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Tragedy overshadows final day in Seattle

Craig Wack, Senior Editor
Sunday, 11 July 2010

For the second time in a little more than a month, tragedy struck an NHRA National event.

Mark Niver

Top Alcohol Dragster driver Mark Niver, 60, of Phoenix, died following a crash during Sunday’s eliminations at the NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways.

On June 11, Top Alcohol Funny Car driver Neal Parker died following a qualifying crash at the NHRA SuperNationals at Englishtown, N.J.

The news of Niver’s death hit the tight-knit drag racing community hard.

“I didn’t realize what happened until an hour after it happened,” said Sunday’s Pro Stock winner, Greg Anderson. “You found out what happened you say, ‘My God not again.’ It seems like there’s been too much of that happening lately.

“An hour later I found out it was Mark Niver. I’ve known Mark forever.”

Anderson remembered Niver as both a maverick and a throwback to the early days of drag racing all rolled into one.

“He builds every part himself. He’s a great engineer and a great fabricator,” Anderson said. “He does everything himself and it looked like forever you’d ask why a guy would try to do it all on his own like this. It takes a team to do this.

“He stayed working at it and all of a sudden he started winning races, and two years ago he won his first race.”

Niver’s car was making a semifinal run and crossed the finish line. He deployed the parachutes and the chutes detached from the car. Niver’s car hit the gravel trap and the nets at the end at a high rate of speed. Upon impact the front of the car folded backward and landed on top of the cockpit.

“I raced with Mark for years,” said Funny Car winner Tim Wilkerson. “We raced Alcohol cars together way back in the day. He was a super-great guy.

“God bless Mark’s family I hope the Lord takes care of them somehow.”

Sunday’s other winner, Top Fuel’s Cory McClenathan also has fond memories of competing against Niver.

“I’m blown away, you never know what to say in these situations,” McClenathan said. “He put together a sold, safe, good racecar.”

On the track, both Wilkerson and Anderson won for the second time in as many weeks.

Wilkerson beat Ron Capps in the final. Wilkerson ran a 4.221 second pass at 292.39 mph in the Levi, Ray and Shoup Ford Mustang to Capps’ 4.246 at 289.51 mph in the Napa Dodge Charger.

“We’re happy to be in the position we’re in and we seem to come around in this kind of weather,” Wilkerson said. “We just try and run the racetrack every round. It’s hard to do that here because the air here is always better than the track surface.”

Anderson beat Johnny Gray in the final by racing to a final round pass of 6.599 at   209.56 mph in the Summit Racing Pontiac GXP. Gray’s NTB Pontiac ran a 6.626 at 209.43 mph in the final.

“We’ve been struggling all year,” Anderson said. “Shame on us because we made a lot of moves that maybe we shouldn’t have made, because we were behind – because we weren’t running good.

“The car is just a pleasure to drive right now. We have all the ingredients. We’re now using what we’ve got.”

Pro Stock got off to a bumpy start in Seattle after the class’ drivers and the NHRA locked horns over how the track was prepared.

“We just don’t see eye-to-eye about how to prep the track for Pro Stock cars,” Anderson said. “They have a belief on how they need to prep the track for Top Fuel and Funny Cars. It seems like at the expense of whatever they think they need to do for them – we go crash cars. There’s got to be a happy medium. Sometimes they skip what they need to do to make us go down the racetrack.”

McClenathan beat teammate Antron Brown in the final by running a 3.887 second final round lap at 311.70 mph in the Fram dragster to Brown’s 3.909 seconds at 308.92 mph in the Matco Tools machine.

“I want to be the first person (to sweep the Western Swing) two times,” McClenathan said. “I know that’s a lot to ask for. You can’t get there until you win this one, and that’s what we did. The guys did a great job today. The track was very tricky.”

Stage two of the NHRA’s Western Swing is the July 16-18 Fram Autolite Nationals at Sonoma, Calif.

SUNDAY’S RESULTS

TOP FUEL: ROUND ONE -- Morgan Lucas, 3.905, 309.06 def. Steve Torrence, 3.916, 310.55; Shawn Langdon, 3.961, 305.49 def. Terry McMillen, 5.492, 120.53; Antron Brown, 3.908, 309.13 def. Steven Chrisman, 10.026, 86.45; Doug Kalitta, 3.829, 317.72 was unopposed; Larry Dixon, 3.820, 318.84 def. Terry Haddock, 6.918, 98.95; Cory McClenathan, 3.821, 319.37 def. Mike Strasburg, 4.145, 242.19; Tony Schumacher, 3.819, 322.19 def. Ron Smith, 6.449, 104.82; David Grubnic, 3.871, 313.37 def. Brandon Bernstein, 4.816, 152.33; QUARTERFINALS -- Kalitta, 3.886, 306.95 def. Lucas, 4.471, 189.66; McClenathan, 3.853, 310.34 def. Grubnic, 3.911, 296.11; Langdon, 3.892, 306.60 def. Dixon, 3.897, 312.86; Brown, 4.162, 225.45 def. Schumacher, 4.328, 228.07; SEMIFINALS -- Brown, 4.153, 256.80 def. Kalitta, 4.145, 226.05; McClenathan, 4.134, 225.63 def. Langdon, broke; FINAL -- McClenathan, 3.887, 311.70 def. Brown, 3.909, 308.92.

