2010 NHRA THUNDER VALLEY NATIONALS - EVENT RESULTS
 |
||||||
 |
||||||
 |
||||||
SUNDAY FINAL - FORCE WINS NHRA-RECORD 130th RACE, REGAINS POINTS LEAD
Schumacher, Edwards also win at 10th annual NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals
John Force regained the points lead with his NHRA-record 130th career win Sunday at the 10th annual NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol 
Dragway.
The other winners at the 12th race in the 23-race NHRA Full Throttle Series season were Tony Schumacher (Top Fuel) and Mike Edwards (Pro Stock).
After qualifying sixth, Force defeated Paul Lee, Matt Hagan and Bob Tasca to reach his 207th career final round where he easily defeated Tim Wilkerson with a 4.317-second pass at 285.59 mph to Wilkerson’s stumbling 12.365 at 31.80.
“To get this win is really great. I'll be honest, I was jacked up on so much Full Throttle I thought I was going to explode ... oxygen, everything I could take just to keep up with the kids,” said the 61-year old Force, who left Bristol with a 58-point lead over teammate Robert Hight as he seeks to win his NHRA-record 15th championship. "I'm going to stay young and thank the fans who keep screaming and giving me the energy."
Force, who drives the Castrol GTX High Mileage Ford Mustang, had led the point standings after the first nine races before ceding the lead momentarily to Hight for Races 10 and 11.
Wilkerson, meanwhile, wasn’t able to gain any positions in the point standings – he remained in ninth – but he and the Levi, Ray & Shoup Ford team did move 111 points clear of 11th-place Jeff Arend with five races left in the Countdown to 10 regular season.
Schumacher and the U.S. Army team also qualified sixth and seemed fated for a second-round matchup with rival and points-leader Larry Dixon and the 
Al-Anabi team in the second round, but No. 14 qualifier Morgan Lucas put that to rest with his upset of Dixon in the first round.
So Schumacher didn’t meet a higher qualified racer until the semis when he dispatched of No. 2 qualifier Cory McClenathan and the FRAM dragster team, and then he secured his fourth win of 2010 and 65th of his career with a 3.982 at 306.53 in the final-round win over No. 4 qualifier Brandon Bernstein and the Copart/Lucas Oil team (4.054 at 272.56).
This was also Schumacher’s 100th career final round.
“That was an amazing deal, me, Dixon (98) and (Joe) Amato were all at 99 (final rounds) and only one guy’s getting to 100 first. To be the first to go to 100 finals in Top Fuel is just awesome,” said Schumacher, who became the second Top Fuel driver and third overall to clinch his berth in the Countdown to 1.
In Pro Stock, Mike Edwards captured his NHRA-best eighth win before hitting second gear in his Penhall/Interstate Batteries Pontiac GXP as final-round opponent Rickie Jones red-lighted.
“(Bristol Dragway) is probably my favorite place to come race, just an awesome place. The fans … they’re just race fans, no matter what kind of racing it is, they’re race fans,” Edwards said. “It is my second time winning here and with so much heritage and tradition around here, this track and that big track over there, it’s just a real honor to come here and run good and win this race.”
The NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series continues next weekend with the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Norwalk, Ohio, the fourth race in four weeks and the fourth race in a stretch of seven races in eight weeks.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
 |
Click to visit our sponsor's website
SATURDAY FINAL QUALIFYING - LOCAL FAVORITE ALLEN JOHNSON SECURES NO. 1 QUALIFIER
Force Hood, Brown also top respective qualifying fields
Local-favorite Allen Johnson from nearby Greeneville, Tenn. moved around Mike Edwards on Saturday with a 6.722-second pass at 205.10 mph to secure the No. 1 qualifier in Pro Stock at the 10th annual NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals.
The other No. 1 qualifiers at the 12th of 23 races in the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series season were Antron Brown (Top Fuel) and Ashley Force Hood (Funny Car).
Edwards was the only overnight qualifying leader to get bumped on Saturday and it’s only the third time this season that the driver of the Penhall/Interstate Batteries Pontiac GXP has failed to lead the Pro Stock qualifying field.
Of the three No. 1s not won by Edwards, Allen Johnson and the second-place Mopar Dodge Avenger team have two of them (Jeg Coughlin and the third-place JEGS.com Chevy team have the other).
He’ll face the 97-time winner Warren Johnson (no relation), the winningest Pro Stock driver in NHRA history, in the first round of Sunday’s race, which begins at Noon.
