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Pro Stockings

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"It's a number I've been aiming for," said Coughlin, who has 36 Pro Stock wins and 13 more in the sportsman ranks. "It would mean the world to me to get it at Bandimere Speedway because our two families have become very close over the years and we think so much of the entire Bandimere clan. I'd love to share the moment with them."

There's no reason to think Coughlin can't get it done. His JEGS.com Chevrolet Cobalt has been the best in the class over the last nine races, outscoring class leader Greg Anderson by 86 points since the start of the Houston race in late March.

Coughlin has raced to five finals, three semis, and one quarterfinal over that time frame, winning twice and scoring three runner-up finishes for team owner Victor Cagnazzi. His teammate Dave Connolly has recently raced to three finals and a pair of wins.

"Both the Cagnazzi Racing Cobalts are running strong and we're very excited about that," Coughlin said. "I've managed to climb up to second in the points and really make up some ground on Greg, who had a fabulous start, and Dave's right behind me in third. It's been a great battle so far and it's a real honor to be running well against Greg and the rest of the very, very stout racers in this category.

"We were fortunate enough to win two Pro Stock championships in 2000 and 2002, and they were hard fought to be sure, but I think this year's group might just be the toughest I've ever seen. It makes the privilege of winning a race, any race, extremely special."

NHRA fans know the thin air drivers and crew chiefs will encounter at the 28th annual Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals can be tough to handle, but Coughlin and tuner Roy Simmons know they can lean on the data gleaned from Coughlin's two wins there in 1998 and '99, as well as Connolly's win there in 2006, to help them along.

"No matter what, you know the Bandimeres will have the racetrack in perfect condition," the 37-year-old Coughlin said from his home in Delaware, Ohio. "Yes, it will be hot, and yes the cars will be gasping for air, just like the rest of us, but we all race down the same quarter-mile.

"The way my guys have this car running right now, I know they'll adapt to whatever we face up there. I also know they'd love to share another winner's circle celebration with me and my great friends, the Bandimeres. I can't wait to get started."

A runner-up finish on the Bandimere Speedway track at last year’s NHRA Mopar Mile-High Nationals propelled Line to the No. 1 position in POWERade points, a position he never relinquished fro the remainder of the 2006 season.

While Line’s driving this season, especially his reaction time at the lights, has been placed under the microscope, Line feels that he is turning the corner on that so-called problem.

“I won’t say my driving has won awards but I have been in three finals and I’m currently fourth in points,” said Line as he looked toward the Denver race. “I’ve been on both sides of perfect this season. That is to say, there are times I’ve been late and most recently times I’ve been early. But at least I have experience both and it is now my job to get my reaction time between the two extremes. I am now more comfortable in the car and see good things happening for the remainder of this season.”

Last year Line was the No. 1 qualifier here and holds both the track elapsed time record (7.062 seconds) and top speed record (195.65 mph), both run in 2006.

“We need to get things turned around and soon,” said Anderson, the three-time NHRA POWERade champion (2003-2005). “I have repeatedly said that I would rather be on top and have everybody else chasing me than to be one of the cars that is doing the chasing. That’s where I want to be when the first segment of the Countdown is over. That’s where I want to be when the second and the third segments are over too.

“To do this the driver needs to get back on track and we need to continue the performance advantage this KB Racing Summit Equipment Pontiac has enjoyed through out most of this season. With our performance the last couple of races, several teams have been picking up points. There are a lot of good cars breathing down my neck and I need to open the gap again starting right here at Denver and carrying on through the remainder of the Western Swing.”

Anderson has won half of the races in the 12 events run thus far. At Bandimere Speedway, he has one win, that coming in 2004.

After 12 events, Anderson leads the NHRA POWERade Pro Stock standings with 1,029 points, which also puts him in the lead for the first segment – Countdown to Eight – of the Countdown to the Championship. Jeg Coughlin is second, just 86 points behind. Coughlin’s teammate Dave Connolly is third, 178 back. Anderson’s KB Racing teammate and reigning NHRA POWERade Pro Stock champion Jason Line is fourth, 312 points behind the leader.

