Monday, January 23, 2012

by Phil Burgess, National DRAGSTER Editor

On the heels of his breakthrough first career NHRA Top Fuel victory late last season in Dallas, Bob Vandergriff Jr. is moving forward with an impressive initiative that may put as many as three cars on the track this season.

Already widely rumored but recently confirmed, Vandergriff will put highly regarded talent J.R. Todd into the seat of a second C&J Energy Services dragster for a number of races this year and also is working to secure a ride for sidelined former three-time NHRA Full Throttle Top Fuel champ Larry Dixon.

“We currently have [Todd] slated to drive at least three to four races and are working on increasing that to around 10-12,” said Vandergriff. “I am waiting to hear back on approvals for the increased funding.”

Todd’s car will run in C&J Energy livery when it debuts in Houston in late April and other events, but will be backed by a “brand new sponsor to the sport” for the NHRA Summer Nationals in Topeka in mid-May.

Todd burst onto the Top Fuel scene in 2006 with a trio of victories, beginning at the Mopar Mile-High Nationals in Denver, where he upset then reigning season champ Tony Schumacher in the final round. He beat Schumacher again in the final round in Sonoma and added a third win in Reading and a runner-up at the fall Las Vegas event. He added two more wins and a runner-up in 2007 – where he finished a career-high seventh in points -- and added his final win to date in 2008, in Dallas, where he again beat Schumacher for the money. He last competed in 2009 during a three-race stint that ended at the year’s Sonoma event.

Dixon, who parted company with the Al-Anabi team this winter, has aggressively been seeking a ride for this season, but is expected to begin the year on the sidelines, though he has announced he will be in Pomona, networking and spectating, during the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals presented by Super Start Batteries season opener. Dixon won season championships with Don Prudhomme in 2002 and 2003 and with Al-Anabi in 2010. He has 62 career wins.

“I’ve got a lot of lines in the water, and whichever one bites is what I’m going to go with,” said Dixon. “Bob and I have talked and I know he’s got a few companies he’s talking to, and if it makes sense for everybody, we’ll definitely go down that road. Right now, I’m also working on trying to put my own team together for 2013 but if Bob was able to put a deal together to make something happen this year, I’d definitely consider it. Bob has definitely shown that he can out together a team that can win.”

“I'm excited about trying to bring Larry Dixon to our team,” said Vandergriff. “I think his credentials are a big asset and bring credibility to our program and what we are trying to build. He provides me another great fit with our team and we are working hard together to present that program to various agencies and companies right now. Between J.R., Larry and myself I would have the drivers to compete against [Don Schumacher Racing] and [Alan Johnson/Al-Anabi Racing]. Now it's just up to me to go find the funding.”

Vandergriff’s season already is off to a flying start as he tested well in Florida, with two 3.82s and two 3.83s, all at more than 322 mph. He also recently renewed his major associate sponsorship with Caterpillar for the 2012 season.

By: Brad Littlefield

 Piece #1 – Acquiring finances

 Acquiring funding for his race team has always been a knack for Vandergriff from the time he made his debut as a complete unknown with Fruit of the Loom sponsorship in 1994 to when he brought in other sponsors, such as Jerzees and UPS.  Vandergriff has a mind that works similarly to a chess or pool player: He’s always thinking several moves ahead in order to create favorable scenarios. The difference between his ability to facilitate sponsorships and the pool and chess analogies is that rather than trying to battle an opponent, he’s looking for scenarios that benefit all parties. “It’s about understanding what we have to offer,” said Vandergriff. “In this sponsorship market, you have to be creative. You have to be careful to understand what it is you’re selling to other companies. A lot of people falter because they don’t understand the strength of our sport vs. our weaknesses. The biggest thing we have to offer is business-to-business opportunities. To be successful in B2B opportunities, you have to be creative. You really have to think about the sixth and seventh move and not just the first. You have to help put people together and do business with this company and that company. “A lot of it goes back to being a little kid and sitting in on my father’s meetings with presidents of companies in the automotive aftermarket industry and making deals with companies like Edelbrock, JEGS, and Summit. I take that model and utilize it for race car sponsorship. Every deal I’ve ever had out here has basically been a function of relationships. Drag racing has a lot to offer on that side. If you ask for money to run one of these cars, you better have something to offer besides exposure.” One example of Vandergriff facilitating relationships that support his race team includes linking C&J Energy Services, a company that provides hydraulic fracturing and coiled tubing services for oil fields, with Caterpillar and getting C&J to start purchasing Cat equipment rather than equipment from their competitors. Vandergriff also famously began his three-year relationship with UPS in 2006 by approaching them with letters from multiple friends and contacts in the drag racing community who pledged to switch their business from shipping competitors to UPS in what amounted to approximately $30 million worth of business.

