NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

The 2016 NHRA SpringNationals at Royal Purple Raceway was a race of many small miracles. The fact that the event was completed on its scheduled date was no sure feat considering the severe weather and flooding in the Houston area one week earlier, the threatening rain clouds looming in the area throughout the event, and several on-track mishaps that took place. The wild race included several drivers defying the odds to score upset victories, and there were a handful of crashes and explosions during which each driver will fortunately be able to retell another day.

If any single matchup was symbolic of the event as a whole, it occurred in the last pair of vehicles to go down Royal Purple Raceway on Sunday in the wild final round of NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod Drag Racing Series action. Two-time Top Alcohol Dragster national champion Jim Whiteley took an improbable route to the final from the second-alternate position after Sidnei Frigo and Jonathan Gray both suffered accidents during qualifying. Gray walked away after his car hit the wall, but Frigo’s accident left the Brazilian driver with a broken arm, though he vowed to return to competition after healing when he was on the track on Sunday.

The unlikely circumstances that helped materialize Whiteley’s first Pro Mod victory didn’t end once he made it to the money round. Opposite Rickie Smith, all appeared lost for Whiteley when his supercharged J&A Service/YNot Racing ’69 Chevelle lost traction early and prompted Whiteley to step off the gas. However, Smith’s nitrous-assisted IDG ’15 Camaro made a hard move across the centerline and into the wall in front of Whiteley, heavily damaging the Camaro and disqualifying Smith. The veteran driver was OK as the crowd was able to release their collective breath for the final time that weekend.

Unpredictability is an alluring trait of the category that features blown, turbocharged, and nitrous-assisted doorslammers that go more than 250 mph. The second stop on the 10-race Pro Mod Series happened to be at an event with highlight-worthy moments in other categories, namely Terry McMillen’s massive boomer in the first round of Top Fuel (pictured). The top-end engine explosion was big enough to knock the supercharger off of the car and create a huge fireball. The only thing uncompromised by the incident was the perseverance of the Amalie Motor Oil driver, who vows to be back.

The first round of Top Fuel also featured huge upset wins by former Division 4 Top Alcohol Funny Car racers Scott Palmer and Kebin Kinsley. It was Palmer’s first round-win of the season and Kinsley’s first in his Professional career during the Hennen Motorsports team’s 2016 debut.

The weirdness trickled down to the Top Alcohol Funny Car ranks, where Steve Gasparrelli, who scored his first win in almost a decade, had no opponent in the final round. On a single in the other semifinal matchup, Brian Hough’s car lost fire on the burnout due to a crank trigger malfunction and was unable to stage under power. It was reminiscent of Dennis Taylor’s win in the same category at the 2004 season opener, in which Marc White shut off due to lack of oil pressure and Doug Gordon was instructed to shut off with an oil leak in the other semifinal pair.

NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series winners Doug Kalitta (Top Fuel), Courtney Force (Funny Car), and Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) stood tall at the end of an event that was completed in the looming presence of Murphy’s Law.

Kalitta Konquers: Doug Kalitta scored his first win of the 2016 season. The Mac Tools driver, who last won at the fall Las Vegas event, had the best car on race day several times this season but suffered near-misses in the late rounds. His combined margin of defeat during runner-up and semifinal efforts at the start of the season was .007-second. One had to figure that his day was coming if he maintained his torrid on-track performance.

Kalitta made the quickest pass of the opening round and got the proverbial lucky round when Kebin Kinsley red-lighted against him in round two. He used that as a catalyst to reach the final, where he squared off with Texas native and No. 1 qualifier Steve Torrence, who had just made the two quickest runs of eliminations. Torrence was highly motivated to win at home, and tuning consultant Alan Johnson had been on a roll with Torrence and Brittany Force winning three of the season’s first five races.

The veteran Kalitta got the job done on the starting line with a .036 light to earn a 3.813 to 3.810 holeshot victory over Torrence, who was respectable with a .058 reaction. It was Kalitta’s second consecutive win in Houston and the first win for Kalitta Motorsports with a Bounty Hunter chassis built in the jig at their in-house fabrication shop.

