NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

The 2016 Countdown to the Championship reached the halfway point at the Dodge NHRA Nationals in Maple Grove Raceway, and though the race was slowed a bit by weather again today, all four NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series classes completed eliminations. When the dust settled, the Top Fuel championship picture got a little clearer with reigning world champion Antron Brown beginning to separate himself from the pack, while the battle in the other classes intensified and the list of contenders grew across Funny Car, Pro Stock, and Pro Stock Motorcycle.

Here are today’s highlights:

1. Brown begins to pull away
After an early exit in St. Louis, Antron Brown reestablished control of the Top Fuel championship chase when he outlasted Brittany Force to win his sixth title of the season and extend his advantage in the points.

2. T.J. finally gets the “W”
Tommy Johnson Jr. has been in every Funny Car final in the Countdown to the Championship, but he couldn’t quite seal the deal, until now. Johnson powered to a 3.89 to defeat points leader Ron Capps and earn his first win of the Countdown and second of the season.

3. Nobile breaks through
Vincent Nobile has been one of the strongest cars in Pro Stock since the Western Swing, but he wasn’t able to quite get to the winner’s circle, but he finally broke through and did so at the perfect time. His first win of the season lifted him to third and squarely into championship contention.

4. Krawiec rebounds
After a rough start to the Countdown that included just one round-win in the first two events, Eddie Krawiec was able to regain his early-season form and win his fourth race of the season. It moved him back up to second in the standings, less than two rounds behind Andrew Hines.

5. Reed makes first final
Cory Reed continued his steady progress forward, advancing to the first final of his career. Though he came up short against Krawiec, Reed’s run to the final helped his points cause, lifting him to seventh, and his quest to be this year’s Automobile Club of Southern California Road to the Future Award winner.

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

Before his first-round loss to Steve Torrence, Tony Schumacher had historically been extremely in the stretch run, especially at tracks hosting the final four races in the Countdown. Since the format launched in 2007, Schumacher has earned 19 “final four” wins while all other Countdown contenders combined have captured 13 – five each for Antron Brown and Doug Kalitta, two for J.R. Todd, and one for Richie Crampton.

The eight-time Top Fuel world champion still leads all Top Fuel drivers with five victories at Maple Grove. Each of those Reading triumphs were part of championship seasons (2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2014).

Schumacher’s losing pass of 3.700 would have beaten any other driver in round one besides Torrence, but with the loss Schumacher tumbled two spots, from third to fifth.

Steve Torrence had been in the top five in points all season, beginning with his win at the season opener in Pomona, but fell from that lofty perch with his first-round loss last weekend in St. Louis, freefalling from third to sixth. He steadied his standing in Reading by beating Schumacher in round one, their seventh meeting of the season, with Torrence now holding a 40-3 led after a 3.691 to 3.700 victory. Schumacher is still 16-10 all-time versus Torrence and had defeated the Texas driver in all three of their previous Countdown matchups.

“That’s one of the biggest rounds of the Countdown for us so far,” said Torrence, who lost in round two to Leah Pritchett. “We dropped the ball the first two races but it just goes to show you that you can screw up a couple of these and still stay in the battle. We’re going to have to capitalize on every opportunity we have from here on out. “The fat lady hasn’t sung yet, but she’s clearing her throat. We just have to keep after it and see what happens.”

Dom Lagana, running in just his second race this season with the family’s Nitro Ninja entry, certainly makes the most of the least, winning in the first round as he did in Englishtown. The victim this time was Richie Crampton, whose crew chief, Aaron Brooks, also has his hands in the Lagana effort.

“Scott Palmer and I had to arm wrestle about who would be the first pair because we both love the national anthem and firing up after the anthem,” said the ever-patriotic Lagana, who ran in the fourth pair, three behind Palmer’s kickoff round. “We’re having a blast out there. We’re just trying to run our own game and get a little rust off of the driver.”

