K&N Filters SuperNationals
Englishtown, N.J.
(June 17-20)
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35th annual |
| Sunday |
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Densham, Line, Hines also score |
Reigning two-time Top Fuel champion Larry Dixon finally broke through for his first victory of the 2004 season with a big 4.65-second, 318-mph win over Cory McClenathan. This is the fourth Father's Day weekend in a row where Dixon, a father of two and son of former Top Fuel racer Larry Dixon Sr., has won.
Another pair of fathers, Gary Densham and Andrew Hines, joined Dixon and clan in the winner's circle after winning Funny Car and Pro Stock Bike. Hines did it in style with a national-record-pass of 7.01 seconds, while Densham ended up in the sand trap after beating his boss, John Force. Jason Line also claimed victory here, winning the Pro Stock title over Kurt Johnson.
Dixon seemed more excited about his first win since August 2003 then he did when he clinched the last two POWERade titles. He was obviously focused for the final, cutting a solid .068-second light to Cory Mac's respectable .079-second start. From that point, he never looked back, winning with a 4.657 at 318.92 mph to McClenathan's close, but trailing, 4.703 at 304.39 mph.
 Larry Dixon
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The win was the 34th of Dixon's career, moving him to within one of "Big Daddy" Don Garlits, his lifelong idol. Dixon is fourth on the all-time victory list for the class. He moved from eighth to sixth place in the standings with this victory.
"If I had known I was gonna win every Father's Day I would've started having kids when I was a teenager," Dixon said. "I don't know why it has happened this way but I love it. The TV guys asked if Larry was back. I don't know about that but we did win this race so we're gonna enjoy this day.
"I was pretty excited at the top end. That's a lot of pent-up energy I had to let out. I hadn't won in almost a year. When you're on a streak like we were for the last few years you think it'll never end. Then it does and before long it seems like forever since you've won. Today the car got better every round and so did my driving, so it might sound cheesy but it was a team deal today.
"We got to within one of Garlits but to me he still walks on water. He's a god out here. If I raced the same schedule he raced it would take me 40 years to catch him. Even if I pass him it doesn't mean anything."
Both Dixon and McClenathan started the day in the bottom half of the elimination field. Dixon's Miller Lite rail was ninth, but still managed to take out Doug Herbert, Bobby Lagana Jr., and Columbus winner Darrell Russell to carry the two-time and reigning POWERade champion to his 62nd final round. The win over Russell came after a .070- to .095-second holeshot, with Dixon taking the closest race of the day by two thousandths of a second.
After failing to qualify for just the fifth time in his career last weekend, No. 10 qualifier McClenathan drove his Berryman Products dragster around Scott Weis, Rit Pustari, and Doug Kalitta to put the popular Cory Mac in the money round for the 45th time.
Top Fuel points leader Tony Schumacher and low qualifier Brandon Bernstein both lost in the opening session, which allowed Doug Kalitta to close to within 48 points of the championship lead and 10 points of second-place points earner Bernstein. Top Fuel results
Funny Car victor Densham had a wild ride just after collecting his seventh career win. After flying through the timers in 5.004 seconds at 311.70 mph ahead of Force's resigned 5.902 at 175 mph, the former schoolteacher parachutes did not deploy and he couldn't get his car stopped in time to avoid the sand trap and catch-net at the top end of the track. He still emerged with his trademark smile intact, with team owner Force the first one on hand to congratulate him.
 Gary Densham
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"I beat the boss and ruined his car at the same time. How dumb am I?" Densham said. "I don't know what happened. Maybe the 'chutes got hung up for a second or I probably drove it too far to make sure I'd turned on the win light, I don't know. I've been racing 40 years and that's the first time I've ever played in the sand.
"I'm embarrassed, to be honest, but John was right there to tell me, 'You're fired.' No seriously, he is a great boss and he told me not to worry about it. He just came over to congratulate me and make sure I was okay. We went up there to race. I'm still trying to talk him into letting me win it all this year."
"If that final doesn't prove that we race straight-up on this team, nothing will," Force said.
While most cars struggled to find any sort of consistency in the heat, Force's Castrol Start-Up Ford Mustang was picture-perfect until the final, keeping the 12-time champion in the mid to low 4.9-second range in the early rounds. He started with a 4.92-second win over Jeff Arend, used a 4.93 to beat former teammate Tony Pedregon, and a 4.95 against Gary Scelzi to reach his record 172nd final round.
