NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

After sitting around Friday while Mother Nature caused troubles and prevented anybody from getting on the track, the weather cooperated a little more today at Maple Grove Raceway, allowing for some limited on-track activities, including one full NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series qualifying session and part of another. Though the action was a bit limited and spread out by weather delays, the hearty Reading fans who stuck around were treated to some great moments.

Here are today’s highlights:

1. Holbrook makes another history-setting run
Chris Holbrook showed the performance potential early in the day when the Stock eliminator cars took to the track first. Holbrook, who set a new standard for Stock with his 8.23 pass in Indy, blew his old mark away, making the quickest and fastest run in Stock history, posting an 8.11 at 167.97 mph.

2. Pritchett goes No. 1
The 2016 season has been a year of firsts for Top Fuel racer Leah Pritchett, from her first win in the class in Phoenix to making her first Countdown. Pritchett added another first today when her career-bests 3.705 netted her the first No. 1 start of her career.

3. Hagan gives Mopar a sweep of nitro No. 1s
After Don Schumacher Racing stablemate Leah Pritchett wheeled the Mopar-adorned Top Fueler to the No. 1 spot in Top Fuel, Matt Hagan followed suit in Funny Car, driving his Mopar Express Lane Dodge to a 3.873 at 333.99 mph, both track records, to claim the top spot. Hagan’s speed was the third-fastest in history.

4. Nobile notches another No. 1
Since Seattle, Vincent Nobile has qualified no lower than No. 4, and he continued the trend of strong starts when he posted a 6.55 to claim Pro Stock’s top spot heading into final eliminations. Nobile’s time was nearly two-hundredths quicker than second-place Jason Line.

5. Hines has great points day
Andrew Hines gave himself a little bit of breathing room with a great performance in the lone session that featured him posting a 6.78 to go to the No. 1 spot. That strong run combined with struggles by the No. 2 and 3 players in points, Angelle Sampey and Chip Ellis, having troubles and qualifying at the bottom of the field, allowed Hines to add 10 points to his lead, giving him a 12-point edge over Sampey entering tomorrow.

Funny Car | Pro Stock | Pro Stock Motorcycle | Etc.

When rain struck after the first qualifying session, Clay Millican was the odd man out, No. 17, and knew he had no one to blame but himself. After smoking the tires at the hit of the throttle, Millican coasted to 12.70, well short of the No. 16 spot held by Shawn Reed at 8.50.

“From the minute we left the hotel, I had a plan,” he explained. “I knew we were in the fifth pair, so I told my wife, Donna, to write down every run ahead then show it to me when I pulled up so I’d know what I needed to run [to be in the top 16] in case it didn’t make it. When I pulled up it was 8.50, so I felt pretty good. When it smoked the tires right away, it absolutely caught me off guard; we haven’t done that since last year in Bristol. I was so surprised that I just screwed up. Shoulda, coulda, woulda. As I was idling past half-track, I was asking myself why I didn’t get back on it. There’s no other explanation. I just screwed up. My car could run 8.50 going backwards.”

Millican did end up getting a chance for redemption in Q2, deftly pedaling his way through early tire shake to a 4.067 that earned him a spot in the field.

After a disappointing outing in St. Louis, where elusive ignition woes contributed to a No. 12 qualifying spot and a first-round exit, Antron Brown and crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald stayed over and tested with great success Monday after the event.
 

“We made three shutoff runs, but we still ran quicker than we did all weekend at the race,” said Brown, whose best run during the race was 3.74. “The slowest it ran was .73.” Interestingly, that’s the same e.t. he ran in Q1 in Reading.

For the fifth year, Brown is wheeling Don Schumacher Racing's Tools for the Cause Top Fuel dragster for Matco Tools, featuring this year's Driven by their Strength campaign to support breast cancer research in support of Breast Cancer Awareness month. The paint scheme will be on the car throughout the month, including at the events in Dallas and Las Vegas. The program has raised more than $700,000 for breast cancer research and awareness since it was launched in 2012.

