BILL STEPHENS “IN THE GROOVE” 6/21/10

It almost defies description.

John’s fourth win of 2010 on Sunday in Bristol was as dominant, determined, and downright dizzying as any of the previous 129 career victories he has scored. The performance resurgence JFR has enjoyed this season is the biggest story in the sport and you would have to acknowledge at this point on the schedule that John has regained favorite status when it comes to the 2010 Full Throttle championship.

John has also regained the points lead after losing briefly to Robert. The distance between John and his son-in-law is now 48 points—a little more than two rounds of eliminations—as we head for the fourth consecutive race in the month of June this coming week in Norwalk, Ohio. The simple fact is that any driver in the class is capable of turning red hot and making life difficult for everyone at JFR but the performance stats that we’ve seen the John’s teams collectively tally up so far this season is nothing short of phenomenal. What I find most remarkable is that this was the first time John has won a national event on Father’s Day and when you consider how many races over the past four decades the Champ has competed in on the NHRA trail, that stat alone is most inexplicable.

I really thought John’s post-race interview in the NHRA Media Center was classic Force. Here are a few of his quotes:

“The race track can be tricky. We were worried coming here. We have been good on good race tracks like Jimmy Prock we can make big thunder out there. Boy the last few races we have been getting spanked. We can’t get down the race track Jimmy (Prock, crew chief for the Auto Club Mustang) or us. We adapted to it today. Jimmy will too because he knows everything that we do. My son-in-law Robert Hight, I have never seen a guy like that.”

“I’ve got a great team. Not just Austin Coil, Bernie Fedderly and Mike Neff. I have a whole bunch of young guys, the kids that put my Mustang together. I don’t know how they do it. When you look at the run we are on going into the Western Swing plus where we have already been. I haven’t been home in probably five weeks. I’ve been on the road racing and doing shows. It is what you do. To come here to this race track and I go way back to the old trace track with Shirl Greer and (Don) Prudhomme.”

“Greer was the (first Funny Car) champion. (Long-time team owner) Jim Dunn and all those guys in the early days I always said I all I had was a prayer I didn’t have any money. I’ve been with Castrol 25 years but back then all I had was a prayer. None of my current sponsors like Castrol, Ford, Mac Tools, BrandSource or Auto Club were with me. I just came in praying to the Lord that he would be with me.”

Ashley was thrilled that her dad picked up his fourth win of the season but there was certainly some disappointment in her own performance after qualifying No. 1 and then losing in Round 2 to Tim Wilkerson, who John beat in the final. Robert stunned everyone with his first round loss—something he hasn’t run into very much all year. But as John has said countless times in the past, when one JFR car wins, the entire team wins and that’s why there are so many championships in residence at the Yorba Linda headquarters.

I’ll be in Norwalk this weekend shooting interviews for my series, “The NHRA’s Greatest Races—Season II” which will be debuting in January on Discovery HD Theater. More on the series later on.

Right now, it’s time to start packing for Norwalk.