Whiteley Out in Round Two at Brainerd

Courtesy of YNot Racing

After running not just low e.t. of the meet but low e.t. of all three qualifying sessions at the Lucas Oil Nationals in Brainerd, Annie Whiteley was upset in the second round of eliminations when her car got loose and drifted over the centerline. It was the fifth time in her career that she's qualified No. 1 at a national event and the third time already this season.

"Somewhere before half-track, the car decided to make a left turn," said Whiteley, who reached the first national final event of her career at this event in 2012, her rookie season in Top Alcohol Funny Car. "I have no idea why – it left hard and until that point was running just like it had all weekend."

Whiteley wheeled her J&A Service/YNot Racing Mustang to a 5.61 at 257.63 mph to pace the field and clocked a 5.67 and a 5.64 in the other two qualifying sessions. She earned a first-round bye for being No. 1 in the short field, but following a solid 5.67 on a single that was within .01-second of low e.t. of the round, the car veered toward the centerline in round two not long after she swapped feet.

"Shane Westerfield's car broke the rear end in the pair ahead of us," Whiteley said. "I don't know if that had anything to do with it or if it was because it was misting when I staged – the conditions weren't ideal for any of us – but the car turned left right where his rear end broke. When [crew chief Roger Bateman] looked at the computer, he saw right on the G meter where something upset the tires."

The Brainerd event was the first of back-to-back-to-back events for the busy YNot team. This weekend is the Central Regional at Heartland Park Topeka, and next weekend is the most prestigious event of every season, the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis, where last year Whiteley fell just short of victory in a close final-round match with Frank Manzo.

Whiteley Reaches 3rd Final of 2014 and 3rd in a Row at Tulsa

Courtesy of YNot Racing

Defending event champ Annie Whiteley, who had never lost a round at Tulsa Raceway Park in her Top Alcohol Funny Car career, dropped a close final to fellow championship contender Dale Brand, 5.61 to 5.62. Whiteley, who wheeled the YNot Racing/J&A Service Mustang to victory at the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series regional here in both 2012 and 2013, ran quicker than anyone had to that point, but Brand outran her by a scant hundredth of a second with low e.t. of the meet, 5.61. Both hit the finish line at 255 mph.

"Dale's always good on the lights," Whiteley said. "He got ahead early, and we stayed pretty much the same distance apart all the way to the finish line."

Whiteley and Brand were locked together in qualifying, too, earning the No. 1 and No. 2 spots, respectively, with matching 5.62s at 257 mph side by side in the final pair of last-shot qualifying. Whiteley was slightly quicker, 5.620 to 5.628, and Brand slightly faster, 257.38 mph to 257.14.

In the opening round, Whiteley got the best of an all-female matchup with No. 6 qualifier Nancy Matter, who was back in competition for the first time in more than five years. She clicked it a hair early and still won comfortably, 5.69, 249 to Matter's shutoff 7.78 at 120 mph.

"The car drove toward the centerline and wouldn't come back," Whiteley said. "One tire was spinning and the other was still in the groove, and I couldn't get it back in the center of the lane no matter what I did. I don't know how close I got to the centerline, but it was close – I was actually afraid I might have crossed it."

Whiteley followed with a strong 5.68 on a semifinal single earned by being the No. 1 qualifier in a short field, but Brand gained the upper hand for the final with a slightly quicker 5.65 in his semifinal win over third-ranked Shane Westerfield. In the final, Brand was four-thousandths of a second quicker to the 60-foot mark, two-thousandths and 0.34 mph faster at half-track, and 12-thousandths quicker at the 1,000-foot mark, and for the second time six days Whiteley came out on the wrong end of a classic final. Last week in Denver, she was nipped by Clint Thompson, 5.78 to 5.78.

Next up for the YNot/J&A Service team is the Route 66 Nationals in Chicago, where last year Whiteley earned her first national event title, followed by the Summit Racing Nationals a week later in Norwalk, Ohio.

Whiteley Reaches First Final of 2014 in Houston

Courtesy of YNot Racing

Under gray, threatening skies at Houston's Royal Purple Raceway, Annie Whiteley lost traction not far off the line in the Spring Nationals Top Alcohol Funny Car final and fell to Shane Westerfield. "It was spitting rain as we were staging," she said. "I could see drops all over the windshield. They'd wipe 'em off, but then more drops would be right back on there. I wasn't sure what was going to happen when we left, and I was kind of thinking they were going to shut us off. I didn't make it very far before the car started shaking, but I got farther than Shane did."