Former three-time Top Fuel champion Larry Dixon is seeing his first official NHRA duty of the season, taking over the controls of the Rapisarda Autosport dragster after regular pilot Wayne Newby, who reached the semifinals in Charlotte, had to return home to Australia. Dixon’s only previous laps this season came in another Rapisarda car in Australia earlier this season – seven runs total -- and because he’s driven for the team on a number of occasions, both in the U.S. and Australia, he’s well versed with the team’s procedures.

“Yeah, pretty much just put my seat insert in [the cockpit], adjust the belts, and bring the steering wheel in – apparently I have the steering wheel closer than anyone else; that’s how Don Prudhomme taught me to drive – and I’m ready … just like what you do when you get in a rental car,” said Dixon, whose opening lap was a solid 3.791.

The Rapisarda team is pitted right next to Dixon’s longtime championship rival, Tony Schumacher, which means Dixon gets to look at a 10-foot image of Schumacher staring down at him from the side of the Army team’s trailer. “No one saw me kick it earlier,” he said with a grin.

Shawn Reed is back behind the wheel of the Paton family dragster, making his first appearance since driving the car earlier this season in Englishtown; he’ll also drive Hughes Oilfield Transportation-liveried car in Las Vegas and Pomona. Reed is one of four drivers to saddle up in the Canadian dragster this season, including Ike Maier (Gainesville), Todd Paton in Epping, and rookie Cameron Ferré at the fall Charlotte event. Ferré scored a first-round upset of eight-time champ Tony Schumacher, but the team was unable to make the second-round call after a problem with the machining on the block that wouldn’t allow a pushrod to seat. “So, basically, we were undefeated there,” quipped Todd, who runs the car with his father, NHRA veteran Barry.

The team also is making the leap to one of the new “all-in-one” fuel systems here.

“My dad has always been like that,” said Todd, “even back to his Super Stock days. ‘The car made one or two good runs? OK, let’s put the big tires on the front this time and see how it runs.’ He’s always been a mad scientist.”

Reed sat on the bump spot with an 8.509 after Q1, got knocked out by Clay Millican in the first pair of Q2, then pedaled his way to a 6.833 that got him there at the expense of Terry McMillen, who did not get a chance to try to bump back in after more wet weather descended on the track just after Reed’s pass.

Smax Smith, the enthusiastic Englishman who’s been working to carve a niche for himself in the NHRA Top Fuel wars, qualified for the fifth time in six events this season with the Leverich Racing entry. Smith, who qualified at the spring Charlotte event, as well as in Topeka, Epping, and Englishtown (but missed the field in Atlanta), expertly pedaled his way to a 5.47 in Q2 to lock up a spot in the field. It was at last year’s Reading event where he qualified for his first NHRA show.

“I was just about to give up but I saw [qualifying mate Shawn Reed] wasn’t next to me, so I was going to get back after it; I didn’t want to get bumped,” said Smith, who’s been competing for 42 straight years in one class or another. “It’s amazing we’re in the show. We’re chasing the American dream.”

St. Louis winner Shawn Langdon's dragster is flying an attractive paint scheme bearing the colors of Odyssey Battery, whose EnerSys headquarters is located in Reading, not far from Maple Grove Raceway. EnerSys is a global leader in stored energy solutions (reserve- and motive-power batteries, battery chargers, etc.) for industrial applications.

Langdon’s first pass Saturday was punctuated by a flare of flame as two connecting rods exited in the lights and the car coasted to a stop in the shutdown area with a flat right rear tire, victim of a piece of stray metal off the car.

“I didn’t feel it initially,” he said. “It just slowly went down – it’s just got a small slice in it -- and as it was slowing down I was thinking, ‘Damn, this thing’s got a lean in it’ and it was pulling pretty hard. Luckily it wasn’t worse or happen when I was going faster.”

