NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Reigning Top Fuel champ Steve Torrence won his first of the season, Shawn Langdon his first in the Funny Car class, and Andrew Hines his 50th in Pro Stock Motorcycle to highlight a wild day of final eliminations at the NGK Spark Plugs NHRA Four-Wide Nationals.

Torrence, winless since capturing six straight event victories to end the 2018 season drove his Capco Contractors dragster to three straight 3.7-second passes Sunday to capture the win and vault himself into the points lead. In the final round, Torrence’s 3.77 finished ahead of Clay Millican, Terry McMillen, and Leah Pritchett.

The victory is the third straight at the event and his 32nd career victory, encompassing 28 in Top Fuel and four in the Alcohol Dragster class, where he also was an NHRA world champion.

Langdon, a former world champion and 14-time winner in Top Fuel, scored his first in Funny Car in just his 30th start in the class. At the wheel of his Global Electronic Technology Toyota, Langdon won a final-round nailbuter, eking past low qualifier Robert Hight right at the finish line for the victory. John Force finished third and Matt Hagan fourth.

The victory was the 22nd of Langdon’s career, which also includes victories in Super Comp, where he also was a world champion, and Super Gas. Langdon’s victory also allowed him to join his Kalitta Motorsports teammates – Doug Kalitta, Richie Crampton, and J.R. Todd – as winners this season.

Hines became just the 19th driver in NHRA history to reach the 50-win mark and the first to do it in Pro Stock Motorcycle. Hines finished first, beating his Harley-Davidson teammate, Eddie Krawiec, handing him his sixth runner-up (without a win) in four-wide competition. Hector Arana Jr., winner of the recent four-wide event in Las Vegas, finished third with Ryan Oehler in fourth.

The win was Hines' second victory this season after scoring at the PSM season opener in Gainesville, Fla.

TOP FUEL WINNER STEVE TORRENCE: “”Richard Hogan, Bobby Lagana, and all of them Capco boys just instill confidence in you; I hadn’t been driving the most confidently lately – maybe on the defensive side – so I changed my mindset and went out there and did what I know what to do. We hadn’t had the car we had in the Countdown but it’s not because of anything other that trying some things.

“This hasn’t been the start to the season that we wanted, but in the scheme of things we were still third in the points. We’ve had a lot of success here at zMAX; at first I didn’t like the four-wide, but I have retracted that statement. I like racing here. We could race all of them here if you guys didn’t care. It’s good to turn the tables.”

FUNNY CAR WINNER SHAWN LANGDON: “There are so many things I’ve gone through to get to this point, but it’s the people I’ve been surrounded by and the chance to race for a legend like Connie Kalitta. And to have a guy like J.R. Todd as a teammate and working with [crew chief] Nicky Boninfante who’s been out here for years and bringing in Del Worsham was a big key factor. My dad has been fighting some health issues and I told him I was going to win a Wally for him, and we did. He’s healthy, beat cancer, got a liver transplant; it all good. I can’t wait to give him the trophy.

“To beat the guys we did in the final was special. I was .069 and left fourth. That shows you how good everyone is and how hungry they are. I hit the gas and the car was not really running well, just kind of petering down there, but I looked out to my left and didn’t see anyone. I saw the blinking [win] light, which I hadn’t seen today because I’d been second, which is a solid light, so I thought, ‘Damn, we might have won.’ No one would answer the radio so it wasn’t until I turned the corner and they pointed me to the [TV interview] side that I knew.”

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE WINNER ANDREW HINES: “The day went pretty good. As it got hotter and hotter, the conditions got tougher and tougher. Fortunately, our crew is good at persevering because not one round this weekend was similar to others. I missed tune-up in the first round but made up for that later on and we worked our way to the second round where we had that wacky round. 

On the semifinal re-run: “I was staging and I could see the light flicker in lane three. I didn’t know what the heck was going on. I was all staged so I turned the throttle and the red-light came on. I was not sure exactly what the malfunction was. At the top end, I was interested to see if we’d get a re-run. Thankfully we did but that’s something that has never happened in my career. I just saw all those blue lights flashing and it looked like I was getting pulled over by the cops. When we got the word about the re-run, we had the bike ready in 30 minutes.”