Koretsky put on an individual clinic by producing near-perfect reaction times and coming mille-seconds from winning the first NHRA Pro Stock event of his 30-plus year career. “I had a lot of people call to congratulate me Monday and Tuesday,” said Koretsky. “All the responses made me feel good. It was great getting to the finals, but I really want to win a race.”

That’s the goal of Greg Hill’s Indicom Electric/Nitro Fish Chevy Cobalt team this weekend in the oxygen-starved air of Denver.

Koretsky , whose first title round appearance was at Indianapolis in 2004, came within nine inches (0.0024 seconds) of his coveted first race victory in just his second career title round. His final hole-shot of the day – 0.013 to 0.041 – against Jeg Coughlin kept the Richboro, Pa., driver in the lead until the finish line.

Koretsky, who used a 0.001 reaction to upset Greg Anderson in the first round, came back with a 0.033 (his slowest of the day) in a win over Larry Morgan and a 0.006 leave to upset Dave Connolly in the semifinals. “I heard that my total was the best race-day reaction-time average ever. My average was 0.013 and there haven’t been any under .025. That’s pretty impressive.

“We need to get in the field solidly at Denver and then run well on race day.”

“Last year, we qualified second, just one-thousandth of a second out of the number one qualifying position,” Johnson explained. “Then, as it turned out, we were eliminated in the first round. It was disappointing, but I figure this year will be a good time to make up for that lost opportunity last year.”

Despite the early departure from last year’s competition, Johnson still felt the great qualifying run gave him tremendous momentum for the rest of the year.

Johnson said, “It was at the Mile-high Nationals last year that began our run of eight straight semis. This year, if we can get a victory here, it might start that kind of run too.”

For those kind of results, it’s going to take a high level of consistency and it’s here where Johnson feels his team has it all together. “Everything has been gelling lately and we’ve had a strong car that has been performing very well,” Johnson said. “My own start times have been at the top of the drivers’ standings most of the year, so if you put both of them together, that’s a strong combination.”

He concluded, “We’re going to need all of that technical skill and power as the Pro Stock category gets harder and harder to win every year. This year, there are always at least six to eight cars that are capable of winning every week. That’s bad for us, but it’s great for the fans. When we win, we’ll know we really earned it.”

He explained, “With the extreme altitude we’re competing at, there’s no track that compares to this one. It’s a big challenge for our crew as we have to change the rear end, fuel system, timing, etc. And once we get that straightened out, there are more challenges once we get out on the track.”

Stevens continued, “This track is a lot slower than the other ones we race on. I know that sounds funny considering we’re still going 180 mph, but compared to the 200 we usually go, it’s a big difference. The hardest thing for a driver is that the shift points change. You have to be patient and wait a little longer before you shift. If you get it wrong, it can knock all the breadth out of the engine. It’s the same thing a person might feel if they try to run at a high altitude without being used to it. Bandimere is a real driver’s course that puts a lot more pressure on us to perform.”

There’s another reason he feels a little more pressure at this upcoming race. “This is a Mopar-sponsored event and being a Mopar driver, I always want to do especially well in front of the fans here,” Stevens said. “When we tested here earlier this year, we had the quickest car out here. Hopefully we can find that same speed this weekend and win one for our team and our Mopar sponsors.”

However, those responsible for tuning the naturally aspirated Pro Stock Cars for this weekend’s Mile-High Nationals will have little time to enjoy the scenery, as they will be working furiously to overcome the lack of power-producing oxygen. With two wins in his previous 14 appearances on the mountain, ACDelco Cobalt racer Kurt Johnson knows that success this weekend will depend on his team’s abilities to adapt to these trying conditions, and comes into this event determined to deliver.

