Larry Dixon took over the qualifying lead and the provisional points lead in Top Fuel and John Force became the new front man in Funny Car, and they, Mike Edwards, and Karen Stoffer lead qualifying at the halfway point of the drama-filled Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals.
The white-knuckle drama in Top Fuel continued as Dixon, who came into the event trailing Tony Schumacher by one point and lost another point Thursday when he qualified one spot behind the field-leading U.S. Army driver, vaulted right past him by scooping up three bonus points Friday for having the quickest pass of the day's lone session while Schumacher earned none, giving Dixon the one-point lead heading into the final qualifying sessions of the season at the 24th and final race of the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.
Larry Dixon
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Dixon's 3.801 blast in the Alan Johnson/Al-Anabi dragster came alongside Schumacher, who smoked the tires early and watched Dixon's maroon marauder roar to the No. 1 spot to cap a great session. Dixon already has nine pole positions this year and 40 in his great career. Dixon's speed on the pass, 318.99 is a new track record; Spencer Massey originally broke Schumacher's year-old 317.42-mph track speed mark with a 317.94-mph blast on a 3.809 ripper that finished second.
“Provisionally [I’m in the lead]; obviously, it could all flip tomorrow,” said Dixon. “We got two points yesterday and three today, and obviously, we just try to do as much as we can for the given day. Tomorrow, there’s six points on the table, so you want to try and get as much as you can and go into Sunday hopefully a round up as opposed to a round down.
“It’s exciting to come to the last race of the season and have a chance to win a championship. As a driver, unless you’ve wrapped it up with three to go, you definitely want a shot at it. I haven’t been in that position for a while, so I’m enjoying it. This is fun. If you’re not having fun now, you’re never going to have fun.”
Behind Massey's Don Prudhomme-owned rail is Schumacher with his Thursday 3.832, a number matched by Brandon Bernstein, but Schumacher's superior speed, 316.52 to 312.28, gives him the higher position. Kragen O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals champ Doug Kalitta is fifth with his Thursday 3.836, while championship contender Cory McClenathan sits sixth with a 3.838, also record Thursday.
Antron Brown recovered from a subpar 4.59 Thursday to run 3.853, the fourth-best pass of the session behind Dixon, Massey, and Bernstein, while the fifth-best run of the round was a pleasant surprise as Chris "the Golden Greek" Karamesines ran a career-best 3.891 that moved him into the No. 10 spot.
Twenty-four fuel dragsters filled the staging lanes today, including Europeans Urs Erbacher (Switzerland), Lex Joon (The Netherlands), Stig Neergaard (Denmark), and Thomas Nataas (Norway).
John Force
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Force, who knows that one of his drivers — son-in-law Robert Hight or daughter Ashley Force Hood — will win the season championship, has his own agenda as he is trying to extend to 23 the number of consecutive seasons in which he has won at least one NHRA national event, and his stunning 4.060 Friday evening puts him in his best position to do so all year. Force hasn't qualified No. 1 since the 2006 Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, a span of 72 races, the longest drought of his career.
"It's nice to come up and see you," Force told the media, "instead of following Robert or Ashley up here, which is what I usually do. We're just trying to get back in the game. Castrol and Ford pay us good money and we just haven't done our job. This is probably the second-worst season of my career. It's just good to see something come out of this season for me. Being No. 1 qualifier means a lot, and I used to take them for granted.
"There's a lot going on in our camps and where we're going in the future with this economy, so I'm a little tired, but I'm excited. No complaints; I have a pretty good race car, and I'll be in the show. Tomorrow is a new day and guys will run faster; I know Jimmy Prock [crew chief for Hight] will."
Hight, Thursday's leader at 4.093 in his Auto Club Mustang, improved to a 4.069 to take the No. 2 spot and the two bonus points he earned over Force Hood now puts his lead at 110 points. Force Hood is qualified fourth at 4.098 with only Don Schumacher Racing pilot Ron Capps and his NAPA Auto Parts Dodge breaking up the John Force Racing stranglehold with a third-quickest 4.076.
Rookie of the year contender Matt Hagan is qualified fifth with a 4.107, and he's followed on the sheets by the fourth JFR pilot, Mike Neff, who dropped from second to sixth while standing on his Thursday 4.137 pass.