FUNNY CAR: ROUND ONE -- Ashley Force Hood, Ford Mustang, 4.128, 301.60 def. Gary Densham, Chevy Impala, 6.923, 105.46; Cruz Pedregon, Toyota Solara, 5.053, 203.52 def. Tony Pedregon, Impala, 5.078, 206.54; Del Worsham, Solara, 4.133, 304.12 def. Brian Thiel, Impala, 7.505, 87.24; Robert Hight, Mustang, 5.013, 155.69 def. Jeff Diehl, Chevy Monte Carlo, foul; Ron Capps, Dodge Charger, 4.098, 303.57 def. Paul Lee, Chevy Impala SS, 4.236, 299.40; Tim Wilkerson, Mustang, 4.150, 302.82 def. Bob Tasca III, Mustang, 4.219, 293.66; Matt Hagan, Charger, 4.172, 299.20 def. Jeff Arend, Solara, 4.894, 169.74; Jack Beckman, Charger, 7.267, 82.46 def. John Force, Mustang, DQ; QUARTERFINALS -- Wilkerson, 4.193, 300.20 def. C. Pedregon, 4.997, 166.48; Hagan, 4.203, 292.71 def. Worsham, 4.242, 291.70; Capps, 4.177, 294.75 def. Force Hood, 4.218, 293.79; Beckman, 4.347, 281.77 def. Hight, 5.693, 126.66; SEMIFINALS -- Wilkerson, 4.249, 290.38 def. Hagan, 4.386, 224.32; Capps, 4.245, 289.94 def. Beckman, 5.099, 173.45; FINAL -- Wilkerson, 4.221, 292.39 def. Capps, 4.246, 289.51.

PRO STOCK: ROUND ONE -- Shane Gray, Pontiac GXP, 6.803, 178.19 def. V. Gaines, Dodge Avenger, 7.968, 115.81; Ron Krisher, Chevy Cobalt, 6.624, 207.50 def. Warren Johnson, GXP, 6.636, 208.30; Kurt Johnson, Cobalt, 6.715, 207.82 def. Jason Line, GXP, foul; Rodger Brogdon, GXP, 6.654, 208.46 def. Jeg Coughlin, Cobalt, foul; Johnny Gray, GXP, 6.628, 208.91 def. Larry Morgan, Ford Mustang, 6.660, 208.68; Mike Edwards, GXP, 6.603, 209.69 def. Jim Cunningham, Mustang, foul; Allen Johnson, Avenger, 6.618, 209.56 def. Bob Yonke, GXP, 6.655, 207.85; Greg Anderson, GXP, 6.604, 208.71 def. Greg Stanfield, GXP, foul; QUARTERFINALS -- J. Gray, 6.655, 209.10 def. Krisher, 9.671, 94.02; K. Johnson, 6.642, 208.36 def. A. Johnson, 6.647, 209.04; Anderson, 6.635, 208.55 def. Brogdon, 6.646, 208.07; Edwards, 6.636, 208.97 def. S. Gray, 6.643, 208.17; SEMIFINALS -- J. Gray, 6.627, 209.43 def. K. Johnson, 6.650, 208.84; Anderson, 6.608, 209.07 def. Edwards, 6.599, 209.75; FINAL -- Anderson, 6.599, 209.56 def. J. Gray, 6.626, 209.43.

SEASON POINTS

Top Fuel: 1.  Larry Dixon, 1,321; 2.  Cory McClenathan, 1,149; 3.  Tony Schumacher, 1,140; 4.  Antron Brown, 1,025; 5.  Doug Kalitta, 984; 6.  Brandon Bernstein, 878; 7.  Shawn Langdon, 695; 8.  Morgan Lucas, 661; 9.  Steve Torrence, 566; 10.  David Grubnic, 520.

Funny Car: 1.  John Force, 1,057; 2.  Robert Hight, 1,016; 3.  Matt Hagan, 922; 4.  Jack Beckman, 907; 5.  Tim Wilkerson, 891; 6.  Ashley Force Hood, 872; 7.  Ron Capps, 847; 8.  Bob Tasca III, 828; 9.  Del Worsham, 802; 10.  Tony Pedregon, 668.

Pro Stock: 1.  Mike Edwards, 1,463; 2.  Allen Johnson, 1,050; 3.  Greg Anderson, 916; 4.  Jeg Coughlin, 891; 5.  Jason Line, 739; 6.  Ron Krisher, 726; 7.  Greg Stanfield, 712; 8.  Rodger Brogdon, 615; 9. Shane Gray, 614; 10.  Johnny Gray, 603.

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