Tag: TAFC (Page 11 of 15)

TAFC – CHARLOTTE 2018

April 30, 2018 / Todd Veney

After qualifying somewhere other than No. 1 for the first time all year, Top Alcohol Funny Car star Annie Whiteley, who had set the pace five times in a row, earned the fifth and perhaps most satisfying national event victory of her career at the Four-Wide Nationals in Charlotte. Starting from No. 2, Whiteley wheeled the powerful YNot Racing Camaro to one 5.40-something after another in a race-day performance that culminated in a final-round decision over recent nemesis DJ Cox that catapulted her to first place in the national standings.

With veteran crew chief, former Top Fuel pilot, and accomplished practical joker Mike Strasburg calling the shots, Whiteley reeled off 5.40s in every round to eradicate the painful memory a holeshot loss a week earlier in Richmond against the very driver she faced down in the final round this time. “This has got to be just about just the best win ever,” said Whiteley, who also scored at the national level in Chicago in 2013, Las Vegas and Seattle in 2015, and Gainesville last year. “The car was perfect all weekend – it pretty much has been all year – and it just feels so good to win a big race like this, especially after what happened last week at Richmond.”

Whiteley’s YNot team missed qualifying in the top spot for the first time all season when Swede Ulf Leanders assumed the early qualifying lead with a 5.46 and claimed it for good with a subsequent 5.42. She opened with a 5.52 and began eliminations from the No. 2 spot with a 5.46. From there, it was nothing but total domination, a string of 5.40s at 270-plus mph to trailer defending event champ Johan Lindberg, 2013-2014 winner Dan Pomponio, 2012 winner Andy Bohl, and, in the final, Cox, one of the four drivers to ever run in the 5.30s.

Whiteley established low e.t. of eliminations with a 5.43 against Pomponio, and, after an hour-plus wait to run the final following Stevie Jackson’s spectacular double-wall crash in the Pro Mod final, seemed to have everything under control until she hit the button for high gear not knowing the race was already hers. “The car just went crazy,” she said. “For a second I almost thought I was going to crash, but I stayed in it.” Her reward was a satisfying, vindicating win over Cox, who had barely beaten her on a holeshot eight days earlier in Richmond, Va.

Whiteley, who has reached at least the semifinals in all six starts this season, went the distance for the second time in 2018, including her season-opening regional win at No Problem Raceway in the swaps of Louisiana. “I didn’t try to make something happen this time,” this time. “I just trusted myself to cut a light and believed that the car would be there when it really counted, and it was.”

TAFC – RICHMOND 2018

April 23, 2018 / Todd Veney

In her first appearance ever at Virginia Motorsports Park in the heart of Civil War country, Annie Whiteley annihilated the track record in pre-race testing and got only faster once the event officially got under way. She led all qualifiers for the fifth time in a row (she’s yet to qualify anywhere but No. 1 this season) and was sailing through the preliminary rounds until it all fell apart against 2012 event runner-up DJ Cox in the semifinals.

When eliminations began, Whiteley had the entire field covered by more than a tenth of a second with an unbelievable 5.40-flat at 273.39 that crushed both ends of the track record. She drew a much tougher than usual No. 8 qualifier in the first round, two-time national event winner Kris Hool, but advanced easily with a 5.41 at another track-record speed, 274.11 mph. Then came the semifinals, where she met Cox, with whom she’s exchanged round-wins from the first time they staged up against each other.

“I’d win one, then he’d win one, then I would, and then he would,” Whiteley said. Never has Cox’s turn to win been more painful than in Virginia, where her outstanding 5.41 lost on a holeshot to his 5.48. Cox, who had blown everyone away in the first round with one of the quickest runs in Top Alcohol Funny Car history (5.38), got off the mark first with a .042 reaction and barely held off her 5.41 with the 5.48. The difference at the stripe: 11-thousandths of a second.

“I was just about in tears after that one,” Whiteley said. “You don’t even want to face your crew after something like that. I was so mad at myself I didn’t even know what to do. The car was running great – it has all year. You care so much and want so bad to cut a good light, and sometimes it screws you up. I think sometimes you just try too hard.”

