Driver Blog - Jeff Ashwell - TAFC? TAD?

May 17, 2013, at Woodburn Dragstrip, was the start of something different for Ashwell Racing and driver Jeff Ashwell: switching from a Top Alcohol Funny Car to a Top Alcohol Dragster. Plans to switch classes were in the works late in 2012. It wasn’t until the former Hillary Will/Shawn Cowie chassis was delivered in the newly expanded Ashwell race shop that it became a reality. Over the winter the team worked day and night to get the dragster race ready as they had to build the dragster basically from the ground up, aside from the chassis. All the plumbing, wiring, driver compartment, and parts and pieces had to be either ordered or made since most of the former funny car parts couldn’t be transferred.   

On May 5, 2013 the dragster was completed and the crew fired the motor for the first time with no complications, a true testament to the talent of the race team. Testing the dragster and getting Jeff’s license cross graded was slated for May 17-19^th, 2013 at Woodburn Dragstrip.

One might wonder about the difference between driving an alcohol funny car vs. an alcohol dragster? Jeff only got to make two passes - Saturday was rained out - but in those 2 passes he noticed some definite differences.  

“In the funny car, right before you stage, and you bring the RPM’s up, you can hear the thunder (motor) and when you swap your feet all this violence happens, though visibility does get better as the rear tires start to grow. You definitely have to man handle the funny car. In the dragster the first thing I noticed, when you bring the RPM’s up, you hear this high pitch whine from the blower and when you launch it’s like a sling shot - fast and straight. Also in the funny car it feels like you are being pulled down the track, while the dragster feels like you are being pushed down the track. In terms of visibility between the two I still look far down track to try and keep the car in the center of the groove; that hasn’t changed. I’m sure as I get more seat time I will notice more changes but these are the ones I noticed in the two passes I made. All in all, though, I am having a great time learning the dragster, as well as my crew, and I’m looking forward to finishing the cross grade process so we can get out there and start competing.”

The team hopes to finish the cross grade process in early June to get ready for the Lucas Oil West Region race in Mission, BC, Canada. Thanks to our great sponsors: Wilson’s NAPA Auto, Walery’s Pizza, Covanta Energy, and White Family Racing.

Jeff Ashwell is the driver of the Ashwell Racing/Wilson's NAPA Top Alcohol Dragster. Follow @AshwellRacing on Twitter and visit www.ashwellracing.com to keep up with the team. 

Williams Wins Central TAFC Title By One Point

Courtesy of Todd Veney/Pro Sportsman Association
Photo courtesy of David Smith

Running on a fraction of some teams' budgets, Kirk and Chris Williams won the Central Region Top Alcohol Funny Car championship over Kris Hool, 299 to 298. "You never think you're having a good year while you're going through it," Williams said. "Then you look up at the end, and you won the championship."

Williams got it by a single point, so a different outcome in any round anywhere all year, and Hool would have won the title. Both scored twice – Hool at Gainesville in February and late in the year at the rain-delayed Topeka event that was completed in Earlville. Williams won his first regional start of the season, in Denver, and at Earlville for what he considers the biggest win of his long career. Williams' season ended one race later with a semifinal loss in Noble, but Hool, who's been touring the country the past two years, had one race left, the Las Vegas event on the penultimate weekend of the season, where he needed to win one round to take the title.

Williams couldn't bear to watch streaming video of the first round – he thought. "It drives you crazy when your destiny is in someone else's hands," said Williams, who won Division 5 championships in 2010, when he swept all five events, and also in 2002. "I told myself I wasn't going to pay any attention to what was going on out in Vegas because watching it wasn't going to change anything. Then Justin [Jacobsen] texted me that they were about to run first round and I headed for the computer. I had to watch."

