One hundred and sixty-six drag racing professionals earned NHRA Full Throttle points in the 2011 season. Only 12 remained in championship contention for the final race of the season.
This group became heroes of the drag racing wars, the Dirty Dozen grasping tightly to their mathematical chance of snatching one of the three undecided championships.
This was their day at the Auto Club of Southern California finals.
ESPN featured the six in Funny Cars, four in Top Fuel, and two in Pro Stock Motorcycle for their promos leading to the broadcast of Sunday’s racing. Lead announcer Paul Page noted the group this large was “unprecedented ... in a fight for the championships.”
Pro Stock Motorcycle finished its suspense early, in the quarterfinals, as Eddie Krawiec tallied his second championship for his Screamin’ Eagle Harley-Davidson. ESPN “Statman” Lewis Bloom dug up the fact “in 25 years of Pro Stock Motorcycles, Vance & Hines has won eight of them.”
Hector Arana Jr., racing his Lucas Oil Buell, maintained a cool attitude all day, fighting Krawiec in the semifinals, though the championship – a longshot for him – had already been lost. “I expected them to win,” he conceded.
The tension among the nitro racers was palpable, though it seemed an unspoken rule early in the day that a driver wouldn’t mention such a notion. Spencer Massey maintained his breezy, happy way (“Just have fun”) in the races leading to the peak round of the season, the semifinals.
At that moment, this lap deciding the championship, the Fram team raced Del Worsham’s Al-Anabi dragster yet again.
In the previous two events finals, the broadcast reported these two had been the highlight of the group, with a total of only 35 inches separating them at the finish line.
Before their race, though, was one of the more entertaining exchanges between Page and color announcer Mike Dunn.
The day’s countdown was devoid of the now famous “Do-or-Dunn” label. The line was used throughout the season to eliminate drivers ranked on the screen who were not going to win the title. They were too far behind in points, falling below the doomed mark.
Instead, on this final day of racing, the broadcast tracked the teams until the mathematical odds to winning were exhausted; then they checked them off the list one by one.
In Top Fuel, all four contenders made it to the second round, though the day’s luckiest break landed in Larry Dixon’s Al-Anabi dragster lane in the opening run. Dixon’s dragster shockingly stopped suddenly right after its launch for a sure loss. Yet Keith Murt “red lights and throws it away,” was Page’s call. “Talk about luck.”
Dixon’s good fortune altered the outcomes of the day in the class like a player making a foolish draw at blackjack – yet winning – and in doing so, costing the next seat their perfect card.
Dramatically, Dixon rises out of the seat and throws his arms up in victory right in front of the cheering stands. He gushed for the cameras, “I don’t care as long as that win light comes on.”
So instead of racing Murt in the second round, Antron Brown’s Matco Tools dragster was facing Dixon, who had out-qualified him. Dave Rieff reported, “(Regardless, the team) thinks Antron has a good race car.”
But not quite good enough. In yet another of the day’s terrific exciting side-by-side races (Page called, “Oh, wow, Larry Dixon!), the Al-Anabi dragster edged Brown’s head-start by 23 inches.
The broadcast had earlier promos highlighting the opportunity of Brown becoming the first black drag racer to win a Full Throttle championship. However, he became the first potential champion in the class eliminated from the competition.
If lady luck had missed Dixon in that first round, and Brown raced Murt in the quarterfinals and won – a likely outcome – then his chance to set that historic mark in drag racing history would have remained alive.
But it didn’t . ...
Reporter John Kernan talked with Brown, who admitted with understatement the loss “Hurts a little bit because I wanted to win for all those behind me.” He meant the team and sponsors, but perhaps more subtlety, African-Americans.
So Dixon faces Tony Schumacher’s Army entry in the semifinals leading Page to point out Dixon is still in the hunt for the championships if he wins and sets a new elapsed-time record.
“Дестабилизировали to happen,” Dunn quickly added.
What followed was an exchange that was a juxtaposition of Page’s hope and optimism about a possible record continuing Dixon’s quest countered against the brutal reality explained by Dunn: “Conditions won’t allow that.”
Page yielded, “It is over for Dixon as Schumacher has the win,” rendering the conversation moot anyway, but it was good television to watch and hear their banter leading up to the lap.
So in what became the championship lap, Worsham snatched the win by only two feet. Reporter John Kernan revealed Massey talks to his car during a race lap, win or lose. One wonders what version of “giddyup” he might have used to push back in front.
Reporter Gary Gerould explained, “Del thought he had lost; it was that close.” Worsham added that after crossing the finish line, “The emotions were unbelievable coasting down there.”
Team manager Alan Johnson offered his view, “This has probably been the most competitive year ever for Top Fuel.”
For his part, Massey dusted off his favorite adage once again. “Sometimes it’s a drag, sometimes it’s a race. (Today) we had the drag end of it.”
“These guys have been going at it all year. It was a great race,” noted Page. As Bloom reported, “The last champion other than Schumacher and Dixon was (Kenny) Bernstein in 2001.”
Matt Hagan and his Diehard Dodge Charger’s loss at the 2010 finals was replayed multiple times, along with the images afterward of the driver sitting well away from others, oblivious to any cameras trained on him, mumbling his misery to no one in particular.
With that experience behind him, Hagan seemed on a mission: “There’s a lot on the line,” he said. Facing Jon Capps’ Biesenbach Dodge in the opening round, Hagan was all business. “He’s been doing this a long time; it isn’t his first rodeo.”
Snap-on Toyota driver, Cruz Pedregon, answered a question by Gerould on the pressure felt in this daylong quest for the championship: “Too much tension. These first-round wins are tough.” Drivers were beginning to come clean on the load this race placed on them.
There were tractor-trailers filled with emotional hurt from this event. For example, Mike Neff and his Castrol GTX Mustang were eliminated in the second round after having a huge points lead during the regular season. “To lead the points all year not be able to perform when we need to … it hurts. (Today) it shot a spark plug out, (but I) had the time of my life this year.”
Funny Car veteran Melanie Troxel experienced a wild “frightening moment,” as the broadcast called it. Obviously distraught she explained, “The fuel was shut off, and the car fired back up” as the In-N-Out Toyota was pushed off the track at the top end.
Crashing through the inflated billboards that line the track, ramming a parked Sportsman trailer in a shocking display of raw power unleashed, the dumfounded Troxel expressed relief no one was injured. The broadcasters could not remember ever witnessing an incident like this.
Hagan won his first championship when he eliminated Pedregon. That one lap in the semifinals for the Funny Car class decided the outcome, a “fight to the line again,” said Page.
Going down on his knees out of the car Hagan exclaims, “You don’t want that bad taste in your mouth” like the loss in 2010. Schumacher was with him earlier yelling for his friend, “Awesome, awesome.”
The broadcast featured photos of then racer, now starter, Rick Stewart – the “greatest gesturer in the world” quipped Page – on this final day commanding his empire, the start line.
The closing image was as he kissed farewell the starter pad held in his hand at every race ... and then walked away.
Out of sadness and misery, though, comes a new tomorrow with drag racers like Pedregon brightly reflected, “I’m really optimistic about next year.”
“These teams are a joy to cover,” said Page reflectively closing the broadcast season.
Brown in his uplifting style offered hope and a key reminder for all racers who did not win a championship in 2011: “(The) cool part is after this race ... all the points go to zero.”
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