In 2010, CompetitionPlus.com's Bobby Bennett penned a three-part series about the early years of the IHRA's Mountain Motor Pro Stock division. This time his focus is on the Pro Modified division, which turned 20 the same year.

This weekend at the Pomona Fairplex, the past, present and future (flash) will converge for Nitro Funny Car driver Mendy Fry. How so? On Saturday and Sunday at the National Hot Rod Association’s season-ending Auto Club Finals, Fry will once again shoe Gary Messenger’s resplendent-yet-potent, gorgeous black-and-gold 1973 Dodge AA/Funny Car, a machine rich in drag strip history, whose lineage is traced to renowned and notorious drag racers such as Gene Snow, Brent Fanning and Roland Leong. Ironically, the entry also has ties to Fry herself, as this is the same racer that she earned her Nitro Funny Car license in, and then campaigned with tuner Donnie Couch to a runner-up finish at the 2008 Las Vegas Speed Spectacular.

Get Screened America A/Fuel Dragster driver Hillary Will had a near-perfect weekend at the Lucas Oil Division 7 event last weekend, taking out two of the best in the class and scoring a runner-up finish, and the 29-year-old native Californian is anxious to keep her winning momentum heading into the Auto Club NHRA Finals this weekend.
 
"We've come a really long way very quickly," Will, a former Top Fuel Dragster driver, said. Having been absent from the driver's seat all season before the Las Vegas NHRA Nationals two weeks ago, she made arrangements to drive three races in former world champion Tom Conway's A/Fuel Dragster - the first time she has piloted an A/Fueler.

Funny Car championship contender Ashley Force Hood enjoys flying down the race track in her Castrol GTX Ford Mustang at NHRA national events and she loves cruising the California highways behind the wheel of her street legal Mustang. While the G-forces are the biggest difference between the two Mustangs the lack of tunes in her 8,000 hp Mustang is also something that Force Hood misses.

After remaining on the sidelines for much of 2009, Top Fuel driver Steve Torrence and team owner Dexter Tuttle plan to run the full NHRA Full Throttle tour next year.

Torrence, a former Top Alcohol Dragster world champion, joined Tuttle's team in the middle of 2008.

"It has always been my dream to race for a Top Fuel Championship," Torrence said. "When I first started racing in Super Comp, I always had the goal of someday being a Top Fuel World Champion. Next year I'll get that chance."

Rodger Brogdon wonders where the time has gone.

Brogdon, of Tomball, Texas, will put the finishing touches on his first full-time NHRA Pro Stock tour in Pomona this weekend.

The season has been one of ups and downs for the driver of Steve Kent’s Pontiac GXP. But most of all, the former Competition eliminator standout largely considers the 23-race run to be about experience.

“It has been an incredible ride and a learning experience,” Brogdon said, as he prepared for his trip to Pomona’s season-ending NHRA Auto Club Finals. “I learned a lot as a driver and we did the same as a team. Headed into this season we had realistic expectations and now those goals are beginning to materialize. They’ve always said it’s not how you start a race that counts, it’s how you finish. I believe we’re closing out the season on a high note.”

One driver is banking on history; the other is leaning on the former's previous crew chief. Both drivers are hunting a championship.

With four rounds of qualifying and four rounds of eliminations remaining in the season, only one point separates Tony Schumacher from Larry Dixon heading into the final race on the NHRA Full Throttle Championship tour. Sitting within striking distance, waiting on both to falter, is Cory McClenathan, 48 points behind.

“We’re locked in an incredible battle,” said Schumacher. “Any one of us can win the thing come Sunday.”

Dixon finished second in the Countdown last year to Schumacher and is making his third countdown appearance in as many years.

John Bartunek posted a 6.123-second elapsed time that trumped Steve Cossis' No. 1 qualifying time of 6.232 but ended on fire against the guardrail. He experienced tire shake but stayed with it and hung on for the incredible E.T. But something flung his '68 Camaro to the left and into the wall.

A limited number of $20 Race Fan Relief tickets are available for this weekend’s Auto Club NHRA Finals (Nov. 12-15), the season finale for the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.

A limited number of the $20 Race Fan Relief tickets remain for Thursday and Friday’s racing at famed Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, where the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle world champions will be crowned in Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle categories. Saturday and Sunday’s allotments of the $20 Race Fan Relief tickets are sold out.