Tag: gainesville (Page 2 of 3)

TAFC – GAINESVILLE NATIONAL 2019

March 17, 2019 / Todd Veney

Just days after a frustrating outing at the same track that resulted in only the second DNQ of her career, Annie Whiteley and the J&A Service/ YNot Racing Top Alcohol Funny Car team charged back with a solid outing at the Gatornationals, which both she and son Steven won in 2017. She qualified 4th with a blistering 5.44 at 272 mph and advanced to the quarterfinals only to come out on the wrong end of an instant classic opposite career-long nemesis Doug Gordon, the eventual runner-up.

With a safe but competitive 5.56 at nearly 270 mph off the trailer that positioned her in the top half of the show, Whiteley made sure there’d be no repeat of the embarrassing DNQ she suffered a week earlier at the same facility. No. 4 with the 5.44 entering eliminations, she easily moved on to the quarterfinals when opponent Bryan Brown was unable to make it to the lanes for round one. He qualified in the bottom quarter of the field with a 5.63, and would’ve have had a tough time advancing anyway when she laid down 5.45 at 273 mph on the bye.

In the quarterfinals, crew chief Mike Strasburg dialed up a usually unbeatable 5.45, but Gordon got her again with an even better 5.42. “You run a .45, you think you’d win, but I guess that time it wasn’t enough,” Whiteley said. “We still don’t have this new car figured out. What the old car liked, this one doesn’t. Tire pressure, transmission ratio, all these different things – I don’t know what it is, but this is a different car, and it seems to want something different.”

PRO MOD – GAINESVILLE 2019

March 17, 2019 / Todd Veney

A disappointing 28th and 29th in the order entering second-day qualifying for the 2019 J&A Service/Pro Mod season opener with respective bests of 8.63 and 10.98, Jim and Steven Whiteley veered in opposite directions. Jim continued on the same trajectory, getting loose and clicking it early for the third time in a row, but son Steven stepped up dramatically to a 5.76 at more than 252 mph that catapulted him all the way to the No. 4 spot on the provisional grid.

Jim’s killer ’69 Chevelle finally made a representative run in last-shot qualifying, an early-shutoff 5.92 that still wasn’t quick enough to make the cut. The two-time world champion and two-time event winner in Pro Mod ended up 26th of 29 in the final order, ahead of friend Clint Satterfield, veteran Chip King, and Mike Castellana, who led the standings for much of the 2017 but crashed this weekend in his first appearance without many-time TAFC world champion Frank Manzo as his crew chief.

Steven made another quantum leap forward in that session, to a blistering 5.71 at 252.28 mph that surprisingly was good for only the No. 9 spot in the quickest field ever (bump: 5.753). “Stevie Fast” Jackson set the pace with the best NHRA Pro Mod run of all time (5.665), Jose Gonzalez set the national speed record (259.31 mph), and six drivers (Steve Matusek, Sidnei Frigo, Pete Farber, Doug Winters, Alex Laughlin, and Erica Enders) ran in the 5.70s and still didn’t qualify.

Steven, who picked up the first national event title of his career at this race in 2017, won the first round over former Top 5 driver Bob Rahaim, who qualified a few thousandths of a second of him with a nearly identical 5.713. The YNot driver coasted across the finish line with a 6.17 at just 157 mph but still advanced easily when Rahaim went into violent shake early in the run and had to lift. He was unable to appear for the second round against “Stevie Fast,” who would go on to lose the final on a holeshot by mentor Todd Tutterow despite resetting his own national record with an unbelievable 5.643.

TAFC – GAINESVILLE REGIONAL 2019

March 10, 2019 / Todd Veney

Rained out before a wheel ever turned at what she thought was her season opener – the Central Regional in Belle Rose, La., where it rained so much there was never any reason to bother unloading the car – Annie Whiteley instead began her 2019 campaign with a thud at the Gainesville Regional, where, for just the second time in her entire career, she didn’t qualify.

