend and has worked tirelessly the past few weeks to ensure a quality event is expected.
“We didn’t know if we were going to get a chance to race at Topeka this year,” said Jack, who won the Kansas trophy in 2012 and was the No. 1 qualifier there in 2011. “There is extra incentive because we aren’t sure there will be a 2016 race there.
“You don’t want to lose facilities. Topeka literally is the heartland. NHRA’s very first national event was held in Great Bend, Kan., and Topeka is about as close as we get to that piece of history and as close as you can get to the middle of the country.
“You don’t want to lose that heritage. They built a world-class facility for us with history and it is located in the right place, but I understand they have to make sure it’s financially successfully.”
Jack and others on the Mello Yello tour want to see a comeback for Heartland Park and no one understands what it takes to make a comeback more than the Southern California resident.
He not only won the biggest battle of his life when he beat cancer in 2003, but he is in the midst of his biggest racing comeback.
The Infinite Hero team led by crew chief Jimmy Prock with assistants John Medlen and Chris Cunningham are ranked sixth in points with one event title that ended a 29-month span of not getting to a winner’s circle. Last year, Jack did not qualify for the six-race Countdown to the Championship playoff.
Heartland Park, like Jack, sees brighter days ahead.
Past success at Heartland Park has Massey, Red Fuel team confident for this weekend’s NHRA Kansas Nationals
– Spencer Massey’s favorite time of the year is upon us. He doesn’t have to wait long to strap back into his Red Fuel Powered by Schumacher/Sandvik Coromant Top Fuel dragster as the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing series embarks on its first consecutive streak of races in 2015 with this weekend’s NHRA Kansas Nationals.
Massey, the defending event winner, has many fond memories from Heartland Park Topeka including two wins and a runner-up, but before he was behind the wheel of a Top Fuel dragster, Spencer’s first time being a crew member on a Top Fuel car was at Topeka.
“I’ve been coming to Topeka for a lot of years,” Spencer said. “Before I even got the opportunity to drive I was a crew member on a Top Fuel car here for the first time so every time I come back it brings back all of those memories.”
The Red Fuel team led by crew chiefs Todd Okuhara and Phil Shuler are looking to rebound after suffering an opening-round loss Sunday in the NHRA Southern Nationals near Atlanta in a close race with Doug Kalitta.
“We can’t hang our heads on that first-round loss,” Spencer said. “It was a close race and we would’ve won a lot of other match-ups in that first round just not the guy we raced. It’s early in the season and we’re still working on being more consistent and turning on win lights on Sunday.”
The winner of 18 NHRA Top Fuel event titles sits third in NHRA Mello Yello points standings behind Don Schumacher Racing teammates Antron Brown and Tony Schumacher.
“I’m looking forward to getting back to Heartland Park,” he said. “It’s been good to us in the past and we have a lot of confidence going back there. We seem to have certain tracks that we go to that just click for us and Topeka is one of them. I can’t wait to get back on track.”
Hagan, Rocky Boots team quietly confident in performance this season, ready to show strength at NHRA Kansas Nationals
– After starting the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series with the first two event titles of the 2015 season some might say that Matt Hagan and the Rocky Boots/Mopar team may have encountered a slump.
But that’s not the case.
Quietly over the past few weeks the Rocky Boots team led by crew chief Dickie Venables and assistant Michael Knudsen have been gaining valuable data that will be useful later this season.
“We started off so strong and there might be some people out there that think we’re struggling,” Matt said. “But that’s not it at all. We’re trying stuff. Dickie is great at what he does and is never satisfied and always wants to find the next thing that is going to make our car run stronger.”
Just 21 points out of first place in NHRA Mello Yello Funny Car points standings, Matt and the team have gone at least one round during eliminations the past three events and made it to the semifinals Sunday in the NHRA Southern Nationals near Atlanta.
“We’re turning on win lights,” Matt said. “We’re doing everything we need to be doing and learning stuff in the process. It’s a long season. We aren’t struggling by any means. We’re doing what we need to do to be better later when the Countdown to the Championship comes along for the last six races.”
The defending NHRA world champion heads west to Topeka for this weekend’s NHRA Kansas Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka. The NHRA Mello Yello Series tour has six events scheduled in the next eight weekends.
“Things are getting ready to get really busy,” he said. “Pretty soon we’ll be racing every weekend and that’s when we need to get consistent and be contending for Wally’s each weekend. I’m excited to see how this summer goes. We have one of the top cars out there and I know we have a championship team. We’re ready to prove it again this year.”
Capps, NAPA team carry points lead to Topeka on nostalgic trip
– Heartland Park Topeka has a special place in Ron Capps’ heart and it’s not just because the driver of the NAPA AUTO PARTS 2015 Dodge Charger R/T owns three NHRA Wally trophies from the track.
The Don Schumacher Racing driver, who arrives in Topeka this week with the championship points lead in the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series, knows the special place the sprawling facility has in NHRA history.
“I remember when it opened in 1989 and it was the premier facility in NHRA,” said Capps, whose first time racing there was six years later.
“The track had two big NHRA events each year from 1993 until 1997 and held national records for many years,” he said of where the first 300-mph (Jim Epler) and 4-second (Chuck Etchells) Funny Car runs took place. “Still, today, it’s one of the better racing surfaces we see. I’ve been lucky enough to win there three times. It’s been great place for me.”