While Williams looked on helplessly, the championship was decided in his favor when John Lombardo beat Hool, 5.70 to 5.71. "What a relief," Williams said. "It was a trying year. There are times when you question what you're doing and why you even do this, but in the end it's a lot of fun and it's worth it. When you're out here competing against Bartone and Whiteley and people like that, you know you're not going to beat them a whole lot, but sometimes you can still be a pain. Every once in a while, you can still get 'em."

It may not have seemed that way to Williams, but he was a tough all year, reaching the semifinals five times, never falling in the first round, and winning both of his final-round appearances. The only bobble came at Topeka, where qualifying was slashed to one session. The abbreviated format cost Williams, who had to get off the throttle early on his only attempt and missed the cut at one of the toughest races of the year, with superstars Jay Payne and Tony Bartone, who were on their way to Indy for the U.S. Nationals, in attendance.

That race was postponed a week and completed in Earlville on the same weekend as the U.S. Nationals. Hool won, upsetting Bartone in the final, but Williams was right back in it a couple days later with a holeshot victory over Dale Brand in the final round of the regularly scheduled Earlville race.

"That was the highlight of the year," said Williams, who thanked Lucas Oil for their support all season. "We never could have won the race if not for so many people coming together to loan us parts. I'm talking about outsiders with no vested interest, and there was no, 'You'd better replace it if you hurt it.' It was just, 'Here you go. Take it.' They didn't have to, and they asked for nothing in return. One of the guys, we didn't even know. It was amazing. I mean, how many engines out there can you pull a main cap off of and have it fit right in yours?"

Crew chief Chris Williams and the team, including Terry Brees, Martin Brees, Dan Murphey, and Justin Jacobson, got the car to run low e.t. to that point, 5.75, in a first-round win, and Williams edged Brand on a holeshot in the final, 5.79 to 5.75. In the end, it was enough to take the Central crown by a single point.

Veteran Lance Van Hauen finished third with several late-round finishes, including a runner-up to Lombardo at Tulsa. Mike Bell finished fourth in Vern Moats' car, and Brand made the top five with two runner-ups and a semifinal finish in his only three starts all year.

"The car drove Chris and me nuts at times," Williams said. "It was one of those years, and the motor was never happy. One minute the car would haul ass, and the next it couldn't get out of its own way, and we never really did figure out why during the season. I guess we did just enough, but if everybody hadn't banded together to help us in Earlville, we never would have won this championship."

TAN

Straight to the Top: Gingles Wins Central Region TAD Title

Courtesy of Todd Veney/Pro Sportsman Association
Photo courtesy of David Smith

Gord Gingles was as surprised as anyone when he came out of nowhere to win the Central Region championship this year. "It's still hard to believe we finished on top," said Gingles, an unknown from Winnipeg, Man., who had run just a handful of races in Top Alcohol Dragster before 2012.

Randy Meyer was supposed to win. "He had the better car at so many races," Gingles said.

"That car went A to B all the time," Meyer said of Gingles' ride, "The Bull" A/Fuel Dragster owned and tuned by Clif Bakx. "I didn't really know those guys, didn't even know what the driver looked like, but you really have to hand it to them. They did a good job this year."

"Last year, we were in training, just learning the car and procedures. Even qualifying was amazing," Gingles said, though he had no trouble winning rounds, even in the beginning, going to the semifinals at the very first race he entered, the 2011 Division 4 meet at Dallas, and at his other two divisionals last year, Topeka and Earlville. "This year, we wanted to take a run at the top three or four in the region."

He ended up number 1. Running no national events and focusing entirely on the new Lucas Oil regional series, the Canadian team, led by Bakx, crisscrossed the continent on a grueling schedule. Average trip: about 1,000 miles each way.

Gingles put up an 8-5 win-loss mark for the year, flying under the radar until a clutch semifinal win over Meyer at the penultimate race of the season, in Earlville, put him in command for good. Gingles then won the Earlville final over former national event champ Chase Copeland and essentially claimed the championship right there because both he and Meyer bowed out early at their only remaining regional, in Noble, Okla.

