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Usually, in this crazy sport of NHRA Drag Racing, being the picture of high performance consistency pays off with just rewards. Sometimes, much to the contrary, luck will treat the inconsistent to results they've barely earned. And at other times, those who do everything right still find a frustrating way to come up just a hair short. Just ask Jeff Arend.
On a beautiful Sunday in New Jersey, Arend drove his blue Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Impala SS to E.T.s of 4.965, 4.976, and 4.960, as he participated in three rounds of racing before bowing out. At the tree, Arend posted reaction times of .086, .088, and .091, all right in line with the season average of .082 he brought to Raceway Park. Throughout the day, he kept the car straight, kept it whole, and earned his wins. But all he, and most everyone else, will remember is his heartbreaking loss in the semi-finals, as Tommy Johnson edged him by mere feet to take the win, with a 4.961 beating Arend's 4.960. With the final round so close he could taste it, the fine showing still featured a bitter end.
"We had a great day, and we all did everything just about right," Arend said. "We put three great laps on the board, we never had a walk-over or an easy race at all, and we had the goods to win the race, but we came up just a few feet short in the semi-final and that always hurts. By the time you get that far, you know the final round is right there for you and you can't help but think about that and want it to happen. We'll get there, but we got edged out here, by a very good team having a very good day."
Arend and his teammate, Del Worsham, represented the yin and yang of qualifying, with Worsham the one demonstrating uncanny consistency at or near the top of the class. Arend, meanwhile, put one sold lap on the board during the four qualifying sessions, but he picked the right time to do it, running 4.841 on Friday night. That lap earned him the 13th spot in yet another tough field (they will, no doubt, all be tough for the rest of this season,) and Arend ran his 2007 qualifying streak to 10-for-10, sharing that honor with Gary Scelzi and absolutely nobody else.
"We made a good lap on Friday night, but not what we were really after," Arend said. "If the weather would have cooperated just a little more on Saturday, that 4.84 would have been pretty vulnerable, but as it turned out nobody really had much of a shot at it. What concerned us was the last qualifying lap, where the car was just really down on power for no good reason. Chris (Cunningham) and Marc (Denner) made the call to put a new motor and a new blower on the car for Sunday, just to make sure we had fresh power, but that meant we were going into race day with some doubts about what we really had in there."
What they had was on car on rails. Arend faced Scott Kalitta in round one, and powered end-to-end with his 4.965, leaving Kalitta far behind on a track which was not without it's challenging aspects, while teammate Worsham suffered mechanical woes and saw his ultra-consistency turn into a surprising first-round loss. Apparently, at that moment, the yin became yang and Arend took over the role of Mr. CSK Consistency.
In round two, Arend proved the ability to repeat had moved to his side of the CSK camp, as he raced Tim Wilkerson, side-by-side, for the length of the historic Raceway Park track. At the finish line, it was Arend's 4.976 besting Wilky's 5.020, and the blue team was on their way to their second semi-final of the year, where they would face No. 1 qualifier Tommy Johnson.
"The car was a dream today," Arend said. "We just had it on 'repeat mode' and it was doing everything Chris and Marc wanted it to do. We went up there against T.J. in the semi, knowing they were running the table all weekend, having been No. 1 qualifier and then coming back from a huge fire in the first round to win again. There was no plan to doing anything stupid or anything outrageous, we just went up there to do what we had done for the first two rounds."
As noted, Arend and his team did that. Their E.T. was their quickest of the day. The driver left just as he has all year. The car stayed stuck to the track and right in the middle. But the "win light" came on in the other lane, as the Skoal car inched ahead for the victory, and a trip to the final round.
"At the moment, it just about kills you," Arend said. "You start to go through all the 'why's and why nots' and you can't figure out why you can't be a little quicker here, a little faster there, or even just a little lucky. But, you know, it is what it is and we won two rounds here today. I know 12 teams that qualified, and four that didn't even make the show here, who would all instantly trade places with us.
"We wanted to be in the final, and we felt we could certainly win this race if we had been there, but we had a great day all around. My guys put a great car on the track for three straight rounds, and we nailed the numbers each time. We just lost by a few feet. We'll go to Norwalk with our heads high and our confidence right there with it. I wish it would have been more perfect here, but it was very good."
AREND'S AMAZING CONSISTENCY PAYS OFF WITH SEMI-FINAL FINISH
Usually, in this crazy sport of NHRA Drag Racing, being the picture of high performance consistency pays off with just rewards. Sometimes, much to the contrary, luck will treat the inconsistent to results they've barely earned. And at other times, those who do everything right still find a frustrating way to come up just a hair short. Just ask Jeff Arend.
On a beautiful Sunday in New Jersey, Arend drove his blue Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Impala SS to E.T.s of 4.965, 4.976, and 4.960, as he participated in three rounds of racing before bowing out. At the tree, Arend posted reaction times of .086, .088, and .091, all right in line with the season average of .082 he brought to Raceway Park. Throughout the day, he kept the car straight, kept it whole, and earned his wins. But all he, and most everyone else, will remember is his heartbreaking loss in the semi-finals, as Tommy Johnson edged him by mere feet to take the win, with a 4.961 beating Arend's 4.960. With the final round so close he could taste it, the fine showing still featured a bitter end.
"We had a great day, and we all did everything just about right," Arend said. "We put three great laps on the board, we never had a walk-over or an easy race at all, and we had the goods to win the race, but we came up just a few feet short in the semi-final and that always hurts. By the time you get that far, you know the final round is right there for you and you can't help but think about that and want it to happen. We'll get there, but we got edged out here, by a very good team having a very good day."
Arend and his teammate, Del Worsham, represented the yin and yang of qualifying, with Worsham the one demonstrating uncanny consistency at or near the top of the class. Arend, meanwhile, put one sold lap on the board during the four qualifying sessions, but he picked the right time to do it, running 4.841 on Friday night. That lap earned him the 13th spot in yet another tough field (they will, no doubt, all be tough for the rest of this season,) and Arend ran his 2007 qualifying streak to 10-for-10, sharing that honor with Gary Scelzi and absolutely nobody else.
"We made a good lap on Friday night, but not what we were really after," Arend said. "If the weather would have cooperated just a little more on Saturday, that 4.84 would have been pretty vulnerable, but as it turned out nobody really had much of a shot at it. What concerned us was the last qualifying lap, where the car was just really down on power for no good reason. Chris (Cunningham) and Marc (Denner) made the call to put a new motor and a new blower on the car for Sunday, just to make sure we had fresh power, but that meant we were going into race day with some doubts about what we really had in there."
What they had was on car on rails. Arend faced Scott Kalitta in round one, and powered end-to-end with his 4.965, leaving Kalitta far behind on a track which was not without it's challenging aspects, while teammate Worsham suffered mechanical woes and saw his ultra-consistency turn into a surprising first-round loss. Apparently, at that moment, the yin became yang and Arend took over the role of Mr. CSK Consistency.
In round two, Arend proved the ability to repeat had moved to his side of the CSK camp, as he raced Tim Wilkerson, side-by-side, for the length of the historic Raceway Park track. At the finish line, it was Arend's 4.976 besting Wilky's 5.020, and the blue team was on their way to their second semi-final of the year, where they would face No. 1 qualifier Tommy Johnson.
"The car was a dream today," Arend said. "We just had it on 'repeat mode' and it was doing everything Chris and Marc wanted it to do. We went up there against T.J. in the semi, knowing they were running the table all weekend, having been No. 1 qualifier and then coming back from a huge fire in the first round to win again. There was no plan to doing anything stupid or anything outrageous, we just went up there to do what we had done for the first two rounds."
As noted, Arend and his team did that. Their E.T. was their quickest of the day. The driver left just as he has all year. The car stayed stuck to the track and right in the middle. But the "win light" came on in the other lane, as the Skoal car inched ahead for the victory, and a trip to the final round.
"At the moment, it just about kills you," Arend said. "You start to go through all the 'why's and why nots' and you can't figure out why you can't be a little quicker here, a little faster there, or even just a little lucky. But, you know, it is what it is and we won two rounds here today. I know 12 teams that qualified, and four that didn't even make the show here, who would all instantly trade places with us.
"We wanted to be in the final, and we felt we could certainly win this race if we had been there, but we had a great day all around. My guys put a great car on the track for three straight rounds, and we nailed the numbers each time. We just lost by a few feet. We'll go to Norwalk with our heads high and our confidence right there with it. I wish it would have been more perfect here, but it was very good."
