Tag: TAFC (Page 15 of 15)

TAFC – TOPEKA REGIONAL 2014

August 24, 2014 / Todd Veney

At the Lucas Oil Regional at Heartland Park Topeka, Annie Whiteley and the J&A Service/YNot Racing team reached new depths of frustration in what to this point has been a trying season. One of the clear-cut favorites to win, as she has been at every race this season, Whiteley, who had veteran Lance Van Hauen covered by more than two-tenths of a second going into their first-round matchup, never made it to the starting line.

After qualifying a No. 2 with a 5.70-flat at more than 254 mph, just three-hundredths of a second behind No. 1 qualifier and eventual runner-up John Lombardo Jr., Whiteley coasted helplessly down the track when her car lost fire after the burnout. “It just quit,” she said. A tiny screw that fastens an ignition wire to the data recorder failed, instantly silencing Whiteley’s powerful engine and granting Van Hauen, who had qualified No. 7 with a 5.94, a bye run to victory.

“We made a lot of withdrawals from the ‘luck bank’ the first year I raced Top Alcohol Funny Car [2012], and I guess we’re paying it back now,” Whiteley said. “We just got taken out by a 50-cent part. It would be nice if that could have happened in testing or in qualifying somewhere after we were already in, but it had to happen then. I’ve been sent down the track in the rain three times this year, and we’ve had little parts break and stupid things happen to us all season. It’s just been one thing after another.”

“We got to the final at Tulsa, and it was 5.61 to 5.62 and we lost. I can take that – no problem,” said crew chief Roger Bateman. “But to lose like this … it’s just a lot tougher to swallow. What can I say? It’s been one of those years.”

TAFC – BRAINERD 2014

August 19, 2014 / Todd Veney

After running not just low e.t. of the meet but low e.t. of all three qualifying sessions at the Lucas Oil Nationals in Brainerd, Annie Whiteley was upset in the second round of eliminations when her car got loose and drifted over the centerline. It was the fifth time in her career that she’s qualified No. 1 at a national event and the third time already this season.

“Somewhere before half-track, the car decided to make a left turn,” said Whiteley, who reached the first national final event of her career at this event in 2012, her rookie season in Top Alcohol Funny Car. “I have no idea why – it left hard and until that point was running just like it had all weekend.”

Whiteley wheeled her J&A Service/YNot Racing Mustang to a 5.61 at 257.63 mph to pace the field and clocked a 5.67 and a 5.64 in the other two qualifying sessions. She earned a first-round bye for being No. 1 in the short field, but following a solid 5.67 on a single that was within .01-second of low e.t. of the round, the car veered toward the centerline in round two not long after she swapped feet.

“Shane Westerfield’s car broke the rear end in the pair ahead of us,” Whiteley said. “I don’t know if that had anything to do with it or if it was because it was misting when I staged – the conditions weren’t ideal for any of us – but the car turned left right where his rear end broke. When [crew chief Roger Bateman] looked at the computer, he saw right on the G meter where something upset the tires.”

The Brainerd event was the first of back-to-back-to-back events for the busy YNot team. This weekend is the Central Regional at Heartland Park Topeka, and next weekend is the most prestigious event of every season, the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis, where last year Whiteley fell just short of victory in a close final-round match with Frank Manzo.

TAFC – NORWALK 2014

July 8, 2014 / Todd Veney

At the Summit Racing Nationals in Norwalk, Annie Whiteley, tied for seventh in the national standings, was upset in the first round of eliminations for the second week in a row – again after a particularly strong performance in qualifying. Whiteley, a Top 5 driver in each of her two years in Top Alcohol Funny Car, qualified the J&A Service/YNot Racing entry second in the field with an outstanding 5.56 at 261.78 mph and also ran a 5.60-flat during qualifying, but she went up in smoke right off the line in the first round and fell to 2011 event winner Fred Hagen Jr.

“When it smoked the tires at Chicago, there was nothing I could do,” said Whiteley, who had been a finalist at three of four races before this recent slump. “This one was my fault. The rpm was too high when I let the clutch out because I didn’t get the swap right – I led a little too much with my right [throttle] foot.”

