Castrol Highlight: Ashley Force and Eric Medlen took their
Castrol-backed race cars to the semifinals of the 19th annual Schuck’s
Auto Parts Nationals at Pacific Raceways and John Force extended to 383
the number of consecutive races for which he has qualified a Castrol
GTX Funny Car.
CASTROL FORDS STUMBLE IN THE HEAT AT 19TH SCHUCK’S NATIONALS
John
Force got help from a most unlikely source in Sunday’s 19th annual
Schuck’s Auto Parts Nationals at Pacific Raceways, Inc. when Whit
Bazemore beat Ron Capps in the Funny Car final, denying Capps a triple
digit lead in the race for the 2006 NHRA POWERade Funny Car
championship.
Force, the 13-time NHRA champion, struggled from
the outset of the season’s 14th event and lost in the very first round
to reigning series champion Gary Scelzi.
Nevertheless,
instead of leaving Seattle with a 108-point deficit, drag racing’s most
prolific winner will move to Sonoma, Calif., for this week’s 19th
annual FRAM/Autolite Nationals trailing by only 88 points in what is
becoming a two-person battle for the championship.
For Force,
who had won seven times previously at Seattle, Sunday’s loss followed a
recent “feast of famine” trend in which he has either driven his
Castrol GTX Ford Mustang to victory at Pacific Raceways, as he did in
2003 and 2004, or to a first round loss, as he did in 2002, 2005 and
again this year.
While Force was suffering just his second
first round loss this season, Eric Medlen appeared fully capable of
repeating his 2005 victory until the engine in his Castrol SYNTEC Ford
inexplicably failed in the semifinals against Capps.
“That’s
one of the challenges of the Western Swing (back-to-back-to-back races
at Denver, Seattle and Sonoma)," Medlen said. "You have to kinda
conserve your parts inventory and we’ve been real good about that
lately. Unfortunately, (this time) it threw the rods out.”
Despite his problems, Medlen moved back into fifth place in points, the highest-ranking non-winner in the Funny Car standings.
Robert
Hight, driver of the Team Castrol/Automobile Club of Southern
California Mustang, was the No. 1 qualifier for a category-best fifth
time this season, posted the quickest time during eliminations (4.902
seconds) and sped to the top speed of the event at 318.17 mph.
Unfortunately,
he couldn’t get past Tony Pedregon in round two, losing traction at
half track. Despite his fate, the 2005 NHRA Rookie of the Year was
able to hold onto third place in points behind Capps and Force.
Brittany
and Courtney Force won first round races in Super Comp before losing in
the second round and Ashley Force took the Castrol Top Alcohol Dragster
to the semifinals before losing to event champion Sean O'Bannon.
* * * *
Race Winners At-A-Glance:
FUNNY
CAR: Whit Bazemore, Indianapolis, Ind., 2006 Dodge Charger, 5.036,
309.42 mph, def. Ron Capps, Carlsbad, Calif., 2006 Dodge Charger,
5.108, 293.15 mph.
TOP FUEL: Tony Schumacher, Long Grove, Ill., 4.690, 321.96 mph, def. David Grubnic, Ennis, Mont., 4.761, 316.75 mph.
PRO
STOCK: Allen Johnson, Greeneville, Tenn., 2006 Dodge Stratus, 6.767,
204.63 mph, def. Tom Martino, Farmingdale, N.J., 2006 Pontiac GTO,
7.368, 246.45 mph.
TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER: Sean O’Bannon, Alta Loma,
Calif., 5.451, 263.15 mph, def. Spencer Massey, Fort Worth, Texas,
5.513, 261.37 mph.
TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR: Brian Hough, Junction City, Ore., 2004 Pontiac
Firebird, 5.751, 250.92 mph, def. Steve Gasparrelli, West Covina, Calif., 2005 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, 6.240, 176.01 mph.
* * * *
NHRA POWERade Points (unofficial standings after 14 of 23 events):
FUNNY
CAR – 1. Ron Capps, 1105; 2. John Force, Castrol GTX Ford Mustang,
1017; 3. Robert Hight, Team Castrol/Auto Club Ford Mustang, 855; 4.
