Three To Go For The NHRA

The NHRA’s Countdown to the Championship is at the half way point with the conclusion of this past weekend’s AAA Insurance Midwest Nationals at Gateway Motorsports Park just a hop, skip and jump away from the St. Louis Arch. Three races are left including Maple Grove Raceway this coming weekend followed by Las Vegas and Pomona.

In Pro Stock, Erica Enders won her fourth Wally of the year thanks in part to reaction times. She beat points leader Allen Johnson in the finals with the help of a 0.006 starting line advantage and cut the beams first (by less than 18-inches) with a 6.540 to Johnson’s quicker 6.538. In the semis she paired against second place Jason Line, who was also the number one qualifier at St. Louis, however at the drop of the green his car made a hard turn and Line had to abort and watch from his Camaro as Enders win light came on. As for the Pro Stock standings, Johnson increased his lead by 109 over Line while Enders moved up to third place just 17 points behind Line. Fourth place is Vincent Nobile and Greg Anderson rounds out the top five.

Funny Car points leader Ron Capps had a comfortable lead coming into St. Louis, but bowed out in the second round to Matt Hagen which opened the door for other drivers to step up. Jack Beckman was second in the standings and took full advantage of the opportunity as he got by Alexis DeJoria, Jeff Arend and Tony Pedregon to face Hagen in the finals. Just as the staged beams illuminated, Hagen dropped than hammer to the tune of a -.307 red light handing the win to Beckman. Capps still has the lead but only by 30 points over Beckman. Mike Neff remains in third, with Cruz Pedregon and Tim Wilkerson in fifth. Funny Car just got more interesting!

Like the Funny Car finals, Top Fuel was an all Don Schumacher affair as well. The final pair came down to teammates and rivals Antron Brown and Spencer Massey. Brown qualified number one with Massey right behind him, and that’s just how the finals would end. Brown got the win with a 3.766 to Massey’s 3.812 (and Massey had the holeshot) to make for a terrific race all the way down the 1,000 feet.

With his sixth Wally for the season, Brown’s points lead improved by a mere 21 points over Massey. Multi-champ Tony Schumacher stands in third and isn’t to be discounted just yet with 12 rounds of racing left in the season. Shawn Langdon and Brandon Bernstein make up the top five.

Pro Stock Motorcycle returned to a common trend; that of Andrew Hines paring up with Eddie Krawiec in the finals. Both faced Hector Aranas in the semis, with Hines having to play catch up as Arana Jr whipped a 0.005 holeshot on him at the line. When Hines and Krawiec staged, Krawiec had a 13 point lead in the standings. And that must have been on Hine’s mind as he went red against the number one qualifier and handed him not only the win, but a handful more points in the Countdown. Eddie Krawiec leads Hines by 33 points follow by Arana Jr, Sr., and Karen Stoffer.

Maple Grove Raceway will host the NHRA October 4 – 7 followed by a couple weeks off after four in a row (five counting the rained out Indy) before heading to Vegas and on to the finals at Pomona.