News Article

Force halfway to first No.1; Brown, Edwards, Rivas also lead in Sonoma

July 26, 2008
Duke Ritenhouse, NHRA.com

NHRA’s grueling three-events-in-three-weeks Western Swing came one more step closer to completion Friday at Infineon Raceway, with Antron Brown (Top Fuel), Ashley Force (Funny Car), Mike Edwards (Pro Stock), and Chris Rivas (Pro Stock Motorcycle) claiming the top qualifying spots in their respective classes after an entertaining, albeit longer than expected, day of racing at the picturesque track set amidst the Napa Valley wineries.

On the strength of a 4.096 at better than 300 mph, Force is halfway to potentially claiming the first No. 1 qualifying result of her young career, while Brown’s 3.805 blast put him on top of the list as he seeks his third top-qualifier result of the season. In the Pro Stock classes, Edwards ran a spectacular 6.60 that surprised even the driver, putting him within two runs of picking up his first No. 1 result since the 2001 season, and Rivas was the only rider in the two-wheeled division to dip under the seven-second barrier.

Ashley Force

Force powered to a 4.096 in the evening session to jump from the back half of the pack all the way to the top spot. That run also resulted in a 301.60-mph speed, making Force one of two drivers, along with No. 3 Cruz Pedregon, to break 300 mph for the day. Coming in between those two after Friday’s two qualifying runs was defending POWERade champion Tony Pedregon, who ran a 4.101 best that was just a tick better than his older brother’s 4.110. Force’s father, 14-time NHRA Funny Car champion John Force, ran a 4.119 to finish fourth-best for the day.

“It [being No. 1] is great,” Force said. “It was kind of a rush between rounds. My guys were working so hard and you never know, you get a little nervous thinking, ‘Did we put everything back together right … did we do everything we wanted to?’ They never let me down. They got it done exactly how they wanted it to be done. It showed when it went right down the track. It was easy for me the driver to get it from A to B.”

Gary Densham will enter Saturday’s racing on the No. 12 bump spot after running a 4.205 best, one spot behind Robert Hight, who led the first session with a 4.194 but was pulled out of line before making his second pass. A number of drivers will be looking to improve Saturday, including No. 13 Jack Beckman, Seattle winner Tony Bartone (No. 15), and Bob Tasca III, who is last among the 17 cars entered and will be attempting to avoid his first DNQ since Phoenix, the second event of the season.

Antron Brown

In Top Fuel, Brown came tantalizingly close to the 3.7-second zone, but settled for a nice-looking 3.805 in the second session that put him one-hundredth clear of No. 2 Tony Schumacher, who is looking to sweep the entire Western Swing after claiming the top prize in both Denver and Seattle. Brandon Bernstein, running in the same pair with Schumacher, ran a 3.821 to grab the No. 3 spot heading into Saturday’s third and fourth rounds of qualifying.

“I knew it was a stellar run, but I didn’t know if it was going to hold up, because you never know what can happen with the Bernstein car and the Schumacher car [the following pair]; they’re capable of running in the high .70s, also,” Brown said. “I thought I was on a high.70 run, but that .80 is still a great run, so we’re happy with it.

“We were actually getting happy in the back of the line [after the last of Friday’s track clean-ups] because the sun was going down. The cooler the track gets, the more power we can putdown to the ground, so every time I see that I start grinning. When you get those opportunities, like here at sea level at Infineon, you can wick it up a little bit.”

Hillary Will enters Saturday’s rounds on the initial No. 12 bump spot after running a 3.898 best. With only 16 Top Fuelers at the track, no drivers appears to be in any danger of not reaching eliminations, although drivers such as No. 13 J.R. Todd and No. 14 Doug Kalitta, a five-time winner at Infineon, will certainly be looking to improve their positions on their final two chances.

Mike Edwards

Edwards, driving the YoungLife Penhall Pontiac GXP, ended up on top of the Pro Stock qualifying sheet after a spectacular second session saw a number of drivers make much-improved runs. A total of 10 drivers ended up running quicker than Warren Johnson’s class-leading 6.659 from the first session.

Edwards’ 6.609 was a full hundredth in front of Seattle winner and No. 2 qualifier Jason Line’s 6.619. The next three in the order all share the surname of Johnson, with Allen grabbing the No. 3 spot (6.620), Kurt coming in at No. 4 (6.626), and Warren falling to fifth (6.629), but managing to break the Infineon Raceway track speed record with his 209.33 mph pass.

If he can hang on to the top spot following Saturday’s pair of qualifying sessions, Edwards will claim his first Pro Stock pole since the fall of 2001 in Dallas, a streak of 146 events. One way or another, he plans to savor what he described as a stunning, and a bit unexpected, pass.

“ ‘Provisional’ is the big word; tomorrow will be another day, but for right now we’re No. 1,” Edwards said. “We made a great run, and I’m proud of my team. I knew we could run better, but I didn’t think we were going to run a .60, by any means. I really felt we could run at least a .63, but I’m stunned over that .60 myself. When I let go of the chutes at the other end, I thought ‘Whatever that was, we can’t go any faster.’ That’s how good it felt to me.”

Johnny Gray and Jim Yates both ran 6.661s to grab the last two spots above the line, with Gray earning the No. 11 spot based on a slightly faster speed. Among the drivers who will be looking to move up in Saturday’s action are Denver semifinalists Greg Stanfield and V. Gaines, Larry Morgan, and Dave Connolly, who is last in the 20-car order, an uncomfortable position for a driver in a desperate fight for the 10th and final spot in the Countdown to 1.

Chris Rivas

The Pro Stock Motorcycle class returned to action after a one-event hiatus, and Rivas wasted no time in moving to the top of the order after Friday’s two qualifying sessions. Running in the final pairing of the day, Rivas jumped to the top of the sheet with the day’s first 6-second pass, a 6.987 at 188.65 mph on his G-Squared/S&S Racing Buell that pushed him in front of low-7-second e.t.s from the likes of Chip Ellis (7.000), Karen Stoffer (7.003), Angelle Sampey (7.006), and Matt Smith (7.017).

Rivas is seeking his third No. 1 result of the season after previously finishing on top of the order at successive events in Chicago and Englishtown. Both of those No. 1 results led to good things on Sunday for Rivas, who won in Chicago and reached the final in Englishtown.

“After a little bit of a disappointing Denver [second-round loss], what we’re doing is acting like every lap is Sunday E1 [first round of eliminations]; that’s what our whole mentality is this weekend,” said Rivas, who entered the event in a solid fourth place (after the eight PSM events so far this season) in the Countdown points standings. “We’re after some nice green lights, making some perfect, straight laps, and doing all our stuff the right way from the very first hit.

“This is my home track, and I would definitely say that I have high expectations for this weekend. I came in to this event wanting to win it; we’re No. 1 right now, and I don’t plan on losing it. That’s why I’m here; that’s why I do what I do.”

Veteran two-wheeled racer Steve Johnson wound up on the provisional bump spot with a 7.111 best. He’s just in front of Peggy Llewellyn (7.127), who is competing in her second event of the season after sitting out the first half of the year.