Texas race fans have always been infatuated with their motorsports.

And that goes double for its race drivers.

Many of the drivers – both sportsman and professional – competing at
the IHRA Amalie Motor Oil Texas Nationals this weekend are from the
Lone Star State and all are proud to be representing their home state
in front of the massive Dallas crowds.

“I love racing in Texas. We are based out of Galveston and any chance
we have to make a short trip to the races, we will take it,” said IHRA
Top Fuel driver and owner Mitch King. “Some of the trips we take can be
brutal, especially some of the ones we have coming up in Canada. So to
be here close to home we are really excited.”

Multi-time champion drag racer Jay Payne expanded his fan base exponentially this weekend by welcoming FireIce as the primary sponsor
of his Valvoline Top Alcohol Funny Car. As part of the agreement, Payne
and FireIce, a non-toxic, biodegradable fire suppression gel, will
salute the nation's 300,000 firefighters at racetracks around the
country.

"This is an exciting day for our race team," Payne said. "Obviously,
sponsorship is essential for what we do, but when you can have a
sponsor with an agenda centered around paying tribute to our nation's
firefighters, it makes it so much better all the way around. Everyone
loves firefighters!

If Friday night was all about firsts, than Saturday night it was time to get down to business.

With several solid laps and plenty of rubber on the track, Dallas
Raceway started to develop some bite after two days of competition and
the numbers continued to drop as Tim Boychuk (Top Fuel), Ed Hoover (Pro
Modified) and Cary Goforth (Elite Motorsports Pro Stock) all topped
their respective classes during SafeAuto Night of Fire qualifying
Saturday night in Crandall.

And nobody found Saturday night sweeter than Cary Goforth.

Goforth ( Holdenville, Okla.) went into Saturday’s final qualifying
rounds with a bit of a chip on his shoulder after a dreadful Friday,
but turned things around in a big way when it mattered most.

First-round pairings for professional eliminations Sunday for the
Amalie Oil Texas Nationals brought to you by Wolverine & Academy
Sports and Outdoors at Dallas Raceway, the third of 10 events in the
2009 Nitro Jam Drag Racing Series.  Pairings based on results in
qualifying, which ended Saturday.

After dabbling in the NHRA Funny Car division for several years, Joe Hartley made the decision last year to commit to a full season in 2009. Long before it was known for certain there might be less than full fields at some events.

“The decision was made before cars were pulling out because of losing
sponsors. It just played into our favor making it easier to get into
some of the shows,” explained Hartley, who then talked about the real
catalyst behind the decision to run full time.

“It's something we always wanted to do. [In] ‘07 we stepped it up and
ran 11 events that season, saw some mild success. It was one of those
things where you want to see if you can really do it. We got to the
point where it's tough going part time so we just decided to bite the
bullet and do it.”

Antron
Brown kept the top spot in Top Fuel as qualifying came to an end at the
21st annual O’Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka.

Ashley Force Hood and Mike Edwards also held on to their No. 1
qualifying positions at the ninth of 24 events on the NHRA Full
Throttle Drag Racing Series.

Browns run in his Matco Tools dragster of 3.841-seconds at 315.71 mph
on Friday was enough to give him the No. 1 spot in Top Fuel. For Brown,
it’s his third No. 1 qualifier of the season and 17th of his career.

“It feels great to be No. 1 qualifier,” said Brown. “Here, we came in
with a little bit of a short field with 15 people, and we’re going to
get a bye run tomorrow. We’ve got a bye run first round, so that will
be another test session for us to get down the racetrack and get a
baseline to get this Matco car down the racetrack. That’s going to be
important because conditions are going to be just like they are right
now.”

The
field was full of excitement and competition was sizzling in the
heartland as the Get Screened America Pro Mod Challenge presented by
ProCare Rx raced the quarter-mile Saturday in the O'Reilly NHRA Summer
Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka. At the end of qualifying, Matco
Tools driver Joe Baker was on top and a model of consistency, advancing
to the second round of eliminations, having a bye in round one.
 
"I'm just thanking the Good Lord that we're doing so well here this
weekend. With all the changes we've made on this car, I'm really
excited to be running so consistently and quickly. We knew we had the
car, but just couldn't get it dialed in - and now we're right where we
knew we should be," Baker said.
 
Also advancing into the second round was No. 2 qualifier Mike
Castellana who dispatched a struggling turbo-powered Brad Personett
6.087/234.53 to 6.714/177.81.

Daniel Wilkerson has been getting ready for this moment in time for all his life. More specifically, he's been chomping at the bit for the last five years to get behind the wheel of a nitro Funny Car.

The moment has finally around.

“I’ve been looking forward to this moment since I got my first Super
Comp car when I was 16,” Wilkerson said. “I’ve just been taking steps
to get to this point. It took five years worth of work to get here.
It’s a huge relief to be here now.”

Over the course of those five years, Daniel Wilkerson, 21, spent time
honing his skills in the sportsman ranks before moving up to the Top
Alcohol Funny Car division. Last spring, he made his nitro debut at the
IHRA Motor City Nationals and after completing licensing that same
weekend, drove to the event runner-up spot.

Second year Top Alcohol Dragster pilot Courtney Force is ready to put
another school year at Cal State Fullerton in her rear view mirror. The
youngest of four Force daughters made first national event start in her
newly logoed Sanyo Supercharged HD Top Alcohol Dragster tuned by Jerry
Darien at the 21st annual NHRA O’Reilly Summer Nationals presented by
Castrol GTX this weekend.

“I am so excited. I am ready to get my racing routine and get back into
my race car. It will be nice to not have to worry about passing finals
or school and I can completely focus on racing. It will be fun to
travel every weekend and be with my family every weekend. I just love
being out in my race car. I don’t have any summer classes so I’ll be
able to spend more time with my race car which will be great,” said
Force.

John Force should have known better.

If you’re going to talk to the Snake … Don Prudhomme … don’t expect any
sympathy and most of all, don’t expect any sugarcoating of the obvious.

Force ran into Prudhomme, a team owner and drag racing legend whom
Force has idolized throughout his storied career, as he watched Ashley
make her run. The two legends struck up a conversation while waiting to
see if his daughter Ashley Force Hood’s provisional No. 1 run at the
NHRA Summernationals would hold up to the challenge of Ron Capps.