It was only a matter of time before Dean Goforth put his bright orange GXP in victory lane.

So it should come as no surprise that when Goforth crossed the finish
line Sunday afternoon to claim his first career victory, he would need
a few moments to take it all in.

“We finally got it done. It has taken us three years, but I mean it
feels good,” Goforth said. “Honestly you try hard and things go wrong
and today nothing went wrong. It was just a great day.”

After years of trying Goforth finally got his wish as he managed to
drive around IHRA legend John Montecalvo in the final of Sunday’s MOPAR
Canadian Nationals to claim his first career victory in his second ever
final.

Defending champion Tony Schumacher clinched a spot in the Countdown to One championship playoff and moved into second
place in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series regular-season Top
Fuel points race today with his runner up finish in the 22nd Annual
Northwest Nationals here at Pacific Raceways.

Schumacher, in his sixth-consecutive final round at this race, drove
his U.S. Army Top Fuel dragster to a 3.990-second run at 300 miles per
hour during his final’s loss to points leader Antron Brown, who did the
1,000-foot course in 3.985 seconds at 301.07 mph.

Ron Capps regained a solo hold on the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Funny Car class points lead at
this weekend's NHRA Northwest Nationals, first by qualifying ahead of
Ashley Force Hood, and then by landing in the semifinals, where he
bowed out to Tim Wilkerson.

Driving the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Funny Car, Capps disposed of Cruz
Pedregon in the opening round of eliminations on a hot and tricky
Pacific Raceways drag strip with a 4.206-second pass at 290.26 mph,
then outran his Don Schumacher Racing teammate Jack Beckman in the
second round using a 4.250/273.33 pass.

Facing Tim Wilkerson in the semifinal round was a tough draw, and he
and crew chief Ed "Ace" McCulloch knew it. As expected, it was a tight
contest, with Wilkerson edging out Capps with a winning 4.243/281.60
lap to Capps' 4.291/284.21.

Jeg Coughlin Jr. has made thousands of passes down the drag strip but
even the five-time world champion and current Pro Stock points leader
wasn't ready for what happened Sunday in his second-round race against
Jason Line at the NHRA Northwest Nationals in Seattle.

After beating Larry Morgan with a weekend-best pass of 6.595 at 210.41
mph, Coughlin knew he had the horsepower to give Line a good race. A
good reaction time would also help his cause. It was time to race.

When the lights flashed, Coughlin left with a .024-second reaction time
to Line's .049-second launch. For a fleeting moment, he had a huge
advantage. But as quickly as he left the launch pad, Coughlin's
JEGS.com Chevrolet Cobalt got way out of shape, swerving to the right,
then the left, before snapping back over the right again.

Dan Walleigh raced with a heavy heart Sunday.
 
The Reading resident found out early in the morning that his beloved
stepfather, John, had died of cancer. However, coming from a family of
racers, Walleigh was still there to compete in the Super Chevy Show at
Maple Grove Raceway.
 
He painted a message on his 1960 Falcon Wagon: "Rest in Peace Pop-Pop
John!" He then drove it to Victory Lane, taking Bracket 2 during a very
busy day at The Grove.

One day after clinching his spot in the NHRA’s playoffs, Summit Racing
Pontiac driver Jason Line displayed the form that allowed him to
accomplish that feat, scoring a runner-up finish at Sunday’s final
eliminations of the NHRA Northwest Nationals in Seattle, WA. It was
Line’s third consecutive final, 40th of his career, and second in a row
at Pacific Raceways.

Troy Coughlin has been drag racing for two decades but the veteran racer admits he may never have had a weekend like the one he finished up Sunday evening at Chicago's Route 66 Raceway.

Coughlin swept the honors at the fourth annual Nitto Tire NMRA/NMCA
Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing, setting an NMCA national
record, claiming low qualifier honors, and mowing down the 16-car
elimination field for the victory.

"I don't know what else we could have done," Coughlin said during a
joyous winner's circle celebration. "I have to give my guys credit.
They had this car prepared so perfectly every single round and all I
had to do as a driver was not screw anything up and we knew we could
win. It feels darn good to be holding this trophy right now.

When
discussing the race for the 2009 IHRA Pro Modified world championship,
only two names can be included as a part of the conversation – Ed
Hoover and Kenny Lang.

And they intend to keep it that way.

For the third consecutive race the two rival drivers met in the final
round of an IHRA national event, with Ed Hoover once again getting the
edge when it mattered most.

“It feels good to overcome the adversities we had this weekend. We put
an engine in last night until 3 a.m. and first thing this morning I did
a burnout and the thing had zero oil pressure,” Hoover said. “Luckily
the guy red lighted on me and we came back and got the engine fixed.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has reported that a group discussing the
purchase of Gateway International Raceway from Dover Downs
Entertainment has broken off talks.

The report confirmed that a group of investors coordinated by ADRL
President Kenny Nowling and including Sheikh Khalid Bin Hamad Al Thani
had inquired about the purchase but withdrew their interest after
learning that Gateway reportedly doesn’t own the property and that
Dover owns only a small portion.

Tim Wilkerson won more races last year than he’d previously won in the entire rest of his career. Wilkerson won in six of seven final round appearances and looked to be a cinch for the world championship.

For all of his efforts, Wilkerson ended his championship bid in second place.

That’s why after winning for just the first time in fifteen races this
year Wilkerson isn’t sweating in the heat of the championship race. He
wants to be cool, yet hot when the racing conditions aren’t as warm as
they were this weekend during the NHRA Northwest Nationals in Seattle.