Cox wins fourth straight IHRA Top Fuel race

Sunday, 27 September 2009

World records and multiple wins highlighted final eliminations at the IHRA President’s Cup Nationals at Maryland International Raceway Sunday in Budds Creek, Md. after a soggy start gave way to a beautiful afternoon of racing.

Del Cox Jr. (Top Fuel) and Kenny Lang (Pro Modified) won for the fourth and third time in a row respectively and Cary Goforth (Elite Motorsports Pro Stock) returned to victory lane for the first time since April as the championship battles in each of the three professional classes reaches a frenzied pace with one race remaining.

While Lang has all but wrapped up his second consecutive IHRA Pro Modified world championship, the battles in Top Fuel and Elite Motorsports Pro Stock are still far from over.

While Cox controls his own destiny with a comfortable 74-point lead over Bruce Litton in the Top Fuel title chase, the Pro Stock championship is still wide open. John Montecalvo has overtaken Frank Gugliotta by 33 points in the battle of the mountain motors as both search drivers seek out their first career championships.

Two-time champion Pete Berner is just 61 points behind in third.

After a bit of a rocky start to the 2009 IHRA season, Cox managed to get things turned around in a big way at midseason and once he got it figured out, he hasn’t lost since.

Cox hasn’t lost a round since mid-July and continued to show his dominance on Sunday with a thrilling victory over teammate Ron August Jr. who was in his first career IHRA final at the President’s Cup Nationals at Maryland International Raceway on Sunday.

“With Paul Smith over here and all these guys working their butts off on these cars and then having two of them in the final is pretty cool,” Cox said. “You never know what the year will bring, but after having Spencer Massey in the car and having the same team from the world championship last year is just mind boggling. They do a great job and have given me a great car to go out and try to win this championship.”

With the win Cox claims his fourth victory in a row and fifth total and extends his streak of consecutive round wins to 12 straight. More importantly, after Bruce Litton fell out in the first round at the hands of August, Cox was able to all but seal the Top Fuel championship entering the World Finals next month in Rockingham.

“Ron is my new hero. It is great for Mitch and everybody on the team. We are both southern California boys and he deserves it. He did a great job this weekend, “Cox said. “To be in this position is just incredible, I just hope we can keep it going and wrap this thing up.”

Cox ran a 4.842 second elapsed time at 308.57 miles per hour in the final to drive around teammate August who coasted across the line after running into trouble.

Cox now holds a 74-point advantage over Litton, erasing a one-time 84-point deficit that stood at midseason. After suffering a first round loss at the Rocky Mountain Nationals at Castrol Raceway in early July and falling behind by nearly 90 points, Cox has since won four straight races and turned that one time deficit into a huge advantage.

“It was a stressful weekend coming in here only 24 points ahead and then losing a few points because Bruce was top qualifier,” Cox said. “After Mitch (King) beat me in Canada, Bruce had a big lead on me so that shows how good our team is to be able to come back from that deficit and now to have the lead we have going into the last race is great.”

For the second race in a row and for the fifth time this season it was Lang and Ed Hoover in the final of an IHRA Pro Modified national event.

Lang and Hoover maneuvered their way through one of the toughest fields of the year on one of the most racer-friendly tracks seen all year, but on Sunday it was Lang who was once again left standing.

Lang, in his eighth consecutive final round, was able to drive around Hoover with a 5.934 elapsed time at 242.54 miles per hour to pick up his third win in a row and fourth total this season. Hoover went red on his run, but still put down a blistering lap of 5.998 seconds.

“Everything went well this weekend. The rain wreaked havoc on everybody, but we had a real good solid run on Friday and everything fell into place after that,” Lang said. “Eight finals in a row, three wins in a row and wrapping up a second championship – you really can’t beat this”

After two final rounds and an incredible 9-2 win-loss record through the first three races of the season, Goforth’s last four national events have included two first round losses, a second round exit and a no show.

Thanks to that stretch all Goforth could do was watch as his point lead through three races slowly dwindled from first to the bottom half of the top five entering this weekend’s event.

But on Sunday Goforth finally managed to get his act together and return to championship form with a victory over Bob Bertsch.

“It goes to show you that you have to keep chipping away and find what is wrong. I told everyone when you see us again we won’t be in the bottom half of the field anymore,” Goforth said. “Chris Bell just would not let me give up and it has paid off yet again.”

Goforth ran a solid 6.334 elapsed time at 219.61 miles per hour to pick up his second career victory, getting around Bertsch’s 6.343 E.T. at 219.61 miles per hour as Bertsch fell just short in his second consecutive Elite Motorsports Pro Stock final.

“I think it felt better than it would had we not had any bad luck. It was just as sweet as the first one, I just didn’t cry this time,” Goforth said. “We are happy and it means just as much to us, maybe more with the trouble we have had.”

