Mac Tools NHRA Gatornationals
Gainesville, Fla.
(March 18-21)
EVENT HOME
Tickets
Event schedule
Results
Star Tracks
Audio Broadcast
Photo Galleries
Video highlights
Driver Appearances
Preview
35th annual |
| Sunday |
|
highlights Mac Tools Gatornationals |
The 35th running of the Mac Tools Gatornationals will forever be remembered as the race where Harley-Davidson broke through for its first Pro Stock Bike victory. With a capacity crowd roaring its appreciation and Willie G. and Bill Davidson watching from the starting line, Andrew Hines (pictured) beat teammate GT Tonglet for the historic win.
Joining Hines in the winner's circle was Top Fuel's Tony Schumacher, Funny Car's Del Worsham, and Pro Stock's Greg Anderson. Schumacher and Worsham both padded their POWERade points lead. Schumacher powered by a tire-smoking Darrell Russell, while Worsham downed John Force by .01 seconds. In his typical dominating style, Anderson simply drove away from Jeg Coughlin to win with a 6.74 to Coughlin's 6.79.
Schumacher made it quite clear as the day progressed how much a win at this history-laden event would mean to him. When it came time to take care of business against his good friend Russell, he rode Alan Johnson's expert tune-up straight to the victory circle, just as he did at the season-opening Winternationals.
 Tony Schumacher
|
Russell was a game opponent, jumping out to a slight .091- to .099-second advantage, but he soon lost traction and his fight to regain control quickly became a lost cause as Schumacher thundered by for a 4.612 to 4.981-second victory.
"I've wanted to win this race my entire life," Schumacher said, "all the way back to when my dad raced here and it was on ABC's Wide World of Sports. Pomona, Indy, and Gainesville, those are the big ones. They might all count the same in the points, but these ones mean more. You look at who has won here before. You see this huge crowd, which might be the biggest one I've ever seen at a race. It all adds up to a big deal.
"The first round was extremely lucky for us. I had to pedal it real quick and we were fortunate to win. That gave Alan a chance to fix some things and then in Round 2 it almost broke loose again but drove through it. By the semi's he was on his game and when we got to the finals he just told me to hold on. You can't give Alan too many chances at a racetrack. He's just too good."
The U.S. Army team extended its POWERade points lead to 66 with Schumacher's second victory of the season. The car actually got quicker as the day progressed, posting a 4.68 over John Smith, a 4.62 against Tim Cullinan, and 4.61s versus surprise semifinalist Scott Weis and Russell. The 1999 NHRA champ has now raced to 13 wins in 33 finals during his career.
Russell opened the day with the quickest pass of the weekend, a 4.593 that dismissed Marshall Topping. The Keystone/DeeZee-sponsored pro then took out teammates Doug Kalitta and Dave Grubnic with a pair of mid-4.6 second passes to reach the 16th final round of his three-year career. Top Fuel results
Worsham continues to run well on race days when he starts eliminations in the bottom half of the Funny Car field. Last season, Worsham collected two of his three national event wins from the lower portion of the ladder. This year, he's logged back-to-back victories after starting from an underdog position.
 Del Worsham
|
Turning it on when he needed it the most, Worsham used a holeshot to edge Force by one hundredth of a second. Worsham reacted in .063- second to Force's .083-second launch, then held off the hard-charging Ford to win with a slightly slower 4.979 to Force's 4.977.
"I never thought I'd win the Mac Tools Gatornationals without running a 300-mph pass all weekend," said Worsham, who now has 110-point lead in the standings. "We started the day 11th but I really wasn't too worried about it because, with the exception of the final qualifying session where we had some small problems, our car was in the top four every round. The main thing was getting by [Gary] Densham in the first round. Once I beat him I relaxed and just raced.
"This is an awesome race to win. I told my wife I was going to win this one for Mac Tools and I went out and did it. I need to get working on a deal with [Las Vegas race sponsor] Summit because I'm on a hot streak right now at races my sponsors have their name on."
Sunday's upsets began for the Checker Schuck's Kragen team when the 11th-seeded Worsham beat sixth-seeded Gary Densham. He then dismissed Jerry Toliver and former teammate Cory Lee to reach his 26th final round, where he knocked off the 12-time champ.
Force made the biggest move of the weekend in the POWERade points standings throughout the professional categories, powering from eighth to second place. Prior to this event, Force had won just one elimination round on the season.
The Castrol GTX High-Mileage Ford Mustang carried Force past Ron Capps, Tony Bartone, and low qualifier Tim Wilkerson to take him to his 169th career final round appearance. Funny Car results
Anderson returned to the dominating driver he was in Pomona with his fifth victory in the last six events and second of the season. Once again, he had the quickest car in qualifying and every elimination session, winning his 18th career event and pushing his points lead to a more comfortable 70 points.