Kalitta’s 39th career Top Fuel win ties him with Antron Brown and Kenny Bernstein for the fourth-most in class history behind Tony Schumacher, Larry Dixon, and Joe Amato. He is now 1 point behind leader Brittany Force in the Mello Yello standings.

Back on top: Courtney Force put a trying 2015 campaign behind her by scoring her first win since the St. Louis event in 2014. She had won three races in a seven-race span prior to a 32-race dry spell that resulted in the reconfiguration of the Traxxas Chevy Camaro team that is now led by crew chiefs Dan Hood and Ronnie Thompson.

Force has had a quiet ascension to the top of the points standings in a wide-open Funny Car class this year. Though she hadn’t been to a final this season prior to Houston, she won rounds at every event to stay in the thick of the points battle.

She won a close race against Tommy Johnson Jr. to get the light in the semi’s by a .007-second margin. She was considered an underdog in the final against Tim Wilkerson, who won Phoenix and Charlotte and recorded career-best numbers in order to qualify No. 1 for the first time in four years and 18th time in his career. The difference in the final was the between-rounds adjustment, namely Force’s crew anticipating the track getting better in cooling conditions and making their best run of the event at 3.913 seconds while Wilkerson slowed to a 3.943. The two drivers are now tied atop the points standings.

Force’s victory makes it five consecutive events that a woman has won in one of the nitro categories.

Piling it on: Another event on the 2016 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series, another display of domination by Ken Black’s trio of Chevy Camaros among the factory hot rods in the Pro Stock class. Greg Anderson and Jason Line have split the first six races of the season with Anderson clinching his third win of 2016 at this event. Teammate Bo Butner, who has two runner-ups this season, also reached the semi’s as he has at all but one event thus far in 2016.

What can you say about the team that hasn’t already been said this year? They clearly did their homework this offseason to come out of the gate strong at the start of the electronic-fuel-injection era. While other teams have been scrambling to catch up, they have kept the throttle down to continue development. On the track, they have been running roughshod over the Pro Stock field.

All three of Anderson’s final-round victories this season have been holeshot wins over Line. Anderson’s Summit Racing Camaro was actually quicker than Line’s during all three eliminations rounds before the final. However, Anderson slowed in the final, but his .029 to .072 advantage on the Tree was enough to garner him a winning margin of one-hundredth of a second.

Anderson is the ultimate competitor who treats every opportunity to win like it could be his last. His competitive edge is as sharp as ever as he makes room to place his 81st career Wally; he is closing in on Bob Glidden’s mark of 85 wins. Though Anderson’s former boss Warren Johnson leads the category at 97 wins, Glidden’s mark is a number ingrained deeply in the minds of drag racing fans much like Don Garlits’ 35 wins in Top Fuel and would be a significant milestone for Anderson to reach this season. The way he is performing, it isn’t unreasonable to think it could be accomplished by midsummer.

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Special Awards

Driver of the race: Doug Kalitta
The Benjamin Button of the Top Fuel category seems to get even better on the Christmas Tree as the years go by. His .036 light in the final round was the best reaction time of the event in the Top Fuel class.

Crew chiefs of the race: Dan Hood and Ronnie Thompson
Their ability to adapt the Traxxas Chevy Camaro to changing track and weather conditions ultimately decided the race in their favor.

Best run: Rickie Smith’s 5.776, Pro Mod semifinals
One run prior to the final that was exciting for all the wrong reasons, Smith lit up the scoreboards with the quickest run by a nitrous-powered entry in NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod Drag Racing Series history.

Best race: Ron Capps vs. Cruz Pedregon, Funny Car round one
Two veterans of the Funny Car battles cut identical reaction times in the first round with Capps taking the finish-line stripe by a mere .005-second.

Biggest upset: Scott Palmer vs. Richie Crampton, Top Fuel round one
The independent racer’s upset over Richie Crampton was his first round-win since the Denver event in 2012. Though Crampton lost traction, Palmer showed well with a 3.92 e.t. Honorable mention goes to Kebin Kinsley, who defeated points leader Brittany Force.