Lessons learned in the wine country
Phillip Gary Smith, go2geiger Media Columnist
Wednesday, 21 July 2010
Sonoma State University offers wine business diplomas. Infineon Raceway offers drag racing classes with advanced studies in frustration, ecstasy and mayhem.
In the ‘be careful what you say in class’ category, Tony Pedregon answered this question: who is his favorite driver to race. A no-brainer for anyone familiar with the sport, viewers responded right along with Pedregon as he named John Force. The invisible spirits of the race brackets busily went to work and -- presto -- a first round Funny Car pairing for these two.
John Force’s history at Sonoma is a dominating seven poles and seven wins. He lamented his DQ in Seattle during an interview, admitted that was his most disappointing event all season, which provided more motivation coming into the Sonoma vineyards. Having Pedregon in the parallel lane had to add incentive. “I love him,” Force said, not about to take the dangling bait ESPN reporters offered him to amp the match. To their credit, Gary Gerould and Dave Rieff also tried to entangle him in the Warren Johnson brouhaha resulting from the professor’s comments disparaging nitro drivers. A viewer got the impression Force could have spent the remaining broadcast answering, but wisely disappeared into the confines of the truck while mumbling something about “not going there.”
To put the result of this round another way, Tony also answered, “Who would you choose to play you in a movie.” He quipped, “Tom Cruise … with a tan.” Attempting to best Force in their drag race qualified as Tony’s “Mission Impossible.”
That round would be John Force’s only highlight of the day as a cowboy imitating a Funny Car driver, Matt Hagan, promptly sent him out to pasture in Round 2. Family drivers, Robert Hight and Ashley Force Hood, met in a highly anticipated first round, first-pair race that Hight won going away. Ashley blanked for the third time this year against her teammate, extending the winless streak. Her queen of drag racing crown is showing smudges of loss tarnish.
By the end of the quarterfinals, the entire JFR class was on the hotrod trailer for Denver. Force was succinct in his race day analysis: “Sonoma wasn’t good for us.”
The No. 1 Funny Car qualifier at Sonoma, Jack Beckman, added to his two previous top qualifying starts. Asked by Dave Rieff if this indicated a big step for his team, his answer, “It’s a game of chance out here,” was a good insight to the difficulty of racing this sport. If one doesn’t believe the chance element, check out the No. 2 qualifier, the effervescent Gary Densham who is on a money-induced partial schedule.
First, the lap earning him this high qualifying position, outdoing teams whose food budgets would exceed his total cash on hand, was an outstanding effort. It was his explosion completing that great lap Friday night capturing the cameras -- and fans -- attention. Turning a Funny Car shell into confetti isn’t easy, demonstrating the magnitude of the blast. Recall he is travelling at 300 mph when this incident unfolds yet slows to a safe stop and hops out. Paul Page exclaimed “Huge explosion!” followed by Mike Dunn, “This is about as big as they come.”Page gave Densham his due, saying, “He seems none the worse for wear. He’s tough.”
That is exactly correct, he is tough. Saturday morning Gerould interviews the smiling Densham who showed no visible effects from the detonation. He recalled, “It was a perfect run, just trucking, it dropped a valve … and the body evaporates.” An old skin brought out of the home garage and shipped overnight to the race on his son’s flatbed allowed the team to make the race with Melanie Troxel. With Densham’s Chevy Impala rebuild going up in smoke almost at the get-go, Troxel’s In-N-Out Burger Charger had this win faster than you could say, “Can I get this Animal Style?”
Gerould reported the most inspiring story of the weekend coming out of this shock-and-awe blast. He recounted a fan coming by the pits with a fistful of cash and handing it to Densham.
ESPN cameras caught the action, and replays were broadcast multiple times. These images aided our understanding how the shell cracked in two like thumbing an egg open. Jeff Arend in the other lane wins special driving kudos for dodging the rain of pieces as if he was driving a go-kart. The best still frame photo of the weekend also came from this incident, a shot of the car streaking by as it disintegrated.
Always a great match, Greg Anderson paired against Warren Johnson -- a former employee, now a star, meeting the grand master in an old tale told once again. Greg’s ability at the line, a weakness for Johnson, should win it, and does, but one can never count out the cagey Georgian with smarts honed in the tough Iron Range of Minnesota.
