As a reporter and a racing fan, I have to admit that I’m a sucker for underdog stories. One of the beautiful things about the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by Lucas Oil is the abundance of independent teams that show up to take a shot at winning on the grandest stage. In an effort to bring you a Reader’s Digest version of this year’s crop of underfunded entries with oversized hearts, I compiled an ABC list of nontouring competitors in Top Fuel.

A is for August. Ron August Jr. made his Professional-class debut behind the wheel of Mitch King’s dragster. August is a Division 7 Top Alcohol Funny Car driver with a national event win to his credit. His agreement with King is a one-race deal that may extend to the Las Vegas and Pomona events. If he indeed drives at those races, he will also be alternating duties with the Top Fueler and his own TAFC, which he also tunes. August’s efforts are sponsored by Lescure Company, Inc., a complete mechanical services company from California’s Bay Area that specializes in HVAC and new construction. 

The car he’s driving is a brand-new McKinney-built dragster that is a twin to teammate Del Cox Jr.’s entry. Paul Smith does the tuning on both. August got to know Smith while beginning the licensing process in Mike Strasburg’s Top Fueler in Salt Lake City earlier this summer, and he completed the feat at O’Reilly Raceway Park a week ago Wednesday with three full runs. King crewmember and sometimes-photographer Chris Graves was kind enough to shoot the pictured photo of August for me.

In the interest of full disclosure, I’m close with Ron and his family, and I wrench on his TAFC during my off weekends. Ron is a fun guy at 45 years old, and he has parlayed his success in racing and running the family business (California Air, which works with Lescure on some projects and is currently involved in the building of new schools) into the pursuit of a round-win in the fuel classes, the last of seven life goals he wrote down for himself when he was 18 that he has left to accomplish. Winning a round might be an ambitious feat in this field, but he’s realistic enough to know what a big accomplishment it would be to qualify.

His father, Ron Sr., is unable to hide his wide smile despite his hardass persona. “Senior” sold a Funny Car that he built for himself in the late-60s before he ever got to drive it so that he could start the family business, and seeing his son make passes in a fueler because of the sacrifices he made for his family would make any father gleam with pride. Ron Jr.’s 9-year-old son Christian is also proud of pops, and he’s even waived his longstanding Funny Car preference to favor his dad’s flamed dragster.

B is for Buff. Troy Buff doesn’t want to outright say that team owner/crew chief Bill Miller is using the biggest race of the year as a test session, but the driver from Spring, Texas, is happy to oblige himself as Miller’s Chuck Yeager. Well, maybe not “happy” per se, but Buff is a good soldier.

“Bill is doing some things to try and pick the car up on the back half where it was a little weak,” explained Buff. “The car started to nose over on the first run and burnt a piston right before I shut off. I shut off at the 330 on the second run even though it felt like it was on a great pass. That was really hard to do, but Bill told me to so I did it.”

The BME/Okuma team may have something for the series regulars if Miller’s theories pan out.

C is for Cox. Del Cox Jr. is taking a race off from fighting for his championship life opposite Bruce Litton in the IHRA series to compete in the most prestigious race of the year in Top Fuel for the first time. Cox has qualified in all four previous attempts this season in Mitch King’s RG Industries/Bexar Waste dragster. The former NHRA Jr. Drag Racing League competitor took over the seat formerly occupied by his good friend Spencer Massey.

Cox fared well while racing in the Top Dragster and Top Sportsman classes in the Division 7 ranks before he moved up to Top Alcohol Dragster last season. Cox became one of few A/Fuel dragster drivers to possess a 280-mph time slip when he posted big speeds in Curt Schendel’s Javid Marusich-tuned entry. Cox received his license upgrade in the minimum two runs in Las Vegas this preseason and has done well ever since. His grandfather, Toad, has been a great supporter of his racing efforts throughout his young career.

D is for Dakin. Pat Dakin competed at this event for the first time in 1971 and scored his first of two career round-wins at this event in 1995 by defeating Connie Kalitta in the first round. The veteran from Dayton, Ohio, got out of racing for several years after a nasty blowover in 1998 but returned to the saddle in one of Mitch King’s entries last season and qualified for the U.S. Nationals.

Dakin ran an impressive 3.88 at 315 mph in the third session to make the top 12. That run was quite a comeback from a troubled Friday morning run in which Dakin broke a crankshaft shortly after the hit and oiled the lane.

Dakin reunited most of his old racing pals to field his current entry, which was put together by Scott “Scoots” Graham after a conversation over 18 holes of golf. Graham had put together a complete operation with ample spares for Dakin’s brother, Mike, that was to be driven by Mike’s son, Chris. However, the declining economy prompted Mike to let his new operation sit idle, and Pat’s renewed enthusiasm gave Graham another project to put together this season.

