Bob Bode scored his first win in Funny Car, Larry Dixon remained perfect in Top Fuel, Andrew Hines stole the spotlight in Pro Stock Motorcycle, and Jeg Coughlin Jr. won in Pro Stock to earn his fifth Brainerd Wally at the 29th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals.
As the final event of the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series regular season, the event was packed with Countdown drama all the way to the final rounds. A number of drivers clinched positions in qualifying, and although the last spots were claimed in Sunday's first round -- in which Dave Grubnic outlasted Terry McMillen in Top Fuel, Tony Pedregon held off Jeff Arend in Funny Car, Rodger Brogdon denied Kurt Johnson in Pro Stock, and Karen Stoffer and Craig Treble beat out Shawn Gann in Pro Stock Motorcycle – the battle for top seeds and positions raged all the way to the bike final, where Hines took the top spot from Hector Arana with his victory. Earlier, John Force held on by one point for the top seed in Funny Car. [Full Countdown field recap]
Bob Bode
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Bode, a former national-championship boat racer, enjoyed his finest day on dry land when he powered his Arbee.com/Alard Machine Products Impala to the Funny Car winner's circle, upsetting heavily favored Jack Beckman in the final when Beckman's machine lost traction just off the starting line.
“All of this is kind of like a dream I’m afraid I’m gonna wake up from,” said Bode. “I didn’t know if it would ever happen, but now that it did, I can’t believe it happened. It’s the best thing that ever happened to me in my entire life in the racing world. I have a wife and kid, wonderful things there, but the racing world, this is it.
“[Against Beckman] I went up to the line going, 'Well, we’re in the final. If [Beckman] runs another .00, we’re going to be in trouble.' We were trying to run a .14 or maybe something a little bit better. There were no teeth left on the belt, I get up to the finish line, and there were little flames going out, and I’m going, 'I ain’t liftin’,' and I never saw him. But we would have tried for a .12, and we knew that maybe if I had a decent light, I coulda outrun him if he floundered and ran a .10. But we were just going to lay down our number and hopefully he made a mistake, and someone did."
Bode reached the final, the first of his career, on a trio of victories over past national event winners with a series of mid-4-teen passes: former world champ Cruz Pedregon, Englishtown winner Bob Tasca III, and three-time season winner Tim Wilkerson.
Beckman, runner-up here in 2008, didn’t win the event, but he did climb past teammate Matt Hagan and into third place in the standings. Although he only qualified sixth at 4.141, Beckman's special-edition Freightliner Dodge came on like a semi truck Sunday, rattling off passes of 4.057 (low e.t.), 4.080, and 4.089 to reach the final, the 21st of his career and his fourth this season. In his wake, he left Del Worsham, Robert Hight, and 1985 Brainerd winner Jim Head.
Larry Dixon
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Dixon remained perfect in 2010 Top Fuel final rounds, winning his ninth straight in a titanic battle between the top drivers in the standings. Dixon scored in dramatic fashion, running 3.78 to beat McClenathan's 3.81 in one of the quickest side-by-side races in NHRA history. Dixon, who won this race in 1999 and 2001 but since has suffered four final-round defeats (2002, 2005, 2007, and last year) collected victory No. 56.
"I feel fortunate," said Dixon, whose engine suffered damage right as he hit the finish line. "When I lifted, it popped, but I saw the win light and the .78 on the board, and so I knew they weren't taking Cory and the Schumacher team lightly. I got heat-treated a little bit.
"We've won finals so many different ways this year, and there are so many variables that if you have just one hiccup, someone else wins. I've had seasons where I haven't won one race, so to win nine is overwhelming. These races are so hard to win; to win nine period let alone to win nine straight in finals is something."
Dixon, who reached his 100th final in winning the Sonoma event, didn't take long to begin working on his second hundred as he raced the Al-Anabi machine to a steadily improving trio of passes, from a cylinder-dropping 3.91 against Steve Torrence in round one to a 3.82 to defeat Shawn Langdon to a dazzling 3.79 in the semifinals to beat low qualifier Doug Kalitta's 3.83.
Like Beckman, McClenathan improved his Countdown position, eking past Tony Schumacher for the No. 2 seed. McClenathan, a three-time winner this season, reached his sixth final of the year and the 63rd of his Top Fuel career with the Fram dragster by racing past Chris Karamesines, Schumacher, and Grubnic with passes of 3.84, 3.83, and 3.80.
Jeg Coughlin Jr.
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Coughlin, who had won here three times in Pro Stock and, prior to that, once in Super Stock, reached the Brainerd winner's circle again on rookie Shane Gray's close -.001 red-light. It was Coughlin's 65th win and 52nd in Pro Stock.
