msrpk.com blog

"Jeg, Tony Pedregon & Larry Dixon and the Catchfence Today's Winners at Englishtown"

Defending Pro Stock Champ Jeg Coughlin, Jr after his win over Mike Edwards at the NHRA Full Throttle US Supernationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park. Jeg is two for two weeks in final rounds going into the break this weekend.

Tony Pedregon is also two for two weeks in Funny Car final wins--Tony took home the Wally by defeating Ashley Force Hood in the finals for the second consecutive week, and now sits atop those points going into the break.

Larry Dixon won his fifth Top Fuel title here when point leader Antron Brown redlighted in the final round. Dixon notches another win for the Alan Johnson Al-Anabi Racing squad...Dixon now is 4th in Top Fuel points going into the break.

The big winner of the weekend is the catch fencing system the Napp family (track operators) installed after last year's fatal accident involving Scott Kalitta. The system consists of a sand trap, two sets of catch netting and a barrel system designed to soak up impact. The system was tested twice in a row in the Alcohol Funny Car class--first by former Olympic cycling Gold Medalist Marty Nothstein, whose dragster suffered a parachute malfunction and found the first net. Nothstein was gnashing his teeth when he emerged from the car--but was OK.

The top end crew took a half hour to reset the system--good thing there, since on the next run, the Alcohol Funny Car of Alexis DeJoria suffered a parachute failure, and contacted both sets of catch nets. DeJoria was unhurt but miffed, since her car was fast enough to have won her drag race. De Joria's car bent the nose 90 degrees. Better that than bending the driver.

The best comment was from the New Jersey State Police Auto Racing Safety Unit. The officers "couldn't have been happier" after their investigation of what happened when they saw how the net and sand trap worked. In New Jersey, the State Police is empowered to enforce safety regulations at all auto racing events in the Garden State. That unit has a more grim mission when not at the track--it investigates fatal accidents in NJ.

Dixon said "you can thank Scott Kalitta for that (the improved catch fencing system at the top end).

We're not at a race track until late June at Richmond--we'll be busy with a web site redesign and administrative tasks that need attention. If something blows up in F1 or something major happens with the Mayfield fiasco, or other auto racing major news, we'll post here, and Tweet on Twitter.