At the wheel of a brand-new Yenko blue Camaro, the last Top Alcohol Funny Car legendary fabricator Brad Hadman will ever build, Whiteley never made it to 2nd gear in three qualifying attempts. “I’ll be honest,” she said. “We were all a little worried about this new car. After the second qualifying session, I started thinking, ‘This thing is going to give us fits…’ ”

With an aggregate best of 7.71 at 162 mph, Whiteley wound up dead last in the final lineup, 11th of 11 potential qualifiers. “It would make it just far enough that you’d think you were good,” she said, “and then it would take the tire off right before the gear change. We switched transmissions, but obviously it didn’t like that ratio, either.” When qualifying was over and she found herself in the unacceptable and completely unfamiliar role of non-qualifier instead of being No. 1, as she was five times in a row to open the 2018 season, Whiteley and crew made one last test run Sunday afternoon to prepare for next week’s Gatornationals. The result: a more-than-competitive 5.53 at 271 mph.

“We finished last season with [John] Lombardo’s old car after I went into the net at Dallas, but that was Lombardo’s car – not my car,” Whiteley said. “I never did feel right in there. This new car … I just liked the way I fit in it right away. The guys measured every little thing and had everything placed just the way I like it before I ever got in the car. I never even sat in it till just before the first test run, but everything was right, right away. If it runs anything like it did in testing, we should be fine this year.”

PSM – GAINESVILLE 2018

March 19, 2018 / Todd Veney

In his first outing with all-time Pro Stock greats Larry Morgan and Jim Yates in the fold, 2016 NHRA Rookie of the Year Cory Reed went rounds at the season-opening Gatornationals, sidelining new national record holder Hector Arana Jr. with a clutch holeshot in the first round. Arana, who became the first Pro Stock Motorcycle rider to eclipse 200 mph in Friday qualifying and upped the all-time mark to 201.01 mph Saturday, got left in the dust by Reed’s near-perfect .007 reaction time, falling to a 6.95/191 despite his quicker 6.94/198.

“I didn’t think we’d outrun him, but I knew we’d be close enough to beat him,” said Reed, who, in his brief time in drag racing, has already established himself as a leaver. “My mindset was that I absolutely could win, and when I left it felt like a good light – I even did a double-take as I went by the Tree to make sure it wasn’t red. Halfway down the track, I still didn’t hear him, and when I glanced over a couple times at about half-track, he wasn’t there. In high gear, it hit me: I’m going to win.’ ”

Reed qualified 13th in the field, well behind Arana’s 6.80/201 record run with a 6.91 at 191.67 mph – not bad for the first outing with an all-new setup. “We tested in Orlando before the race,” he said. “We were still down there Thursday, the day before qualifying started for this race, and didn’t pull into Gainesville until late Thursday night.”

The results of the team’s focused, intense testing were obvious when Gainesville qualifying began and everybody was playing for keeps. “First race of the year, and we already have a round-win,” said Reed, currently eighth in the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle standings. “Last year, it took us more than half a season to get this far. Larry had the motors running great, redid pretty much everything, worked his magic. Jim’s smart. He’ll be helping us for a few more races, at least. He has all these crazy formulas and spreadsheets. He set up his own office in the trailer – even brought his own printer – and when it comes to the transmission, gear ratios, clutch tuning, he really knows his stuff. After this, my goal is to at least go a few rounds like we did here at every race for the rest of the year.”

TAFC – GAINESVILLE NATIONAL 2018

March 19, 2018 / Todd Veney

Defending Gatornationals champion Annie Whiteley just missed her first repeat win in national competition, losing one of the quickest races in Top Alcohol Funny Car history in this year’s final against Sean Bellemeur, the only driver ahead of her in the NHRA national standings, 5.46 to 5.48. “I’m getting a little tired of runner-up,” said Whiteley, who has four national event titles in 15 career finals. “One more round-win makes a big difference.”

Whiteley’s YNot team qualified No. 1, as it has at all three races so far this season, with an outstanding 5.404 at 273.16 mph, missing top speed of the meet by just 0.16 mph. Bellemeur was just a few thousandths of a second behind her in the No. 2 spot, and both plowed through eliminations, overwhelming the competition in two of the preliminary rounds and getting a break in the other.