“I do have to say, the Gray family has done an unbelievable job, and they’re getting a program from nothing to several final-round runnings between the two of them," said Coughlin. "Shane did a heck of a job, and had he turned that thing green by a couple of hundredths, he would have smoked the yellow and black car. We got away with one there because I was late on the Tree in the final.
“This is as close as we’ve been to the points leader all year. That’s the way the playoff and the Countdown to 1 works. We’ve had that work to our advantage for a couple of years and had that work against us last year. This year, we were probably no way, shape, or form going to contend for our sixth world title, but we are."
Coughlin reached his third straight final, his sixth this season, and the 103rd of his combined Full Throttle and Lucas Oil career by powering the yellow and black JEGS.com Cobalt to a steady trio of passes – 6.612, 6.617, and 6.609, all better than the incoming 6.630 track record – to defeat Ron Krisher and last year's finalists, Jason Line and defending event champ Greg Anderson.
Gray leaped two spots in the final standings by reaching his second final of the season and no doubt boosted his chances of winning the Automobile Club of Southern California Raod to the Future Award for the season's top Full Throttle rookie. The Englishtown runner-up drove his Tire Kingdom Pontiac past Rickie Jones and Allen Johnson with runs of 6.63 and 6.62, then defeated his father, Johnny, whom he also beat in the Englishtown semifinals, to reach the final, on a holeshot, 6.66 to 6.63.
Andrew Hines
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Hines clearly was on a mission in Brainerd, leading Pro Stock Motorcycle qualifying from the first session as he worked diligently to chase down reigning season and event champ Arana, who led by 60 points entering the event. He chopped off a small chunk with his outstanding qualifying effort, then finished the job with his win – his second straight and fourth of the year -- against first-time finalist Jim Underdahl, 6.94 to 7.01, for his 22nd win. It's Hines' second win here, having scored in 2007. Older brother Matt won the race three times.
"Big win," said Hines. "I've never been No. 1 going into the playoffs, so it's nice to be in this position. Three or four races ago, we were looking at the points, and Hector had something like a 160-point lead, and we just wrote it off that we wouldn’t make it there. Luck turned to our side, the motorcycle started performing better, and Hector faltered a little bit, and we capitalized on it.
"Hungry guys like Jim Underdahl, you can't take them for granted because you never know what's going to happen. He improved a bit in the final and we slowed down, so I wasn't about to go out there and miss the Tree. They've got Vance & Hines power in that bike, and we're proud of it. They're doing a lot with what they have."
Hines had the bike to beat all weekend, putting the Screamin' Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson on the pole with a track-record 6.915 and running a flurry of low 6.90s to reach the final, the 36th of his career and his third straight. He opened with low e.t. of the meet, 6.904, to beat local Buddy Robinson, then took a crucial victory when Arana fouled in the second round. Hines advanced to the final with a 6.92 by defeating Angie Smith in the semifinals.
Underdahl may not have made the Countdown to 1 playoffs, but the Forest Lake, Minn., hero showed the partial home-state crowd what his Suzuki Extended Care machine was capable of, racing past Craig Treble, Joe DeSantis, and Mike Berry with a pair of six-second runs and a 7.03 in the semi's. The fact that DeSantis and Berry were among Underdahl's late-round conquests bore out the upset-laden nature of the eliminator; three of the four semifinalists had not won a Wally.
In Lucas Oil action, Frank Manzo and Rick Johnson, who scored respective wins in Top Alcohol Funny Car and Super Stock at the inaugural Brainerd event in 1982, reached the winner's circle again. Manzo, the defending world and event champ, beat Tom Carter this year for his 90th victory, and Johnson beat reigning world champ Jimmy DeFrank Jr.
Top Alcohol Dragster honors went to Chris Demke, who defeated Duane Shields, and Dan Fletcher collected win No. 68 in Stock by defeating Ben Line, brother of Pro Stock ace Jason Line. Comp gold went home with points leader Al Ackerman, who defeated Lou Ficco Jr. for his second win this season. Former world champ Gary Stinnett beat Topeka winner Dustin Long in a double-breakout final in Super Comp, and Lance Trujillo scored his first win in Super Gas, turning back Stan Moulzolf in the final round.
In other competition, Adam Fricke took Pro Stock Snowmobile honors over Louie Wirbel.
Related stories:
Saturday: Final fields set, Countdown berths earned in Brainerd
Friday: Bernstein, Force Hood, Johnson, Hines tops in Brainerd