F is for Fuller. “Hot Rod” Fuller grabbed everybody’s attention last night when he drove Bob Vandergriff Jr.’s untested McAllister Caterpillar entry up toward the top of the qualifying sheet with a 3.88 at 310 mph. We all know the story of the Sportsman-standout-turned-Top Fuel hitter who is clawing his way back onto the full-time circuit after the David Powers/Tim Buckley team folded unexpectedly this offseason. If he can extend his stellar showing late in Monday, the Las Vegas-based driver may come closer to doing just that.

H is for Haddock. People accustomed to seeing Terry Haddock on the tour might have had to take a second look at him at this race. His team was decked out in new uniforms, and his car sported a new look courtesy of versatile, painter-extraordinaire Brian Olsen. It’s difficult for a gritty, all-volunteer team like Haddock’s to prioritize a professional appearance when so much effort is required to get from race to race, but Haddock made a worthy and effective effort.

Doing a lot with a little is something Haddock learned from mentor Paul Smith in his earlier days, and the lessons continue to this day with the help of friend Gary Densham. Densham is on-hand preparing Haddock’s Funny Car for a match race in Martin, Mich. Next week as well as providing a sounding board for Haddock, who calls the shots on his own dragster.

Haddock’s dragster is showing more promise than it has all season with improved early numbers. Last night, Haddock ran a career-best .835 to 60 feet and followed with a very competitive 2.15 to the 330-foot mark before a pesky blower belt snapped. Haddock is excited by what he’s found in his dragster, and he could prove to be a worthy dark horse.

L is for Litton. Most teams have shops in Brownsburg, Ind., and consider ORP the home track. No driver is more at home than Bruce Litton, though, whose shop is literally right across the street. Crew chief Richard Hartman said that they have tested at ORP before by literally towing their dragster from the shop to the waterbox and adding the wings once they reached the staging lanes.

Hartman has spent several years as Litton’s crew chief and also as the tuner of Andy Kelley’s Funny Car after an eventful driving career. Though he loves being able to make a living in drag racing, Hartman admits that the driving bug still eats at him.

“I want to drive really bad,” said Hartman. “It’s an easy decision, though. I didn’t even get paid in my last couple of rides, and it’s hard to do it on your own dime. I might be able to drive for the Kelleys for a race or two, and I get to make laps in a Nostalgia Funny Car to keep the urge under control.

Hartman has tuned Litton to impressive results thus far this weekend considering that it is their first season with a thicker-tubed chassis as per NHRA specifications, and it’s the ebst racetrack they have competed on all season with the setup.

N is for Novelli. Luigi Novelli spent the day licking his wounds after a disastrous Friday night run in which his dragster broke a crankshaft and erupted into a huge fireball downtrack. The veteran racer, who is dubbed “the Rodfather” due to his Italian-American heritage, decided to use his resources wisely and sit out Saturday qualifying in hopes to put forth his best effort on Sunday.

Novelli’s first U.S. Nationals was in 1972, where he lost to Tony Nancy in the opening round. He qualified No. 21 in 1978 and lost to “Big Daddy” Don Garlits in the opener. His last race day start in Indy was in 1979 in yet another 32-car field; Novelli qualified on the bump and lost to Johnny Abbott. Novelli took a racing hiatus from 1981 to 1994, and he has yet to crack the top 16 at the Big Go.

“Qualifying at Indy is something I’d like to do one more time before I quit,” said Novelli. “I feel great, and work is still going good. As long as I’m able to make a little money, I’ll keep coming out here.”

Z is for Zizzo. T.J. Zizzo is hungry to earn his first round-win since Peak Antifreeze came onboard as a sponsor a few years back, and he is staying busy at this race mingling with fans and doing sponsor-related activities with Peak and track title sponsor O'Reilly Auto Parts.

Zizzo updated his dragster by parting with his second-generation Alan Johnson heads that he bought from Shirley Muldowney and installing AJPE-5 heads that he bought used from Kalitta Motorsports. Between the new heads and a new camshaft with a different profile, tuners Mike Kern and Tony Smith did well to figure it out quickly enough to run a 3.94 in last night's session.

"By switching heads, we went from the 1990s to the 2000s," said Zizzo, who runs a small body shop with father Tony. "We tested in Cordova, Ill., last weekend, but this is all mostly new to us. We had it so overtuned at the start of the weekend that we backed it down a bunch before last night's run, so I was pleasantly surprised it ran that number."

Zizzo, who battled current Top Alcohol Dragster hitter Marty Thacker in the UDRA ranks prior to racing in Top Fuel, prides himself in his team's professionalism in spite of being a very low-dollar operation. His team has fared well under the guide of crew chiefs Kern, whose father drove the Chicago Fire fuel altered, and Smith, a dedicated Zizzo crewmember of 18 years. They learned the nitro craft from initial influences Tim Wilkerson and former crew chief Dave Settles.

Tomorrow, I'll bring you the ABCs of Funny Car independents.