Along with three Topeka wins, Ron advanced to the semifinals the past two years and to the championship round in 2012.
The wave of nostalgia for Capps results from the status of this year’s 27th annual Kansas Nationals that leaves the facility’s long-term future uncertain. The NHRA stepped in to guarantee the event will go on as scheduled this weekend and has worked tirelessly the past few weeks to ensure a quality event is expected.
“It would be heart-breaking if we don’t go back after this year,” said Capps, who has won two of his 44 Funny Car titles this year. “That town has thrived from the revenue our races generate. I’ve always bragged that as soon as we hit town the NHRA race is on the front page of the paper and leads the news on TV, and not just in sports.
“The town always has been so welcoming and has embraced our sport. I hope we’ll be there a long time. It’s a great racetrack,” said Ron, who won titles there in 1998, 2006 and 2009.
And all racetracks recently seem to have been great for Capps and the NAPA team led by crew chief Rahn Tobler and assistant Eric Lane.
The NAPA team advanced Sunday at Atlanta to its fourth championship round through this season’s seven Mello Yello events and leads Don Schumacher Racing teammate Matt Hagan by 21 points in the standings.
The NAPA team’s performance was a hard-earned effort Sunday in the Southern Nationals.
A few nagging mechanical issues affected the team’s qualifying effort that left it ninth in qualifying that gave first-round opponent Alexis DeJoria her choice of lanes.
“Great job by Tobler and all the NAPA guys,” Capps said of the Atlanta weekend. “Tobler showed again why he’s such a great crew chief and leader when he called for a change to our clutch system in the staging lanes before we ran Alexis. And it worked.”
“Sure, we want to want; we expect to win. But when you take a step back and look then you see it was a great weekend for our NAPA Dodge. It was a great team effort.”
NHRA Top Fuel points leader, recent winner Brown ready to finally drive into Topeka winner’s circle with Matco Tools
– Antron Brown is going from a track where he has experienced extraordinary success to Heartland Park Topeka for this weekend’s NHRA Kansas Nationals where he has yet to find the winner’s circle.
The 2012 NHRA Top Fuel world champion and current points leader in the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series won his sixth Wally trophy Sunday at Atlanta Dragway in dominating fashion that began by being the quickest in each of four qualifying sessions to earn the first No. 1 qualifying position of the year for Don Schumacher Racing’s Matco Tools/U.S. Army team.
Brown, who has won 49 event titles including 33 in Top Fuel, hopes he can carry momentum into Topeka that is one of only four tracks on the Mello Yello circuit where he has not left with a trophy, and one of those, Epping, N.H., has only hosted the series twice.
And Topeka, other than Epping, is the only one where he has not advanced to a championship round since he first raced there in 1998 in the Pro Stock Motorcycle category.
Adding to the Matco Tools team’s Kansas slump is that it has lost in the first round of eliminations there the past two years and hasn’t advanced passed the second round the last five.
“It’s one of those deals in life when you want something so bad but it never seems you can get it,” said Brown, whose recent Atlanta title made him the only Top Fuel driver to win twice this year.
“If you settle down, focus, relax and quit worrying about it, it comes to you. That’s the approach I’m going to take this weekend,” said Antron, who was the top qualifier at Topeka in 2009, 2010 and 2012. “I’m going out there and do what we do.
“Topeka is a track that we’ve always run well at. It’s just a special place; it’s an inspirational race for me and would mean so much if we could bring home that trophy. I have to get passed my emotions when I go there just so I can do what I normally do and because it means so much to me.”
Adding to Antron’s motivation this is that it is Memorial Day Weekend.
“Memorial Day is very special to me and this will be a great time to salute our troops and everyone who has served to protect our country. I was proud to carry the colors of the U.S. Army for many years in Pro Stock Motorcycle, and I’m still involved with the Army through its education program.
“We’re going to take it one round at a time like we have at every race this year and hopefully some of the chips will fall our way.”
He also hopes the chips fall the right way for the Topeka facility.
A major conversation throughout the Mello Yello pit area this season has been the status of this year’s 27th annual Kansas Nationals. Despite recent action by the Topeka City Council that leaves the facility’s long-term future uncertain, the NHRA stepped in to guarantee it will go on as scheduled this weekend and has worked tirelessly the past few weeks to ensure a quality event takes place.
He knows he also will feel added pressure once he heads toward the track on Gary Ormsby Drive that is paved with his memories of Ormsby, the 1989 NHRA Top Fuel world champion who won 14 titles before his life ended in 1991 at age 49 after a battle with cancer.
“The road coming in is named after one of my racing heroes, and that’s one of the things that really stands out to me when we go there.
“He was very innovative. He didn’t just bring out a dragster with an enclosed canopy like we now use at DSR, but he brought a fully streamlined car that covered the engine and everything that made it so aerodynamic. I got to see him at races when I was a little kid. I never met him or knew him other than as a fan getting his autograph.
“He was just a cool, soft-spoken, laid-back guy, yet he still was a serious racer. He was well respected and a genuine, genuine nice guy and he was a hard-core racer.
“That’s something I’ve always tried to be; I’m very approachable, very nice, but you don’t want to line up against me on the starting line.”
