Ron Krisher vividly remembers his fiery crash in the 2005 Northwest Nationals, and it flashed through his consciousness Sunday as he ran against Warren Johnson in the second pairing of eliminations.
 
Krisher eliminated Johnson, but he swears it's only by grace that neither one of them crashed. Rookie-of-the-year Shane Gray started the class' opening round by defeating V Gaines, but winning to him was less the issue than escaping without injury.
 
“Don't put the rest of them cars down that frickin' racetrack without doing something. It's just not right. You're going to hurt somebody. I won, but it's not right. I promise you -- you're going to hurt somebody,” Krisher pleaded. “Stop what you're doing. Stop the race. Do something with the racetrack.
 
“The first two cars were really in trouble,” he said, and continuing added, “was beyond dumb.” The track, he said, “looks like a hole-y road of some kind. The tires are just slappin' and bouncin' and spinnin' -- it's stupid. They need to spray the track. Don't just say there's nothing' wrong with the track. You put four cars down it, and everybody almost killed themselves.”
 
After top-end protests and calls for a halt to racing, starter Rick Stewart ordered Kurt Johnson and Jason Line, the next drivers in line, to shut off their engines. The remainder of the Pro Stock qualifiers towed back to the pits and waited until the Top Alcohol Funny Cars and Top Alcohol Dragsters ran and slipped into the program after the nitro classes' quarterfinal runoffs.

When Cory McClenathan brought his Fram Top Fuel dragster to face Antron Brown to the line Sunday in the finals of the NHRA Northwest Nationals, winning wasn’t the only thing on his mind.

McClenathan also was coping with the death of his friend and fellow racer Mark Niver.

Earlier in the afternoon, Niver, a Top Alchohol driver, died when his dragster crashed into the safety net at the end of the Pacific Raceways track, buckling the chassis into the driver cockpit. Niver, a 30-year NHRA veteran, was 60.

McClenathan did his job by just edging Brown, his Don Schumacher Racing teammate, for the victory. McClenathan clocked a 3.887-second time at 311.70 mph to defeat Brown’s 3.909-second effort at 308.92 mph.

“To win today is great for the Fram team and great for all of the guys and myself, but it is really very hard to sit back and be real excited right now to be honest with you,” McClenathan said.

McClenathan admitted Niver’s death left him stunned.

For much of the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle season to date, Tim Wilkerson has been almost as invisible as the invisible man. Headlines have dealt with his attempts to help the NHRA find ways to make Funny Cars safer without slowing them down dramatically.

Over the past three races, Wilkerson has become the man to beat in the Funny Car ranks.

Wilkerson advanced to his third consecutive final round, won his second race in a row, and completely solidified his spot in the Countdown playoffs by moving his record to 21-11 while moving up to the No. 5 spot in the Full Throttle standings.   Rather than exhibiting an exultant Winner's Circle celebration, however, the team paid its respects to Top Alcohol Dragster driver Mark Niver, who succumbed to his injuries after a high speed wreck during eliminations.

“When something happens like that, your first instinct is to just want to go home,” Wilkerson said. “But we're racers, and Mark was a racer, and this is what we do. I raced with him and knew him well, and the best way to be respectful for all he's done was to go out there and win the darn thing.  Our motivation wasn't for us, and it wasn't to have a big celebration. Our motivation was really just about representing our sport well, and all of the racers, officials, and fans who love it so much. We love drag racing, and we're here to do our best every time we race.  In that regard, today was a very good day. Today went just about as good as it can go, when you're talking about the action on the track.”

On a day of racing which started the Pro Stock drivers standing unified in their disdain of the racing surface, Greg Anderson quickly pulled away from the pack to become an army of one.

Anderson, driver of the Summit Racing Equipment Pontiac, kept a tight rein on lane choice to capture his second consecutive national event victory of 2010 by winning the NHRA Northwest Nationals in Kent, WA, located outside of Seattle.

Anderson saved his best run for last as he beat Johnny Gray with a 6.599 at 209.56 miles per hour.

On a day when aggravation, frustration and tragedy could have easily taken the most seasoned driver out of their game, the newest addition to the team, Tommy Utt, has proven to be the peaceful addition, at least Anderson sees it that way.

MMPSA point leader Cary Goforth stole the show from start to finish, capturing the number one qualifying spot with a 6.296 at 221.35 and then taking that number spot all the way to the winner’s circle at the Thunder Nationals at US 131 Motorsports Park.

Goforth, whose father and teammate Dean has been sidelined due to a foot injury, took over driving duties on his father’s entry and handed over his machine to Stephen Boone, who has been making waves on the eighth mile side of Mountain Motor racing.

With Gofoth on top, John Pluchino rounded out the field, which also consisted of two NHRA legal Pro Stock entries- that of newcomer Vincent Nobile, son of past World Champion John Nobile, and Steve Spiess, another past Mountain Motor World Champion. Another couple of newcomers were on hand for this weekend’s event. The aforementioned Stephen Boone and Brian Gahm, both regular ADRL contenders and John Powers all decided to make their debut in the MMPSA this weekend as well.

Ron Capps reached his second final round of the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series today at the 23rd annual NHRA Northwest Nationals and, despite the disappointment of losing to Tim Wilkerson, was pumped up about the progress of the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger Funny Car team. With this result, he moved into seventh in the class point standings.

The two were dead even at 60 feet, after Capps launched first by one thousandth of a second, until Wilkerson edged out Capps by approximately six feet with a winning 4.221-second pass at 292.39 mph to Capps' 4.246/289.51.

With their wins on Sunday at the 23rd annual NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways, Cory McClenathan and Greg Anderson successfully began their respective quests to become the first driver(s) to sweep the Western Swing twice

The other winner at the 14th race in the 23-event NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series was Tim Wilkerson (Funny Car), who also won at this event in 2009.

McClenathan faced off against Antron Brown – who swept the Western Swing in 2009 – in the Top Fuel final round and his 3.887 at 311.70 in the FRAM dragster was just good enough to outrun Brown’s 3.909 at 308.92 in the Matco Tools dragster.

Sunday's final results from the 23rd annual NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways. The race is the 14th of 23 in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series:

Point standings (top 10) for NHRA professional categories following the 23rd annual NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways, the 14th of 23 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series -

Final round-by-round results from the 23rd annual NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways, the 14th of 23 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series: