{"id":2413,"date":"2017-02-28T15:16:54","date_gmt":"2017-02-28T15:16:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/?p=2413"},"modified":"2017-02-28T18:20:52","modified_gmt":"2017-02-28T18:20:52","slug":"hagans-2-for-2-season-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/?p=2413","title":{"rendered":"Hagan’s 2 for 2 Season Start"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"(Matt<\/a>

(Matt Hagan’s 24th career win puts him 2 for 2 in NHRA Mello Yello class competition so far this season)<\/p><\/div>\n

Matt Hagan and the Sandvik Coromant\/Mopar Funny Car team with crew chief Dickie Venables and assistant Michael Knudsen are starting off the 2017 season like they did a year ago, and they don’t have any complaints.<\/p>\n

Hagan and their Don Schumacher Racing’s 2017 Dodge Charger R\/T Powered by Pennzoil swept the NHRA Arizona Nationals title and No. 1 qualifying position to match what they did two weeks ago at the season-opener at Pomona, Calif.<\/p>\n

The team also won the 2016 Arizona National title.<\/p>\n

Hagan was able to survive an all-DSR final round when his 3.878 (330.88) slipped past the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge driven by reigning world champion Ron Capps and tuned by Rahn Tobler.<\/p>\n

\"(Matt<\/a>

(Matt Hagan edged out DSR racing teammate Ron Capps in the fuel FC Final which saw both drivers record identical 330.88 mph terminal speeds)<\/p><\/div>\n

“This is just great, man, we’ve got us a hot rod right now, the car is running strong,” said Hagan, the 2011 and 2014 Funny Car world champion and world record-holder for elapsed time and speed.<\/p>\n

“Dickie Venables is killing it out there and the car’s just going down the racetrack every lap. He is putting a real car underneath me and my lights are on point right now. I’m just feeling it; feeling this racecar, this race team. We’re just digging. Everybody’s working hard.”<\/p>\n

Hagan really felt it in the second round when his better reaction at the start enabled his 3.883 (331.61) to beat a quicker 3.871 and faster 332.59 by Tim Wilkerson.<\/p>\n

“It’s just a great feeling to crawl in the car knowing you have the confidence that it’s going to go down the racetrack and run strong and then when your lights are good; it’s a real hard combination to beat.”<\/p>\n

FC class racing at the Arizona Nationals also featured a spirited effort by the Jim Dunn Racing Dodge now driven by Jim Campbell. In just their second event together – that team went to the semi final round.<\/p>\n

\"(Jim<\/a>

(Jim Campbell had a nice race #2 as new driver for Jim Dunn Racing – he scored two upset round wins)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"(Tommy<\/a>

(Tommy Johnson Jr set Low ET of the event at 3.837 secs to qualify #1. He had a final four placing)<\/p><\/div>\n

Event Essentials: \u00a0 NHRA Arizona Nationals (Feb. 24-26th, 2017)\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nNAME<\/strong><\/td>\nET<\/strong><\/td>\nMPH<\/strong><\/td>\nCAREER WIN<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Winner:<\/strong><\/td>\nMatt Hagan<\/td>\n\u00a03.878<\/td>\n330.88<\/td>\n\u00a024th<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
R\/UP:<\/strong><\/td>\nRon Capps<\/td>\n\u00a03.888<\/td>\n330.88<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Low ET:<\/strong><\/td>\nTommy Johnson Jr<\/td>\n\u00a03.837<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Top Speed:<\/strong><\/td>\nRon Capps<\/td>\n<\/td>\n333.58<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bump Spot:<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/td>\n\u00a05.352<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Event Entries:<\/strong><\/td>\n\u00a017 Cars<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\"(Courtney<\/a>

(Courtney Force had a career quick 3.838 secs run to qualify 2nd – but was then upset in round one)<\/p><\/div>\n

Posted with files by Jeff Wolf and Bruce Biegler<\/em><\/p>\n

All Photos by Bob Johnson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matt Hagan and the Sandvik Coromant\/Mopar Funny Car team with crew chief Dickie Venables and assistant Michael Knudsen are starting off the 2017 season like they did a year ago, and they don’t have any complaints. Hagan and their Don Schumacher Racing’s 2017 Dodge Charger R\/T Powered by Pennzoil swept the NHRA Arizona Nationals title […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2413"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2413"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2418,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2413\/revisions\/2418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}