JANIS HAS THE 30-CENT BLUES
For Mike Janis to have any chance of winning the IHRA World Championship he needed to re-set the IHRA elapsed time record at quicker than 5.938-seconds and earn the 20 bonus points for setting a record. On his final qualifying attempt the supercharged, Hemi-powered Cobalt left hard, posting incremental times of: 60ft-0.998 sec., 330ft-2.61, 660ft-3.900, 1,000ft-4.99.(In comparison the incremental times for current record Scott Cannon’s record was:60ft-0.996 sec., 330ft-2.611, 660ft-3.902, 1,000ft-5.008.)
Janis appeared to be on a record when without warning his Cobalt nosed over past the 1,000-foot lights, rolling to a 6.00 elapsed time at just 210mph. The culprit was a broken fuel shut off valve.
"A thirty cent part," exclaimed Mike Jr. "We would've had the record and the Last Man Standing bonus if not for a thirty cent part!"
THOMAS MOVES PAST SCOTTY CANNON, CLAY MILLICAN
Mark Thomas, who finished the season 15 points ahead of World Finals winner Rob Atchison, relished his seventh series championship that makes him the leader in IHRA World Championships.
“I love Rockingham,” he said after the race. “I was tied with Scotty Cannon and Clay Millican (before the race) and it’s wonderful to be able to get that No. 7. It all worked out.”
“If I had a chance to race against Mark in an early round I thought I had a chance,” Atchison said, “but he landed on the other side of the ladder. Racing Mark in the final meant that we won the battle, but not the war.”
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SMITH HAS NEW CAR WOES
Nitro Funny Car driver Mike Smith endured a rough weekend at the IHRA World Finals. Mechanical problems limited Smith to just one qualifying attempt and he was unable to break into the eight-car field in the National Tire & Battery Funny Car.
"We had some fuel management problems during the warm up (Friday night)," Smith said. "We got a hold of some bad nitromethane and it ate up one of the bottom end fuel hoses."
The team made repairs and rolled to the starting line Saturday afternoon to make their first qualifying attempt. The NTB Funny Car left the starting line hard but dropped a cylinder early in the run. At the top end the car erupted into flames, but Smith expertly brought the car safely to a stop and escaped unharmed and unqualified.
"… I slide it to a stop in the shutdown area and the IHRA Track Safety team was right on me,” Smith said later. “They did a great job of quickly putting the fire out and limiting the damage. I want to give them credit for a tremendous effort and thank God for the safety equipment."