Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals
Atlanta, Ga.
(May 13-16)
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24th Annual |
| Sunday |
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to accompany Anderson's sixth win |
With the big dogs out early, a hungry chase pack of nitro drivers made charges up the POWERade standings Sunday at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals in Atlanta. As leaders Tony Schumacher and Del Worsham watched from the sidelines, Cory McClenathan and Whit Bazemore both streaked up the rankings with big wins that are sure to heat up the championship chase.
In Pro Stock, Greg Anderson overcame a weekend full of obstacles for his sixth win of the season, this one over low qualifier Larry Morgan. In Pro Stock Bike, Angelle Savoie threw the switch on the time machine and returned to the dominance she enjoyed during her championship reign with her 32nd career victory.
The likable McClenathan shed a big monkey Sunday by breaking through for his first victory since the fall event in Pomona at the end of the 2002 season. He had to survive a tough final against red-hot Clay Millican, but his 4.651 at 320.74 mph gave him career win No. 28 – fifth all-time in class history – with Millican charging home in 4.700 at 315.93 mph.
 Cory McClenathan
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McClenathan took full advantage of the early exits of most of the cars ahead of him in the standings to move all the way up to fourth place for the first time since last August. At day's end, McClenathan is exactly 200 points, or 10 rounds, behind Schumacher.
"I don't know that I would have bet on myself today," McClenathan said. "You do reach a point where you start to doubt yourself a little. You wonder if it will ever gonna come again. To be honest I was glad when we got out of the first round with a win. I was really happy just to be going to the final. Win No. 28 has been a long time coming and it's awesome to deliver it to the Carrier Brothers and Berryman Products.
"Todd [Smith, crew chief] has really matured since he joined us at Las Vegas. He's very calm, way more than I am, and I think we make a good team. I have my thoughts and we always have good talks about the car. Today we just stopped making big changes. We knew it would be hot and we decided to get down the track every time no matter what. It worked and I couldn't be more happy and relieved."
The Berryman Products crew helped McClenathan fight his way past Scott Weis, Brandon Bernstein, and Scott Kalitta to arrange C-Mac's 45th chance at a Wally trophy. When the pressure was on, he delivered, giving team owners Mark and Andy Carrier their first win.
Millican's third successive final-round showing came from wins over reigning NHRA champion Larry Dixon, low qualifier Dave Grubnic, and Doug Kalitta. The 104+ Octane Boost driver has moved from 14th to sixth in the POWERade points over the last three events.
For the first time in nine races, points leader Tony Schumacher lost in the first round. However, second-place driver Bernstein only managed to make up 20 points on the day and still trails Schumacher by 66 in the standings. Top Fuel results
It was an all-Team Schumacher affair in the Funny Car finale with Bazemore zooming away from Gary Scelzi, who smoked his tires almost immediately after stepping on the accelerator. Bazemore might have been beatable as his engine labored downtrack, but his 5.025 at 299.80 mph was more than enough to earn him his 16th career win and second at the racetrack he frequented as a kid.
 Whit Bazemore
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Bazemore's biggest move of the day came in the standings where he moved up four spots to second overall, just 51 points behind leader Worsham. For his part, Scelzi moved into contention as well by climbing three rungs to fifth place.
"To win here twice is unbelievable," Bazemore said. "This is the place where I saw my first drag race, where all my dreams started. It's emotional. The points are the same and the money's the same, but some races mean more than others to the people involved and Atlanta means a lot to me.
"You look at the world and we have soldiers fighting for us in Iraq. Without them we wouldn't be here doing this so you have to thank them for allowing all of us to live our dreams. This is a great country.
"We're really trying to win the championship. We got close last year but we needed more. To win that deal you have to have lots of weekends like this one. It's just very tough. We saw [John] Force lose in Round 1 and Del [Worsham] lose in Round 2. No one is safe. You make one mistake and you're done. Of course, that makes the wins all the better."
Emerging from the No. 2 qualifying position, Bazemore and his Matco Tools Dodge Stratus R/T powered away from Ron Capps, points leader Del Worsham, and Tim Wilkerson to carry Bazemore to his second consecutive trophy round, his third final of the year, and his 39th career money round.
Three-time Top Fuel champion Scelzi drove his Hemi Oakley Dodge Stratus R/T to his 41st career final (third since switching to Funny Car) with victories over Jim Head, Jerry Toliver, and surprise semifinalist Bob Gilbertson, who hadn't won a round this year until this race. Funny Car results
Anderson's win in Pro Stock, a 6.812 to 6.850 come-from-behind nail-biter over Larry Morgan, was the fifth in a row for the reigning POWERade champion, making him, 10-time NHRA champion Bob Glidden, and Ronnie Sox the only drivers in history to accomplish that feat.
