9/22/08

How has Dallas become such a disaster area?

And I’m not referring to the hurricanes which have been ravaging the southern coast of Texas this summer. I’m referring to how the last two trips to a track at which John has won more than any other pro driver, 7, have been so depressing.

We all know about last year’s mess. This year, Mike didn’t qualify and the rest of the team never made it past the semi-finals. John was the last driver on JFR to fall, losing to eventual race winner and points leader Tim Wilkerson in the semi’s. And then that was it.

Add to the travails in Funny Car the DNQ for Brittany and the second round loss for Courtney in Top Alcohol Dragster and the “Downer in Dallas” becomes all too plain.

So, here’s the deal: We’ve got four races to go in the Countdown to 1 and the points look like this….

Robert is fourth, Ashley is sixth, John is eighth, and Mike is tenth. It’s still a horserace for the championship but you have to admit that Tim Wilkerson has got himself quite a program and a lot of people wouldn’t be too disappointed to see a real good guy like Tim finally win that first championship after years of racing as an also-ran.

But let’s not concede anything to our friend from Springfield, Illinois just yet.

If you’ve been following what’s happening at JFR, you know the team has been getting a little creative lately with crew chiefs and drivers swapping cars and tune-ups and such trying to pull together a little more consistency in performance. None of the four cars are in what you’d call a solid groove right now. Robert and Ashley both had strong qualifying passes in Dallas but on race day, the magic just wasn’t there. And when John and Ashley raced in the second round, knowing that one of them was going to advance into the semi’s was a bit of a lift.

But somehow Tim was able to get around John in that semi-final; ending what everyone hoped would be a major comeback for the Champ after two straight DNQ’s. Maybe that’s what added to the feeling of disappointment for the team and the JFR fans. It did look as if John was headed for his first win since Topeka in June and how incredible a story would THAT have been, one year after that scary top end crash out there?

Well, from one track with so many memories for John to another with an equally memorable legacy which dates back twenty years: Memphis Motorsports Park, where John saw Elvis at a thousand feet.  And just as he did in Dallas, John has won at MMP more than any other pro driver in NHRA history with 5 event trophies at the Mid-South Nationals.

Of course, it’s also the track where John got right up into Lee Beard’s grille when he was tuning Whit Bazemore’s Funny Car in 2003 and chewed Lee up one side and down the other for what John felt was a little too leisurely a staging procedure by the Bazemore team during qualifying. That confrontation is still one of the most emotional outbursts John has ever churned up in all of his years of racing and I think just about everyone who follows the sport has seen the video of that dust-up on ESPN at least once. So, Memphis—here we come!

Two races down and four to go in the 2008 Countdown to 1. If all goes well in Memphis for JFR, we might see some familiar names topping the points standings by next Sunday night. And that will give me some upbeat topics to write about in the next “In the Groove”

Hope you’ll come back next week and see how things shook out. In the meantime, save the racing for the racetrack and drive safely—with your seatbelt buckled of course!