Anderson forces the issue

Monday, Nov. 1, 2004 | 9:26 a.m.

When Greg Anderson left NHRA Pro Stock legend Warren Johnson's team after 12 years to try his hand at driving in the category, Anderson never entertained the thought that he would be able to compete on the same level as Johnson.

So you can imagine how Anderson felt Sunday as he tried to explain his feelings about breaking John Force's 8-year-old record for most victories in a single season. Anderson earned his 14th Pro Stock victory by defeating teammate Jason Line in the final round of the ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals.

"This is only two years doing this," said Anderson, who is in his second full season driving for team owner Ken Black of Las Vegas. "We can't compare ourselves to John Force, we can't compare ourselves to Bob Glidden; we're not that good. Yeah, we broke some of (Force's) records, but that's what's going to stand out in people's minds: he's done it year after year after year and we haven't done that yet."

"Yet" being the operative word. Nobody in the sport has been more dominant than Anderson the past two seasons in which he has captured two NHRA Pro Stock championships and 26 national-event victories.

"I've come a long way in five years," said Anderson, who built Johnson's clutches, transmissions and rear ends before embarking upon his driving career. "The day I left Warren Johnson, I didn't leave thinking I was going to go out and beat Warren Johnson ... I wanted to go out and see if I could drive one of these things, qualify, be competitive in the class and earn a living doing it.

"I knew too much about what (Johnson) had, what his operation was, to think you could ever build anything like that in a short period of time like we've done. Maybe I've set my goals too low, but I never thought it could happen."

Anderson, the No. 2 qualifier to Line, met his teammate in the final for the fifth time this season. Anderson ran 6.796 seconds at 202.52 mph in his Summit Racing Equipment Pontiac Grand Am and nipped Line (6.822 at 201.85) by 10 feet at the finish line.

"I was scared to death in the final round because he's my toughest competition right now," Anderson said. "I feel like an underdog when I race Jason; they've got that car working, it seems, better than mine and he's driving better than I am."

While Anderson shattered one NHRA record Sunday, another remained safe for at least another two weeks. Tony Schumacher, the 2004 Top Fuel champion, was seeking to establish an NHRA record with his 10th victory of the season but was ousted in the second round by Rhonda Hartman-Smith.

Doug Kalitta, the No. 2 qualifier, defeated rookie Morgan Lucas with a run of 4.530 at 329.02 and earned his fourth victory of the season. Lucas, making his seventh career start after replacing the late Darrell Russell in Joe Amato's dragster, ran a 4.612 at 306.40 in his first final-round appearance of the season.

Kalitta earned his first career victory at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and one of his associate sponsors is located in the industrial park adjacent to LVMS.

"It was a good day," Kalitta said. "This facility, I've always wanted to win here. There's nothing like winning at Vegas. With Technicoat, one of our sponsors, they make a real big event out of this with their employees and customers, so it couldn't have been scripted better for everybody there with Technicoat."

John Force, who wrapped up his 13th NHRA Funny Car championship on Saturday night by qualifying for Sunday's eliminations, had his storybook weekend shattered when Gary Scelzi knocked him off in the final. Scelzi ran a 4.790 at 326.32 to Force's 4.754 at 322.81 and earned his third victory of the season.

"He's a great human being," Scelzi said of Force. "He's helped me, he's been a mentor since '97, my first race in Top Fuel, but I love racing the man. You just can't help but just get pumped up to race him because those guys are probably the greatest team that's ever been in drag racing."

In Pro Stock Bike, newcomer Chip Ellis defeated three-time series champion Angelle Savoie in the final and scored his first victory in only his third career start in the class.

"It's sweet," Ellis said. "I'm just overwhelmed (because) I didn't expect to even win a race this season -- I was just wanting to win one round. That was our goal today; to come in here and win one round and then we'll go from there and see what happens.

"We did it."