DSR Pre-Seattle Team Reports
– Every team intent on winning a season championship knows the key is peaking at the right time.
The Matco Tools Top Fuel dragster team and driver Antron Brown have the experience of winning last year’s NHRA world championship to fall back on, and despite not winning a Mello Yello Series title since May 12 near Atlanta, Brown likes the timetable crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald are following.
“We want to peak by the time we get to the U.S. Nationals,” Brown said of the year’s most prestigious event held over Labor Day Weekend near Indianapolis.
“That’s what our Matco boys are working hard at, and we expect to keep making progress this weekend in the Northwest Nationals.”
Brown, who has won two titles this season, maintains his hold on fifth place in the standings with three events remaining before only the top-10 will contend for the championship over the last six events in NHRA’s Countdown to the Championship playoff.
While the team tried some new components and tune-ups, Brown lost in the first round five of six races after earning the Atlanta title.
But it was clear progress had been made in the first round Sunday at Sonoma Raceway when his winning run in 3.787 seconds at 322.58 mph was the Matco team its quickest in the previous 50 runs and best since April when it won the pole at Las Vegas. Brown advanced to the semifinals where he lost to eventual event winner Shawn Langdon at Sonoma.
A year ago, the Matco team was ranked second in points but took over the lead at the following event at Brainerd, Minn.
Brown arrived at Pacific Raceways near Seattle last year with the pressure of sweeping the three-race Western Swing for the second time in three years after he won events at Denver and near San Francisco the previous two weeks. But he lost in the second round after qualifying fifth.
“No one is going have to worry about that this year,” he said of separate winners at each of this year’s Swing events.
“It was a lot of fun when we got out the broom for the sweep in 2009, but right now our Matco team is focused on being ready for the Countdown.”
– Ron Capps will conclude the three-week, three-race NHRA Western Swing at one of the most important racetracks of his career.
Capps arrives at the Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways at Kent, Wash., about 20 miles south of Seattle, on Friday where he won his first of 40 NHRA pro titles in 1995 while driving a Top Fuel dragster for a team owned by Roger Primm.
Since then, all of his titles have come in Funny Cars with the latest on Sunday at the NHRA Mello Yello Series track closest to his hometown of San Luis Obispo, Calif., during the Sonoma Nationals near San Francisco.
As special as it was for Capps to win Sunday with friends and family looking on as he moved up two spots to second in the championship standings, nothing tops a driver’s first time.
“Going back to Seattle means a lot to me,” said Capps, 48, who lives outside San Diego in Carlsbad, Calif. “I won for Roger Primm on a Tuesday night. We didn’t have a sponsor on it and we were huge underdogs, but we beat some of the biggest and baddest teams out there.
“Since then I’ve gone back there and won in Funny Car (1998) and have a great mojo with the fans there. I really have a love affair with Seattle. I just love going there.
“The track has character now. It’s a place where if you see cloud cover coming in with all the trees and oxygen around you can expect to see some good runs. It’s fun going there and being surrounded by all the trees. It’s an experience. You have to take it all in.”
Trust in what Capps says, because even members of his NAPA AUTO PARTS team questioned his sanity a few weeks ago when he said that taking the Funny Car points was possible by the time the team leaves Brainerd, Minn., which hosts the next event in two weeks.
“Yeah, they looked at me like I was crazy, but I knew how far we had come. I have all the confidence in (crew chief) Rahn Tobler, J.C (assistant John Collins) and all of our guys,” Capps said.
Before winning the title on Sunday in Northern California, Capps and his NAPA team had not won a Mello Yello title since the second event of the season on Feb. 24 near Phoenix.
Capps was as low as seventh in points only five events back but made his bold prediction after reaching the championship round over Fourth of July weekend when he lost in the final round to DSR teammate Johnny Gray at Norwalk, Ohio.
He arrives at Pacific Raceways only 27 points behind teammate Matt Hagan, who has lost in the first round of the past two races.
“I could tell how the way our NAPA Dodge was running that Tobler was in the groove and we were going to peak at the right time,” Capps said. “And it looks like that’s just what we’re doing.”
After this weekend’s event, only races at Brainerd and the prestigious NHRA U.S. Nationals over Labor Day Weekend near Indianapolis remain before the top-10 in points are determined to compete for the world championship in NHRA’s six-event Countdown to the Championship playoff.
Capps was the points leader going into last year’s Countdown but lost out on his first NHRA world championship by two points to teammate Jack Beckman on the final day of the season.
Most of the top professional teams, including Don Schumacher Racing, are based near Indianapolis so the Western Swing involves three weeks on the road for the race team crews and long drives between events.
Terry Snyder probably looks forward to the Swing more than anyone among the 90-person DSR organization that’s on the road, and it’s not just for the wondrous and majestic scenery the cross-country trek provides.
