Reading Kicks Off 7-Race NHRA Countdown to the Championship
This weekend begins the Countdown to the Championship playoffs for NHRA’s Camping World Drag Racing Series, as Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle’s top-10 drivers and riders compete for a championship in their respective classes.
This is a seven-race playoff series, rather than the six-race configuration NHRA had chosen prior to 2020. The starting salvo takes place at Maple Grove Raceway outside Reading, PA, with the Mopar Express Lane NHRA Nationals presented by Pennzoil. Held just one week after the Labor Day Dodge//SRT U.S. Nationals, the Reading race is one that usually brings high speeds, low times and – always – the threat of inclement weather.
The format will be a single qualifying session on Friday evening, followed by two sessions on Saturday and final eliminations starting at 11AM Sunday morning. All four pro classes will be in action.
Although he ended up top seed in Top Fuel, three-time champion Steve Torrence had his huge points margin cut down to a single round’s worth. He leads Brittany Force by 20 points, while succeeding racers lag by 30, 40 and on to a separation of 100 points between Torrence and tenth-placed Doug Kalitta. It’s a new game and, hopefully, more of those top-10 combatants will be able to lariat Torrence and give themselves an opportunity to shine.
There are 14 dragsters on the entry list for this race, with only a few drivers entered who are out of playoff contention. They include Josh Hart, Joe Morison, Buddy Hull and Doug Foley. None in this quartet is a slouch, so it wouldn’t be a big surprise to see some upsets, in particular when Hart accelerates out of the water box.
Among the playoff-anointed, there’s much to look forward to witnessing this weekend. Reading is about as close as Antron Brown, seeded third, gets to his boyhood New Jersey home, now that racing at Englishtown is gone. These seven races mark three-time champion Brown’s final tour working with Don Schumacher Racing and you know, I know, he knows he wants to start his own team with a positive 2021 result. Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald, Brown’s crew chiefs, know how important it is going to be to have a good result in the playoffs as it’ll set the tone for Brown’s self-owned team in 2022.
Anyone who attended – or saw – the 2019 edition of the Reading race won’t soon forget Ron Capps’ blast down the 1,000-foot dragstrip in his Don Schumacher Racing Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat , with his lap of 3.837 seconds at 339.28-mph. It was the second-fastest run in NHRA history (John Force Racing’s Robert Hight set the fastest and quickest run in 2017 at Sonoma of 3.807/339.87 in his Chevrolet Camaro SS) and Capps re-wrote both Reading track records with that run.
For the Californian, who starts the Countdown in the catbird seat seeded No. 1, that pass at Maple Grove is one Capps would love to repeat. A bit stung by his loss to Tim Wilkerson on Sunday at Lucas Oil Raceway in the finals at the U.S. Nationals, his team still “achieved our goal of finishing the points leader of the regular season. I can’t wait to see what the next seven races have in store,” he said.
Capps will have to contend with a heady group chasing his 20-point advantage, starting with 16-time champ John Force and his Chevrolet Camaro SS in second place, followed by Bob Tasca III (Ford Mustang), J.R. Todd (Toyota Camry), Tommy Johnson Jr. in for the ailing Matt Hagan and accumulating points for him, Robert Hight’s Camaro, Alexis DeJoria’s Camry, Cruz Pedregon’s Charger, Tim Wilkerson’s Mustang and Blake Alexander, driving Jim Head’s Mustang.
As in Top Fuel, there are 14 Floppers on the entry list for this race. In addition to the balance of the Funny Car top 10, regular competitor Paul Lee is in his Charger, Cory Lee’s Ford Mustang, Terry Haddock and his Mustang, and Jim Campbell’s Charger. will be looking to shake it up As we’ve discovered, this year in particular, drag racing plays no favorites and any one of these four could go rounds and ruin someone else’s championship dreams on Sunday.
Pro Stock has a full,16-car field heading to Reading, all with the intent of winning the first Countdown race in two years. The “old hands” of Greg Anderson and Erica Enders lead the title chase, followed by young guns Aaron Stanfield and Kyle Koretsky, both of whom followed their dads into this class (Stanfield is also reigning Factory Stock Showdown champion), holding third and fourth places, followed by Dallas Glenn, Matt Hartford, Troy Coughlin Jr., Mason McGaha, Deric Kramer and Chris McGaha. All are driving Chevrolet Camaro race cars.
The points differential for Pro Stock (and Pro Stock Motorcycle) is the same to P5, but from there to P10, the points reduce by five, rather than 10 as they do in the nitro classes, leaving Chris McGaha 75 points behind Anderson. The Dodge Dart race cars of Alan Prusiensky and Mike Callahan are back for action, joined by the Camaros of John Gaydosh Jr. Bob Benza, Kenny Delco, Vince Nobile and Larry Morgan, the latter making his second start of the year. If there’s any drivers in this group that can cause havoc for those in the Countdown, consider Delco, Nobile and Morgan spoilers.
At least Pro Stock Motorcycle will have a few riders that will be left out come Sunday morning, as 19 PSM bikes are on the grounds. There are eight EBR/Buell entries, a total of 10 two- and four-valve Suzukis and a lone Victory for Ron Tornow. Despite his early departure last Sunday, Matt Smith continues to lead the fray on his Buell, followed by Steve Johnson’s Suzuki, Scotty Pollacheck and Eddie Krawiec on Buell motorcycles, Angelle Sampey on her Vance & Hines Suzuki, Ryan Oehler’s EBR, Joey Gladstone’s Suzuki Hayabusa, Angie Smith’s Buell, Karen Stoffer’s Suzuki and six-time champ Andrew Hines’ Buell.
Of those not in the Countdown, Jerry Savoie and his four-valve Suzuki will be back after securing his homestead in Louisiana, as will David Barron (Buell), Chris Bostick’s Suzuki, Marc Ingwersen’s EBR, Cory Reed’s Suzuki, Tornow, Kelly Clontz and Jianna Salinas, on four-valve and two-valve Suzukis, respectively. The U.S. Nationals was a festival of fouls and mechanical issues in this class – as was Pro Stock – which means that it’s anyone’s game this weekend and no racer has a true head start. Whoever reads the track properly, preps their motorcycle to tackle it and does their job will end up holding the Wally trophy.
Current forecasts call for mostly sunny weather throughout this weekend, growing hotter with each succeeding day until reaching the middle-80s on Sunday’s race day. Could this mean a weekend without precipitation in Reading? Well, I guess we’ll believe it when we see it.