There is “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” the movie, the same name of the first couple of Pro Stock Motorcycles, Matt and Angie. Their pairing in the first round was like the movie in a way, where Ms. Angie Smith must have been thinking of (Angelina Jolie) Jane Smith’s line to Brad Pitt, “There's nowhere I'd rather be than here with you.” She was thinking of something other than racing as Matt streaked down the lane for an easy win. She was (suspiciously) late after making a big deal of cutting a quick light on the ESPN’s “RaceDay” show.
Jeg Coughlin changed his team’s grade with his first win here (as ESPN statistician Lewis Bloom reported) since 2003. How? Coughlin took a lesson from Pro Stock upstart, Shane Gray, who raced in one of those family pairings today. Facing dad in the first round, Shane promptly put him on the trailer with a holeshot victory. He continues to teach dad, Johnny, how to win with reaction times.
Mike Edwards uncharacteristically found his Penhall GXP out of the show early, shockingly handing Shane a freebie. Page exclaimed, “What’s this! A surprise and an upset.”
Finding himself in the semi-final round, Gray tattooed Jeg at the light, a .010 to a .037, but the JEGS.com Cobalt overcame the Tire Kingdom GXP for the win. That light must have been on Jeg’s mind as he pulled to the line in the final with Jason Line’s Summit GXP.
Jason tried to avenge teammate Greg Anderson’s earlier loss to Jeg who unceremoniously trashed his shot at a Western Swing sweep. Anderson reacted with a sleepy .077 start, perhaps distracted by Jeg’s bright banana yellow paint scheme vividly contrasting with the baked brown Sonoma countryside.
Jason wasn’t in the cards to be the KB team salvation. Jeg executed a Shane-like .010 RT and collected his second bottle of Wally wine from Infineon Raceway. He celebrated by performing an impromptu jig sitting in his Chevy and then did his patented stand-on-the-roof pose.
More Pro Stock racers found their day failing, notably Allen Johnson. Johnson’s Mopar Avenger set qualifying records at Sonoma and led Kurt Johnson’s Cobalt in the second round until a late transmission quirk slowed him. Memo: Allen would have won the round if the race ended at the nitro 1,000 foot mark, a modification under consideration. It would be interesting if ESPN noted the change in race outcomes for Pro Stock racing the quarter mile as if the lap ended at the nitro distance.
Larry Dixon revealed an added incentive for winning for his Al-Anabi team at Sonoma: “Everyone except Cory McClenathan is trying to work on their own setups to try and keep him from sweeping.” The brackets worked their particular magic and allowed these two to meet in the third stanza. Dixon’s setup wasn’t the deciding factor… Cory’s Fram dragster popped the blower like a champagne cork, bubbling away his fantasy to be the first driver to repeat a Western Swing trifecta.
Race fortunes can change as a result of tiny increments in an event. A key example occurred in the semi-final round of Funny Cars when the most exciting race of this day occurred. Jack Beckman and Bob Tasca raced 1,000 feet only to have the win decided by 2 inches on the back of Beckman’s .001 advantage at the tree. Rick Green reported on his Summit FastNews, “What a fantastic side by side race from start to finish.” And that’s from a reporter who has watched 10,000 laps.
Ron Capps won the Funny Car class, overcoming Beckman’s record ET and speed marks set this weekend. Capps ran the exact ET of 4.169 against Beckman that he used to send Hagan back to the ranch in the semifinal round. Michael Phillips in Pro Stock Motorcycle surpassed Capps’ joy in winning this event. Phillips’ victory dance can only be described as otherworldly, giving new meaning to the inspiration “reach for the stars.”
Capps had the good fortune to not only win Sonoma, and satisfyingly so for new chief, John Medlen and Ace, too, but also avenged his failing grade at Seattle last week. In the first round today, he met Seattle victor, Tim Wilkerson, and promptly stomped on his Western Swing sweet-sweep dream. This sport’s Triple Crown of racing, sweeping the Western Swing, is over for 2010 as all three contenders were abruptly bounced.
Wilkerson team manager, Bob Wilber, lamenting on the loss said, “If signs and omens were the only determining factors in this sport, getting good results would be a lot simpler than it is, and fortune tellers would be a part of every crew.” The overwhelming qualities of drag racing teams are the capacity to pack up, move on, and enter the next challenging event with the full intention of winning, irrespective of what just happened. Drag racers and their teams are sturdy, tough, and able to rebound. How do they do that? They have strong thoughts and constitutions. Einstein said it best, “Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.”
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BOUNTY FOR BIG NOISE II: Hunting for Don Miller’s Hot Rod. Updates made at blog starting, July 21 http://harmonizingkeys.blogspot.com/
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