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SUNDAY FINALS
John Force inched closer to his 100th career win by defeating
Whit Bazemore at the Pep Boys NHRA Nationals presented by Greased Lightning
for his 98th NHRA Funny Car national event win. Force's Castrol GTX
Ford Mustang needed a blast of 4.792 seconds at 312.06 mph to outrun
Bazemore's pass of 4.832 at 318.54.
Gary Scelzi, Troy Coughlin and Angelle Savoie also won
their respective categories at the $1.9 million race at Maple Grove
Raceway, the 21st of 24 races in the $50 million NHRA Winston Drag Racing
Series.
Force redeemed himself after losing to Bazemore at last
weekend's NHRA Nationals outside of Chicago. In the process, Force also
earned the maximum 138 NHRA Winston points by qualifying No. 1, setting
the national record and winning the race in his pursuit to win an unprecedented
11th NHRA Winston championship.
"We're excited to get the (national elapsed time) record,
that's important to us," said Force, the winningest driver in NHRA history.
"That's more Austin Coil, Bernie Fedderly and my team. To them it is
more personal to get the records. To me it's points to not give them
that edge."
Force led a parade of national records by capturing the
Funny Car elapsed time record at 4.731 during qualifying. Force used
runs all in the 4.70 range to defeat Bob Gilbertson, Dean Skuza, Johnny
Gray and finally Bazemore.
"Coil said, 'Do you realize we ran 77's all day?'," Force
said. "This track was very impressive. We never thought the national
record could be set here. We figured it would be Dallas. Conditions
were excellent."
By gaining back the extra 20 points Bazemore earned by
establishing the national record in Joliet, Ill last weekend, Force
extended his NHRA Winston points lead over Bazemore to 285.
Scelzi's second Top Fuel victory of the season and 25th
of his career came when his Team Winston dragster gained the starting
line advantage over opponent Kenny Bernstein and blasted down the track
in 4.511 seconds at 317.19 mph. Bernstein's Budweiser King dragster
couldn't make up the difference, running 4.528 at 319.67.
"I stole something from the starting line because last
year I lost in the final by three thousands," Scelzi said. "I was going
to steal whatever I could steal from Kenny. I definitely did that. Honest
to God, I was a little surprised when I saw the win light come on in
the left lane."
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