Leah Pritchett is back in the Mopar/Pennzoil livery she debuted on the DSR dragster at the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals, and the team wowed the event backer with her first No. 1 qualifying effort on a 3.705, a career best for Pritchett by .002-second and an exciting run by all accounts on her only pass during the abbreviated qualifying.

“This is a very strategic time for those of us in the Countdown, and thinking we might only have one run and knowing we had to get down the track no matter what,” she said. “Todd [Okuhara] and Joe [Barlam, crew chiefs] and I talked about it before the run that I was going to pedal it no matter what. I felt it shake but we made it through, and we lost a hole at 850 [feet] but it still ran a .70, so we’ve definitely got something.

“It hooked up, and by 150 feet, I thought, ‘This feels great,’ and I knew we had it. I get to about 250 feet or so, and there was that shake that can go up into smoke, but it got through and I said, ‘Yep, here we go.’ We had a front tire start to go down, so at 290, my steering wheel was at 9 o’clock, but we were on a good one, and I knew we had just one shot so I stuck with it. Then it dropped the cylinder; there was a lot going on.

“Being No. 1 is awesome, but we came here to win the race. We’re starting on the best foot forward, being the No. 1 qualifier in the Mopar Pennzoil dragster at the Dodge NHRA Nationals. That’s all part of the dream. It doesn’t get any better than this, except for winning the race tomorrow.”

This event marks just the third for veteran crew chief Lee Beard as a steadying hand for Cruz Pedregon, whose had a forgettable season capped with failing to make the Countdown for the first time since 2010, so the task of running on a track without much rubber was a daunting one, and the resulting 12.52 after a tractionless pass was evidence to that. Nevertheless, with just 16 cars on hand, Pedregon will have a spot in the field.

“We’ve got some real mountains to climb,” said Beard, who will be inducted into Colorado Motorsports Hall of Fame Oct. 12. “Cruz and the team have engineered custom parts for the management systems that didn’t work as good as they’d hoped. That happens sometimes out here; you try to build something you think will be better than anyone else, but it doesn’t work, and meanwhile a lot of races go by.

“The times during my career when I was most successful and won the most races was when we’d roll out of the trailer and not try to set low e.t. but to go get a baseline pass, but still a good spot for the night session because if you miss it, you’re at the front of the line for the night session,” he continued. “You only know how to go as quickly as you’ve been. If you’ve never run a 3.80, you don’t know how to do it. If you know how to run a 3.94, do that, then let’s try to tickle it a little bit until you know how to run in the .80s. There’s a lot to running these race cars, but common sense will get you a long way.”

Pedregon’s Snap-on Toyota also has a new look with a breast cancer awareness paint scheme and crew shirts for Snap-on’s support of The Pink Fund, which provides for the non-medical needs of cancer patients. The Pink Fund founder and breast cancer survivor Molly Macdonald is at the track and cheering for the team.

With just 16 cars on the grounds, Jim Dunn was satisfied enough with their opening-if-aborted 8.16 to pack the Oberto Charger in the trailer instead of waiting to see if a second run was in the offing to improve their No. 10 spot which, interestingly, is a season high.

“The ‘old man’ thinks he’s learned enough from that run,” said John Hale of his veteran car owner. “We’ll be ready for tomorrow, and the good thing is that because we essentially have skipped three runs here [two last Friday, and a second one Saturday], we have enough parts to go straight to Dallas instead of having to go back to California to get some more.”

Tim Wilkerson enters the event hot off a semifinal finish in St. Louis, the race cloest to his Springfield, Ill., home, and a win that maybe got away, according to crew chief Richard Hartman. Some recurring blower belt issues may have led to Wilk’s semifinal loss, where he was running right with Tommy Johnson Jr. when the blower idler pulley broke, throwing the belt off. He lost, 3.937 to 3.993, but coasted across the finish line at just 283.97 mph compared to Johnson’s 323.04.