Tony Pedregon, 854; 5. Eric Medlen, Castrol SYNTEC Ford Mustang, 811;
6. Gary Scelzi, 810; 7. Tommy Johnson, 792; 8. Whit Bazemore, 737; 9.
Cruz Pedregon, 609; 10. Del Worsham, 599.
TOP FUEL – 1. Doug
Kalitta, 1031; 2. Melanie Troxel, 991; 3. Brandon Bernstein, 888; 4.
Tony Schumacher, 881; 5. David Grubnic, 825; 6. Rod Fuller, 799; 7.
Larry Dixon, 772; 8. Morgan Lucas, 653; 9. Cory McClenathan, 623; 10.
Hillary Will, 605.
PRO STOCK – 1. Jason Line, 935; 2. Greg
Anderson, 910; 3. Dave Connolly, 879; 4. Jim Yates, 792; 5. Kurt
Johnson, 767; 6. Mike Edwards, 745; 7. Allen Johnson, 694; 8. Larry
Morgan, 673; 9. Richie Stevens, 641; 10. Erica Enders, 635.
PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE – 1. Andrew Hines, 620; 2. Angelle Sampey, 592;
3.
Antron Brown, 521; 4. Chip Ellis, 512; 5. Ryan Schnitz, 443; 5. Karen
Stoffer, 422; 7. Matt Guidera, 420; 8. Matt Smith, 413; 9. Geno Scali,
360 ; 10. G.T. Tonglet, 354.
* * * *
TEAM CASTROL Details:
JOHN FORCE, 57, Castrol GTX Ford Mustang
Qualifying position and performance: 6th at 4.903 seconds, 316.52 mph.
Race results: Lost to Gary Scelzi.
Notable: Extended to 383 the number of consecutive events for which he has qualified a Castrol GTX Funny Car.
Quotable:
“Scelzi did his job and I got a spanking. One of those days. We’ll
just have to make it up next week (at Sonoma, Calif.).” – JOHN FORCE.
ERIC MEDLEN, 32, Castrol SYNTEC Ford Mustang
Qualifying position and performance: 2nd at 4.854 seconds, 312.64 mph.
Race results: Beat Scott Kalitta, Gary Densham; lost to Ron Capps.
Notable: Won Full Throttle award for qualifying performance and consistency and moved back up to fifth place in points.
Quotable:
“It was pretty disapponting. I thought we had a car good enough to win
but it did some weird stuff in the second round and then it blew up in
the semifinals. We have some work to do, but we’ll be back.” – ERIC
MEDLEN.
ROBERT HIGHT, 36, Team Castrol/Auto Club of Southern California Ford Mustang
Qualifying position and performance: 1st at 4.840 seconds, 318.17 mph.
Race results: Beat Tim Wilkerson; lost to Tony Pedregon.
Notable:
Qualified No. 1 for a category-best fifth time this season and 11th
time in his two-year professional career. Posted quick time and top
speed of the meet.
Quotable: “I thought we had the car to win. It
spun the tires (in the second round) and there was no catching Tony.” –
ROBERT HIGHT.
ASHLEY FORCE, 23, Castrol Top Alcohol Dragster
Qualifying position and performance: 4th at 5.535 seconds, 259.76 mph.
Race results: Beat Bill Edwards Jr., Mark Hentges
Notable: Reached the semifinals for the third consecutive event and for (the second straight year at Pacific Raceways, Inc.
Quotable:
“It was good weekend for me, really. Our car doesn’t really run well
in the heat, but we were able to get to the semifinals and because we
went some rounds, I was able to get my reaction times back to where
they need to be.” – ASHLEY FORCE.
* * * *
NEXT EVENTS:
July 28-30 FRAM/Autolite Nationals Sonoma, Calif.
Aug. 11-13 Lucas Oil Nationals Brainerd, Minn.
Aug. 18-20 O’Reilly Auto Parts Mid-South Nationals Memphis, Tenn.
Aug. 31-Sept. 4 Mac Tools U.S. Nationals Indiananapolis, Ind.
Sept. 15-17 Toyo Tires Nationals Reading, Pa.
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