Bristol NHRA Backstories
The big stories from NHRA’s 23rd annual Super Grip Thunder Valley Nationals have already been told, but there was so much more to delve into below the surface at this always-anticipated contest. While it’s true there only one winner in each class, one driver or rider who’s quickest in qualifying, there were stories surrounding this particular race that need to be told before the tour alights in Richmond little more than a week from now.
Two-time Top Fuel champion Brittany Force looked competitive this past weekend and won a round, something she has failed to do in quite a while. From failing to qualify at Joliet in May, through to her first-round departure in Epping, Force and her team have been behind the eight-ball throughout this 2024 20-race season. Her semifinal loss against 2023 Top Fuel titleholder Doug Kalitta showed that crew chiefs David Grubnic and John Collins could be turning the corner when it matters. After all, getting to the Countdown to the Championship that begins after the U.S. Nationals on Labor Day weekend in Indianapolis is the goal.
Force’s dad, John Force, is looking way younger than his 75 yeas, having earned his 157th Funny Car race in Epping. He’s racing well, and his crew chiefs Danny Hood and Chris Cunningham have the car tuned to his liking. It’s been 11 years since Force earned his 16th championship but 2024 looks like a great opportunity, if he and his team can continue their momentum through to the close of this 20-eace campaign. Force has been doing his job on the track and the team has done theirs in the pits. It’s all come together for him thus far. There’s a legion of NHRA fans just chomping at the bit for the Funny Car GOAT to get another title.
Justin Ashley was looking to continue his dragster dominance in Thunder Valley but it wasn’t meant to be for the New York native. There were weather changes to deal with from qualifying to eliminations and Ashley, the No. 2 qualifier, was racing none ofter than Brittany Force in the first round. While he left well – as usual – and looked to have this race in hand, an engine explosion at the 1,000-foot finish line scotched that round and left Ashley 22 points behind finalist Doug Kalitta, who won in Epping, NH a week before Bristol.
The addition of father Billy Torrence to the CAPCO Contractors Top Fuel team that runs son Steve, a four-time consecutive champion, was intended to elevate that squad back to the top of the heap, but so far this year they’re treading water, relatively speaking. While Steve Torrence is going rounds at most races, last weekend he, again, looked human in the water box for his two-round Sunday performance. While Steve Torrence’s mind last weekend had to be on the coming attraction of a second child, being able to make it two rounds was an improvement. Steve Torrence is currently in fourth place; Billy holds eighth-place points.
There’s no shame in losing to John Force. It’s happened to everyone in the Funny Car wars at least one time. Last week it was Daniel Wilkerson’s turn to come out on the L side of the game in the first round of competition. Wilkerson, who suffered an engine explosion during Saturday evening’s qualifying session, had a great run but came up on the wrong side. He was using his backup Ford Mustang because the time involved in repairing the primary car would have taken too long. Racing began early – at 10am in order to finish before weather rolled into the Tennessee hills.
Last year, Steve Johnson was the winner in Thunder Valley, making Gaige Herrera a loser for the first time in 2023. There was no repeat in 2024, but Johnson is readying preparations for a very important moment in his long Pro Stock Motorcycle career. The hirsute Suzuki rider will soon celebrate 500 races run since joining this class 1987; No. 500 occurs at the Sonoma Nationals the end of July and that should be quite the party! After all, Johnson is always animated when he’s happy and there’s no reason for him to be anything but overjoyed when he reaches that milestone, hopefully in the Winner’s Circle – and ruining another day for Herrera.
If you haven’t been paying attention to the Salinas girls, open your eyes. Jasmine Salinas is filling in for her fast father, Mike, in Top Fuel during the early part of this season – he intends to return to action at Sonoma’s late-July race, which is close to his East Bay area home near San Francisco. Sonoma is his local track and the first place where Salinas raced as a Top Fuel entry. With Rob Flynn turning the knobs for Jasmine, a rookie in Top Fuel, the driver has been making improvements at every stop and her qualifying attempts are getting better, too.
Unfortunately for Jasmine Salinas, as the No. 5 qualifier in Bristol, she had to run Tony Schumacher, who would go on to the finals and earn his 87th visit to the Winner’s Circle. The pair put on a good show, neck and neck down the 1,000-foot track. While Jasmine Salinas made her best run of the event, t wasn’t enough to outpace Schumacher (3.802 to 3.794). “We earned our way onto the top half of the ladder and even earned some bonus points in qualifying,” she related. “That’s what we’ve been looking for. I know that if we keep this up, those wins will come.”
Jasmine’s sister Jianna, who earned her first Pro Stock Motorcycle victory in her rookie season at the 2019 Pomona finale, made it to the final round of last weekend’s race after her solo run in the first round, having her opponent, Chase Van Sant red-light in Round 2 and beating Richard Gadson’s Suzuki in the semifinal round. Riding a Matt Smith Racing Buell for the first time in her career after starting in this class on a Suzuki, Evaristo has been fine-tuning her riding expertise and is finally able to make it down the quarter-mile drag strip without leaning over on the bike. Evaristo has earned her stripes as a member of the Pro Stock Motorcycle community. While she’s sitting ninth in the standings, there’s ample opportunity to move up this food chain before the Countdown sets in after Indy.
On a weekend when his tuner, Dean “Guido” Antonelli was celebrating a birthday, Ron Capps and his Toyota GR Supra made an about-face on poor luck. After qualifying third, he lost a close second round race to eventual runner-up J.R. Todd’s similar machine. The Kalitta Motorsports driver would prevail in a close race but the qualifying results and Capps’ first-round victory show a rebound for that team.
As for Todd, running against Austin Prock in the finals gave fans the opportunity to see two drivers who can win in any nitro car, whether it’s got open- or closed wheels. Both Todd and Prock have won NHRA races in Top Fuel and Funny Car, an anomaly the both exploit. Being sufficiently talented to race and win in drag racing’s two top categories is a calling card. Either of these cars are tough enough to drive; to be able to handle both is quite an achievement for any racer.
There are few big teams left in the nitro ranks of NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series classes: Don Schumacher Racing folded a few years back and its drivers have either started their own teams – Antron Brown and Ron Capps come to mind immediately with teams in Top Fuel and Funny Car, while Tony Stewart Racing took over the cars of Matt Hagan – who rewarded his new team owner with a Funny Car championship in 2023 – and Leah Pruett, who nearly did the same against eventual champ Doug Kalitta last year in Top Fuel. Seeing independent racers – rather than large nitro squads – has been exciting and hearkens to earlier times when most folks owned their own teams.
Clay Millican delighted his nearly hometown crowds with his exploits in Rick Ware Racing’s Top Fuel car this weekend. Millican, always a crowd favorite, won his first Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge bonus race on Saturday and was the No. 1 qualifier in his class for Sunday’s eliminations. He’ll have the opportunity to win the bonus race again by going to the semifinals last Sunday, where he was defeated by eventual race winner Tony Schumacher in a very tight race (3.795 bet 3.824).
After this upcoming weekend off, NHRA goes first to Richmond and then on to Norwalk, Ohio, the latter one of the most anticipated races for everyone in the series.