Brandon Bernstein new hire for Alan Johnson

"Brandon Bernstein and former Morgan Lucas Racing crew chief Joe Barlam are moving to Al-Anabi Racing.

That didn't take long. Brandon Bernstein and Joe Barlam, released on Tuesday from Morgan Lucas Racing, have joined Al-Anabi Racing, the team announced on Wednesday.
Bernstein, a 19-time Top Fuel race winner, joins Al-Anabi Racing as the team's general manager filling the position vacated by Chad Head one year ago.

 Prior to joining Morgan Lucas Racing in 2012, Bernstein served as the driver and general manager of his father Kenny's NHRA race team from late in 2009 through the end of the 2011 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season. Bernstein began his new job Wednesday and will report directly to Al-Anabi Racing team manager Alan Johnson.

“Yesterday, Morgan came in over at Morgan Lucas Racing and notified us that we weren't going to be able to run our car [the Protect The Harvest/MAV TV Top Fuel dragster] next season,” Brandon Bernstein said. “We didn't have the extra funding to go along with the Lucas Oil funding, and they decided not to run the car. Obviously, I was out of a job at that point and started making phone calls.

“I made a call to A.J. (Alan Johnson) and just told him that if there were a position available at Al-Anabi Racing, I would want to look at it and would greatly appreciate being considered. We talked for a while, and he said 'Well, let me think about it.' I got a call late last night, and he said, 'Am I talking to my new GM?' I said, 'I don't know, are you?' And he said, “The offer is there.' I said, 'Absolutely, I'll take it.'

“I was very excited. It's a new chapter in my life that I am ready to start to be honest. It's going to be fun; I think Al-Anabi Racing is the best place to be in Top Fuel drag racing so I'm excited to be here. It's gonna be good.”

While Bernstein does have more than two full seasons of experience as a general manager, driving a Top Fuel dragster is clearly his passion. So what would Bernstein do should the phone ring with an offer to get back into the car?

“It's something AJ and I discussed,” Bernstein said. “If something does come about, I'll look at it, speak with him and see if it's something I want to pursue. I love competing, I love racing these Top Fuel cars -- that's my passion, but who knows? This may be something that I enjoy even more, and we'll just see.”

Barlam, who served as Bernstein's crew chief at Morgan Lucas Racing, will join Khalid alBalooshi's gold Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel team as its assistant crew chief alongside crew chief Jason McCulloch. Ronnie Thompson, who served as McCulloch's assistant crew chief as well as car chief for the last two years, will be allowed to focus more on the car chief role of overseeing preparation of the gold Al-Anabi dragster. AlBalooshi finished eighth in the 2013 NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings improving from his 11th-place finish one year ago in his rookie season. He has two Top Fuel wins in four final-round appearances.

“We are very happy to add Brandon and Joe to the Al-Anabi Racing Team,” Johnson said. “I was in the process of filling our general manager position when Brandon became available yesterday, and it seemed like the perfect fit. He has experience as a driver, a crew member and a general manager so he fits perfectly into the position. Thanks to Shawn Langdon for his help in filling this role this season. We are also very happy to have Joe on board. Joe will bring a wealth of knowledge to Khalid alBalooshi's team and allow Ronnie to focus more consistently on the race car which should make that team stronger next season.”

FORCE No. 1 AT AUTO CLUB FINALS; FIRST THREE SECOND FC PASS IN POMONA HISTORY

49^th annual Auto Club NHRA Finals

Auto Club Raceway at Pomona

Pomona, CA

November 7-10, 2013

Final race in the NHRA Mello Yello Series

Final race in the Countdown to the Championship

POMONA, CA (November 9, 2013) –John Force will go into race day at the 49^th annual Auto Club NHRA Finals as the No. 1 qualifier. Force was the provisional No. 1 qualifier on Friday on the strength of his Castrol GTX Ford Mustang Funny Car’s 4.015 second pass. Today during the final qualifying session Force was bumped back by Matt Hagan’s 4.014 second pass before the newly crowned 16-time Mello Yello NHRA Funny Car champion raced into the record books with the first three second pass in Funny Car history at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, 3.995 seconds at 319.37 mph.

