Quad strip zMAX Dragway — the only place on earth where you can see what a 40,000 horsepower, breaking away from the start at the same time.
And before you begin to describe the events of the past weekend in Concord, should digress and briefly touch upon the rules of the race. Unlike other stages where drivers compete in pairs, is to start out once four participants. And if the qualification takes place in the usual way, from the first two rounds of knockout heats on pass two fastest riders in the final and the winner is the one who first of four cross the finish line.
Top Fuel
75's Event Brittany Force needed to open an account his victories and only two to repeat his triumph. We have to admit that in this great merit of Alan Johnson, who at the beginning of this season, he was appointed chief consultant in the team the youngest daughter of the most titled racing driver John Force Association. Johnson held a titanic work and was able to bring the pilots, continue to confidently stand on the top line of the table, on a fundamentally different level. And if the first victory of Brittany can be justified luck, the last weekend all questions have disappeared completely. Miss Force in each round was not only the first, but to exit the quartet would be enough, and second place at the finish line, she wiped her nose three times, the defending champion in the class Antron Brown for one day.
If a racer does not start to make mistakes, and Alan Johnson will also continue to work correctly on impact dregster, the national championship favorite status will inevitably be replaced by the first champion title, because at the moment the dangerous rivals in Brittany there. Eightfold champion Tony Schumacher in the familiar already to his manner left in the paddock in the second round, Clay Millican continues to fight for his first trophy again shone in the finals, Doug Kalitta, stars from the sky is not enough, comfortably located on the third place in the standings and Antron Brown begins to gain momentum, and soon will be able to make a real competition to the winner of this stage.
Funny Car
Hero Event nitromethane in the second class, of course, was Tim Wilkerson. Last season the pilot finished in tenth place, but this year the veteran alone upholds the honor of the Blue Oval and makes it extremely productive. For him, this was the second podium of the season and the twentieth in a career. As Brittany Force Wilkerson was the first in each round, and in the final proved to be at the finish line with an impressive margin of Cruise Pedregona and two racers Don Schumacher Racing, from which the tide has turned again.
John Force Racing at full strength dropped out of the fight by the end of the second round, which, in general, almost no way affected the position of the team in the standings, is that Ron Capps, reaching the final, was able to push John Force in third place, and now with a minimum margin of eight points on the heels of championship leader Robert Hite. At the moment, the confrontation in the Funny Car class is the most dense and tense because the difference in earnings glasses on the results of the fifth stage between the first and fifth place is less than fifty points. And it brings a certain intrigue championship, which is lacking in other professional divisions.
Pro Stock
But in a single class of atmospheric taken after the changes in the regulations remain unchanged, ie, Boredom reigns death, but the results were predictable Event again to the gnashing of teeth. KB Racing pilots were again on the steeper head of his opponents, and not out of the question for a competition. Jason Line for the fifth time out of five went to the finals, where, especially without straining, reserve a third podium this season. This victory was also the anniversary of the rider.
Now, to his credit forty Wally, very confident first place in the standings, and the ratio of victories to defeats of 17–2 that in today's realities is some indication of just unreal. And both times he «leaked» his colleague Greg Anderson team, which, in turn, by a wide margin in a hundred points is kept in second place, and closes three leaders of the third member of KB Racing Bo Butner. Well, after a dominant one-sided uniform trio opened up the chasm to the other participants of the championship, that his fuss absolutely do not do weather in the top of the standings. Defending champion Eric Enders Stephens and the most titled of the current participating pilots Jag Coughlin divided between the position of the number seven, but the gap to 360 points from the leader — it is, sorry, almost no chance if in the near future in the camp Elite Motorsports will not happen miracle. And this miracle we've been waiting since February.
Driver of Event: Brittany Force. Even though uncompromising breakthrough Tim Wilkerson, two opinions can not be here. The pilots with each stage looks more confident, and its rare appearance in the finals in the shortest possible time replaced the first place in this championship.
Check of Event: 3.934 seconds by Alexis DeZhoria in the fourth qualifying round. Demonstrated results racer at the finish ensured her first place in the qualifying, was the best in her career, and has been recorded in the annals of history as a new record Zmax Dragway in class Funny Car.
Failure of Event: The first round of the knockout rounds, where they met Tim Wilkerson, Jeff Diehl, Alexis DeZhoria and Robert Hite. Because of this competition came in the next round... Tim Wilkerson and Jeff Diehl, for whom this was the first victory in principle. Championship leader Robert Hite and Alexis DeZhoria, noted on the podium in Las Vegas, faced with the lack of a hook and lost the race immediately after on the Christmas tree lights flashed green. In drag racing stuff happens, but that all the other pilots a completely different fate in Concord.
Next stop — Houston, where we will have a serious «cabin» in the nitromethane divisions and sheer discouragement in the classroom Pro Stock.
