6/4/07

Not a very pretty weekend in America’s Breadbasket.

Where would you like to begin?

Actually, the weekend in Topeka appeared to be getting off to a good start for John, Ashley, and Robert. John picked up his best qualifying position of the year at No. 3, Robert rang up his third low qualifier award of the year, Ashley qualified a solid 7th and ran the low elapsed time for the final qualifying session at a 4.85, and Ron Capps missed the field for the first time in 56 races. In fact, Ron had qualified top-half at every race so far in 2007 before the DNQ in Topeka.

When eliminations started, the trap door opened.

John lost in the first round FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER AT HEARTLAND PARK! That was a stunning stat! John has nine victories overall at HPT going back to the days when there were two national events per season there. John smoked the tires against Gary Scelzi and who would have guessed that after Austin and Bernie seemed to be on their game during qualifying.

Ashley was a second round victim to eventual race winner Mike Ashley, but the big blow—literally and figuratively—was Robert’s second round disaster against Scott Kalitta. Sure, Robert won the round and was able to slice Ron Capps’ points lead from 121 to 53, but when the AAA Mustang blew off a cylinder head, erupted in flames, and sent Robert into BOTH retaining walls after getting the win light against Scott, it pretty much ended Robert’s chances of getting the event championship and closing up to Capps even more.

All three of the JFR crews furiously attempted to repair the car in time for the semi-finals but there just wasn’t enough time to refurbish the burned and battered parts that had been totally trashed in the mishap. And so, it was a rough trip to Kansas, Toto……….

I had a chance to talk quite a bit with John during the weekend on a variety of topics—from the recent sale of the NHRA POWERade series to the Countdown to the Championship to the efforts John and the team, especially John Medlen, are devoting to improving driver safety in the Funny Car class, specifically in the area of the safety helmets the racers depend on to protect them from head injuries and dangerous burns in the event of an accident.

There is neither time nor room to relay all of the information John shared with me during our conversations (and yes, some of it wasn’t for the public domain) but I can tell you that over the next few weeks and months, you can expect John to reveal his thoughts and feelings on the above subjects in his own candid and insightful way.  Trust me; John Force doesn’t miss too much when it comes to seeing the sport from every perspective. Hey, I know  he can appear to be a real wild man when he finds himself in a situation that gets his juju in motion, but I can honestly say that he’s one of the most perceptive and intelligent people in drag racing when it comes to seeing and understanding the entire picture. When he’s ready to share his observations about anything that reflects upon the NHRA, its teams, drivers, tuners, etc., he’ll be happy to pass them along.

The tour moves to Joliet, IL next weekend as the 2007 NHRA schedule has suddenly become a non-stop juggernaut with back-to-back national events heading into the heart of the summer months. I know fans of John, Ashley, and Robert are hoping for a better weekend in Joliet than the string of speed bumps they endured in Kansas, especially with John in danger of missing the Countdown to the Championship.  Good, bad, or somewhere in between, I’ll be back “In The Groove” at this place on the JFR website following the action at Route 66 Raceway.

Catch you then!