Don Schumacher Racing Funny Car drivers Gary Scelzi, Ron Capps and Jack Beckman completed a test session at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this week with high marks. While Scelzi and Beckman made runs only on Tuesday and Wednesday in the Mopar/Oakley Dodge Charger R/T and the Mail Terminal Services Dodge Charger R/T, respectively, Capps gave the Brut Revolution Dodge Charger R/T an extra squirt down the quarter-mile on Thursday as well.
While the focus for all three drivers was on testing certain parts and combinations in preparation for the ACDelco NHRA Nationals at The Strip next weekend (Oct. 26-28), the first of the two final events of the new Countdown to One playoffs, the trio posted strong passes in those three days: a 4.753/325.30 for Beckman, the quickest of the Wednesday session; a 4.801/298.67 for Capps, the best of Tuesday’s runs; and a 4.837/321.96 for Scelzi.
“I love the fact that everybody is really interested on the Internet on how everybody is doing in testing, ” said Capps, fourth in Countdown points. “With the Countdown to One, testing is so important with only two races left. But there’s a lot of different things guys are trying. Some teams were basically practicing and some were really testing some things. We were trying some things out of the box and Ace (crew chief Ed McCulloch) is happy with some and not happy with others. So, I think for the Brut Dodge team it was definitely a productive test. And overall for all the DSR Funny Cars it was a great test.
“Our quick run of 4.80 seconds at only 298 mph was an early shutoff run with great (incremental) numbers and I think it really told Ace quite a bit about some of the things he was trying. “
Beckman, quickest on Wednesday but not seeded in the top four in the Countdown to One, was also pumped by the results. “I think it was a good test session, ” he said. “What’s interesting about testing is that the definition of testing is you’re trying stuff. So, you don’t necessarily run big numbers. A lot of people, especially the spectators, evaluate it by the scoreboard. But in testing a lot of the time the majority of the runs are early shutoffs, so the numbers won’t look really glamorous but, once you get back to the trailer, a lot of times you see that the results are very promising.
“As racers you always want to be the person who sticks that big number up on the scoreboard in front of all the other drivers’ faces and let them know that’s what we’ve got to bring to the race next weekend. So, it was really nice closing the session with the fastest and quickest Funny Car run on Wednesday. It does to some extent make a little bit of a statement, but I don’t think we’re going to be a surprise to the other teams. We’ve been strong for quite a while. “
For Scelzi, second in the Countdown to One standings, it was also a worthwhile two days. “It went very well, ” he said. “We tried several things, a lot like Beckman did: clutch parts, blower parts, injector parts. The Mopar/Oakley Dodge seemed to respond very well to all of it. We never really made our hero run, like Beckman and (his lead crew chief, along with Todd Okuhara) Phil Shuler did, but we definitely were on one of those runs when a fuel line broke and it ruined an engine. That was kind of unfortunate, but we learned a lot of things. Todd (lead crew chief, along with Shuler) seemed to be extremely happy with what we’ve learned. “
QUICKEST FUNNY CAR PASSES IN THREE DAYS OF TESTING AT THE STRIP AT LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY (courtesy of dragracecentral.com)
1. Tony Pedregon, 4.733/318.54, 322.81
2. Jack Beckman, 4.753/325.30
3. Robert Hight, 4.757/305.49
4. Ron Capps, 4.801/298.67, 320.13
5. Ashley Force, 4.814/280.14
6. Mike Neff, 4.818/318.47
7. Gary Scelzi, 4.837/321.96
8. Phil Burkart Jr, 4.878/256.75
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