 Piece #2 – Finding the right personnel

 Vandergriff and Flynn have been friends for 20 years, but the only time they’d been able to work together was during a 10-race run in the 2004 season. They’d been close to working together before and since, but their respective commitments had kept them from doing so until it finally fell into place this season. “Bob and I were friends before he ever drove Top Fuel,” said Flynn. “He became business partners with [artist] Greg Ozubko, who is a very good friend of mine. Bob was a 26-year-old kid back then saying, ‘I want to drive one of these things,’ and he made it happen. “There was one point where we almost ended up with a Fruit of the Loom Funny Car with [Whit] Bazemore, but that never came to be. When we actually did come together in 2004, I had worked with Cruz Pedregon the season before and was out of a job. We were sitting, watching a hockey game at Bob’s brother’s house in Pomona. He said, ‘How much do you think it costs to run a Top Fuel car for 10 races?’ ” Vandergriff, who had been out of racing for four years, and Flynn both utilized friendships and resources to get the funding for a part-time schedule with Haldex and Hedman Hedders offering a few event sponsorships. In their last race together that season, they reached the final round at the Reading event. That opened new doors for Flynn, who had working on Funny Cars from 1994 through 2003. Vandergriff was laying seeds for the UPS deal at that time, but it didn’t come to fruition until 2006, and Flynn had found work late in the 2005 season. “I don’t usually leave jobs — someone usually sends me down the road — so I didn’t want to quit when Bob wanted me to come back over,” said Flynn. “You put people in place on teams, and you feel obligated to ride it out with them instead of running out. I was with the David Powers team, and I went over to [Kenny] Bernstein’s after that went away. I thought that would be a long-term thing, but that wasn’t the case. Bob still wanted me to come over there last year before I went Pro Mod racing, but I had already agreed to do that with Mike. Until that door closed for us, we were racing Pro Mod.” At David Powers Motorsports, Flynn began working with Guger, who became his assistant crew chief, and Fuller. He was also reunited with Beard, for whom he was an assistant crew chief on the McDonald’s dragster in 1993. It became a two-car operation in 2007, and Beard’s dragster tune-up and model for running a multicar operation became the basic setups that Flynn would refine and implement with his current gig. Flynn tuned Brandon Bernstein to one win in five finals during the 2009 season, and he and Guger were released in 2010 after three races. It was the second time Flynn had been released shortly into what he thought would be a long-term position at a high-profile job (the first was a six month stint working on Don Prudhomme’s Funny Car in 2002). Flynn and Guger went overseas to work on two Pro Mods in the Al-Anabi Racing fleet before they got another chance at Top Fuel. “The Pro Mod deal was fun, and we had success with it,” said Flynn. “In the grand scheme of things, this is the top rung in drag racing, so this is where you want to be if you think you belong. We had a plan in place and talked about mistakes we’ve made in the past that we thought we should correct.” Said Guger, “I don’t think a day went by when we didn’t talk about what we’d do different or how we’d approach it if we got the chance to get our hands on it again. We really thought long and hard about it.” Added Flynn, “Bob called me the week before I was to leave Qatar to see if I wanted to run the YAS Marina car in Abu Dhabi. The way it worked out, I would be home for a week and come back. I said, ‘I guess. I’ll see if my family’s OK with it.’ “Lee Beard put the YAS Marina cars together, so it was pretty simple to go over there and run these cars that were clones of what we had at David Powers with very similar components. When we brought them back over here to run 10 races, we outlined the changes that we wanted to make. The changes we implemented have been pretty successful so far.” Flynn and Guger ran the car overseas and worked together on it at the Bristol event to begin their schedule in the U.S. Flynn was in Canada for a wedding during the Chicago event, so Guger was given his first chance to tune a fuel car on his own. “Really, I wanted to throw him out there on his own,” said Flynn. “The best way to do it is to do it yourself. I knew he had a really strong team with all the people in place. Jim Dupuy was running Bob’s car, so it wasn’t like he was totally alone there.” Guger is a veteran who had done every job there is to do on a race car except tune. He began working on Dale Armstrong’s injected Funny Car in 1973 and has been in the fuel ranks since taking a job on Billy Meyer’s Funny Car team in 1980. “I was as nervous as I could be,” said Guger. “You have all the experience, but it’s a different deal when it becomes time to make the final call. You’re not nearly as brave.” Though a cut in the front tire forced them to shut the car off against Dave Grubnic in the first round, the top-half effort gave the teams enough confidence to take a divide-andconquer approach by moving Flynn over to Vandergriff ’s team and making Guger the permanent crew chief for Fuller. A move that Vandergriff made over the off season that has already proved beneficial in attracting quality crewmembers and will become more so upon expansion was moving his shop from Alpharetta, Ga., to Brownsburg, Ind., where the majority of the touring teams are based. “Indy kind of became to us what Charlotte is to NASCAR,” said Vandergriff. “Being in Atlanta, it would be difficult to get eight people to move there. With two teams, those 8-10 people become 18-20 people you’d have to get to move. It’s not realistic. We just felt like it was easier to join ’em than to fight ’em. We’ve been able to upgrade the quality of people that we have.”

