EVENT NEWS EVENT NOTEBOOK POINTS AFTER EVENT ROUND-BY-ROUND RESULTS FINAL ROUND RESULTS			EVENT GALLERY

SUNDAY NOTEBOOK - WINNERS CROWNED IN GATOR LAND

THE CHAMP IS BACK -  Reigning Top Fuel champion Antron Brown claimed his first victory of the season Sunday at the Amalie Oil Gatornationals and tag-teamed with Funny Car winner Johnny Gray to push Don Schumacher Racing to the 200-victory plateau in National Hot Rod Association competition.

That puts DSR second behind Brownsburg, Ind., neighbor John Force Racing, which has 218 triumphs. Top Fuel's Tony Schumacher and Funny Car's Ron Capps doubled on the victories Feb. 24 at Phoenix to put the team in position to reach the milestone.

With a 3.761-second elapsed time at 318.77 mph on the Auto-Plus Raceway 1,000-foot course at Gainesville, Fla., Brown denied six-time International Hot Rod Association Top Fuel champion Clay Millican his first NHRA victory in his fifth final-round appearance.

He took over the points lead with his 22nd victory in Top Fuel, his 38th overall, and first at Gainesville. The former bike racer was Gatornationals runner-up in both a dragster (2010) and on a bike (2006).

Millican drove the Parts-Plus / MPE Dragster out of the Bob Vandergriff stable to a 3.813-second effort at a faster 319.67 mph.

An emotional Don Schumacher called the feat "a tremendous reward" and said, "My family, and I are thrilled and pleased." Then his voice broke as he recalled that his team won both nitro-class championships with Brown in Top Fuel and Jack Beckman in Funny Car but he had no time to enjoy that moment because his mother passed away the day after the race.

"I haven't had joy, really, since then. Today brings a special meaning to all of my efforts out here for all these years, from the mid-60s to today," he said.

After sharing the winners circle also with Allen Johnson (Pro Stock) and Hector Arana Jr. (Pro Stock Motorcycle), Brown said, "Our Matco Tools-Toyota guys were in the zone all day. We had to execute because Top Fuel is, by far, the toughest it has ever been. You can't take any of these guys lightly, because if you do, you're going home. To win now, you have to have every piece of the pie. You can't have three-quarters of it and expect to win anymore."

If Sunday's win was an example of the whole pie for dessert, much of his season until now has been swallowing distasteful items on his plate.

Before Sunday, Brown's biggest moment was a frightening one: his accident at Pomona, Calif., in the season-opener. Next on his list were two potential No. 1 qualifying runs that Doug Kalitta grabbed away from him at the last minute, at both Phoenix three weeks ago and Saturday here in this NHRA East Coast kickoff.

"Now we can put Pomona behind us and keep moving forward," Brown said. He has advanced to the semifinals or beyond at each of the season's first three races. And while Millican's Kurt Elliott-prepped dragster ran consistent 3.8s all weekend, Brown's Mark Oswald-, Brian Corradi-tuned Matco Tools entry behaved like a 3.7-second bracket car.

So he has plenty to build on early, including, he said, the assurance that his boss' mission is "to build the quickest, fastest and absolutely the safest cars. And I believe he has done that, especially when I walked away from that accident. I'm just. very blessed to be part of this organization."

Brown eliminated Larry Dixon, Steve Torrence, and Spencer Massey to reach the final. And he said the abundance of skilled crew members from the Brownsburg-based shop are what made the day's 50-minute servicing turnaround possible. "We have so many great teams at DSR that pull together. When you have a great group of people digging in like that, those kind of numbers pop up on the board," Brown said. As for DSR's 200th victory, he said, "It was all of us together. It wasn't just my team. It was all of us together."

Millican beat Brittany Force, Khalid al Balooshi, and Kalitta to advance.

"We weren't worrying about who we were racing. We were worried about that track we had to race on," Brown said. "We were trying to execute the best run we could for the condition." He said his team couldn't look at Millican's 3.8s and figure if they can run a 3.79 they could win. "Huh-uh," he said. "Look at Dougie -- he threw a run up there the other night. Look at [Steve] Torrence -- first round today he went a 3.769. So you've got all these guys who can throw up a run anytime, and we're only a hundredth [of a second in E.T.] apart from each other. So we all had to do our best job to bring that win home."

It turned out their best was the best Sunday.

LEAVING A LASTING IMPRESSION - Almost any athlete will tell you the best way to walk away from a sport, whether full-time or part-time, is as a winner.

After beating Del Worsham in the Gatornationals Gray will be able to walk away at the end of the year, as a winner.

Gray went down the groove with a 4.053-second lap at 315.49 mph in his Pitch Energy Dodge Charger Funny Car. Worsham ran 4.100 seconds at 303.50 mph.