“In the final, we all did our normal job of staging. When I left I knew I didn’t get all of it. I could tell Eddie was making a good run. I was tucked in and started thinking he’d better not drive around me. I got there by a hundredth. This was a big day for our Harley-Davidson Screamin’ Eagle team. HD SE team. There was definitely no shortage of emotions in my head every round today.”
 

ELIMINATIONS ROUND RECAPS

TOP FUEL

Top Fuel round one: Scott Palmer and Dom Lagana, both of whom failed to make a full run in qualifying, both advanced to the Top Fuel semifinals after finishing 1-2 in their quad ahead of Antron Brown and Brittany Force. Palmer stepped up to a 3.782 while Lagana, whose best pass in qualifying was an 8.60 in three tries, got it to together with a 3.796.

World champ Steve Torrence, who has won the last two four-wide races here, advanced to the semifinals with a 3.743, finishing ahead of Terry McMillen, who also will move on, and Spencer Massey and Audrey Worm.

Clay Millican finished ahead of Mike Salinas on a holeshot, 3.815 to 3.768, but both will move into the final four after getting to the stripe ahead of Austin Prock and Cameron Ferre.

Leah Pritchett and Doug Kalitta advanced from their quad with a pair of 3.77s ahead of Richie Crampton and Lex Joon.

Top Fuel semifinals: Clay Millican has reached his third final of the season after winning his quad with a 3.87 to edge Leah Pritchett’s 3.94. Low qualifier Mike Salinas and Doug Kalitta went up in smoke behind them. It’s the third straight four-wide final for Millican, though he’s finished fourth in the last two.

Steve Torrence, like Millican still looking for his first win of the year, had low e.t. of the round with a 3.777 with Terry McMillen finishing second with a 3.828 as both finished ahead of Dom Lagana and Scott Palmer.

With those results, we’re guaranteed to have the sixth different winner in six races this season.

Top Fuel final: Reigning world champ Steve Torrence collected his first win of the 2019 season and took over the points lead, beating Clay Millican, Terry McMillen, and Leah Pritchett in the final round.

Torrence’s Capco Contractors entry was the only one to make a full run, a his third straight 3.7-second pass of eliminations to easily finish ahead of the other three, who had elapsed times in the four-second zone.

It was Torrence’s third straight win at the Charlotte four-wide event.

FUNNY CAR

Funny Car round one: John Force, gunning for career win No. 150, advanced to the semifinals with a 3.920 alongside and in front of Matt Hagan’s 3.953 to end the days of defending event champ Cruz Pedregon and Jonnie Lindberg.

Jack Beckman, a two-time four-wide winner, also moved into the final four with a 3.925, edging Tim Wilkerson’s 3.954 as both finished ahead of trouble-plagued Ron Capps and Dave Richards,

Low qualifier Robert Hight got a scare when his Auto Club Chevy smoked the tires, but he recovered to pass Bob Tasca III and finish second behind world champ J.R. Todd’s 3.966. Bob Gilbertson did not make the first-round call after suffering a fire in the final qualifying session.

Tommy Johnson Jr. (3.978) and Shawn Langdon (3.982) were the final two to advance to the semifinals after beating Terry Haddock and Jeff Diehl, the latter of whom rode out a brief fire in the shutdown area.

Funny Car semifinals: Robert Hight had low e.t. of the semifinal round of Funny Car with a 3.977 to easily win his quad with Shawn Langdon driving through tire smoke to a 4.31 second-place finish ahead of Tommy Johnson Jr. and J.R. Todd.

His teammate, John Force, advanced to the Funny Car final on a deep-stage holeshot with a 4.04 to finish ahead of Matt Hagan’s 3.99, who will join him in the run for the money. Tim Wilkerson finished third with a 4.06 while Jack Beckman smoked the tires.

All four finalists are former NHRA world champs.

Funny Car final: Shawn Langdon, who scored his first career win in Top Fuel at zMAX Dragway in 2012, got his first Funny Car win at the same track and became the 17th driver to win in both the Top Fuel and Funny Car classes when he outlasted Robert Hight, John Force, and Matt Hagan.