“No way that thing’s going to make it when there’s 18 pounds of boost at the hit,” said crew chief Roger Bateman, a veteran of more than 3,000 runs as a driver. “I don’t care how good the starting line is; that’s too much.”

Teammate Mike Strasburg, fresh off his first Top Alcohol Dragster win in 13 years, scored for the second time in three outings and for the first time ever in national event competition with a final-round victory over Mark Taliaferro. In his first season back in the class since beginning his Top Fuel career more than a decade ago, Strasburg is up to fifth in the standings.

Driving the car that Jim Whiteley wheeled to the 2013 national championship, Strasburg banged out back-to-back high-5.30s to qualify for a field so tough that early season points leaders Duane Shields and Joey Severance missed the cut. He marched through the preliminary rounds of eliminations with one 5.30 after another against past national event winners Robin Samsel, Bill Reichert, and Rich McPhillips, then topped Taliaferro in the final, 5.45 to 5.68.

TAFC – CHICAGO 2014

July 3, 2014 / Todd Veney

After advancing to the final at three of the past four races and qualifying No. 1 at every one, defending champ Annie Whiteley had an off weekend at the Route 66 Nationals in Chicago. She qualified the J&A Service/YNot Racing Funny Car a strong thirdÂ but went up in smoke immediately in the first round against nemesis Shane Westerfield.

“It didn’t make it far at all that time,” said Whiteley, who coasted to a 21-second time and crossed the finish line at just 73 mph. “[Crew chief Roger Bateman] told me that there was nothing I could have done because the car went up in smoke so early.”

Until then, Chicago was shaping up to be another solid outing for Whiteley, who won the first national event of her career at this here vent last year and was runner-up recently in Houston, Denver, and Tulsa, barley losing the last two. Bateman delivered the perfect setup in the second qualifying session and Whiteley wheeled the car to the provisional No. 1 spot with a 5.65 at 256.99 mph. She improved to a 5.64, also at 256 mph, in the final session and eventually settled into the No. 3 spot.

Everything seemed to be in order for yet another late-round finish when Whiteley left on time with a solid .073 reaction time Â and Westerfield smoked the tires early. But as in their final-round matchup in Houston, he was able to recover and win with a subpar time in the 6.30s while she could only idle helplessly down the track.

“It was a bummer for sure,” she said, “but that’s why there’s always another race.”

TAFC – TULSA 2014

June 23, 2014 / Todd Veney

Defending event champ Annie Whiteley, who had never lost a round at Tulsa Raceway Park in her Top Alcohol Funny Car career, dropped a close final to fellow championship contender Dale Brand, 5.61 to 5.62. Whiteley, who wheeled the YNot Racing/J&A Service Mustang to victory at the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series regional here in both 2012 and 2013, ran quicker than anyone had to that point, but Brand outran her by a scant hundredth of a second with low e.t. of the meet, 5.61. Both hit the finish line at 255 mph.

“Dale’s always good on the lights,” Whiteley said. “He got ahead early, and we stayed pretty much the same distance apart all the way to the finish line.” Whiteley and Brand were locked together in qualifying, too, earning the No. 1 and No. 2 spots, respectively, with matching 5.62s at 257 mph side by side in the final pair of last-shot qualifying. Whiteley was slightly quicker, 5.620 to 5.628, and Brand slightly faster, 257.38 mph to 257.14.

In the opening round, Whiteley got the best of an all-female matchup with No. 6 qualifier Nancy Matter, who was back in competition for the first time in more than five years. She clicked it a hair early and still won comfortably, 5.69, 249 to Matter’s shutoff 7.78 at 120 mph.

“The car drove toward the centerline and wouldn’t come back,” Whiteley said. “One tire was spinning and the other was still in the groove, and I couldn’t get it back in the center of the lane no matter what I did. I don’t know how close I got to the centerline, but it was close – I was actually afraid I might have crossed it.”