“Anybody my age would tell you it is fun to kick a kid’s a**,” said Gray, who turns 60 on March 20. “That’s just fun you know? They are tough. All these kids drive really well, but the bottom line is I have been blessed to be hooked up with Don (Schumacher) and he gives me the proper people, the proper car and if I can get my head out of my tail and drive it decent we have a chance at winning the race. The Gatornationals is such an old, prestigious race and to win it is just a great feeling.”

Gray beat Jeff Arend, Alexis DeJoria and Jack Beckman before facing Worsham. Gray, with 244 points, is now tied for the points lead with his DSR teammate Ron Capps.

“We have had a great race car all year,” Gray said. “We ran really good at Pomona and just stepped on ourselves a little bit. We were the No. 1 qualifier at Phoenix and we stuck the tire in the first round. The car jumped over to the right and anybody who was there knew how much dirt that blew on the race track. The right rear tire got over on the dirt and I just kept trying to barely tap the throttle. It scooted back over and it just could never get over far enough. Larry Morgan said one time ‘You can’t fix stupid’ and all race car drivers are stupid. So I just kept on until I felt it biting the wall and I said OK stupid, that it is enough.”

Gray emphasized in his victory press conference he is “retiring” at season’s end.

“It is very grueling to come do all the races, and all the traveling involved,” Gray said. “Right now, I’m still in pretty decent health and there are a lot of other things I want to do. Will I ever come back out and play with something? Who knows? Don (Schumacher) called me one time and wanted to do the Wonder Wagon and he had some clutches to test and the chassis and I do not know what all. I said I’m a pretty good guinea pig so I said I will be there. I’m not saying I will not do something like that, but to come run all the races, I’m done.”

Gray also said he doesn’t see his son Shane moving up to compete in a nitro Funny Car either. Shane Gray competes in Pro Stock.

“He wants to stay in Pro Stock and I’m so happy he wants to stay in Pro Stock,” Johnny said. “You can get hurt in any race car, but I watched my son take a pretty good tumble there in Charlotte (last year) and it was pretty  spooky. But, I knew the caliber of car he was in and in a Pro Stock car I knew he would not have been hurt. If he would have taken the same tumble in a Funny Car I would have been pretty worried.”

Jonathon, Gray’s youngest son also races, but not down the quarter-mile.

“Jonathon runs dirt cars and I’m talking to him on the weekend at night to see how he is running,” Johnny said. “Then my grand kids have started in with the little mini sprints 600ccs. So, it is just time to go play with the kids and grand kids. Who knows I might get one of those little 600cc sprints.”

BACK ON TRACK - Through the first two races of the 2013 NHRA season, reigning Pro Stock world champion Allen Johnson hasn’t been able to flex his muscles.

It all changed Sunday.

Johnson reached Victory Lane by defeating his teammate Jeg Coughlin Jr. in the final round at the Gatornationals with a holeshot.

Johnson clocked a 6.535-second run at 212.59 mph while Couglin came in at 6.514 seconds at 212.26 mph. The difference in winning or losing was Johnson’s .005 reaction time to Coughlin's .031.

“It is early in the season and we are not really looking that far forward,” said Johnson about how the win will impact his title defense. “Our goal when we come to every race is to qualify No. 1 and win the race and in that regard it played right into our hand.”

Johnson, the No. 2 qualifier, beat Matt Hartford, Erica Enders-Stevens and Jason Line before defeating Coughlin. This was Johnson’s 17th career NHRA win.

“I think we are one of the premier teams in Pro Stock now and I think anybody would tell you that,” Johnson said. “I have a crew that makes great decisions based on scientific methods and data and we keep improving those decision making tools, so we will be right there again. I knew I would have to be on my game today as a driver and fortunately I was.”

Johnson also addressed his double bulb on the Christmas tree against Coughlin.

“Sometimes that is an accident because you want to roll into the pre-stage bulb as deep as you can,” Johnson said.”As a driver when you are both staged you do not really have to think, you are just preparing to move and you do not think about whether you went in deep or shallow. That one was probably on purpose.” 

Johnson is now third in the Pro Stock point standings with a 231 total. Mike Edwards (263) and Coughlin (247) are first and second in the points. Vincent Nobile is fourth at 224.

Johnson, Coughlin and Nobile are all running Mopar-powered Dodge Avengers.

“Everybody asked me why I hired my two assassins, the two best drivers in the class (Coughlin) and (Nobile), and I say they make me better,” Johnson said. “Last year at the last six races I ran Vincent at every race and I beat him at all six. I said that’s because he challenges me and makes me better as a driver overall and the same thing with Jeggie. I knew I would have to do my ultimate best to beat him. I hope we can go head-to-head like that a bunch more. We are not the fastest car right now, but we are consistent and we have won races like that.”

Bringing Coughlin and Nobile on as teammates has increased the work load for Roy Johnson, Allen’s father and the engine builder for Allen Johnson Racing.

“It has added a lot,” said Allen about the amount of work for his dad. “We brought on a couple of more people to help with that. We came here (to Gainesville) with 10 engines actually. That is how many engines we have and we used seven of them.”

