|
 TeamTalk
August 26, 2008
To say the
U.S. Nationals is the biggest race of the year is an understatement.
The U.S. Nationals is the biggest race of a drag racer's career.
There is a mystique about this race and the hollowed ground on which
we walk at ORP. It seems everybody has his or her specific memories
of “The Big Go.” It could be the Mongoose and Snake, Garlits shaving
his beard after beating James Warren or my personal favorite Abbott
over Pace in 1981. Okay, I was a little biased on that one. What it
all really comes down to is the passion and pursuit to be among the
elite of our particular profession. I honestly feel this Matco Tools
Top Fuel team has a huge opportunity to knock off the defending
event champion and set up what could be an incredible run for the
series title.
After the
introduction of 1000-foot racing, our focus has been on getting our
dragster to run quicker early. When you look at our performance on
the quarter mile our car really accelerated hard after half track
and that really worked to our advantage. Unfortunately for us, we
can’t win shortened races with that strategy, and as a result this
summer has become a test session for our Matco team. Lee Beard and
crew have worked tirelessly to find that early performance needed to
win at the shortened distance and with our recent time slips you
will see the fruit of that labor with consistent .840-.850 60-foot
clockings. Believe me when I say the Army team notices that we are
approaching the territory they have dominated for the past five
years. In a way the shorter track has played in to the hands of a
few hot rods and that has really made itself apparent all summer
long. We are still in second place and have completely changed our
racing strategy, which is a feat in itself.
The U.S.
Nationals, for a crew guy, is the busiest two weeks of the year and
we never leave the state. With the extra attention from the media
and our sponsors there is a need to pay extra close attention to our
operation being in tip-top shape. We will spend days here at the
shop cleaning, waxing and polishing everything and anything. Lee
Beard has always had a reputation for having the cleanest show in
racing and this group isn’t going to be the exception to that rule.
In fact, I will throw out the fact we all have the same philosophy.
If you ever get a chance to come by the DPM facility in Brownsburg
and venture to the back parking lot you will see a compulsive
mentality reflected in each of our own car as well. I believe that
mindset has been a direct reflection to our success this year. Lee’s
famous pep talks end with the “pay attention to the details” each
time.
In conclusion
I would like brag a little bit about how far Antron Brown has come
along as a driver this year. Stats don’t lie and he has become one
of the truly elite drivers in Top Fuel. Whether or not you look at
reaction times, keeping the car in the grove, or even pedaling the
race car when needed, he has done it all. And at an exceptional
pace! You should see this guy’s work ethic here at the shop. He’s no
different then any other guy on the team. He brings his “A” game
everyday and will practice for hours on end here at our shop to
perfect the art of the starting line advantage. This season is far
from over Sarge!
I’ll see you at the drags!
February 18, 2008
Hello Again. Lets get back on the road.
We
begin our travels to Phoenix for the National Time Trials at
Firebird Raceway in Chandler, Ariz. This is where we get the sneak
peak at all the changes that happened over the off season like paint
schemes, mechanical innovations, and of course personnel changes.
NHRA Drag Racing is like a big fraternity and you become close to
all of your peers. This last year was one of the biggest shuffling
of crew guys in recent memory and yours truly was part of the free
agent market. LOL
Everybody has a goal each year to improve over the previous year so
we dig real deep to make an impression during testing to give us
momentum for Pomona. We started off Friday making one pass in last
season’s standard chassis and we had impressive early numbers with a
.830 60-foot clocking. On Saturday, our objective was to get Antron
his license. We needed to make two full passes down the 1320. Lee
was confident about tuning Antron to a couple of mid-4.50 passes and
we succeeded with two beautiful runs. Antron made it official by
clocking a 4.56 at 296 mph. You know that feeling you had when you
turned 16 and got that freedom ticket? Multiply that times ten and
your living a lifetime dream of being a competitive Top Fuel racer.
After we accomplished our first set of goals we now needed to find
our race car’s potential. We decided to run last year’s car for
consistency to get Antron some seat time, while the CAT team ran the
new and unproven 2008 chassis. Well, the Cat team proved that the
big tube car has no problem running quick and fast. As a result of
Rob Flynn’s decision to run the big tube car out of the box,
resulting in the 4.468-
second pass to lead testing. Lee Beard had no hesitation in telling
us to pull out our new car and get to business. When it was all said
and done, we finished with a 4.48 at 309 run shutting off early. A
few of us went out that night to celebrate and what better place
then Scottsdale. There was a little event called the Superbowl going
on that following weekend, so we headed on in for some pre-game
excitement. We had dinner at Don and Charlie’s and were only a few
tables away from former All Pro Tight End Shannon Sharpe. The NFL
Buzz was huge but still no nitro. Lets go to Pomona.
We
all had the weekend off before Pomona for a little R&R, but I can’t
lie, I still was at the race track, The Strip at Las Vegas Motor
Speedway. They had the there own Superbowl going on, “The Superbowl
of Pro Stock.” The boys were flying and 6.60s were very common in
the cool desert air. I
was there with some very good friends of mine, the Shields family.
They had two cars in the pits. Duane Shield was testing his new Brad
Hadman A/Fuel dragster that ended up winning the Winternationals,
and his daughter, Whitney, with her Super Comp dragster. Whitney was
entered in the bracket race and fared well for her first official
race. I just can’t get enough drag racing. After the tire smoked
cleared we all enjoyed a great Superbowl Sunday, and from the update
I got that night the Beard residence was the hot spot to watch the
game back in Indy.
