Paul Grant's blog: 2/1/09

NHRA Arizona Nationals 2009 - Firebird Raceway Feb 20th - 22nd

Apparently there's a Recession.....

At least that is what I thought. It was a great weekend's drag racing at the Firebird Raceway in Chandler, Arizona. Antron Brown, Ron Capps, and Jeg Coughlin were the winners in the pro categories.

Back to that recession deal, I arrived expecting to seeing an event that would be a little scaled back, I'd read about the racers and runners in the pro catagories that had been set on the sidelines due to a lack of funding and how the public were tightening the purse strings. Well, my weekend began with seeing full fields with spares for all the pro ranks, admittedly there were a lot more 'independents' running on smaller budgets, but none-the-less we had full fields - cool.
With Friday always being a bit quiet, it wasn't until the next day I saw the impact the current economic climate was having on the NHRA fan, the stands looked packed, beer was flowing, JFR shirts couldn't come off the rack quick enough, and to walk 'Nitro Alley' you needed to dodge left then right and squeeze through crowds of fans sniffing the thick nitro fumes until their eyes could no longer open. Yep, that's right, the more things change, the more things stay the same and luckily for the NHRA things seemed just fine on this weekend. They were even running ahead of schedule midway on Sunday because the racing was going so well.

This was my first weekend's racing of three that I had planned for this vacation. This would be a weekend of shooting images from the stands as a fan of the sport and a keen amature photographer. Rather than spend my time reliving the race and offering up a bunch of results, here are a selection of images and observations from a great weekends action. If you would like to view these images and more as a gallery click here.

Tony Pedregon, the '07 champ is seen here making his friday evening pass, this would be the last pass this cool new look chev body would see on this weekend as he burnt his car up on the third pass during Saturday's action.

Mike Strasburg lights up the Friday evening sky during Q2 while running against Clay Milican. He would be back to fight another day.

2009 was also the welcome return of David Baca in his Mach 1 Serivces Top Fuel Dragster. He made it comfortably into the field but fell in round one to traction.

Washington's Terry Haddock can never be accused of not trying. A racer with heart, and a real fan of this sport, the current IHRA Funny Car Champ is always a great addition to any field of racers.

Erica Enders, now running the only Ford in NHRA Pro Stock, has to be wondering 'what if' she had stayed at Cagnazzi. Another DNQ would see her on the trailer early, but with rumors of Nascar's Roush-Fenway looking to supply ford race engines to Pro Stock, perhaps help is on the way or maybe more competition, time will tell.

Another Nascar parallel in NHRA is the success of Toyota. Alan Johnson has long be an advocate for the Toyota Funny Car flopper, and with the help of Raun Tobler, Cruz Predregon took a Solara Funny Car body to the championship in 2008. The car above is that of the newly formed Al-Anabi, Alan Johnson race team that field a FC for Del Worsham and a TF for Larry Dixon.

This is the crew of the eventual race winner's car, Antron Brown. Seen here being worked on as the sun sets behind them.

As with Brown's crew, race winners come from hard work by the team. Jeg Coughlin's team is no different as they work well into Friday evening setting up the right combination to move them toward the winner's circle on this weekend.

Tony Schumacher, seen here trying not to be noticed as he heads out after a hard days work.

Round three in Pro Stock sees Line and Johnson line up as Stanfield's car fails and gets hauled back to the pits. Throughout the weekend the track 'had teeth' and both lanes performed well with the right having the edge overall, but in Pro Stock, on race day it was not so clear cut.

Larry Dixon, now driving for the Alan Johnson - Al-Anabi Racing team is loving having a car tune by Jason McCulloch (Ed's son), strongly influenced by the great engineering of Alan Johnson who tuned Tony Schu to his five championships. Dixon will be looking for number three this year.

Mike Neff should probably have been this weekends winner, he had "one bad hot rod" according to Force. It was running consist mid to high 4.0's all weekend long, only to be beaten by a clutch/gear linkage in the final and after the burnout. Neff had been tuning his own car this weekend as John Medlen was in hospital for an operation, but they were liaising over the phone for that big boss horsepower. Neff had hoped to win one for both John and Eric Medlen, but it was not going to be his day come Sunday finals.

Your Pro Stock winner Jeg Coughlin making his way back to the pits in between race rounds had a solid consistent car all weekend long and with his reputed faultless driving, he was unbeatable.

The Hot Rod Heritage Series had a 'cacklefest' area set up with some real nicely presented dragsters, a gasser and one of Bernstien's funny cars

Greg Stanfield ran well throughout the weekend but unfortunately had to face the super hot Mike Edwards in round 1 and his day was done. Seen here running with Ricki Jones in Q3.

Jeff Arend driving for Connie Kalitta in the FC previously driven by Scott Kalitta is finding some performance now as the team and he have some stability. Running with 'Scott' as the name on the car, Jeff was a first round loss to event winner Ron Capps in Arizona.

The sun exposes the clean lines of Tim Wilkerson's Mustang bodied funny car as he crosses the finish line.

Bob Tasca, Wilkerson's team mate ran well over the weekend, taking his Shelby Mustang bodied FC to round two losing to Mike Neff. The combination of Tasca and Wilkerson should soon see these guys heading to the winner's circle in '09.

NHRA royalty John Force looked like he had a great car under him on this weekend. A fuel line issue on the start line caused him to get all out of shape at the hit of the throttle in round one, giving an easy win to an under-performing Tim Wilkerson.

Sun sets on a nostalgia hemi front engined dragster set up in the cacklefest area.

Jerry Hass does a seat fitting for a potential new driver for his Pro Stock.....

Arizona sun warms the side of Larry Dixon's '09 ride during the Saturday night overhaul.

The Pro Stock DNQ'ers pack up their bags to head back to the shop to find out where they put that last few horsepower they just couldn't find this weekend.

Chutes have been deployed and the last run for the day is done.

Mike Neff's Nitro Monkeys look up to their leader as they prep a warm up of the Neff tuned and driven Mustang monster.

Thomas Bayer, a former Div.6 T/A Dragster regular for the Federlines was doing double duty, winning in Super Comp and seen here running strong in Super Gas.

Brandon Bernstein with new Canadian tuner Rob Flynn, ran solid all weekend all the way to the final on Sunday, losing the battle with traction in the final round.

Antron Brown is generating some heat on his way to the race win with a number three qualifying position, his ride was solid all weekend long

Bob Tasca's hot Shelby running to the win in round one competition over a traction challenged Jerry Toliver.

Del Worsham shows the real potential of the all new AJR/Al-Anabi Toyota Solara bodied FC by taking it to the Semi's in which he lost to Race winner Ron Capps.

Ron Capps on his way to a round 1 win over Jeff Arend.

Race winner Ron Capps heating Firebird Raceway on his way to a second consecutive win and a 100% win record in 2009.

Robert Hight was a round two loser to Del Worsham. All the Force cars had looked strong all weekend, but not one of them was left standing when the fat lady sang.

King John the First, meeting his adoring public.

The Professor's helmet was hung up in round one when he lost to Greg Anderson. WJ was first away, but the Summit GXP power was just too much.

Morgan Lucas warmin' the hides on his way to a second round loss to event winner Brown.

The Sarge, probably thinking about sending you a 'miss you' greeting card to Alan Johnson as he has a good car, but just can't seem to get that same performance he had in '09.

Spencer Massey and Bernstein line up in a rivalry renewed between Don Prudhome and Kenny Bernstein. BB would be victorious today...

Tony Schumacher playing his instrument to an adoring audience, many of whom wept at his moving performance.