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Jim Hughes

It wasn't a classic, dominating, wire-to-wire performance, but Jim Hughes' 2002 Super Comp season, which appeared to be dangerously close to stalling at one point, ended with yet more evidence that, over the course of a grueling nine-month season, how a driver finishes the journey can be just as important as how he begins it.

Thoughts of an NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series championship must have seemed fanciful to Hughes after he had completed the first three of what would turn out to be 19 Super Comp races this season. Each of those events - the season-opening K&N Filters Winternationals, the Checker Schuck's Kragen Nationals, and the LODRS race in Phoenix - ended the same way for Hughes: a second-round loss and 40 points deposited into his national points account. Although championships are not built 40 points at a time, Hughes says he was quietly confident that things would begin to turn around for the better.

"A lot of it was that I just kind of refocused," Hughes said of the early stages of his 2002 season. "I made some changes to our race team, and I also got tips from some good friends [relating to] my focus on life and how I feel about certain things, and it really began to come together after a while. Having confidence in yourself is very important. When somebody tells you, 'I know you can do it,' and you believe in that, it can really be a big factor."

Things began to pick up for Hughes as the calendar turned from March to April. First, he reached the fourth round at the Tucson divisional event - his third consecutive race in his home state of Arizona - then he did the same at the NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals in Las Vegas, where he also won the Super Gas competition. Still, after five events, Hughes had earned no single score better than 61 points in Super Comp, and he was already noticeably dipping into his points-scoring quota of six national and eight divisional events.

Then came a breakthrough performance at the O'Reilly Spring Nationals presented by Pennzoil in Houston. Hughes blitzed through seven rounds of competition to win his second career national event in Super Comp, sealing the deal with a final-round win over door-car driver Larry Scarth, a fellow Division 7 competitor. The 105 points he received for winning the Spring Nationals pushed Hughes into the thick of the points chase, where he was to remain for the balance of the season.

"There are benefits to driving two cars, and I think you can see that right there," Hughes said of his Las Vegas-Houston double. "Winning in Vegas was a turning point, and we were able to keep up that momentum and win the following race in Houston."

In June, Hughes also ensured that the divisional side of his points ledger would be filled with high numbers when he won the LODRS event at Infineon Raceway. That was to be the first of three divisional event wins for Hughes, who also visited the winner's circle in Earlville, Iowa, and Pomona and ended up scoring more than half of his final total of 636 points in those three events.

All three of his LODRS wins were important in Hughes' march to the 2002 championship, but the Earlville and Pomona events both stick out, albeit for different reasons. The win in Iowa required Hughes to leave the friendly and familiar confines of Division 7 and race against a field full of Division 5 hitters who would have liked nothing better than to knock off one of the sport's more recognizable Sportsman racers. The Pomona victory came against a huge field and required eight round-wins, and the event as a whole took on more significance for a number of Sportsman racers when rain forced its completion to be moved from August to October and from Pomona to Las Vegas. With only the LODRS event in Las Vegas - run on the same weekend as the Pomona makeup - and the season-ending Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals remaining on the 2002 NHRA calendar, points from Pomona were like gold to any driver fighting for a championship or a spot in the top 10.

"Knowing for two months that I would be going to Las Vegas to race [fellow top 10 driver] Mike Ferderer in my next round was tough," said Hughes. "That was a pivotal point for both of us. We had a really good race [Hughes won, 9.06 to 9.07 on the 9.05 altitude-adjusted index], and afterwards I said, 'Okay, let's keep it going.' "

Following the Pomona/Las Vegas two-race weekend, only the NHRA Finals stood between Hughes and his first season title. Division 1 driver Kent Hanley, a two-time winner on the divisional level, was the only competitor with a mathematical chance to catch Hughes, although he needed at least a semifinal finish to do so. With all of his points-scoring opportunities already used, Hughes entered the event looking for a trophy, a winner's check, and the chance to block Hanley from the title if the opportunity arose. Following two days of rain and only one round of Super Comp on Sunday, the suspense ended early on makeup day Monday when Hanley lost his second-round race to Mark Cook and did not improve upon his 604-point total.

"Kevin [Kleineweber], my crew chief, was watching Hanley's race, but I was back in the lanes getting suited up, and I thought, 'What will be will be,' " said Hughes, who also gets crew help from James Campbell. "I knew that he had lost when I saw Kevin come flying around the corner looking like a little pogo stick. Right then I knew that that was it.

"Kent Hanley had an awesome year, and I give him and his family a lot of credit for coming to Pomona and trying to go rounds because they were dealing with a recent death in the family. Kent and his wife both came over later and very graciously congratulated me. They're very nice people, and they went through a lot just to be there."

In addition to the trophy, the money, and the prestige, the 2002 LODRS championship has given Hughes the satisfaction that his racing philosophy is a valid one. The Arizona racer's "one round at a time" approach might seem like a well-worn cliché, but Hughes' title proves that, in the right hands, it's also a very effective one.

"You take one round at a time, and you try to keep the same focus, the same demeanor, throughout the entire race," said Hughes. "Sometimes, when you start getting to the quarters or the semi's or the final, it's easy to get real excited and real emotional, but you've got to keep on an even plane throughout the entire race. I was in six finals this year and I won all six, and I think a lot of that has to do with focus. The race isn't over until it's over."

Hughes' 2002 track record 636 points
K&N Filters Winternationals	Round two
Southwestern Int'l Raceway (Div. 7)	Round four
NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals	Round four
O'Reilly Spring Nationals	Won event
Sacramento Raceway Park (Div. 7)	Round three
Infineon Raceway (Div. 7)	Won event
Pomona Raceway (Div. 7)	Won event
Tri-State Raceway (Div. 5)	Won event