Pritchett repeats her Arizona Top Fuel win
MICHAEL KNIGHT
Leah Pritchett and Brittany Force, for the second consecutive year in the Arizona Nationals, proved the notion of a glass ceiling in drag racing belongs in a women’s history museum with posters supporting the Suffrage movement.
The only glass in Pritchett’s way is in her trophy case.
Pritchett, in Sunday’s repeat of the 2016 Top Fuel class final at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park, defeated Force with another holeshot to start the Mello Yello Series season with stunning back-toback victories from the pole position. That hadn’t happened since 1997. She also won the NHRA season-opener two weeks ago in Pomona, Calif., in her first full season for Don Schumacher Racing.
Matt Hagan did the same in Funny Car, edging Schumacher teammate and reigning champion Ron Capps’ NAPA Dodge. It was the 63rd 10,000-horsepower nitrofuel class “Double” for Schumacher, NHRA’s dominant team owner.
The only thing Schumacher didn’t win during the weekend was a fishing tournament in Costa Rica. He finished 11th out of 52 boats.
It was Pritchett’s better reaction time off the starting line that won her the race as Force actually was quicker and faster. Pritchett’s .028 second starting advantage over Force overcame her Papa John’s dragster’s 3.705 seconds, 328.22 mph 1,000-foot lap vs. Force’s 3.704, 330.39 mph in the Monster Energy rail.
It wasn’t lost on Pritchett, 28, that her first career win was at Wild Horse last February.
“I tried to do the exact same thing every morning I did a year ago,” said Pritchett.
Pritchett admitted she “stumbled a little bit” in a second-round win over Clay Millican, who had the better reaction time. “I caught myself flinching a little on a long Tree (starting light system),” she said. “We had a lucky run, per say.
“It reminded me of what it takes to get into that extreme, severe mindset to do this. I’m trying to keep up with my team and make them proud I’m their driver.”
Schumacher, who got another dose of personal satisfaction in his intense rivalry with John Force, said, “Leah is an amazing young lady. It takes a whole team but I’m not surprised by what she’s doing.”
Hagan, the two-time Funny Car titlist and Virginia cattle farmer, said winning helps him deal with the deaths of his grandfather and brother within a month during the offseason.
“My grandfather was 80-some-years-old so you prepare for that,” he said. “My brother (Kyle) was 33. He went to sleep and never woke back up. It puts it in perspective how every lap matters and every day counts. It’s a healing process for me and lets me feel good about some stuff.”
Hagan’s 3.878, 330.88 mph pass in the Sandvik Dodge beat Capps’ 3.883, 330.88 mph.
The Summit Chevrolet Camaros of Greg Anderson and Jason Line have overpowered their Pro Stock competitors since the class switched to fuelinjected engines last year. But Anderson, who beat Drew Skillman’s Camaro for his 87th career win, says it’s not as easy as it might look to the casual fan.
“You want to have an advantage but any small mistake and you’re going home,” said Anderson, a four-time champion. “I don’t think I had (a round) decided by more than a foot today.”
Anderson’s quartermile pass was 6.547, 211.43 mph to Skillman’s 6.565, 210.50 mph.
John Force, 67, said he’s “too old to be too frustrated.” But after none of his three Funny Cars made it past the second round, the 16-time champion is keeping his team at Wild Horse Monday for testing.
In Round 1, Force’s Peak Camaro lost traction and to Tim Wilkerson. Minutes earlier, daughter Courtney hazed the tires on her Advance Auto Parts Camaro and was defeated by Jim Campbell.
Robert Hight barely kept a Force car on-track for the quarterfinals. His Auto Club Camaro lost traction and he peddled it (on-off-on throttle) to a win over a coming-on-fast Del Worsham. Hight then lost to Tommy Johnson Jr.
“Frustration is part of this job,” said John Force, who has a record eight Wild Horse wins but none since 2005. “When I went up in smoke, did I know my gut-ache started? Yeah ... If I allowed myself to be frustrated, I’d be ateup all the time.”
For a while it looked like the 2017 Arizona Nationals might join 1992 in NHRA lore. That year the Funny Car semifinalists were the four slowest qualifiers.
Unheralded Jim Campbell and Shawn Reed were the semis' eye-wideners Sunday.
Campbell, secondslowest in the field, got past Courtney Force and then J.R. Todd. Campbell lost to Ron Capps. Reed, the No. 12 qualifier in Top Fuel, stunned Doug Kalitta and then Steve Torrence. Pritchett took him out in Round 3.