Leah Pritchett is back in the Mopar/Pennzoil livery she debuted on the DSR dragster at the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals, but the Phoenix winner also is serving, with Funny Car teammate and fellow low qualifier Matt Hagan, as the honorary starter/grand marshal.

“I'm not quite sure how I'll be the honorary starter on Sunday when I'm sitting in my Top Fuel dragster,” she joked before round one, “but it was very humbling when Mopar asked me to help them celebrate their first year sponsoring this event.”

Pritchett was hoping that the performance-friendly track will allow crew chiefs Todd Okuhara and Joe Barlam to tune her to her first 330-mph pass. Her career best is 329.75, recorded at Indy. That pursuit, and the pursuit of a second career win in Top Fuel, ended in tire smoke against Brittany Force in the semifinals. Her best for the event was 329.42 in round one, but she did move from ninth to seventh in the standings.

Brittany Force’s second-round victory over Doug Kalitta certainly qualifies as one of the weirdest races of the season. The usually rock-steady Kalitta double-stepped the throttle and red-lighted for the first time since Seattle 2011 as both cars went into instant tire smoke. Force did not see the foul and pealed her Monster Energy machine several times before the engine exploded in a ball of fire. She coated to the win with a 17-second elapsed time.

“I’ve had some ugly wins here and that one was pretty bad,” she said. “It blew the tires off right at the hit and I was trying to pedal it. I saw him pass me, then I saw my win light on, and it was just pure confusion. I had no idea he had red-lit, but we’ll take the win.” [animated gif]

Doug Kalitta’s DeWalt FlexVolt car rocked back and forth almost in place on the launch with all four tires leaving the ground at one point as the chassis torqued incredibly.

Force ended up reaching the final, the 11th of her career, where she fell to Antron Brown, but she jumped up two spots, from fifth to third, and trails second-place Kalitta by just 41 points. [animated gif]

Antron Brown rebounded from a first-round exit last week in St. Louis to score his second win of the Countdown to the Championship and expanded his points lead over second-place Doug Kalitta to 77 markers with three events left.

Brown, appearing in his 75th career Top Fuel final, scored his 44th career win, nipping Brittany Force by just .003-second in a race in which both drivers recorded elapsed times of 3.721; Brown earned the win with an infinitesimal holeshot,.066 to .069, remarkable given the conditions Brown faced as he staged his Matco Tools dragster.

“When I put my visor down just before I staged, my visor fogged up,” he reported. “I’ve never had that happen to me before. I knew I could see the blue of the staging lights and the yellow of the Tree, so I took a chance on it and just tried to keep the car in the center of the groove.”

The final was Brown’s second tough go, escaping a semifinal race with Don Schumacher Racing teammate Shawn Langdon in which both smoked the tires. The race ended when Langdon backfired his supercharger behind him, but Brown frantically pedaled the throttle seven times not knowing where Langdon was.

“We had run 3.68 the round before and left it alone, so we’re not sure why that happened,” said Brown. “These fuel cars are so violent. Every time I hit the gas I felt the car jump off the ground. I didn’t want to do something stupid and cross the centerline, I was doing a little tap dance with it until I got enough momentum to lay into it.”

Prior to that, Brown had defeated fellow Countdown racers J.R. Todd and Clay Millican to put his bad memories of St. Louis behind him.

“St. Louis didn’t turn out the way we wanted it to, and there’s still plenty of time left in this championship race,” he cautioned. “There’s three more races left and we’re going to have to fight hard. Ain’t nobody going to give you the championship.”

Success in Reading seems to equal success in the Top Fuel championship race. In the six years since the event became part of NHRA’s six-race Countdown to the Championship playoffs in 2010, four times the event winner has gone on to claim the championship, including the previous three: Brown (2015), Tony Schumacher (2014), and Langdon (2013), plus Larry Dixon in 2010.

The other two eventual season champions -- Brown in 2012 and Del Worsham in 2011 -- reached the Reading final.

Matt Hagan became the low qualifier Saturday, but before he got to take to the track Sunday, he was a daddy again after wife Rachel delivered their third child and second son, Tucker, early Sunday morning.