We
all arrived in Phoenix on Tuesday morning to drive to Pomona and I
cant begin to tell you how pumped up everyone was to get to the
track and fire the car up. But even with that said, Lee led us on a
little side adventure to Newport Beach and the world famous Crab
Cooker. If you ever get a chance and enjoy seafood this place is a
must. Just ask “Lil John” Benshoof. Benshoof enjoyed his first taste
of lobster and a little ocean breeze, a far cry from the freezing
temps in his home state of Minnesota.
After setting up our operation and dealing with all of the media
attention over the weekend, it was time to produce. Antron did just
that soaring the Iron Eagle to a 4.56 E.T. which placed us 10th
after the first day of qualifying. We knew we had a conservative
set, but all-and-all we were very satisfied. On Friday morning our
goal was to get after it early and boy did we with a pole position
4.495 at 330 mph pass that stood until race day. I
really had to pinch myself a little. Here we are in Pomona with a
newly assembled team and driver in NHRA’s premier class sitting on
the pole, wow! The Matco Tools Top Fuel dragster was race ready on
Sunday and we had the car to beat. The stars and stripes fell from
the sky Sunday morning and the Nitro appeared. I’ve been out here my
whole life and it still gives me chills. We had to race the European
Champ first round and even though he struggled a bit in qualifying
we knew he was very capable with Wayne Dupuy tuning. Urs Erbacher
gave us a fight but A-Bomb took the stripe first with a blistering
4.51 burst. Second round was going to be very hard. You never
overlook Cory Mac, and he proved his worth as the 29-time race
winner took the win with a 4.53 to our early tire smoking exit. We
can take a lot out of our first race together and we leave number
five in the points. With that said, Lee Beard and his “Jabrones” are
more the ready for Phoenix.
Till the flames start droppin and nitro quits poppin.
Christopher
January 16, 2008
Hi. My name is Christopher Abbott. Most people around the shop, like
Lee, just call me Abbott. I’m not sure if even half the people
around here know my first name. I’m the grandson of 1981 U.S.
Nationals winner Johnny Abbott.
I
joined the Matco Tools team in mid-December after a three-year
tenure with Don Prudhomme Racing on the Skoal Racing Funny Car team
where I built short blocks and serviced the bottom end for TJ’s
ride. It feels good to be back on a long car again and we have high
expectations for the ’08 season. I’ve always been a Top Fuel guy
first after working with Joe Amato Racing. Now I’m living another
dream getting to work with Lee Beard.
A
week after I arrived here at DPM, we left for testing in
Gainesville, Fla. It was fun to fill my nitro fix just a month after
the Pomona Finals. For us nitro addicts, you can never get enough.
The weather was cold, but the team was hot from the get-go. We have
a great group of guys with a lot of experience. We were able to
squeeze out four runs on our final day of testing like we had been
working together for years. The highlight of testing were Antron’s
great .040 and .050 reaction times. That gets us crew guys pumped
up.
After the test, it was nice to have 10 days off for the holiday
break. I drove back to Florida in “Rufus” to spend time with my
daughter Presilee. She’s 18 months and lives with her mom Karrie in
Orlando. “Rufus” is my eco-rod; an ’07 Toyota Yaris. It gets 43 mpg
on the highway. So, I can drive to Orlando and back, 1,000 miles
door-to-door, on five tanks of gas. The weather in Florida spoiled
me and it’s always hard to come back to Indy knowing there’s snow
waiting.
When we got back to the shop on Jan. 2, 2008, each team had a new
car from Hadman waiting for us with the bigger frame rails. Our
teams were able to hammer out brand new cars, plumbed, in two days.
“Red,” Wayne Waite, another newbie to the DPM camp, and I changed
our motor combination for the 90-percent rule which we hope will
help the parts atrocity. “Red” came over from Herbert’s team after
last season.
A
number of us at DPM are into physical fitness and to my advantage,
my roommate Ted, who Antron calls upper management, likes to get up
at 5 a.m. every morning to lift weights. He’s got me up early
hitting the weight and doing 30 minutes of cardio. It’s been a step
up from my training last year. Last year’s going was to get lean,
now my goal is to build mass. We’ve also become quite the culinary
artists thanks to Men’s Health magazine. We’ve been doing a
lot of cooking and it doesn’t taste bad. I even think Beard would
approve. We’ve cooked everything from steak to chicken to salmon to
a frittata to stuffed peppers with an occasional delivery from
Monical’s Pizza.
I
have an appreciation for fine arts and enjoy drawing, so Beard gave
me the responsibility of being the team’s graphic/decal bitch. I’ve
been decaling belly pans and mud flaps and engine panels, which for
a perfectionist can be a long and grueling task. Now I’m
re-organizing our decal inventory. So if you see a decal out of
place on the car, make sure you bust my balls.
Last week, a group of us from both the CAT and Matco team got
together to let Antron and Andrew Hines whip our butts on the
go-kart track at Fast Times. I think those guys would be fast on six
wheels. Two wheels, four wheels, it doesn’t matter. We had a great
time. My quickest lap was 25.3, which is 1.5 seconds off Antron’s
pace. Like Allen Iverson says, I need to practice. We’re talkin’
bout practice! We’re going to make a monthly event of it, so I plan
on being quicker next time.
We
leave Tuesday morning for testing in Phoenix with two goals in mind.
First, to get Antron his Top Fuel license. He needs to make two full
passes. Second is to get a baseline tune-up for our 90-percent rule
so we can hit it hard at Pomona and start off on a good note. With
the quality personnel we have here, it shouldn’t be an issue.
That’s all I’ve got for my first blog entry of 2008. I look forward
to keeping you all updated from the road every few weeks. We’ll make
sure to keep the stories toned down, but entertaining. I don’t have
a catchy sign-off like Antron says on his NHRA.com blog with Love,
Peace and Hair Grease. I’ll work on it this year though.
See ya, bye.
Abbott |
