Motor Sports Weekly News

By: Drew Hierwarter

Photos courtesy of Las Vegas Motor Speedway

All Tony Schumacher had to do to lock up the 2008 NHRA Top Fuel championship was to qualify for the next to last race in Las Vegas. It wouldn’t have mattered if he qualified 16^th, or 10^th, or anywhere in the field. He also didn’t need to win the event, he just had to make it into the show and the championship was his. So of course, he qualified in the number one position in his U.S. Army sponsored top fueler. Then on Sunday he ran three perfect rounds before meeting Rod Fuller in his 11^th consecutive final round. He beat Fuller with a 3.806 second elapsed time to Fuller’s losing 3.821. He now has 15 victories on the year and needs only to win the final event of the year in Pomona to tie Greg Anderson for the most wins in a single season.

“I knew A.J. (crew chief Alana Johnson) was trying to run in the high-.70s in the final,” said Schumacher, whose victory was the 56th of his career. “Fuller is running good, and I told myself before the final that I had to dig deep. Our cars were running so close that I was worried about getting beat on a holeshot.”

Things weren’t quite so cut and dry over in the Funny Car pits. Tim Wilkerson had the point lead coming in to Las Vegas but Cruz Pedregon, Robert Hight, and Jack Beckman were all nipping at his heels. When Wilkerson fell to Mike Neff in the first round, it opened the door for the others to make a move. And that’s just what Cruz Pedregon needed as he was the beneficiary of a rare red light by Jack Beckman in the opening round, another red light by Gary Densham in the second, before taking out John Force in the semi. The final round matched Pedregon up with number one qualifier Robert Hight. Both drivers needed the win to stay alive in the championship fight. Pedregon cut an incredible .010 light and the two cars ran side-by-side for the entire 1,000 feet with Pedregon the winner 4.100 to Hight’s 4.111! The win moved Pederegon into first place in front of Wilkerson going into Pomona.

“I was worried about Robert in the final.” The ‘Cruzer’ said. “They call that car the ‘Prock Rocket’ because it runs good, especially in these types of conditions when it’s cool and the race track is fast. I could hear him the whole way down the track in the final, and I was waiting for that . . . fender to stick out in front of me.”

In Pro Stock, Jeg Coughlin mowed down all of his rivals for the 41^st time in his career and now has a commanding 123 point lead over Greg Anderson. Like Tony Schumacher at this race, Coughlin needs only to qualify for the final event in Pomona in two weeks and the 2008 Pro Stock championship is his.

“This definitely took a lot of pressure off our shoulders,” said Coughlin, “We couldn’t take anything for granted coming into this race, because Dave [Connolly] is very capable and so are Kurt [Johnson] and Greg [Anderson]. This win really ices the cake for us.”

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And speaking of championships; this year the Formula 1 World Champion was not decided at the last race of the year. It was not decided on the last lap of the last race of the year. In fact it was not decided until the very last turn, of the last lap, of the last race of the year.

Before the rains came late in the race in Brazil, Filipe Massa was tied with Lewis Hamilton and based on having more victories, would have been the champion. Hamilton needed to move up one more spot in the running, to fifth, to gain the one extra point he needed to win. In the meantime, Timo Glock’s Toyota team decided to gamble and keep him out on dry weather tires to preserve their finishing position. As the rain increased, Glock was forced to drive more cautiously on his slick tires and Hamilton got by him, and into that championship winning fifth position. All this happened after Massa, (who won the race) was already celebrating what he thought was the world championship!

Massa was gracious in defeat; “We did everything to perfection and we almost managed to pull it off. Then, as I crossed the line, (race engineer) Rob (Smedley) told me that Hamilton had finished fifth and therefore he took the title by one point. Sport is like this and one has to accept that. Congratulations to Lewis: whoever gets the most points deserves the title. I am very proud of the whole team and how much support they have given me during this fantastic season.”

And it was a fantastic and very competitive Formula 1 season.