Westerfield, who, like Whiteley, broke through for his first national event victory last season, went up in smoke immediately, but he was able to recover and run a 6.31 for his second career title. Whiteley had no such opportunity when her kill switch vibrated into the "off" position during tire shake between the 1.0- and 1.5-second mark, silencing her engine and bringing a premature end to what had been a storybook weekend.

Whiteley qualified her Roger Bateman-tuned J&A Service/YNot Racing Mustang No. 1 with the only run in the 5.50s, a 5.589, and set low e.t. of all three preliminary rounds of eliminations. She lowered low e.t. to a 5.580 on a first-round single earned by qualifying No. 1 in a field with an odd number of cars, and took out Todd Veney, who red-lighted, in the quarterfinals with a 5.59. After resetting low e.t. for the third time with a semifinal 5.57 win over Gatornationals runner-up Dale Brand, Whiteley lost traction in the final and coasted helplessly down the track as Westerfield sped away.

"That one hurt," she said. "I knew Shane was in trouble too, and I didn't see him for a while. I kept trying to get back in it, but when the engine shuts itself off there's not much you can do."

Whiteley Completes Comeback with Quarterfinal Finish at Gainesville

Courtesy of Todd Veney

After an enormous thrash that most teams wouldn't even have attempted, Annie Whiteley's J&A Service/YNot Racing Top Alcohol Funny Car team was right back at the top at the Amalie Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla., Whiteley's first national event appearance of the season. Just days before Whiteley and crew pulled into Gainesville, the entire left rear of her Mustang body was obliterated by a tire explosion at the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series regional event in Houston.

The YNot team, led by veteran crew chief Roger Bateman, got Whiteley's old car from Topeka to the East Coast, where the body from her 2012 car was grafted onto her current chassis. Right out of the box, the car showed its potential when Whiteley stormed to a 5.59 in the first qualifying session, followed by a 5.54 in last-shot qualifying that positioned her No. 4 in the 16-car field. "I still can't believe they got all that work done in such a short amount of time," she said. "It was as good as new, right from the start."

In the opening round of eliminations Saturday evening, Whiteley put away Canadian Paul Noakes, who won the 2013 Auto-Plus NHRA Nationals in Reading, Pa., in his most recent appearance. Whiteley stormed to a 5.54, the second-quickest run of the round, to cover Noakes' 5.66. Everything came to a screeching halt in the quarterfinals Sunday afternoon against Australian Steve Harker when her engine was silenced by, of all things, a broke throttle linkage.

"We left, and I was heading out toward the wall a little," she said. "I was about to shift, and it just quit. I wasn't sure what was going at first because all of a sudden everything just stopped. It's a bad way to lose but it's not like I absolutely had him covered. He ran a 5.58, low e.t. of the round.”

The highlight of the weekend for the YNot team came in Pro Mod, where son Steven advanced to the quarterfinals in his NHRA national event debut. He qualified sixth of nearly 30 entries with a career-best 5.900, just missing the 5.80s, then took out veteran Mike Knowles in the opening round of eliminations before falling to eventual winner Mike Castellana in the quarterfinals despite an outstanding 5.91.

Whiteley Overcomes Houston Tire Explosion to Race in Gainesville

Courtesy of Todd Veney

Annie Whiteley will be in Gainesville this weekend for the Amalie Gatornationals after her team completed a massive rebuild following a tire explosion at the Lucas Oil Series regional event last weekend in Houston. In the first round of eliminations against eventual finalist Jay Payne, severe tire shake caused part of Whiteley's wheelie bar to break off and puncture the left rear tire, setting off a massive explosion that blasted a hole in the entire left rear of her J&A Service/YNot Racing Mustang body.

"I've never been through anything like that," said Whiteley, who has finished in the Top 5 in the NHRA national standings in each of her two seasons in Top Alcohol Funny Car. "It was shaking when I left and I was just trying to make it through low gear, and all of a sudden … BOOM. I didn't know what was happening. Then stuff started raining down on me. It felt like the whole car was coming apart."

Whiteley ended up in Payne's lane but kept the car off both walls and climbed out to discover that the chassis was completely intact. In fact, she'll be at the wheel of the same car days later in Gainesville – just not with the same body, though it, too, eventually will be back.

"The whole left rear of the body is pretty much gone, but that can be repaired," said crew chief Roger Bateman. "They'll stick it back in the mold, redo it, and it'll be as good as new." The Mustang body off her old car will be on the chassis from Houston when qualifying begins Friday in Gainesville.

