Massey’s Top Fuel win leads off DSR New England Nationals Report

– Spencer Massey carried the Don Schumacher Racing organization into the Winner’s Circle at the inaugural New England NHRA Nationals on Sunday at New England Dragway.

Capps and NAPA AUTO PARTS Funny Car team looking for that lucky charm to get them back into the NHRA winner’s circle

– Last Sunday at Bristol (Tenn.) Dragway, if Ron Capps and his NAPA AUTO PARTS Funny Car team had any luck it was bad luck. A broken throttle cable clip ended the team’s day early in round one.

Fast forward a week later to the inaugural New England NHRA Nationals in New Hampshire and Capps and his Rahn Tobler-led team flashed the form that took them to five race wins in eight final rounds last season.

“We were a little bit unlucky last week in Bristol with the throttle cable breaking,” Capps said of last Sunday’s first round upset to rookie Chad Head at Bristol Dragway. “We felt like we had a really good car and we could make some points up.”

The NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T qualified in the No. 4 position at New England Dragway, his second best start of the ’13 season after earning the No. 2 spot at Atlanta Dragway last month.

On race day at the NHRA’s inaugural New England bash, the NAPA car posted the quickest elapsed time of round one at 4.084-seconds, followed by a solid run of 4.118-seconds to defeat 2011 NHRA Top Fuel champion Del Worsham in round two. Squaring off against 15-time NHRA champion John Force in the semis, the NAPA flopper lost traction at the hit of the throttle as Force earned the trip to the final round at 4.144-seconds. It was the 68th career meeting between Capps and Force and only the second time that Force has beaten Capps in the last 10 meetings.

“This is a tough race track for people to adjust to because it was so good,” Capps said of the all-concrete strip at New England Dragway. “We didn’t expect the track to be this good. Even though we had some humidity and some heat, it made it quite the challenge for the crew chiefs. I do nothing but brag about (Rahn) Tobler and (assistant crew chief) J.C. (John Collins) because we adapt so well.

“We ran what we need to run on Friday night and got lane choice with the No. 4 spot and went three rounds. We were low E.T. of the first round. We’re back in the game and out of the test mode of going down the race track. What it did in the semifinals we’re still trying to figure out what happened. It blew the tires off instantly. We’re close. Maybe we just need to find that four leaf clover.”

Capps and the NAPA Batteries/Intrepid Fallen Heroes Funny Car team hope that luck continues for two more win lights next Sunday at Route 66 Raceway near Chicago as the 2005 winner of the fall NHRA race at Joliet, hopes to collect another Wally trophy from team owner Don Schumacher’s home race track.

“I love the two night sessions; it’s like old school drag racing for a California kid and that what we went and watched was Funny Cars at night,” Capps added. “The fans are going to get there monies worth next weekend.”

Hagan, Magneti Marelli team remain Funny Car points leaders despite first round loss at inaugural New England NHRA Nationals

– It was a case of bad news, good news for Matt Hagan’s Magneti Marelli Offered by Mopar Funny Car team on Sunday at the inaugural New England NHRA Nationals in Epping, N.H.

The bad news was that Hagan’s 10,000-horsepower Funny Car began to lose traction down track after racing to a sizeable lead and was unable to turn on the win light in the first round match against youngster Blake Alexander at New England Dragway.

“That’s what it is, it’s a first round loss,” Hagan said. “It doesn’t really mean anything in the grand scheme of things. Everyone is going to have a few along the way and that’s just one of them for us.”

The team also suffered first round losses at Houston and Topeka earlier this season.

But the good news is that Hagan and Co. will leave New England Dragway with the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series points lead. Cruz Pedregon and Johnny Gray, who are ranked second and third in the NHRA Funny Car standings, respectively, also lost in the first round of Sunday’s eliminations.

“We have a lot of racing to look forward to. We’re not trying to hit home runs out here, we’re just trying to get on base. We’re just going to keep working towards that.”

Hagan will also work to keep the morale of his Magneti Marelli Offered by Mopar team members high with the help of crew chief Dickie Venables.

“When you come back to the pit after a loss like that, you have to stay positive because your guys are looking to you and your crew chiefs for that morale boost. You lead by example, you go out here and keep moving forward and keep digging just like this team has been doing all year long.”

They won’t have to wait long to try and rebound at the next NHRA event as the series heads to the 16th annual Route 66 NHRA Nationals in Joliet, Ill., June 28-30. Hagan won at Joliet in 2010.