 Piece #3 – Working with a purpose

 They  rally around Vandergriff, whose loyalty and opportunity they want to reward. Vandergriff excelled as an athlete from the time he was an all-state football and basketball player at La Habra (California) High School through his exploits on the golf course. He finally met his match when he took on the challenge of Top Fuel racing. “That chip on my shoulder is from being out here 17 years and not being able to compete at the level I’m used to,” said Vandergriff. “Rod, Rob, and Mike have that from being let go from other jobs. We all kind of have that same attitude of wanting to show you something. We use that as motivation. They’ve all worked at some high-profile places and had it not work out for them. The opportunity to come over here and go beat those guys is pretty rewarding.” Vandergriff had made an unprecedented 13 final rounds without scoring a win before he finally put one in the books at the Dallas event this year. His long-awaited first win culminated in a unique celebration in which he ran all the way back down the track to reunite with his team on the starting line. “My very first fuel win as a crew chief was in the very same lane almost 15 years prior to the day,” Flynn recalled. “I wondered if that was fate or divine intervention. I didn’t expect [Spencer Massey] to smoke the tires, but sure enough. It’s almost like being part of history. Bob broke all of the barriers as far as being runner-up. Everyone’s goal is to win races, but getting a win for Bob was my priority. We achieved that, and now it’s time to move on to other things.” “We’ve made leaps and bounds,” said Vandergriff. “I can’t wait to get started for next season. We have new cars being built. We’re getting our cars lighter. Everything we’re doing now is geared toward next year. We want to do some damage.

 February 17^th – 19^th – Firebird Int’l Raceway – Phoenix, AZ

 March 8^th – 11^th – Gainesville Raceway – Gainesville, FL

 March 30^th – April 1^st – The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway – Las Vegas, NV

 April 13^th – 15^th – zMAX Dragway – Charlotte, NC

 April 27^th – 29^th – Royal Purple Raceway – Houston, TX

 May 4^th – 6^th – Atlanta Dragway – Commerce, GA

 May 18^th – 20^th – Heartland Park Topeka, KS

 May 31^st – June 3^rd – Old Bridge Township Raceway Park – Englishtown, NJ

 June 15^th – June 17^th – Bristol Dragway – Bristol, TN

 June 28^th – July 1^st – Route 66 Raceway – Chicago, IL

 July 5^th – July 8^th – Summit Motorsports Park – Norwalk, OH

 July 20^th – 22^nd – Bandimere Speedway – Denver, CO

 July 27^th – 29^th – Infineon Raceway – Sonoma, CA

 August 3^rd – 5^th – Pacific Raceways – Seattle, WA

 August 16^th – 19^th – Brainerd Int’l Raceway – Brainer, MN

 August 29^th – September 3^rd – Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis – Indianapolis, IN

