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LAS VEGAS NATIONAL 2016

April 4, 2016 / Todd Veney

At the Denso NHRA Nationals, Annie Whiteley didn’t do what she has so many times before at the Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway – win – but she did take a big step in the right direction after the first-round loss at the Phoenix season-opener. Whiteley, the defending Top Alcohol Funny Car champion at this event, pounded out solid runs in two of three qualifying sessions, including a 5.58 at nearly 265 mph, her best run of the season, en route to a quarterfinal finish.

“Let’s just say it was an extremely tricky track,” said Whiteley, whose YNot Racing/J&A Service team was one of just two top-half qualifiers to survive the wild, wide-open first round. “When that many people struggle to figure out the track in the same round, you know something’s up.” No. 1 qualifier John Lombardo, No. 2 qualifier and many-time Las Vegas winner Tony Bartone, and No. 3 qualifier and national points leader Doug Gordon all were gone after one round, with Bartone’s backpedaling 5.82 the best run of the bunch. Whiteley, who qualified No. 4, backpedaled to a 6.20 to hold off Chris Marshall, who had upset her in the first round of eliminations here last fall.

Whiteley was off the line first with one of the best reaction times of her career, a near-perfect .004, and got the car under control enough to pull away from Marshall’s all-over-the-track 6.37/238 with a 6.20/252. “It spun the tires early, but I didn’t know where he was,” she said. “You have to be quite a way behind to see the other car, and I never did see him, so just I kept trying.”

She had no such luck in Sunday’s second round of eliminations against eventual winner Terry Ruckman, the only other driver from the fast half of the field (No. 5) to make it out of the first round. While Whiteley fought to keep her car off the wall, Ruckman was long gone with a 5.58, his best run of the weekend and low e.t. of eliminations. Whiteley steered back into the groove, chased him down until there was no way she could catch him even if he broke, and coasted to a 6.18 at 217 mph.

“Nobody wants to lose, but Terry’s a good guy and he’d never won a national event before,” said Whiteley, who hails from the same hometown as Ruckman, Grand Junction, Colo. “All in all, it was a decent weekend. We figured out a few things with the car and my reaction times. The whole team has been working to figure out something for my lights, and I think we got it. We kept repositioning my [throttle] pedal and repositioning it, and I’m a lot more comfortable now. I don’t have to bury my foot against the can anymore, it just feels a lot better, and that has me kind of excited about the rest of the season.”

PRO MOD – GAINESVILLE 2016

March 22, 2016 / Todd Veney

Coming off a career-best stretch to close the 2015 NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod season and fresh off a big win at the RPM (Real Pro Mod) event earlier this month in West Palm Beach, Fla., Steven Whiteley was riding an all-time high entering the NHRA Gatornationals.

Driving the supercharged YNot Racing Cadillac, Whiteley was as high as 8th in the field at world-famous Gainesville Raceway but had the misfortune in the first round to line up opposite his nemesis, eventual winner Rickie Smith, who laid down low e.t. of the meet at the time, a 5.78 – the seventh-quickest run in Pro Mod history. “With a low-5.90 two years ago, when I debuted here, you’d be in the top three,” said Whiteley, who lost despite an otherwise excellent 5.90. “Now, that puts you in the slow half of the field. It’s not enough when guys are running .80s and even .70s. Everybody just keeps getting faster and faster and that’s cool, that’s how it should be. We should be running that too, and in certain conditions, we do.”

Whiteley shook and shut off on his opening qualifying attempt and stormed to a 5.92 at 246 mph in the second session, and it’s a good thing he did: He was pushed off the starting line in the final session. “The bolts on the back side of the ring gear came lose,” he explained. “I didn’t know exactly what it was, but it would roll freely and then lock up, roll freely and then lock up, so I knew it had to be something in the rear end. If that had been eliminations, I would’ve parked it in the beams and hoped the other guy made a mistake, but on a qualifying run there was nothing to do but shut it off.”

