Hey Everyone,
I apologize for my delay in writing you guys after our last race in Sonoma! I have no excuse except that I forgot, I guess my old age is catching up to me these days. I do know one thing, the DHL Funny Car Team would like to forget about Sonoma last weekend!
Going into Sonoma, Jeff and the DHL Funny Car Team had already won more rounds in 2011 than they did in all of 2010. Alot of that can be credited to the conservative approach that Nicky and Jon O have taken with the yellow and red Toyota Solara. While the DHL Car hasn’t been the quickest or fastest, it has been consistent, and that is what will get you round wins in the Funny Car class. After running a 4.28 on the first qualifying run on Friday, The DHL car shook the tires on Friday night and didn’t make it into the Top 12 for Saturdays qualifying. On the first run on Saturday, Jeff struck the tires early on the run, which meant that going into the last qualifying run, the DHL Team was on the outside looking in. On the last run, Nicky and Jon O put a conservative tuneup on the DHL car, to make sure it went down the track. The only problem was that the tuneup was to conservative, and the DHL car could only manage a 4.43, which was not good enough to get into Sundays final eliminations. While not qualifying is a setback for the DHL Team, it is not the end of the world! Jeff, Nicky and Jon O, along with the rest of the DHL Team, will get back on track at our next race in Seattle this coming weekend!
Both Doug and Grubby, put their normal Kalitta Air cars to the side for the weekend, and brought out some different colors. Grubby was in the Rocky Boots Dragster for the weekend and Doug ran the Chip Foose designed Technicoat Dragster at the Sonoma Track. Both Grubby and Doug did pretty good during qualifying, as Grubby ran a nice 3.88 to land in the number 6 spot, while Doug ran a 3.91 which was good enough for the number 9 spot. On raceday, Doug was the first pair out on an 88 degree racetrack, with Brandon Bernstein sitting over in the other lane. At the start, Doug had the slight advantage and never looked back, as the Technicoat Dragster ran a nice 3.87 at 317 mph to beat Brandon’s 3.88 at 310 mph. That was a big win for Doug, as Brandon was right behind is points. Grubby then brought his Rocky Boots Dragster to the starting line against Shawn Langdon. With Grubby grabbing a starting line advantage over Shawn, the Rocky Boots Dragster made a nice clean 3.86 at 316 mph lap to take down Shawn, who ran a very good 3.89 in the other lane.
In the second round, Doug was up against one of our favorite opponents, Tony Schumacher driving the US Army Dragster. With the track now heating up to 118 degrees, it was going to be tricky to get the Technicoat Dragster down the track. With both Doug and Tony cutting good lights, both cars were dead even until the 330 foot mark, where the Technicoat Dragster lost traction, giving the win to Tony. Grubby was then up against Antron Brown, who was driving some “other” tool companies car. At the start, Grubby was right there with Antron until about 300 feet, when the Rocky Boots Dragster lost traction. Grubbies car looked almost identical to Doug’s car on that run. I know I keep saying this, but I feel that both Doug and Grubby’s teams are starting to get things figured out, and both Connie and myself have alot more confidence with our setups these days even though that confidence hasn’t translated into a race win yet, but it’s coming!
Going into our next race in Seattle, Doug still is sitting in the number 6 spot in Top Fuel points, and Grubby is in the 10th spot. Even though Jeff failed to qualify at Sonoma, the DHL Car is still in the Top 10 as the yellow and red Toyota sits in the number 8 spot in Funny Car points.
Last year in Seattle, Doug qualified in the number 1 spot and made it to the semi-finals. With the weather looking pretty good for the weekend, we hope to go a couple of rounds further in Seattle, and bring home the Wally with the Kalitta Air Dragster. Standing in Doug’s way, will be Grubby and his Kalitta Air Dragster, as Connie is starting to get in a groove with his tuneup, and Grubby has been driving the wheels off of his dragster as of late, so don’t be surprised if Grubby makes a run at the Seattle Wally this weekend! I also wouldn’t be surprised if Jeff and the DHL boys go from worst to first in Seattle! In drag racing, nothing surprises me anymore, I guess that is why we keep doing this, as we learn something new everyday!
Take care everyone, and I hope you have a great weekend!
Jim O