“There are a lot of ways to lose a drag race, and we’ve found a lot of them,” quipped crew chief Richard Hartman. “We’ve even found weird ones no one has ever heard of, the kind where you go, ‘Wow, how did that happen?’ ”

Tommy Johnson Jr. and crew chief John Collins, runner-up at the last two events, finished Q1 again in second place, posting a 3.897 behind teammate Matt Hagan’s 3.873, but the run might not have happened if not for some last-minute staging lane adjustments by Collins.

“We could see what was happening in front of [a lot of cars smoking the tires], so I made a timer and a primary weight change, and it went right down there,” said Collins. “I was pretty sure if we could get it to 60 feet, it had a chance to make it.”

Matt Hagan, whose Dickie Venables-tuned Mopar Charger has set records throughout the season – he set the national record 3.822-second pass in Brainerd in August and ran 335.57 mph in Topeka – took the No. 1 qualifying spot with their opening blast of 3.873, 333.99, a run that remained No. 1 after the second session was cancelled due to rain. Both ends of Hagan's pass were track records, and the 333-mph ripper was the fourth fastest speed in class history.

“I was watching everyone ahead of me shaking and blowing the tires off, and Dickie leaned in and said, 'I don’t know what it’s going to do,’ so I already had it in my mind that I might have to pedal it,” said Hagan, whose earned his fifth No. 1 of the season and the 26th of his career. “I knew I could slap it and still make a decent run and be in the top half of the field. It went out and paddled the tires a little bit, so I cracked the throttle a little. When I realized it had made it, I got back on the throttle, but I almost cost us that run. When the track is good, sometimes it tries to rattle the tires, and I thought that it was going to do that and get worse.

“It’s always fast here. You get here and you have to be in the mindset where you put your mouthpiece in, you pull your helmet on, and pull your belts down tight because it’s going to be a ride if it hooks.”

UPDATE: Hagan left the Reading area Saturday night aboard a private jet to fly home to Virginia, where his wife, Rachel, is expecting to deliver their third child, a son, tonight. Hagan expects to be at the track for the start of Sunday's final eliminations.

Weather, naturally, was on the minds of every racer even before they unloaded their cars at Maple Grove Raceway, and that was the No. 1 topic of discussion throughout the pits both yesterday and today. Among those buzzing about the weather was Bo Butner, who is coming off a great outing in St. Louis, where he was the runner-up finisher. When asked in the pits what Bo knows, he quipped, “Bo knows that it rains here. I’ve raced here twice, and both times it’s been on Monday.”

Butner, like everyone else, hopes that’s not the case this time around and we can get on the track for eliminations tomorrow. Whether it’s tomorrow or not, Butner will begin race day from the No. 8 spot after recording a 6.60 on his lone pass. Butner has lane choice against reigning world champ Erica Enders in round one.

With weather being an issue and the prospect of having only one shot at the track in qualifying, the approach of teams certainly changed when they headed up to the line for the first pass today. The primary objective was just to get a full pull, but if there were troubles, drivers were prepared to get back into a run they may normally abort, within reason, of course.

“We feel like right now if you can just make it from the start line to the finish line, it will probably be a good run, so that’s what we’re concentrating on: just trying to make it down the track,” said Chris McGaha. “You probably should [get back in it if there’s a problem] unless you’ve seen a bunch of guys in front of you have trouble. That’s the luxury with how the points deal works with the runs, especially the first one where you get run far enough back, so if you see some guys screw up worse than you, then probably not. You don’t want to be left out in the cold.”

McGaha was one of the guys who was able to get down the track on his first attempt, posting a 6.58 that ranked fifth overall. He races Kenny Delco in the first round.

One driver who was particularly happy with his lone qualifying pass was Alan Prusiensky, who recorded a 6.67. “That’s the fastest pass we’ve made with this car,” he said. “We could have done better out there. I definitely hit one chip on the way down, but the track felt good. We were a little concerned, but going through there, it felt good. The track, I can’t say enough about it. Hopefully, we can tune up on that a little bit. 6.62 or 6.63 is where we should be."

