DSR Team Reports Pre-Gatornationals

Capps, NAPA team prepared for third Gatornationals trophy

BROWNSBURG, IN – This weekend will be like a time machine for Ron Capps when he arrives in Gainesville, Fla., to compete in the 46th annual NHRA Gatornationals with his NAPA AUTO PARTS Funny Car team.

Last weekend, Ron was on the other side of the country attending the nostalgic March Meet at Bakersfield, Calif. As a fan, he was overwhelmed by the number of old-school Funny Cars and fabulous Fuel Altereds attending.

“The were 30 Funny Cars and they just kept coming,” he said of the vintage replicas that are about 70 mph slower than his 320-mph Don Schumacher Racing 2015 Dodge Charger R/T.

“I love getting opportunities to drive them but it was just as much fun to be there as a fan and hanging out with all the people there from NAPA.”

This year’s Gatornationals will mark the 21st time he has competed in the fabled event where he won back-to-back titles in 1996 and 1997 while driving for Don Prudhomme Racing.

He is eager to return to the Gainesville winner’s circle for a third time, and his team led by crew chief Rahn Tobler is prepared to get there.

The 2015 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season started with a championship round appearance at Pomona, Calif., for the NAPA AUTO PARTS team.

“Pomona showed the championship form our NAPA team has,” Ron said. “The car wasn’t responding like we wanted it to but we were able to make it to the championship round where we lost a close race to one of our teammates (Matt Hagan). That showed the level of intestinal fortitude our team has.”

Two weeks later, the NAPA team qualified No. 6 near Phoenix before being upset in the opening round when Ron’s Dodge lost traction early on the run.

The NAPA team stayed over at Phoenix to test and produced a best time of 3.981 seconds.

“Tobler learned some things during that test that he wasn’t expecting to on that 3.98.

“We always have a car that can win, and winning the Gatornationals again would mean a lot to us. It’s such an iconic event and one of our sports biggest ones. Every year when I drive on the road near the track and see all the campers who are already there reminds me how big this is. It’s the season-opener for NHRA fans on the East Coast. This is a huge event.

“You never know what to expect with the weather. It can be very warm, but if it is overcast and the clouds come out you could see some record-breaking runs.”

Race week begins for Ron on Thursday when he participates in an annual NAPA golf outing followed by a dinner with employees and guests of NAPA AUTO PARTS and NAPA AutoCare Centers from the Gainesville and Jacksonville areas.

“It’s just a fun event. The best part of it is getting to know more people in our NAPA family.”

Jack ready for Gainesville’s Gatornationals with new Infinite Hero team after great 3.95-second, 323-mph run testing after Phoenix NHRA event

– Nobody loves to drive a Funny Car more than Jack Beckman, and he’s ready to have a long Sunday this weekend at the 46th annual NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla., in the third event of the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season.

The driver of Don Schumacher Racing’s Infinite Hero 2015 Dodge Charger R/T hasn’t logged nearly as many laps down the track as he would have liked in the first two races, but the 2012 NHRA Funny Car world champion understands the need for his team led by new crew chief Jimmy Prock and assistant John Medlen to continue going through an adjustment period.

Prock, who won two world championships as a crew chief during his 15 years with John Force Racing, joined DSR a few weeks before the end of the past season. A few weeks later Medlen followed him down the street to DSR outside of Indianapolis to join Prock and fellow assistant Chris Cunningham.

After a disappointing season-opener when the team did not qualify for the event at Pomona, Calif., near Jack’s home in Norco, the team made it to Sunday’s eliminations two weeks later at Phoenix but lost to a DSR teammate in the first round.

The Infinite Hero team stayed an extra day at Phoenix and posted a stellar run of 3.957 seconds at 323.97 mph along with a pair of 4.00 times.

“Jimmy Prock came over and brought five of his crew guys to preseason testing (in the middle of January) and we had the quickest car there,” said Jack, who has won 15 NHRA Funny Car titles and the 2003 NHRA Super Comp world championship.

“We’re going to be fine this year,” Jack said. “We’re at the point where we have to show that on the racetrack. From the day they announced Jimmy and John Medlen coming over we knew had a team that could win races. Jimmy had hundreds of runs with a specific setup at John Force Racing. We have some different parts here at DSR and with the setup he wants to run he’s been adjusting to a bit of a hybrid.

“The reality is that there’s a lot of stuff on this car that’s new to Jimmy. (After our test in Phoenix) I feel like we have a fantastic shot at winning the Gatornationals.”

Jack is looking for his first No. 1 qualifying effort and final round performance at Gainesville.

