NHRA FUNNY CAR SOPHOMORE ASHLEY FORCE EARNS FIRST CAREER NO. 1 QUALIFIER

Brown, Edwards and Stoffer round out provisional No. 1 qualifiers

In
a year of career-first milestones, NHRA sophomore Ashley Force checked
off another on Saturday when she earned her first career No. 1
qualifier at the FRAM-Autolite Nationals at Infineon Raceway.

The other No. 1 qualifiers at the 15th of 18 regular season races (24
total) in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series were Antron Brown (Top
Fuel), Mike Edwards (Pro Stock) and Karen Stoffer (Pro Stock
Motorcycle).

The fans booed. That’s what 50 minutes of downtime will do to race starved drag racing fans.

Nitro teams inspect the racing surface Friday during the nearly one hour of downtime. (Bob Pellegrini)

NHRA officials were forced to halt the first round of Funny Car qualifying when the track became very slick.

The NHRA’s Dan Olson has no idea what happened other than the chemicals
in the compound aversely reacted to the track surface. The high-ranking
official who heads up the track prep said he’s taken samples and will
investigate when he returns to the office.

Multiple sources told CompetitionPlus.com that a solvent was mistakenly applied to the surface.

Glidden Headlines Early Qualifiers at ADRL U.S. Drags

Extreme
10.5 ace Billy Glidden, winner of the ADRL’s previous national event in
Radford, Virginia, earned the provisional pole at the inaugural ADRL
1-800-GO-GUARD.com U.S. Drags with a record-setting run Friday night at
Maryland International Raceway.

A record-setting run
by Extreme 10.5 star Billy Glidden highlighted the opening round of
qualifying today for the inaugural ADRL 1-800-GO-GUARD.com U.S. Drags
at Maryland International Raceway. Glidden, from Whiteland, Indiana,
covered the MIR eighth mile in 4.25 seconds in his Ford-powered 2006
GTO, making it the quickest pass in history on 10.5-inch-wide slicks.

NHRA FUNNY CAR SOPHOMORE ASHLEY FORCE CLOSE TO FIRST CAREER NO. 1 QUALIFIER


Brown, Edwards and Rivas round out provisional No. 1 qualifiers

NHRA sophomore sensation Ashley Force powered her Castrol GTX Ford
Mustang to the provisional No. 1 qualifying position in Funny Car at
the FRAM-Autolite NHRA Nationals at Infineon Raceway on Friday.

The other provisional No. 1 qualifiers at the 15th of 18 regular season
races (24 total) in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series were Antron
Brown (Top Fuel), Mike Edwards (Pro Stock) and Chris Rivas (Pro Stock
Motorcycle).

ADRL Pro Nitrous racer Tommy Franklin was uninjured in an accident
during a practice run at the ADRL U.S. Drags in Budds Creek, Md.
Franklin's car got out of shape and made contact with the left
retaining wall and launched the car into the air. The car then
barrell-rolled multiple times before coming to a rest on the driver's
side. Emergency crews arrived and extracted Franklin quickly from
the car.

ROGER RICHARDS PHOTO SEQUENCE 

Unbeknown to Jeff Dobbins and Kelly Martin, they ushered in an era.

The Pro Stock drivers, even though it was in Friday’s practice, made
the first side-by-side runs in ADRL Extreme Pro Stock history.

The duo represents two of 13 teams who have made the trek to Budds
Creek, Md., for the introduction of Extreme Pro Stock into the
doorslammer-oriented association lineup. The mountain motor Pro
Stocker’s represent the latest of the categories being offered by the
ADRL.

Originally intended for Pro Modified racing, the ADRL has since
expanded to include a motorcycle division and one for outlaw
doorslammers running slicks 10.5-inches wide.

Current IHRA Funny Car point leader and CompetitionPlus.com editor
Bobby Bennett join the likes of European Top Fuel racer Urs Urbacher,
Funny Car racer Robert Hight, Pro Stock racer V. Gaines and High School
Horsepower instructor Charles Womack.

Cannister has reached the finals in all but one IHRA Alcohol Funny Car
national event thus far in 2008 and holds a commanding lead for the
championship. She is a past IHRA Pro Outlaw world champion.

He may not be the first to achieve the feat, but he’d like to be the fourth.

Pro
Stock driver Allen Johnson heads into this weekend’s Fram-Autolite
Nationals in Sonoma, CA. with the opportunity to be the one of an  
elite number of drivers who has reached the finals in all three stops
of the famed NHRA Western Swing.

Only Greg Anderson has done it before in the Pro Stock ranks, sweeping
the series in 2004. Johnson lost in the finals of the NHRA Mopar Mile
High Nationals in Denver, Co. two weeks ago.

“It would be a real accomplishment to go to the finals at all three
stops on the Western Swing,” said Johnson. “Not too many Pro Stock
drivers have ever done that. It would be great to add my name to that
list, hopefully with a finals win this time as the result.”

Charles Carpenter has some catching up to do.

The Pro Modified icon, who was one of the founding fathers of the class
behind the wheel of his 1955 Chevrolet doorslammers, sits in 17th place
in the American Drag Racing League’s Pro Nitrous division.

Carpenter has only four races in which to accrue enough points to climb
into the top eight and earn a berth into the championship determining
Battle for the Belts, October 24, in Dallas, Texas.

He fired the first salvo towards that goal by reaching the final round
earlier this month at the ADRL Independence Drags in Radford, Va.

“Our goal is to keep our consistency up, and go as many rounds as
possible,” said Carpenter. “If we can go rounds over the course of the
next couple races, we may be able to crack the top 8 and compete for a
championship at the end of the year. That’s our ultimate goal.”

Pinks All Out comes to Raceway Park in Englishtown, NJ on Saturday,
July 26. 450 racers will be battling each other for the final 16 spots
and the $10,000 grand prize. Exhibition runs beginning at 2 pm will
feature the top Outlaw 10.5 and Drag Radial Turbo Teams east of the
Mississippi including Shakedown at E’town 10.5 record holder Tim Lynch,
Joe Newsham, Jerry Morgano, Ray Johnson, Craig Pio, Terris Hicks, Larry
Wood, Donald Hastings, Yanni Papakosmas, Ralph Voorhees, Tim Essick,
Chris Little, Alex Vrettos, Brett Hull, Tim Johnson, Paul Major.