For Whiteley, the break came in the semifinals, when both she and D.J. Cox lost traction almost immediately. Whiteley recovered first, tromping back on the throttle for a 6.33 at 260 mph to hold off his 7-flat at 194. “You add up the runs at Belle Rose, here last weekend at the regional event, and in testing in Orlando, and that was just the second time the car has smoked the tires in 20-25 runs all year,” she said. Her first- and second-round passes were flawless – a 5.406/273.11 in Saturday’s first round that came within .002-second and 0.05-mph of her qualifying numbers, and a 5.437/270.70 in hotter conditions Sunday in the second round that stood as the quickest and fastest of that round by a mile.

After the near-miss in the semi’s, YNot crew chief Mike Strasburg backed the car down for the final – maybe a hair too much, in his estimation. “It probably could have taken a little more, but you really don’t know that before you go up there, do you?” he asked. “Sean’s one of the best drivers out there and that’s one of the best teams, and you don’t want to just give it away.”

PRO MOD – GAINESVILLE 2018

March 19, 2018 / Todd Veney

In cool, fast conditions in Gainesville, Fla., in the first round of the first race of the season, 2016 Houston Pro Mod winner Jim Whiteley met, of all people, his son, defending Gatornationals champ Steven Whiteley. Both drivers overcame a gargantuan 35-car field to qualify for one of the quickest races in class history (5.83 bump), Steve in the No. 5 spot with a 5.78 and Jim at No. 12 with a 5.80-flat.

As dictated by the NHRA eliminator ladder, No. 5 drew No. 12 in the first round – the last thing either ever would have wanted. Forced to square off in an all-YNot showdown, father and son shot off the starting line with identical .063 reaction times and charged side-by-side to the end of the quarter-mile, where Jim emerged victorious by the smallest possible margin: one-thousandth of a second, 5.868 to 5.869. Steven’s clutch-equipped Cadillac was traveling 6 mph faster than Jim’s Yenko Camaro when they got there, 250.88 mph to Jim’s 244.16, and the cars were separated by literally inches as they sped across the finish line in one of the closest races in Pro Mod history – if not the closest.

“It’s about time I beat that little SOB,” Jim joked. Both were acutely aware of their all-time head-to-head record: Steven 4, Jim 0. “People kept telling me, ‘Well, if you had to lose, there couldn’t be anybody better to lose to,’ ” Steven said. “Yeah, I guess, but I don’t want to lose to anyone. I can’t really say that losing to my dad made it any easier to take.”

Jim then lost in the quarterfinals to eventual winner Rickie Smith, long known for doing anything to win. Seeing that Jim was having trouble getting his car to hold on the line, Smith double-bulbed him, and when Jim revved the engine for the launch, he lurched off the line for an aggravating red-light loss. “He can do that,” Jim said “Lighting both lights like that isn’t illegal. But it won’t happen again.”

TAFC – GAINESVILLE REGIONAL 2018

March 11, 2018 / Todd Veney

Hot off a victory in Louisiana in her only previous 2018 appearance, Annie Whiteley laid down a 5.464 at 274 mph – the seventh-fastest run in in the long history of Top Alcohol Funny Car – in the first of two qualifying sessions and followed with an unbelievable 275.34-mph blast to reset the national speed record she already had. Last year in the Fall Nationals final against Doug Gordon, in the quickest side-by-side race in class history (5.37-5.38), Whiteley had become the first (and still the only) driver ever to reach 275 mph with a historic 275.00-mph charge.
With a 5.42 E.T. on that landmark run, Whiteley qualified No. 1, and in the first round against two-time regional event finalist Aryan Rochon, her YNot team advanced easily with a steady 5.47 at 271.46. She was traveling nearly 214 mph at half-track, but anything would have done – Rochon was out of it early and shut down to a 10.69 at just 78 mph. In the semifinals, when another 5.46, 5.42, 5.47, or anything close to any other run she’d made all weekend would have been enough, she was forced to pedal and lost to Kris Hool, who’d finished second to her a week earlier in a nerve-racking final in Belle Rose, La.
Whiteley made only run she made all weekend that wouldn’t have won, and Hool made only run he’d make all weekend that wouldn’t have lost. She recovered to record a still-good 5.51, again at more than 270 mph, closing in on Hool’s car every foot of the course beyond half-track, but he had just enough of a lead to hold her off. The margin of victory: 11-thousandths of a second.
“Of all the times for the car to do that,” Whiteley said. “Any other run … it gets a little old after a while. If we could’ve just run a little better or I could’ve cut a little better light, we could’ve been in another final, but the car had to go and do that right then. It was perfect up till then. Testing, qualifying, eliminations – the car’s been just about perfect all year.”