Whiteley made his best run of the weekend when it counted most, in the first round, but his 5.90 wasn’t enough against Smith’s 5.78 – even though the J&A driver drilled him on the Tree with a .053 reaction time. “I don’t know where Rickie came up with that, but we didn’t go for it and he did,” Whiteley said. “We’re better than that. Right now, what we struggle with is high-humidity conditions. It just kills the power and makes it shake the tires. When it does get down, it’s dead slow. When we have ‘Disneyland’ conditions, we’re tough, and we’re going to see those conditions again soon.”

PSM – GAINESVILLE 2016

March 21, 2016 / Todd Veney

In the first race of his first full season in NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle, Cory Reed just missed the cut at the prestigious Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla. Qualified 14th with one session to go, he ran 6.90s in three of four qualifying sessions only to get bumped in the final session by the guy in the other lane, perennial championship contender Hector Arana Jr.

“It was still a solid weekend, a great learning experience,” Reed said. “I like racing way better than just testing. It actually makes it a little easier, especially on the line – they put their first bulb on, you put yours on, you stage, they stage. It’s good just to get into the whole rhythm of having someone in the other lane.”

Astride the YNot Racing/Star Racing Buell EBR, Reed, who made his official debut last November at Las Vegas, took the early qualifying lead Friday afternoon with a career-best 6.933 at 191 mph only to have his time wiped off the board in the Friday evening session, when he spun off the line and slipped from 10th to 15th in the qualifying order – just below the crucial Top 12 line. In an NHRA rule enacted in 2008, all but the top 12 times are dropped heading into Saturday qualifying and everybody from 13 down starts all over. The final bump was 6.938, so if not for the controversial rule, Reed would have made an NHRA national event field in just his second attempt.

“It was hard not to think about that, but I’m more focused on getting used to the acceleration off the line and watching the shift light,” Reed said. “That first shift comes up fast – just past the 60-foot clocks – and you really have to be patient and wait on it. I short-shifted 1-2 and 2-3 really bad or that first run absolutely would’ve been in the .80s.”

Reed made two more strong runs Saturday – a 6.95 that got him back into the show in the third session and a 6.97 in last shot qualifying – but ended up 18th on the final qualifying grid, right between former world champ Matt Smith and many time national event winner Shawn Gann.

“It was awesome being right in there with all the big guys, especially Jerry [Savoie, who was in contention for the 2015 NHRA championship right down to the final day of the season],” Reed said. “Just rolling up next to Jerry was pretty sweet. It made me feel good to be a part of this team. [Star Racing teammate] Angelle [Sampey] qualified fifth [with a career-best 6.84], which just gives you even more confidence. These fields are tight, tight, tight every time, but we’re gonna figure everything out and I’m going to get this shift light figured out. We’ve definitely got the power, that’s for sure.”

TAFC – PHOENIX 2016

March 9, 2016 / Todd Veney

Who knows why, but Annie Whiteley’s first race of the year always seems to end with a thud. The fifth-year Top Alcohol Funny Car star fell in the first round at the Lucas Oil Series Western Regional opener for the third year in a row, but at least it wasn’t like 2015, when she was plagued by tire-shake all weekend in Phoenix, or especially 2014, when a frightening tire explosion obliterated the whole back left of her car in Houston.

“I don’t know what it is about the first race of the season,” said the YNot/J&A Service driver. “We always seem to have crappy luck, except in 2012 at Vegas, where they kept sending me down the track and we just kept winning.” This one got off to a promising start when Whiteley assumed the early qualifying lead with a 5.61 at more than 260 mph after a successful two-day test the week before the race. “That might’ve been the best test we ever had – four-for-four on Monday, and two-for-two on Thursday. We usually suck in testing and do a lot better in the race.”

Not this year. Whiteley went up in smoke early in the second qualifying session, lost traction even sooner in in the last session, and settled into the number 6 spot for eliminations – two spots higher than last year, when she was on the bump. “The car didn’t make it two feet on that last run,” she said. “We kept wondering why it got so aggressive all of a sudden. No idea why. Sometimes, you’re not gonna know why.”

