Team DSR Englishtown Update
Capps, Tobler hope E-Town is where wave of bad luck will depart their NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge team
It’s a good thing that Ron Capps and crew chief Rahn Tobler have healthy, full heads of hair.
Because over the past six NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series events, their NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T has encountered more gremlins than a bad horror flick. And it has continued at the 44th annual Toyota NHRA Nationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park at Englishtown, N.J.
Since winning the NHRA title near Phoenix in the second event of the season, the NAPA team has only advanced to the semifinals in two of the last six events.
It hasn’t been big problems, just nagging little ones that could cause drivers and crew chiefs to pull out their hair.
“Obviously, Tobler isn’t happy,” said Capps, who joined with Tobler to produce the quickest Funny Car run ever a year ago at 3.964 seconds at Englishtown.
The best run the NAPA team could produce in four qualifying sessions Friday and Saturday was a 4.155 at 300.40 mph that earned the Don Schumacher Racing team the No. 11 qualifying spot for Sunday’s 16-car championship eliminations.
“Rahn and I talked the other morning and we just keep getting these little curveballs thrown at us. Sometimes we call them little gremlins. It’s little things that happen here and there. Nothing major. Little parts go out when they shouldn’t go out.
“But this is part of what makes our sport so intriguing and so tough. It’s also what makes it so gratifying when you figure out how to handle those curveballs that are thrown at you. It makes for a better team as the season goes on.
“The coolest part is Tobler is rolling with the punches. He’ll figure it out, and we’ll keep fighting through it.”
Brown, Matco Tools team rallies to No. 11 qualifying spot for Sunday at world champ’s hometown track at Englishtown
– It was bound to happen sooner or later to the most popular driver in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.
Late Friday afternoon, Antron Brown started to lose his voice.
It’s understandable considering the reigning NHRA Top Fuel world champion’s schedule for the week was more grueling that it normally is. He fielded interview requests for returning as the NHRA world champion to his hometown track in Englishtown, N.J., and he spent Tuesday in Virginia testing a stock car in a regional NASCAR series.
Then he spent much of Friday at the 44th annual Toyota NHRA Summernationals visiting with family and friends.
Not only did that take a lot of talking, but he spent considerable time with Matco Tools crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald trying to target gremlins that have that have plagued their dragster since a first-round loss two weeks ago at Topeka, Kan.
The Matco dragster’s rallied Saturday afternoon in the last of four qualifying sessions for their best elapsed time with of 3.877 seconds at 308.50 mph on the second of two days when temperatures were in high 80s to low 90s.
The run was third best of the fourth session.
“That’s what the boys were shooting for,” Brown said. “Brian, Mark they’ve just been plugging away to get our car back the way it was before we had all of those electrical gremlins at the last race (in Topeka). We’re just getting back to square one. That was a good run for that session there. We’re slowly picking away at it and I feel confident like always going into race day. Sunday we won’t have lane choice in the first round but both lanes will be good.”
Before the last session, Brown was going to be paired against DSR teammate Spencer Massey, but Brown was able avoid the matchup by moving up on spot to 11th in the qualifying order.
“That last thing we want to do is race one of our teammates in the first round,” Brown said. “Brian and Mark were able to sort out some problems so we could make the best run we could have made in the heat.”
Brown also has had a pleasant distraction. An NHRA Super Comp dragster owned by his father, Albert Brown, and uncle, Andre Brown, has advanced deep into Sunday’s championship eliminations. Nothing could be better for Brown than to celebrate a pair of family victories on Sunday.
“That would be incredible, but we can’t even think of that right now because there’s so much racing to go. That would definitely be a story. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow.”
Hagan, Magneti Marelli team earn No. 1 qualifying spot at very hot NHRA Summernationals at Englishtown, N.J.
– Two weeks after a first-round loss at Heartland Park Topeka, Matt Hagan’s Magneti Marelli Offered by Mopar/Rocky Boots Funny Car team did what is important to Hagan, they bounced back.
Crew chief Dickie Venables tuned Hagan to a 4.050-second pass at 315 mph on Friday night to earn the No. 1 qualifier spot in the 16-car field at the NHRA Toyota Summernationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park. It is Hagan’s second pole of the 2013 NHRA Mello Yello Drag racing Series season.
“It’s very important that we bounced back from that last race,” Hagan said. “I’m just proud of my guys. We went out first round last race but it wasn’t because the car didn’t go down the racetrack.
“This team has just been great. I’m just so happy with them. The guys’ attitudes, the morale, everyone is happy. I’m tickled to show up to the track every morning, knowing that I’m going to crawl into a car that has the opportunity to go out and go to the No. 1 spot.”
Hagan feels that crew chief Venables and rookie assistant Michael Knudsen deserve the credit for the performance on the track and also for the smiling faces in the their Don Schumacher Racing pit area.
“Dickie has been a real leader out here for us,” Hagan said. “He’s done a phenomenal job. This is his first time in five or six years that he’s had a fair shake at running his own team with his own tune-up.
“Don (Schumacher) has let him run it out here. Dickie’s done nothing but impress me. I’m just very thankful and tickled to be able to work with him. He’s an individual who really, really cares about his job. He is focused and motivated; he leads by example. He drives all of our crew guys and myself to do our best.
The Magneti Marrelli Offered by Mopar team struggled in Saturday’s two qualifying sessions in the heat but Hagan feels they learned exactly what the track can hold.