PRO MOD – GAINESVILLE 2017

March 21, 2017 / Todd Veney

With the quickest, fastest, most consistent runs of his Pro Mod career – a barrage of 5.70s and low 5.80s at more than 250 mph – Steven Whiteley stopped many-time winner Mike Castellana and crew chief Frank Manzo in the Gatornationals final for his biggest victory to date. “It’s just an unbelievable feeling,” said Whiteley, who watched his mom, Annie Whiteley, win Top Alcohol Funny Car one pair ahead of him. “When she won, it really sent the pressure on me through the roof. I thought, ‘Now, I have to win this thing.’ ”

With his best reaction time and best E.T. of the weekend and the fastest speed of his career, he did. For father Jim Whiteley, who also qualified for the Pro Mod field in Gainesville, the dual wins surpassed anything he ever personally accomplished on the quarter-mile. “I’m overwhelmed,” said Jim, who won dozens of races and multiple NHRA championships as a Top Alcohol Dragster driver. “This means more than any race I ever won. If none of us ever wins again, this weekend makes my whole drag racing career worthwhile.”

Steven, a two-time No. 1 qualifier in NHRA competition (in Charlotte in 2014 and in St. Louis last year), started at the top, leading a giant field of qualifiers after the first session with a 5.80-flat. He eventually dipped to the No. 5 spot with that e.t., but when others faltered in eliminations, Whiteley got only stronger, cutting better lights as the day wore on and never losing his consistency.

“The car was perfect all weekend, and I owe it all to my team,” Whiteley said of the J&A Service/YNot team, led by crew chief Jeff Perley. “I could not be more appreciative of what they do, day after day, week after week. Testing at Bradenton went really well, the whole team has been working well together, and I just had a good feeling coming into this race.”

Whiteley topped one major event winner after another in eliminations, starting with door-car legend Todd Tutterow in the opening round, 5.79/252 to 5.86/247. Former series champion Mike Janis slipped into Whiteley’s lane in the quarterfinals, but the second-generation driver was long gone for a 5.80/251 win that set up a titanic semifinal clash with two-time NHRA Pro Mod champ Troy Coughlin, who had beaten Brazilian Sidnei Frigo in the semifinals in the quickest race in Pro Mod history, 5.75 to 5.72.

“Now, that was nerve-wracking,” Whiteley said of the Coughlin matchup. “It’s not just that he was coming off a 5.75 – he was coming off a .00 light, too.” Coughlin, runner-up for the 2016 championship, just missed another .00 reaction time with a telepathic .012, but Whiteley had him covered by several car lengths at the finish line, 5.82/251 to Coughlin’s 6.21/197.

The final was over early. Castellana blew the tires off early, and Whiteley was home free. Anything would have done, but he punctuated the victory with his quickest and fastest run ever in NHRA trim, a 5.791 at 253.52 mph. “The best part of it was the way Castellana was to me,” Whiteley said of the many-time NHRA winner. “He could not have been any cooler, and that’s something I’ll always remember.”

TAFC – GAINESVILLE 2017

March 20, 2017 / Todd Veney

Annie Whiteley made the two greatest runs of her career in the semifinals and final round of the NHRA Gatornationals for her fourth career national title and first since Seattle in 2015.

“Sometimes you wonder if things are ever going to go your way again, but a weekend like this makes it all worthwhile,” said Whiteley, who ran a 5.40 (low e.t. of the meet) to edge defending champion John Lombardo in the semifinals and a 5.41 on a final-round single when 2013-2014 Gatornationals winner Dan Pomponio was unable to appear. “The car was just unbelievable all weekend.”