Force and his Jimmy Prock tuned Castrol GTX Ford Mustang have put together a historic string of qualifying efforts over the last four races. From coast to coast Force has an average best qualifying elapsed time of 4.004 seconds. Starting in St. Louis (No. 3, 4.023 sec), Reading, Pa. (No.1, 3.987 sec), Las Vegas2 (No.1, 4.011 sec) and today at Pomona2 (No. 1, 3.995 sec). Three of the four runs have been track records (St. Louis, Las Vegas2 and Pomona2).

At the top end Force exited his Castrol GTX Ford Mustang Funny Car and showered his crew chief brain-trust and his sponsors with praise.

 “What about that Jimmy Prock! That was pretty impressive when we saw Courtney (Force) run that 4.01 Mike Neff went into the box with Robert (Hight’s Auto Club Mustang) and everybody was going for it. Hagan comes up with a 4.01 and took low from me,” said Force. “I saw that look on Jimmy Prock’s face because he has seen what everyone else has done. Jimmy told me on the radio to ‘Hold on kid!’ I just want to thank all the sponsors Castrol, Traxxas, Auto Club, Ford, Mac Tools, BrandSource and Freightliner. We did that on Goodyear tires which was awesome. I want to thank Auto Club for extending our sponsorship.”  

This was Force’s record 146^th No. 1 qualifier and it was his third in a row and sixth of the season. Force has won the last two races from the No. 1 spot and he will face journeyman Funny Car driver Bob Bode in the first round.

“First I am not writing any history. Jimmy Prock runs that Funny Car like I said yesterday. Right now we are on a roll and it is just working. This is a team effort with Mike Neff, Ron Douglas, Dean Antonelli, John Medlen working with Jimmy and Danny DeGennaro. We are all one team. Neff pushed it and went for it with Robert. Courtney ran 4.01. I saw the look on Jimmy Prock’s face and I knew he was going for it. The Schumacher’s they beat us to the threes but we got the record here at my home track in Pomona in front of a pretty good crowd. I am pretty excited,”

Force described the second three second run of his career to the media in the Shav Glick Media Center with his trademark enthusiasm.

“I knew it was a good run. I could hear my guys yelling. I knew it ran in the threes. It is just a feeling that you get. It is a rocket ship that goes down through there and it didn’t vibrate,” said Force. “It was on a mission. I heard my guys on the radio but they didn’t tell me exactly what it ran. I knew she ran in the threes I just didn’t know how quickly.”

In the pair right before Force’s historic run Robert Hight and the Auto Club Funny Car team were making their own bid for history. With the conditions improving rapidly crew chief Mike Neff was trying to get the maximum effort out of the track and was successful for approximately 700 feet. At the top end at the Auto Club Mustang was charging on all eight cylinders but Hight hazed the Goodyears and slowed as he crossed the finish line.

“We are ready for race day. We were going for a low elapsed time run and we just overpowered the track a little bit. That was all it took to smoke the tires,” said Hight, the No. 5 qualifier. “We can back it down and be ready for round one tomorrow. Our goal is to move up as high as we can in the points. We got bonus points in three straight qualifying sessions before the final qualifying session. This Auto Club Ford Mustang has been consistent all weekend and we will be ready to close out the season on a high note.”

Hight will face perennial championship contender Ron Capps in the first round. Both drivers are looking to move up in the points. Hight holds a 22-14 record against Capps. This will be the third time they have faced each other at the Auto Club NHRA Finals and currently their head to head record is 1-1 in the season finale.

Courtney Force opened up qualifying today in a great side-by-side match-up next to Capps. The sophomore driver posted a 4.109 elapsed time at over 312 mph and moved up a few spots in the Funny Car field. The Traxxas team had to bring out their back-up body after a small explosion on Friday during the second qualifying session.

