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The Road to Phoenix:
A race report of the NHRA Phoenix
race from a sightly left perspective
Words by Darr Hawthorne. Photos by Ron Lewis
It was bound to be one of those marathon drives to the
"Valley of the Sun", leaving the "Valley of the Smog" at 3:30 AM and
pulling into the strip as Pro Stock was entering the staging lanes...
damn, I forgot about that one hour time change as we crossed the border
and began hearing the Phoenix radio computer show faintly on the radio.
In the commercial breaks we hear the modified screamer
"Sunday, Sunday, Sunday" spots for the Checker/Schucks/Kragen Nationals
announcing special ticket offers to see the second stop on the 2002
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, we made it to Phoenix, Arizona. (photo
by Todd Dziadosz)
FORCING THE ISSUE
Back when ex-funny car pilot Charlie Allen built Firebird
Raceway in 1983, there was nothing around it on (as the Firesign Theater
said) "God-forsaken Indian land." Hell they will never have shopping
malls around there, but now the malls are being built right down the
edge of the Reservation boundary. Unfortunately, the little country
roads no longer can handle the great crowds the facility can handle;
even John Force bitched about being in traffic for over an hour. Once
arriving, Force dominated qualifying and eventually held the #1 spot
for all four sessions running a track record 4.797 while team mate/employee
Gary Densham eventually picked up his second track record in a row with
a top speed mark of 321.19.
Going into Saturday's Pro sessions, the Force camp held
the top three qualifying positions and would eventually end up in the
1, 2, and 6 slots. Much was said about John Force winning his 100th
NHRA Wally, an incredible accomplishment to go along with his record
for having qualified at 279 consecutive National events.
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