Compiled by Ian Tocher
6/23/04
n
June 18-20, Old Bridge Township Raceway Park hosted the 35th annual K&N
Filters NHRA SuperNationals presented by Strauss Discount Auto. Here’s
the whole story, as told by the racers in their own words in NHRA and team press
releases.
TOP FUEL
“We need to go a little quicker than a .73, but at the same time we need to go from A to B. I haven’t done that in eight runs and I finally got to do that today. I got to use my chutes and I’m happy about that.” -- Cory McClenathan after qualifying 10th at 4.736 seconds and referring to a series of troubled runs dating back to his DNQ effort at the previous race in Columbus, OH
“With the accident last year and the first-round loss this year, we need to find a way to tame this track and get back on its good side.” -- Brandon Bernstein on his less-than-stellar performances at Englishtown
“It’s tough having to beat your teammate in round one and then face the other teammate in the next round.” -- Scott Kalitta after beating David Grubnic in round one, but before falling to cousin Doug Kalitta in round two
“That was a close one.” -- D. Kalitta on his semi-final loss to McClenathan by just six-thousandths
“There nothing like going to a final round. I’m happy. We moved up in points a little bit and put a little gap between us and the people behind us. That’s a good thing.” -- McClenathan seeing the positive side after falling to Larry Dixon in the big-money round
“We went back to what we knew after Columbus. This car has worked well ever since we had it. I say we keep it for a while and race it.” -- Mark Carrier, team owner for Cory Mac on switching back to a tried-and-true chassis after debuting new pipe in their DNQ effort a week earlier
“When you’re on a streak like we were for the last few years you think it’ll never end. Then it does and before long, it seems like forever since you’ve won.” -- Dixon on earning his first win since August 2003, and the 34th victory of his career
“If I had known that I was gonna’ win every Father’s Day I would have started having kids when I was a teenager.” -- Dixon again, on also winning on Father’s Day at Columbus last year
FUNNY CAR
“The first lap was pretty much of a mess, for nearly everyone. It was very hot, very humid, and the track was particularly loose from 660-feet on. Only the fact that John Force made a full pull kept me from thinking it was impossible to do, or at least improbable.” -- Del Worsham after Friday’s first round of qualifying
“It’s really cool to do this for the first time with my dad on Father’s Day weekend. To have him working side-by-side with me and to drive the car he tunes is just tremendous. It’s great to give him a Father’s Day present like this.” -- Eric Medlen on earning his career-first number-one qualifying position
 “We put our lucky tires on the car, the same ones that got us in the show in Topeka, and it worked out great.” -- Jeff Arend after qualifying in the 10th spot for raceday |
“It’s a great opportunity. They’re a tough team. It’s an opportunity for us to go out and put more ground between them than we would otherwise be able to do.” -- Whit Bazemore, points leader heading into the E-town race, on facing second-in-points Worsham in the opening round of eliminations
“Running each other makes quick work of it, and we’ll all know after round one who is going to be leaving here in first place.” -- Worsham on the ramifications of his first-round pairing with Bazemore
“Several of the cars before us were having trouble in the left lane so I think lane choice was definitely a factor. John (Force) and I both had decent reaction times and we were a little faster to the 60-foot but the car just didn’t stick.” -- Arend on his first-round loss to Force
“It was real tricky out there; it’s strange. I was very impressed with John’s (Force) 316-mph run. I don’t quite understand how you go about running that today.” -- Tim Wilkerson commenting on Force’s win over Arend
“I wanted to do my part for this race crew and I did this time.” -- Tommy Johnson Jr. on his holeshot win over Medlen in the opening round
“Something went wrong with one of our timers and one of them didn’t go off at the right time. In this game, as tight as the competition in the Funny Car class is, it could cost you a tenth of-a-second, which out here is like a mile.” -- Ron Capps on falling victim to Wilkerson in round one
“It’s certainly not the championship at this point, but it was an important round to win. We overpowered the race track after half track and they came around us and they won. It’s frustrating, but it’s racing.” -- Bazemore on losing to Worsham in round one
“I was thinking we had this one, and then it just lit up and it got black as night in there. It was a big one, and plenty hot, and all I was able to do was yank on the brake and try to get it stopped. I thought it was stopped when I popped up through the roof hatch, but then I saw it was still rolling a little. I figured I could jump out safely at that point or go back down in there. It was a pretty easy decision to get out of there.” -- Phil Burkart on his first-round fireball opposite Cruz Pedregon
“Wes made some adjustments to the car and after reviewing the data from the first run, it looks like we over compensated.” -- C. Pedregon after coming up short against Gary Scelzi in round two
“I tell you what; it’s like I passed him with 20 holes (cylinders) gone out on the right-hand side, but it’s only an eight-cylinder Hemi. It went out there and everything was good and all of a sudden it just turned right. And, man, I laid over left to get it back, and it blew the tires off it, and I said, ‘Uh oh, here we go.’ And then I did like I tried to do in Columbus and hammered it all the way to the finish line. In Columbus it broke the blower studs off it. It didn’t break them off this time and the Oakley Dodge Hemi got the win.” -- Scelzi describing his side of the win over Pedregon
“It was looking pretty good, but it got about to the 660-foot marker and spun the tires. We continue to learn more and more at each race.” -- Dickie Venables, crew chief for Tony Pedregon on their loss to Force in the second round
“There are very few ways to win races out here, but a million ways to blow one of these things up.” -- Worsham after a fuel pump malfunction in the semis against Densham robbed his engine of fuel. The motor leaned out and detonated in a ball of fire