 September 14^th – 16^th – zMAX Dragway – Charlotte, NC

 September 20^th – 23^rd – Texas Motorplex – Dallas, TX

 September 28^th – 30^th – Gateway Motor Sports Park – St. Louis, MO

 October 4^th – 7^th – Maple Grove Raceway – Reading, PA

 October 25^th – 28^th – The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway – Las Vegas, NV

 November 8^th – 11^th – Auto Club Raceway at Pomona – Pomona, CA

To see full 2012 schedule and to purchase tickets click here

 Click here to watch video of the ringing.

About C&J Energy Services, Inc. (NYSE: CJES):
C&J Energy Services is an independent provider of premium hydraulic fracturing, coiled tubing and pressure pumping services with a focus on complex, technically demanding well completions. In addition, through its subsidiary Total E&S, Inc., C&J manufactures and repairs equipment to fulfill its internal needs as well as for companies in the energy services industry. C&J operates in what it believes to be some of the most geologically challenging basins in South Texas, East Texas/North Louisiana, Western Oklahoma/Texas Panhandle and West Texas/East New Mexico. C&J is in the process of acquiring additional hydraulic fracturing fleets and evaluating opportunities with existing and new customers to expand its operations into new areas throughout the United States with similarly demanding completion and stimulation requirements.

Headquartered in Houston, C&J Energy Services began its involvement with the Vandergriff team during the 2009 season, starting with a limited role as a primary sponsor at selected events. C&J stepped up to become the primary sponsor of the team for the full season in 2011, a season that included Vandergriff’s first Top Fuel win, which occurred in C&J’s home state at the AAA Texas NHRA Fall Nationals in September.

Vandergriff was in attendance for the ceremony.

“It was quite an honor for me and my wife, Marisa, to be guests of C&J Energy Services and their lead banker for the IPO, Goldman Sachs, at the New York Stock Exchange,” he said. “It was one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences that you hope to attend someday.”

C&J Energy Services will again be the primary sponsor of Bob Vandergriff Racing in 2012. The win in Dallas, plus strong finishes at the final four events of the 2011 season, have the team ready to challenge for a spot in the 2012 NHRA Full Throttle Countdown to the Championship.

C&J Energy Services is an independent provider of premium hydraulic fracturing, coiled tubing, and pressure pumping services with a focus on complex, technically demanding well completions. The company has a market capitalization of $1.14 billion.

A secondary definition of “upset” is an “unexpected” result and Vandergriff’s win at the Texas Motorplex certainly qualifies – you would be hard-pressed to have found a soul who was there that day at the Motorplex who had money on the C&J Energy Services dragster.

After all, not only was he racing as an independent against the powerful teams from Alan Johnson Racing and Don Schumacher Racing, he also owned the dubious distinction of being the NHRA driver who’d been to the most final rounds (13) without ever tasting victory.

Couple that with the fact that he’d only qualified eighth that day, and he would have to defeat seven-time world champ top-qualifier Tony Schumacher in the quarterfinals, No. 4 qualifier Brandon Bernstein in the semifinals, and then-points-leader Spencer Massey in the finals, and it was an uphill climb – an "upset" – of really epic proportions.

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The celebration was long building. In winning, Vandergriff snapped the longest streak of final-round appearances before a win in NHRA history.

"I knew it was going to happen, but I was hoping it was this time because I couldn't take another 'it's-all-right' speech, because it's not all right," said Vandergriff, who overcame a sideways start to win at 239.44 mph while Spencer Massey smoked his tires. "I didn't want my guys jumping all over the starting line and me down there hearing cricket noises all by myself."

Left outside the Countdown to the Championship playoff, Vandergriff beat a formidable list of favorites, including seven-time champion and No.1 qualifier Tony Schumacher in the second round.