“If you are going to look at why you haven’t been successful at a certain track then you have to look at why you win at another track. I’ve won three times at Phoenix and that accounts for 20 percent of my wins. It’s not that I have this incredible comfort level at Phoenix or that I have an advantage there. And I’ve done that with three different crew chiefs.

“There’s 15 other Funny Cars and that’s after you qualify. You go out and win two rounds and that still only gets you to the semifinals. It takes a lot to put one of these into the winner’s circle on race day.

“I certainly don’t feel I have a Gainesville jinx . I’m not superstitious. When you go to a track where you won the year before the only advantage is that a picture of your car should be on the cover of the program.”

Rough start at historic NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville fueled world championship career for DSR’s Matco Tools Top Fuel driver

– Growing up in New Jersey, the state of California seemed like a world away for Antron Brown. So in his opinion, the professional drag racing season opens this weekend with the 46th annual NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla.

When the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series event begins Friday it will be the third event of the 24-race season following events near Los Angeles and Phoenix.

But for the 2012 Top Fuel world champion, the Gatornationals was the national event that his drag racing family would use to start the clock on its annual racing season.

“Gainesville was always a special place to us,” said Antron, who ranks second in Top Fuel points after advancing to the championship round of the season-opener at Pomona, Calif. “This race lets people know on the East Coast that the race season is in full effect. It’s the Pomona of the East Coast.

“The track has prestige. The Gatornationals is one of our premier races. People always come to the Gatornationals. Fans are off the chain down there. It’s jam-packed because Florida has its own drag racing culture. From South Florida up to Jacksonville and over to Pensacola … people come to Gainesville as a meeting place each year.

“A lot of history has been made at that racetrack, and it’s the first race of the year for Pro Stock Motorcycles that makes it the first time this season all four professional categories will compete at the same race.

“And it’s the hometown track for one of the greats: “Big Daddy” Don Garlits.”

Antron, who turned 39 on March 1, became enamored with Garlits when he attended his first NHRA national event as a child and “Big Daddy” asked Antron to hand him a wrench.

And when it comes to historic events at Gainesville, one chapter could be devoted to Antron.

The 1998 Gatornationals is the first NHRA event Antron entered when he debuted a Pro Stock Motorcycle for a new team owned by former NFL all-star Troy Vincent. It became an infamous entry into professional drag racing for Antron and the team. After a solid, early qualifying run that put him sixth in the field, a crew member mistakenly filled his bike’s tank with gas intended for the generator in his pit. That led to the team being disqualified for the event.

“That was a special, special weekend. I was there with Troy and my mentor, the great Dave Schultz,” Antron said, then added with a laugh, “at least until we got disqualified. They kicked us out!”

He’s felt the full circle of emotions at the track about 115 miles northwest of Orlando.

Three years later, Gainesville was where he earned his first professional pole by qualifying No. 1 in Pro Stock Motorcycle in his first year riding for Don Schumacher Racing. Then his first and only Gatornationals title came in 2013 won he won in Top Fuel driving for DSR. He advanced to the championship round last year where he lost to Doug Kalitta.

Through two events this year, Antron started with a runner-up at the opener in Pomona, and advanced to the semifinals two weeks ago near Phoenix where he lost to eventual winner and teammate Tony Schumacher.

Antron, along with crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald hold the NHRA national elapsed time record of 3.701 seconds that was set in 2012 at Reading, Pa.

Massey ready to check off NHRA Gatornationals event win on personal to-do list with Red Fuel/Sandvik Coromant team

– Near the top of Spencer Massey’s “to-do” list as a Top Fuel driver is earn a Wally trophy from the NHRA Gatornationals event in Gainesville, Fla., and he will get a chance this weekend during the third event of the 2015 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season.

Spencer has 31 final round appearances in his NHRA Top Fuel career that began in 2009 but none have come at the legendary Gatornationals event.

This could be the year for the Red Fuel/ Sandvik Coromant team led by crew chiefs Todd Okuhara and Phil Shuler. They are ranked fifth in points after being eliminated in each of the first two Mello Yello events this year by drivers who went on to win event trophies. Spencer qualified fourth and advanced to the semifinals at the opener at Pomona, Calif., and was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Phoenix winner and teammate Tony Schumacher.

“This is one of the biggest events of the year,” Spencer said of the 46th annual NHRA Gatornationals. “It’s one that has so much history. I remember when I was little watching this race, it’s just one of those that has always stuck out in my mind and is a really important race as a driver to get a trophy from. I don’t have one yet, but I’m ready to change that.

“We haven’t been to a final round yet this season and it’s early but we need to get some momentum going. The competition is pretty tough out here this year. In both races this season I’ve lost the eventual race winner. We have a great car and we are ready to race.”

