16th Fram Autolite NHRA Nationals
Aug. 1-3rd, 2003, Sonoma, CA
Notes |
Results | Photos
NATIONALS NOTEBOOK:
Gary Scelzi notches his first career win behind the wheel of a nitro Funny Car when he wheels the Schumacher Racing/Oakley “Time Bomb” Dodge Stratus to victory lane. Scelzi wins an exciting wire-to-wire dash against a suddenly rejuvenated Dean Skuza who’s Pontiac Firebird is underwritten by 1980’s Rock legend “Meatloaf” for the Sonoma event. Scelzi wins a 4.958 secs to 4.966 secs final round decision. Scelzi’s FC class win makes him the only driver in NHRA history to have won national events in Top Fuel and Funny Car as well as in the Pro Sportsman TAD and TAFC classes. Scelzi’s victory march also includes top speed of the meet at 318.92 mph.
Defending NHRA POWERade Pro Stock World Champion Jeg Coughlin Jr notches his first win of the season when he uses a major holeshot to defeat points leader Greg Anderson in the final round. Coughlin cuts a .019 RT in the final and that is enough to hold off Anderson’s much quicker and faster 6.798 secs at 203.37 mph. Anderson had paced the field setting both ends of the Infineon Raceway track record during qualifying at 6.750 secs and 205.10 mph.
Frank Pedregon has the event’s and possibly the season’s biggest “boom”. During round one of eliminations on Sunday the supercharger of Jim Dunn’s K&N Filters Pontiac Firebird explodes at half-track. That cuts the body of the car into pieces and Pedregon battles for control while getting the now bare chassis stopped. Pedregon gets his bell rung by the blast and singes his eyebrows but is otherwise AOK. Film at Eleven!
In a shocking turn of fortune and for the third straight NHRA event, points leader Tony Pedregon loses out in round one of FC competition. Pedregon is upset by #14 qualifier Keith Jackson who wins his first round of competition ever in NHRA racing. Pedregon’s closest points rival, Whit Bazemore, makes up a bit of ground on him but loses out to Scelzi in round two.
Larry Dixon clamps down harder on the 2003 NHRA POWERade points championship when he wins again in Top Fuel to complete a sweep of NHRA’s “Western Swing” events. Dixon runs a 4.640 secs at 319.67 mph in the final round to defeat local favourite and first time NHRA finalist David Baca, driver of the Northern California-based American Racing Wheels TF dragster.
Top Fuel racing is paced by Doug Kalitta who flies the Mac Tools dragster to both ends of the track record at 4.531 secs and 325.77 mph. Kalitta’s faint hopes of reeling in Dixon Jr. for the ’03 NHRA title grow even dimmer however when he loses in round two to Baca. Dixon Jr. now leads Kalitta by 310 points with 8 events left in the campaign.
Geno Scali stretches out his points lead atop the Pro Stock Bike chase with his third victory of the season. Scali denies the Harley Davidson brand it’s first ever NHRA win when his 7.177 secs beats the 7.264 secs effort from Andrew Hines in the final round. Hines does however make some history when he runs his Harley to a spectacular 195.28 mph during qualifying which is the fastest PSB speed ever in drag racing history.
PSB racing at Sonoma is a super quick field with the bump spot dipping to a 7.189 secs -- making the program the fastest yet in NHRA history. The previous record had been 7.207 secs set at E-Town last May. The class was paced by Arizona’s Craig Treble who ran his Suzuki to a career best 7.062 secs for low ET of the meet.
Alan Bradshaw remains red hot in TAD racing -- winning a NHRA title for the 2nd week in a row. Bradshaw wheels his injected-nitro car to final round 5.306 secs to edge out newcomer Garrett Bateman. Bateman’s amazing runner-up performance came during what was reported to be his first ever NHRA event. Bradshaw was the performance star throughout the event -- winning from the pole after hitting a 5.236 secs in qualifying.
Third round TAD qualifying includes a nasty wreck for Arizona’s Mark Niver who crashes his car shortly after leaving the gate. The throttle on his car apparently jams and the car hits the guardwall and flips over. The motor hangs wide open and eventually explodes. Despite all the violence Niver is out of the car OK.
The TAFC title when to the “Northwest Hitter” Bucky Austin who powered his ’03 Firebird past Jay Payne’s Camaro in the final round. Austin won handily at 5.665 secs to Payne’s 5.729 secs. Austin dominated the event recording both low ET and top speed at 5.596 secs and 258.07 mph.
David Rampy -- who had won three straight events in Competition eliminator -- does not win Comp at Sonoma! But that doesn’t mean he did not visit victory lane. After falling in round one to Dean Carter in Comp he climbs behind the wheel of his F/SA ’67 Camaro and goes on to take the Stock title, beating Clark Holroyd in the final round. The win is Rampy’s first NHRA event win in Stock eliminator.
