Pro Stock Bike rider Craig Treble held on to the top spot through the final two qualifying sessions at the Route 66 NHRA Nationals.

Treble ran 6.960 seconds at 190.27 mph to claim the top spot during Friday’s lone session and improved during Saturday’s second run with a 6.932, 188.

This marked Treble's first No. 1 of the year, and the fourth of his career. His last No. 1 came in 2003 at the Pomona, Calif., season finale, where he won the event.

"It was a lot wetter last night and today it started drying out after the rain finally subsided," said Treble of the weather changes. "And you could ride the bike up there to the staging lanes and not have to dodge all the puddles all the way up there, so that was kind of nice. We saw the humidity dropping and this morning it was a lot better than last night, obviously. Everybody picked up a little bit and, man, I still can’t believe it.

Larry Dixon strengthened his points lead in Top Fuel as he raced to the No. 1 qualifier at the United Association Route 66 NHRA Nationals.

Robert Hight, Mike Edwards and Craig Treble also took the top spots in their respective categories at the 10th of 23 events on the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.

Dixon drove his Al-Anabi Racing dragster to the top of the field and posted a track record of 3.814-seconds at 317.42 mph. It was Dixon’s third No. 1 qualifier of the season and 43rd of his career.

If you're up for some Nostalgia Funny Car racing on Saturday evening, we have streaming event coverage of the event promoted by Beserko Bob Doerrer at Atco Raceway in Atco, NJ.

On the eve of his latest venture, veteran drag racing promoter George Howard of Million-Dollar Bracket Race fame is feeling excited, but tired.

He’d just arrived at Orangeburg (SC) Dragway after a long week of driving across three states for this weekend’s (June 4-6) Attitude’s CompetitionPlus.com South Carolina Spectacular, the first of six races for the new Coca-Cola Outlaw Doorslammer Series (ODS) presented by Hooter’s, established and co-promoted by Howard and longtime drag racing school operator Roy Hill.

“I’m definitely encouraged by the early response (to ODS), but in today’s time you never know what you’re going to get until it happens,” says Howard, who also held a stake in the popular ORSCA series several years ago.

“This is not new to me, but it’s still really exciting. There are already a few rigs lined up to get in the track and the spectators are keeping the phones ringing off the hook. I’m looking forward to this.”

Funny Car racer Robert Hight had a week to think about his three-race winning streak. On Friday at the NHRA Route 66 Nationals, he had more time to think.

The same held true for his crew chief Jimmy Prock.

Persistent rain showers limited qualifying to one session and left many drivers idle throughout the day.

As badly as the defending series champion wanted to capitalize on his momentum, both he and Prock understood getting a place in the field with incoming Saturday weather was all they needed to do.

The Blue Max is a legendary part of drag racing’s past.

Mad Max could be an exciting part of its future.

“Before I end up my career, you’re definitely going to see me at least doing a test in a dragster,” says Formula One/Le Mans/Indy 500/sports car/Champ Car/now NASCAR driver Max Papis.

Don’t laugh.

An uncertain weather forecast for Saturday qualifying at the NHRA Route 66 Nationals in Joliet, Ill., made for a clear objective as far as Larry Dixon was concerned.

“We knew we needed to get into the top sixteen,” said Dixon, who has qualified third or better in every race this season except one.

Securing a spot in the field on Friday in the event of a Saturday postponement of qualifying is one thing, doing it with a 3.814 elapsed time at 317.41 was another.

Robert Hight continued his domination of the Funny Car field as he took the provisional No. 1 qualifier as rain shortened Friday qualifying to just one session at the United Association Route 66 NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway.

Larry Dixon, Mike Edwards and Craig Treble also took the provisional top spots in their respective categories at the 10th of 23 events on the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.

Hight, who entered the event on a three-race winning streak, drove his Auto Club Ford Mustang to a 4.067-second pass at 313.15 mph to become the provisional top qualifier in Funny Car. If it stands it would be his fourth No. 1 qualifier of the season and 36th of his career. It was also a track record in both time and speed.

Defending NHRA Pro Stock champion Mike Edwards wasn’t excluded from the weather issues which hampered every team at the NHRA Route 66 Nationals. He was one of those drivers who pulled to the staging lanes for his first qualifying run only to be sent back to the pits multiple times when rains fell throughout the first day of the event staged outside of Chicago.

Even though he drove to the No. 1 spot in the field with a 6.660, getting those numbers wasn’t exactly business as usual.

“It’s tough on everyone,” said Edwards. “It’s tough on us, the NHRA, the fans, the Safety Safari guys. My hat’s off to them. They did a tremendous job fighting the weather.”

After a day filled with delay, Craig Treble found the sweet spot as he led the only round of qualifying for the Pro Stock Motorcycle class Friday evening.

Treble drove his '03 Suzuki TL-1000 to the top spot over David Hope and Hector Arana with a 6.960 second pass at 190.27 mph.

Hope and Arana were the only other drivers, out of 17, to break the 7-second barrier, at 6.971 and 6.989 seconds respectively.

For the record, despite the five hour plus delay, Treble never felt any pressure to get in a good lap.