Hagan had been on pins and needles all day Saturday, then got the call Saturday evening after the day had been halted due to rain. He headed quickly to nearby Reading Regional Airport, where his father’s plane was waiting. He made the quick flight home to Virginia, landed at the local airstrip that’s conveniently just 15 miles from his home, and headed to the hospital.

“Her water broke at midnight so I figured, ‘Cool, I’ll be in bed by 2,’ but she had some complications,” Hagan reported. “The baby’s heart rate was getting a little low because her contractions were so intense, and they were ready to operate on her. They gave her a shot, which helped, but slowed the whole birthing process down. By 4 a.m. she was still only dilated to six centimeters [10 being normal for birth], and I needed to leave at 6:30. At about 5, she was fully dilated, but the baby’s shoulder got hung up, and it took a while to get it all sorted out. He was born at 6:30, I got to hold him a few minutes, and I was on the plane at 7. I’m running on pure adrenaline right now.”

Hagan’s run ended against teammate Ron Capps in a tight semifinal battle in which both ran 3.893 and Capps won on a holeshot.

There were plenty of big numbers on the scoreboard in Funny Car with Jack Beckman setting low e.t. of 3.850 in his second-round victory over Del Worsham and Hagan recording three of the 10 fastest speeds: 333.99 (fourth), 333.58 (sixth), and 332.75 (10th).

John Bojec, who made his Funny Car debut at this event two years ago and scored his first round-win here last year en route to a surprise semifinal finish, collected his second round-win of the season and fourth of his career when he upset tire-smoking Courtney Force in round one with a 4.09. Bojec’s bid for another semifinal ended against Matt Hagan’s monster 3.869 pass.

Tim Wilkerson’s first-round pedalfest victory over Robert Hight not only left the JFR team of Funny Cars 0 for 3 in the opening stanza but boosted Wilkerson from ninth to seventh past Hight and teammate Courtney Force.

“I don’t think it went 2 feet [before smoking the tires],” said Wilkerson. “The first thing I thought was ‘I don’t see Robert, so obviously he had the same problem,’ and I was just lucky to get mine gathered up and he wasn’t, which is always a 50-50 shot when you’re running these Funny Cars. Maybe that was my lucky round.”

Unfortunately for Wilk, his luck ran out in the second round against points leader Ron Capps’ sizzling 3.898.

Mike Smith, who failed to qualify in his first two races this season, in Epping and Englishtown, not only made the show here – qualifying seventh ahead of a number of the tour regulars -- but scored a first-round victory over John Hale. Hale shook hard in Jim Dunn’s Oberto Dodge as did Smith in the New Englander Stratus of Paul Weiss and Rhea Goodrich, but Smith recovered best and rode out a midtrack wheelie to a 4.69 victory.

“This is our kind of track; we’ve had a lot of success here over the year,” said Smith, who was part of the crew when Jeff Arend scored his first Funny Car victory here in 1996. “That was a wild run. It shook the tires a little and then the front end came up down there and I was like, ‘That’s enough; come back down,’ and it finally did and zinged through the lights. We’re just trying to go down the racetrack without any problems.”

The final four in Funny Car was monopolized by the Don Schumacher team as Ron Capps, Tommy Johnson Jr., Matt Hagan, and Jack Beckman – not coincidentally the top four in points – met up in an amazing round. As testament to the parity at the top, all four cars ran 3.89 seconds, with Capps beating Hagan on a holeshot as both ran 3.893 and Johnson running a thousandth quicker with a 3.892 to beat Beckman’s 3.899.

“The tensions are high; I feel like I have a target on my back,” said Capps, who has held the points lead since Englishtown, a span of 12 including this one, in pursuit of his first career championship. ”You gotta dig a little deeper. It’s been so much fun. All of the championship runs I’ve had in the past have definitely played a part in my ability to do all the right things in the car. This may be the year, who knows?”