SUNDAY'S RESULTS

Top Fuel
ROUND ONE -- Dom Lagana, 29.186, 60.21 def. Smax Smith, broke; Del Cox Jr., 4.912, 300.86 def. Bobby Lagana Jr., 7.168, 110.87; Todd Paton, 4.716, 308.99 def. Mitch King, 5.400, 217.25; Ron August Jr, 5.097, 248.71 def. Bruce Litton, 5.227, 214.31;
SEMIFINALS -- Cox Jr., 4.730, 303.84 def. Lagana, 4.993, 265.01; August Jr, 7.383, 138.06 def. Paton, foul; FINAL -- Cox Jr., 4.842, 308.57 def. August Jr, 8.262, 90.22.

Pro Modified
ROUND ONE -- Frederick Scriba, Chevy Corvette, 6.051, 236.17 def. Tommy Gray, Chevy Camaro, 6.122, 229.78; Pete Farber, Dodge Daytona, 8.574, 118.69 def. Larry Plummer, Camaro, foul; Steve Bareman, Corvette, 10.670, 109.33 def. Killer Brooks, Chevy Cavalier, broke; Andy Jensen, Camaro, 6.124, 240.77 def. Chris Russo, Corvette, 6.243, 232.95; Frank Patille III, Buick Special, 6.320, 225.26 def. Harold Martin, Martin M 4, 6.334, 225.18; Ed Hoover, Camaro, 6.120, 235.06 def. Ike Maier, Corvette, 6.120, 231.28; Benny Alfonso, Pontiac Firebird, 7.499, 137.06 def. Tony Pontieri, Camaro, 11.792, 74.44; Kenny Lang, Corvette, 6.203, 223.32 was unopposed; QUARTERFINALS -- Lang, 5.999, 240.94 def. Scriba, 6.068, 237.84; Alfonso, 6.269, 230.96 def. Farber, 6.354, 209.95; Hoover, 6.118, 236.55 def. Bareman, 7.502, 148.15; Jensen, 5.954, 243.63 def. Patille III, broke; SEMIFINALS -- Hoover, 6.051, 236.63 def. Alfonso, 6.334, 209.88; Lang, 5.953, 241.28 def. Jensen, 6.179, 239.27; FINAL -- Lang, 5.934, 242.54 def. Hoover, foul.

Pro Stock
ROUND ONE -- Bob Bertsch, Ford Mustang, 6.385, 220.01 def. Frank Gugliotta, Pontiac GXP, 9.994, 89.81; Ned Katuran, Chevy Cobalt, 6.410, 218.16 def. JR Carr, GXP, 12.911, 59.26; John Pluchino, Mercury Cougar, 6.475, 214.93 def. Michael Bruno, Pontiac GTO, 6.652, 195.53; Dean Goforth, GXP, 6.403, 219.29 def. Robert Patrick, Mustang, 13.285, 64.35; Mark Martino, Cobalt, 6.430, 220.44 def. John Konigshofer, Mustang, 9.338, 121.83; Cary Goforth, Cobalt, 6.442, 219.72 def. Lester Cooper, Mustang, 6.565, 196.04; John Montecalvo, Cobalt, 8.227, 196.99 def. Richard Freeman, GXP, foul; Pete Berner, GXP, 18.091, 42.37 was unopposed; QUARTERFINALS -- C. Goforth, 6.376, 219.58 def. Pluchino, 6.459, 215.24; Montecalvo, 6.382, 221.78 def. Katuran, 6.431, 218.12; D. Goforth, 6.376, 220.12 def. Martino, 6.365, 220.80; Bertsch, 6.369, 220.04 def. Berner, 6.392, 219.58; SEMIFINALS -- C. Goforth, 6.357, 206.67 def. Montecalvo, 6.366, 221.20; Bertsch, 6.363, 221.09 def. D. Goforth, 6.393, 219.72; FINAL -- C. Goforth, 6.334, 219.61 def. Bertsch, 6.343, 220.76.

IHRA Points

Top Fuel
1. Del Cox Jr., 854; 2. Bruce Litton, 780; 3. Bobby Lagana Jr., 590; 4. Mitch King, 491; 5. Tim Boychuk, 450; 6. Terry McMillen, 375; 7. Terry Haddock, 198; 8. Smax Smith, 194; 9. Dom Lagana, 187; 10. Scott Weis, 166.

Pro Modified
1. Kenny Lang, 929; 2. Ed Hoover, 797; 3. Chris Russo, 337; 4. Tony Pontieri, 265; 5. Raymond Commisso, 202; 6. Harold Martin, 193; 7. Andy Jensen, 167; 8. Pete Farber, 166; 9. Ike Maier, 154; 10. Tommy Gray, 134.

Pro Stock
1. John Montecalvo, 579; 2. Frank Gugliotta, 546; 3. Pete Berner, 518; 4. Cary Goforth, 506; 5. Mark Martino, 419; 6. Bob Bertsch, 403; 7. JR Carr, 400; 8. Richard Freeman, 378; 9. Dean Goforth, 342; 10. Jason Collins, 288.