Tag: vegas (Page 2 of 2)

PRO MOD – LAS VEGAS 2016

November 1, 2016 / Todd Veney

In his probably his best outing since he beat world champ Rickie Smith in the Houston final early this season, Jim Whiteley capped off a successful 2016 campaign with his third semifinal showing in the 10-race J&A Service NHRA Pro Mod Series.

Whiteley catapulted from the bubble to the final four at the NHRA Toyota Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with increasingly quicker runs in his J&A Service/YNot Racing ’69 Chevelle. He made the cut with a pair of five-second runs in qualifying, including a 5.959 at 242.23 mph, then picked up the pace in eliminations.

Against former Top Fuel racer Sidnei Frigo, whose qualifying crash at Houston enabled Whiteley to go from the first alternate spot to the winner’s circle, Whiteley picked up dramatically to a 5.92 but didn’t need it when Frigo blatantly red-lighted with a -.246 light. Frigo, winless against Whiteley in three career meetings, nearly duplicated his 5.82 No. 1 qualifying time with a wasted 5.83.

In the second round, Whiteley met Clint Hairston, who prevented a father-son matchup by defeating son Steven Whiteley in the first round despite Steven’s outstanding .026 reaction time. Jim also had a .026 light against Hairston and parlayed it into another round-win with his quickest run of the weekend, a 5.90 at 243 mph. Hairston trailed with a solid .056 light and a right-there 5.93.

The show came to an end in the semifinals when Whiteley, who almost never gets left on, even in qualifying, was too quick for his own good. He red-lighted by 0.25-second, sending door-car legend Todd Tutterow to his first career final, where he lost to championship runner-up Troy Coughlin.

Smith edged Coughlin for the 2016 J&A Service NHRA Pro Mod Series championship by an even points, 794 to 744. Steven and Jim Whiteley barely missed the Top 10, finishing 11th and 12th, respectively, with 340 and 307 points, just behind second-generation star Billy Glidden, who anchored the Top 10 with 380.

TAFC – LAS VEGAS NATIONAL 2016

November 1, 2016 / Todd Veney

Annie Whiteley’s snake-bitten J&A Service/YNot team qualified in the fast half of the field for the 12th time in 13th starts this season, but for the third race in a row was out early with a disappointing first-round loss.

At the Toyota Nationals at her best track on the NHRA circuit, The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where she won the first race of her career as a Top Alcohol Funny Car rookie in 2012, she fell to former Gatornationals winner Ulf Leanders in what, by the numbers, should have been the closest race of the first round.

They qualified eighth and ninth with matching 5.60s, Whiteley in the No. 8 spot with a 5.603 and Leanders No. 9 with a 5.606. Such matchups usually go to the driver with the better reaction time, which, in this case, was Whiteley, who bolted off the line first with one of her best lights of the season, an outstanding .039.

Leanders matched their qualifying times with another 5.60-flat, so Whiteley would have won with anything better than a 5.63, but she knocked the tires loose in low gear. Racing in the first pair of the first round, at the ungodly hour of 8:30 a.m., she recovered quickly and charged after him, but a 5.77 at just short of 260 mph left her J&A Service/YNot Camaro a few car lengths behind at the finish line.

By any metric, it was one of the toughest Top Alcohol Funny Car races ever held. It featured one of the biggest fields in years – 28 cars attempted to qualify – and one of the fastest, with a bump of 5.66 and former NHRA event winners in the first five alternate spots on the final qualifying ladder.

Whiteley stands seventh in the national standings, with two more races coming up at Las Vegas – the makeup of the rained-out West Region opener scheduled for April in the middle of the week while the SEMA show is going on 15 miles away, and the regularly scheduled West closer set for next weekend.

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.”

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 – LAS VEGAS REGIONAL 2014

November 10, 2014 / Todd Veney

Annie Whiteley still hasn’t been beaten at the final regional event of the 24-race Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, but instead of going 3-0 for another win at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, she went 0-0 this time – she didn’t qualify.

