22nd Summit Racing Southern Nationals
(May 2-5th, 2002) Commerce, GA
Notes |
Results | Photos
NATIONALS NOTEBOOK:
Whit Bazemore fires another shot in NHRA Funny Car when he wins for the second week in a row driving the Lee Beard-tuned Matco Tools Pontiac. Bazemore earns lane choice for the final round over John Force and skips by the defending World Champion when Force blows his motor at about half-track. Bazemore’s win is particularly sweet in that it is his first in front of his hometown fans (he is originally from the Atlanta area). Bazemore vaults into third in POWERade points standings with the victory.
Funny Car racing sees John Force team drivers Gary Densham and Tony Pedregon earn the top performance marks of the event. Densham paces the field with a 4.808 secs in the AAA Auto Club Mustang which is low ET, while Pedregon takes the Castrol Syntec Mustang to top speed at 325.69 mph.
The Atlanta event is weather plagued with rain dampening large portions of both Friday’s and Saturday’s scheduled action. Pro fields are set after 3 qualifying rounds and every Sportsman racing category (except Competition eliminator) does not start eliminations until Sunday morning.
Independent Pro Stock racer Allen Johnson earns a shocking win in Pro Stock driving his Tennessee-based Dodge Neon. Johnson is able to drive by the heavily favoured Chevy Cavalier of Greg Anderson in the final round when Anderson also blows his motor at half-track. Johnson’s win is the second of his NHRA career. His victory march includes a telling head to head identical brand match win over the high dollar factory-sponsored Team Mopar Dodge of Darrell Alderman in the semi final round. Johnson builds a slight starting line advantage (.441 to .455 RT) and drives to a 6.899 secs to 6.913 secs victory. “AJ” had defeated his second team car driven by Tommy Lee in round one.
The AMS Pro Mod program attracts a strong field of cars with 21 team vying for one of 8 slots. (That compares to only 13 Pro Mod cars on hand for the rival IHRA race at Shreveport!) The final round is the desired nitrous oxide versus supercharged clash with Steve Vick driving his nitrous-injected ’68 Camaro past Thomas Patterson’s blown ’63 Corvette. Vick had qualified on the bump and had taken the measure of pole sitter Tommy Mauney in round one. Mauney had set both low ET and top speed at 6.206 secs and 227.84 mph in his great looking supercharged ’63 split. The Atlanta event also included the Pro Mod final from the previous week at Bristol, which had been delayed due to rain. Thomas Patterson was in that final also but this time won it at 6.217 secs 226.77 mph over Rickie Smith’s 6.267 secs at 223.88 mph.
Texas-based Sportsman racer Carlton Graham, a three-time NHRA national-event-winning Sportsman driver from Fort Worth, Texas, tragically passes away on Thursday at the event after experiencing medical problems in the pit area. He was 57. Graham, who was entered in Super Gas at the event, was stricken as he sat with friends. Initial reports are that Graham suffered either a major heart attack or stroke. Emergency personnel attempted to resuscitate him but to no avail and he was taken to nearby Banks-Jackson-Commerce Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
For the fifth time this season and the second time in seven days, Larry Dixon thundered by the Top Fuel field driving Don Prudhomme’s Miller Lite dragster. Dixon qualifies 5th at 4.600 secs at 322.96 mph and is once again very fast and consistent on Sunday to win the event handily. Dixon defeats Doug Herbert’s Snap-On Tools dragster in the final round. The win extends Dixon’s overall points margin over Kenny Bernstein to 62 points. Dixon had defeated Bernstein head on in semi final round. Kenny Bernstein had qualified on the pole with a 4.544 secs run (low ET) in the Budweiser King.
Top Fuel racing sees an unexpected semi final round placing by Texan independent Don Sosenka. Sosenka gets into the show 15th with a very sub par 5.889 secs ET but on Sunday manages to drive by both Tony Schumacher and John Smith who both smoke their tires. Sosenka then stays relatively close to Doug Herbert in the third round when Herbert also spin his tires. Herbert is however able to recover to end Sosenka’s “almost” fairy tale day.
Jay Payne wins the TAFC show at Atlanta with his Valvoline-sponsored Camaro. Payne wins despite spinning the car out in the sand trap after winning his second round match over Doug Gordon. Payne then beats Bob Newberry in a final round battle of Chevy Camaros 5.704 secs 253.47 mph to 5.739 secs 250.04 mph. Payne had set both low ET (5.636 secs) and top speed (256.21 mph) in earlier action.
Florida’s Michael Gunderson wins in TAD driving his nitro-injected car. Gunderson, who set top speed at 268.54 mph during qualifying, beats a red lighting Cliff Bozzelli in the final frame. TAD racing at Atlanta attracted 21 machines and was paced by former UDRA star Marty Thacker, who earned the first NHRA pole of his career at 5.412 secs (low ET).
Pro Stock Bike racing sees Angelle Savoie win for the first time this season during her debut ride for newly announced sponsor CVEC Performance Exhaust Systems. Angelle wins a simply incredible final round. She has a .402 RT but is still second out of the gate to Matt Hines’s perfect .400 RT! Savoie is just able to nip Hines running 7.162 secs to Hines’s 7.181 secs. Angelle had taken the George Bryce-owned machine to both low ET and top speed in earlier action at 7.113 secs and 189.76 mph.
The Atlanta event also includes two other Sportsman final rounds delayed by rain from Bristol’s Mac Tools Thunder Nationals the previous week. John Jones wins in Super Comp (8.90) over Mickey Whaley while Michael Hardee’s E/SMA Pontiac wins in Competition eliminator over David Rampy.
FC racing includes an entertaining and suspicious round two pairing between John Force and his teamate Gary Densham. The overall points leader Force gets the win light by a scant .0034 of a second when Densham shuts off before the finish line and Force has trouble catching him. If the match was in fact pre-determined it is likely the closest fix by anyone at anytime in drag racing.