TAFC – DALLAS 2018

April 15, 2018 / Todd Veney

At the Texas Motorplex, where last year she became the first Top Alcohol Funny Car driver in history to hit 275 mph, Annie Whiteley landed in another final round, this time at the track’s Central Regional event. Leading the standings following a victory at the only previous regional, the season-opener in Belle Rose, La., Whiteley advanced to the final round again only to fall to upstart Kirk Williams when she lost traction not far off the line.

The perennial Top 5 driver qualified No. 1 for the fourth time in four starts this year with a 5.52 at 267.16 mph and ran nearly as quick in a first-round win over Bryan Brown despite dropping a valve as she went into high gear and losing 10 mph. “It was weird,” she said. “It dropped the number 7 valve right at the 2-3 gear change. I thought I hit the rev-limiter – that’s exactly what it sounded like. We didn’t realize at the time how much damage was done; we just swapped in another motor for the semi’s. Later we saw that the top of the valve was jammed sideways in the combustion chamber.”

On Whiteley’s semifinal burnout, the car slid to the left and she had to take corrective action to avoid disaster before the run – a bye – even began. “I stood on it in the burnout and all of a sudden I wondered if I was about to hit the Tree,” she said. “It was almost like everything was happening in slow motion – ‘There’s the Tree, don’t hit it’ – and you’re on a bye run. All I had to do to win was get down the track, so I got off the throttle, backed up, and just tried to make a normal run.” It turned out to be anything but – she barely made it off the line. “Apparently, the new motor made a lot more power than the one that was in there for the first round. It was a bye run so I couldn’t lose – I thought – and it was really hopped up.”

Everything was calmed back down for the final, but it didn’t make any difference – Whiteley’s car never made it out of low gear. She went up in smoke and coasted across the finish line at 95 while the underrated Williams drove away to a 5.57 for his 19th career divisional/regional title.

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.”

TAFC – BELLE ROSE 2018

March 5, 2018 / Todd Veney

Annie Whiteley opened the 2018 season just as she did in 2017 – with a dominant win in the swamps of bayou country at the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event at No Problem Raceway in Belle Rose, La. With one good run after another she was never headed, but that barrage in the preliminary rounds did her no good when it was time for the only round that mattered – the final.

Due to mechanical issues, travel problems, and the vagaries of early season scheduling, just two of the many teams slated to be in the lanes for the first qualifying session actually were: Whiteley’s YNot team and the Hool Bros.’ SK Tools crew from Wyoming. That meant no first round, no semifinals – just one run for the title.

“There’s always going to be nerves when you’re in a final,” said Whiteley, whose YNot Racing team, led by crew chief Mike Strasburg, had pounded out consecutive runs ranging between a track-record 5.44 at 271 mph and a 5.51 at 270. When the call went out for teams to report to the lanes for the final round, there was no buildup, nothing to draw from.

“It wasn’t like a normal final, where you’ve won all these other rounds to get there,” Whiteley said. “Every other final I’ve been in, at least I could say, ‘Well, I won the first round. I won the semi’s.’ This time, we both just rolled up there and whatever was going to happen was going to happen.” What happened was Whiteley left with a solid .075 reaction time and had it all the way with a steady 5.51 at 270.50 mph. Hool red-lighted, shut off, and coasted to a 10.89 at less than 100 mph. “That was one of the hardest runs I’ve ever made,” Whiteley said. “It’s just you and him. The whole weekend came down to that one run.”

TAFC – POMONA 2017

November 13, 2017 / Todd Veney

Annie Whiteley’s 2017 season didn’t turn out to be the one she’s always dreamed of, but in the end it was one that almost any driver in the ultra-competitive world of Top Alcohol Funny Car racing would be glad to have: multiple finals, multiple wins, and yet another Top 5 finish in the national standings.

At the season-ending AAA Finals in Pomona, Whiteley, who won two of her first three starts of 2017 and obliterated the national record with the fastest run in Top Alcohol Funny Car history (275.00 mph) along the way, finished second to John Lombardo, who was the championship runner-up again. Whiteley, who came out on the wrong end of a 5.37-5.38 showdown with Doug Gordon in the Dallas final, had the misfortune to do so again in the Pomona finale opposite Lombardo in another all-time matchup. Lombardo’s NAPA Camaro edged her J&A Service/YNot Racing Camaro in by far the best race of the entire weekend, 5.42 to her slightly quicker 5.41.