Whiteley, who won the event in both 2012 and 2013 (and swept the spring regionals there both years, too) missed the cut for just the second time in her entire career and the first time anywhere in nearly two years. Whiteley, whose only previous DNQ had come at the 2012 NHRA Finals at Pomona, was one of 20 drivers – including two from Sweden and one from Australia – who attempted to qualify at what annually is the toughest regional event in the country.

With a respectable 5.700, she was in the field with one qualifying session to go, but an up-in-smoke leave in that third session left her on the outside looking in when four other drivers bumped into the field. “It was just too much for the track,” said Whiteley, who smoked the tires and coasted to a 14.33. “We have an all-new clutch [designed by the Leanders Brothers, who eventually won the race], and when you change something as big as that, it takes a little time to get everything sorted out like the old setup was. Eventually, this new clutch is going to be better, and this is just something we have to go through to get where we want to be.”

PRO MOD – LAS VEGAS 2014

November 3, 2014 / Todd Veney

At the Toyota Nationals at the Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Steven Whiteley wrapped up his first full season of Pro Mod racing with a clutch five-second pass in last-shot qualifying to break into one of the fastest fields in the history of drag racing’s toughest class.

Eleventh on the grid with a solid 6.00 when the session got under way but just 18th and unqualified by the time he crept into the beams, Whiteley belted out a 5.95 at 244.03 mph to zoom all the way back up to the No. 11 spot in what turned out to be an all-5-second field. Twenty-eight drivers attempted to qualify, and two of them ran in the fives without even making the cut – Bob Rahaim and Steve Matusek, who finished just ahead of Steven’s dad, Jim Whiteley, who fell just .033-second short of making the program with a 6.01.

In the first round of eliminations against 2012 world champ and 2013 championship runner-up Troy Coughlin, Steven got off the line with a solid .066 reaction time. He maintained the lead all the way to the half-track mark but faded late in the run and bowed out with a slowing 6.31 at 180 mph while Coughlin kept his dwindling title hopes title alive with a 5.880, low e.t. of the entire event to that point.

“We’re just getting started,” said Whiteley, who wraps up the season 12th in the NHRA standings, just 6 points out of the prestigious Top 10. “We’re not going anywhere. We’ve experimented all year with my car and my dad’s car, with converters and clutches, and they both just keep running better and better. I’m getting more experience and learning more about driving every time out, and we’ve got big plans for 2015. We’re in this for the long haul.”

TAFC – LAS VEGAS NATIONAL 2014

November 2, 2014 / Todd Veney

Perennial Top 10 driver Annie Whiteley suffered a frustrating first-round loss at the Toyota Nationals at the Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, by far her best track on the entire NHRA circuit. The third-year veteran won the first race of her Top Alcohol Funny Car at the desert supertrack in April 2012, runner-upped at the national event there that fall, and scored again the late-season regional there, annually the toughest race of the season. It was the same thing last year: a clean sweep of both Vegas regionals.

This year? Not so much. Whiteley qualified No. 3 in the tough field but was eliminated in the first round of the Toyota Nationals by Top 5 driver Doug Gordon in a rematch of their Topeka first-round race, where she also was upset after qualifying No. 1. Gordon fought for traction in an on-and-off-the-throttle 5.73 win while Whiteley’s J&A Service/YNot Racing Mustang, which had charged to a 5.55 in qualifying, slipped to a 6.18.

“We just didn’t have enough for a track that good,” Whiteley said. “Doug didn’t make a great run either, but he got it down there quicker than we did. He had to pedal it to get rid of the shake. So did I, but I tried short-shifting first. It didn’t make the shake go away, so I pedaled it, and he just drove away from me.” Whiteley stayed on the throttle until there was no catching Gordon and finally clicked it off for a 6.18 at 234 mph.