Jeff Diehl is the surprise guy in the No. 12 position with a 4.192 ahead of regular qualifiers such as Del Worsham, Cruz Pedregon, Jeff Arend, and Jerry Toliver. Twenty Funny Cars are competing this weekend for 16 spots.
Mike Edwards
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Wholesale changes were the order of the day in Pro Stock as by the time they ran late in the session, Thursday leaders Edwards and Greg Anderson had been bumped down to Nos. 8 and 12, respectively. Edwards climbed right back to the top with a stunning 6.575 from his ART/Young Life Pontiac, more than three-hundredths ahead of his closest rival.
"It's hard to believe we're that far ahead of everyone, but I don't think it will be that way when qualifying ends," Edwards admitted. "There's quite a difference between the lanes, and some cars didn't run real good in the right lane today.
"The conditions were a little bit better because we got a second full day of racing on the track so it should be even better in the morning tomorrow. We run at about 11 o'clock, and I think I'll have to run better than that 6.57 if I want to stay No. 1. I'm always ready for the season to be over, but we're running so good I almost don't want it to end."
If Edwards stays No. 1, he'll tie Anderson's class record of 16 No. 1 qualifying positions in a season, set in 2004.
Anderson ran 6.630 to improve on his Thursday 6.647 but still slipped to fourth behind Allen Johnson's Dodge (6.611) and Rodger Brogdon's Pontiac (6.621), who earned bonus points for the second- and third-quickest passes of the session.
Anderson's Summit teammate Jason Line is right on his heels with a 6.630, while three drivers — Greg Stanfield, Ronnie Humphrey, and Jeg Coughlin — round out the top eight with matching 6.632s. Coughlin, who didn't get down the track Thursday, opened the session by zipping from No. 22 to No. 1 with a 6.632 but eventually fell back to eighth.
Johnny Gray's Dodge holds down the 12th and final transfer spot to Saturday's qualifying with a 6.642. Among those outside the top 12 are Kurt Johnson, Las Vegas winner Larry Morgan, Warren Johnson, Ron Krisher, V. Gaines, and several others.
Karen Stoffer
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Thursday Pro Stock Motorcycle leaders Stoffer and Andrew Hines remained 1-2 in the field, but they got a more serious challenge Friday as the list of six-second qualifiers doubled to six. Stoffer's GEICO Suzuki still leads with a 6.982 and Hines' Screamin' Eagle Harley is still No. 2 at 6.986 though neither picked up any bonus points in the session as they ran respective passes of 7.03 and 7.46.
“The GEICO Powersports Suzuki was on a good run. I think if we had been in the other lane and had the same setup on it we would have bettered our 6.98,” said Stoffer. “For the Pro Stock Motorcycles, there happens to be a little bit of a difference in the lanes. The top end actually was pretty good; it was the first half of the track that we saw the difference in the track. But we’re happy with it, and we learned a lot about those lanes and the differences — at least for these two days there were some differences.
“Gary was able to come out here yesterday and hit the tune-up pretty darn close, and that put us into the first position. I think tomorrow the conditions are going to be a little bit better, and I think that now that we all have data on both lanes, I think we’re probably going to see even more of those Larry Cook amazing runs come out, and I don’t think the 6.98 is going to hold. I think we’re going to have to better ourselves. I definitely think there’s room for us to improve.”
Larry Cook was the surprise session leader with a 6.987 aboard the Guidera Racing/Mohegan Sun Buell with a 6.987 that ranks him third, while rookie of the year contender Doug Horne rebounded from a Thursday 7.42 to post a 6.989 for the fourth spot, also aboard a Buell. Reigning season champ Eddie Krawiec, trying desperately to catch points leader Hector Arana, got around his foe by one position with a 6.995 that slipped past Arana's Thursday 6.997 and earned Krawiec one bonus point. Arana spun the tires to a disappointing 7.09 Friday.
Jim Underdahl holds down the all-important 12th position with a 7.075 that will carry over to Saturday. Outside the field and needing to make a top-16 pass Saturday are former world champ Matt Smith, Steve Johnson, and 10 others.
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Thursday: Schumacher, Hight, Edwards in championship form; Stoffer also leads