 Greg Anderson
|
Entering the final with a slight performance deficit, Coughlin needed a great light to have a realistic shot at beating Anderson. It didn't happen, as both drivers left within .003-second of one another, which ultimately allowed Anderson to cruise to a 6.742 to 6.790-second win.
"I'm very proud of the light I had in the final," Anderson said. "I knew Jeg would be tough. He'd been three or four hundredths better on the Tree all day and if he had done that in the final it would have been way too close. I was up for it and I'm glad I pulled one out.
"It seems like everyone caught up to us in Phoenix but I actually had the quickest car there also. I just slipped up against [Kurt Johnson] and he beat me. I'm not a machine. I'm human, I make mistakes and those things are gonna happen.
"We got here and had a problem in the first round and panicked a little bit. But once we got back to racing we were fine. I have a great team and I have a lot of confidence in these guys. Who knows what it will be like out here six months from now? Who cares? Right now we're riding a wave and I'm gonna enjoy it."
Like Russell in Top Fuel, Vegas General Construction Pontiac pilot Anderson made the quickest pass of the weekend during eliminations, posting a track-record 6.738 in a Round 1 victory over Steve Schmidt. Anderson then powered away from nemesis Warren Johnson and "Tricky Rickie" Smith to log the 29th final-round appearance of his career, where he beat Coughlin.
Just reaching the final produced a landmark moment in two-time NHRA champion Coughlin's career as it marked the 50th time he raced for a Wally trophy. Coughlin, a 33-time winner in his Jeg's Mail Order Chevrolet Cavalier, beat Barry Grant, Darrell Alderman, and Jim Yates to get his shot at Anderson. Pro Stock results
It was a win-win situation in the final round for the entire Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson V-Rod team as a Hines versus Tonglet pairing left no doubt that a Harley would find the winner's circle for the first time. This one went to Hines as he spotted Tonglet a hundredth of a second headstart but caught him by the first timer, going on to win by a comfortable 7.076- to 7.161-second margin.
 Andrew Hines
|
Hines' win, the first of his career, put him in the POWERade points lead with 14 of 15 races left on the Pro Stock Bike schedule. Tonglet finished the first Bike race of the season in second.
"This is the future of NHRA Pro Stock Bike racing," Hines said. "This is so awesome and the fact everyone from Harley-Davidson is here with us, especially Willie and Bill Davidson, makes it even that much better. To get the first win for Harley-Davidson is unreal and it's monumental for me because it's my first career win. The fact it's such a historic moment makes it very special.
"There are so many people behind us, working hard on this project. I'm proud to give all of the people associated with Harley-Davidson something like this to be proud of. People have been asking us from the start, 'When are you gonna win?' Well, here it is. This is for all of you."
The Davidsons, who are the grandchildren of one of the company's founders, were thrilled with their young hero.
"We got on NHRA.com last night and saw what these bikes were doing and I said, 'We'd better get the hell down to Florida.' So we jumped on our plane and headed south," Willie G. Davidson said. "We thought this might be our time and it was. What a thrill. We've got the backing of a tremendous team and Vance & Hines should be commended for the work they've done. They had to climb a big mountain with these V-Rod motors but we knew that if anyone could do it, it was Byron Hines and Terry Vance."
Starting the day from the top position, Hines beat Josh Helvie, Joe DeSantis, and Karen Stoffer to reach his second career final. His pass against Helvie lowered the Gainesville Raceway elapsed time record to 7.051 seconds, just two-thousandths of a second off the national record.
Tonglet, who collected a win on a Suzuki before joining the Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson team, raced past Chris Bostick, Antron Brown, and reigning champ Geno Scali to reach his fifth career final. Pro Stock Bike results
Former national champ Arthur Gallant returned to the winner's circle with a final-round victory over recent National DRAGSTER feature subject Marty Thacker in a classic A/Fuel Dragster versus blown alcohol dragster final. Gallant's nitro burner dropped a cylinder but got the win, 5.454, 232.73 to 5.572, 265.17. In Alcohol Funny Car, Cy Chesterman eked out a holeshot win over Bob Newberry, 5.620, 250.13 to 5.581 257.65. Chesterman's margin of victory was just: 0.0042-second.
In Comp, Tom Schmidt turned on the red-light to giving Tony Stephenson his first national event win. Dan Fletcher scored his 35th career win, driving his SS/EA Camaro to the Super Stock crown to a (+.029) after a .009 light that forced Michael Iacono to break out with a (-.002) 10.138. Shane Carr, previously a winner in Super Com, scored his second title in Stock, running a dead-on10.780 in the final to beat Jim Harrington's breakout 12.162. Regis Lepage took his first career victory, scoring in Super Comp with a double-breakout triumph over David Tatum III, 8.899 to 8.885.
Saturday's home page
Friday's home page
Preview