“I’ve just got to get a little better on the lights,” she said. “I worked on my practice tree all weekend, had it all set up, but it didn’t help. It’s just not the same as being in the car, on the starting line, with somebody in the other lane. On Sunday, I just forgot all about it and did a lot better.”

Whiteley was No. 1 after the first of three qualifying sessions with a tremendous 5.439 at 272.61 and again after the second session with an even better 5.414 at 273.27 mph that held up all weekend for top speed of the meet. Bumped to No. 2 by Lombardo’s 5.409 in the second-to-last pair of the final session, she mowed down one veteran after another in eliminations, beginning with Bret Williamson in the first round.

Whiteley’s 5.410/273.05 (one-thousandth of a second from low e.t.) took out Williamson’s 5.669/255.43. A 5.453/271.13 covered Jegs Allstars runner-up Chris Marshall in the quarterfinals, and a similar 5.478/270.70 in the semi’s dispatched two-time 2016 national event winner Terry Ruckman and set up the titanic final-round clash with Lombardo. “It sucked to lose the final, but you can’t feel too bad about a weekend like this,” she said. “This is the best we’ve ever done at Pomona. I don’t know what it is about this place, but it’s never liked us, but this time the car ran good all weekend.”

TAFC – LAS VEGAS REGIONAL 2017

November 6, 2017 / Todd Veney

For once, Annie Whiteley was out early at her best track on the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series tour, The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Whiteley, whose J&A Service/YNot Racing Top Alcohol Funny Car crew has landed in the winner’s circle at nearly half the races they’ve ever entered there, inexplicably went up in smoke in the first round and was gone early.

It was the exact opposite of what had been happening all weekend – for everybody. The bump was the quickest in Alcohol Funny Car history – 5.547 seconds – and even the non-qualifiers were thundering, with couple in the 5.50s and almost everybody at least in the .60s. When eliminations commenced Sunday afternoon, more than 70% of the cars that left the starting line weren’t under power by half-track: Six of eight in the first round, three of four in the semifinals, and Brian Hough in the final were idling when they went across the finish line.

“I don’t know what happened to the race track, but it looks like nobody else does either,” said Whiteley, who qualified right near the top, No. 3 with back-to-back 5.50-flats, including one at 270.10 mph, the only run all weekend over the 270-mph mark. With everybody in the low .50s, at least, there were no easy draws in the opening round, but she lined up against the toughest one of all, newly crowned world champ Shane Westerfield, who surprisingly qualified just 6th at this event.

Whiteley got of the line on time with a solid .071 reaction time but was out of the race before she passed the Tree when the car went up in hard smoke. “We have no idea why that happened – especially here,” she said. “Who knows? Maybe it’ll be the opposite at Pomona, where we never seem to do any good, and we’ll win the whole thing.”

TAFC – LAS VEGAS NATIONAL 2017

October 31, 2017 / Todd Veney

Annie Whiteley’s late-season frustration continued at the Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where she’s won almost as much as all other Top Alcohol Funny Car drivers combined since picking up her first win anywhere here as a rookie in 2012. When the smoke from qualifying literally had cleared Saturday evening, Whiteley’s J&A Service/YNot Racing team was positioned perfectly for eliminations in the No. 2 spot, with one great run after another in their wake – a 5.527 at 267.80 mph, 5.511 at 268.92, and 5.491 at 268.71.

As it turned out, No. 2 was exactly the spot not to qualify at Vegas. For possibly the first time in alcohol racing history, the No. 15 qualifier laid down low e.t. of the meet in the first round, a 5.487 that eclipsed No. 1 qualifier Doug Gordon’s 5.488 by just a thousandth of a second. Whiteley was even quicker in the other lane, resetting low e.t. a fraction of a second after opponent Nick Januik crossed the finish line with a slightly better 5.480 at 268.93 mph (top speed of the meet). It was her bad luck to cut a respectable .088 reaction time right when Januik was knocking the Tree down with a telepathic .028.

