NHRA News: Capps follows road race win with fourth-place finish Sunday (8/29/2004)

Capps follows road race win with fourth-place finish Sunday

By Rob Geiger, NHRA.com
8/29/2004

"When you have cars swarming all around you it gets hairy."
– Ron Capps

Fresh off his win in his first-ever road race, Funny Car driver Ron Capps returned to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, Sunday afternoon and collected a fourth-place finish racing against the top professionals in the Skip Barber Formula Dodge series. Capps earned the last position in a field of 14 Expert-class racers by winning a non-points race Saturday.

"I'm very, very happy with my finish," said Capps, who passed nine drivers during the 16-lap race around the 15-turn, 2.4-mile circuit. "I think that's probably about as good as it was going to get for me. I did my best to represent the NHRA and drag racers in general and I couldn't be happier with the results. Now I need to sleep for a week."

Capps finished just 10.6 seconds behind winner Daniel Herrington. Charles Anti and Chris Cook also earned podium finishes ahead of Capps, who ran the fourth-fastest lap of the race.

Pre-race inspection consumes Capps.
Photo by Rick Roso

"I watched these guys practicing yesterday and the skill level they're at is unreal," Capps said. "It's one thing to drive a racecar around a track and go for a good time or speed, but when you have cars swarming all around you it gets hairy. You know you can't even touch wheels with someone because if you do, it's over, you're airborne.

"I started in the back row and you do a rolling start like Formula 1. Right from the start it was mayhem. You have 16 guys trying to get to that first turn and everyone wants position. I found you just need to find you line and stay with it.

"The next thing I knew I was getting a lock on cars and setting guys up to pass them. It was so cool and the car they gave me was very responsive and quick. I just started picking them off one at a time and I somehow got up to fourth place."

During Saturday's action, Capps became friends with many of the top drivers in the series, which routinely places its top aces in rides with Indy and Formula 1 race teams. Sunday, especially by the end of the day, Capps found a slightly cooler reception among his fellow drivers.

"At first it was like a novelty to have a drag racer out there," Capps said. "They were all cool to me and didn't seem to care I was there. They put me on the back row to be nice. But when the helmet goes on, whether you're in a Funny Car or any other type of racecar, it's serious stuff.

Capps hits 90 mph as he dives into Turn 1.
Photo by Rick Roso

"My first inclination was to just survive and try to keep up with everyone but when I realized I had a car that was capable of driving around some people, my instinct to race kicked in and I just went for it. I'm sure some of these guys were surprised to see the No. 39 car go by. Some of them weren't quite as talkative at the end of the day."

Capps pointed to the basic skills he's perfected in drag racing – hand-eye coordination and the ability to think and react in thousandths-of-a-second increments – as well as his experience driving IROC, Busch, Sprint, and Midget cars over the course of his career, as the main reasons for his success Sunday.

"A racecar driver is a racecar driver," Capps said. "I'm used to speed. I'm used to thinking as things develop in a short amount of time. We'd hit 150 mph on the back straightaway, which doesn't seem like much when you're used to 320 mph, but it was different because there are cars all around you and everyone wants to occupy the same space. You have to make a lot of decisions very quickly out there.

"It was quite an experience and I can't thank the guys I raced against or the folks at Skip Barber enough for giving me this opportunity. It was an awesome weekend and I hope I can do it again real soon."

Related story: Capps rides pole to first road course win

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