Gingles, a 53-year-old former drag bike racer, came to Top Alcohol racing just last year after a single season in Top Dragster. He began his racing career 24 years ago, competing on snowmobiles on ice, and took to the quarter-mile in 2000 with a street bike, followed by a nine-second bike, a Super Comp dragster in 2006 and the Top Dragster in 2010.

After advancing to the semifinals in all three of his divisional starts in 2011, Gingles made it a perfect five for five starting this year at tracks thousands of miles apart – rain-soaked Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis in April and Mission Raceway Park in Mission, B.C., in May. After suffering the first first-round loss of his alcohol career, to James Thompson at Tulsa, Gingles went all the way at Cordova, running 5.30s in every round after qualifying No. 2 and eventually stopping Dennis Drath in the under-the-lights final. From there, it was all or nothing – first round at Topeka, winner at Earlville, first round at Noble – but his two wins and the back-to-back semifinal appearances to open the year added up to 288 points, enough to hold off Meyer by 31.

Meyer, a former AHRA world champion driver and NHRA world champ tuner, had six runner-ups this year, including regional events, national events, and the Jegs Allstars race. He reached at least the semifinals in six of his seven regional starts. Mark Taliaferro won the first race of the regional era at Gainesville in February and finished third in the region despite running just three events. He was runner-up at one of the other two, last month in Noble, Okla. Copeland finished fourth, and Denver runner-up Edwin Schmeeckle was fifth.

"We never really dwelled on the thought of possibly winning the championship," said Gingles, who credited veterans Les Davenport, Larry Miersch, Ken Murray, and Doug Doucette for the team's overnight rise from beginners to regional champions. "When Clif took on this project, he was driven to learn as much as he could, and this year has been an amazing ride. Doing what he did without 10 or 20 years' experience was remarkable."

TAN

Reichert Wins Fourth Straight North Central TAD Title

Courtesy of Todd Veney/Pro Sportsman Association
Photo courtesy of Steve Fuhrman

In what would be a career year for most, Bill Reichert clinched a fourth straight North Central championship and at least third place in the national standings. If he stays second, it will be for a Greg Anderson-like seven years in a row, but when you're easily the driver of the decade and still not far removed from five consecutive national championships, nothing less than another one is ever enough.

"Not winning it is definitely a disappointment, but we really wanted this regional championship too," said Reichert, who now has 10 in 20 years driving a Top Alcohol Dragster. "There was a time when this one wasn't looking too likely."

With back-to-back losses in his first two regional starts, Indianapolis and Norwalk, the season got off to a wobbly start. Already out of mulligans under the new points format – best three of five regionals for national points, best five of seven for regional points – Reichert then swept the next three regionals, Maple Grove, Chicago, and Columbus, defeating Duane Shields at Maple Grove, 5.45 to 5.45, upstart Dave Heitzman at Chicago, and veteran Robin Samsel at Columbus.

"The third one, Columbus, was the one we had to have," Reichert said. "That can be a tough place to figure out, but we knew what we had to do." Comfortably ahead in the regional standings and out of races to claim nationally, Reichert's Rislone Engine Treatment team headed to Bowling Green the week before Indy for one reason: to lock up another title. For the first time in five years he didn't win, but a runner-up to East Region champ Rich McPhillips clinched the championship.

"That was one time losing the final wasn't too bad," he said. "You'd look at the track and the weather and know that you should be running .40s, but we were having a hard time running .50s. We were lucky to get out of there with a runner-up."

With 351 points – more than any Top Alcohol Dragster driver in any region – Reichert outscored Norwalk winner Ken Perry by nearly 100. Jared Dreher, who won the Indianapolis event, was third, and many-time Division 3 champs Marty Thacker and Mike Kosky finished fourth and fifth, each surprisingly without an event win.

