Doug Kalitta ended a three-and-a-half year drought on Saturday at the 23rd annual NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways with his first No. 1 qualifier since the 2006 Auto Club NHRA Finals.

The other No. 1 qualifiers at the 14th of 23 races in the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series season were Robert Hight (Funny Car) and Mike Edwards (Pro Stock).

Courtney Force avoided what could have been a disastrous outcome in the first round of eliminations the 2009 Northwest Nationals.

Racing alongside Mike Austin, her right rear Goodyear tire exploded tearing a portion of her Ford Racing A Fuel Dragster’s rear wing off. She managed to keep her dragster off the guard wall and out of Austin’s lane. For the third year TAD driver it was the culmination of many hours of practice, visualization and conversations with her father and teammates.

Drag-racing teams every summer throttle up for a unique experience at Seattle, the city built on Boeing that has embraced an eclectic dining palate, absorbed a jolt of java through Starbucks headquarters, and gained as much fame for its Microsoft-spearheaded technology corridor as for its iconic Space Needle.
 
Top Fuel drivers Antron Brown and Cory McClenathan, his Don Schumacher Racing stablemate, got their competitive juices brewing earlier this week with a special Starbucks experience.

The drag racing history of Pacific Raceway isn’t lost on drag racing veterans of  current and previous generations.

Ed McCulloch has his memories as a driver at the facility located outside of Seattle in Kent, Wash. For current NHRA Full Throttle Top Fuel driver Larry Dixon, his memories date back to childhood, riding in the back of the family’s station wagon, the tow vehicle for Larry Dixon Sr.’s Top Fuel dragster.

“Over the years, Seattle has been a great venue for drag racing,” said McCulloch, who never claimed an NHRA win at the facility. “In the old days, we had an awful lot of fun racing up here. [Pacific Raceways] was the key race track in the Northwest … with the key events. A lot of the guys from back east made their way up here to go racing. We used to have a ball.”

Promoters the likes of Bill Doner, Jim Rockstad and the late Steve Evans had a way of incorporating both the thrilling and ludicrous into their shows. There were 64-car Funny Car events, Fox Hunts and even a race with former porn star Linda Lovelace as the race queen.

These kinds of shows brought out the best in race fans, and depending on your moral character – the worst.

The Tuttle Motorsports team has undergone a name change going into this weekend's NHRA Northwest Nationals.  Driver Steve Torrence unveiled the Capco/Tuttle Motorsports colors Friday.  The new-look race car is now black with red and white accents with Capco Racing prominently displayed.

Since last year's race at Sonoma, Calif. -- a year ago on the Western Swing -- Mike Edwards has dominated Pro Stock qualifying. But Jason Line, with some help from the always-dangerous Allen Johnson, took aim at that statistic Friday at Pacific Raceways during first day qualifying at the NHRA Northwest Nationals.
 
Line wrung a 6.612-second elapsed time (at 209.01 mph) from his Summit Racing Pontiac GXP to take the provisional No. 1 position, ahead of Johnson's 6.618-second effort at a class-fastest 209.52 mph. Edwards was third at 6.631/209.20.

Tommy Johnson Jr.  races nitro-burning vehicles professionally, however for the last two seasons, he’s performed an impersonation of a back-up quarterback.

Johnson, who is under contract with Don Schumacher Racing, is presently assigned to the Yas Marina team. Earlier this season, Johnson along with Hot Rod Fuller, were named as the drivers for the Abu Dhabi-based team.

Doug Kalitta is notoriously quiet.

But all his Top Fuel competitors can easily hear the veteran driver coming on strong.
 
In NHRA Northwest Nationals qualifying Friday, Kalitta blasted his Kalitta Air Dragster to a 3.884-second elapsed time -- the only one in the 3.8 range -- to swipe the early No. 1 qualifying position.
 
He said with cooler weather on its way, he didn't expect to keep the position. However, he said the Jim Oberhofer-tuned Kalitta Air Dragster still has enough left in it to regain the No. 1 even if he gives it up early Saturday.
 
That represents progress for his program, which took a bit of a detour from its strong path.
 
“Our Kalitta Air team has struggled at the last two events (with two first-round losses), but Jim and the guys think they have figured out what was giving us problems.”

Funny Car “power hitter” Robert Hight said after Friday's class-leading 4.194-second elapsed time and 291.57-mph speed that crew chief Jimmy Prock “is always swinging for the fence.”
 
And that, the Auto Club of Southern California Mustang driver said, is what has him in line to earn his sixth top-qualifying position in 14 events this season during this weekend’s NHRA Northwest Nationals.  
 
“He goes out there and he looks at a racetrack and he figures, 'What is the best I can run under these conditions?' And that's the way he sets the car up. He doesn't try to back it off. It's on 'kill' all the time. We won a lot of races doing that and qualified No. 1 doing that.”

Day two for the NHRA Jr. Drag Racing League Western Conference Finals presented by Lucas Oil and JR Race Car began with a final time trail for all competitors followed by round one of eliminations at Bandimere Speedway.  Hundreds of kids, ages 8 to 17, from NHRA member track across the western United States and Canada, made the trip to thunder mountain and are battling for individual and team honors, and a share of the purse worth nearly $100,000 in savings bonds.  The event kicked off Thursday with initial time trials and will conclude on Saturday with the crowning of winners in eight age brackets and Jr. Comp, as well a champion team.