Johnson also admitted his team has progress to make.

“We definitely need to get better,” Johnson said. “We are consistent, but we are not the fastest car and we want to be the fastest car.”

HECTOR JR. ENDS UP THE ARANA IN THE SPOTLIGHT - Much of the attention for the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle-racing Arana family OF Milltown, Ind., this weekend has zeroed in on 21-year-old Adam, who made his professional debut at the Amalie Oil Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla.

But older brother Hector stole the limelight Sunday at Auto-Plus Raceway, defeating their father, Hector, in the semifinals then Steve Johnson in the finals to earn his first Gatornationals Wally trophy.

"Little Hector," as mother Grace calls him, rode his Lucas Oil Buell to a winning 6.888-second, 195.65-mph quarter-mile pass.

Johnson, the 2005 Gatornationals winner, countered with a 6.909, 193.99 in at least a moral victory for the Suzuki riders who have screamed for class parity and finally got rules that they say give them a level playing field and hope.

Either way, Sunday's victory marked a departure from the Harley-Davidson dominance of late. Both Andrew Hines and Eddie Krawiec, the Harley-Davidson riders from the Vance & Hines team, were gone before the semifinals. Arana Jr. disposed of Krawiec in Round 2, immediately after Johnson ran down Hines.

"I'm really happy with the class now," Arana Jr. said in response to the NHRA-mandated changes designed to bring more equality to the category. "If you look at out qualifying, there's a lot more parity. A Suzuki went to the finals and he qualified fourth. The Buells were one, two, and three. I'm looking forward to close racing, action-packed racing for Pro Stock Motorcycle. I think we [took] a good step forward."

He was quick to offer congratulations to the Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson team. "They had to build a completely new motor, and they were able to qualify both bikes and do really well."

Miami-born Arana Jr., claiming his first victory since October 2011 at Phoenix, shared the winners circle with three other No. 2 qualifiers: Allen Johnson (Pro Stock), Johnny Gray (Funny Car), and Antron Brown (Top Fuel).

"To grab the race win for Team Arana and Lucas Oil is a big accomplishment, and it proves that having a third bike isn't going to slow us down but actually speed us up," the 24-year-old Purdue University engineering student from Milltown, Ind., said.

He said preparing three motorcycles for the class season-opener and hauling them all down to Florida, then having all three family members qualify for a tough lineup was an achievement in itself. The then congratulated his brother for being able to qualify for his first pro outing. "I wasn't able to do that," he said.

He will be able, however, to take the Pro Stock Motorcycle points lead into the class' next appearance on the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series tour April 19-21 at the Dollar General Four-Wide Nationals at Charlotte. And he did it partly at his dad's expense in the semifinal.

"We're very competitive, my father and I," he said. "We both want to win and have those bragging rights. I ended up on the lucky end of that deal." He said he was excited to win the "family duel" but said he wanted to remain respectful: "I didn't want to do any fist-pumping."

Besides, he said his dad is his inspiration when it comes to trying to win a championship. Arana Sr. won it all in 2009, starting that year with a Gatornationals victory. Said the younger Hector, "I'm looking forward to doing the same."

He said this weekend the stress level was at "the ultimate high," fretting because Adam had just five test passes on his ProtectTheHarvest.com/MAVTV Buell and hadn't made a single pass in a national event. Moreover, the team was focused on securing all the right parts they needed and, on top of that, moving into a new shop that they have had no time for development. But he said once Adam ran the 6.91 "all that stress went away" as the trio all made clean, safe runs.

Asked if his dad is as wild and crazy when stressed as everyone has come to regard Funny Car patriarch John Force, Arana Jr. said, "I've never been in camp with them, but I'd say he's up there."

He said, too, that this season he's hoping the parts issues go away and that the three of them can concentrate of heresiarch and development "and move forward and make more horsepower in order to keep winning these Wallys."

Johnson had sought his first victory in 73 races, since the 2008 zMAX Dragway inaugural at Charlotte. He started his day with a freebie when LE Tonglet red-lit, then he came from behind to beat Hines and defeated rising star Scotty Pollacheck to go to his 17th final round

All three Aranas work at the Lucas Oil production facility at Corydon, Ind. And Hector Sr. who hasn't won since the September 2009 Dallas race, said after qualifying wrapped up Saturday, "I want a win really bad. I'm so ready for it. I want to give Charlotte and Forrest [Lucas, the team owners] and everyone at the Corydon plant something to be proud of."

Dad might not have been the one to bring the trophy home, but it's safe to say the Lucas family and the folks at the Lucas Oil plant back home in Indiana indeed were proud.

WINNING IS THE RAGE - Von Smith raced to the season-opening victory in the NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series Sunday at the Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals.

Smith, the 2010 world champion in the 250-mph doorslammer category, powered his ’68 Camaro to the win over Chip King in the final round.

Smith covered the distance in 5.931 seconds at 244.60 mph to take his fourth career win in the class, while King fouled at the start in his ’69 Dodge Daytona in his first career final round appearance.