Whiteley followed with a strong 5.68 on a semifinal single earned by being the No. 1 qualifier in a short field, but Brand gained the upper hand for the final with a slightly quicker 5.65 in his semifinal win over third-ranked Shane Westerfield. In the final, Brand was four-thousandths of a second quicker to the 60-foot mark, two-thousandths and 0.34 mph faster at half-track, and 12-thousandths quicker at the 1,000-foot mark, and for the second time six days Whiteley came out on the wrong end of a classic final. Last week in Denver, she was nipped by Clint Thompson, 5.78 to 5.78.

Next up for the YNot/J&A Service team is the Route 66 Nationals in Chicago, where last year Whiteley earned her first national event title, followed by the Summit Racing Nationals a week later in Norwalk, Ohio.

TAFC – DENVER 2014

June 23, 2014 / Todd Veney

Running within hundredths of a second round after round after round, Annie Whiteley reached the final at the Lucas Oil Series regional at Denver’s mile-high Bandimere Speedway only to fall short by 14-thousandths of a second. She and veteran Clint Thompson left the line within 17-thousandths of a second of each other and both ran 5.78s, but Thompson emerged victorious in a photo-finish decision.

“I never saw him the whole way,” said Whiteley, who has three final-round appearances in her first six starts of 2014. “He never saw me, either. We’d both been running the same thing all day long and we did it again in the final – it just didn’t fall our way.”

Whiteley qualified No. 1 qualifying with an outstanding 5.74, resetting her own track record, then set low e.t. of all three rounds of eliminations. Driving the Roger Bateman-tuned YNot Racing/J&A Service Ford Mustang, she sped to a 5.76 on a first-round single earned by being the top qualifier in a field with an odd number of cars, then lowered the boom in the semifinals with another track record, 5.728, against Wyoming’s Kris Hool.

Thompson was the picture of consistency all weekend, qualifying No. 2 with a 5.779 and running 5.78s in all three rounds of eliminations. He was slightly slower than Whiteley in the final, 5.786 to 5.783, but slightly quicker on the Tree, .070 to .087, to win by just five feet. Both drivers crossed the finish line at 248 mph. “That’s three pretty good years in a row at Bandimere,” Whiteley said. “One semifinal and now two runner-ups. Maybe next year it’ll be my turn.”

In Top Alcohol Dragster, veteran Mike Strasburg kept the YNot team’s unbelievable streak going on the mountain. At the wheel of the same car that Jim Whiteley drove to the national championship and to victory at this race last year, Strasburg won the final on a holeshot over Mark Taliaferro – amazingly by the exact same margin of victory as Whiteley lost by in the Top Alcohol Funny Car final: 14-thousandths of a second. For Strasburg, who moved to Top Fuel in 2002, it was the third Top Alcohol Dragster victory of his driving career and his first since 2001.

TAFC – TOPEKA NATIONAL 2014

May 30, 2014 / Todd Veney

Perennial Top 5 driver Annie Whiteley had low e.t. by a mile at the rain-plagued Kansas Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka but shook the tires in the first round and was upset by the No. 16 qualifier. “The track got a lot better than we thought it was going to be in eliminations, and it bit us,” said Whiteley, who had more than half a tenth on the field in qualifying. “It made the car shake the tires, and you’re not going to get away with something that against somebody like Doug Gordon. He’s not the kind of guy you expect to qualify No. 16 – ever. We knew they’d get their car figured out for the first round, and they did.”

In qualifying, on a surface that yielded nothing better than a 5.61 to any other car, Whiteley’s J&A Service/YNot Racing Mustang blistered the track with a 5.55 in one of just two qualifying sessions under the rain-shortened format. On her other run, only her quick reflexes saved her from a potentially disastrous trip into the opposite lane.

“There was water on the track,” said Whiteley, who faced the same problem in the final round of her most recent start, the SpringNationals in Houston. “Right at the 2-3 shift, the car turned right and made a move for the centerline. The rpm barely went down when I shifted, then skyrocketed to way over 10,000 rpm. I made one attempt to pull on the wheel, and it wasn’t coming back. You always hear people say that if you ever get in that situation, get the chutes out, and I did or I would have just been along for the ride. It happened so fast. My right hand was still on the wheel because I’d just shifted into high gear, but I got my hand on the chute lever in time and could breathe again.

