NOT AERODYNAMIC, BUT A REAL LOOKER

Driver Tommy D'Aprile, who sits fourth in IHRA Pro Modified points, pilots Mel Bush's fan favorite Bel Air, a car many see as the most non-aerodynamic car on the IHRA trail.

"I bet our performance as of late has a lot of people eating their words," said D'Aprile. "Mel and Joanne have put together a great team and Mike (Janis) and the crew at Jan-Cen Motorsports do a great job in preparing the car. It's a total pleasure to be part of this team and I feel we have good shot at moving up in the points at Milan."

D'Aprile's semi-final finish and string of 6.0-second runs at the recently completed Spring Nationals has team owner Mel Bush excited. "Both my Top Sportsman car and our Pro Mod car receive a lot of attention for their uniqueness, and we love the fans’ reaction to our cars, but there's a different feeling when you start getting noticed for performance. The best part is we feel the car has more in her," said Bush.  (Roger Richards photo) [5/22/2008]

DRAG STATS THROUGH BRISTOL

After compiling the stats after Bristol, DRO statistician Jim Hawkins had to double check one astonishing feat: THREE perfect lights by Mike Edwards so far this season. Mike has always been great on the tree, having a lifetime 54-17 holeshot record, since his start in Pro Stock in 1995. But three perfect lights, not only in one season, but three out of 16 times in eight events! That translates into cutting perfect lights almost 20% of the time this season! 

So if you think he would be ranked #1 in reaction time average, you would be wrong.  Mike is ranked 7th with a .032 average. Why? Partly because he cut a .117 light at Gainesville in the third round, after a perfect light in the second round. This often happens when a driver over-compensates the next round after a perfect light.  The other reason is how tight the average numbers are.  There is only a .01 difference between #1 and #7 ranked drivers.

So, who is cutting the tree down this year and ranked #1? V. Gaines, that's who. V. has had only one light worse than the average of .042 and that was a .044 at ST. Louis. V.'s reaction time average is a .022.

And speaking of lights, what happened in Top Fuel at Atlanta with four holeshot wins? Both fuel classes have somewhere between 12 and 18 holeshot wins a year. Four at one event is a record. There have been a handful of events where three occurred, but never as many as four.

Tim Wilkerson  (Chris Haverly photo)

Finally, while Ashley Force and Melanie Troxel are deservingly getting the Funny Car spotlight this year, stat-wise, though, Tim Wilkerson is getting Hawkins’ DragStats spotlight! Below are Tim's runs from eliminations this year. His slowest mph is a 270.86 at Pomona and his slowest elapsed time was a 5.179 at the horribly prepped Vegas track. How about those consistent apples!