Smith, who qualified seventh, advanced to his fourth career final round by outrunning defending world champ Troy Coughlin, No. 2 qualifier Danny Rowe and Pete Farber in the first three rounds.

With the victory, Smith opens a 22-point lead over second place King in the series standings.

The NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series continues April 19-21 with the Dollar General NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway in Charlotte, N.C. The category will compete in the traditional two-lane format at the event.

SATURDAY NOTEBOOK -PARING DOWN TO 16 CARS

TOP FUEL

STILL THE ONE - Oh, the embarrassment a driver, especially a Top Fuel driver in his king-of-the-sport, 8,000-horsepower nitro-burning beast, has when he loses on a holeshot. Losing is distasteful enough, but a holeshot just rubs it in.
 
It happened to Doug Kalitta in the Mac Tools Dragster at the previous race, at Phoenix. To make it hurt even more, he was No. 1 qualifier.
 
"That was pretty disappointing. And there were a couple weeks off. Usually when you've had a weekend like I had in Phoenix, you’d like to get back out there the next day," Kalitta said Saturday. "It's all part of it. That's racin', but it's pretty aggravating when you get beat on a holeshot."
 
But another part of racing sometimes is getting the chance to score back-to-back No. 1 qualifying honors.
 
And that's exactly what happened to Kalitta Saturday in Florida at Auto-Plus Raceway at Gainesville in the last day of qualifying for the Amalie Oil Gatornationals.
 
Kalitta upstaged reigning series champion Antron Brown in the final session, blasting to a 3.779-second elapsed time at a class-best 326.32 mph to secure the top qualifying spot for the second straight race.
 
Brown had saved his best run for his last. But Mac Tools Dragster crew chief Jim Oberhofer decided he'd make one last tweak before sending Kalitta down the track to try to reclaim the No. 1 spot he earned Friday.
 
"I was kind of surprised to see Antron go out there and ran that (3.)78, because everybody was bunched kind of closer than that," Kalitta said afterward. "So then Jim comes back and he's adjusting on my car, and I figured, 'Well, it's either going to make it or it's not.' It was nice and straight. Usually when they're running good, [they're] playing it to the middle of the groove.
 
"I got about two-thirds of the way down there, thinking, 'This thing might actually have something for Antron,' " he said. "I guess he was down there high-fiving. This it was fortunate we didn't leave him too much time down there. Real happy with how it turned out here today.
 Hat's off to Jim and Troy [assistant crew chief Fasching] and all my guys for the decisions they made there at the end to get that thing to run like it did. Just real proud of them."
 
That marked the second straight time Kalitta swiped the day's glory from Brown and his Matco Tools Dragster. So Mac won the "tool wars" Saturday, and Kalitta has turned his attention to racing No. 16 Leah Pruett.
 
He knows the Top Fuel rookie can be dangerous, too, for she had lane choice at Phoenix in the Dote Racing Dragster and eliminated Pomona winner Shawn Langdon.
 
Kalitta said, "The track's looking good out there. The lanes seem pretty even. So it should be good racing for tomorrow. I'm looking forward to tomorrow. The conditions hopefully will be the same as today and we won't have to mess around with our tune-up much and see if we can put a string of runs together."
 
With Florida living up to its "Sunshine State" motto, producing temperatures in the high 70s, with more of the same forecast for Sunday's eliminations, Kalitta said he was a bit taken back that the best times came from the fourth, rather than third, session Saturday.
 
"With the heat on the track you never can tell," he said. "I have to admit these guys tuning these things, you never can count them out, regardless of what the conditions are. It seems like nowadays the technology of these things is just amazing."
 
Fans might be wondering whether the weather helped Kalitta or whether the track helped him more.
 
"I think it was the track," Kalitta said. "It seems like it's probably at least as hot or maybe a little hotter than yesterday. These guys are out here, trying to get all they can out of these things. Sometimes you get away with it and sometimes you don't. We were probably right on the edge of not making it. But fortunately Jim had a good handle on it."
 
As for the challenge of not overthinking the situation as No. 1 qualifier, Kalitta has plenty of experience. He has led the field 32 previous times. He said the risk comes with "particularly tuning one of those things thing, more than anything. But everybody has their own jobs, so you don't have to try to outthink every last thing on it.
 
"Everybody's got their jobs," he said, "so you just go out there and do what you're supposed to do and hope like heck you beat the other guy. It's real competitive out here. And anytime you can beat these guys, you're definitely having a good day."
 
Kalitta's last time in the winners circle was in July 2010, at Denver -- 57 races ago.
 
"It's been awhile since I've won, so we're hoping we're sneaking up on it here," he said.
 
And as for the dreaded "H" word, Kalitta said, "Let's hope I keep that out of my system for a little while."
 
PLAYING HOOKY WITH THE PREZ - Mike Kern, crew chief for T.J. Zizzo's Peak Motor Oil Dragster, was absent at Gainesville during Friday qualifying. But he had a legitimate excuse. He was hanging out with the Commander-in-Chief . . . of the United States.
 