“I’m as happy as I could be right now without winning the race. I’ve got a gun that shoots as straight and as fast as anybody out there, and that’s all you can ask for. The rest of it is fate.” -- Scelzi after bowing out against Force in the semis
“I beat the boss and ruined his car at the same time. How dumb am I?” -- Densham after beating team owner Force in the final
“I don’t know what happened. Maybe I drove it too far to make sure I’d turned on the win light, I don’t know. I’ve been racing for 40 years and that’s the first time I’ve ever played in the sand.” -- Densham again, on ending up in the catch fence after his chutes didn’t deploy
“We went up there to race. Maybe down the stretch, if John (Force) needed 20 points to win it all, the outcome would have been different. But right now, we’re going all out. I’m still trying to talk him into letting me win it all this year.” -- Densham one more time, suggesting team orders may yet come into play this season—but not yet
PRO STOCK
“Our dominance seems to be diminishing. The two Grumpy (Jenkins) powered cars continue to get better and better each week. We still have about the same gap on the rest of the guys but those two (Steve Johns and teammate Dave Connolly) are here to stay.” -- Greg Anderson after qualifying number one, followed by Johns, Anderson’s teammate Jason Line, and Connolly
|
|
“We should’ve been better than that.” -- Kenny Koretsky on his 14th-place starting position
“I let the clutch out a little early and turned it red. I didn’t do my job today.” -- Jeg Coughlin Jr. on his opening-round loss to Kurt Johnson
“In the first round we hurt the motor and didn’t realize it. We didn’t get a computer readout on it. Had we gotten that we would have noticed that we didn’t have any vacuum and that usually indicates that there’s a piston out of it. We didn’t run all so good. We kind of thought it was the run, so we left it as it was. Well, after I had done my burnout (in the second round) I only had five inches of vacuum. I told Paul (Yates, acting crew chief this weekend while Bob Glidden was absent) on the radio I knew we were wounded. We just got caught with our pants down and without the computer that we rely on so much, that’s what happened to us.” -- Larry Morgan explaining his second-round loss to Line
“It was a good drag race that just didn’t go our way.” -- KJ on losing the final to Line
“The biggest surprise of the day is Greg losing in the first round, not so much me winning.” -- Line on team owner Anderson’s early exit from competition
“I did get to tell dad, ‘Happy Father’s Day’ on TV, so that was very cool.” -- Line on one of the bonuses after winning his second event in his rookie year
PRO STOCK BIKE
“It’s nice to be number one again. I’m getting used to these $1,000 checks every weekend (for top qualifiers).” -- Andrew Hines after qualifying on top for the fourth time in six races held for the bikes so far this season
“A lot of people doubted our new bike after qualifying … I didn’t listen. I truly believe that this bike is better than the other. It’s going to be quicker and faster.” -- Geno Scali on debuting his new Suzuki TL-1000 with a sixth-place qualifying effort
“This bike is much lighter so we are still learning where to put the extra weight.” -- Earl DeGlopper, crew chief for Scali on the challenges of tuning a new ride
“I was fortunate against Geno (Scali) in round two because as I left the starting line, one of my wheelie bar wheels came off and the bike took a hard turn to the right.” -- Craig Treble on a little unexpected excitement during his second-round win over defending class champion Scali
“I really thought we would get on a roll here today. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen. I really think we’re right there, performance wise, but we just haven’t produced the results we want.” -- Angelle Savoie after being outrun by Steve Johnson in round two
“We were second-quickest of the second round today. I know that’s kind of like being a bridesmaid. In our case it was the wrong round to run Andrew (Hines) as he had the quickest e.t. of the round.” -- George Bryce, co-owner for Fred Collis, after their G2/S&S/Star Racing Buell came up short against Andrew Hines
|
ADVERTISEMENT |
“I love going fast in the final.” -- Hines in his post-race ESPN interview, on resetting the national e.t. record to 7.016 secs in his final-round win over Treble
“The Harley is so quick that it’s hard to have a slow pass. I just pop the clutch and hit the shift points and the bike does the rest of the work.” -- Hines again, on the strength of his Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson PRO MOD
“Doing well at Englishtown is something we don’t consider an option; it’s mandatory.” -- Mike Ashley on racing at the facility he considers his home track
“This tire shake problem has haunted us for a while. I’ve had the headaches to prove it.” -- Mike Janis on being forced to withdraw from competition just prior to the third round of qualifying after his crew discovered a cracked rear axle tube
“This was a great day for us. Our team has worked hard and never gave up in the face of adversity. We knew that a day like this was coming when we joined forces with Mike Ashley last season. Mike runs a first-class operation and I am proud to be a part of it.” -- Danny Rowe on making it to the final, his finest showing since the 2001 NHRA U.S. Nationals
“This is awesome. I didn’t expect to win one race this season, much less three. These eight-car fields are unbelievably tough to get into and they’re stressful. To actually get into them is half the battle; to win three in one season is outstanding.” -- Al Billes after beating Rowe in the final round
“From a performance standpoint consistency is the difference this year.
The car is not the quickest but it does well enough to get in the field. We
been working on the consistency and will continue to do so. We don’t want
to be known as one-run wonders. The points are the carrot and we’re going
to do all we can to get a taste at the end of the year.” --
Billes again, on leaving Englishtown with the lead at the halfway point of the
10-race AMS Pro Modified Challenge tour 
Copyright 1999-2004, Drag acing Online and Racing Net Source
