Category: NHRA

Top Fuel’s Josh Hart picked up the victory in the Pep Boys NHRA Top Fuel All-Star Callout on Saturday at this weekend’s 54th Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals, beating Mike Salinas in the final round to win the bonus event in front of a sellout crowd at Gainesville Raceway.

Brittany Force (Top Fuel) Ron Capps (Funny Car), Troy Coughlin Jr. (Pro Stock) and Gaige Herrera (Pro Stock Motorcycle) all qualified No. 1 at the first of 21 races during the 2023 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season.

Hart, a local Ocala native, put together a run of 3.748s at 331.53 mph in his 11,000-horsepower R&L Carriers dragster, knocking off Salinas who went up in smoke on the starting line in the specialty race. Hart beat Austin Prock and defending world champ Force to reach the final round. Two years ago, Hart won in Gainesville in his Top Fuel debut, following it up with Saturday’s impressive showing.

“First of all, I guess I’ll just say that nice guys don’t finish last,” Hart said. “The team gets all the credit. That consistency to get it done every time makes me so very, very proud of the team. It’s a huge, huge accomplishment for our team. To go out and win a specialty race right off the trailer is pretty awesome. But I’m just the jockey that gets to hit the gas.

“I don’t think I knew I was supposed to be nervous or knew that I was supposed to have butterflies two years ago but when you taste it, and then it gets taken away from you and your sophomore season you want to get back to that place. I think we found a little bit of magic and Gainesville has always been good to us. We’ll do our best to get this thing in the winner’s circle more often.”

Force’s 3.699 at 336.99 from Friday in her 11,000-horsepower Monster Energy dragster handed the defending world champion her 43rd top spot. She’ll open eliminations against Keith Murt, while Steve Torrence jumped to second with a 3.723 at 331.36. Doug Kalitta is third with a 3.723 at 327.82.

“It was a bummer to lose out on the All-Star Callout, but we got the No. 1 qualifier,” Force said. “We felt good going into (the Callout) and got to the semifinals, but we got beat, so our bigger focus now is raceday tomorrow. We’ll put today behind us, and got in that last qualifying session, which was good, solid run for us.

“It’s outstanding, to be in different conditions run in and still be able to run that. We missed it the one time in the Callout, but we all feel pretty good.”

In Funny Car, Capps opened his title defense with an outstanding run to close out qualifying, going 3.874 at 333.25 in his 11,000-horsepower NAPA Auto Parts Toyota GR Supra. It gives Capps 36 No. 1 qualifiers in his standout career, and he’ll open raceday against Terry Haddock. Capps lost in the final round of the season-opener last year and ended with his second straight world title, which has him hoping for a big showing this weekend in Gainesville.

“We all talked about how tough it was going to and you saw it in the last session,” Capps said. “Last year I end up winning Indy for the first time in my career, then we win the Callout in the same weekend and then we go on to win the championship and it’s just a dream year. So, it’s almost like how do you top that? But we show up here and we come from behind and we lay down low E.T. My gosh, what a way to start the year.”

John Force is qualified second with a 3.878 at 332.59 and Robert Hight was a spot behind after his 3.879 at 333.99

Coughlin made a big move on Saturday in Pro Stock, jumping to the top spot and moving past his teammate, Erica Enders, with a run of 6.515 at 212.29 in his JEGS.com/White Castle/Elite Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro. After a breakout season a a year ago, which included his first two professional wins, Coughlin is off to a quick start in 2023, taking his third career No. 1 qualifier. He’ll open eliminations against Larry Morgan.

“I’m very proud of what we’ve done so far. Kudos to Elite Motorsports and everyone on our team,” Coughlin said. “They all work hard and we are a complete family. The guys in the engine shop never stop working. I wish everyone could come to our shop and experience it firsthand. It’s just such an honor to be a part of.”

Enders, the reigning world champ, qualified second after going 6.515 at 211.73, just missing out on the top qualifier position. Mason McGaha took third thanks to his run of 6.519 at 211.59.

Making his debut for Vance and Hines, rising Pro Stock Motorcycle star Gaige Herrera enjoyed a tremendous day on his Vance & Hines/Mission Foods Suzuki, delivering a 6.685 at 203.49, breaking the track speed record. Herrera made his PSM debut last year and joined the Vance and Hines team in the off-season. He’s made a strong impression already and will go for his first win on Sunday, opening eliminations against Ron Tornow.

“I honestly don’t have words for this,” Herrera said. “Just being here with the best team in Pro Stock Motorcycle is a dream and then to run 6.68 on back-to-back runs and then go 203. It’s been an awesome journey so far. It’s still not real to me. When I got that phone call from (Vance & Hines crew chief) Andrew Hines in November it took a while to sink in. Then I got my new leathers and realized I’d be riding the best bike in the class.”

Steve Johnson’s 6.746 at 198.90 kept him second and rookie Chase Van Sant took third in his first PSM race with a 6.747 at 200.80.