“You definitely learn something,” Hagan said of Saturday’s attempts, “no matter whether it’s good or bad. Obviously today we would’ve liked to go down the racetrack but the heat affected everybody out there a little bit.
Massey feeling at home for NHRA Summernationals, Battery Extender dragster fifth for Sunday’s eliminations
– Roughly 1,500 miles from his hometown of Fort Worth, Tex., Spencer Massey was able to find a little bit of home at the NHRA Toyota Summernationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, N.J.
The “at home” feeling didn’t come from a fellow Texan at the racetrack, but from Mother Nature’s powerful sunshine and 90-degree heat throughout two days of NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series qualifying.
“It is just so hot here,” Massey said. “It reminds me a bit of racing in Texas, back in the Sportsman days. You’re sitting in the car, sweating, and there’s a bead of sweat that rolls down my forehead into my eye and that just reminds me of the good ol’ days back in Texas when I was younger. I’m comfortable in the heat where some others aren’t. So I don’t know that it’s necessarily an advantage, but it’s not a disadvantage.”
Crew chief Phil Shuler tuned Massey to a 3.816-second pass at 318 mph to claim the fifth spot during Friday night’s key qualifying session, where the track was at its coolest temperature of the weekend.
“Friday night was crucial to get into the top half of the field and run the best we can because we knew today (Saturday) was going to be hot,” said Massey, who won the 2011 event at Englishtown.
But on Saturday, things didn’t go as planned during the third qualifying session. Massey performed the routine burnout, but was unable to get his Battery Extender Powered by Schumacher dragster in reverse and was unable to make the run.
“I could feel the clutch linkage break and I had no way to get it in reverse. I feel bad for holding Bob Vandergriff up, we definitely didn’t mean to do that. We’d rather this happen today than tomorrow during first round.”
Massey was able to recover in the final qualifying session with a 3.935-second pass. He will race Morgan Lucas in the opening round of Sunday’s eliminations.
“Our whole plan today was just to get down the racetrack and go A to B, be consistent and get some good data for Sunday, it’s just as simple as that.”
But they won’t be able to rely on their data from last year’s event at the New Jersey facility.
“We can’t really look at last year because the conditions were different. It was cool last year and that’s definitely not the case this year. It definitely feels like the Summernationals. Last year we ran a 3.728 for the quickest lap at the time.
“We’re just going to go out there tomorrow and try to be consistent and go rounds and hopefully we’ll get that Wally like we did two years ago.”
Optimistic Beckman qualifies No. 3 at Summernationals, sees time quickly approaching for season’s first win
– Jack Beckman is ready to win his first NHRA Funny Car title of the season – more than ready – and he believes his Valvoline NextGen/MTS Mail for Wounded Warriors team could make it happen Sunday in the NHRA Summernationals at Englishtown, N.J.
The first eight Mello Yello Drag Racing Series events haven’t gone the way he or crew chief Todd Smith had expected as they started the year as reigning Funny Car world champions for Don Schumacher Racing.
But Beckman believes their Dodge Charger R/T started to turn the corner two weeks at Topeka, Kan., and continued to progress during qualifying Friday and Saturday at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park.
After not making it down the track under power in Friday’s first session, the team came back to post a time of 4.074 seconds at 308.35 mph, which tied for the second quickest run of the day. It was the hottest day of the season with temperatures ranging from high 80s to low 90s
Beckman’s DSR teammate Matt Hagan won his second No. 1 qualifying position with a run of 4.050 seconds at 315.64 mph on Friday night.
Beckman came back in Saturday’s first session with a 4.171, which was second quickest under the weekend’s hottest conditions.
“We raced the conditions and that was an excellent run for us to tune up for tomorrow and put us in the position to get the first win of the season.
It backed up his optimism after qualifying ninth at a much cooler Topeka when he advanced to only his second semifinals of the year.
“It looks like we’re back to last season’s form,” said Beckman, who is the last of seven DSR drivers to win an NHRA title this season.
“Two weeks ago at Topeka we made seven straight runs down a cool, sticky racetrack.
“Those aren’t anything like the conditions we’re racing in this weekend at Englishtown. It looks like we’re zeroing in on our hot weather tune-up. We want to make sure we have a tune-up for both ends of the weather spectrum.
“What we’ve done over the last two months has been directionally correct with our improvements.
“It looks like we’re back to the point of our car’s tune-up being in the sweet spot where it’s predictable, and that’s when you can start picking up round wins on Sunday and should win a race soon.”
Hagan, Magneti Marelli Dodge team win E-Town pole; Top Fuel points leader Schumacher will start No. 3 for DSR
– Matt Hagan held on Saturday to win his second No. 1 qualifying position for Don Schumacher Racing’s Magneti Marelli Offered by Mopar/Rocky Boots Dodge Charger R/T.
Hagan’s stellar run of 4.050 seconds at 315.64 mph was tuned Friday night by crew chief Dickie Venables and assistant Michael Knudsen.
Temperatures in the high 80s to low 90s on Saturday kept any Funny Car from challenging Hagan’s time in the 44th annual NHRA Toyota Summernationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park at Englishtown, N.J.
It is the 12th pole in the career of the 30-year-old cattle farmer from Christiansburg, Va., who has won an even title this year and ranks third in NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series championship points after eight of 24 events.
In Top Fuel, points leader Tony Schumacher and the U.S. Army team will lead the three DSR dragsters by qualifying third for Sunday’s championship eliminations, which begin at 11 a.m. (ET).
