Drag racing is a numbers game, and few are better at numbers than NHRA’s statistics guru, Lewis Bloom, who shared his top 10 stats from what was a very memorable 2016 racing season.
“Some are more stories than stats but honestly the two are married together,” said Bloom. “It was an exciting year for NHRA and I was proud to be apart of it. So here goes, and in no particular order”:
Jerry Savoie became the third Pro Stock Motorcycle champion to win the title and claim their first ever points lead in the class at the last race of the season, Eddie Krawiec in 2008 and L.E. Tonglet in 2010 also won championships and earned their first ever career points lead at the Finals at Pomona
Ron Capps competed in 463 Funny Car races before he won his first ever class championship; in 2015, Del Worsham claimed the title after 483 races. Following that logic, Tommy Johnson Jr. and fan favorite Tim Wilkerson would be early favorites to win their first-ever Funny Car championships next season.
Greg Anderson and Jason Line won the first 13 Pro Stock races of 2016, but there were nine different winners in the last 11 events, starting at Denver with Allen Johnson, who happened to be in his 10th consecutive final at Denver; you could call him Mr. Altitude! Pro Stock had nine different winners this season, but the leader in that stat this year was Funny Car with 10 different winners. The all-time record in the four Mello Yello classes for most winners in a season is 15, in Pro Stock in 2001.
335.57 mph is what appeared on the scoreboard on Friday, May 20,at Heartland Park Topeka, and I am still in awe of that performance by
Matt Hagan and tuner Dickie Venables. The speed is the fastest pass ever for a nitro Funny Car at ANY distance. Sure, their 3.822-second elapsed time from Brainerd was another stunner but there is something about that 335 that is “all world.” The speed is the fastest run in the history of nitro at the current 1000-foot track distance. The fastest run for Top Fuel at 1000 feet is by Shawn Langdon at 334.15 from Maple Grove in 2012 with uber tuner Alan Johnson. The fastest run ever for at Funny Car in the quarter-mile era was 334.32 mph, by Mike Ashley 10 years ago at Vegas. Hagan’s run tied Doug Kalitta’s career best quarter-mile Top Fuel speed from Vegas in 2004. Only Tony Schumacher has run faster than Hagan down an NHRA dragstrip with a piston-driven engine (yes, I have seen rocket cars; kids, ask your parent), running 336.15 at Columbus in 2005 and 337.58 the same year at Brainerd, again with Alan Johnson tuning. What does this all mean? Hagan’s car was hauling the mail!
The gap was 675 races between the first-ever all-female Top Fuel final round in TF at Columbus in 1982 -- Shirley Muldowney over Lucille Lee -- and this year’s historic final round at Phoenix when
Leah Pritchett defeated Brittany Force. Now if we can only get Courtney Force and Alexis DeJoria to line up in a Funny Car final next season.
This season
Andrew Hines passed the late Dave Schultz for the most wins in Pro Stock Motorcycle history. Schultz had 44 wins (or 45, depending on your scorecard). Hines is currently ahead with 47 wins in his great career.
For only the fourth time in NHRA history three hole-shots decided the final rounds at an event. At the Auto Club NHRA Finals in Pomona,
Doug Kalitta beat J.R. Todd in Top Fuel, Tommy Johnson defeated John Force in Funny Car, and Greg Anderson beat Jason Line in Pro Stock. Even though there have been 403 events that featured competition in all four Mello Yello classes, there’s never been one where all four finals been decided on holeshots. (Special assist to Bob Frey on this stat!)
Don Schumacher Racing set a single-season high with nine Top Fuel/Funny Car doubles this year and, overall, has had multiple race winners at the same event 60 times. Of course, “the Don” scored the ultimate prize winning both the
Top Fuel and Funny Car championships this season, doing so for the fourth time. A little side note: It was exciting to see the first ever double for John Force Racing, with Brittany Force winning her first ever Top Fuel in Gainesville a few moments after Robert Hight won Funny Car.
This year,
Jeff Strickland became only the second driver in NHRA history to score championships in two classes in the same season. For me, it is on par with the Ron Capps’ Funny Car championship in terms of the “cool factor.” The last driver to pull this off was the legendary Scotty Richardson in 1994. The major difference is that Richardson won in two index classes -- Super Comp and Super Gas -- both using a four-tenths Pro tree: similar set-ups in both cars using a throttle stop and delay box. On the other hand, “Strick.” as he is known, was going off top bulb in Top Dragster and bottom bulb in Stock eliminator, truly one of the Holy Grail drag racing accomplishments. (The ultimate Holy Grail moment/stat in NHRA is something that has not happened since the fabled Phoenix ‘92 race: a Mello Yello/Lucas Series double. At the Phoenix ‘92 race. Pat Austin won Top Fuel and also Top Alcohol Funny Car. Still an epic feat.
Finally I am all about Factory Stock, I just love the concept, the cars and the racing. If you ever see Bruno Massel doing his thing at a race for FOX you can ask him whether he feels the same way. This year,
Chris Holbrook and David Barton put on the show for hardcore fans all season. Holbrook, in his Cobra Jet, ran 8.119 at the Dodge NHRA Nationals in Reading while Barton, in his COPO Camaro, ran 8.073 seconds a week later at Maple Grove’s Dutch Classic. The thought that a stocker might run in the sevens is about as cool as it gets -- and on nine-inch tires! I witnessed the race for the nines years ago, announcing at Atco Raceway and Maple Grove Raceway when Bobby DeArmond made attempts to be the first in Stock to run sub-10 seconds. (I didn’t get to call that infamous run, which would eventually happen at Mission Raceway in British Columbia in 2001.)