For Reichert, who won the first divisional he ever entered, the 1992 Division 3 meet at Union Grove, this North Central crown is his first in the regional era, sixth in seven years, and 10^th overall. He also won division titles in 1994, 1998, 2001, and 2004. The only thing better would have been a record sixth national championship. "You have to be realistic about things," he said. "It seems like I'm always getting compared to Frank Manzo, but it's not even close. If we're able to hold off Chris Demke for second, that'll be five firsts and three seconds since 2004, and that's not too bad."

TAN

Eastern TAD Championship Caps McPhillips' Career Year

Courtesy of Todd Veney/Pro Sportsman Association
Photo courtesy of David Smith

With a national event victory, four final-round appearances in regional competition, and his first regional/divisional championship in 20 years, Rich McPhillips had the best season of his career in 2012. "I don't even want to think how many times I came in second – a half-dozen, at least," said McPhillips, who won the East Region Top Alcohol Dragster title over Dan Mercier, Duane Shields, Richard Bourke, and John Finke after a yearlong battle in which each driver won just once. McPhillips was runner-up at three of his first four regionals – Gainesville, Richmond, and Lebanon Valley – and pulled ahead with a win in his final regional start of the season, in Bowling Green, Ky., where he hadn't raced since 1991.

"We were pretty confident that if we rolled out of there with a win, we could close the door on a lot of people," he said. "The semifinals against the Canadian [Mercier] was crucial. He had us covered early, and that was probably the whole championship right there."

McPhillips prevailed when Mercier's chute popped out before half-track, then stopped Bill Reichert, who had won the event four years in a row, in a close final, 5.53 to 5.54. When Finke, who bypassed Bowling Green to compete in Topeka, missed the final there and again the following weekend in Earlville, the title was McPhillips'. It's his first since he won the Division 1 Top Alcohol Dragster championship way back in 1992.

"It almost would have taken a miracle for someone to come around us after Bowling Green," McPhillips said, "but I didn't want to jinx it or even talk about it until it was mathematically impossible to lose because in this game you never know. I just about had the division championship wrapped up in 1991 – until Bowling Green. I think all I had to do was qualify. I was No. 6 a week later at Indy, but I DNQed at Bowling Green and Ron Still came around me. That's the last time I ran there, so it crossed my mind when we pulled in there this year."

McPhillips also won the Summer Nationals in Topeka and has a great shot at a top five finish in the national standings. He's currently fourth. "The last time I had a year like this, we were still running a Funny Car," said McPhillips, who with his partner at the time, current AA/FC star Peter Gallen, driving, was a fixture in the Alcohol Funny Car Top 10 in the late 1980s. "This is even more rewarding. To drive the car and be a part of the tune-up is really satisfying. We tune this thing by committee. I'm not one of those guys who shuts the computer off when people walk in the trailer."

McPhillips has been among the top drivers in the country for years, but this tops everything – even 1992, when he won the division championship and finished sixth in the national standings, and 2005, when he won his first national event. "I bought a new car a couple years ago, and it's really made a difference," he said. "The original chassis I started with was front-halved a couple times and back-halved a couple times, but it was my same blown-alcohol car from way back in 1990. Now, I have a chassis purpose-built for this class, the Hadman car Bucky Austin bought before he decided not to go A/Fuel racing. I always had good motor pieces and did fairly well at divisionals, but I'd struggle to step up at national events, and I just got a lot more aggressive this year, right from the beginning. This championship is a real accomplishment, and I take my hat off to guys who've won a bunch of them, because I know how hard this was to do."



Jim Whiteley Clinches 2012 TAD National Championship

Courtesy of Will Hanna
Photo courtesy of YNot Racing

ENNIS, Texas – Six years after entering the Top Alcohol Dragster class, NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster racer Jim Whiteley and his YNot Racing team have finally achieved their goal – a National Championship.  Whiteley used another dominating performance at this past weekend’s AAA Texas Fall Nationals at the Texas Motorplex just south of Dallas to clinch the 2012 Top Alcohol Dragster National Championship.

