The Midwest Top Sportsman Association (MWTS) will be holding two Top Sportsman Q32 Races at US-131 Motorsports Park in Martin, MI on Saturday August 21st and September 4th.

Sunday’s Lucas Oil Nationals Funny Car final round was the stuff of storybook tales; a suburban Chicago plastic-bag manufacturer against the drag-racing instructor who rewrote the track elapsed-time record in the opening round, the underdog against a seasoned pro nicknamed “Fast Jack.”
 
“Fat chance,” some at Brainerd International Raceway might have thought about Bob Bode’s quest for a victory over well-funded Don Schumacher Racing shoe Jack Beckman in the first final-round appearance of his 10-year career. After all, Bode said he didn’t remember winning a round all last season.
 
But fat is what a betting man’s wallet would have been Sunday. Bode pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Funny Car history, clocking a 4.248 at 253.66 mph to top Beckman’s 8.338 / 86.32.
 
“All of it is kind of like a dream. I’m afraid I’m going to wake up and it’s not real,” the Barrington, Ill., resident told reporters immediately afterward. “I was over there, watching guys you all talk to [Top Fuel winner] Larry Dixon. “I dreamed for a long time - 10 years - of being where he was. Now I’m standing in that same spot and you guys are talking to me. Is that incredible or what?!

Despite his first-year status as an ADRL Extreme Pro Stock driver, Cale Aronson hates the thought of being called a “rookie.”

“I’ve grown up in mountain-motor Pro Stock; I know the history of the class, all of its major players, and I’ve been driving these cars a few years now,” the son of Pro Stock pioneer Chuck Aronson says. “It just doesn’t sound right to me and I certainly don’t feel like a rookie.”

It’s taken some time, but with a brand-new Jerry Haas-built 2010 Mustang, prodigious Jon Kaase horsepower and the sponsorship of CarSafe behind him, the Chillicothe, Missouri-based racer is beginning to make his presence felt in the ADRL, both on and off the track. He reached his first final round at the most recent race, just a week ago at Madison, Illinois.

Unfortunately, a bizarre incident on the Gateway International Raceway starting line took away Aronson’s chances for a win against Brian Gahm. While preparing to stage, a 10-pound ballast weight fell from beneath the front of his car, breaking the pre-stage beam and also starting the seven-second clock ticking when Gahm bumped into his own stage beam.

Ron Capps is firm in his belief – if you’re going to have a nostalgia class, then keep it nostalgic.

Capps, a veteran on the NHRA Full Throttle Series, has found a comfort zone racing off-seasons on the NHRA’s Hot Rod Heritage Series behind the wheel of nitro-burning, nostalgia Funny Cars more commonly referred to as AA/FC’s. Lately he’s become disheartened with the efforts of some to bring modern day advancements into a style of racing aimed at reliving yesteryear.

“It should be nostalgic,” Capps said. “I got into this because I loved watching those cars growing up. I just loved the way they looked.”

Sadly, Capps says, the movement is getting away from the original intent in a hurry.

Shane Gray laid another brick in the foundation of his rookie-of-the-year campaign at the Lucas Oil Nationals. However, Jeg Coughlin sent out another notice Sunday to the Pro Stock class at Brainerd International Raceway - he wants a fifth championship.
 
Coughlin, taking his Victor Cagnazzi-owned JEGS.com Chevy Cobalt to a third straight final round, posted a 6.614-second elapsed time at 208.04 mph to claim his fourth victory of the season when Gray jumped the gun by a mere one-thousandth of a second in the Tire Kingdom Pontiac GXP, lighting the red light for himself and the win light for Coughlin.

Gray's official numbers were 6.654 / 207.21.
 
“I feel a bit fortunate,” Coughlin said, “because we barely made it up there for the finals. I heard something odd with the motor in the semis, and that engine is probably our best. So, we didn't want to damage it. The guys thrashed and put our No. 3 motor in there for the final and we used up every bit of that 75 minutes between rounds to get up there and race Shane.”
 
He got his break when Gray red-lit. And he knew it.

Andrew Hines said Sunday after winning the Pro Stock Motorcycle final of the Lucas Oil Nationals that his “head is on straight, unlike last year.”
 
But, it wandered a little as he rode his Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson through the water box. Jim Underdahl was in the other lane, prepared to grab some glory on the eve of the Countdown he had no chance of enjoying.
 
That’s when the memories flooded back to childhood.
 