A surprise face in the Pro Stock pits this weekend is Arizona-based Matt Hartford, who made the long haul across country thanks to support from sponsor Nitro Fish. This is not the first time Hartford has raced in Reading, but it has been a while since he has been here. Hartford last ran a Pro Stock car here in 2007 when he was driving Steve Schmidt’s entry.

“This is home of Nitro Fish. It is Kenny Koretsky’s home town. Reading’s his home track. It’s an honor to be here racing for them guys,” said Hartford. “I’ve got my brother helping me this weekend. He’s from around here. My aunt and uncle are here, so it’s great. We’re having a great time.”

Adding to the great time was the fact that Hartford was able to make a strong run in the lone qualifying session, posting a 6.58 that gives him the No. 6 starting spot and a first-round date with John Gaydosh.

“We definitely came up here conservative,” said Hartford after the run. “We figured we’ve got to go A to B. It might be our only session, so we were definitely light in low gear, and it got loose in 3rd and 4th out there.”

Allen Johnson ended up in the top half of the field after clocking a 6.59, but he was not happy with the pass overall, calling it a horrible run.

“It about shut the motor off. It had so much clutch when it dropped the clutch on the starting line, but we kept ’er in the groove,” said Johnson, the No. 7 qualifier who matches up with Alan Prusiensky in the opener. “Little iffy out there on a cold track but a lot left. Somebody should go 6.52 or 6.53 probably.”

Though former champ Allen Johnson predicted a 6.52 or 6.53 could be low e.t. of qualifying, that ended up not being the case. In fact, Vincent Nobile ended up with the best time of qualifying, wheeling his Mountain View entry to a 6.55 that was about two-hundredths better than the rest of the field. Nobile was happy with the pass but also acknowledged the potential was there for a quicker time.

“With the weather out here, we weren’t sure what was going to happen,” said Nobile. “Honestly, we didn’t make a very good run. I’d be willing to say everybody behind me didn’t make a very good run either. I know, as a team, we’re not two-hundredths faster than the next car. I know we can be as fast and maybe a little bit faster, but with that being said, those guys definitely didn’t make a good run. All that matters is we’re on top and going into race day tomorrow No. 1.”

Being No. 1 has some clear advantages for Nobile. Not only does he get to pick his lane against No. 16 Drew Skillman, but Nobile and team get to pick in which pair they will run. With just one run under their belts and an unpredictable weather forecast, that could be a big advantage because it will allow them to sit back and watch other cars before coming up to run.

“That’s always important, but only having one run under our belt, that’s actually more important,” said Nobile. “Lane choice tomorrow with the cool temperatures might not be as critical when the temperatures are real high, but having lane choice is certainly a good thing to have, especially when you only made one run down the track, and being able to watch a few cars go down. I’d be willing to bet we’ll be seventh or eighth pair tomorrow. That’s what we’ll pick and we’ll be able to pick a lane based off of what everybody else runs in front of us.”

The last time we saw John Hall on a Pro Stock Motorcycle was at the end of the 2014 season, but the former Indy winner hasn’t lost his interest in the class or the desire to run it, and he’s back aboard a bike this weekend, running his own entry.

“It’s close to home, and I miss it, and I need to get some passes in, and hopefully we can do something next year,” said Hall when asked about his return. “I own the bike. It’s just a matter of time, money, and just getting out here and doing it. Hopefully, we’ll have some decent performance to lift our spirits up and give us some hope. The field is just tight this year. We all want to do this when we’re here, but when you’re at home, it’s like, ‘Man, it’s tight.’ There’s 20-something bikes at every race. You could run a 6.95 and not get in. It’s a battle, but that’s all what we’re out here for.