It seemed like only a matter of time before Tommy Johnson Jr. and crew chief John Collins were going to roll their Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger into the winner’s circle. After back-to-back runner-ups at the first two events in the Countdown to the Championship in Charlotte and St. Louis, the pair of Ottumwa, Iowa, natives finally locked down a victory in Reading with a crucial defeat of teammate and points leader Ron Capps, 3.89 to 3.91.

“You want to have a strong start in the Countdown; we knew that going into Charlotte,” said Johnson, who entered the Countdown in seventh place and now sits second, just 24 points behind Capps. “We went from seventh to fourth in Charlotte – a runner-up is good – then we went to St. Louis and got another runner-up and went to second, and I said I’d be happy with four more runner-ups, but when you look in the other lane and it’s Capps, who’s leading the points, it’s a must-win. You’ve got to gain some ground.”

The victory is Johnson’s 12th in the category, the first of which came at this event in 1999 over, of all people, Capps. Back then Johnson was wheeling Joe Gibbs’ Interstate Batteries Pontiac while Capps was driving for legendary racer Don “the Snake” Prudhomme.

Capps, who raced in the semifinals at this race last year, had not been to a final in Reading since back-to-back runner-ups in 1999 and 2000, to Johnson and Bruce Sarver, respectively.

“It’s going to be a fight for the championship, I’ll tell you right now,” added Johnson, who defeated Cruz Pedregon, Mike Smith, and teammate Jack Beckman in the first three rounds. “Neither Capps or I have won a championship, and you can see how bad we both want it. Our team had a meeting after St. Louis and we said ‘We’ve got a good shot at this, but everyone has to be on top of their game and no one can make a mistake, because one mistake could cost us the championship, and I think they showed this weekend that they’re all-in.”

We had a small battery fire this morning, but the @Valvoline/@novadifference Chevy is fine and ready to go! #KeystoneNats #NHRAonFOX pic.twitter.com/AVezW0EYtw

— Gray Motorsports (@GrayMotorsport1) October 2, 2016

The rough weather and limited runs for racers have made for an unusual weekend, but Shane Gray’s got even odder this morning when his car caught fire in the pit area.

“It’s a crazy weekend anyways, so you know, what the hell, the car catches on fire and just adds to it,” Gray said with a laugh. “I guess we’ll just laugh about it. It is what it is. I think we got it fixed. The battery just blew up in it. I’m just glad it did it outside the trailer instead of inside the trailer last night. If it would have done it in the trailer last night, it probably would have burned the truck and trailer and car and everything up.”

Said crew chief Dave Connolly, “It was actually kind of crazy. I was sitting in the trailer, and Mike Smith, one of the crew guys, just kind of nonchalantly walks into the trailer, ‘Hey, uh, D.C., you might want to get out here. The car’s on fire.’ I thought he was joking around at first until I walked out there.

“Pretty much, we didn’t want Samsung to one-up us, so we had one of our lithium ion batteries explode on us, and it made quite the mess in the back of the car, but Safety Safari was over there, and they got it put out. We got the mess cleaned up and fixed a few air lines and wires in the back.”

The team was able to make all the necessary repairs with plenty of time to spare and made it up for the first round against Alex Laughlin with no problems, but Gray and team knew they were facing a tough task in racing the St. Louis winner. After Gray defeated Laughlin in the second round in Indy and denied the newcomer a spot in the Countdown, Laughlin has bested Gray the previous two events, stopping Gray in the second round in Charlotte and the semifinals in St. Louis.

“We’re not the smartest when it comes to points, are we?” quipped Connolly before the match. “We take him out of the Countdown, and then he takes us out in the Countdown races the last two weeks. That’s a hurdle we need to get over.”

Gray, who was appearing in his 300th career round, was able to get over that hurdle, stopping Laughlin in a great 6.59 to 6.60 race. Gray then …

With the ever-changing conditions and a lack of track time, the probability of an upset or two in the opening round was pretty high, and the upsets definitely came in the form of wins by Alan Prusiensky and John Gaydosh Jr. Prusiensky pulled off the first upset, getting the nod over Allen Johnson, whose car slowed and broke the driveshaft. Prusiensky ran a 6.68 to turn on the win light, his third career round-win.

