Rare first-round losses motivate Capps, NAPA team with Tobler as reigning champion heads to Topeka on three-race win streak
TOPEKA, KS – Losing in the first round of an NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series event is never a good thing, but 
it might be hard to convince reigning Funny Car world champion Ron Capps.
A year ago, the only time his NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T lost in an opening round all season was at Topeka in the NHRA Heartland Nationals.
The NAPA team led by crew chief Rahn Tobler, called a team meeting and went on to win three of the next four NHRA event titles that propelled Capps to his first world championship after being runner-up an NHRA record four times.
The Mello Yello event near Las Vegas in April marked the only time Capps’ day was ended in the first round since it happened at Topeka last May.
Four-time world championship crew chief Rahn Tobler at Atlanta and despite missing one of its veteran crewmen, Joe Chrisman, who had an emergency appendectomy in Houston and returned to work this week, the NAPA Dodge and Capps went on to win the next three event titles to sweep the Southern Swing, a grueling stretch of three events in three weeks.
Capps’ last title came two weeks ago near Atlanta and NAPA headquarters when the veteran’s quicker reaction a the starting line overcame a quicker elapsed time by Tim Wilkerson. The victory enable Capps to extend his points lead to 94 over Don Schumacher Racing teammate Matt Hagan after seven of 24 Mello Yello races.
“Last year at Topeka was our turning point although we left with a first-round loss,” said Capps, who owns 53 event titles including his first that was in a Top Fuel dragster.
“Our post-race meeting with Rahn and the team was probably the most time we were together all year. When we were celebrating the championship at Pomona we all felt like Topeka was the turning point for us.
“After we lost last year (at Topeka) Rahn told us how happy he was with the way the car ran and how encouraged and excited he was for the next race at Epping (N.H.). We unloaded our NAPA Dodge three or four days later at Epping and set the track record, qualified No. 1 and won the race.”
After winning at Epping, Capps won at Englishtown, N.J., was a semifinalist at Bristol, Tenn., then won at Norwalk, Ohio, in the grueling “Eastern Swing” that encompasses four races in four weeks. He took the points lead after Englishtown and never relinquished it.
“I’m pretty pumped,” said Capps, who has won three times (1998, 2006 and 2009) at Topeka in five final rounds. “We can run with anybody, especially in cool conditions and that’s what we might see this weekend.”
Pritchett won’t be in Topeka grandstands this year as Top Fuel leader looks for season’s fourth NHRA win with Papa John’s Pizza dragster
– Leah Pritchett spent last her visit to Heartland Park Topeka as a spectator and will be anything but that this weekend during the NHRA Heartland Nationals west of Kansas City.
Last year she battled securing sponsorship more than the record-setting track performance, but her persistence has paid off greatly.
She now drive’s Don Schumacher Racing’s Papa John’s Pizza Top Fuel dragster and will arrive at Topeka as the current NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series points leader with a category-best three event titles through this year’s first seven races. She also set the current NHRA elapsed time record by completing a run in 3.658 seconds.
Pritchett, 28, a Southern California native living near Indianapolis, started the season by winning the first two event trophies as the No. 1 seed and that had never been done by a Top Fuel driver.
In addition to her three titles, she has advanced to the semifinals three times including at the last race two weeks ago near Atlanta.
“I’m very familiar with the Topeka racetrack even if I was a spectator last year,” said the graduate of Cal State San Bernardino with majors in communications and marketing. “I raced there the three years before that with Dote Racing and in 2013 made it to the semifinals when I lost to Tony Schumacher who’s now one of my DSR teammates.”
“Going back to Topeka I feel like after our first qualifying run on Friday I’ll be way ahead of where I was last year.”
In amassing her Top Fuel best eliminations record of 19-4, the only driver to beat her more than once has been Steve Torrence. They are tied at 2-2 with this year and one of her wins was in the final round when she won the title at Houston.
Ironically, her husband of four years, Gary Pritchett, is Torrence’s clutch specialist.
“We’re ready to elevate our track performance,” she said of her Papa John’s team led by crew chief Todd Okuhara and assistant Joe Barlam.
“We are ready to do whatever it takes to stop Steve from winning again after he took the Wally Trophy at the last two races.
“It’s hard not to feel like this is my biggest rivalry because it is an interesting dynamic. It’s the epitome of competition.”
“We’ll doing anything to stop him from getting a three-peat.”
Chandler’s Make-A-Wish Funny Car team travels to Heartland Park where Iowa native Johnson recalls milestones at hometown track
– It only takesTommy Johnson Jr. three hours to drive from his hometown of Ottumwa, Iowa, to Topeka, Kan.
“It’s kind of like going home for me,” Johnson said of this weekend’s NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series event at Heartland Park Topeka. “It’s close to Iowa so a lot of people I used to race with show up.
“I’ve had a lot of different accomplishments at Heartland Park. I got into the ‘Four Second Club’ there back in the day.”
The milestone was in 1990 when Cragar wheels saluted the first 16 Top Fuel drivers to crack into the 4-second range over a quarter mile.
“It’s a place I always look forward to going back to each year.”
Johnson’s crew chief John Collins also is from Ottumwa.
This weekend, the NHRA Mello Yello series travels to Heartland Park for the 29th annual NHRA Heartland Nationals that is eighth event of the 2017 season.