Kern works at Argonne National Laboratory, in the Powertrain Research Facility of its Center for Transportation Research. President Barack Obama toured the Lemont, Ill., facility for about 25 minutes, speaking with researchers about their energy-related work. He gave a videotaped weekly address and staged a news conference.
 
Zizzo encouraged Kern to take advantage of the opportunity to meet a President of the United States, and Kern did.
 
"I have this opportunity. What do you think?" he asked Zizzo.
 
The racer, hoping to ease the sting of his Pomona DNQ with a strong showing at the Amalie Oil Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla., told him. "We'll get through it. You can't pass an opportunity like that up."
 
Decided Kern, "It doesn't matter if you're a Republican or Democrat, he's the President. If you have an opportunity to meet the man, you need to meet the man."
 
But while the leader of the free world was about 10 feet outside his office door, gabbing about his administration's energy policy, Kern -- surrounded by Secret Service agents and high-level White House personnel -- was following the NHRA's ESPN3 audiocast from Auto-Plus Raceway. He was watching the Top Fuel cars make their first passes of the weekend and texting Zizzo and team members about the Peak Motor Oil Dragster's set-up.
 
"Prior to going to the other building, where he was giving his speech to a group of 300 or 400 invited guests," Kern said of the President, "our tour was eight people. Ours was much more personal and interactive with him. I got to shake hands with him, show him our dyno, and had him run a test."
 
Kern works in the facility that houses a four-wheel-drive chassis dyno and, he said, "a bunch of engine dynos [on which] we do vehicle research and fuels system research, trying to find better ways to do things in the world."
 
The experience, Kern said, "was definitely surreal. Meeting him and doing the tour was very nice. It was cool. I wasn't really as nervous as I thought I would be, even though it was the most powerful man in the world," he said.
 
"What was surreal was watching the NHRA audiocast and watching live timing and texting my race team while the President's giving a Web address 10 feet away with Secret Service in the room and the chief of staff in the room standing four feet away from me and me the only representative of Argonne in the room. At that point in time, I was the safest man in the world."
 
Said Kern, "It was real neat, because he came back through the room, waved to me as he left and said good-bye. Thirty seconds later, our car went down the track.
 
"We went a quick shut-off 3.96 [elapsed time on the 1,000-foot course], which we had planned to do because we were unsure of a few things with me not being there," Kerns said.
 
"The car performed flawlessly without me being there. So I hired T.J. as crew chief, and I'm retiring," Kern said.
 
That hardly can count as the president creating jobs. Besides, Kern was just kidding.
 
"It was a unique experience, that I recommend if you get the chance to do it, because it comes around once in a lifetime," he said about being part of a Presidential visit.
 
Kern and his colleagues (including "my boss and his boss and everybody's boss," as he put it) spent a week preparing for the contingent from Washington, D.C., to come to the suburban Chicago plant. "We were prepping and making everything right for his visit," Kern said.
 
"Seeing what goes on to put together a Presidential visit, I'll take drag racing any day of the week," Kern said.
 
Of course, drag racing isn't without its pitfalls, either. After holding  spot in the 16-car field through three qualifying sessions, Zizzo failed to qualify again in his second outing of the year. He ended up 17th, a mere three-thousandths of a second behind No. 16 Leah Pruett.
 
RELIEVED TO BE IN - At the previous race it was pedaling her Castrol Edge Dragster. This weekend the lesson for the certified teacher was how to remain calm and poised when facing a first DNQ of her Top Fuel career. But she passed the test Saturday and landed in the No. 13 position. She entered Saturday unqualified with two chances to make the field of 16. In the days' first session, she moved into the No. 16 spot, not comfortable enough but better. In the final session, her car made a strong move off the starting line and stayed hooked up the entire 1,000-foot course and yielded a 3.861-second E.T. at 322.19 mph. That put her 13th in Sunday's first round. She'll meet six-time IHRA champion Clay Millican, who ironically was the first driver ever to run side by side with her -- and also here in Florida at the PRO Winter Warm-up preseason test at Jupiter. The two ran side by side twice in January, but this will be the first official race between them.

"I was excited to get in," Force said. "I was No. 16 going into my last qualifying run. We didn't know if that would hold, so I was a little nervous. But we ran a 3.86, and that was the best we ran all weekend and bumped on up in the field. So I was very happy about that. I'm ready for tomorrow. I have a great team behind me. I have Dean Antonelli and Eric Lane making the tuning decisions. I have awesome guys on my team. I know they support me and we're learning together. We've made mistakes together, but we're going to go out there and kick some butt with this Castrol Edge dragster."
 
PLENTY CONFIDENT - Morgan Lucas qualified 12th at Phoenix and was runner-up to Tony Schumacher. So starting seventh this weekend at the Gatornationals, which he won last year in the GEICO/Lucas Oil Dragster, is not a source of worry, he said Saturday.

