It was no easy trip for Bob Tasca, III as he collected his second win of his career, and second this year, beating Mike Neff in the final round of the Toyo Tire NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway.

Tasca had to get past Ron Capps, Robert Hight, John Force, and Mike
Neff to collect the Wally his mother had earlier predicted was coming
his way.

“My mom's my biggest fan, team photographer,” Tasca said in his post
race interview. “Very fortunate to have a lot of wonderful people
around me. My guys, you know...if you see what goes through a race
weekend, when you're throwing rods out and almost burn a car down and
fixing a body...it is an unbelievable amount of energy and
concentration. You hate to see something happen to Mike, I mean
obviously he doesn't cut point two lights, I mean obviously something
happened, he got distracted, it's happened to me, on more than one
occasion. But it does come down to every little thing means so much in
what we do. The guys gave me a hot rod that put me in a position to win
and I did my job and the rest is history.”

It felt as if the Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway
would never end, and as of this posting the event is not complete.
Several sportsman classes are set to run Monday morning.

The
problem came from both rain and sunshine. Rain saturated the ground and
whenever the clouds parted, allowing the sun to heat the track, water
would come seeping up through surface. It was a no win situation for
the Safety Safari and track officials. After multiple delays on Friday
and Saturday it looked like Sunday would be perfect. It wasn't. It
didn't rain again but the sun kept peeking through the clouds drawing
the water up through the racing surface. Run after run, the day was
delayed as track workers tried to keep the track dry. Finally, with one
round of Funny Car and Top Fuel dragster eliminations complete and half
a round of Pro Stock in the books, officials were forced into another
delay that lasted over four hours.

ADRL Pro Nitrous racer Pat Bennett was uninjured in this encounter with
the wall during the recently-completed ADRL Ohio Drags in Columbus,
Ohio. Bennett was attempting a qualifying run during Saturday's session
when he made contact with the retaining wall and crossed over into the
oppsite lane and impacted the wall. See the Roger Richards photo sequence. 

Chassis builder Gary Naughton looked over his client’s 1970 Chevelle assessing the
damage from an incident in the National Trail Raceway shutdown area on
Friday afternoon at the ADRL Ohio Drags in Columbus, Ohio.

Kenny Doak’s Extreme 10.5 entry qualified 13th in the field but,
because of the damage sustained, was unable to make the first round
call.

According to witnesses, the Wellston, Ohio-based Mustang, driven by
Jason Wilson, had a parachute snag the wheelie bars of Doak’s car. The
wheelie bars were ripped from the rear of the car and forced through
the quarterpanel of Doak's Chevelle.

“Spin it any way you want, the bottom line is John Force Racing “did exactly what I told them to do”, said Graham Light, NHRA Vice President of Operations during a break in the action in the Toyo Tires Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway Saturday afternoon. “I think it's unfair for anyone to be critical of John Force.”

Light has already accepted the criticism for a mistake made on January 21, 2009 which led to the confusion coming out of events on August 17th at Brainerd Int'l Raceway.

The error, a changing of words, should have been caught in January.  It wasn't. Not by Light or any others responsible for ensuring press releases concerning policy decisions are accurate. Those facts change nothing. They don't change the intent of the testing policy applied to Top Fuel and Funny Car teams by the NHRA and how it has been applied, according to Light.

TASCA, DIXON, COUGHLIN AND KRAWIEC SCORE VICTORIES AT TOYO TIRES NHRA NATIONALS

Bob Tasca raced to his second Funny Car victory of the season Sunday at the Toyo Tire NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway.

Larry Dixon, Jeg Coughlin and Eddie Krawiec also were winners in their
respective categories at the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series
event. Only one race remains in the NHRA regular season before the
six-race playoffs – the Countdown to 1 – begins Sept. 18 at zMAX
Dragway near Charlotte, N.C.

Water seepage continued to be a problem on the racing surface Sunday,
delaying eliminations for more than four hours. NHRA and track
officials worked throughout the day to keep the track dry for the
safety of the participants and were able to complete eliminations
throughout a long day of racing.

Point standings (top 10) for NHRA professional categories following the
25th annual Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway, the 17th
of 24 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series -

Final round-by-round results from the 25th annual Toyo Tires NHRA
Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway, the 17th of 24 events in the NHRA
Full Throttle Drag Racing Series:

Bob Glidden was having the time of his life Saturday afternoon. The ten-time NHRA Pro Stock

Bob Glidden's presence at the ADRL Ohio Drags was welcomed by a
legion of race fans. He spent most of the day in his son Billy's pits
and on the starting line.

world champion walked the grounds of National Trail Raceway meeting and
greeting fans who clamored to be in his presence, and somewhere along
the line, he took the opportunity to hang out with his son, defending ADRL Extreme Ten Five champion Billy Glidden.

If the kid is a chip off of the old block it’s because he learned the
intricacies of being solid from the old man. If his performance during
this weekend provided the appearance that Billy had an edge, it very
well could have been because of his familiarity to the facility.

Simply put, if Indianapolis Raceway Park was his elder’s primary playground, National Trail Raceway was the satellite version.

Sometimes the path to victory runs directly through your kid’s pit area. That’s what Dean Goforth found

Dean Goforth had a tough run to his first ADRL win. He beat his son
in the first round and then faced three consecutive former IHRA world
champions.

out on Saturday at the ADRL Ohio Drags in Columbus, Ohio.

Goforth used a first round victory over Cary Goforth to set up wins
over Pete Berner, Brian Goforth and red-lighting Doug Kirk in the final
round. Ironically, the aforementioned three competitors are former IHRA
Pro Stock champions.

It was that kind of a day for Dean Goforth.