Spencer wants to score an event title early in the season to get into the Traxxas Shootout held during the U.S. Nationals event near Indianapolis over Labor Day Weekend. The Shootout includes the first seven event winners and the eighth being a fan vote. The Red Fuel team won the special race-within-a-race that earns at $100,000 bonus in 2012.

“It’s important to get your name on that Traxxas Shootout board. We’ve won it before and we want the chance to do that again. It’s a big deal to get a win early in the season, one reason for momentum and the other for getting into that Traxxas Shootout.

“We have to take it one round at a time this weekend and we’ll start out by trying to get in solidly in the show before focusing on race day. I just can’t wait to get back in this 10,000-horsepower Red Fuel/Sandvik Coromant dragster.”

Crew chief Venables ready to ride impressive winning streak a little longer with Hagan, Mopar/Rocky Boots team at NHRA Gatornationals

– It’s early in the 2015 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season but the Mopar Express Lane/Rocky Boots team has a growing list of accomplishments with driver Matt Hagan.

Crew chief Dickie Venables has started this season where he left off by winning the first two events of the 24-race season. Including the win in the 2014 season-finale, Venables and his team are riding a three-event winning streak heading to this weekend’s NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla.

The Houston native and longtime resident of Avon, Ind., near Indianapolis is in his third season with Don Schumacher Racing and has won 11 of 50 Mello Yello events (22 percent) since joining the seven-team operation. The Venables-Hagan duo finished second in points in 2013 and won the world championship last year, Matt’s second in four years. Venables became only the fourth Funny Car crew chief to win world championships with two drivers, joining DSR’s Jimmy Prock, Mike Neff and Austin Coil.

Since the start of the 2014 Countdown to the Championship near Charlotte in September, the Mopar Express Lane/Rocky Boots crew led by Venables has racked up 26 round wins, including three event titles in the final six races of last year, and only three losses.

“We had a good car at the end of the year and we really didn’t change much,” Venables said. “We made a few changes in the clutch that we thought would be better and it turned out that was better and it also ended up making the engine better. It’s a combination of both, that’s really all it takes to pick up a few hundredths of a second.

“As far as winning both races, that’s never really anything you expect to do but when it’s going well you just kind of ride it as long as you can. It was two totally different wins. Pomona started out terrible and we managed to come back. Phoenix was the opposite, everything just went right from the start. When it goes like that it’s always good. But winning when you have trouble and coming back, that always feels good. I’m not surprised in our performance, I’m surprised a little that we can put 12 win lights on in a row. That’s pretty hard to do and it takes a little bit of luck.”

In qualifying at the season opener in Pomona, Matt’s engine exploded into a ball of fire and heavily damaged wiring, parts and underside of the new 2015 Dodge Charger R/T body. The team worked well into the night to get the car back together and came out on Sunday and won all four rounds.

At Phoenix, the team was hot from the start. Venables tuned Matt to his career-best elapsed time of 3.978 seconds to earn the 18th pole of his career and then improved that to 3.975 at 324.83 mph – the second fastest official Funny Car run ever – in the championship round for the 16th NHRA Wally trophy of Matt’s seven-year full-time career.

“Last year we started out with some things quite a bit different and kind of got off track,” Venables said. “This year, we’ve got a good start and we are not going to mess with it. It’s not like cars are out-running us, we are as good as some and better than most so we are just keep picking away at what we’ve got. We just try to keep it consistent.”

“We” is a word Venables uses a lot. The crew – assistant crew chief Michael Knudsen, Jason Davis, Chris Stillwell, Brian James, Alex Conaway, Brian Antrim, Jeff Hilliker and Bill Haskins – are each as equally important when it comes to the success.

“This is the best group that I’ve ever been with and I’ve been in a crew chief position since 2002,” Venables said. “From a talent standpoint, yes, but mainly just a good group of guys that get along, have fun and get the job done. We just get along really well, there are not really any problems and that makes a big difference, I really believe that.”

Hagan echoed Venables thoughts.

“It really comes down to crew chiefs, it comes down to guys putting your car together, it comes down to that team, charisma, the energy you have together,” Matt said. “Honestly, this team I’m with right now, I’ve never been in that situation where we’ve had such great chemistry, such great charisma. We’re turning on win lights. Even when we were struggling last year at the beginning of the year and started out with a new combination that didn’t work out. Five races in we said we’ve got to change back to what we know. It took another five races. Half of our season was gone. Even then, when things were a little tough, nobody got down.

“Everybody was really up and ready to go, ready to race. Everybody brought their ‘A’ game every week. Then the car started coming back around. We got our combination back, started running strong again, came out and won the championship. We continued that momentum into this year.

“Honestly, it’s really, really about the people you put around you. I’ve been very, very fortunate here at DSR to have the best of the best. I wouldn’t trade my guys for anybody.”