The Pacific Nationals, the 16th stop on the 24-race Mello Yello tour, is the closest opportunity he gets to race near his hometown of Salem, Ore., which is about four hours south of Seattle.
Snyder has traveled the country and world as a professional crewman in drag racing including a stint with the Yas Marina team that was based in Abu Dhabi.
He joined DSR six years ago, and will bring a world championship ring back to the Northwest after he won the 2012 NHRA Funny Car world title as assistant crew chief for driver Jack Beckman and the MTS Mail for Wounded Warriors/Valvoline MaxLife Dodge Charger R/T team.
Snyder, whose father raced on oval tracks in the Northwest, started as a Funny Car crew member in 1999 and the following year began working for Del Worsham and Worsham family’s team for several years.
He became an integral part of the Yas Marina Top Fuel team, which was owned by the famed Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi that enabled him to travel to the Middle East.
He joined Don Schumacher Racing six years ago and was an assistant crew chief on the Funny Car driven by Ron Capps. Early in 2012, team owner Don Schumacher juggled two of his teams and Snyder was paired with crew chief Todd Smith to run Beckman’s Funny Car.
Snyder was pivotal in helping the crew quickly develop a championship chemistry with Smith, a veteran crew chief who was new to DSR.
Once paired with Smith, the duo helped lead Beckman to three event titles and four poles over the last 16 events of the season en route to the championship.
Although they qualified second last year at Pacific Raceways, the team lost in the second round at the track where Beckman won the title in 2007 and was runner-up in 2011. His title in 2007 near Seattle marked the 100th for DSR, which has now won 213 NHRA trophies.
Massey, Battery Extender team move up to second in points heading to Seattle for third and final stop on Western Swing
– Spencer Massey isn’t much of a reader, unless it’s a time slip at the end of the 1,000-ft. dragstrip at an NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series event.
But he might buy a few books for a design idea he has if the Battery Extender Powered by Schumacher dragster team is able to secure the trophy from Pacific Raceways near Seattle.
Last year at the NHRA Northwest Nationals Massey had the fastest Top Fuel dragster on property, qualifying No. 1 for eliminations. And he has plans to do the same this weekend with the Battery Extender dragster.
“Our dragster loves to make horsepower and Seattle is one of those places where you can do that,” Massey said. “It’s supposed to be pretty cool on Friday and Saturday and that means Phil (Shuler) and Todd (Okuhara) can tune this dragster up.”
But his focus along with those of crew chiefs Shuler and Okuhara, is adding another Wally trophy to the collection from NHRA’s three-race Western Swing where Massey won near Denver two weeks ago before falling in the semifinals Sunday at Sonoma.
“I’ve had a lot of success at Pacific Raceways, but I’ve never made it to the winner’s circle. We’ll try to get that Wally and use them as bookends or something. I might have to go out and get some books to do that but I would do it if it means I have another Wally.”
Massey moved into second in NHRA Mello Yello points standings last weekend after defeating Don Schumacher Racing teammate Tony Schumacher in the opening round of eliminations. He also secured his spot in NHRA’s Countdown to the Championship six-race playoff.
“Everyone is already looking at the points and we’re just past halfway through the season,” he said. “We just want to go rounds and get all the points we can and we made up some ground last weekend and we’ll try to do the same this weekend.”
Funny Car points leader Hagan, Magneti Marelli team seek round wins at NHRA Northwest Nationals near Seattle
– Two races into the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series three-race Western Swing Matt Hagan hasn’t had the results he’s wanted. But it has been a learning experience for the Magneti Marelli Offered by Mopar team.
After two first-round losses near Denver and at Sonoma, Calif., crew chief Dickie Venables has added new pages to his data book, which had a clean slate at the start of the 2013 season.
“Like I said earlier this week, after talking to Dickie and having conversations about what we’re trying to accomplish with this team, I understand what he’s trying with the car and it’s very important that we try new things and try to make this team better and stronger,” said Hagan.
“We’ve lost the first round the last two races but Dickie (Venables) knows exactly what’s going on with this Magneti Marelli/Rocky Funny Car. We were trying some stuff. All season long Dickie has put a consistent race car underneath me and that gives me confidence.
“I know he’s doing his job and I can focus on mine, cutting good lights, keeping it the groove. The guys have been working so hard and this is one of the toughest parts of our schedule.”
The next stop is Pacific Raceways near Seattle, where Hagan was runner-up last season.
“I’m excited to get up to Seattle,” he said. “It’s a great area, there’s always a good turnout of fans. We just need to go up there and turn on four win lights and keep plugging away at our tune-up.
“We’ve got the points lead right now but Capps is right on our tails. It would be cool to start the Countdown to the Championship in that No. 1 spot but right now we’ll focus on going to Seattle and getting our Dodge qualified and go rounds on Sunday.”