The car was calmed down for the first round of eliminations – too calmed down, as it turned out. “We made it down the track, but not fast enough,” said Whiteley, who dropped a 5.56/264 to 5.65/258 match against veteran Steve Gasparrelli. “The guys are going back over everything, and we’ll be back,” Whiteley said, and history suggests that they will.

The YNot team rebounded from a disastrous outing at Houston in 2014 to reach the final at the national event there a month later, and last year the team went on to win multiple national events, another regional championship, and led the national standings until the last day of the season.

TAFC – POMONA 2015

November 17, 2015 / Todd Veney

If only she could’ve maintained the performance from her off-the-trailer qualifying pass at the NHRA Finals in Pomona, Calif., Annie Whiteley likely would’ve won the 2015 Top Alcohol Funny Car championship she seemed destined to win all year.

Whiteley, who won four races in seven final-round appearances this season and stood atop the national standings longer than any other driver, battled tire shake the rest of the way and eventually fell to Clint Thompson in the quarterfinals, allowing Sweden’s Jonnie Lindberg to slip past her by 12 points to win the title.

“That run probably hurt us more than it helped us,” Whiteley’s husband, two-time Top Alcohol Dragster world champ Jim Whiteley, said of her off-the-trailer 5.46 at nearly 267 mph. “I think it fooled us into thinking the track was different than it was. There was a whole lot of track out there this weekend.”

The run qualified Whiteley solidly in the No. 4 position and seemed to set her up for even better things in the remaining qualifying sessions and especially in eliminations, but her J&A Service/YNot Racing Camaro refused to cooperate on subsequent runs.

“It is what it is,” said Whiteley, who reclaimed the lead she lost to Lindberg two weeks earlier at the Toyota Nationals by winning the first round over veteran Steve Gasparrelli with a tire-shaking, backpedaling 6.07. “We never got hold of the track after that first run. No complaints, though. Look how the season started – not getting down the track run after run, barely qualifying at the first race (Phoenix). I’d say it turned out pretty good overall.”

TAFC – LAS VEGAS REGIONAL 2015

November 9, 2015 / Todd Veney

It won’t count toward the national championship because she’s already run the maximum number of regional events – five – but Annie Whiteley pounded out one good run after another at her favorite track, The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, at the final regional event of the season. As always, it was the toughest regional event of the entire season; 17 cars attempted to qualify for one of just eight spots, and the bump was one of the quickest of all time, 5.63.

Whiteley’s J&A Service/YNot Racing Camaro held down the No. 1 spot in Top Alcohol Funny Car until the final pair of the final session with a 5.49. No. 2 in the field when eliminations began, she ripped of a consistent 5.51 to take out defending event champ Ulf Leanders, then slipped to a tire-shaking 5.79 in the semifinals and fell to friend and Grand Junction, Colo., neighbor Terry Ruckman, the former Division 7 champ.

“It shook pretty hard that time, and there wasn’t much I could do,” Whiteley said. “It didn’t hurt us points-wise, but you never want to lose – ever. It was still a good weekend, though. We learned a lot about running the car in cold conditions, and that’s going to do nothing but help us down the road.”

Now the YNot team’s focus shifts to this weekend’s NHRA Finals in Pomona, Calif. One point out of the lead – 626 to 625 – with one race to go, she’ll overtake Sweden’s Jonnie Lindberg by winning just one round of eliminations. “It’s all right there for us,” she said. “I don’t want to think about points or anything like that. I’m just going to try to make each run like it’s a qualifying run and take it one round at a time. We’ve run good all year. Now we just need to do it one more time.”

PRO MOD – LAS VEGAS 2015

November 6, 2015 / Todd Veney

Steven Whiteley wrapped up the best season of his young Pro Mod career at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with his fourth late-round appearance in a row. Whiteley, coming off a No. 1 qualifying effort the last time out, at St. Louis, qualified high in the field again at the Toyota NHRA Nationals in Vegas and took a wild first-round win over Dan Stevenson before dropping a close quarterfinal match with eventual winner Khalid alBalooshi.

