June 11-14, 2009

Full Throttle Drag Racing

Englishtown

Pro wrap up

ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. --

Tony Pedregon picked up his second consecutive win of the season in Funny Car at the 40th annual United Association NHRA SuperNationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park.
Larry Dixon picked up his fifth win in Englishtown, while Jeg Coughlin and Craig Treble also win in their respective categories.

Pedregon powered his Q Horsepower Chevy Impala SS to a 4.246-second run at 260.56 to grab the win. It's Pedregon's second consecutive win of the season, 42nd of his career and second win in Englishtown. Pedregon also moved past points leader Ron Capps to take the top spot in the Funny Car points standings with the win.

"I never thought I'd be afraid of a girl," said Pedregon, who faced Ashley Force Hood in the final round. "Fear of losing was in the back of my head. I knew we had a good race car. It ran good in the heat, and it ran good with cloud cover. Before the final, I just knew that Dickie [Venebles, crew chief] was making a lot of adjustments and I had a feeling it would be a close race. I heard her for a while. My car was revving up, spinning the tires. We got after it because we had to. I could feel the G's falling off, and I was worried. If the track was 1,320 feet, I'd be in big trouble. I didn't get off throttle. I just hung on. It was just enough. You don't know how relieved I was to see that win light."

NHRA legend John Force moved into the seventh spot with his second-round appearance while rookie driver Matt Hagan dropped from seventh to 10th in the point standings with his first-round loss.

In Top Fuel, Dixon drove his Alan Johnson Al-Anabi Racing dragster past current points leader Antron Brown to grab his third win of the season. Dixon's run of 4.553 seconds was enough to give him his fifth win at Englishtown and 46th of his career.

"We've had a lot of success at this race," said Dixon. "The race used to be Father's Day at Columbus, and we won out until they moved the Father's Day to here. I was like, 'Wow, I haven't won Englishtown in a long time. It would be cool to do that,' nonchalantly saying that at the beginning of the season. And then all of a sudden, you get to go to a bunch of finals and win here. This is a great track, and there's so much history here. Racing on the same track as 'Jungle' and Garlits and Shirley and all my heroes that I grew up watching race is a great deal."

With the win, Dixon was able to move past Top Fuel pilot Brandon Bernstein and take over the third spot, just 97 points behind leader Brown.

Defending Pro Stock world champion Jeg Coughlin drove his JEGS.com Chevy Cobalt to a 6.598 at 209.49 past runner-up Mike Edwards to grab his fifth win of the season and second consecutive win of 2009. It also gave the four-time world champ his third win in Englishtown and 45th of his career.

"It's taken some craftiness on our part," said Coughlin, of his two wins over Edwards, who had the better performing car in both instances. "In the pits, the guys have been doing a fantastic job. We qualified eighth, which was not where we wanted to be, but when the weather mixed up Saturday, we just wanted to make sure that we got down the racetrack. Ideally, we wanted to be in the top eight for lane choice first round, and we finished eighth. We knew we had a lot to work with. We figured we could get within a hundredth and a half or two-hundredths of Mike Edwards and could probably pace with anybody else out there, and as it turned out, that's about the way it turned out."

In Pro Stock Motorcycle Craig Treble drove his Honda of Kingston Suzuki to a 6.955 at 193.10 past defending world champion Eddie Krawiec and picked up his second win of the season, 14th of his career and second at Englishtown.

"This track loves me, and I love it," said Treble. "I don't know what it is but I really like it here. The guys like Matt Smith and Eddie [Krawiec] that went 6.90 were out of my league. I did not have a .90 in my bike. Of course, I don't feel bad about the final because Eddie whipped my butt the last time we raced. I owed that to him. I was doing okay on the starting line, but I just let it fly in the final and went .007. I should have done that other three rounds, but it worked. I'm looking forward to the west coast swing now. I've got a major engine overhaul coming up after Norwalk, and I can afford it now."

With the win, Treble moved from sixth to fourth in the Pro Stock Motorcycle point standings.

Sunday's final results from the 40th annual United Association NHRA SuperNationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park. The race is the 11th of 24 in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series:

Top Fuel -- Larry Dixon, 4.553 seconds, no speed def. Antron Brown, foul.

Funny Car -- Tony Pedregon, Chevy Impala, 4.246, 260.56 def. Ashley Force Hood, Ford Mustang, 4.219, 272.72.

Pro Stock -- Jeg Coughlin, Chevy Cobalt, 6.598, 209.49 def. Mike Edwards, Pontiac GXP, 6.587, 209.82.

Pro Stock Motorcycle -- Craig Treble, Suzuki, 6.955, 193.10 def. Eddie Krawiec, Harley-Davidson, 6.906, 193.29.

