13th ADVANCE AUTO PARTS NATIONALS
(MAY 24-27, 2001) Topeka, KS
Notes |
Results | Photos
NATIONALS NOTEBOOK:
For the second consecutive week the Funny Car final is all team Castrol as John Force and Tony Pedregon meet for class glory -- and for the second event in a row the results are the same with Pedregon taking out his boss. Tony wins driving the Castrol Syntec car to a 4.912 secs at 307.77 mph while Force goes up in smoke at the 300’ mark. The duo had also been the performance stars of the Topeka event qualifying 1-2. Force earned the pole at 4.809 secs (low ET) while Pedregon thundered to a titanic 324.83 mph (!) which ladies and gentlemen is only the fastest speed ever in FC racing history! Pedregon cannot however back up the speed mark for a new official national record.
It‘s beginning to sound like a broken record -- but amazingly the FC racing contingent at Topeka for the seventh time this season produce the quickest qualified field in NHRA history. This time the 16-car bump spot is dropped by a huge margin to an simply unreal 4.919 secs which bombs the 4.950 secs mark set one week earlier at Englishtown. Will the 4.919 secs hold up for the rest of the season? Personally I think it might -- but I’m not taking any bets.
Kenny Bernstein is also a repeat winner -- taking Top Fuel. That final round is a class battle of breweries with Bernstein’s Bud King defeating the Miller Lite Dragster driven by Larry Dixon. Bernstein’s take the title narrowly: 4.625 secs 317.94 mph to 4.648 secs 313.73 mph in a great match. The win ups Bernstein’s career win mark to 56 (26 wins in TF, 30 wins in FC) and also moved him from third to first in overall NHRA Winston points standings.
Speed demon Mike Dunn, once again grabs the event’s performance spotlight. Dunn drives the NY Yankees car to a stunning 4.495 secs at 331.53 mph to pace all qualifiers. That is only the fourth sub 4.5 secs run in NHRA history and the first four-fourty on 90% nitro. His 331.53 mph top end is the second fastest speed recorded of all time behind only the 331.61 mph which he personally ran at Houston in March. Dunn was the overall points leader coming into the event but when Bernstein takes him out in the semi final round that proves to be costly because both Bernstein and Dixon pass in the points total column.
The Pro Stock title goes to Eagle One Chevy Cavalier pilot Ron Krisher . Krisher’s win, which is the 3rd of his career comes from the 4th qualifying spot and includes a final round decision over Mark Pawuk. Pawuk jumps out to an early lead in the final, but the car drifts out of the groove and he is forced to lift. For Pawuk it is his third bridesmaid finish in one week. He was runner-up at Englishtown in both the event PS final and also the Holley Dominator Pro Stock Duel. Pawuk could however take some condolence with the fact his strong recent running places him first in overall Winston PS points.
Pro Stock Truck features a first time winner with Texan Don Smith winning yet another event for the Chevrolet S-10 brigade. Smith gets a huge break in the final when heavy favourite Randy Daniels leaves way too soon (.339 red). Defending Winston Champion Bob Panella Jr. had low ET in the class at 7.475 secs while Dodge racer Todd Patterson nets top speed at 181.23 mph with his new 2001 Dakota.
Federal Mogul racing featured wins by Shelly Howard in FMD and by Jay Payne in FMFC. Howard’s win denies Kenny Bernstein’s son Brandon Bernstein from joining his father in victory lane like he did in Las Vegas. Jay Payne’s win was the second of his career since switching to the FMFC class. Payne runs both low ET and top speed at 5.710 secs and 251.53 mph driving his Valvoline-Camaro while enroute to victory lane. In FMD it is the injected-nitro car driven by Keith Stark that is the fastest on the Topeka premises at 5.366 secs and 269.51 mph (low ET and top speed)
Sportsman racing is highlighted by another win by Competition eliminator’s most winning driver and recent Bristol Thunder Valley Nationals champ, David Rampy. Rampy runs the Dodge-powered A/EA Bantam at Topeka instead of his dragster and takes out Doug Engels in the final round. Competition eliminator qualifying had been paced by Larry Pritchett’s D/SM Pontiac.
A couple of new Pro Stock Pontiac Grand-Am cars debut at the Topeka event driven by John Nobile and Carl Beal. New York’s Nobile has a great effort first time out with his new machine, qualifying 14th in the swift field (6.912 secs) and going to the second round before getting beat. Beal’s sharp looking new machine doesn’t fair quite was well running a best of 7.006 secs which is distant DNQ.
IHRA regulars, Clay Millican, Bruce Litton and Paul Romine all show at Topeka in Top Fuel. Millican shines the brightest -- recording the quickest and fastest runs of his career at 4.604 secs and 321.35 mph while qualifying 6th. That performance comes using the team’s IHRA tune-up (IE: 25% overdrive on 90%). Millican’s Werner Enterprises dragster wins round one before narrowly losing to Gary Scelzi in the second frame : 4.622 secs to 4.687 secs. Bruce Litton qualifies 9th and takes out Tony Schumacher in the first round but then falls to Mike Dunn. Paul Romine debuts his all-new Carquest-sponsored “ground effects” Spitzer-car at Topeka, qualifies 13th but loses out to Darrell Russell in round one.
Al Hofmann provides the events most harrowing moment when his supercharger backfires right on the starting line during 3rd round of qualifying on Saturday. That lifts the body of Jim Dunn’s Mooneyes Pontiac up 90 degrees. Team is basically snakebite at Topeka -- despite running a decent 4.976 secs they DNQ.