“We bought this bike from Harry [Lartigue]. It’s the bike that Chip [Ellis] ran here, I think, in 2012 or 2013. We did a lot of stuff to it, so we’ll find out if it goes good. I haven’t tested at all. I tried to test at Englishtown the other day, and they rained it out on Wednesday night, so I guess we’ll test here. We just want to get from one end of the track to the other and hope the weather holds out.”

After some initial struggles getting his Buell to fire over, Hall was able to make a run and did indeed go all the way downtrack, posting a 7.01 that places him 10th in the field. He faces Karen Stoffer in round one.

Due to the weather, many teams have shifted their work from aside the trailer into it to take advantage of the dryer and warmer conditions. However, the reason fans will see Karen Stoffer working on her entry inside the trailer has to do with more than the current weather conditions. Strong winds on Thursday destroyed the awning on the team’s trailer, forcing Stoffer and crew inside for the weekend.

Stoffer, who said her team has made some big strides in figuring out what has been slowing them down all season, made a solid pass on her lone qualifying attempt, putting a 6.92 on the boards and nabbing the No. 7 starting spot.

Chip Ellis, who is coming off two great races to start the Countdown, including winning in Charlotte, was hoping to carry that momentum into this weekend, and before the run, he was optimistic as he checked out the track conditions.

“The track looks great,” said Ellis. “NHRA’s doing a great job prepping it. I appreciate everybody working as hard as they did and everybody sticking around. This has not been good weather, but the track’s going to be good. There’s a little moisture in the air. The bikes should go fast. We’re looking at a 6.55 on the cars. We’re probably going to see a, I don’t know, 6.74, 6.75, maybe even a little quicker than that.

Unfortunately for him, Ellis was unable to take a shot at that low 6.7 because his bike had troubles shortly after launch, and he was pushed off the starting line.

“When I put it on the two-step, which is where we hold it wide open and let the clutch go, it sounded weird to me, but they’re looking at all the data, and I don’t know what the deal is,” said Ellis, who is appearing in his 125th career race this weekend. “I’m just over here giving Yoo-hoos away to Angelle [Sampey] while they’re looking at data. I pay her with Yoo-hoo. She works for Yoo-hoo. She don’t drink beer, so I give her Yoo-hoo.”

Because he took the Tree, Ellis has an official attempt in the books, and he was placed at the bottom of the sheets. Ellis will face Andrew Hines in round one, a position that gives him control of his own fate in the points chase. Hines is the points leader, and Ellis is in third, now 27 points behind his first-round opponent.

Steve Johnson’s hopes for making the Dodge NHRA Nationals field ended when an oil leak on the starting line forced him to shut off his entry after the burnout. Because Johnson did not take the Tree, it was as if he never made a run, and he was therefore left outside the field.

“The oil filter housing had a leak,” said Johnson, who worked hard after the session and was ready to make a run before weather cancelled the final session and set the fields. “I hated oiling the track. You know, we didn’t go up there to do it on purpose, and we definitely want to race and be competitive, but we weren’t ready.”

There was a surprise name atop the order for much of the lone qualifying session: rookie Melissa Surber. Running in the second pair of bikes, Surber powered to a 6.873 at 191.76 mph. Though not a career best — she has run as quick as 6.85 and as fast as 194 — the run was a strong pass for the round of qualifying, keeping Surber No. 1 until Eddie Krawiec ran a 6.81 in the third-to-last pair of bikes. Surber’s time ultimately landed her in the fourth spot, which is the best starting position of her career. Surber’s previous best was seventh, in Gainesville earlier this year.

“That definitely felt like a good pass,” said Surber. “I was hitting every shift point on time. [My dad’s] going to be happy.”

After a couple of somewhat tough outings to kick off the Countdown to the Championship, Andrew Hines came to Reading with a very narrow two-point lead in the standings and in need of a boost either in qualifying points, the round points that come from a great race-day showing, or both. Hines was able to get things started on the right note when he posted a 6.78 that gave him the No. 1 starting spot. The three bonus points combined with the eight regular qualifying points allowed Hines to add to his lead, which now sits at 12 over Sampey entering eliminations.