It wasn't quite as easy for Densham, who piloted his Automobile Club of Southern California Ford Mustang to identical 4.991-second wins over Bob Gilbertson and Tom Wilkerson before surviving a 5.16 effort against new points leader Del Worsham, whose car caught fire.
Matco's Whit Bazemore entered the race having held the points lead for the past three events but his first-round loss to Worsham coupled with Worsham's semifinal showing gave the lead back to the Checker Schuck's Kragen driver. Earlier this year, Worsham held the points lead for six straight races before losing it to Bazemore in Chicago. Currently, Worsham is 20 points up on Bazemore and 42 up on Force. Funny Car results
The Pro Stock final pitted the only two drivers other than Greg Anderson to have won a race this year against one another. This time it was Anderson's teammate Line taking his second career victory with a wire-to-wire job on Kurt Johnson. Line left first with a .028 to .041-second edge and reached the finish line first with a 6.761 at 203.58 mph to Johnson's 6.771 at 204.29 mph.
 Jason Line
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Line's Rookie of the Year campaign now includes two wins in four finals, with one low qualifying effort thrown in for good measure.
"The biggest surprise of the day is Greg losing in the first round, not so much me winning, although I am stunned the second one came this quick," Line said. "My first win was great but it was a little bittersweet because I beat Greg in the final and it ended his quest to win six in a row, which would've been quite an accomplishment. This time I didn't need to worry about it. Greg was right there rooting me on and he helped prepare the car all day.
"My folks were there when I won the first one but they were home today. I did get to tell dad, 'Happy Father's Day' on TV, so that was very cool. He'll definitely be the first phone call I make when I get a minute."
The KB Framers Pontiac Grand Am carried Line past frontline racers Ken Koretsky, Larry Morgan, and Steve Johns. ACDelco's Johnson had to run a gauntlet of former POWERade champion to reach his 54th money round. He beat Jeg Coughlin in Round 1, Jim Yates in the quarterfinals, and Darrell Alderman in the semifinals.
Johnson made up about as much ground as one could expect on Anderson, who lost in the first-round, but he's still a whopping 322 points back in second place. Pro Stock results
Hines capped his weekend off by lowering the national record to a tantalizing 7.016 at 192.28 mph in a big victory over Craig Treble. Despite Treble's early jump, this one was never really in doubt with Hines bringing the capacity crowd to its feet with Harley-Davidson's third win in class history.
 Andrew Hines
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It was Hines second win in a row and third of his career, which gives the POWERade points leader a 185-point advantage over his nearest rival with six of 15 Pro Stock Bike races in the books.
"To run a bunch of 7.0s all day, let alone a national record, in the final, no less, is just awesome," Hines said. "If we stayed until it got dark and made one more run, I'd guarantee you we'd be in the sixes [six-second range] but under the conditions we had, the 7.01 was the best we could do. That run was perfect.
"Sixes or not, we're still happy as ever. We got the win and collected the most points you can get at one event so we're really happy with the weekend. The Harley is so quick that it's hard to have a slow pass. I just pop the clutch and hit the shift points and the bike does the rest of the work."
Just as he was in qualifying, Hines was peerless on race day, blasting past Karen Stoffer, Fred Collis, and the red-hot Steve Johnson to reach his third final in a row and fifth of his career. Along the way, the Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson V-Rod rider posted the three quickest passes in Pro Stock Bike history, lowering the national record to 7.020 seconds in Round 1, posting a 7.028 in the semi's, and the 7.016 against Treble.
Treble's 15th final-round showing and first in 2004 came after steady wins over Fred Camarena, Geno Scali, and Shawn Gann, who red-lighted at the start. The Matco Tools rider has seven career victories. Pro Stock Bike results
Al Billes, of Barrie, Ont., drove his 1953 Corvette to his third AMS Pro Modified Challenge victory this season, defeating the InfiNet Insurance/Unique Performance-sponsored Danny Rowe in the final round.
Rowe's teammate, Mike Ashley, re-established the AMS Pro Modified Challenge World Record with a 6.214 elapsed time during the first round of eliminations.
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