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FORCE,
SCHUMACHER AND EDWARDS ARE NO. 1 QUALIFIERS AT NHRA ARIZONA
NATIONALS
CHANDLER, Ariz. – John Force
continued to show that he’s back to his old form Saturday at the
NHRA Arizona Nationals as the 14-time NHRA Funny Car world
champion raced to his first No. 1 qualifying position in more
than two years.
Tony Schumacher (Top Fuel) and Mike Edwards (Pro Stock) also
earned No. 1 positions in their respective categories at the
NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event. Due to rainy
weather conditions throughout the day, NHRA officials were
forced to cancel one of the two scheduled qualifying sessions.
The 60-year-old
Force sped to a 4.063-second run at 308.78 mph in his Castrol
GTX High-Mileage Ford Mustang to claim his 132nd No. 1 of his
career, seventh at Firebird International Raceway and his first
since Sept. 2006. He will meet arch-rival Cruz Pedregon, a
two-time series champ, in the opening round of Sunday’s 11 a.m.
(MT) eliminations.
“It feels great considering the last few years have been kind of
tough,” Force said. “We shook up our teams a little bit with
[crew chiefs] Mike Neff, Austin [Coil], and Bernie [Fedderly],
and I’ve got the new Eric Medlen chassis built by Ford Motor Co.
and John Medlen and the Boss 500. I’ve finally got an all-Ford
car and I’m still getting her down the lane, so I’m pretty
excited.”
Force was a little surprised that he was able to move past Matt
Hagan’s leading effort from Friday. Hagan’s 4.068 at a track
record speed of 311.34 in his DieHard Dodge Charger held on to
the second spot in the 16-car starting order.
“Conditions weren’t what they were [for Friday’s second
session],” Force said. “I knew it’d run an 0, but I didn’t think
it’d run an .06. I saw Neff turning on some screws when he went
over the car after I backed up from the burnout. He took a long
time and I said, ‘Don’t run me out of gas.’ I don’t know what he
did – they never tell me – but I have a lot confidence.”
Schumacher powered his U.S. Army dragster to a 3.818 at 317.05
to earn the 59th No. 1 effort of his career and fourth at this
event. He grabbed the top spot away from Friday leader Doug
Kalitta, whose performance of 3.825 at 317.05 in his Technicoat
dragster was good enough for second.
Schumacher said crew chief Mike Green set his car up for a
conservative run given the conditions and the opportunity for
only one qualifying pass for the day. In hindsight, he said they
both wished they would have turned up the wick just a bit.
“Man, we’re the No. 1 qualifier, but it was so off,” said
seven-time world champ Schumacher, who will meet four-time FIA
European Top Fuel champ Andy Carter in the first round. “We
missed it by a mile – everybody did. The track is better than
we’ve been giving it credit for. The .81 was still a pretty darn
good run for how soft it was. That was one of those runs where
we should’ve gone for a 3.75.”
In Pro Stock, defending world champ Edwards took his
second-straight No. 1 of the season and 11th in a row dating
back to the final nine races of last season. He earned the 24th
No. 1 of his career and the third at FIR with his Friday
performance of 6.609 at 209.46 in his Penhall/Interstate
Batteries Pontiac GXP. He will face veteran Warren Johnson in
the first round.
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