“It just keeps happening,” Whiteley said with a sigh. “As soon as they told me what Nick ran, I said, ‘Really?’ I’m always in the wrong place at the wrong time. When things aren’t going right, every now and then something gets in your head. I don’t know what it is – trying too hard, maybe? I know I can cut better lights, but lately it’s been getting worse, not better. An .080-something light isn’t bad, and as soon as I let the clutch out, I knew it was something decent. I just need to stop beating myself up so bad and get a little better at these last few races.”

TAFC – INDY 2017

September 6, 2017 / Todd Veney

She still hasn’t joined Frank Manzo, Pat Austin, Bob Newberry, and the all-time greats of Top Alcohol Funny Car as a U.S. Nationals champion, but with another solid performance at the sport’s most prestigious event, Annie Whiteley continued to add to her Indy legacy.

Whiteley, who has not reached the semifinals at Indy just once in her career, reached to the final four again with one low 5.40 after another in qualifying and one 5.50 after another in eliminations. Whiteley, who qualified No. 2 with a career-best 5.420 at nearly 275 mph, wiped out Ohio’s Tony Bogolo and Alaska’s Ray Martin in the preliminary rounds before bowing out in the semifinals against national points leader and eventual winner John Lombardo, 5.49 to 5.54.

“I don’t know why we always seem to run so good at Indy, but I’m getting tired of doing good but not quite good enough,” said Whiteley, who has three runner-ups in five career appearances at the Big Go, in 2013, 2015, and 2016. “Runner-up sucks, and losing in the semifinals isn’t much better.” Whiteley’s J&A Service/YNot team, led by Bonneville Salt Flats record holder Mike Strasburg, fell just short of victory this year with another successful but ultimately frustrating late-round finish.

She blistered the Lucas Oil Raceway quarter-mile in qualifying with easily the best series of runs in team history if not in the history of the entire class – 5.445/273.11, 5.432/272.78, and 5.420/274.55. When eliminations commenced Sunday under much less favorable conditions, it was more of the same – back-to-back 5.50-flats that obliterated Bogolo’s competitive 5.66 in the first round and Martin’s similar 5.64 in the second.

Even with the semifinal loss to Lombardo, who went on to top title contender Doug Gordon in the final, Whiteley has forged one of the finest Top Alcohol Funny Car win-loss marks ever at the U.S. Nationals: 13-6 (.684). “That’s great,” she said. “But before I’m done I’ve got to win this thing at least once.”

TAFC – BOWLING GREEN 2017

August 28, 2017 / Todd Veney

In her first appearance ever at Beech Bend Raceway Park in Bowling Green, Ky., host of the first all-sportsman national event in drag racing history in 1974, Annie Whiteley obliterated the Top Alcohol Funny Car track record with a speed almost 100 mph faster than alcohol cars were running in the ’70s: 272.72 mph.

Whiteley made one flawless run after another in testing, struggled in the first qualifying session, then, facing an unthinkable DNQ with just one attempt remaining, ran a blistering 5.51 that put her in the No. 1 spot at the time. She settled for No. 2 when another driver racing for the first time in Bowling Green, perennial title contender Doug Gordon, hit a 5.49.

The track was completely different by the time eliminations kicked off Sunday afternoon, and Gordon was upset by the slowest qualifier in the field, Phil Esz. Whiteley nearly was, too, but, facing Chris Foster, whom she had beaten a week earlier in Brainerd, Minn., in a wild, all-over-the-track first-round match, came out on top in another weird first-rounder she easily could have lost.

“I have no idea what happened to the track between Saturday and Sunday – neither do a lot of other people, based on what they ran – but it was nothing like the track we thought we had,” she said. She left on Foster and survived with a backpedaling 6.26 at 243 mph but wasn’t as lucky opposite eventual winner Ray Drew in the semifinals, pedaling to a 6.03/233 that was no match for his consistent 5.61/260.

“[Crew chief] Mike [Strasburg] and the guys aren’t sure why the car wouldn’t go down the track in eliminations, but we know it’s making a lot of power,” Whiteley said. “These cars are hard to figure out sometimes, but if we can run as hard next week as we did on that one qualifying run here, maybe we’ll win the big one next week at Indy.”