Words and photos by Ian Tocher
5/19/04

tlanta Dragway's record book was rewritten May 14-16, when the NHRA national-event tour visited "Georgia's House of Speed" for the 24th annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals presented by Pontiac. During qualifying, both ends of the track records fell in three pro classes, highlighted by Tony Pedregon's 329.83-mph blast that also marked the fastest speed ever attained in a Funny Car.

Air temperature in the high 80s and track temps exceeding 125 degrees awaited drivers and crew chiefs on raceday, and the tricky track helped decide the outcome of several key match-ups. When the tire smoke finally cleared, Cory McClenathan prevailed in Top Fuel, Whit Bazemore won in Funny Car, Angelle Savoie returned to winning form in Pro Stock Bike, and Greg Anderson continued his dominance in Pro Stock.

TOP FUEL

The first round of Top Fuel at Atlanta featured a battle of champions, with NHRA champ Larry Dixon (far lane) falling to reigning IHRA nitro king Clay Millican. After also losing in the opener two weeks earlier in Bristol, TN, Dixon's loss represented the first time since the end of the 1999 season he's been ousted from consecutive first rounds.

Seventeen Top Fuel teams attempted to qualify at Atlanta, with only Luigi Novelli missing the cut. Novelli suffered this engine fire in the first round of qualifying on Friday.

fter three years away from the sport, Bob Vandergriff, from nearby Alpharetta, GA, made his return to competition in Atlanta. He qualified 10th with a 4.654-second pass, ran 4.663 in the first round, but lost a close race to Darrell Russell. "For our first official time out, the car was flawless and actually could have served as a very fast bracket car," Vandergriff said. "Our goal now is to make it an extremely fast bracket car and we know we need to pick up a tenth to do that."

After losing an engine in the semis, Millican's crew thrashed to get ready for their third consecutive final-round appearance -- but also lost for the third-straight time, marking only the third time since 1984 that's occurred in Top Fuel.

FUNNY CAR

Tony Bartone, driving for Jim Dunn (behind car, black hat), made a big jump from the bump spot heading into the final qualifying session to end up 10th for raceday, but lost to points leader Del Worsham in the first round

Ron Capps' struggles this year continued in Atlanta, where he qualified 15th, his worst starting position in nearly four years. Afterward, crew chiefs John Stewart, Todd Okuhara, and Phil Shuler decided to run a similar setup to that of teammate Tommy Johnson Jr.'s car and Capps finally ran in the fours in the first round (4.945/265.33), but lost to Whit Bazemore.

 

Don Schumacher, owner of both Funny Cars in the Atlanta final, raided his U.S. Army Top Fuel team to provide scuffed slicks for Whit Bazemore's car. Bazemore's crew chief, Lee Beard, said he had only new "sticker" tires in his trailer and didn't want to run them on the hot Atlanta strip.

Crew chief Lee Beard (far left) and driver Whit Bazemore both confirmed there was something wrong with their engine when they went to the line against Scelzi. Bazemore said it was idling about 400-500 rpm too high and the number-one cylinder was out right from the start. "It may not have looked like it, but we had a little luck on that one," he said.

PRO STOCK

The Pro Stock contingent also got into record-setting mode when Larry Morgan (far lane) earned his first number-one starting spot in more than 13 years with a Friday night pass of 6.796 seconds that also set a new track e.t. record. Morgan's fifth pole of his career, and the first top qualifying effort for a Dodge in Pro Stock since Feb. 2003, also ended Greg Anderson's top qualifier streak at 11 races, indefinitely preserving Bob Glidden's incredible streak of 23 consecutive number-one spots in 1986-88. Perhaps fittingly, Anderson faced off against Morgan in the Pro Stock final, where Anderson overcame a .031 holeshot to post his fifth-straight victory this year. At 6.850 seconds, Morgan's worst pass of the entire weekend came at the worst possible time.

Mike Edwards put run numbers five through nine on his new Jerry Haas-built '04 Firebird at Atlanta. After picking the car up on Monday before the race, Edwards spent two days testing in St. Louis, but managed to make only four passes due to inclement weather. He qualified the new ride 14th, but lost to number-three qualifier Anderson in the opening round.

After starting from the top half of the field (7th) for the first time this season, Kenny Koretsky's first-round win over Rickie Smith was his first in nearly two years.

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PRO STOCK BIKE

Twenty-year-old G.T. Tonglet put his Harley-Davidson 4th on the qualifying list and set a track speed record of 192.91 mph in the process.

Round two of eliminations featured two pairs of teammates facing off. Vance & Hines riders Andrew Hines and Tonglet (shown) were up first, with Tonglet overcoming a holeshot to take the win. Next came the Schumacher Racing teammates, with Antron Brown going red off the start against Savoie. The two winners then raced in the semis, and Savoie advanced to beat Shawn Gann in the final round where she set low e.t. of the meet at 7.119.

TOP ALCOHOL

Gaithersburg, MD's Paul Lee was all smiles after upsetting number-one qualifier Jay Payne in the Alcohol Funny Car final. Lee, who won with a holeshot over Payne, had no easy path to his career-first national event win as he beat Mick Snyder, Paul Gill, and Bob Newberry in the preliminaries.

John Force's daughter Ashley (near lane) qualified her A-Fueler fourth in the Top Alcohol Dragster field, then made her way to a career-first final against five-time event winner David Wells. Force got the jump off the start, but quickly lost traction and watched Wells disappear with the win.