Despite an outstanding 5.45, Whiteley qualified just fifth in the field, then survived major scares in the early round of eliminations. In the opening round, she was just about to get strapped in for what she thought was a single when she was informed that, due to a mistake by NHRA officials, she would not have a bye run but instead would be racing Bill Naves. “We were really going for it that time because with a bye run, why not?” she said. “If it makes it, you know how hard you can push it for the next round, and if it doesn’t, you win anyway because there’s no one in the other lane.”

The car didn’t make it, shaking the tires violently and giving Naves, who qualifying attempt, a shot at the biggest round win of his NHRA career. Fortunately for the J&A Service/YNot Racing team, Whiteley was able to get the powerful beast back under control in time to blow past Naves for a 6.44 to 8.11 win.

In the quarterfinals, Whiteley got a scare of a different kind when opponent Andy Bohl, who had run one 5.4 after another until that point, veered completely into her lane, just missing her. “I’m glad I didn’t see how close he got,” she said. “People had pictures of it and were trying to show me, and I said, ‘I don’t want to think about that.’ ”

She advanced with a solid 5.51, then unloaded the 5.40 on Lombardo, the No. 1 qualifier, and beating him by one-thousandth of a second, stealing low e.t. from him (5.404 to his 5.409) to win a photo-finish decision. Both of them hit 273 mph in the fastest-side-by-side race of all time.

In the final, with the track to herself, she eclipsed her one-run-old career-best speed of 273.05 with a 273.22-mph blast. “It’s weird being on a single in the final,” she said. “You think of the ignition quitting or some dumb little thing breaking. What happens then? Does nobody win? I left, and it was just a perfect run. The front end came up, settled back down, came back up again when I hit second gear and just ran perfectly straight to the finish line. I wish every run could be like that.”

PSM – GAINESVILLE 2017

March 19, 2017 / Todd Veney

The debut of Pro Stock Motorcycle’s new superteam, Team Liberty Racing, went better than anyone could have envisioned – especially as the dwindling days before the season-opening NHRA Gatornationals wound down. “Everybody’s happy,” said team leader Cory Reed after both he and teammate Angelle Sampey qualified for the tough Gainesville field. “I think we all decided as we headed to the track that we’d already accomplished our goals for the first race.”

While established teams spent the winter picking away at setups, finding new power, and refining their 2016 tuneups, the all-new Georgia-based operation was just trying to get a new shop built. “It was a relief to be actually be at a race after all that work,” Reed said. “It was like, ‘Well, let’s see how we stack up with everybody else.’ ”

Reed quickly learned that Team Liberty Racing stacked up quite well – both bikes made the cut. Reed and Sampey both picked up as the race wore on, Reed making the cut on his first run and eventually improving to a 6.88 at 192 mph for the No. 11 spot and Sampey qualifying a completely unfamiliar motorcycle under last-shot pressure.

“She was a nervous wreck for a while there,” Reed said of Sampey, a three-time NHRA world champ. “She just needed one pass to confirm that she can do it, and she was fine. When I first started learning, I’d sometimes make back-to-back passes rotating between four different bikes, so I got used to it. Now, I’m comfortable on just about anything.”

Reed showed it in eliminations, when, after not particularly trying to cut a light during qualifying, he opened an early lead on former world champion L.E. Tonglet in the first round with a clutch .011-second reaction time. Tonglet eventually drove around the 2016 NHRA Rookie of the Year, 6.80/197 to Reed’s 6.95/190, but by then Reed’s point was made: Team Liberty is going to be a factor in 2017.

The back-loaded NHRA schedule for Pro Stock Motorcycles, which features a much more packed slate of races and long breaks between events early in the 16-race season, stops next in Charlotte for the Four-Wide Nationals in late April. “We’ll have a lot of testing in by the time we get there,” Reed said. “We changed a bunch of piston stuff and cam stuff before we even left Gainesville, and we’ll be ready when we get to Charlotte. Both of us making the show in our first race made it a good weekend, but as the season goes on we’re both going to be a lot closer to the top teams.”