"My confidence is not battered, by any means," Lucas said. "We just have to look at it tonight and fix it. We're definitely not dealing with the same racetrack we had last year here but it's still not bad. We just got a little behind the eight-ball with the second and third runs, and we just needed to go down the track on the last one. We've got to go up tomorrow and be on our 'A' game, because [Steve] Torrence's car can step up, and he's a great driver, too. We just have to earn it. I know we've got the car and the team to do it."
 NO MORE TIP-TOEING - Although Doug Kalitta trumped him once again, Antron Brown said he was impressed with his Brian Corradi- and Mark Oswald-led match Tools Dragster team and the tune-up they gave hi to record the weekend's first 3.7-second run. He wasn't going to let Kalitta's quicker-by-eight-thousandths-of-a-second pass deflate him.

"After our first run Saturday, Mark and Brian said they were going to get after it more on the front half of the racetrack. And that's where we really picked up the E.T.," Brown said. "I felt the car actually accelerate a lot harder, and it felt good. It felt really good. We were just tip-toeing the first day, the first run, because the track wasn't all there, so that makes you back off when you don't think it's there. The track's now where it really doesn't lose traction until about the 330- to 400-foot mark so, if we can get there quick enough, I get the momentum started early and the car usually carries it the rest of the way. So we did exactly what we wanted to do."
SATURDAY AN IMPROVEMENT - Dave Grubnic wasn't thrilled with 11th place, and Steve Torrence wasn't a whole lot more rah-rah about starting 10th and giving up lane choice for his first-round duel with Morgan Lucas. But he found some consolation in climbing from 16th place and the danger zone Saturday. He began the weekend with a pair of 1,000-foot efforts that left him 16th in the order overnight. "We knew we needed a good run Saturday," the owner-driver of the Capco Contractors Inc. Dragster said. "We had been trying some different tune-ups and got a little behind where we wanted to be. So we gave it our best shot on the first run and the car ran well. We had some good numbers at the top end of the track, and we should be ready in the morning for Round 1 of eliminations."
 

 
UNLEASH THE BEAST - Kalitta Motorsports driver Dave Grubnic fared better than Terry McMillen, who couldn’t get the right tune-up to get his Amalie Oil Dragster into the Amalie Oil Gatornationals. And Grubnic had more to be thankful for than T.J. Zizzo, Ike Maier, Stig Neergaard, Tim Cullinan, Chris Karamesines, and Pat Dakin. They all had DNQs, as well. Nevertheless, No. 11 qualifier Grubnic said his lot was "not exactly the weekend we were hoping for. We fought a couple gremlins there. We managed to get the Optima Batteries/Advance Auto Parts Dragster sorted out. There is still plenty left in it, and hopefully we will unleash it tomorrow."
 





FUNNY CAR

SMOOTH OPERATOR - Cruz Pedregon was in Saturday’s final pair of Funny Cars scheduled to run at the NHRA Gatornationals. He did his burnout, and as he backed up the engine in his Snap-on Tools Funny Car didn’t sound right. The sound worsened as he rolled up to stage. Then Pedregon hit the kill switch, bringing his day to an end. This is the kind of luxury you have when you also have the field covered by nearly three-hundredths of a second.

“We thought it had run out of fuel,” admitted Pedregon, who meets Paul Lee in Sunday’s first round. “We ended up with some other kind of mechanical problem.”

Pedregon’s Friday performance was highlighted by two good runs including a strong 4.047-second run which is the best of the qualifying runs. Saturday was the opposite starting with missing the combination on his first run and the aborted second

“I’ve been doing this long enough to know you have to put these kinds of days behind you,” Pedregon said. “Today is today and tomorrow is a whole different day. As a veteran, I just shake this off and move forward.”

Pedregon said he and his team were going to return to Friday’s combination for the first round.

“We’ll adjust to tomorrow’s warmer conditions,” said Pedregon. “We feel we could have run a mid-4.0 on the last run. We’ll come out and read the track and go from there.”

VISITING THE FIBERGLASS FOREST - When you race the 24-event NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series between February and early November, off weekends are, for the most devoted of drivers, are few and far between. Last weekend presented one of the rare opportunities for a handful of NHRA professional drag racers who chose to spend the downtime getting in more drag racing time.

The annual Bakersfield March Meet in the spring and California Hot Rod Reunion events at Auto Club Famoso Raceway [Bakersfield, Ca.] has an aura which takes the leading racers back to an era when drag racing was based more on a good time and less corporate demands.

“It’s a very gratifying experience,” said Ron Capps, who drove a Nostalgia Funny Car [AA/FC], a Plymouth Arrow for Steve Plueger. “It’s almost like you go into another point in time when you are there. It’s as if you are on another planet. You have to pop back into reality when you leave there. You honestly go back in time to when you were a child.”

This year’s March Meet featured four drivers competing in the AA/FC division who are competing at this weekend’s Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals. In addition to Capps, Del Worsham, Chad Head and Jeff Arend all made runs at the famous track north of Los Angeles.