“We had to switch bodies after yesterday. We put the pink car back on since we ruined our rookie car which is a bummer, but we’re excited that we’ve had some pretty good luck with the pink Funny Car. We went out there in the first session and ran a 4.10, which stepped us up a little, but the conditions weren’t quite perfect yet. We kept it safe on the first run and on the second we wanted to improve. We were looking for something better and we found it in Q4,” said Force.

The 25-year-old raced her pink Traxxas Ford Mustang to a 4.016 second run at over 319 mph in the fourth and final qualifying session today. Temperatures dropped quickly as the sun went down and helped to move the Traxxas team up into the top half of the field.

“In the final session we ran a 4.01 and went towards the top which is what we wanted. I’m very proud of my team. They thrashed to get that car ready for qualifying today and to go out and put a 4.01 on the board makes us very excited for what can happened tomorrow,” said Force.

Force will go into Sunday in the No. 3 spot and take on Funny Car competitor and Ford racer Bob Tasca III. Force is 7-1 to Tasca in previous match-ups.

The Castrol EDGE Top Fuel dragster continued to impress on the final day of qualifying. Rookie driver Brittany Force lowered her career best elapsed time for the second day in a row posting a 3.784 second run at 323.74 mph. The run was good enough to keep the Automobile Club of Southern California Road to the Future contender in the top half of the field in the No. 8 position.

“I’m very excited about our weekend out here. It’s definitely a tough field out here in Pomona for the last race of the season. Everyone is really trying to qualify well to get those extra bonus points. Our car has been running great. We ran our best ET ever, a 3.78, and we just did it again in the last session. We have a really good car- the best it’s ever run. It’s really consistent. We were No. 4 at the beginning of the day but got bumped down to No. 8. I’m really excited for tomorrow,” said Force.

Force will face Spencer Massey for the sixth time this season. Force recently defeated Massey in Las Vegas for the first time in five attempts.

“I’ve raced Spencer quite a few times and he’s kicked my butt in the past, but he’s fun to race. I got him last race in Vegas, but our plan is to go out there and get past first round. It’s going to be a tough match-up, but it’s nothing that our Castrol EDGE team can’t handle,” added Force.

 

 

No World Chanp for Antron This Year

"POMONA, Calif. (Nov. 9, 2013) - The resiliency exhibited by Antron Brown and the Matco Tools team during the last four events of the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season truly has been worthy of world champions.

Brown has remained poised and confident in his Don Schumacher Racing team and was the best dragster over the past three events, but on Saturday he was eliminated from contention to repeat as the NHRA Top Fuel world champion.

Brown, who has won four titles this year, started Saturday's last day of qualifying trailing leader Shawn Langdon by 104 points and despite cutting the gap to 101 in Saturday's opening session when his time of 3.798 seconds at 320.58 mph was quickest of the heat to earn three bonus points while Langdon smoked the tires and was shut out.

Brown needed to earn three more as the quickest on the fourth and final session while Langdon could not earn any in order for Brown's hopes to be extended to Sunday.

But both drivers lost traction on their last runs, and that made it mathematically impossible for him to catch Langdon, who takes a 104-point lead into Sunday when the most Brown could earn is 100.

"We both were going for it, you could tell," Brown said. "The track was great and the car left really well. We were going for it, stepped on it, gave it our best shot, and we'll never hang our heads. We just work as hard as we can each and every day.

"And we have a race tomorrow, four more rounds of racing. We're looking forward to getting out there tomorrow because our car has run exceptionally well this weekend. It's run exceptionally well the three races before this one.

"Our Matco/Toyota/U.S. Army team has worked hard and no one was going to give up until it was impossible to catch him," Brown said, adding praise for crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald, assistant Brad Mason and the rest of the crew.

"For the fourth straight race our team has been phenomenal and we're going to finish out the year on a good note ... that's going to be determined by tomorrow's outcome. We just want to go out, have some fun and win this race."