ANDERSON EARNS BIRTHDAY VICTORY AT GATORNATIONALS

Written by Larry Crum, photos by Roger Richards    Mon, 2021-03-15 14:00

 

Happy birthday Greg Anderson.

For the first time in his illustrious career, Anderson won a race on his birthday as the veteran racer took the top qualifier award on Saturday and followed it up with four round wins and a Wally on his 60th birthday to earn his 95th career win at the 52nd annual AMALIE Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway.

“It was a great day. I’ve never actually won on my birthday before and I guess I gave myself a birthday present today which is pretty darn cool,” Anderson said. “This is pretty special. I’ve always liked Gainesville. It is a cool place to race. We had a great run (testing) last week. We got our cars all tuned up, the car ran flawlessly all weekend and the breaks just fell our way. Now here we are in the winners circle.”

Anderson defeated Troy Coughlin Jr. in Sunday’s final as the battle of Summit Racing Equipment vs. JEGS was reunited just a few months after Pro Stock legend Jeg Coughlin Jr. retired from the class.

The third-generation racer, in only his second career Pro Stock final, put up a fight, but was no match for Anderson. The four-time champion powered his RaceStar Wheels Chevrolet Camaro to a 6.602-second pass at 209.33 mph, easily driving around Coughlin in the familiar black and yellow JEGS Camaro who shook the tires at the hit of the throttle.

“It was quite a sight when I pulled up there for the final and I looked over and was like, ‘oh my God I am running Jeg again. He won’t go away,’” Anderson said with a laugh. “That is exactly what I thought and I treated it like it was him. We have a lot of history with that whole family. It obviously continues now and I think that is great.”

With the win, Anderson now needs just two victories to tie and three to pass Warren Johnson for the all-time lead in the class. Johnson finished his historic career with 97 wins.

Anderson had a strong showing all weekend at Gainesville Raceway, posting eight laps among the top handful in the class. On Sunday he watched as first round opponent Cristian Cuadra went red in round one, and then never trailed in his rounds two and three wins over Alex Laughlin and Deric Kramer.

Anderson’s 6.550 at 211.13 mph in round one was his quickest pass of the day and he followed that up with runs of 6.555 and 6.569 to reach his first final round since Dallas in October.

Coughlin had wins over Aaron Stanfield, Fernando Cuadra Jr. and Mason McGaha to reach his first final round since August. Coughlin’s teammate and defending Pro Stock champion Erica Enders was upset in round one on a holeshot against Cuadra.

Anderson’s win, his fifth all-time at the Gatornationals, was not only special because of his birthday celebration, but it marked his first win in the class since October of 2019 making for one truly memorable weekend.

“It does (stand out) for a lot of reasons. I haven’t won in about a year and a half, so you obviously start to doubt if you can win again,” Anderson said. “Those doubts are always in your mind. Until you do it again, you never know when your last one is your last one. So this really is special.

“At this age and on my birthday, I will remember this one for a long time. I guess we can still do this.”

 

 
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