 Greg Anderson
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This one came after a weekend of frustration with Anderson's primary engine suffering major damage in the first round of qualifying. His team had to pull a couple of all-nighters to repair the powerplant, but they got it back to Atlanta Dragway in time for Anderson to move his record to 6-0 in final-round showings this year.
"We flew the space shuttle to the moon, reloaded on exotic parts, put the motor back together, and we have a good car again," said Anderson, who now has 22 national event wins to his credit. "That's probably the going to be the story so we'll just agree with it for the sake of argument.
"[Teammate and tuner] Jason Line did leave here as soon as we finished yesterday and drove to our shop in Charlotte to dyno my motor and bring it back here. He got back at 3 a.m. and then worked all day today. He's a true team player. We broke a lifter Friday and the guys back home worked their tails off to get it fixed. It's still not where we need it to be but it was better than our No. 3 motor. We'll get back after it now and try to be ready for Chicago."
Although he wasn't as dominant as he's been in other events, Anderson did enough to get his Vegas General Construction Pontiac Grand Am past Mike Edwards, Dave Connolly, and teammate Jason Line to reach the 33rd final of his career. The .004-second win over Line came courtesy of a .01-second holeshot.
Low qualifier Morgan was running like a bracket car Sunday, posting low 6.8-second passes with ease as he dispatched Steve Johns, Bruce Allen, and Kurt Johnson to reach his 24th career money round. The Team Mopar Dodge Stratus R/T driver last won at the 2002 Sonoma event.
Prior to his semifinal match-up with Kurt Johnson, Morgan waited in the water box for over a minute as K.J.'s ACDelco crew struggled to take off the hood and make some frantic adjustments. Official starter Rick Stewart eventually decided Johnson's time was up and waved Morgan forward, but Morgan refused to budge for several moments. Eventually, as Stewart emphatically motioned it was time to race or be thrown out, Morgan reluctantly started his car, completed his pre-race routine, and made his pass, just as Johnson made it to the water box. Pro Stock results
Savoie looked just like the rider who won three straight NHRA championships from 2000-2002 with a dominating weekend of drag racing. Starting the day as the No. 1 qualifier, Savoie posted the quickest elapsed time of every round in winning her first race in nearly a year and the 32nd of her 108-race career.
 Angelle Savoie
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Spurred on by a partisan Atlanta crowd that has seen her win three times here in the past, Savoie uncorked the quickest pass of the weekend against final-round foe Shawn Gann, posting a 7.119 at 191.59 mph against Gann's 7.248 at 186.15 mph.
"It seems like I've been tested a lot this last year," Savoie said. "Especially with my on-track performance, especially since we got the Army deal last year. It feels so good to win. This reminds me that you have to struggle in life so that you remember to appreciate the good times when they happen.
"This team is great. I had to race my teammate Antron [Brown], which I hate, but when we were leaving the pit our crew chief Mark Peiser said, 'Okay guys, let's go kick our butts.' It's definitely a true team over here and Antron helped me all day, even before we raced each other.
"It's great to see two women win back-to-back races. I don't know if that's ever happened before. Karen [Stoffer] was up there rooting for us in the final and she gave me the thumbs up and wished me luck. I doubt too many people thought the girls would be running like this."
The U.S. Army Suzuki had little trouble carrying Savoie past Josh Helvie, teammate Antron Brown, GT Tonglet, and Gann. Her slowest pass of the day was a 7.160 in the semifinals.
Like Savoie, it's been almost a year since Gann and his Mac Tools team visited a winner's circle, having last done so in Englishtown, N.J. This time the two-time national event winner beat Tommy Grimes, reigning champ Geno Scali, and Fred Collis with a string of low 7.2-second passes to reach his ninth career final round.
Tonglet's semifinal finish moved him up to second place in the POWERade points, placing the two Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson V-Rods first and second in the class. Points leader Andrew Hines lost to his teammate Tonglet in the quarterfinals but has a 25-point edge for in-pit bragging rights Pro Stock Bike results
David Wells scored his sixth national event win in Alcohol Dragster at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals presented by Pontiac when first-time finalist Ashley Force smoked the tires in the final at Atlanta Dragway. Paul Lee pulled off a major upset in Alcohol Funny Car, outlasting a quality field and capping his in with a 5.74 to 5.69 holeshot win over Jay Payne.
In Comp, Raymond Martin scored his fifth career win on Larry Pritchett's final-round red-light while Tim Cole who won the SPORTSnationals earlier this year, scored his sixth career win by default, on Eric Wingo's red-light in the final round of Stock.
A pair of former national champs scored in the Super classes as 1987 Super Comp king Steve Cohen scored his 12th career win over Ross Laris while 1990 Super Gas national champ Sherman Adcock Jr. scored in Super Gas when he defeated Chuck Rothermel in the final. David Anspach, appearing in his third final, scored his first win in Super Street in a 10.896 to 10.887 double-breakout final against Lamar Majors.
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