“I grew up with Jim,” Hines said. He recalled riding dirt bikes with him in Colorado while Hines’ brother, three-time champion Matt Hines, tested his bike, along with Greg Underdahl, Jim’s dad and with Gary Tonglet, whose sons GT and LE race also race against him.
 
“His dad, he’s a smart guy. And I know he wants to whip me,” Hines, the No. 1 qualifier, said. “Hungry little guys like that, you can’t take them for granted. You never know what could happen.”
 
But for Jim Underdahl, it was hard to argue Sunday with Andrew Hines’ string of 6.9-second passes.
 
Underdog Underdahl joined Funny Car’s Bob Bode and Pro Stock’s Shane Gray as first-time finalists at Brainerd International Raceway, but Hines overwhelmed him in the end.

Jack Beckman posted the quickest Funny Car elapsed time of the weekend (4.057 seconds), set top speed (306.33 mph), advanced to his fourth final round of the year, but missed collecting his second event title of the season at the 29th annual NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway today.

After qualifying No. 6 in the Freightliner Trucks Dodge, Beckman ripped through the field with low ET in each of the initial three rounds, first defeating Del Worsham with the quickest lap of the weekend, a 4.057-second elapsed time at 304.32 mph, then Robert Hight with a 4.080/306.33, for top speed of the meet, and Jim Head with a 4.089/300.66.

In the final round, Beckman faced final-round first-timer Bob Bode and, in a surprise upset, Bode scored the win when Beckman smoked the tires early in the run. Bode crossed the finish stripe in 4.248 seconds at 253.66 mph, while Beckman coasted to a losing 8.338/86.32 pass.

NHRA Pro Stock racer Rodger Brogdon can’t help but wonder if the road to the next Promised Land will be paved. The driver of the Pistonator Pontiac GXP sponsored by Attitude Apparel hit a few potholes this year on the way to a Countdown to 1 playoff berth.

Brogdon clinched the tenth and final position in the Pro Stock portion of the Countdown after a regular season which included a crashed car and a mid-season crew chief change.

Against the odds, Brogdon and his team reached the goals they established at the beginning of the season.

“We really wanted to get into the K&N Horsepower Challenge first,” said Brogdon following his quarter-final finish at the NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals in Brainerd, Minn. “Then we got in there and the second on the list was the Countdown and we got in there too, although we limped in. But we limped into it with our destiny in our hands.”

Brogdon was already contemplating his game plan all the while trying to determine what broke in the drive train on his Pontiac in his second round loss to Greg Anderson. A round earlier he took out eight-time winner in 2010 and No. 1 qualifier Mike Edwards with a .07 holeshot advantage.

All season, Larry Dixon has had no equal in the Top Fuel class.

Sunday was no different.

Dixon capped an incredible regular season by winning his ninth final round in as many appearances. This time, he beat Cory McClenathan to win the NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals at Brainerd, Minn.
Dixon clocked a 3.786-second run at 312.28 mph, while Cory Mac was close behind at 3.810 seconds at 314.17 mph.

“In the final, the car blew up, but it made low et (elapsed time of the meet), so that was just an awesome job by the team,” said Dixon, who pilots the Al-Anabi Racing dragster. “Right when I lifted, it (the motor) popped, then I saw the win light and I saw the 78 on the board. They were set up and they weren’t taking Cory and the (Don) Schumacher team lightly.”
 
Dixon’s nine wins in nine tries ties an NHRA single-season record. John Force started the 1994 season with nine straight wins and Pro Stock Motorcycle standout Dave Schultz also had nine consecutive wins in ’94 as well.

The full contingent of 40 Countdown to 1 berths were clinched by the second round of the NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals in Brainerd, Minn.

Both nitro divisions had one available position apiece and after the first round on Sunday those spots were filled.

Tony Pedregon claimed the tenth and final position in the Funny Car division after both Cruz Pedregon and Jeff Arend lost in the first round.
T-Ped was the first of the trio to exit competition when he lost to the No. 2 seed Robert Hight. The two-time series champion watched nervously as his place in the playoff was secured.

“We just didn’t have the performance in the last four or five races,” Pedregon admitted. “It was pretty nerve wracking and you think you can control your emotions. You’d like to think you’re bigger than to get emotional.

“For the Kalitta guys and my brother Cruz, you have to have the right timing. If you go back in time, we earned it. We wrecked a car, blew up a couple of bodies and I just had to slow down and be careful with the spending. That may change and I may not be the most competitive in the Countdown but it’s just that little glimmer of hope I have again.

“I don’t know that I have ever been so happy with losing first round.”