“That could be huge in the long run,” said Hines. “Championships have come down to just a couple of little points here in the last few years, going back the last seven or eight years since the little points were implemented. The 10 points I picked up on my closest rival there, it could be huge coming down the road. There’s the three I got for that round, and Angelle, she’s the one chasing me, didn’t get any. She gets one [regular qualifying] point, and I get eight, so it’s a big deal. It’s half a round. With the way her bike’s been running, those little ones could keep me out front a little bit. You never know. I’m going to take it right now and run with it. It was nice to bring my Harley here and make a nice, clean, straight run. It obviously puts up a big run when it goes down the track straight.”

Getting his bike to make a nice, clean, straight run was a big priority of Hines and his team in the last week. Though he was in the final in Charlotte, Hines admits he has been struggling a bit lately, and that prompted some changes heading into this event.

“It’s been a rough year for me, especially here recently,” said Hines. “I know I’ve been going to a lot of finals, but I’ve been winning a lot of races on the starting line and just kind of being in the right place at the right time kind of situations, so this weekend, we came in with some different equipment that we haven’t been running in years past and decided to take a chance because we were struggling with our tune-up the last couple of races. Nothing was working right, so we totally revamped the motorcycles, came out here, and I wasn’t even sure if it was going to go down the racetrack. I did all the wiring on Tuesday and Wednesday on the motorcycles and did some dynoing and changing a bunch of things. My big concern was no spitting and sputtering going down the track. Our team made two nice, clean runs. I was lucky enough to go 6.78, and I picked up right where I left off last year in the final round. I went 6.79, so came back to this track and luckily everything’s working right.”

Hines will have a tough draw in the opening round, facing Chip Ellis, the rider who has defeated him at the last two events. Ellis bested Hines in the final in Charlotte, then put him on the trailer in round two last weekend in St. Louis.

“We’ve got a good battle with Chip coming up,” said Hines. “He’s waxed me the last couple times we’ve raced. He hadn’t beat me the last 12 years until the last two races, and then he’s sent me packing. The way this field’s stacked up with it being one session and people being scattered throughout the field, it’s set up the Countdown contenders in a really interesting fashion. Eddie [Krawiec’s] got Angelle, so four of the top five bikes are racing each other in the first round, so this is going to be a turning point for the Countdown. Hopefully, it comes out on our side.”

Despite the threat of weather, fans turned out in large numbers to watch the NHRA action at Maple Grove Raceway.

Reigning NHRA Mello Yello Funny Car champ Del Worsham and St. Louis winners Shawn Langdon, Alex Laughlin, and Jerry Savoie took part in a Mello Yello autograph session for fans.

Dodge drivers Allen Johnson, Erica Enders, Jeg Coughlin Jr., John Hale, Leah Pritchett, Jack Beckman, Ron Capps, and Matt Hagan took part in an autograph session on behalf of the event sponsor.

Funny Car racer Tommy Johnson Jr. and NHRA’s Alan Reinhart taught some racing basics during the traditional Nitro School segment.

Chris Holbrook, who made the quickest passes in Stock eliminator history, 8.23, in his final-round romp in the School of Automotive Machinists & Technology NHRA Factory Stock Showdown at the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals, bettered that mark by more than a tenth with his opening pass at Maple Grove Raceway, racing his Varsity Ford Cobra Jet to a stunning 8.11 pass.

Holbrook, whose speed on his Indy pass was 165.17 mph, just shy of the mark set by rival David Barton, who drove Gary Wolkwitz’s COPO Camaro to a speed of 165.58 earlier this season in Englishtown, claimed that mantle too on his 8.11 pass with a dizzying speed of 167.97.

Holbrook and Barton will likely continue their Ford vs. Chevy battle next weekend at the Pennsylvania Dutch Classic National Open at Maple Grove Raceway.