2/13/06

Well, did you enjoy that!!????

After slogging through the off-season, waiting with breathless anticipation for the new schedule to begin, the first race of 2006 may have exceeded even MY expectations—and they’re usually pretty high. The Winternationals was a bonanza of great stories and memorable moments, not the least of which was Robert’s stunning victory in Funny Car.

C’mon, let’s tell it like it is. Robert definitely did NOT have the best car going into eliminations. In fact, he wasn’t even qualified after the first Q-session because of some pretty serious difficulties with that new 2006 Mustang body that took a big chunk out of the right-front corner after his first pass. The crew as able to cobble together sufficient repairs to get him into the field at No. 12, but while all this was going on, John was scalding everyone with a qualifying performance that we haven’t seen in the category for a long time. His 4.664 pass to end qualifying and easily take the low qualifier award is now the quickest run in NHRA F/C history—1/1000 of a second quicker than John’s previous all-time quickest e.t. which he ran at the fall Joliet race in 2004.

Eric threw some impressive numbers down in qualifying, winding up No. 5 on the ladder, but as luck would have it that put him in the other lane against Robert in Round 1 of Eliminations. Based on what each driver had accomplished in qualifying, you would have expected Eric to get the better of his teammate in that first round get-together, but it was Robert getting it done instead.

Round 2 and what happened afterwards was almost surreal.

Reigning champion Gary Scelzi (I still haven’t gotten completely used to the sound of that.) was upset by Bob Gilbertson in a shocker. Phil Burkart, who has an uncanny knack of beating John despite having a performance disadvantage, somehow did it again. But sandwiched in between those two runs was Robert’s victory over Del Worsham that ended in a huge, Mustang-destroying engine explosion and fire that took the Safety Safari a few minutes to extinguish completely.

Without another fresh ’06 Mustang body in the transporter, the team hustled to the Top Eliminator Club where one of the team’s show cars was on display. They pulled the Mustang body from that machine and hastily brought it back down to the pits, mounting it on Robert’s car as the semi-finals were fast approaching.

Want more weirdness?

Just before heading up to the staging lanes, the fire bottles in Robert’s car were accidentally discharged, throwing Jimmy Prock and the guys into another unplanned thrash to replenish the system and get to the line. As we know now, Robert not only covered Burkart in the semi’s, exacting some revenge on what “Nitro” Phil did to John, but went on to beat a very tough opponent in the final, Ron Capps, who had been running as well as he ever has all day long.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is one totally madhouse way to begin a new season. With 22 races left to go, can things get any wilder than that? At Team Force, that possibility always exists!

The next race is a couple of weeks away in Phoenix and Robert has the distinction of heading to Firebird Raceway with the Funny Car points lead, while John and Eric will be looking forward to keeping the JFR 2006 win streak intact.

I hope you’ll be watching for me again this year as a new season of “Inside Drag Racing” will soon be coming your way, Sunday mornings on ESPN2. I’ll also be hosting a new season of the “Mother’s Polish Car Show Series” and popping up on several other ESPN2 TV shows. You can always read what I have to say on espn.com and ESPN the Magazine, too.

And, of course, I’ll have another “In the Groove” right here after the next race in Phoenix so stop back then.

Thanks!

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