First Win as a Pro…. many in Alchocal Funny Car
Tony Bartone, who had collected 28 victories in the alcohol classes before joining the Professional ranks, scored his first Pro victory in his 119th start in the Funny Car class, holding on to win a thrilling final-round battle with Ron Capps to highlight the 21st annual Schuck’s Auto Supply NHRA Nationals, the middle leg of NHRA’s three-race, three-weekend Western Swing, at Pacific Raceways outside of Seattle.
Tony Schumacher kept alive his bid to become the sixth Pro driver to sweep the Western Swing and the fourth in Top Fuel when he titled with a final-round conquest of Brandon Bernstein. Jason Line triumphed in Pro Stock against Allen Johnson for his second win of the season and his first in Seattle after finishing as runner-up here the last two seasons.
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Bartone’s roller-coaster season, in which he has crashed twice and DNQ’d six times, took a positive turn as he wheeled the Jim Dunn-owned and -tuned Canidae Pet Foods Monte Carlo to victory. Despite a deteriorating powerplant that almost allowed Ron Capps to run him down in the lights, he held on to win, 4.45 to 4.70. Bartone is the third first-time winner in the class this season, joining Ashley Force and Melanie Troxel.“Looking back at last weekend in Denver, we had an extreme amount of trouble getting down the track, but we were able to turn our program around and put together a pretty good race car to race with today, and we went four rounds and brought home the bacon,” Bartone said. “We were lucky enough to come up with a good race-day tune-up today [after sitting out Saturday’s qualifying sessions]; it wasn’t perfect, but it went rounds.
“This [winning as an NHRA Professional] is what you dream about; this is what you work your whole career to do. Winning was great in the alcohol ranks; we did a lot of winning, we won championships, and we won national events and divisional races. But this is a special moment. It’s a culmination of what you try to accomplish as a racer.”
Bartone advanced to his second Funny Car final round and first since the
Capps reached his first final round of the season and the 51st of his career by wheeling his Ed McCulloch-tuned NAPA Auto Parts Dodge past event-sponsored Del Worsham’s perfect light in round one with a 4.17, Cruz Pedregon in round two with a 4.23, and Gary Densham in the semifinals, 4.26 to 4.27. Despite the final-round loss that denied him a 25th Funny Car crown and kept him winless since the May 2007 event in
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The final-round meeting between Schumacher and Bernstein, a rematch of the 2005 final here, certainly was not unexpected considering how the two second-generation drivers battled for the top spot throughout Top Fuel qualifying before Schumacher locked down the top spot, the 51st of his career, with a 3.80 that stood as low e.t. of the meet. Schumacher then reversed the outcome of their 2005 final and tallied his 48th win and seventh this season by outrunning Bernstein, 3.90 to 4.05.“It’s a blast,” said Schumacher. “We’ve been a pressure team for years. Under pressure we step up; we do good. Right now, for whatever reason, we’re just having a great time, and the car is running good. When you get on a roll like this, watch out. You see those football teams, when they start smiling and start playing together really as a team, like we do, we’re hard to beat. It’s been outstanding.
“We’re setting records that nobody thought possible. We’re doing amazing things together. It’s hard to believe, but it’s great to be part of.”
In his milestone 250th race-day start, Schumacher opened with a 3.87-second solo pass when opponent Steve Chrisman had to shut off behind the line and followed with blasts of 3.93 and 3.97 to trailer Dave Grubnic’s DHL dragster and the Caterpillar car of friendly rival Rod Fuller. Schumacher’s final-round win was his third straight at the event and fourth win at Pacific Raceways in the last five years.
Bernstein’s Budweiser dragster ran low e.t. of the first round with a 3.85 to beat a surprisingly tough Troy Buff, whose 3.87 was the second quickest of the round and would have beaten any other opponent. Bernstein then survived a scare in a second-round battle with Cory McClenathan, who swept the Western Swing in 2007, in a battle of traction-deficient dragsters, 4.33 to 4.91. Bernstein also battled top-end traction woes in the semifinals but held off the similarly afflicted machine of
In one of the many key Countdown matchups, 11th-ranked Morgan Lucas defeated ninth-place Doug Kalitta in round one to pull to within 10 points of a top 10 berth.
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After two straight runner-ups at this event, Line finally scored in
“We didn’t have a great car, that’s for sure. We had a lot of issues. We tested some parts along the way, which was kind of cool, but you don’t really want to be testing at national events. But it all worked out, and the guys did a great job, especially getting it down the left lane, which was a little bit tricky.
“Allen has been running really well, and I was nervous for that race. But it all worked out, fortunately, and he was a little bit tardy, and when I looked over in high gear and didn’t see that Dodge over there, I was smiling.”
Line, a winner earlier this year in
Low qualifier Connolly’s bid to enter the top 10 was cut down by engine woes in round two, but he did gain 20 more points on 10th-place W.J. and, after missing the season’s first five races, is just 26 markers out of a spot in the Countdown to 1 playoffs.
