All of the pictures on this page were contributed by Benoit Pigeon,
I am grateful to him for the opportunity of reproducing them here.
Click on any image to get the bigger picture
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All of the pictures on this page were contributed by Benoit Pigeon, Click on any image to get the bigger picture |
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At the corner of Virginia and Tennessee, is the city of Bristol. The locality is actually split between the two states and at it's southern end, in Tennessee, sits Bristol Dragway also known as Thunder Valley. Literally locked between mountains, it is one of the loudest and most picturesque tracks to visit. Bristol was originally built as a top of the line modern track in 1965, then rebuilt in 1996 after Bruton Smith took ownership of the track. The facility was then totally revamped from scratch, raising the racing level by around 30 feet. Today, it is the home of the Ford Thunder Valley Nationals and for us in the south-western Virginia region, it is pretty much our home track, at least the closest to hang out for fuel cars. This year the series was at Bristol on June 14-16 and a typical NHRA race at this track means night qualification on Friday, a must-see show in regard to the nitro cars. And there were no rain drops for the 2013 edition. Bad weather has been a major problem for not only NHRA, but all types of series this year in the US, but sometimes, sometimes only, it's even great to deal with with the high humidity of the east if cars can run. The racers' pit at Bristol is divided into two sections due to limited space. While the sportsman pits, which is for a good section paved, is a little farther at the lower part of the parking, pros are parked along the track extending the Nitro Alley. Most spectators seatings are located on the other side of the track, but two wide tunnels allow easy access to each side. As for racing, Bristol Friday evening's weather also provides a great session for the nitro engines. Dale Worsham took advantage of this in Funny Car taking the track record and the fastest run for the class thus far in 2013 (4.008 seconds at 314.83 mph). Force however dominated on race day after eliminating long time arch-rival Cruz Pedregon in the final, who this year is doing very well again tuning his own car. It was a big victory for Force who had not won for a long time now. The Top Fuel title was taken by Steve Torrence who recently made an abrupt crew chief change. He was joined in the winners' circle by Ricky Smith in Pro Mod also sponsored by IDG in North Carolina. In Pro Stock, Roger Brogdon was a first time winner by defeating the super popular Erica Enders-Stevens and her Chevy Camaro. Unlike other Bruton Smith drag race tracks, Bristol has only one event per year, but if you ever travel in the south east of the USA early in the summer it is a nice event to see. |
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In addition to the above, Benoit focussed on the fortunes of two of the racers taking part. First up is : Troy Coughlin
Coming to Bristol I had a few things in mind, one of them being to take a close look at the Jeg's Pro Mod Corvette, a car that you can't miss on the track, but also the car Troy finished and won the 2012 NHRA championship with. 'll start by making a blunt statement by saying this car is different. That's my personal observation, but I'll stick to it until this car is retired. Now I did talk briefly with Troy who sounded a little like he had heard that statement before. So I did not ask what was different but to see his reaction, I mentioned that to me the car worked differently than other turbo cars. But no, according to Troy, nothing special here. Therefore I go with it. In fact I was allowed to take pictures of any detail I wanted of the car with the engine exposed. So lets get to the turbo part. In general, Pro Mods with turbos run automatic since in fact a couple of manufacturers have come up with transmissions that can take as much as 3,500 bhp. Some still use a clutch but for all, the main difficulty remains staging the car while spooling the turbos at the same time. It's a huge challenge that certainly needs a lot of concentration from the driver. To help, automatics use the bump box, a device that allows the transmission to let some power through for a fraction of a second. It's done by dial, therefore the "box" part of the name but as a result, the car makes a tiny jump to enter the stage, therefore the "Bump" part. It really looks as if you were at a traffic light, foot on the brake and someone hit you in the back, your car making a little bump forward as a result. But, back to racing, to get a good bump, lots of parameters must be right. These cars have suspension and the amount of bump has to be carefully calculated to not red light or having to re-bump to get in the light. For Troy however, this does not look like too much of a problem. And this does not sound too surprising as Coughlin has huge racing experience with door slammers. In fact, the entire family is seriously