“Racing in Denver presents a challenge unto itself, especially in Pro Stock,” said Johnson. “The thin Colorado air robs our naturally-aspirated engines of horsepower, so we have to compensate as best we can. We’ll be making major changes to our ACDelco Cobalt throughout the weekend, from gear ratios, carburetors to just about everything else. To give you an idea of what we’re up against, the elapsed times we’ll be running this weekend will be comparable to what we ran at other tracks in the late 80’s.

“Fortunately, between Dad (five-time Denver winner Warren) and myself, we’ve done pretty well at Bandimere, gathering a lot of valuable tuning data, so I guess we’ll be hitting the books pretty hard, seeing what we’ve done in the past before the first qualifying session on Friday. Besides, we ran pretty well in 4000-foot air in Bristol last week, so we’re pretty excited heading into this weekend.”

This race also marks the beginning of the traditional “Western Swing”, with three races in as many weekends in locations ranging from Denver , CO , and Seattle , WA to Sonoma , CA . A difficult challenge on its own, it takes on added significance this year for two reasons. Due to the rescheduled Bristol event, these three races will mark the second half of a grueling six-week period where the NHRA will compete on consecutive weekends.

In addition, with only five races before the start of the second segment of the newly installed Countdown to the Championship, teams will be battling to make sure they are among the top eight heading into the prestigious U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis , IN. Not surprisingly, the Johnson-led crew will limit their focus to the immediate task at hand, as they look to use the Colorado race as a mid-season springboard.

“We’re not going to worry about things we can’t control, such as how many races we have until the Countdown, or how many consecutive weekends we’re racing on - our minds are only so big, so we only pack in what we really need,” quipped Johnson. “Just as we do every week, this ACDelco Cobalt crew is going to concentrate on this race, taking it one step at a time, starting with Q1 on Friday. After all, whether we’re first or sixth in the points or racing at sea-level or 5,800 feet, the object of this game remains the same – to reach the finish line first. The way we see it, if we do that four times on Sunday, everything else will take care of itself.”

Others are of a more cerebral origin, coming from years of experience and an extensive knowledge of both the car and track. However, there is one key resource employed by virtually every competitor that most fans use on a regular basis – a video camera. This visual reference provides a link between the computer data and the team’s observations, a confirmation to assist with deciding what direction any adjustments will take.

As one of the first among the “factory hot rods” to implement this tactic, Warren Johnson and the GM Performance Parts GTO Racing team have come to rely heavily on what they see in each run’s tape, watching each one in ultra slow-motion, frequently pausing and rewinding critical segments before deciding what course to take. Entering this weekend’s Mile-High Nationals in Denver , CO , Johnson hopes this week’s cinematography leads to an award-winning performance, namely, his 97th career national event win.

“Videotaping has proven itself to be a key tuning tool,” said Johnson. “After all, you can’t see or feel everything inside the car, and having a tape of the run provides irrefutable evidence, unless of course, someone has their finger on the lens, which is usually the case on a really bad run.

“But, seriously, we’ve been taping runs since the 70’s, adding the side angle about ten years ago, giving us all the angles we need given the time between rounds. At the very least, it is a backup in case of a computer failure, while under normal circumstances, it allows us to verify what the computer is telling us, since the data logger can be influenced by outside factors. After all, to make the best tuning decisions, you have to have as much information as possible, and the video camera gives us its share of valuable data. Hopefully, we’ll put it to good use this weekend in Denver .”

This weekend the world’s best quarter-milers will head to one of the most picturesque stops on the circuit, Bandimere Speedway. Carved into the side of the Rockies in the Denver suburb of Morrison, this family-run facility is a favorite among fans and competitors. However, located at an oxygen-starved altitude of over 5,800 feet, it will send Pro Stock crew chiefs scrambling to adjust for the drastic drop in horsepower.

This weekend’s event marks WJ’s 24th appearance “on the mountain”, and, with five wins in 10 final round appearances, he is well versed on what it takes to succeed there. With the races in the first segment of this year’s Countdown to the Championship dwindling down, the Johnson-led crew knows a strong showing is vital to their championship chances, and look to use this race as the starting block for a surge in the standings.