“It’s been awhile since we’ve had our whole family here, but this weekend, family, friends, employees, everybody is here and Dad (crew chief Roy Johnson) worked so hard and has for 20-something years at this. To come out here and do this, it’s just so emotional for me,” Johnson said.
Force Hood set the top-qualifying mark in her Castrol GTX Ford Mustang – her second this season – with a 4.151-second pass at 296.70 mph in Friday’s night qualifying session and it held up through the final two rounds of qualifying on Saturday.
“Today definitely is setting everyone up for tomorrow just because the conditions will be similar, so we’ll take what we learned from our two runs,” said Force Hood. “It was kind of both ends of the spectrum. One run we didn’t get down, and the other we basically got down almost the whole way until it started to spin. That will help us for (Sunday), kind of give us boundaries for how much the track will take without pushing it too much.”
Force Hood will open with Jeff Diehl and if she wins would face the winner of the Tim Wilkerson-Melanie Troxel first-round matchup.
"I think it’s going to be exciting for the fans (Sunday) because it’s going to be very unpredictable what’s going to happen. This is not a race that goes along on paper what you think is going to happen. I think people that either can recover from tire smoke and get their car down or even people that just get A to B are going to have the best shot at winning the race tomorrow, so obviously we’ll try to get A to B but if that doesn’t happen, I’ll do my best to pedal it and get it down there, but this is a very tricky track.”
There are several intriguing first-round matchups including Bob Tasca-Ron Capps, Robert Hight-Del Worsham and Cruz Pedregon-Tony Pedregon.
No change in Top Fuel either as Brown secured the No. 1 with a 3.856-second pass at 314.24 mph on Friday night and it held up Saturday. It was Brown’s fourth No. 1 this season in his Matco Tools dragster, tying him with Cory McClenathan for most in Top Fuel.
“The track today is as hot as it has been all weekend long, and it’s just tricky,” said Brown. “That last run, it was actually spinning out there before the finish line, so it popped a little early, and we still went a 4-flat. I think if tomorrow we can run anywhere between a 3.97 to a 4-flat or 4.01, that’s what it’s going to take to win rounds tomorrow. I’ve got all the confidence in the world in my team, and when the weather gets like this, we can definitely get our car A to B. I feel confident for tomorrow, but we’ve just got to take it one round at a time.
Brown will certainly have no easy ones as he will open with Doug Kalitta, who’s ahead of him in the point standings.
“We’ve got Doug Kalitta first round tomorrow. He qualified 16th, but he’s no 16th qualifier. Tomorrow they could be on their P’s and Q’s, and it will be like a final-round match-up first round. Nobody in a million years thinks you’d qualify No. 1 and have to race Doug Kalitta first round. It’s going to be a tough one for sure tomorrow, but we’re looking forward to that challenge.”
Two of the other must-see first-round matchups in Top Fuel are Tony Schumacher vs. Doug Herbert and Larry Dixon vs. Morgan Lucas.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
 |
Click to visit our sponsor's website
SATURDAY THIRD SESSION -
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
 |
Click to visit our sponsor's website
FRIDAY QUALIFYING - FORCE HOOD, BROWN, EDWARDS LEAD BRISTOL QUALIFYING
Ashley Force Hood earned the provisional pole in Funny Car on the first day of qualifying Friday at the 10th annual NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals with
a 4.151-second pass at 296.70 mph.The other provisional No. 1 qualifiers at the 12th of 23 races in the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series season were Antron Brown (Top Fuel) and Mike Edwards (Pro Stock).
The No. 1 qualifier would be the second this season for the 27-year old Force Hood, who is in fifth place in the Funny Car point standings, and the 11th of her career.
“It’s always fun to run good on the Friday night session, but we all know that it won’t do us any good on Sunday other than position,” said Force Hood, who pilots the Castrol GTX Ford Mustang. “The conditions are not going to be anything like tonight. It’s fun to run in the night session and do well, but we’d be just as happy if we can get some good runs (Saturday) in the heat because that’s what’s going to help us on Sunday.”
Two-time world champion Cruz Pedregon and the Snap-on Tools team, who have struggled most of the season, are in second position with a 4.158.
Brown secured the provisional No. 1 with a 3.856-second pass at 314.24 mph in his Matco Tools dragster. It would be his fourth if this season, tying him with Cory McClenathan for most in Top Fuel.
“We just want to keep on doing well and carry it into raceday,” Brown said. “We thought it was a mid-80 (track) and we nailed it. She went right down there, tiptoed right down there, no trouble at all.”
