The 2011 Nostalgia Top Fuel Points Season In Review

The 2011 NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Racing season is in the books and it will go on record as producing one of the more exciting point contests that had been seen in awhile. As the season progressed from race to race the Nostalgia Top Fuel Dragster championship title chase slowly but surely whittled down the list of contenders, but by the time the final event unfolded in Bakersfield there were amazingly still four cars vying for the top honor. The do-or-die weekend was filled with drama and the contest didn’t reach a conclusion until the end of the second round of eliminations. Even then, with the champion crowned, it took a search of the qualifying points to determine who finished second and third, and those two teams not only swapped places during the event, but finished a scant one point apart. For the numbers addicts among us the whole season made for some great racing entertainment.

Let’s take a look back at the season and see who finished where, and how they got there.

By now it is a safe bet that everyone knows that Brett Harris is the 2011 Nostalgia Top Fuel champion. Harris is no stranger to the title having won it before in 2009. Just as he and his father have done before, they pile on the points over the course of the season with their amazing consistency. They may not win all of the races, but it is rare when they aren’t still racing in the late rounds of any race. The Utah-based team has a good handle on their tune-up and appears to be able to run quick and fast at will with little to no damage. Those who race against them know that they’ll have to run quicker than the big red machine as the Posse rarely hands over a race by making a mistake. This year Harris had two wins, a runner-up, and never went out before the semis, to finish the season with a 102 point advantage over his nearest competitor. That equates to about five rounds of racing.

Although the contest for the championship crown drew most of the attention, it was the race for second and third place that provided some of the tightest racing. Ultimately Rick White finished second in the Neal & White entry out of San Diego, but from the opening bell Jim Murphy had White in his crosshairs. White started the season at the top of the standings with a win at the March Meet. At that point he probably wasn’t too concerned about Murphy as Jim was trailing in third position. Murphy had a terrible outing at the next event and slipped to more than three rounds behind White, who also stumbled and relinquished his points lead to race winner Harris. However, by the third event Murphy started to return to form and shook up the points chase by sweeping the event in Sacramento. By collecting the maximum of 118 points he pulled past White by a single point, and into second place behind Harris, who he then trailed by a little over two rounds. Coming into the final event the fortunes of White and Murphy were at even odds. They were both still well within range of winning the championship, and even Terry Cox, now in forth, had put himself in mathematical contention for the crown. In qualifying White again moved around Murphy by qualifying two spots (and 2 points) higher. In eliminations Harris, White, and Murphy all survived the first round to prolong the drama into the final day of racing. But in second round everything came to an end as White lost to Tony Bartone, and then Murphy fell to Harris. White ultimately finished the season a single point ahead of Murphy, 303 to 302. Murphy, we are sure, will look back at his qualifying efforts in Boise and wish for a ‘do over’.

New York’s Tony Bartone spent the season alternately making headline news and then disappearing out of sight. The Eastern seaboard racer ended up fourth in the point standings, but left little doubt that with a more concentrated effort he could have been much higher. Bartone’s efforts were divided between the driving duties of his brother Michael’s Nostalgia Top Fuel Dragster in the Heritage Series and Rick Jackson’s Alcohol Funny Car on the National circuit. When the March Meet was rained out after the first round of eliminations and postponed one week it forced Bartone to miss the rescheduled race when it conflicted with his funny car schedule. He had to settle for first round points even though he was still undefeated. In Boise he made history by recording the third quickest NTF run at 5.57, but then dropped the final round to Harris. That put him temporarily in third spot behind Harris and White. Scheduling once again interfered with Bartone’s plans when he reluctantly had to miss the Sacramento Heritage race to pursue the funny car title, which he ultimately relinquished to Frank Manzo. Missing Sacramento moved him down to fifth position and 158 points out of the lead. At the California Hot Rod Reunion he roared back and again made big news by going to the final where he recorded the fastest ever NTF speed at 269.29 to match his first round jaw-dropping 5.566 ET shot that was heard coast-to-coast. Still he again lost to Harris in the final stopping his point’s accumulation and ultimately landing him in 4th position. Hopefully the schedule will be a little kinder to T-Bone in 2012 and we’ll get to see this team at all of the Heritage races.