Sportsman wrap up

 

NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car champion Frank Manzo raced at his home track, Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, N.J., this weekend during the United Association NHRA SuperNationals. The Morganville, N.J., resident notched win No. 81 and extended his lead for most NHRA national event wins for sportsman racers. The next closest racer, David Rampy, has 70 NHRA national event wins.
Manzo, who has now won three out of the four national events he has attended including one week ago in Joliet, Ill., took on the event's No. 1 qualifier, Jay Payne, Claremont, Calif., in the final round. Although Manzo qualified in the No. 2 spot, he effectively outran Payne throughout eliminations and as if to put an exclamation point on it, Manzo peeled off the quickest and fastest TAFC run of the weekend in the final. He laid down a 5.493-second, 253.20 mph pass to Payne's 5.667-second, 260.76 mph effort. Payne's runner-up finish was his best of the season to date.

In an anticlimactic win in Top Alcohol Dragster John Finke notched his first win of the season. Although the Selkirk, N.Y., racer ran consistently all weekend and laid down both the quickest run of the event and the fastest, Finke's win was less than exciting. His opponent, Mike Kosky of Cuddy, Pa., broke in the semifinals and was unable to make repairs in time for the finals. However, due to time constraints caused by the weather, NHRA officials declared Finke the winner without making him stage the car.

In Pro Mod R Commisso, Left lane, (0.104) 5.856 245.58 def. D Rowe, (0.121) 5.899 243.94

Dan Fletcher's win in Comp Eliminator was national event win No. 60 for the Churchville, N.Y., racer. It was his seventh in Comp Eliminator, which he just started racing in 2008. He also has national event wins in Super Stock, Stock Eliminator and Super Gas. In the final in Englishtown he beat Erich Bollman of Newark, Del.

In Super Stock, Peter Biondo, Maspeth, N.Y., earned his 36th NHRA national event win. He beat another racer from Maspeth, Donald Sabin, to get the trophy. Biondo has also logged wins in Stock Eliminator and Super Comp. Don Pires, Jr., Dighton, Mass., racked up the win in Stock Eliminator beating veteran racer Scotty Richardson, Barbourville, Tenn., in the final. Beaver Springs, Pa., racer John DiBartolomeo beat Michael Daymude of Hedgesville, W.V., in the Super Comp final and the win in Super Street went to Jim Schreiner, Brick, N.J., when he ousted Peter Sance, Hamden, Conn., in the final round.

Final qualifying

ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. --

Ashley Force Hood held on to the No. 1 qualifier in Funny Car as rain ended qualifying early at the 40th annual United Association NHRA SuperNationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, N.J.
Tony Schumacher also kept the top position in Top Fuel while Ron Krisher and Hector Arana were able to move in to the top spots in their respective categories before rain showers hit at the 11th of 24 events on the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.

 

Force Hood continued her No. 1 qualifier success, as her Friday pass of 4.071-seconds at 303.37 mph in her Castrol GTX Ford Mustang stay strong to give Force Hood her fourth No. 1 qualifier in the past six races.

"Thankfully, all three of our runs were good runs," said Force Hood, who clocked a 4.202 on Saturday's run. "We'll take any of our qualifying runs on race day. We would have liked to have gotten a fourth run, but we are just as content to go into race day with three runs. We'll see what we can do here at Englishtown tomorrow."

Current points leader Ron Capps starts 10th in the field while defending event winner Tim Wilkerson will start seventh.

In Top Fuel, Schumacher's Friday run in his U.S. Army dragster of 3.818 at 314.46 stayed strong to give the driver his first No. 1 qualifier of the season and 57th of his career.

"We're certainly happy to have our first No. 1 of the year, especially considering we have a first-round bye," said Schumacher. "We can always use the free 20 points whenever we can get them."

Four-time Englishtown winner Larry Dixon took the second spot heading into Sunday's eliminations while points leader Antron Brown took the fifth spot.

Ron Krisher took advantage of the cool weather on shortened session and grabbed the No. 1 qualifier in Pro Stock. Krisher drove his Valvoline Chevy Cobalt to a 6.583 at 209.30. It's Krisher's first No. 1 qualifier of the season and 15th of his career.

"We've got the same motor we've had in all year; we've just been having trouble with the car and the clutch," said Krisher. "But we learned a lot of things this weekend. We knew what we were looking at, and we knew what we had to do to fix it, and when we went out this morning, it was fixed. We were picking it up on every run, but Allen [Johnson] snuck past us last night."

Current points leader and defending world champion Jeg Coughlin took the 8th spot while defending event winner Greg Anderson will start the race in the third spot.

In Pro Stock Motorcycle Hector Arana was able to move past Craig Treble and take the top spot. Arana drove his Lucas Oil Buell to a 6.965 at 189.87 to pick up his first No. 1 qualifier of the season and only second in his 165-race career.

"This is the first time in a long time that I've been No. 1 and it feels pretty good," said Arana. "I've been close a couple of times but someone, usually Matt Smith, comes along and knocks me down at the last minute. I did my rain dance so nobody got that chance today. Seriously, I think we were going to be okay even if we had run because that 6.96 was pretty good."

Sunday's eliminations begin at 11 a.m.