Whiteley put a holeshot on Stevenson with one of his best reaction times of the season, .030, and gutted out a hard-fought win when the car wanted to go every which way but straight. “I almost shut it off two times on that run,” said Whiteley, whose J&A Service/YNot Racing was loose throughout both first and second gear. “When it made it the first time, I thought, ‘OK – we’re good,’ and then I about had to shut it off again, but Dan was doing the same thing in the other lane.”

After winning that round with a 5.86 that actually turned out to be his quickest run of the weekend and qualifying sixth with a 5.87, Whiteley slipped to a 5.92 Sunday in the quarterfinals against alBalooshi, who was entrenched in the 5.80s throughout eliminations. “I short-shifted a little on that run,” he said, “and when you hit the first shift a little early, it’s like a timer goes off, and when that time’s up, you hit the next one a hair early, too. It’s a timing thing. I probably cost me three- or four-hundredths of a second.”

Whiteley finishes the season ranked 15^th in points, just three points behind father Jim Whiteley, who missed the cut this weekend with his immaculate ’69 Chevelle. It was close – the bump was a 5.94, and Jim ran a best of 5.98.

“We’re all encouraged about 2016,” said Steven, who qualified in the top half of the field at the last four races in a row. “The car ran better and better as the year went on, and we’ll be running the CTS again all next year and in all of 2017. We’ve got a lot of good data now, and things have really turned around going into next year.”

TAFC – LAS VEGAS NATIONAL 2015

November 2, 2015 / Todd Veney

At The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where she has dominated Alcohol Funny Car racing since earning the first win of her career there in her 2012 rookie campaign, Annie Whiteley suffered one of her few early round losses ever in Las Vegas. The fourth-year pro, who swept both the national and regional events there earlier this season for her fifth and sixth career Vegas wins, went out in the first round.

Whiteley’s J&A Service/YNot Racing Camaro went into hard tire shake in low gear, and despite a quick pedal job, she was unable to run down Chris Marshall, coming up just 14-thousandths of a second short in the lights with a 5.71 – far from her outstanding qualifying effort. “I was catching him the whole time, and I really thought I was going to get there,” Whiteley said. “It shook at the top of low gear, and I thought I could drive through it. I kept thinking, ‘Come on, come on, we’re almost there,’ but I finally had to short-shift. You’ve basically got two options at that point – short-shift or pedal – and I finally had to hit the button at 8,100.”

Marshall shot into the lead and claimed by far the biggest win of his young career with a 5.74. “I didn’t know if I was going to catch him or not, but at least I gave myself half a shot at it,” said Whiteley, who crossed the finish line going a full 13 mph faster than Marshall, 260 to 247. It was a disappointing end to what had been a typically solid Vegas outing to that point. Whiteley qualified No. 5 with an excellent 5.558 at 263.20 mph.

Now the YNot team, which had topped the national rankings since Whiteley’s dominant victory at Woodburn four months ago, is second in the standings, just a single point behind Jonnie Lindberg, 626 to 625.

CORY REED’S PRO DEBUT SET FOR LAS VEGAS

October 23, 2015 / Todd Veney

Pro Stock Motorcycle’s next big star might just be former motocross racer Cory Reed, who will join three-time world champ Angelle Sampey on George and Jackie Bryce’s Star Racing team for the entire 2016 season and make his pro debut this weekend in Las Vegas.

Both racers will be fully sponsored by PSE, an equipment manufacturer for the oil-and-gas industry that specializes in efficient oil-and-water-separation equipment. “Star Racing has a great history, and we’re really looking forward to working with George, Jackie, Angelle, and the whole team,” said PSE owner Jim Whiteley.