Whiteley is slightly sore on her left side but otherwise completely uninjured. "It's a good car, and I'm fine," she said. "It was the loudest sound I've ever heard, and it took a minute to figure out what the heck was going on, but we're going to be in Gainesville, and I'll be ready to go."

Whiteley Caps Championship Defense with Vegas Win

Courtesy of Todd Veney

Jim Whiteley said all along that he was done driving Top Alcohol Dragsters at the end of this season, but his championship-clinching victory at Las Vegas, punctuated by low e.t., top speed, and a 5.33-5.34 final-round win over archrival Chris Demke, was such a perfect end that he seriously considered letting it be that – the end.

"It's not going to get any better," Whiteley said. "Why not go out like this and just hang out at Pomona and watch everybody else have fun running their cars. Because, seriously, how much better could Pomona possibly be than Vegas just was?"

At the Toyota Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas, Whiteley earned his third national event title in a row, including the prestigious U.S. Nationals and the Fall Nationals, with a barrage of low 5.30s and one 5.20, a 5.28 in the first round that held up for low e.t. He set top speed at 271.41 mph a round later in a 5.32 win over Don St. Arnaud that officially clinched a championship that has been all but mathematically wrapped up for some time now.

With a three-race streak to close out a second consecutive national championship and likely his career, Whiteley steps into the background and Mike Strasburg, who drives his family's own Top Fueler and works on Annie Whiteley's Top Alcohol Funny Car (which qualified No. 1 at Las Vegas), will get in Whiteley's dragster for about a half-dozen events next season. "Joey Severance is going to run my motor stuff next year, and Mike's going to drive my car a few times, maybe six," said Whiteley, who will spend 2014 supporting wife Annie in Top Alcohol Funny Car and son Steven in Pro Mod. "Steve hopefully is going to run all 10 NHRA Pro Mod races, and I might run a couple with an old car we have around, but for me the biggest thing now is just to be there for Annie and Steve."

Whiteley's Sweep Tulsa - Again

Courtesy of YNot Racing
Photos courtesy of Robert Grice

Jim and Annie Whiteley dominated the Lucas Oil Series race at Tulsa for the second year in a row, Jim in Top Alcohol Dragster, and Annie in Top Alcohol Funny Car. Jim won for the fourth time this season and the second week in a row, including Denver, and Annie remains undefeated at the Tulsa track and now has a lifetime record of 22-4 in regional competition.

"Those were tough, tough conditions," said Jim, whose third regional victory of the season (including Las Vegas and Denver) gives him a perfect score on that side of the ledger – 255 points. "100 degrees makes for some pretty miserable weather to race in, but all the guys on both teams worked their butts off and we got it done."

Whiteley qualified No. 1 with a 5.38 and set low e.t. with a 5.37 but may have left a little on the table. "We ran a 5.32 here last year, and we might have been able to run a little quicker this year than we did, but it wasn't worth the risk. When it's that hot, it's not hard to smoke the tires."

Whiteley drove his J&A Service/YNot Racing dragster to a 5.43 in the first round to cover David Brounkowski and a 5.37 in the semifinals opposite Randy Meyer in a rematch of last year's final. The final against Brandon Pierce was over early when Pierce smoked the tires immediately, leaving Whiteley to a long-gone 5.44.

Annie remained undefeated at Tulsa in her young Alcohol Funny Car career, qualifying No. 1 with a 5.66 that held up all weekend for low e.t. and cruising through the first two rounds of eliminations. Her 5.69 in the new Texas J&A Service Mustang, the only run in eliminations in the 5.60s, covered Bryan Brown in round one. She blew through the clutch in semifinals and slipped to a 5.78 but still got around Kirk Williams and entered the final against Scott McVey as a prohibitive favorite.

All appeared lost when Annie's car blew the tires off not far off the line, but when McVey's engine blew, she recovered to post a winning 6.17 at 241 mph. "I was just starting to push the clutch in, and thought, 'Oh, wait – he's not there,' " she said. "I've short-shifted my way out of shake before, but I've never won a round like that. The car was in second gear for a long time – I didn't think that shift-light was ever going to come on – and it seemed to take forever for the finish line to get there."

 

Whiteleys Complete Consecutive Tulsa Sweeps

Courtesy of Todd Veney/Pro Sportsman Association
Photos courtesy of Robert Grice

For the second year in a row, the husband-and-wife team of Jim and Annie Whiteley swept Top Alcohol honors at the Tulsa Lucas Oil Series event. Jim led the Top Alcohol Dragster contingent from wire to wire, and wife Annie overcame severe shake in the final round to outlast a tough Alcohol Funny Car class.

