It was so hot in Phoenix the track was literally on fire.
A surreal scene lit the twilight on the launch of Cory McClenathan’s Top Fuel dragster in Friday night's qualifying, spewing nitro like a lawn sprinkler and igniting a spectacular trail of fire on the track.
ESPN cameras were right there to insure viewers missed nothing, showing the incident multiple times in both qualifying and elimination shows. The immediate report laid blame to a faulty fuel pump.
Just as a viewer would want to know why, ESPN dug for the answer. Reporter Dave Rieff chased down the cause for the elimination show when in McClenathan's pit area.
An improper crimp in the pressurized hose connecting to the pump was discovered. The "bad build," as the team called it, created an expensive $5,000 light show…a bad deal for a team on a tight budget.
But the scene unintentionally became the event’s best visual metaphor for the heat that was plaguing teams during qualifying and race day.
The Countdown to the Championship battles dominated the coverage, as well they should, particularly in the case of the Fram Top Fuel entry driven by young Spencer Massey failing to make the show.
"Forty times (successfully down the track) in a row; this is unbelievable," a perplexed Mike Dunn called out in the announcer’s booth when he referenced the streak the team set earlier in the season.
In qualifying, they carded 0-for-4, plus a flat tire "to add to the insult," noted anchor Paul Page.
Massey was working hard to mask his concern, Page said, with quips like a "different weekend and a different race," and this gem: "Sometimes it’s a drag, sometimes it’s a race."
Though the Fram team has raced in every final in the 2011 playoffs, Lewis Bloom’s duties as "Statman" forced him to deliver this bad news: "No driver has had a DNQ and gone on to win the championship."
Massey’s predicament gave hope to crestfallen Al-Anabi driver Del Worsham as the program repeatedly played his record-setting but losing lap in the final at Maple Grove. In a riveting reflection, Worsham explained the seconds just prior to his late launch: "I wanted the record bad...trying to stage shallow...my visor fogged up...what I should have done was go up and try to win the race."
Rieff coaxed Worsham to admit, "It took getting back to the races" to "get back on the horse" before returning to normal.
In both broadcast programs, Dunn described a detailed step-by-step recounting of that thrilling lap. The visuals showed and he explained the holeshot win by Massey as it developed off the line and at each increment down the track.
The broadcast is dissecting important rounds like this one as they occur; the insights and visuals teaching the viewer are amazing. One can't help but notice from the data presented the ebb and flow of these machines occurring at extreme speeds in close rounds of drag racing.
The song "Last Man Standing" had special meaning this event. During one playing of the recording, a riveting montage of Arizona NHRA Nationals' activity snapped across the screen.
The tight championship battles in Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock Motorcycle seemed, as Rieff put it, "That’s what it could come down to" is that the last driver left standing, wins.
With the points leads swapping throughout qualifying and eliminations, the graphics and broadcast descriptions kept viewers on top of the intensity of these races.
Some hopes, though, were blown away like so many grains of the Sonora desert.
Take Ron Capps' NAPA Dodge Charger, whose longest qualifying streak in the sport – starting June 2007 in Topeka – shockingly halted here. Reporter Gary Gerould boldly asked him if this killed his championship aspirations for 2011. "Yeah, probably," Capps said. "I’ll go back, and it’ll sink in."
A viewer has to give this group of reporters props for their willingness, and in some cases daring, to ask tough questions. Capps is a nice driver, and it would be easy to back away from putting this tough outcome on him; Gerould intuitively knew he should ask, and did.
Battles featured at the top of the shows like Funny Cars of Matt Hagan and Mike Neff fizzled. Both exited before the semifinal rounds. Meanwhile, Johnny Gray’s Service Central Charger, identified early by Dunn as "probably the best car," made the finals before another driver who has been hanging back, Jack Beckman, stepped up to take the class lead for the first time with the win in his Valvoline Charger.
Gerould nailed this class’s competition early in the weekend when he observed, "The Countdown in Funny Car is as hot as the heat in Arizona."
Neff gave the most brutally honest view of the possibilities of the day when he said of the track, "It’s a recipe for disaster" for tuners with the new surface baked to an asphalt glaze by the heat.
Top qualifier Cruz Pedregon was shocked to be put out of the event by No. 16 Jeff Arend’s DHL Toyota. Pedregon accurately said the lanes were "like a slick dirt track" before explaining to Gerould in the post-loss interview, "We must have done something wrong. The margin of error here at Phoenix is small." In other words, that horse was sporting a small saddle.
Pressure caused driver’s nerves to boil over. Page exclaimed, "Oh, my goodness, what are we seeing here," as Robert Hight’s Auto Club Mustang dumbfounded all with a fouled start resembling a bucking bronco in the critical quarterfinals race with Beckman. Hight admitted it was his "first tree to red light."
The good guy Hight called out to Gerould because he came over and congratulated Alexis DeJoria as a first-timer making the show.
Unfortunately, the drag racing horse does not care about that stuff when it goes to bucking.
"Statman" gave the goods on the Summit Pontiac Pro Stock entries with “This is the first time this year both (Greg Anderson and Jason Line) are out in the first round." Gerould was kind to Line, noting, "This is a humbling sport" to the likely Pro Stock champion on his unexpected early departure.
Line snapped, "We stunk up the joint."
Supporting Page’s point of "What an unusual day," both rookie-of-the-year candidates, Lucas Oil Buell Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Hector Arana Jr. and Mountain View Dodge Pro Stock driver Vincent Nobile, won their respective classes.
Dunn called out, "Junior has a perfect light!" the first in a final, Bloom reported, since Brown nailed one with his motorcycle entry in Memphis 2004. Arana Jr. exclaimed, "(I’m) living the dream," while he was rooting for Nobile to win his finals in a real example of racing class.
These two are definite thoroughbreds.
Much of the "ton of excitement" Dunn noted at this event was captured for the audience with a new device, Live Motion Concept’s Antelope Highspeed Camera, recording up to 5,800 frames per second. Contrast that with a regular broadcast camera’s paltry-by-comparison 30 fps.
Throughout the event incredible images emanated from the Antelope like those of Shawn Langdon’s Lucas Oil Top Fuel dragster "wadding the slicks to help launch the car," explained Dunn. "Great shot."
The eliminations broadcast opened with just Page on camera, solemnly talking directly to the audience, explaining the tragedy taking the life of IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon. He explained the wreck occurred during the taping of this delayed broadcast so it was not until the semifinal rounds that drag racing competitors even became aware of these circumstances.
Having watched that televised race and its horrifying outcome, there was no question in my mind the later ESPN broadcast would take this humanistic, heartfelt approach to the disaster; Page’s deep background at the Indianapolis 500 would also be at play here, too.
He told me, "(Dan and I) were friends. I taught him how to shoot. My son was his engineer. We have his picture in the (ESPN) booth." Knowing this makes his comments even more meaningful, even more profound.
On one level, such a catastrophe overwhelms our emotions and forces us to align with the much bigger picture of life. While in sorrow, we can better appreciate our own circumstance.
It is somewhat how Worsham put it in his Reiff interview. During the two-week break before the Phoenix race, the popular veteran and family man reflected on his own condition. He lost a race, but is winning at life: "I got home, and started feeling at ease. (Then I realized)...everybody’s healthy."
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