Eliminations for the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals begin at 10 a.m. ET on Sunday at Gainesville Raceway.

If it seemed at times last season that Steve Torrence had a chip on his shoulder or felt disrespected that’s because he did.

“Well, I tend to get like that anyway,” Torrence told RACER. “But it definitely is a little bit frustrating when you’ve gone out and dominated as we did and then people say, ‘Oh well, they’re going to be out of it.’ They’re this. They’re that. Well, start writing Tony Schumacher off. You just can’t do it.”

The four-time NHRA Top Fuel champion did not have the season he and his Capco team expected or strived for, which drew out the critics. Torrence & company went until August before winning their first event at Brainerd and picked up the second and final win the following month at St. Louis.

But in between, Torrence grabbed the $80,000 bonus payday for capturing the Pep Boys NHRA All-Star Callout. Torrence did so by taking down the hottest driver in the class, Brittany Force. It was that day Torrence let the frustration out by saying on television:

“I’ll tell you what, tons of respect for Brittany Force and that team because they’ve been bad to the bone. But the Capco team and Toyota boys have been bad to the bone for five years. We didn’t forget what we were doing. We struggled a little bit, but you got to persevere and stay with the boys who brought you there. We’re standing proud right now. … We don’t look so stupid now because we’re walking off with the money, big dog.”

Torrence ended the year with three No. 1 qualifiers and sixth in the championship standings. It was a year of grinding it out and knowing they weren’t on the right path.

“We willingly went in a different direction,” Torrence said. “We know what we were stepping into, unchartered territory. It took us time to figure it out, but we’re the same Capco boys we were from 2018 to 2021, and so ’22 was just a product of self-inflicted injury. And it was frustrating because everyone doubts you saying, oh, they’re gone. They’re lucky. They rode the wave. Maybe that’s the case, but you don’t win as much as we did without hard work and determination.”

It was going to be a learning curve of a season with Torrence switching to Toyota, but choosing to change directions was a necessary evil. Torrence understood that just because he won four straight titles didn’t mean his team could be complacent and keep bringing the same weapon into battle.

“I think some of the stuff we started with was further off than where we needed to be,” Torrence said. “We refocused midway through the year, which helped get everything going in the right direction. But going so far off in left field initially really showed us some things we needed and helped us get turned in the direction we did. And they were hard-earned, very expensive lessons because these things don’t run on fairy dust. With that being said, it really fine-tuned what we were doing. So, I’m pretty excited (to get started in 2023).”

Torrence doesn’t want to discredit anyone but believes what happened last year was a result of his team taking a step back and not others stepping up as much as it may seem. It was a hard year for Torrence and his crew, a wild goose chase that resulted in tough conversations but also seeing who was sticking around and there for the right reasons. No one left the Torrence team.

“There were times where we all had to sit down and say, ‘What are we doing, boys?’” Torrence said. “Everybody believed in what we were doing. It was hard, but everybody did and we stuck together. That’s the testament of a team — being able to go through the lowest of lows.

“It’s easy for everybody to be happy when you’re winning all the time. Winning covers up a lot of issues or problems that losing or hardships might expose. We pulled together, and that shows the culture we’ve created.”

Part of the disappointment — and surprise for Torrence — was how long it took to turn things around.

“It was hard,” Torrence said. “It was hard just to digest and say, OK, eventually, this is going to work. Nothing comes together that quickly, but we’ve done so well in the past at making changes and adjusting that I probably had unrealistic expectations. And so did all of us that we’ll have it figured out immediately. We didn’t.

“One thing is, you’re not running as much and making as many laps because you’re not winning. You’re not going four rounds on Sunday and getting that information. It was a struggle, and we stayed and tested a couple of times in different places. The direction we trended toward at the end of the season is ultimately where we needed to be and where we need to be now.”

The NHRA kicks off its season this weekend at Gainesville, and Torrence’s is one of many teams who have done testing leading into the weekend. He was eager to get on track and work on what he said were a few small things the team was trying to hone in on.

Torrence’s Top Fuel dragster is notoriously good in hot weather, and he knows there is work to be done for when the weather is cooler. Those conditions are where Torrence feels the competition has gotten better.

“We’re not a four-time champ just because we got lucky, so I look forward to a good test session and getting to start (in Gainesville) where you tested,” said Torrence. “The racing will be really good. I think the competition will be stepping up. This will probably be a better, closer competitive-wise season than last year.”

Force was the dominant car from start to finish last season and won the championship, which was the way it should be, Torrence said. But the chip on his shoulder remains there as Torrence wants to reclaim the crown.

“My back is against the wall and I have something to prove,” Torrence said of 2023. “We’re the champs, and we lost our title, and now it’s our chance to take it back. It’s pretty cool to say that the last six championships have been won by the same two people (Torrence and Force).

“I definitely will be racing with some motivation and that’s good for me.”