2024 – YNot Racing

Reed Motorsports’ first outing of 2024 turned out to be a lot more like the team’s frustrating 2023 season than it did their soaring, life-affirming 2022 campaign. Rider Joey Gladstone squeaked into the back half of the Gatornationals Pro Stock Motorcycle field and was gone after one round.

Hamstrung by a disastrous foray into the sand trap after a test run just before Gainesville, the team was worn out before qualifying even got under way. “We were up until 5 a.m. getting the sand out of everything,” Reed said. They missed the first qualifying session and never made it to the finish line in the second. Saturday in Q3 Gladstone managed a 7.09 at 186 mph – a third of a second and 15 mph short of what the team is capable of, but at least it got him into the final lineup. Barely.

On the bump when eliminations began, Gladstone faced the toughest possible opponent, reigning world champion Gaige Herrera, lead rider for the all-conquering Vance & Hines juggernaut that dominated the 2023 season, in round one. He got off the line on time and picked up a tenth and a half with a decent 6.94/194 but had absolutely no chance when Herrera, already the quickest rider by a mile, picked up more than a tenth with the second-quickest run of all time, a track-record 6.63.

“We’ve gotten everything out of this that we can,” Reed said. “We’re about done. I’m good with what we’ve accomplished. Joey’s good. He’s set records before, won championships. What he wanted was to win NHRA Pro Stock races, and we did – three times.”

The team’s 2022 campaign was one for the ages, the epitome of everything both racers ever wanted to achieve – six finals, three victories, and one career best after another. But lately? “We’re tired of it,” Reed said. “The amount of time we’ve spent on this to not run well … It’s been nine years of this crap. Joey’s not some punching bag, some filler. We might run Charlotte, might run Richmond. Maybe a couple more. Maybe none. If we run anywhere, it’ll be the ones close to home. We both have things going on, new goals. We don’t want to ditch the bike program now – we have too much knowledge – but this is pointless. There’s more opportunity in other classes.”

Long established veteran handler Annie Whiteley kicked off her 13th season of Top Alcohol Funny Car competition with a semifinal finish at the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series’ Western Region opener. “Not bad,” she assessed. “Things got a little stressful at times, changing the ignition to something we’ve never run before, but, all in all, I’d say it turned out all right.”

Frustrated by an erratic MSD command module that single-handedly cost the J&A Service/YNot Racing team three races last year, crew chief Mike Strasburg made the switch to a FuelTech setup for 2024. “From inside the car, the motor just sounds different now,” Whiteley said. “The idle is deeper. Throatier. We’re up there for the first test run and I look out the window at Jeff [Strasburg], like, ‘This thing sounds like a mud truck – you sure it’s OK?’ “

After a couple of test runs – one too soft and one a little too hard – the team got down to business Friday when qualifying officially got under way. Strasburg split the difference, and the car charged to the 1,000-foot mark, where, as planned, Whiteley clicked it off, coasting to a 5.71. On her second and final attempt, the “Shattered Glass” Camaro produced a fine 5.47 at 263.82 mph, good for No. 2 behind rookie Maddi Gordon, who went low with a 5.43 in her first start since taking over for her dad, outgoing world champion Doug Gordon.

Saturday afternoon in the first round of eliminations, Whiteley summarily dispatched the decent 5.60/262 of second-generation driver Will Martin, son of former nitro Funny Car racer John A. Martin, with a quicker and faster 5.46/265. In the semi’s, she narrowly lost to eventual winner Brian Hough, 5.47/265 to a right-there 5.48/267, just missing what would have been an all-female final round opposite Ms. Gordon.

Still, it was a decent start to the season and confirmation that the potentially perilous switch to an altogether different ignition system will pay dividends down the road. “That old command module cost us too many runs,” Whiteley said. “We didn’t even qualify at [the West Regional finale at] Vegas last year because of it. Nine cars, and who’s the one car that doesn’t qualify? Us. We kept sending it to them and they kept sending it back, saying, ‘It’s fine – run it.’ “

That won’t be the only major change to Whiteley’s machine for the season ahead. “We’re gonna try that thing Hough uses [the recently legalized two-step],” Whiteley said. “We’ve been struggling with this clutch-pedal extension and I’ve been struggling to cut a light for 12 years now. If I don’t roll in deep, I can’t get a light. I can tell you one thing, though: this car will still have a clutch pedal, no matter what. I’ll quit before I run a car without one.”

Tag: 2024

PSM – GAINESVILLE

TAFC – PHOENIX