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Health & Fitness

Day at the Races

Hi folks,

Back for the wrap-up from my day at the races at Sonoma Raceway today (Sunday) for the high-decibel NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway.

  Until the semifinals the Force was with John and his daughter, Courtney, in the featured Funny Car division. That's John Force, the 67-year-old, 15-time season champion and racing legend ... and Courtney Force, who is in her second year in Funny Cars and is in seventh place in the standings.

  But Brittany Force, the most recent of Force’s daughters to debut in the pro ranks, lost in the first round in the Top Fuel division. Brittany is a rookie, and her entry into the Top Fuel ranks this year is John Force Racing’s first foray in that division.

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  Brittany struggled all weekend but after failing to get a qualifying time in her first three attempts came up with a clutch run in her fourth and final qualifying attempt on Saturday to get into the 16-driver eliminations on Sunday in 14th place.

  But she was beaten in the first round by Doug Kalitta, the No. 3 qualifier who is known informally as the King of Sonoma as he had won five titles at Sears Point, a few miles south of Sonoma and just north of the San Francisco Bay.

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 In any case, John Force made it into the final round with a super-thin win over No. 16 qualifier Alexis DeJoria, 4.086 seconds and 311.34 mph to DeJoria’s 4.095 and 309.84 mph.  Meanwhile Courtney’s run was ended by Ron Capps as her car’s engine blew up in midrun.

Capps then turned around to beat John Force in the final with a hole shot, which means the elder Force was actually faster from the start line to the finish but lost because Capps was quicker off the line and ran fast enough to beat his rival to the finish.

  Capps turned an ET of 4.085 (Force’s was 4.072) and hit 307.79 mph. Force was coming at the end, topping out at 311.13 mph, but his Ford Mustang was still behind by the hood of Capps’ 2010 Dodge Charge at line because Capps had a reaction time of just .078 a second to Force’s .105.

DeJoria earlier had knocked off top qualifier and points leader Matt Hagan in the first round and then beat Force’s son-in-law Robert Hight in the second round.

  The weather has been delightful today, and the lower than normal temperatures for late July have led to almost ideal drag racing conditions and some track records.  Two are by Shawn Langdon and Morgan Lucas, who met in the Top Fuel final.

Langdon topped Lucas in the final to extend his lead atop the points standings, but a precursor for them meeting in the final came in the first round when Langdon turned a record 3.743-second elapsed time and Lucas topped out at 328.30 mph, both track records.

 Meanwhile, Brittany Force may be struggling in her rookie season, but she may be a future star of the sport, judging by how she connects with fans.

   She interreacts with fans much the way this writer as a young man observed Arnold Palmer doing at golf tournaments. Brittany signed autographs and had her photo taken with fans for well over 30 minutes today.

   Her father, John, taught her well, and it should serve her in the future just as much as her reaction time in the cockpit of a dragster.

“We would have obviously liked to have been in the top half of the field (in the top eight in qualifying), but I still think it’s been a great weekend,” Brittany Force said. “ … So we’ll go to Seattle (next weekend) planning to qualify in the top half of the field and win some rounds.”

Here’s why is can still be a great weekend when you lose in the first round. Brittany is in her first season in the top pro division.

 “Every run I always learn something new,” she said. “No matter what, each run you’re gaining experience, and I feel new things in the car.”

Vincent Nobile won the Pro Stock title to move up into fifth place in that division’s standings, beating third-place Jeg Coughlin in the final, and Hector Arana Jr. won a super-close Pro Motorcycle final over Matt Smith. They are 1-2 in the points standings, and Arana Jr., the leader, won this one on reaction time. He hit it just .009-a-second after the green light to Smith’s .045, which  is very good.

That was the difference as both had almost identical ETs, Smith at 6.877 seconds and Arana Jr. at 6.878, and they did have identical top speeds of 195.45 mph.

All in all, it was a great day of racing just south of the Wine Country, even if the powerful engines are ear-splitting.



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