Johnson and Terry Chandler’s Make-A-Wish Funny Car team plan to bounce back from their first-round slump during the three-race Southern Swing that ended two weeks ago.
“We want to try to turn things around. We kind of went a different direction with the tuning of the car but I like we’re were at now,” said Johnson, who won this year’s title at Las Vegas. “We haven’t had the results we’re looking for but we’re close.”
Johnson hopes Topeka will bring a similar outcome.
“If you’re going to win later in the season you have to be able to keep working all the time and make yourself better when it really counts. We’re working our way in that direction and this weekend we’ll see the results.”
Beckman intends to repeat previous success at Topeka track this weekend where win in 2012 led to NHRA world title
– Jack Beckman arrived at Heartland Park Topeka, Kan., without having posted a win that year.
But he left the NHRA Mello Yello Series event at the track north of Kansas City with the event title and went on to win the professional NHRA Funny Car championship that year.
“Topeka has been very pivotal for me,” Beckman said. “In 2012, it was the first race I won (that year) and it put us on the path to eventually win the championship,” said Beckman, who had won the Super Comp world title in 2003 as an amateur.
History may be able to repeat itself this weekend at the 29th annual NHRA Heartland Nationals as Beckman and Terry Chandler’s Infinite Hero Foundation 2017 Dodge Funny Car team has yet to win an event this season.
“This year our results haven’t quite met our expectations,” he said. “I do think we’ve been doing all the things I think we need to do. In other words, we’ve been making changes to the car, we’ve been listening to the car and we’ve been making it a more consistent car. We’re still dealing with new parts in the bellhousing.
“We got good data on it in Atlanta two weeks ago and made it to the second round. We’re still not where we need to be but we’re getting a lot closer.
The Infinite Hero Foundation team, led by crew chiefs Neal Strausbaugh, Dean Antonelli and John Medlen, travel this weekend to Topeka with the NHRA circuit for the eighth event of the 2017 Mello Yello season. Beckman, who advanced to the final round a year ago at Topeka, ranks sixth in championship points.
“Weather is a factor in Topeka and that’s what makes winning there so special,” said Beckman who was runner-up last year to his Don Schumacher Racing teammate Matt Hagan.
“It’s a very tough track to tame because the weather changes continually there. We don’t know what it has in store for us this weekend.”
Three-time Top Fuel champion Brown looks to cross Topeka win off to-do list for Matco Tools team this weekend at Heartland Park
– The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series heads to Heartland Park Topeka Friday for the NHRA Heartland Nationals, the eighth of 24 stops on the tour in 2017.
Through seven races, three-time and reigning Top Fuel world champion Antron Brown and the Matco Tools team led by crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald with assistant Brad Mason have one event title and one runner-up with a round win-loss record of 14-6.
Two weeks ago in the NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway, the team elected to pull out a new chassis built by the fabrication shop managed by Joe Fitzpatrick at Don Schumacher Racing headquarters.
“The bumpy racetrack at Atlanta put some stress on the chassis we were running, Brad (Mason) saw something he didn’t like and we switched chassis,” Brown explained.
“The boys in the fab shop do incredible work and we pulled out that new chassis for Sunday and had no issues. Hats off to them for doing such an incredible job.”
The Matco Tools team is in search of their first Top Fuel title at Heartland Park Topeka this weekend after they were runner-up last year.
“Topeka is still on our to-do list,” Brown said. “We haven’t got a win there yet and we’d like to change that. I’m excited to get back on track. We had that three in a row and we were getting our groove going.”
The Matco Tools team is ranked fourth in Top Fuel points standings heading into this weekend’s Heartland Nationals.
Hagan reflects on incredible 2016 performance at Heartland Park, ready to defend Topeka title this weekend with DSR’s Mopar team
– The 2016 NHRA Mello Yello Series event at Heartland Park Topeka sticks out in Matt Hagan’s mind.
The Mopar Express Lane team led by crew chief Dickie Venables had a near-perfect weekend a year ago by setting NHRA world records for elapsed time and speed en route to winning the event title.
Hagan piloted his Dodge Charger R/T Powered by Pennzoil to a 3.862-second pass at 335.57 mph to claim the No. 1 qualifying position and set the records. Both marks remain and Hagan matched each in this year’s season-opener in Southern California.
“We were running on mean,” Hagan said of their performance last year at Topeka. “Dickie (Venables) had an incredible handle on it and our car wants to run fast. We’re still figuring out how to back it down when it gets hot out.
“I’m still incredibly proud of what our team accomplished last year but that doesn’t matter right now. We have to get to Topeka, get qualified and worry about four rounds on Sunday.”
The Mopar Express Lane team has two event titles this season and ranks second in Funny Car points standings behind Don Schumacher Racing teammate Ron Capps, who has won the last three event titles including the last one two weeks ago near Atlanta.
“I honestly think we had the car to beat a couple weeks,” he said. “So I really can’t wait to crawl back in and see what we can do. We started off so strong and you want to win them all so when you don’t it just makes you hungrier and that’s where we are right now.”
This weekend’s Heartland Nationals presented kicks off with two qualifying sessions on Friday and Saturday before Sunday’s championship eliminations that will be televised live on FS1 at 2 p.m. EDT.