In Pro Stock, defending NHRA Full Throttle Series champion Edwards earned the provisional No. 1 with a 6.725-second pass at 204.94 mph in his Penhall/Interstate Batteries Pontiac GXP. This would be Edwards’ 10th No. 1 in the season’s first 12 races.
Local favorite Allen Johnson was on top of the qualifying ladder after his first-session 6.742 in his Team Mopar Dodge Avenger, but he was unable to improve on that that in the evening session and slipped to fourth.
“I think that battles between our team and A.J. for the No. 1 spot are what you’re going to see more often in the races to come,” Edwards said. “If Allen and Roy Johnson haven’t caught us, they certainly have closed the gap. A couple of other teams are gaining on us too, and I think that by the Countdown that there will be about four or five other cars that we’re going to have to contend with.”
Qualifying at the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals concludes with the third and fourth sessions on Saturday when the fields will be set for Sunday’s final eliminations.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
 |
Click to visit our sponsor's website
Results Friday after the first two of four rounds of qualifying for the 10th annual NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway, 12th of 23 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. Qualifying will continue Saturday for Sunday's final eliminations.
Top Fuel -- 1. Antron Brown, 3.856 seconds, 314.24 mph; 2. Cory McClenathan, 3.879, 313.51; 3. Larry Dixon, 3.882, 311.77; 4. Brandon Bernstein, 3.901, 308.64; 5. Bob Vandergriff, 3.912, 310.91; 6. Tony Schumacher, 3.939, 311.77; 7. David Grubnic, 3.941, 306.19; 8. Terry McMillen, 3.964, 299.13; 9. Shawn Langdon, 3.964, 298.34; 10. Steve Torrence, 3.974, 301.47; 11. Doug Herbert, 3.994, 291.95; 12. Troy Buff, 4.071, 290.13. Not Qualified: 13. Terry Haddock, 4.090, 284.09; 14. Pat Dakin, 4.251, 223.47; 15. Morgan Lucas, 4.336, 223.58; 16. Doug Kalitta, 4.698, 176.72.
Funny Car -- 1. Ashley Force Hood, Ford Mustang, 4.151, 296.70; 2. Cruz Pedregon, Toyota Solara, 4.159, 291.38; 3. Matt Hagan, Dodge Charger, 4.185, 292.58; 4. Del Worsham, Solara, 4.186, 300.80; 5. Jack Beckman, Charger, 4.199, 297.35; 6. John Force, Mustang, 4.216, 297.55; 7. Tim Wilkerson, Mustang, 4.238, 283.67; 8. Melanie Troxel, Charger, 4.239, 289.26; 9. Ron Capps, Charger, 4.244, 284.45; 10. Bob Tasca III, Mustang, 4.250, 252.33; 11. Paul Lee, Chevy Impala SS, 4.321, 275.34; 12. Robert Hight, Mustang, 4.326, 252.33. Not Qualified: 13. Tony Pedregon, 4.340, 269.29; 14. Jim Head, 4.475, 204.45; 15. Jeff Arend, 4.560, 195.85.
Pro Stock -- 1. Mike Edwards, Pontiac GXP, 6.725, 204.94; 2. Kurt Johnson, Chevy Cobalt, 6.735, 204.39; 3. Ron Krisher, Cobalt, 6.736, 204.32; 4. Allen Johnson, Dodge Avenger, 6.742, 204.73; 5. Johnny Gray, GXP, 6.757, 204.08; 6. Shane Gray, GXP, 6.757, 203.80; 7. Vinnie Deceglie, Avenger, 6.760, 204.39; 8. Greg Anderson, GXP, 6.761, 203.83; 9. Rickie Jones, GXP, 6.767, 204.11; 10. Rodger Brogdon, GXP, 6.769, 203.55; 11. Larry Morgan, Ford Mustang, 6.772, 202.94; 12. Jeg Coughlin, Cobalt, 6.775, 204.35. Not Qualified: 13. V. Gaines, 6.780, 203.16; 14. Bob Yonke, 6.781, 202.76; 15. Greg Stanfield, 6.784, 202.88; 16. Warren Johnson, 6.796, 203.98; 17. Jason Line, 6.800, 203.06; 18. John Nobile, 6.816, 201.85; 19. Justin Humphreys, 6.826, 202.15; 20. Robert Patrick, 6.878, 200.74; 21. John Gaydosh Jr, 7.097, 194.46.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
 |
Click to visit our sponsor's website
PRO QUALIFYING - SESSION TWO
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
 |
Click to visit our sponsor's website
PRO QUALIFYING - SESSION ONE
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
| |
Click to visit our sponsor's website
SPORTSMAN QUALIFYING
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