Brown and Matco Tools team stay positive, leave New Hampshire with heads held high after tough race for defending NHRA Top Fuel champs

– It wasn’t a banner weekend for the defending NHRA Top Fuel world champion at the inaugural New England NHRA Nationals, but Antron Brown isn’t panicking. The 39-time NHRA winner knows his Matco Tools team will be just fine when it counts.

After a tricky qualifying outing for the fan-favorite racer, Brown started the day from the No. 10 spot at New England Dragway and was pitted against veteran race Bob Vandergriff, Jr. for third time this season. All three matches have come in the opening round.

The drivers used identical .047 of-a-second reaction times before Brown’s bright blue Matco Tools/U.S. Army rail pulled the tires loose near mid-track allowing Vandergriff to cruise to the round win with the third quickest elapsed time of the round at 3.856-seconds.

“We just have to work hard until we figure it out – keep on pressing, pressing, pressing – and get our combination worked out,” Brown said following his sixth first round loss in seven races. “That deal right there, look at the field – there was no issue that plagued just us. It plagued 70 percent of the field – 70 percent of the field spun the tires in the same spot.

“That track right there, you just have to be after it early and have it parked in the middle so it can skate through. We thought the track was better to run fast and it wasn’t better. It was actually worse in the middle, and that’s what got us. It got Tony (Schumacher) that way. It got (Steve) Torrence and (Clay) Millican the same way. It got a whole bunch of people in front of us the same way. It even got (Khalid al-)Balooshi the same way.”

While new to his Top Fuel career dating back to the 2008 NHRA season, Brown knows how humbling the world’s fastest motor sport can be. The 16-time NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle winner had nine opening round losses in 2007, his final year in the two wheel category.

“I had a slump like this in bikes and it lasted all year long,” Brown said of his ’07 NHRA season. “But you’ve just got to stay working and getting after it. You can’t let it get the best of you. It’s just a matter of time if we keep on working and working and working. It’s like a math problem or equation. The only way you lose is when you give up, and our team is nowhere near giving up on anything.”

The Matco team returns to the friendly confines of Route 66 Raceway just South of Chicago next weekend, June 28-30. The track is located about three hours from DSR team headquarters near Indianapolis and Brown is the defending event champion of the Joliet race. It was one of six wins for the Matco Tools flagship driver en route to the 2012 NHRA Top Fuel championship.

Short turnaround time plagues Beckman, Valvoline NextGen team at inaugural New England NHRA Nationals in Epping

– An unfortunate circumstance of racing in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series contributed to the semifinal loss of Jack Beckman and the Valvoline NextGen/MTS Mail for Wounded Warriors team on Sunday.

After having two solid qualifying runs in the New Hampshire heat on Saturday, hopes were high in the Beckman pit for the inaugural win at the New England NHRA Nationals at New England Dragway in Epping.

A 4.141-second lap earned the opening round win over Bob Tasca III and crew chief Todd Smith kept things fairly consistent in round two, clocking a 4.158-second pass to defeat Blake Alexander and earn a trip to the semifinals to race Courtney Force.

But that’s when things went sour. During the warm-up in the Valvoline team’s pits, the team noticed something amiss with the 10,000-horsepower Dodge Charger R/T.

“This is one of those unintended consequences of the shortened between rounds maintenance,” Beckman said. “When we warmed this thing up for the semifinal, it didn’t sound right. But there’s no time. It’s either got a big problem that you address or if it’s got something that you’re not quite sure what it is, you park the car or you take what you’ve got to the starting line.”

“It wasn’t happy when we started it up there. When I stepped on the throttle it put a hole out but I didn’t see Courtney (Force). You don’t shut off on race day unless you see the other car and you sit so far back in the Dodge’s by the time you see them they are 30 feet ahead of you and I saw her nose poke out down track and about a tenth of a second later it went boom.”

Near the finish line, Beckman’s Valvoline NextGen machine had a flash of fire and slowed to 4.279-seconds at 286 mph and ended the day for the Don Schumacher Racing team.

“That’s frustrating,” the defending NHRA Funny Car champion said. “We think we had a car that could’ve won the race and we are leaving without a trophy and we hurt some parts. That’s unusual for us. We did make a lot of good runs this weekend. We’ve got five more chances to get a trophy in the next six weeks. We’ll roll into Chicago with every bit of optimism.”

The Valvoline NextGen team will regroup and venture to the next NHRA event, the 16th annual Route 66 NHRA Nationals in Joliet, Ill., June 28-30.