A pair of Canadians owned the Pro Modified class as Tony Pontieri
leaped to the top of the charts in the popular doorslammer category and
Del Cox (Top Fuel), Frank Gugliotta (Pro Stock) and Bruce Boland (PMRA)
all claimed spots at the top of the charts during the popular “Night of
Fire” at the MOPAR Canadian Nationals Saturday at the Grand Bend
Motorplex in Grand Bend, Ontario.

Rain showers wreaked havoc on the evening portion of the schedule, but
after a few delays the ‘Night of Fire’ produced some of the best racing
of the weekend before a final storm ended the evening just a few runs
shy of the finish.

But not even the rain could slow down Del Cox.

With a short field this weekend in Pro Mod, the pressure is off many of the teams as they try to focus on moving up the ladder and getting ready for Sunday instead of worrying about possibly missing the race.

And that is exactly what Pro Mod rookie Melanie Troxel needs in her
first full season behind the wheel of a supercharged monster that is
IHRA Pro Mod.

“We are still trying to sort this car out. This car sat in the shop for
a year and wasn’t running at all this year,” Troxel said. “Everybody is
going to qualify so there is no reason to go out and push things too
extreme and that is kind of nice. We get four runs to go out and play
around and really make some big changes to the car and not feel under
pressure.”

First-round pairings for professional eliminations Sunday for the
22nd annual NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways, the 14th of
24 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.  Pairings based
on results in qualifying, which ended Saturday. DNQs listed below
pairings.

No one would mistake Tony Pedregon for Jim Nabors, the actor who played Gomer Pyle on the television
show of the same name, but that didn't stop Pedregon from being
surprised at the outcome of Funny Car qualifying during the NHRA
Northwest Nationals in Seattle.

“We're making a big transition coming from a mile high up, so everybody
is having to change their combination to compensate to race here,” said
Pedregon. “I think most of the teams are one or two runs away from
getting the set up right.”

Pedregon wasn't surprised he held onto the top spot, improving on his
late afternoon Friday run by a thousandth of a second, but he was
surprised no one posted a bigger challenge.

With the exceptions of Terry Haddock and Shawn Langdon, nothing changed in the Top Fuel dragster lineup.
Dixon stayed on top with his second round effort of 3.891 seconds,
302.21 mph over Morgan Lucas, Spencer Massey and Cory McClenathan.
Langdon jumped from 10th to fifth and Haddock moved into the 11th spot
from outside the top 12.

Dixon claimed his fourth number one qualifying spot this season in the Al-Anabi dragster.

“The first run we made, they were pressing it, spun the tires so, they
calmed her all back down,” said Dixon. “We put a set up in it that we
thought would go down the racetrack and we got down the track in the
final qualifying session. We just take the stuff and see what we can do
with it tomorrow.”

Saturday was a good day to be Allen Johnson.

The veteran Mopar Pro Stock runner from Greeneville, Tenn., continued
to ride a wave of momentum that began to swell last weekend with his
second national event win of the season at the NHRA Mopar Mile High
Nationals staged outside of Denver.

Nearly 1350 miles northwest into Seattle, Wash., Johnson is hanging ten
as the No. 1 qualifier at the NHRA Northwest Nationals hosted by
Pacific Raceways.

This weekend’s low qualifying effort marks the first time he’s secured
the top spot in 2009, despite recording multiple provisional No. 1
efforts.

Fred Farndon is a name drag racing fans have been hearing for over 50 years.

The 70-year-old has been racing for years, everything from boats to Top
Fuel dragsters, and is still going strong after decades behind the
wheel.

So what keeps a man that should be sitting on a beach somewhere sipping tropical drinks racing in a 300 mile per hour dragster?

ESPN2's
Saturday evening coverage of the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series
from the NHRA Northwest Nationals in Seattle featured former

Les Welch Photo

Top Fuel standout and area favorite Jerry "The
King" Ruth providing color commentary.

When Ruth was asked if he were to own a
team or serve as a crew chief, who would he choose as a driver, without hesitation he responded Antron
Brown. 

The carnage piled up on Sunday during the final day of the NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill.

Pro Street racer Mark Micke fought a stuck throttle and sideswiped the
top-end retaining wall and Spiro Pappas, making test passes in his ADRL
Extreme 10.5 Pontiac, caught fire and burned up his new engine and the
front end of his immaculate Pontiac GTO.

Neither driver was hurt, physically.

Two-time
NHRA Full Throttle Series champion Tony Pedregon capped off an
impressive two days of qualifying with a 4.174-second pass at 291.13
mph on Saturday at the 22nd annual NHRA Northwest Nationals to earn his
third No. 1 of the season in Funny Car.

The other No. 1 qualifiers at the 14th race in the 24-race NHRA Full
Throttle Drag Racing Series season were Larry Dixon (Top Fuel) and
Allen Johnson (Pro Stock). Also during qualifying, Jason Line became
the fifth driver overall – and third in Pro Stock – to clinch his berth
in the NHRA Playoffs, the Countdown to 1.