“I know the difference between the two cars,” admitted Head, who made his NHRA Nitro Funny Car debut this weekend in Gainesville. “I respect them both. Both have their own unique challenges.”

The biggest challenge might be the physical toll the extreme requirements of doing race maintenance the old school way can take on the body.

“All of the fun, the work … the stuff like changing engines and working late at night, is what can take its toll on you,” explained Worsham, a quarter-finalist in Bakersfield. “But, it is always a great time and really an awesome experience.”

The one NHRA Funny Car driver who has the toughest time is likely Robert Hight, who is unable to compete in the events.

“it’s very tough to go back and watch,” admitted Hight. “I’m pretty competitive and I feel confident I could drive one of them. Hopefully one day I will get to give it a shot. For now, you get plenty of satisfaction in just watching my friends race up there.”

Hight is assigned to promotional duties during the Bakersfield nostalgia events through his affiliation with Auto Club, also the track’s sponsor. This isn’t to say he’s unable to step away from his autograph signings to take in a bit of the racing.

“I look forward to these events every year,” said Hight. “I was looking forward to the California Hot Rod Reunion the moment I pulled out of the gates leaving the March Meet.”

Should an opportunity present itself for him to race, finding a car to drive wouldn’t be a problem for Hight. The past NHRA champion has  orchestrated the fabrication of two John Force “Brute Force” Monza replicas as well as two Corvettes, one the Leo’s Stereo-sponsored entry and the other the popular Wendy’s Hot & Juicy entry. On display over the weekend was the Mountain Dew Chevrolet Citation, a Funny Car Force ran during the 1981 season.

“I love watching those old cars because they have so much personality,” Hight said. “I could sit and watch these cars all day. Maybe someday I will get to drive one. I think it would be a blast to try doing a dry hop. For now, I am content being a spectator. This is the one weekend that I can go to a drag race and be a true fan.”

Hight said he’d love to take a test spin in a nostalgia car if the opportunity presented itself.

“Absolutely would love to, but I would have to get approval from John first,” said Hight.

HIT OR MISS - Tim Wilkerson has battled inconsistency all weekend. He scored a good run in the opening session, missed the tune-up in the secondm returned for a good one in Q-3 and then fell short in the final session. Wilkerson starts 12th with a 4.131 and meets Del Worsham in the first round.

 OH IT’S YOU - If Bob Tasca III wins Sunday’s first round he will score the personal milestone of 100 round wins. Tasca drove to a 4.204-second, 302.35 mph run to land in the No. 14 qualifying spot this weekend. Standing in his way is Matt Hagan, the same driver with whom Tasca beat at the season ending 2009 NHRA AAA Finals ending Hagan's championship bid.
15X ALSO 100X - Fifteen-time Funny Car champion John Force extended his current qualifying streak to 100 consecutive races and now the active qualifying streak leader for Funny Car. In 2007 at the Las Vegas spring event Force’s unprecedented streak of 395 consecutive qualifying efforts came to an end. The Las Vegas race was Force’s first following the loss of teammate Eric Medlen after a testing accident the day after the completion of the 2007 Gatornationals.

CAREFUL CLOSING - After running a 4.121 on Friday, Alexis DeJoria had to rest on her laurels during Saturday qualifying. The first run created engine damage necessitating a short check-out run in the fourth session.

PRO STOCK

BRACKET MASTER - Mike Edwards has looked more like a bracket racer than a Pro Stock driver during the Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla.

During Friday qualifying, the driver of the Interstate Batteries/I am Second.com Chevrolet Camaro laid down a 6.473 world record time and followed up with four runs ranging from a 6.476 to a 6.488.

Edwards made a clean sweep of all qualifying bonus points for the event.

Edwards has qualified on the pole of every NHRA Pro Stock event this season yet has fallen short of the winners circle. He hopes Sunday’s final eliminations will be his first of 2013.

While his actions might have appeared to suggest he was just trying to run consistent, Edwards said he came into Saturday’s warmer conditions seeking to beat Friday’s performance.

Edwards credited an extensive test session in Tulsa, Oklahoma prior to this weekend’s event for helping him to perform better this weekend. 

RICKIE DON'T LOSE THAT NUMBER - Rickie Jones is readjusting to finesse after a couple of seasons of manhandling.

Jones, who formerly raced a Summit Racing Equipment-sponsored Pro Nitrous Camaro on the American Drag Racing League tour, has spent the past week reacquainting his driving skills to a 500-inch NHRA Pro Stocker. Thanks to Mark Stockseth and Richard Freeman, Jones is running a 10-race schedule with a new Camaro sponsored by Elite Performance.

“I think it’s really neat to be back out here,” said Jones of his return to NHRA Pro Stock. “We went to Bradenton and did some testing earlier in the week. This car is not as much of a handful as a Pro Nitrous car. Those things are really exciting to drive. The 500-inch cars are really smooth and really high rpm. NHRA Pro Stock and Pro Nitrous are equally competitive.”