“It was pretty cool to win that round, but Allen has been a big help over the last couple weeks giving us some real big pointers and just getting us through this transition to fuel injection,” said Prusiensky, whose day ended against Jason Line in round two. “I definitely want to thank him and my wife and my team. To win another round is pretty cool.”

The East Coast has been very kind to Gaydosh (pictured) this year. He scored his first career round-win in Englishtown, then just added another when he got past Matt Hartford in the opener here. Gaydosh clocked a 6.69 to finish ahead of Hartford’s 6.81 that was slowed when his car got loose at the top end.

“All my crew is volunteer, and we’re having fun, loving life, and we needed this. We needed this more than anything,” said Gaydosh, who lost to Greg Anderson in the second round.

With the cooler weather, getting heat into the tires was especially important and that meant longer burnouts for many, including reigning world champion Erica Enders, who embraced the chance to do a longer, old-school burnout.

“Those burnouts are fun, especially on a track like this. You could just roll it down to the finish line,” said Enders, who bested Bo Butner in the first round before red-lighting against Vincent Nobile in the following round. “I’m super proud of my guys. It’s been a challenging year, but they continue to dig deep. It’s not always about having the fastest race car on Sunday. It’s about being consistent and going A to B, especially on a tricky racetrack.”

Chris McGaha’s weekend came to a tough end when his Harlow Sammons Chevy got loose at the top end, forcing him to get off the throttle early and just watch as Shane Gray went onto victory. Though it was not the way he wanted his Dodge NHRA Nationals to end, McGaha was happy to leave with his car intact, and he did so by relying on past experience. In Charlotte in 2014, McGaha’s car got very loose in the pair in front of V. Gaines, who crashed, and McGaha, “told myself if I ever got into that situation again, I was going to stop, and I did.” [animated gif]

Jason Line had low e.t. of eliminations, posting a 6.559 on what ended up being a solo run when Val Smeland’s car broke at the hit, but the run wasn’t 100 percent perfect.

“She’s boiling the tires off as it goes through the finish line, so I was pretty happy to go that fast,” said Line when asked about the 210-mph speed that accompanied the time. “It really was pretty good for our Summit Chevy. We’re moving onto the next round, and that’s all that matters.”

Line ultimately made it to the semifinals, in which he red-lighted to teammate Greg Anderson. Though he was unable to make the final or win, Line’s strong showing kept him in the points lead. He is 45 ahead of Anderson.

Greg Anderson became the eighth Pro driver in NHRA history and the second in Pro Stock to reach 1,000 rounds of competition, hitting the milestone in the semifinals. The other Pro Stock driver to appear in 1,000 rounds is, of course, Warren Johnson. Other members of the 1,000-plus rounds club are Top Fuel racers Larry Dixon and Tony Schumacher and Funny Car drivers Ron Capps, John Force, Tony Pedregon, and Del Worsham.

Anderson’s total is 1,001 rounds leaving Reading, where he was the runner-up finisher and cut a little bit into teammate Jason Line’s lead.

Like many others in the Pro Stock class, Vincent Nobile took his lumps early in the season, and his team just kept at it, working on their tune-up and trying to find the right combo to be competitive week after week. That hard work began to pay off on the Western Swing when Nobile advanced to the final in Denver and qualified No. 1 in Seattle, where he also made it to the title round. Nobile and crew have been on a roll since. He has placed his Mountain View Chevy into the top four on the ladder every race since, including qualifying No. 1 in Seattle, Brainerd, and here in Reading. The only thing really lacking from his recent accomplishments was a win, but Nobile was able to correct that today when he outlasted the field to win his 10th career Wally and first since the Chicago 2014 event.

