NHRA Quotes from Seattle
The NHRA visited a very soggy Pacific Raceways, near Seattle, WA, July 20-22, for the 20th annual Schuck’s Auto Supply Nationals. Rain washed away both of Friday’s qualifying rounds, along with almost all of the final session on Saturday, so the field was set primarily based on a single shot by most racers down the quarter-mile strip. A little-used NHRA rule, however, guarantees the top-10 in current points a starting position if only one round of qualifying is completed, so a few drivers who would’ve been racing based on their qualifying times were bumped in favor of the top-10 points getters.
After a brief rain delay Sunday morning, Mother Nature cooperated long enough for the race to be completed with Jack Beckman repeating his success from a week earlier in Funny Car, Tony Schumacher getting the win in Top Fuel, and Dave Connolly coming out on top in Pro Stock. And as always, the whole story can be learned through racer quotes taken from NHRA and team press releases.
"I can't believe we finished the whole race today. They gave us a safe race track to run on. You look at the times (for all four cars) in the semis: 4.78, .79, .80 and .82. So, the race track was as good in the semis and the finals as it was all weekend long. And it's amazing. It's just starting to sink in right now. I got my second Funny Car Wally in a row, third in the last 15 races.” — Jack Beckman keeping the stats after outrunning a resurgent John Force in the final round at Seattle
"I don't think anybody likes only having one run, not just for the fact that we just came off of racing a mile high in Denver and we're going to a sea-level track with totally different
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"I used to worry about it a lot and hanging out with Ace and all these veterans you learn you can't control Mother Nature, so you just kind of wait it out.” — Ron Capps after qualifying 7th, on having data from only one qualifying pass to tune from
"When they came up with that rule a few years back, it seemed like a good idea, but there were really only about 13 or 14 really good teams on the full tour then. Now, with 19 really good teams on the full tour, it seems a little odd to bump those three guys out of the field, but that's the rule and we all know it.” — Del Worsham commenting on Gary Densham, Tim Wilkerson and Jerry Toliver being ousted from the field in favor of Gary Scelzi, Jim Head and Cruz Pedregon based on the “Top-10” rule when qualifying is cut to just one session
