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NEWBERRY NOTCHES ANOTHER

Twenty-six cars attempted to qualify for the 16-car Alcohol Funny Car field at the IHRA’s Rockingham event, and when it was all over, Schenectady, NY’s Bob Newberry took home the Autumn Nationals trophy. It was Newberry’s first win of the year and he called it "the highlight of our season."

Newberry qualified his Valvoline Dodge Avenger in fifth place, then dispatched Canadian driver Rob Atchison, Fred Tigges, and number-one qualifier Jim Lape from the elimination rounds in order to reach Von Smith. Smith trailered Andy Kelley, 2000 points champion Scott Weney, and Monty Todd on his way to the final.

Smith left first on Newberry, but both cars suffered traction trouble about 200 feet out and only Newberry’s machine responded to pedaling. He motored through the lights in 6.034-secs at 242.84 mph, as Smith coasted to a 12-second lap.

Newberry, who has more than 40 NHRA national event wins to his credit, said he plans to concentrate on the IHRA circuit in 2001, while Smith, a three-time IHRA Funny Car champ, said he intends to run an NHRA Alcohol Funny Car program next year.

WENEY WINS FUNNY CAR CHAMPIONSHIP

Scott Weney said his Sheetz Electric team had no intention of running every race this year. He wasn’t even planning to attend the series’ first race at Darlington, but pressure from his all-volunteer crew convinced him to make the effort. Eleven races later, the new IHRA Summit Funny Car champion is glad he listened.

Weney scored a runner-up finish at Darlington, then followed it up with a win at round two in Rockingham.

"Then we started thinking maybe we should go to all of them," he recalled.
After waging a see-saw battle throughout the season with Jimmy Rector and later two-time defending class champ Von Smith, Weney connected for two more event wins and sewed up the championship with a first-round win at Shreveport, LA, in the second-last race of the year.

"I won an NHRA division title a long time ago (A/D, Div. 1, 1977), but this is a first for me. I’ve never won a world championship before, but it feels good," Weney said at Rockingham. He also said it felt good not to worry about the points for once.

"But we're still here to win," he insisted. "Some of the guys back at my shop were asking why we're even going, but it's another race we can win. That's what we're here for."

Weney qualified his 2001 ’Vette-bodied flopper in third place behind Jim Lape and Billy Gibson. He easily defeated Mark Thomas in round one of eliminations, but fell to Smith due to tire shake in round two. Smith, Rector, Lape, and Gibson also rounded out the top five in Funny Car points at season’s end.

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