“It was a big day for Mountain View Racing and NAPA Auto Parts. We got the Chevrolet in the winner’s circle, and I’m semi-speechless,” said Nobile. “We turned it around right at the right time. Don’t get me wrong, at the beginning of the year we were like, ‘Give us our carburetors back.’ It certainly was a pain in the butt, not necessarily for me as a driver but for the crew chiefs and the guys working on the car, but then we got a guy. His name’s A.J. He’s our fuel-injection guy, and I think he turned our program around right when he came on board, so hat’s off to him.

“It certainly was a learning curve. Those Summit guys, they worked their butts off in the offseason, and they came out ahead, but that didn’t stop us. We kept our heads up. In the beginning of the year, we were like, ‘What are those guys doing? What are those guys doing?’ Finally, we said, ‘Listen, let’s focus on us and stop focusing on them,’ and that’s when we turned it around, and here we are.”

Nobile started race day from the No. 1 spot after clocking a 6.55 that was nearly two-hundredths quicker than any other driver in the lone qualifying session. Nobile stayed primarily in the 6.5s through eliminations, running times of 6.56, 6.60, 6.58, and 6.57 as he dispatched Drew Skillman, Erica Enders, Shane Gray, and Greg Anderson en route to the winner’s circle.

Nobile’s win not only snapped a bit of a winless streak, but it also was significant in the points battle as well. Nobile moved up to third in the standings, and he heads to Dallas still with a shot at the championship, 83 points behind points leader Jason Line and only 38 behind second-place Anderson.

“It feels so good,” said Nobile. “Earlier in this week, I got a phone call from the NHRA doing an interview, and they asked me what I had to do this weekend, and I told them, ‘We need to qualify No. 1 and we need to win the race. There’s no other option,’ and my guys got it done. We did it, and what an amazing day. I just can’t thank my guys enough for giving me a fast race car every lap. I’ve never had much luck here in Reading. Pa. My family always comes out here, and it’s always a disappointment when you can’t make them proud. They’re always proud — I’ve got a great family — but to be able to put the car in the winner’s circle and have such a great winner’s circle picture, what a great day.

“We’re 83 points out of first, and that was our goal. Even if Jason had made it to the final, we had to beat him as well to get some gains on him. We made a bunch of gains this weekend. We’re still in it to win it. Ultimately, that’s the main goal, to hold up the big trophy at the end of the year, and if we didn’t win this race, I think we might have counted ourselves out, but here we are.”

The Pro Stock Motorcycle first round was filled with several intriguing matches, from ones that had an impact in the points battle to family battles. One that fit into the latter category was another father-son match between the Aranas, Hector Sr. and Hector Jr. It was the fifth time this season the Aranas have lined up against one another in eliminations, and Hector Sr. entered with a clear edge, winning three of the four previous contests. He was able to extend that advantage to 4-1 when Hector Jr. went red. The loss was particularly costly to Hector Jr. because his loss combined with wins by those behind him in points dropped Hector Jr. from seventh to 10th in the standings.

It’s no secret that the conditions at Maple Grove Raceway can throw tuners for a loop, and that was evident when Jerry Savoie pulled off the track following his first-round win. When told his St. Louis-winning motorcycle ran just a 6.91 that more than covered opponent Scotty Pollacheck’s 10.61, Savoie said he was surprised the run was not quicker.

“It felt good on the back-half. Down low, I heard it; it was kind of underpowered,” said Savoie, whose day ended in the second round. “This track will throw you a few curveballs. With the humidity in the air and the oxygen we have from the trees here, it’s a tuner’s challenge. I’m glad we got the first one out of the way so we can go back there and look at it. Let’s go have some fun.”

After a great start to the Countdown to the Championship that included winning in Charlotte and finishing in the semi’s in St. Louis, Chip Ellis had a very rough Reading outing, never making it to the finish line on either of his two attempts. After breaking his Buell shortly after launch on the lone qualifying run yesterday, Ellis had pretty much a repeat of that when he left the starting line and barely made it past the Tree before his bike went silent, leaving Ellis to watch as points leader Andrew Hines sailed to a 6.77 win.

