NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Leah Pritchett and Courtney Force showed the boys how it’s done on the second day of Nitro Spring Training at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park, setting the pace in Top Fuel and Funny Car, respectively.

 

Force had the day’s “wow!” moment when she powered her Advance Auto Parts Chevy Camaro to a 3.804, unofficially the quickest elapsed time in Funny Car history. Pritchett, meanwhile, charted a dazzling 3.677, unofficially the fourth quickest in Top Fuel history.

 

Pritchett’s fine outing continued her love affair with Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park, where last season she scored her first career Top Fuel win, continued into 2017 as the driver of the Papa John’s dragster for Don Schumacher Racing had the day's two quickest passes.

 

Tuned by Todd Okuhara and Joe Barlam, the gold dragster was the class of the fuel dragster field, preceding her 3.67 with a 3.685.

 

“I’ll be honest, it’s pretty cool, but ultimately, it’s not Pomona, right?” said Pritchett. “It’s not qualifying. What it means to me is all the hard work that the Papa John’s team has put in this entire off-season came to fruition. Now for us, it’s about our incremental numbers. Yes, we clocked our best career time, 3.68 this morning. We were like, ‘Alright, that’s good’. Yesterday we had even better numbers, and then today we solidified it with our 3.67, another career best e.t. for me. It means a lot, but one thing for sure that I’m focusing on this year is not getting ahead of myself, on not getting too hyped up on those things. That’s because Todd Okuhara and Joe, they know what they’re doing, they spent a lot of time on creating power for this motor, and now it’s finally starting to show. So that’s what it means to me is that they’ve done a kick ass job and now we’re putting it on the track.”

 

National record holder Steve Torrence joined Pritchett in the 3.6-second range with 3.691 from his Capco Contractors dragster.

 

Doug Kalitta put down a pair of fine runs in the Mac Tools machine at 3.703 and 3.716 while Brittany Force was not only quick but consistent with a quartet of passes: 3.739, 3.734,  3.729, and a final (and best) 3.704.

 

Force and crew chief Danny Hood were spectacular Friday with four full passes, three of which topped the sheets. In addition to her jaw-dropping 3.804, she also recorded runs of 3.841, 3.847, and 3.865.

 

 

Reigning world champ Ron Capps also had a good day, clocking passes of 3.854 and 3.861. Force’s teammate, Robert Hight, was in the mix, too, with a best pass of 3.859.

Alexis DeJoria is back in action and feeling good after having to sit out the season-ending Auto Club NHRA Finals with a concussion suffered when her Tequila Patron Toyota made hard contact with the guardwall during final qualifying in Las Vegas. After two planned early shutoffs that yielded a best of 4.00, DeJoria is confident and plans full runs today.

 

“The concussion symptoms lasted almost two months, but I feel great now,” she said. “It’s just such a hard thing to get through. You just don’t feel like yourself. From the moment you wake up until you go to sleep, you feel hazy and just like another version of yourself. There’s nothing you can do for it but rest. My doctor told me I just needed to live like a cavewoman: No bright lights, no sudden movements, no phones, no social media, no electronics, and if you want to watch a movie, make it a comedy. If you’re hungry, eat; if you’re tired, sleep. Right now I feel good, and I’m excited about this year.

“Yesterday we were just shaking everything down, making sure everything is right. We changed some things to make it more like the DHL car and knocking the dust off of me, of course.”

 

Nicky Boninfante, who joined the crew this year after working on the DHL team last year, also reports that the team has made some changes to the headers that will provide more front-end downforce while not affecting the forward thrust offered by the layback angle or having to run more front-end weight.

 

 

Chad Green is making licensing runs during testing in Tim Wilkerson’s Levi, Ray & Shoup Funny Car working towards his nitro license. Green, who races a nitrous-fed ’63 Corvette Pro Mod-type machine on the PDRA circuit (3.90s at almost 200 mph on the eighth-mile), already has an Alcohol Funny Car license after attending the Frank Hawley Drag Racing School.

 

Although Green, who hails from Midland, Texas, does not have immediate plans to race in Funny Car he’s looking down the road at least a year with hopes of making the circuit.

 

“This is something I’ve always wanted to do, and the right opportunity came around to do it with Tim,” he said. “I’d love to do this full time, but we’ll see how it goes. We’re still running to run Pro Mod this year and do this and see what happens.”

 

Asked what advice Wilkerson had given him, the words were simple and direct: “Relax, keep calm, respect the car, and stay safe.”

Chris Bennett was hoping to finish his nitro Funny Car licensing during the test session, but unexpected problems have forced them to scuttle those plans.

 

Bennett, whose father, Jeff, has owned nitro cars for years, has competed previously on the Nostalgia Funny Car circuit and in a fuel altered, but is realizing a lifelong dream in trying to run a “big show” car. The Bennetts have teamed with longtime family friend Brad Miner and tuner Scott Gaddy (who previously worked for the Doug Herbert and many others) to make that dream a reality with their No Mercy Racing Impala. (pictured, from left: Jeff Bennett, Miner, Chris Bennett)

 

The car made its debut at last year’s spring Las Vegas event with Jon Capps driving, but Bennett tested in the car after that event as well as after the fall Las Vegas event and also put down some laps in Robert Schwab’s car at Rocky Mountain Raceways. The retired Air Force pilot, who today trains drone pilots, needs to run 4.70 at 230 to upgrade his license.

 

With a part-time, volunteer crew, even if he gets his license Bennett probably won’t make the Circle K NHRA Winternationals but will look to the NHRA Arizona Nationals for his debut, and possibly the Denso Spark Plugs NHRA Nationals in Las Vegas after that.