“Everything was great on the .55, but shaking the tires like that in the first round was a really disappointing way to go out,” Whiteley said. “Fortunately, we’ll have a whole bunch of chances to win coming up real soon.”

After a couple weeks off, the J&A Service/YNot Racing team has four races in the next five weeks – Denver for a Lucas Oil Series Regional; Chicago, where last year Whiteley earned her first national event title; Norwalk; and, for the first time in her career, historic National Trail Raceway in Columbus for another Lucas Oil Series Regional.

TAFC – HOUSTON 2014

April 30, 2014 / Todd Veney

Under gray, threatening skies at Houston’s Royal Purple Raceway, Annie Whiteley lost traction not far off the line in the Spring Nationals Top Alcohol Funny Car final and fell to Shane Westerfield. “It was spitting rain as we were staging,” she said. “I could see drops all over the windshield. They’d wipe ’em off, but then more drops would be right back on there. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen when we left, and I was kind of thinking they were going to shut us off. I didn’t make it very far before the car started shaking, but I got farther than Shane did.”

Westerfield, who, like Whiteley, broke through for his first national event victory last season, went up in smoke immediately, but he was able to recover and run a 6.31 for his second career title. Whiteley had no such opportunity when her kill switch vibrated into the “off” position during tire shake between the 1.0- and 1.5-second mark, silencing her engine and bringing a premature end to what had been a storybook weekend.

Whiteley qualified her Roger Bateman-tuned J&A Service/YNot Racing Mustang No. 1 with the only run in the 5.50s, a 5.589, and set low e.t. of all three preliminary rounds of eliminations. She lowered low e.t. to a 5.580 on a first-round single earned by qualifying No. 1 in a field with an odd number of cars, and took out Todd Veney, who red-lighted, in the quarterfinals with a 5.59. After resetting low e.t. for the third time with a semifinal 5.57 win over Gatornationals runner-up Dale Brand, Whiteley lost traction in the final and coasted helplessly down the track as Westerfield sped away.

“That one hurt,” she said. “I knew Shane was in trouble too, and I didn’t see him for a while. I kept trying to get back in it, but when the engine shuts itself off there’s not much you can do.”

TAFC – GAINESVILLE 2014

March 19, 2014 / Todd Veney

After an enormous thrash that most teams wouldn’t even have attempted, Annie Whiteley’s J&A Service/YNot Racing Top Alcohol Funny Car team was right back at the top at the Amalie Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla., Whiteley’s first national event appearance of the season. Just days before Whiteley and crew pulled into Gainesville, the entire left rear of her Mustang body was obliterated by a tire explosion at the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series regional event in Houston.

The YNot team, led by veteran crew chief Roger Bateman, got Whiteley’s old car from Topeka to the East Coast, where the body from her 2012 car was grafted onto her current chassis. Right out of the box, the car showed its potential when Whiteley stormed to a 5.59 in the first qualifying session, followed by a 5.54 in last-shot qualifying that positioned her No. 4 in the 16-car field. “I still can’t believe they got all that work done in such a short amount of time,” she said. “It was as good as new, right from the start.”

In the opening round of eliminations Saturday evening, Whiteley put away Canadian Paul Noakes, who won the 2013 Auto-Plus NHRA Nationals in Reading, Pa., in his most recent appearance. Whiteley stormed to a 5.54, the second-quickest run of the round, to cover Noakes’ 5.66. Everything came to a screeching halt in the quarterfinals Sunday afternoon against Australian Steve Harker when her engine was silenced by, of all things, a broke throttle linkage.

“We left, and I was heading out toward the wall a little,” Whiteley said. “I was about to shift, and it just quit. For a second, you’re not sure what’s going because all of a sudden everything just stops. It’s a bad way to lose but it’s not like I absolutely had him covered. He ran a 5.58, low e.t. of the round.”

The highlight of the weekend for the YNot team came in Pro Mod, where son Steven advanced to the quarterfinals in his NHRA national event debut. He qualified sixth of nearly 30 entries with a career-best 5.900, just missing the 5.80s, then took out veteran Mike Knowles in the opening round of eliminations before falling to eventual winner Mike Castellana in the quarterfinals despite an outstanding 5.91.