Jim's victory was his second in two weeks, including an equally dominant score in Denver. This time, he emerged victorious from a comprised almost entirely of A/Fuelers; of 10 cars in attendance, the only one other than Whiteley's with a blown-alcohol setup belonged to Mark Taliaferro, who only recently made the switch back from injected-nitro.

Whiteley, who set low e.t. here last year with a 5.32, ran .40s and high .30s under tougher conditions this time for a commanding lead in the national standings. "There probably was room to run better," he said, "but we had a lot of stuff backed down. Those were tough, tough conditions. When it's 100 degrees out, the track is only going to take so much."

Whiteley wheeled his J&A Service/YNot Racing dragster to the top spot in qualifying with a 5.38 and ran a best of 5.37 in eliminations, but a 5.44 in the final was more than enough to take out Brandon Pierce, who smoked the tires off the line in Gene Snow's dragster. Whiteley beat David Brounkowski in the opening round and established low e.t. of the meet with a 5.378 in the semifinals against Randy Meyer in a rematch of last year's Tulsa final.

One pair earlier, Pierce won an all-Brandon matchup with Brandon Lewis, 5.40 to 5.65, making his best run of the weekend and keeping himself within striking distance of Whiteley going into the final. Whiteley got the best of that one after a 45-minute delay caused by Scott McVey's blown engine in the Top Alcohol Funny Car final that cost him the title against Annie Whiteley, who was in trouble almost immediately.

 

Whiteley shook and smoked the tires off the line, lifted, and tromped back on the throttle for a 6.17 at 241 mph only after noticing that McVey wasn't driving away from her. "I was just starting to push the clutch in, and thought, 'Oh, wait – he's not there,' " she said. I was kind of caught off guard. We made three test runs before the race, then two qualifying runs, then the first two rounds of eliminations, and it went right down there every time until the final."

Whiteley qualified No. 1 with a 5.66, just a hundredth of a second ahead of early season points leader John Lombardo, who was upset by Lance Van Hauen in the first round, and ran a smooth 5.69 against Texan Bryan Brown in the first round and a soft 5.78 opposite defending Central Region champ Kirk Williams in the semi's. 

McVey was consistent through the first two rounds, with a 5.74 against Steve Burck and a 5.73 against Van Hauen, and appeared to have the final in hand until the engine let go. "I've never won a round like that," said Whiteley, who now has been to seven regional finals in the first year and a half of her career and has won all seven. "I've short-shifted my way out of shake before, but it was never like that. The car was in second gear for a long time – I didn't think that shift-light was ever going to come on – and it seemed to take forever for the finish line to get there, too." 

Whiteley Dominates Denver for 6th Straight Year

Courtesy of YNot Racing

With his sixth win in a row at the West Central divisional/regional at Denver's Bandimere Speedway, defending national champion Jim Whiteley reclaimed the Top Alcohol Dragster points lead. "What can I say?" he asked. "I love racing here."

Hands down, it's the J&A Service/YNot Racing team's most dominant performance to date at Bandimere: Whiteley had the entire field covered by the unheard of margin of a full quarter-second.

In qualifying, the Norm Grimes-tuned dragster ran between 5.44 and 5.46 in all three sessions while no one else in the field ran better than 5.70s. "I don't know if I've ever had that much of an advantage on the field before," Whiteley said. "It's almost more pressure than when a bunch of other people are running right with you."

After the opening round, it was more of the same in eliminations. Free to use his first-round run as another test run when opponent Kevin Wayman was unable to repair breakage suffered in qualifying, Whiteley smoked the tires and shut off. "It didn't go three inches," he said.

Against Dean Dubbin, who disqualified himself with a foul start in the semifinals, Whiteley advanced with an on-and-off-the-gas 5.69 that was still quicker than any other driver ran all weekend. "I had it at half-throttle at one point and it was still spinning the tires," he said. "We took some gear ratio out and some timing out for the final, and the car ran better than we expected it to."

A 5.47 in the money round knocked out No. 2 qualifier Greg Hunter, who was in a Lucas Oil Series final for the first time in his career, and put the J&A Service/YNot Racing driver back on top in the back-and-forth battle for the national championship. "We needed a weekend like this," Whiteley said. "Nobody is running away with it this year, and it might go right down to the finals at Pomona."