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I couldn’t let June go by without a mention of the dreaded number 666. Why? June 6, 2006 is once every 100 years. “The Omen” remake came out. Ron Capps’s points after Columbus were 666, and there have been a slew of Pro Stock runs at 6.66X. Therefore, I must comment. Allow me a paragraph to explain were and why 666 has a bad connotation. This number comes from a quote in the bible in Revelation 13:18. This letter was written by the apostle John, on the Greek isle of Patmos, to seven churches in Asia Minor (mostly Turkey). It was about events to occur in the first century and had to be written in symbolic language because it would not have been too cool for one of the Romans to find Christians reading a religious newsletter, unless it said wonderful things about the current Caesar. So, if it was written in code the intended could understand it while the Roman soldiers would not know it was about Rome, and the readers would not have to worry about being thrown into prison or killed. Obviously, it makes no sense to send a letter to someone who wouldn’t understand it. I had the privilege to travel to these seven cities and Greek islands and study this. So what did/does 666 mean? Six was an imperfect number. Three (the number in the Godhead) and seven (days of the week, etc.) are complete or perfect numbers. We understand that in drag racing…9.900 is a perfect Super Gas elapsed time, .400, .500, or .000 are perfect reaction time lights. Throw three 6’s together and you have a really imperfect number or representation. It meant bad and in this case a bad person, probably referring to a Roman emperor or maybe even Satan. Now back to drag racing…while there has been a spate of 6.66X’s out there…but since it’s only perfect if you run a 6.666, we’ll talk about the two of those e,t.’s so far, both of those runs have coming from the same team. Anderson at E-town last year, using it to defeat Erica Enders in the first round ,and Jason Line running one at Chicago, beating V. Gaines in the first round. All I can say is that those numbers haven’t jinxed the team at all. Some other notes from the first half of the season: Luigi Novelli – I thought his win in the first round over Bob Vandergriff at Columbus was his first in NHRA racing. I was wrong. It was his third round win. Luigi outran Kenny Bernstein in 2001 at Brainerd in 2001 and beat Doug Kalitta in 2002 at Chicago. Luigi is 3-25 in NHRA racing. Melanie Troxel is doing great in Top Fuel. Melanie is 7-0 in the third round, meaning she’s been to the finals 7 times too, but she’s 2-5 in the last round. Melanie also suffered her first TF holeshot loss at St. Louis. One more interesting stat, Doug Kalitta has a better winning percentage 24-8 (75%) to Melanie’s 27-10 (73%). The difference in points is Doug is 9-3 in the first round and Melanie is 11-1…a lot of drivers will tell you, a lot of winning has to do with getting past the first round. How about Troy Buff winning his first round of TF racing and beating a first time No. 1 qualifier Rod Fuller in the first round… Or how about Tony Bartone first No. 1 qualifying at E-town. Tony needs to qualify No. 4 and No. 6 and he will have drag racing yahtzee. (Qualifying at every position.) You may have read in another online mag, that until E-town, Tony was the driver to lose the most to John Force without winning one round. (He beat John in the second round.) That would be wrong. You may want to know that award goes to Richard Hartman who has a lifetime 0-10 record against John.
Lot’s of talk about all the redlights in PSM. While they have consumed 30.5% of the rounds this year…lest you forget they consumed 32.4% of the rounds in 2003. What is curious this year is the high percent of holeshot wins…12.4% with the bikes and 25.6% for the cars...highest percentage in both classes ever! He who qualifies high and has the best elapsed times shall not be first in points! Tony Schumacher, John Force and Chip Ellis are all ranked Number One in average qualifying position and average elapsed time. However Tony is No. 6, Force No. 2 and Chip No. 3 in points. Which reminds us, it’s about consistency on race day.
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After some quick e.t.’s at the Pro Stock test sessions in Denver,
Statistically Speaking
How Grumpy got grumpy, PART ONE
A Peek at the Rear-Engine 