Reed may be new to drag racing, but his family isn’t. His mom, Annie, is the No. 1 driver in Top Alcohol Funny Car this season, dad Jim is a two-time Top Alcohol Dragster world champ, and brother Steven just qualified No. 1 for Pro Mod at St. Louis. “Cory may not have accelerated like this before, but he’s a drag racer,” said Bryce, who has taught more than 900 students at his driving school. “Look at his family – drag racing is in their DNA. If you graphed his progress, it would be a line going up at a 45-degree angle, and he’s never quit gaining, right up to the last run he made. He’s the only student I’ve ever had who came here with no drag racing experience at all – he’d never even ridden on the street – but one of the toughest things I have to do is ‘un-teach’ bad habits, and he didn’t have any.”

The 22-year-old from Grand Junction, Colo., should be as ready as any rookie has ever been when qualifying begins for the Toyota NHRA Nationals in Las Vegas. He’s already made 75 laps on five different motorcycles at 10 different tracks and has numerous 6-second runs to his credit. “He’s the first guy who reminds me of the late, great John Myers,” said Bryce, who owns six career championships – three with Myers riding (1990-92-95) and three more with Sampey (2000-01-02).

“I’ve got 41 wins and three championships, and it’s not enough,” Sampey said. “It’s never enough. If I had 15 championships and 300 wins, it wouldn’t be enough. But the anxiety and the pressure I put on myself to win is gone now. I feel like I’m a better driver than I’ve ever been, and racing is so competitive right now. You have to be so precise in everything you do, from your reaction time to your shift points, and Cory already has that. He’s genuine, he’s soft-spoken, and he’s easy to get along with, just like John Myers and Antron Brown, and there’s no bigger compliment I could give him. The motorcycle doesn’t know who’s on top of it, and I strongly believe he’s going to be like them. He knew things before we even told him.”

Reed crewed for Sampey at every race this year, working side by side with crew chief Ken Johnson, assisting with everything from engine swaps and maintenance to setup and teardown. At Las Vegas, Sampey won’t compete – she’ll devote her full attention to coaching Reed in his debut.

“She’s taught me all about running your own race, staying focused on yourself and your routine, and not getting distracted,” said Reed, who broke his back, both wrists, an elbow, and a shoulder in seven years on the physically demanding motocross circuit. “I like this a lot better. It’s not as stressful and way more fun. It took a few runs to get used to the acceleration, but the speed has never bothered me – I like going fast.”

The Vegas race has already attracted 30 entries – more than any race in over a decade – but Reed remains unfazed. “It’s extra pressure, I guess, because about half the people won’t qualify, but I like competition,” he said. “I’m confident in myself and my team, and my goal is to qualify and win a round. I’m really looking forward to this.”

TAFC – DALLAS 2015

October 19, 2015 / Todd Veney

On the all-concrete quarter-mile at the Texas Motorplex, Annie Whiteley pounded out the quickest run of her four-year career to qualify high in the fastest field in Top Alcohol Funny Car history. A 5.45 at nearly 267 mph positioned her fifth in the Fall Nationals lineup, but an up-in-smoke 10.95 in the first round of eliminations knocked her out of the race. “I don’t know what it is, but Scott McVey is my kryptonite,” Whiteley said of the disappointing early exit. “That guy’s always had my number.”

Up till then, the incoming national points leader was headed for yet another late-round finish, maybe even an eighth final and fifth victory of 2015. Whiteley guided her YNot Racing/J&A Service Camaro to an off-the trailer 5.58/263 Friday that had her fourth on the provisional grid, then stepped way up to a 5.52/264 later that afternoon for No. 6. When conditions improved Saturday morning, she made an even bigger gain to a career-best 5.453/266.90, one of three 5.453s in that round.

When eliminations kicked off Saturday afternoon, Whiteley blasted off the line with one of the best 60-foot times any Alcohol Funny Car driver ever had, .920, but with the front end in the air and the car headed straight for the wall, she had no choice but to lift. “I left too high that time – that’s why the 60-foot time was so good – but there’s no way the car’s going to make it with that kind of wheel speed that early,” she said.

With three races left, including two at her best track on the tour, the Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Whiteley remains first in the national standings, where she’s been since July 19. Swede Jonnie Lindberg, who closed the gap slightly with a semifinal appearance at this race, is now 10 points back.

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