Hight, the low qualifier, looked to be out in front but his Auto Club Chevy lost power, allowing Langdon's Global Electronic Technology Toyota to roar by to collect the win, 4.12 to 4.15. Force finished third with a 4.51 and Hagan fourth with a 5.25.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE

Pro Stock Motorcycle round one: Eddie Krawiec, a five-time runner-up at the zMax Four-Wide event, took a step towards his first win when he won his quad over Ryan Oehler, Joey Gladstone, and Steve Johnson. Oehler, looking for his first win anywhere, also advanced from the No. 13 qualifying position. Both riders ran 6.88 elapsed times.

World champions Andrew Hines and Hector Arana Sr. advanced from the No. 3 and No. 11 qualifying spots, respectively in a tough quad that also included Jerry Savoie and Kelly Clontz. Hines was quickest with a 6.844 while Arana Sr., held off Savoie, 6.866 to 6.877. There was a brief delay before the quad while NHRA officials corrected a timing issue.

Low qualifier Karen Stoffer made the best run of the round with a 6.811 on her Suzuki to move on and she was joined by Cory Reed, who ran a 6.888. Those wins came at the expense of Angelle Sampey and Jimmy Underdahl.

Hector Arana Jr. matched Karen Stoffer’s elapsed time with a 6.811 to win the final quad but the real drama came when Angie Smith advanced on a holeshot over her husband, Matt, 6.90 to 6.92.

Pro Stock Motorcycle semifinals: Controversy marked the first semifinal quad when Hector Arana Sr. appeared to get timed out and Andrew Hines received a red-light start. Further review revealed that the stage lights in Arana’s lane never came on despite his frantic attempts to roll his Lucas Oil EBR into the beams. After an extensive video review, NHRA ordered the quad to be re-run.

Comparatively speaking, the second quad was much more subdued with four competitive reaction times from Cory Reed, Eddie Krawiec, Karen Stoffer, and Ryan Oehler. Krawiec prevailed with a 6.859 while second-year pro Oehler used a 6.890 to hold off Reed and low qualifier Stoffer to make it to his first final.

UPDATE: The re-run was decided on the starting line where Hector Arana Sr. and Angie Smith both red-lighted, sending Andrew Hines and Hector Arana Jr. to the final round. Hines made the best pass of the round with a 6.825 at over 198-mph.

Pro Stock Motorcycle final: Andrew Hines became the first Pro Stock Motorcycle rider to win 50 NHRA national event titles after beating Eddie Krawiec, Hector Arana Jr., and Ryan Oehler in the Charlotte final. Hines, who is one of 19 drivers to win 50 races, rode his Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson to a 6.831 to cover Krawiec's 6.858. Arana Jr., the Las Vegas champ, finished with a 6.908 and Oehler ran 6.959 in his first final.

Hines now has four wins at the Charlotte four-wide event and seven overall at zMax Dragway while Krawiec now has six runner-up finishes in Charlotte.

PRO MOD FINAL: By a margin of just five-thousandths of a second, reigning series champion Mike Janis picked up his first win of the season in the E3 Spark Plugs NHRA Pro Mod series. In a quad that also included two-time Pro Stock champ Erica Enders, class icon Rickie Smith, and current points leader Steve Jackson, Janis won with a 5.779 in his supercharged AAP Camaro. He held off Smith, who finished second with a 5.817 in his turbocharged Bahrain1 Mustang.

MOUNTAIN MOTOR PRO STOCK FINAL: On a holeshot, Chris Powers picked up the win in the first-ever Four-Wide Mountain Motor Pro Stock exhibition over PDRA champ Steven Boone, Todd Hoerner, and Dwayne Rice, who was a no show. Powers ran a 6.417 to cover Hoerner's quicker 6.373. Boone finished with a 6.643.

LUCAS OIL DRAG RACING SERIES SPORTSMAN RESULTS

Top Alcohol Dragster
Julie Nataas def. Duane Shields

Top Alcohol Funny Car
Tyler Scott def. Annie Whiteley

Comp
Jim Kimbrough def. Randy Daniels

Super Stock
Monty Bogan def. Joe Santangelo

Stock
Drew Skillman def. Monty Bogan

Super Comp
Jonathan Anderson def. Ray Miller III

Super Gas
Joe Harper def. Shannon Brinkley

Top Sportsman presented by Racing RVs.com
Jerry Albert def. Chuck Harris