BILL STEPHENS “IN THE GROOVE” 9/28/09

I think Robert and Jimmy are onto something.

That team sure looked like its old self in Dallas this weekend. Three finals in a row, two straight wins and the Funny Car points lead—for the first time this year. And they won from the No. 1 qualifying spot—a real rarity these days. It wasn’t that long ago that John was scrambling up crew chiefs, switching cars, causing a stir with his testing sessions, and looking for answers to why Robert was struggling to the point where he nearly missed the Countdown to 1.

And now Robert is clearly the driver to beat for this year’s Full Throttle championship. I guess John knew what he was doing……

It’s really amazing how the fates and fortunes in Funny Car can ebb and flow without any predictable pattern. Examples? How about last year when Cruz Pedregon won the championship when Tim Wilkerson was stringing together rounds wins and national event titles all season. Tim’s misfortune in hitting some rough outings in the Countdown to 1 opened the door for Cruz, but who amongst us would have predicted at the midway point of the 2008 season that Cruz would win the ’08 championship?

Another example?

John is still winless in 2009 and you’d have to go back over 20 years to find the last season in which he finished up without a victory. But, before anyone starts hitting the panic button, all it will take is one strong outing to give him a win this season and, let’s face it, it’s not like he’s forgotten everything he’s ever learned in his four decades of racing and 14 NHRA championships.

I know I’ve mentioned this in previous columns but I’ll repeat it here since it applies so directly to this topic of Funny Car fickleness.

Ron Capps made his Funny Car debut in 1997, racing for Don “The Snake” Prudhomme and working with talented veteran tuner Tom Anderson. Ron has worked with a series of outstanding tuners during his career: Roland Leong, Mike Green. Todd Okuhara, and now Ed “The Ace” McCulloch—and yet that first championship continues to elude him. That’s 13 years of solid, experienced drag racing for one of the sport’s most likable drivers, and that first title keeps escaping him.

I know John has an enormous amount of respect for Ron and the feeling is mutual. I’m sure nobody at JFR is going to root for Ron to win the championship this (or any other) year, but I know that if for some reason, no driver at JFR had a shot at the title, seeing Ron finally achieve that first championship wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.

But for now, I think we can all agree that seeing a JFR Ford Mustang roll into the 2009 Full Throttle Championship Spotlight would be just about the greatest way to end this season as can be imagined. It would certainly being closure to the past several seasons which have been such an emotional strain on the team. Yes, there have been many high points: Ashley’s historic first win, her marriage to Danny Hood, all of the exciting media appearances for JFR, including Ashley’s guest shot on Jay Leno’s late-night show, and many more.

But it’s been since 2006 that Yorba Linda has celebrated a F/C title when John won No. 14. That’s way too long for a team this great so let’s see if Robert (or any of the other three JFR squads) can put an end to this drought and go the distance in 2009.

Four more races in the Countdown to 1 will decide that championship and the next stop in Memphis next weekend for the Mid-South Nationals. I’ll be in St. Charles, Illinois providing expert commentary on the next Mecum Muscle Car Auction for Discovery HD Theater but you can be sure I’ll be keeping close tabs on everything that will be unfolding at Memphis Motorsports Park on Friday Saturday, and Sunday.

Check back after the race. Drive safely and enjoy this weekend’s action at MMR!