Hagan picks up career-best fifth No. 1 qualifying position of 2013 at Gateway!
during qualifying for the AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals at Gateway Motorsports Park.Beckman’s best run of the weekend was in the fourth and the final session when his Don Schumacher Racing Dodge complete a pass in 4.070 seconds at 313.66 mph to qualify eighth for Sunday’s championship eliminations, which begin at 11 a.m. (CT).
“We’re frustrated we missed the Friday night run when we spun the tires there and lost our best shot at one of the top-four spots,” said Beckman, the reigning NHRA Funny Car world champion. “Other than that it is stellar weekend so far. We were able to go two-hundredths (of a second) better on every qualifying pass we made.”
Beckman was able to move up one spot on his last run Saturday that moved him into the top-eight to earn lane choice in the opening round.
“We really wanted lane choice for first round. We went into the last session not in the top half of the field. It could make a difference. We’re really happy we did that. The nice thing is, it gives you a lot of confidence after you go out and make two solid runs on Saturday that helps you predict where the car is going to run and it goes out and does it.”
And his last qualifying run of 3.855 (316.90) on Saturday was even more fulfilling because it was under weather and track conditions that could be closer to what he and Don Schumacher Racing crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald will face when eliminations begin Sunday at 11 a.m. (CT).
“We made it down the track three out of four times in qualifying and that’s an improvement,” said the reigning NHRA Top Fuel world champion who is seventh in points. “We’re right where we need to be. We’re real consistent right now and that’s picking up for us. We’re getting to where the car is reacting exactly how Brian and Mark and our crew want it to do. All we can do Sunday is start stepping it up a little bit. We’re starting to get that confidence back in with car.
“The first round conditions Sunday are going to be really, really good, so you can’t hold anything back. I think you will have to run in a mid to high 3.7-second range in order to get the job done. It’s going to be cool all day tomorrow, so conditions are going to be right for some great racing. It should be a lot of fun.
“When you get a day like what you get really excited. You get to bring all your goodies to the party. Tomorrow, we’ll get to bring our strength to the starting line and drop it down.
“That’s what makes it really exciting coming to Gateway. We have always done well at this track and we just have to go out there and push hard. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
– Ron Capps and crew chief Rahn Tobler picked the perfect time Saturday to produce their best run of qualifying in the AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals at Gateway Motorsports Park near St. Louis.
Capps and the NAPA Shocks & Struts Dodge Charger R/T completed their fourth and final qualifying attempt in 4.058 seconds at 310.05 mph to move from 14th to sixth for Sunday’s championship eliminations, which begin at 11 a.m. (CT).
“We struggled a little bit and didn’t get down the track on the Friday night run,” he said of the session when No. 1 qualifying runs were made in Funny Car and Top Fuel.
“Usually my response about Friday night qualifying whether we ran good or bad would be we don’t race in conditions on Sunday like we see on Friday nights.
“But we very well could see conditions Sunday like we saw on Friday night because there’s a storm supposed to come in Saturday night that will clean a lot of the rubber off the track and the highs for Sunday are supposed to be in the 70s.”
Overcast skies led to temperatures falling from the high to low 80s on Saturday when Capps ran the third best time of the last session and conditions for eliminations could be similar or better.
“This Gateway track will hold whatever you throw at it under the right conditions. It’s a great track. This event had always been held in hotter conditions so it hasn’t been able to show what it could take until Friday night.”
And Sunday could be better with a temperature of 67 forecasted for Sunday’s first round.
“We could very well see a day on Sunday like you saw at Reading, Pa., last year,” he said of the October event at Maple Grove Raceway when NHRA elapsed time records were set in Funny Car and Top Fuel.
“Boy, you just better hang on as a driver. Any car can be a challenge to win anywhere in the field. Cloudy and overcast … it will be a heckuva day for race fans to watch incredibly close, side-by-side runs.”
Massey’s best pass of the weekend came in the opening round of qualifying at Gateway Motorsports Park near St. Louis in Friday’s first session with a 3.853-second pass at 319 mph.
“We aren’t worried at all,” said Massey. “It doesn’t matter where you qualify as long as you do and we did that. It may not look good on paper but the truth is Todd (Okuhara) and Phil (Shuler) learned something on every run, even when we didn’t make it down the track.”
Earlier in the 2013 Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season at Phoenix, Massey started from the No. 16 spot but advanced to the semifinal round.
“We’ve qualified in the bottom half of the field a few times this season and we’ve gone rounds from the bottom half of the field as well. It just means you don’t get lane choice in that first round but (crew chiefs) Todd and Phil know what to do and this Battery Extender team will be ready for race day.”
The Battery Extender Powered by Schumacher team entered the event ranked No. 3 in NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel points standings, just two points behind points leaders Shawn Langdon and Clay Millican. After qualifying points, Massey will start Sunday 15 points, less than one round of racing, behind No. 1 ranked Langdon.
“We know we need to go rounds and stay in the hunt for the points lead,” Massey said. “It’s going to be a tough fight to the finish and we just need to be in the mix. Tomorrow looks like it might be a little bit cooler and we’ll be ready for Clay (Millican) in round one.”