“I’ll tell ya, man, it’s just disappointing,” said Ellis. “We had this problem yesterday, and we changed everything except the driver and the ECU. We changed engines. We changed transmissions, clutch, and to be honest, I really don’t know [what happened]. We’ll have to get back to the shop and see if we can get ’er straightened out and ready for Dallas.”

Another of the intriguing first-round matches was the husband-wife battle between Matt and Angie Smith. As he did in Denver earlier this year, Matt came out on the winning end, turning on the win light with a 6.87 vs. the 6.94 of Angie. Though she did not get the first round-win of 2016, Angie did see some promise in that 6.94 pass and feels good about the direction her team is going.

“That was a decent run,” said Angie. “It’s bad to say, but we’ve struggled for a year and a half on something that we couldn’t find. We have a fuel-injection system that just won’t perform. You send it changes, and it won’t change. In my world I live in, either it works or it doesn’t. There’s no gray area, and this is one of those things where it worked but it didn’t work; it didn’t do what we told it to do. We’ve actually struggled for a year and a half, and it’s really disappointing, especially for Victory, but I feel like now we’re really, really going to turn the corner. That was the second run on the fuel-injection system that I have on my bike against Matt, and it went 6.94, and that’s probably faster than I’ve been for a while, so I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I think we’re making progress. It just sucks really bad that it’s at the end of the season, but it’s better now than never.”

Twenty years ago, Angelle Sampey broke through and earned the first victory of her illustrious career. Her teammate, Cory Reed, was looking to follow suit today, and he nearly pulled it off. The rookie rider was able to advance to his first final round, getting a shot at earning his first Wally. Unfortunately for him, though, Reed put up a good fight in the final, but his 6.95 was no match for the 6.81 of Eddie Krawiec.

“I just keep clicking off rounds, and that’s my goal right now, just go as far as I can every race we go to,” said Reed after his second-round win. “It sucks not having Angelle in. She was on the other side of the ladder, so I was hoping we would see each other in the final. Maybe this could be my first race to win, just like hers. I hope so. We’ll just keep our fingers crossed and see what happens.”

Though he did not get the win, Reed’s great day gave him a much-needed boost in the points standings. After moving up one spot after his win in round one, Reed defeated Hector Arana Sr. in what was a battle for position in the second round and moved up to seventh, the position in which he leaves Maple Grove Raceway. The strong showing had team owner George Bryce thrilled.

“How about Cory, rookie-of-the-year candidate, going all the way to the final and taking out one of the Harleys,” said Bryce after Reed bested Andrew Hines in the semi’s. “I’m pretty proud of him. Our team picked up that run. Thank you to all our fans hanging in here through the weather.”

After kicking off eliminations with a big first-round win against Angelle Sampey, who entered the weekend ranked second in points, Eddie Krawiec said, “This weekend is brutal on points. This is really going to be the do-or-die weekend for anybody looking for a championship in Pro Stock Motorcycle because it’s crazy the way it’s panning out.” If this was one of the crucial weekends for the championship chase, then Krawiec has to be smiling as he leaves Maple Grove Raceway because no one capitalized more this weekend than the former champ aboard his Harley-Davidson. Krawiec survived battle after battle, and he did so on a weekend where he really needed to do so. Krawiec entered the weekend ranked fifth after two early exits to kick off the Countdown to the Championship, but this good weekend, combined with some early losses by those in front of him, allowed Krawiec to move up to second in the standings heading into the final three events.

“I tell everybody I try not to think about the points. I even tell my teammate that. I don’t even look at ’em to tell you the truth. I just try not to pay attention to that because if you do, you get caught up with it, and you’re going to start thinking about things you shouldn’t," said Krawiec. "My main goal this weekend here was to come win. If you win races in the Countdown, you’re going to be fighting for the championship when you get to Pomona. This was a big day for all of our team actually, Andrew and myself getting past first round. When you draw Angelle and Chip Ellis in round one, you don’t say, ‘Well, this should be easy. This should be no problem this weekend.’ For me, I was on a mission first round because I knew if I went past first round I could keep the momentum and keep it rolling.