Sacramento’s Terry Cox and his Cheetah crew would be good candidates for the comeback award if there were such an award. This team had struggled with parts attrition for the last few seasons while sorting out their late model Chrysler engine combination. Because of that they slipped under everyone’s radar for the first couple of races this year. It wasn’t until Boise that it became apparent that the Dale Adams led team had turned the corner and was now reliably running some big speed numbers. Cox reinforced his newfound strength at his hometown race in September by taking out the point’s leader Harris in the semis, and then narrowly losing to Murphy in the final. Even though they entered the final Bakersfield race with a mathematical shot at the championship it was a long shot to say the least. When Terry dropped a close first round match to Howard Haight his comeback season was over. Even after that loss they continued to test and have since recorded their quickest elapsed time. The Cheetah will be one to watch in 2012.

The central California towns of Fresno and Exeter are only separated by 54 miles, but the closeness doesn’t stop there for two drivers who call those locales their hometowns. Denver Schutz is a farmer from Fresno whose car is named the Raisin Express in a tip of the hat to his livelihood. Rick McGee puts in his time in Exeter making asphalt for road construction, and the name on the car that he campaigns with his father-in-law Darrell Tedford, also hints at how his profession helps fund the team, the Overtime Special. Adding to the similarity of these two blue collar teams is their challenge of making it to all the races. Harvest time and the construction season tend to coincide with the racing season. Both teams had to sit out the Boise and Sacramento races this year, but thanks to their performance at the races they did attend they finished 6th and 7th in points. The parallelism between these two teams was evident at the March when they qualified fifth and sixth. McGee then lost to Murphy in round two, while Denver went to the semis before falling to White. At the CHRR Schutz qualified third and McGee fifth, but this time Denver lost in the second round. Denver’s defeat was at the hands of McGee in a tight 5.73 to 5.77 match. McGee then bowed out a round later to Bartone. One can only wonder how much more exciting the point chase could be if these two popular teams could attend more races.

Finishing in 8th place this year was San Jose’s Brendan Murry. With Mark Malde and the Birky Bunch sitting out this year, and the Champion Speed Shop smallblock car only making a one race appearance, it was up to Brendan to single-handedly carry the colors of the bowtie brigade. Lady Luck was an infrequent passenger in the big block Chevy car, but Brendan gathered points wherever he could. A mid-season attempt at a new engine combination yielded result that were opposite of what Murry had hoped, but he returned to his tried and true combination at year’s end and earned his second top ten finish in the past three years.

The 9th and 11th place finishers should come with an asterisk mark beside their names. Thanks to work commitments (where have we heard that before?) Mike McLennan and Mendy Fry were forced to alternate the driving duties in one car, Mike Fuller’s Forever Young entry. With points being assigned to the driver, rather than the car, McLennan finished 9th and Fry came in at 11th, but collectively they racked up enough points to be in sixth place had either one of them been able to compete at all of the races. It was a classic and unfortunate case of should’a, would’a, could’a.

Sandwiched between Fuller’s drivers was Howard Haight in the Mr. Boston car. Here too was a team with an odd set of challenges. This time it was geography. Imagine trying to race a predominantly western states series with a car that is from Massachusetts, a driver that lives in Indiana, and the tuner from the mountains of California. This team weathered a series of off track setbacks throughout the year and it is a testament to their abilities, combined with some strong performances and sharp driving, that they made their way into the top ten. The fortitude award would have their names engraved on it.

Of course there were other teams that took their turn in the spotlight throughout the season, but not all stood there often enough to rise to the top of the standings. Each team had their own set of challenges, not the least of which was the turbulent national economic conditions. Here, in tribute to these brave men and women, is a list of the dedicated drivers who made an attempt to etch their names in the NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Racing Series history books.