After a tumultuous Friday night round of qualifying, Saturday went off smoothly as the cool winds and warm track helped drivers push their vehicles to the limit in the third and fourth rounds of qualifying at the DENSO NHRA Sonoma Nationals.
Top Fuel
Reigning Sonoma Champion Doug Kalitta maintained his pole position, heading into Sunday’s finals with a casual confidence. “I think today is pretty similar to what’s going to happen tomorrow,” he said. “I’m in a good spot.”
Kalitta’s cool demeanor ties into his deep familiarity with the Sonoma Raceway, having earned six wins there and a spot on its Hall of Fame. “I got my first win here, and that was a big deal back in the day,” he said. “We just have to keep the tradition going here and keep trying to get wins.”
Shawn Langdon, Billy Torrence, Tony Stewart and Tony Schumacher round out the top 5 heading into Sunday.
Kalitta will face 14 seed Clay Millican to start Sunday.
Funny Car
Rookie Jordan Vandergriff also maintained his lead heading into the finals. He said he almost couldn’t believe the timeslip when he saw it. “I felt fast, but 3.896 [ET] is really, really fast for Q3,” Vandergriff said.
In his first year in the sport, the former reality television star said the mental strain has been his biggest challenge to ease into it.
“It’s my first full year experiencing all these things, so I’m trying to battle through it in my head. But, coming here and having a weekend so far like we’ve had here, it gives me all the confidence in my guys and my team,” he said. “At the end of the day, when that car fires up, all the nerves go away, all the thoughts go away, and I just do my job.”
Jack Beckman, Daniel Wilkerson, Ron Capps and Chad Green round out the top 5 heading into the finals.
Vandergriff will face 16 seed Jason Rupert to start Sunday.
Race within a race
Funny Car driver Ron Capps won the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, which is a race within a race that pits prior finalists against each other again for a prize purse and points during the qualifying runs.
“The points are incredible, that they go into our bank when the countdown starts. It’s really cool.” he said.
Caps said that he races best when he shows up as a racer, rather than the owner, of his team. “I’m here today to make my crew chief as proud as possible and do the best I could do in the car,” he said.
Another Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, Top Fuel winner Shawn Langdon gave the credit of his win to his team.
“it’s just the consistency of what the Kalitta group has done in the last couple of years of going rounds and taking advantage of opportunities,” he said.
After breaking out of a losing streak for the Kalitta Team, Langdon said they are ready to keep the momentum going.
”A couple of years ago we couldn’t buy a win,” Langdon said, “and now it seems it’s just the right place at the right time. When we can make a mistake we seem to get away with it, but when we have to be good, we’re great.”
Regardless, in this sport of constant ups and downs, Langdon thinks the point is to have fun. ”We’re just trying to ride the wave and enjoy it,” he said.
Pro Stock
Following in the footsteps of Kalitta and Vandergriff, Chris Vang also maintained his pole position heading into the finals.
Father and son Greg and Aaron Stanfield will also face off on the first round of eliminations.
Cody Anderson, Erica Enders, Matt Hartford and Shane Tucker round out the top 5 heading into Sunday
Vang will face 16 seed Mason McGaha to start Sunday.
Pro Stock Motorcycle
While the Pro Stock Motorcycle category did not field a full race, they did have the GETTRX All-Star Pro Stock Motorcycle Callout that allowed for eight racers to call out the fellow competitors that made the trip to the West Coast.
Winner of the challenge Gauge Herrera gave the credit of his bike’s speed to Andrew Hines.
”He’s been on it all weekend, you know. First round we came out here he smoked the clutch and from there the bike came to life,” Herrera said.
He had always had bad luck on the Sonoma racetrack, but said everything clicked once he broke in his bike’s new motor.
“It felt like my bike was back,” he said. “I came in this morning and I said, ‘it’s just the mentality you come with,’ and it worked out in my favor. I haven’t had that feeling in a long time.”
The DENSO NHRA Sonoma Nationals continues Sunday, with gates opening at 8 a.m.
