Clint Thompson Wins Big in Texas

Courtesy of Rich Bailey

Dallas - Everything in Texas is big including a victory at the 27th annual AAA Texas NHRA Fall Nationals. And a win here doesn’t get any better for Top Alcohol funny car racer Clint Thompson, who has never won a national event away from the west coast.  “What a win. Finally! It’s been five years since my last national event win and it’s all come together here” said the Klamath Falls, Oregon based driver.

It was indeed a weekend when everything went flawlessly. In qualifying, Thompson’s 5.56 at 261 MPH put him in the pole position.  Then in round one Thompson received a single as his opponent Billy Davis was a no show. Thompson still recorded a 5.58 at 259 MPH.

In round two, Thompson faced Shane Westerfield. At the hit, Westerfied got out of the gate first with a 0.043 light to Thompson’s 0.067 but Thompson was quicker by a tenth and won the round. Thompson roared to the finish line with a 5.61 at 258 MPH to Westerfield’s 5.71 at 252 MPH.  “Shane is tough and he’s good on the tree but we knew that we could still beat him. We backed the car down a little bit and just wanted to give him a good race without smoking the tires” Thompson said.

In the semifinals, Thompson took on Annie Whiteley, who has been nothing short of impressive in her first season driving a funny car. Whiteley was slow getting off the line but it likely wouldn’t have mattered as Thompson scored a 5.59 at 258 MPH to Whiteley 5.74 at 256 MPH. “We didn’t take Annie lightly and we stepped up our tune up a little bit. She just got distracted and had a bad light. We have gotten to know the Whiteley’s and I would have been just as happy if she would have won. She came over gave me a hug after we won the race” Thompson acknowledged.

In the finals, Thompson faced Tony Bartone who qualified second with a 5.57. As the lights came down, both cars left nearly together. Bartone had a 0.070 reaction time to Thompson’s close 0.074. Thompson gained the lead and held on as Bartone began to narrow the gap but couldn’t gain the lead. At the stripe it was Thompson earning the Fall Nationals victory with another 5.59 at 259 MPH to Bartone’s 5.68 at 260 MPH. 

Thompson was elated to finally get a win after a five year draught. “We didn’t want to beat ourselves so we left the car alone and didn’t make any changes. We ran our own race. The car is now running like five second bracket car and is producing some big numbers. But we have been on a learning curve since Chicago. We recently switched to the new Goodyear tires and have finally got a handle on them after having traction problems last week in Charlotte where we shook the tires.”

Thompson got an added surprise along with his Wally as Stetson Hats gave every winner a custom fit cowboy hat. “I have never owned a cowboy hat before and I’m going to wear it the rest of the season including the ADRL race next weekend. I’ll be the good guy in the black hat”

Thompson would like to thank his wife Danette and the crew of Bob Miner, Chuck Rarrick, Dan Hix, and Matt Steinkamp.  He also would like to thank Ronn Boehlke who was unable to attend this race but is a regular member of the team.

TAN