"Me and Angelle exchanged some words, had some friendly words in the pits. I told her what I was going to do to her, and I kept true to my word. Basically, it’s about having good friendships out here, but it’s serious business. We’re out here to race, and I’m here to get the job done. I did my job. I was .002 on the starting line, and I think that set the pace. I actually did a really good driving job this weekend. I guess I got my head out of my butt and finally focused and got the job done.”

Krawiec started eliminations from the No. 2 spot after posting a 6.81 on his lone qualifying attempt, and he improved from there in eliminations, posting a 6.76 against Sampey in the first round that held as low e.t. of the weekend. Krawiec then clocked two more 6.7s, a 6.77 and 6.78, in wins against Karen Stoffer and LE Tonglet, respectively. In the final, Krawiec made his worst run of eliminations, a 6.81, but it was more than enough to get around rookie Cory Reed, whose bike slowed to a 6.95.

“I went to two years worth of final rounds, which was probably like six or seven, and never got a win. His will come,” said Krawiec of Reed. “He’s a good racer. He’s going and doing his own deal, but I believe he will. He’s a great rider. You saw he’s on the Tree, and when there’s people like that, they have nothing to lose. When you’re racing somebody who has nothing to lose, that’s the person that’s dangerous because they’re going after it. I like racing that person that starts thinking about it because they tend to fumble.

“That was sort of the way I was racing this weekend: I had nothing to lose. I was sitting back further in points. I just had to come out here and get the job done, and I believe that’s why I was teens and .02s most of the day and doing my job.”

The win was Krawiec’s fourth of 2016, fourth at this event, and 35th of his career. It moved Krawiec to within two rounds of his teammate, Andrew Hines, in the standings.

Despite two preceding days of inclement weather, fans turned out in large numbers to watch final eliminations at Maple Grove Raceway.

As they do every year at this race, the Maple Grove Raceway staff  donated a portion of ticket sales for the event to a local Make-A-Wish chapter, this year totaling an impressive $10,010.

Longtime Pennsylvania hero Bruce Larson was honored as part of NHRA’s yearlong celebration of 50 years of Funny Car.

Sarge Arciero, Al Hanna, and the late Jim Beattie were inducted into Maple Grove Raceway’s Walk of Fame. Arciero drove Top Fuelers in the 1970s on the East Coast, including the Lewis brothers’ Sparkling Burgundy and the Jade Grenade.

As a tribute to Arceiro, Mike Lewis, who is driving Anthony Dicero’s A/Fuel Dragster this weekend, had that car wrapped in the colors of the Sparkling Burgundy entry while fellow A/FD pilot and Pennsylvania favorite Rich McPhillips has his dragster wrapped as a replica of the Jade Grenade.

“I had committed to drive Anthony Dicero’s A/Fuel Dragster and thought it would be cool to surprise Kent with a 'Sparkling Burgundy' wrap,” said Lewism, who has been part of the Maple Grove family for decades and currently is a vice president with Don Schumacher Racing. “When Sarge was named to the Walk-of-Fame, it made all the more sense. “

Learning of the Lewis Brothers’ plan to bring back the Sparkling Burgundy name, Maple Grove Raceway General Manager Lex Dudas contacted Rich McPhillips, who quickly volunteered to cover his own name on his championship-contending A/Fuel Dragster as a tribute to the Jade Grenade.

“I grew up watching all the big names come through Maple Grove, Cecil County, and Atco,” said McPhillips. “Sarge was one of my heroes and the Jade Grenade was one of the baddest Top Fuel cars in the sport. It will be an honor to race a Jade Grenade tribute car at Maple Grove.”

Hanna, pictured above, left, with Dudas, center, and Lewis has raced cars for more than 50 years, including nitro and jet-powered Funny Cars, including the famed Eastern Raider entries. Beattie, founder of ATI Performance Products, also was the owner of the Black Magic Funny Car.

The event winners, from left, Eddie Krawiec, Vincent Nobile, Tommy Johnson Jr., and Antron Brown.

Saturday notebook