“Having cut my teeth racing in Denver, Pueblo, Castle Rock and Continental Divide in the 70’s and 80’s, the altitude we’ll see this weekend is not quite as daunting to us as it is to others,” said Johnson. “We’ve gathered a lot of data during that time, which gives us a bit of a head start.

“We’ve always enjoyed racing at Bandimere Speedway. Much like the Norwalk facility we competed on two weeks ago, the Bandimere family does an outstanding job of maintaining the facility. Other than the fact that we go so slow that we have to keep the safety belts tight to prevent our heads from hitting the dashboard when we let the clutch out, it’s one our of favorite places to race.

“Since we’ll be running about a half second and ten miles per hour slower than normal, we’ll have to get acclimated quickly, making the necessary engine, transmission and chassis changes to our GM Performance Parts GTO to maximize our performance. We’ve been fortunate to do well in Denver over the years, which is a trend we look to continue this weekend.”

"This is the best direction for our team," said Hammonds. "Obviously it would be nice to continue to keep running the season and running the races, but we have bigger fish to fry, so to speak. We have a brand-new race shop we have to get finished, and we could continue to keep running up and down the track, and across the countryside on the NHRA POWERade circuit, but you know, at the end of the West Coast swing we'd be in the same position. We wouldn't have our shop totally functional and we wouldn't have our dyno totally functional.

"I sat down with Jimmy Oliver, Harry Turner and Jerry Eckman, and we came up with what we feel is the best plan, and that is taking one step back so that we can take two or three steps forward. That's what we're doing now. We also consulted with Fred Simmonds at GM Racing and he agreed that this was the best thing for us to do. We've come back to Holt, Fla., with the goal of getting our shop and dyno totally functional so that we will have a chance to compete at a high level."

Hammonds' plan now is to return to competition at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals in Brainerd, Minn., on Aug. 9 - 12, and although he won't be racing at Seattle or Sonoma, Hammonds plans to attends one, or maybe both races because of some partnership opportunities he is pursuing.

"Minnesota has always been a lot of fun for me," said Hammonds. "I spent a lot of time there with the Timberwolves and that's where we are targeting our return to the racetrack.

"This was something that I had thought of even before the Bristol race came about, and I felt it made more sense to regroup and get our shop functional before we went back out. We're at a disadvantage not knowing which engine is our best engine, and I think we might have had an engine problem at Bristol, but without a working dyno and not knowing what we were going to put back in our Chevrolet Cobalt, there was a level of doubt. It made more sense for us to get our dyno running, give Jimmy more time to spend on our engines and a chance to have a home for our race team."

Last September at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, Hammonds announced his return to NHRA Pro Stock Drag Racing. He entered the ACDelco Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla., in March and qualified his Chevy Cobalt 15th in the field, rolling to a career-best e.t. and speed of 6.631 seconds at 209.17 mph. Since then, Hammonds has qualified at seven of the 10 races he's entered with a season-best No. 5 qualifying effort at Norwalk (Ohio).

"When a team steps back, people perceive that they are quitting," said Hammonds. "We are not doing that. We have a lot of things going on and just keeping the shop up and running is so time consuming. We had our equipment delivered last week and we're as excited as a kid on Christmas Day. Looking at the new equipment and a lot of the things we have to put together, we knew that this was going to be a learning year for us. Our goal was to have a chance to win some races, which I think is still attainable, and to put together a top-notch program able to contend for that final eight in 2008.

"I believe that when we do come back we'll be better than before. Having our dyno up and running so that we can see and make adjustments, and do a little bit of research and development, that will make us better. When we qualified No. 5 at Norwalk that showed that it was there, but we have to fine-tune it a little bit and keep working hard. I love to compete and getting out there against the best racers in the world is something I love to do, but I think this is the right time to do what we need to do as far as getting our shop completely functional. That way we can continue to be successful."