involved with racing at all levels. On the track, this car is remarkably quiet on the burn out, and it makes nice smoky ones. Taking the risk of being criticized later I would describe the sound of this car starting and getting ready to burn out to the early seconds of a jet car getting started. Turbo cars make a lot of power but they are top end bullets and at Bristol it took Ricky Smith's nitrous car to take the race title from the yellow turbo car. So lets say there is no secret with this car and look at these performances with a different perspective. What the Coughlins are obviously good at is business and results, and there is no secret that they are all serious racers. One can only look at Troy's brother, Jeg's strategy in Pro Stock and his increasing performance results to conclude that these guys are seriously comfortable with their long term business plan. So may be the secret of the yellow Corvette is nothing but an extremely well thought out plan. Certainly the team had plenty to learn from and take notes with the previous car, a Camaro retired one race short of the 2012 season end. It takes some self-confidence and experience to put a new car out on the last race I would say. As for the Pro Mod class, Troy's efforts seem to bring a lot to the challenge confirming the spoolers have a great future. Nitrous and blown cars have so much history and routine where the turbo cars and racers are still working on perfecting their technical details. At Bristol Troy came up a little short from Smith's effort in the final. As I was in the stands it was very noticeable that the crowd loved the top end fight, witnessing the full charge of the turbos coming mid-track from the yellow car over the regional hero. Turbos certainly bring added wildness to a class that is already quite colorful. |
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Blake Alexander
Ladies and gentlemen, here comes Blake Alexander, driver of the Auto Service Plus fuel funny car. He is a 24 year old who grew up in my region of south-western Virginia. Blake has been racing for years, starting very successfully in junior dragster. Later he drove the family Bantam comp altered then turned to alcohol dragster before taking control at the wheel of Paul Smith's fuel funny car during the 2011 National event at Maple Grove in PA. Blake runs a limited number of races so far on this his only second NHRA season. Still, with 12 events on the schedule for 2013, it is quite a busy time for Alexander who just finished college this past winter. Last year, as a student, Alexander quite often had to rush back home after the races, therefore running mainly on the east coast. However, with his full time now dedicated to racing and the never ending chase for sponsors, the young driver has extended both racing distance and business trips. Alexander is a 4-wide generation driver. In fact, he was thrown into it on his third race in the class. Asked last year how he was looking at the challenge, Blake only considers the 4-wide as any other race with nothing more but focusing on the win light and not the other drivers. So while it is possible that more experienced drivers with 20 years at the wheel may find a little discomfort with four racing lanes, this year, Blake in fact took advantage of the unique race ending his best fight so far with a second position at the 4-Wide, just behind other local south-west Virginian Matt Hagen. Interestingly the same two drivers made the news last year with explosions on the same qualification session at this very same track. Matt exploded the entire body to pieces making international headlines, and Blake had a freak incident when his fuel tank exploded while being recorded on ESPN at the track end. Amazingly, Blake also captured the entire incident on his helmet mounted camera, a recoding also diffused by ESPN. At Bristol 2013, Alexander recorded yet another great performance when going two rounds before losing to eventual event winner John Force himself. The power behind Blake's success is attributed to Paul Smith a legendary tuner who has trained quite a few drivers already in the past. But there is an other Smith in the family that is known on the old continent. John "Bodie" Smith has for many years helped drivers in Australia and Europe reach great performances in Top Fuel and Funny Cars. To name a few of the recent ones, Stig Neergaard, Leif Helander, Henrick Christensen and Mark Sheehan in Australia.
So, the future for Alexander looks quite promising. The present with two great performances so far in 2013 is certainly good with both driver and team coming together in great harmony. But probably the most encouraging is coming from the unexpected as John Force has made very nice comments on a couple occasions about the young driver, even comparing Blake to himself as he was emerging in the class some 30 years ago. |
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All material on this site is copyright |
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(First posted on 2 July 2013) |
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