Mustang Club of Maryland

FORCE HOOD TAKES POINTS LEAD
10/6/2009

SIX POINTS SEPARATE TOP THREE FUNNY CAR DRIVERS FOLLOWING MID-SOUTH NATIONALS

BY TEAM FORD RACING CORRESPONDENT

Millington, Tenn. — (RFC) Ashley Force Hood wrestled the Funny Car points lead away from brother-in-law (RFC) Robert Hight Monday in a bizarre, rain-delayed finish to the 22nd annual O’Reilly Auto Parts Mid-South Nationals at Memphis Motorsports Park.

In an event punctuated by a spectacular, non-injury crash involving the Ford Mustang of rookie (RFC) Daniel Wilkerson, unheralded Jeff Arend upset Tony Pedregon in the Funny Car final to throw the race for the Full Throttle championship into utter confusion..

Driving the DHL Toyota for Kalitta Racing, Arend won for the first time since taking over the ride following the tragic death of Scott Kalitta. Although he started from only the No. 15 qualifying position, Arend ran 4.10, 4.10 and 4.09 to beat (RFC) John Force, Force Hood and Pedregon in the final three rounds.

Meanwhile, Wilkerson walked away from a devastating crash in his first round race with Ron Capps. The son of tour veteran (RFC) Tim Wilkerson was trying to capitalize on a slight starting line advantage when both rear wheels came off the Levi, Ray and Shoup Mustang, sending it darting across the center line and into the left side guard wall at 250MPH+ where it narrowly avoided T-boning the NAPA Dodge.

That accident, involving the first pair of Funny Cars in the very first round of racing, set the tempo for a wholly unpredictable final day of competition.

When it ended, Force Hood had a three-point lead ahead of Hight, whose streak of consecutive final round appearances ended at three when he was upset in the second round by Capps.

Hight’s Auto Club Mustang, which qualified No. 1 and seemed capable of extending the streak with a first round time of 4.084, slowed just enough in round two to allow Capps to sneak past for an .003 of a second victory, 4.109 to 4.117.

“Our car is performing well [and] I’m driving all right,” Hight said. “We just got outrun. We didn’t make any mistakes or smoke the tires. Jimmy [crew chief Jimmy Prock] was racing a little safe [and Capps and crew chief Ed McCulloch] just shot a shot out there on us.

“First round, it was a little fast and Jimmy softened it up. The second round it was a little too soft, [but] you have to give them credit. They went up there and made a good run. They got themselves right back into this points race. Ashley and I are fighting it out and Tony Pedregon is right there with us. I’m glad we have our two cars up at the top. We’ll just keep fighting.”

Now, halfway through the NHRA’s Countdown to 1 playoffs, only 26 points separate the top three drivers in a Funny Car division that has emerged as the most competitive in the Full Throttle Series.

“We’re bummed we didn’t win,” Force Hood said of her fourth straight trip to the semifinals or beyond, “but we’re pumped that we went to another semifinal. That’s our third semifinal in the first three Countdown races. Our Castrol GTX Mustang ran really good this weekend [and] that semifinal was just a really good close race. That will sometime bite you.

“I don’t know if we would have done anything differently. That was one of our best runs of the day. We will just take that and know that we have a really good-running car and even in these crazy changing conditions, we managed to still have a handle on our Mustang.

“We’ll go to Richmond and I’ll assume the conditions will be cool like this. That is a plus for us. We’ll try and go some rounds there. Semis is our goal every race. If we can just semifinalize them to death, we’ll be good. You are getting a lot of points.

“The competition is so tight. You can’t be great in one area like having a great running car and not do a good driving job or vice versa. You have to be on your game in every aspect—preparation of the car, driving, reaction times, every area has to be on target. I think that’s why we’re going to semis and leading the points because we strive for that perfection.”

Force Hood leads the Funny Car division with 2308 points. Hight is second with 2305 and Pedregon third with 2282. Behind those three are Fast Jack Beckman, Capps and Bob Tasca III in the Quick Lane/Motorocraft Ford Mustang.

Beckman, who started the race in second place, was upset in the first round by eventual runner-up Jeff Arend and, as a result, will move on to Virginia Motorsports Park for this week’s Virginia Nationals with 2235 points. Tasca, beaten by teammate Wilkerson in the first round, has 2206; Capps 2220.

Barring a high-performance miracle, the other Ford drivers—14-time champion John Force, Wilkerson and second year pro Mike Neff—will be relegated to supporting roles for the season’s final three events. Force, who’s finished no higher than seventh in points since his 2007 crash in Dallas, will move on to Richmond, Va., in seventh place, leading Wilkerson by three points. Neff is three rounds further back.

(It's a sad day when 7 Mustangs in the chase and none of them finished first. Uggg)

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