Whiteley, from Grand Junction, Colo., qualified his Norm Grimes tuned blown alcohol dragster on top of the field with a 5.284 second elapsed time at 270.92 mph.  In round one, he took out Darvin Martinets with a 5.284 at 273.66, and then took out Lee Callaway in round two with a 5.277 at 273.00.  In the semifinals he slowed to a 5.318 at 272.28, but still had enough muscle to defeat Monroe Guest.

That set the stage for a pivotal showdown with the last national title challenger left, Chris Demke.  Whiteley needed to win the round to clinch the Championship and did just that with a low elapsed time of the event 5.275 at 271.68 mph to defeat Demke’s 5.739 at 263.77 mph.

“The whole weekend was just pretty darn cool,” said Whiteley.  “We have been doing this since 2006 and we have got close a couple times, but we finally closed the deal.  It really hasn’t quite set in yet we finally did it.  It’s going to be pretty fun the rest of the year being able to race without the pressure.  Our last goal is we want to win the Western Regional Championship in a few weeks in Vegas.”

Whiteley was quick to credit title contenders Demke and former five-time National Champion Bill Reichert for a tough battle.

“I really have to tip my hat to Chris Demke and the Maddern Racing team,” commented Whiteley.  “He has done a hell of a job the last few races driving that car and cutting killer lights down the stretch when it counted.  Jerry Maddern and his guys have really made that hot rod fly.  I also feel bad for Reichert losing in the first round on a red light.  That’s a tough way to go down with all of the emotion and tension.  I know because I’ve been there before. 

“I really have to thank Norm and the crew for giving me a great car this weekend and all year,” Whiteley continued.  “They gave me a super car in the final, and I really left a lot on the table with my .102 light, but in the end we got the win.  I also have to thank Goodyear for a great tire and support, NGK Spark Plugs, J & A Services and Advanced Oilfield Services for their support this year.”

The next event for the YNot Racing Team will be the Big O Tire Nationals at “The Strip” at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

TAN

Whiteley Can Clinch National Championship With Dallas Win

Courtesy of Will Hanna
Photo courtesy of YNot Racing

ENNIS, Texas – Current NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster national points leader Jim Whiteley and his YNot Racing team have an opportunity to reach their ultimate goal of winning a national championship with a win during this weekend’s AAA Texas Fall Nationals at the Texas Motorplex, just south of Dallas.  With title contenders Chris Demke and Bill Reichert scheduled to be in attendance, it should be an epic battle for this year’s Top Alcohol Dragster Championship.

Whiteley, from Grand Junction, Colo., enters the weekend with a 117 point lead over second place Demke and 118 over third place Reichert.  Both of those drivers must win their final three national events, including this weekend, to overtake Whiteley.  Hence, a Dallas win for Whiteley will clinch the Championship for the YNot team.

“We have had some success at Dallas,” said Whiteley.   “It looks like it will be good weather for everyone.  We just need to do a good job and have a little luck on our side.  We are setting good at the moment points wise, but it’s definitely not over yet.

“Demke, Reichert and some other fast cars will be there trying to win just as hard as us,” Whiteley continued.  “We will have to be on our game, because they will be on theirs.”

Qualifying begins on Friday for the alcohol cars with two sessions, followed by one final session Saturday afternoon.  Eliminations begin with round one Saturday evening and final eliminations will conclude the event on Sunday.

To find out more about YNot Racing’s promotional partners, visit the websites below:

RaceGoodyear.com - Goodyear's position as the leading tire maker in drag racing is unquestioned. The quickest, fastest and most powerful earth-bound machines in the world look to Goodyear for tires that generate enough traction to take advantage of their stunning ability to go fast in a straight line.

NGKSparkPlugs.com - When performance counts, the fastest teams on two wheels or four, on land or on water choose NGK Spark Plugs.

The team would also like to thank the continued support of J&A Services and Advanced Oilfield Services.

TAN