Saturday's Winternationals photo blog
Saturday, February 11, 2012
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| Friday night's NHRA Night of Champions at the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum presented by the Automobile Club of Southern California allowed fans to interact with and ask questions of NHRA Full Throttle drivers David Grubnic, Morgan Lucas, Erica Enders, Jeff Arend, Antron Brown, and Jack Beckman. |
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[9:30 a.m.] While the NHRA Safety Safari presented by AAA took care of some residual wetness from early-morning rain showers, it was business as usual in the pits, and the Full Throttle teams got ready for the first qualifying session of the day, which is still scheduled for 11 a.m.
(Left) Funny Car rookie Alexis DeJoria did an interview with Joe Castello of WFO Radio while (below) the team for Courtney Force's new Traxxas Mustang readied their car for the first shot of the day at the Pomona track. |
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[10:55 a.m.] The Pro Stock cars are in the staging lanes and prepped for the day's first qualifying session. |
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[11:25 a.m.] Jason Line (above) took over the No. 1 qualifying spot in Pro Stock with a 6.535 at 212.23 in the Summit Racing Pontiac. (Left) The Mustang of Grace Howell and car owner Jim Cunningham currently sits on the bump spot. The duo ran six races together at the end of last season without cracking the show. They'll have to fend off Warren Johnson and Steve Kent, who will try to overtake them in the final qualifying session. |
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Prior to the first Full Throttle qualifying session, NHRA staged an autograph session to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the NHRA Jr. Drag Racing League. Current Jr. Dragster pilots and famous alumni of the program including Shawn Langdon, Morgan Lucas, Spencer Massey, Grace Howell, J.R. Todd, and Buddy Perkinson met fans, answered questions, and signed autographs. (Left) Top Fuel star Massey rubbed elbows with Taylor Merrill. |
John Force, daughter Courtney, and fellow team drivers Robert Hight and Mike Neff took part in a Q&A with fans on the Automobile Club of Southern California stage prior to the day's first qualifying session. |
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[12:40 p.m.] Robert Hight took over the No. 1 spot in Funny Car with a 4.060 in the Auto Club Ford. Johnny Gray (below) is the No. 3 qualifier with a 4.098. Sandwiched between the two with a 4.068 is Thursday's field leader Jack Beckman. |
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[1:20 p.m.] After relinquishing the Top Fuel qualifying lead to Spencer Massey (above), who ripped off a 3.820 in his Prestone dragster, Morgan Lucas (left) took the No. 1 spot back with an impressive, career-best 3.783 at 325.06 on the final pass of the event's third qualifying session.
The Auto Club Raceway at Pomona Top Fuel records are 3.770 seconds by Larry Dixon and 327.03 mph by Tony Schumacher, both set at this race last year. |
 Top Alcohol Dragster racer Mike Austin, near lane, was checked and released by NHRA emergency services officials after his dragster went out of control and crashed during the fist round of eliminations. After being checked on the scene by NHRA Safety Safari members, Austin emerged and walked away from the car under his own power. |
[2:50 p.m.] Rain has brought racing to a halt, but NHRA's hardcore fans are hanging loose. [Update 3:15 p.m.] Track drying has begun. [Update: 4:20 p.m.] Rain has again begun to fall; remaining action has been canceled. |