Jones runs engines supplied by Nick Ferri and Elite Performance. They use CFE products which include intake manifolds and cylinder heads.

“We made six eighth-mile runs in Bradenton,” said Jones. “We had a 4.19 best. We ran a 6.52 best with our full pass. The car has a lot more in it. We only got two days of testing and it rained on the second. The first day in Gainesville was testing day number three.”

Jones understands many might think there’s a bit more of a challenge to racing with over 300 less cubic inches and nitrous oxide. He begs to differ.

“It’s not a real big deal, really,” admitted Jones. “The burnout is different. I am used to the big motors and trying not to over-rev them and doing my burnouts at low rpm. When I get in the [NHRA car], there were a times I was too low on the rpms. I just had to back up and try again.”

Re-acclimating himself is more than just learning when to hit his shift points and at what rpm to perform the burnout. He had to get used to the launch again. In his maiden test session, Jones’ reaction times ranged between .008 and .020.

“It seems easier to cut a light in one of these cars,” admitted Jones. “I think driving a Pro Nitrous car made me a better Pro Stock driver. When you drive something that fast, that’s that much out of control, and then jump into this where it is smooth and you have a better opportunity to concentrate on shift points and driving. Getting back in one of these is just so calm.”

WATCH THE YELLOW CAR - - Three of the four passes five-time world champion Jeg Coughlin Jr. made during qualifying were quicker and faster than he'd ever gone before. Coughlin first ran a 6.492 at 213.16 mph, easily the best pass he'd ever made down a quarter mile. Today he dipped even lower with a 6.487 best to wind up fourth.
HARTFORD GETS IN - Past Sport Compact standout turned Pro Stock racer Matt Hartford landed the No. 15 spot thanks to a 6.566 second pass.

IT'S ME AGAIN, MARGARET - Shane Gray will meet Erica Enders-Stevens in the first round of eliminations on Sunday, a driver he squared off with in round one in Phoenix just a couple of weeks ago. Gray enters eliminations as the No. 10 seed thanks to a 6.518, 211.33 mph.
CONTINUAL GAINES - Kendall-sponsored driver V. Gaines continued to race impressively this season. Gaines completed qualifying as the sixth quickest with a 6.504, 213.47.

DRAGGING THE LINE - Jason Line picked up a pair of valuable bonus points during qualifying for logging top-three passes in two of the four sessions. The first day of the event provided excellent weather conditions, and the field was quick and fast. In the first round, the Mooresville, N.C.-based driver was third-quickest overall with a solid 6.483 at an efficient 213.10 mph, but round two wasn't quite as rewarding as he tripped the final timer on the racetrack with a tire-rattling 6.53.


PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE

CLUTCH PLAYER - Matt Smith overcame clutch trouble Saturday with his Viper Motorsports Buell to claim the No. 1 qualifying spot in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class for the Amalie Oil Gatornationals at Auto-Plus Raceway at Gainesville, Florida.
 
His 6-point-804-second elapsed time and 197-point-28 miles an hour from Friday lasted through two Saturday qualifying sessions. That gave the King, North Carolina, racer his 19th top qualifying position and his first No. 1 start at Gainesville since 2009.
 
But he discovered some problems with his clutch that actually started when he emerged as the early leader Friday.

UM, HONEY, CAN YOU DO A BETTER JOB?'  -  Racing with, and sometimes competing against, a spouse can be a dicey proposition.

But Matt Smith meant no disrespect at all when he said, "If we can get [wife] Angie to do a little better job of riding the bike and getting it to go straight, that bike will be just as fast as what mine and John's [teammate Hall's] is."
 
Angie Smith missed the cut for Sunday's Amalie Oil Gatornationals eliminations at Gainesville, Fla., along with Katie Sullivan, Joe DeSantis, James Surber, Freddie Camarena, and Redell Harris. However, she was just eight-thousandths of a second behind No. 16 qualifier Chip Ellis.
 
"You aren't going to tell her she needs to ride better, right?" a reporter at Auto-Plus Raceway asked Matt Smith, the No. 1 qualifier.
 
"Well, I've been stressing it already," he said.
 
But Matt Smith allowed that her frightening ride last season at Norwalk, which ended with her wisely bailing from the bike just before it plowed eight rows into an Ohio cornfield, might have instilled a bit of fear in her -- or any rider.
 
"I don't know how it feels when you go off the end of the track at 190 miles an hour," her understanding husband said. "She probably has a lots of doubts and stuff like that. She's done a great job of coming back. We've just got to get her out of-- she's developed a couple of habits. I don't know maybe if she's still scared of when she did wreck.
 
"But we'll get them out," he said of any anxieties. "We'll test some more, as long as Viper's behind us and we got the money behind us."
 
No woman likes to gain weight, but in Angie Smith's case, her six-pound addition is with Matt Smith's blessing, even his encouragement.
 
"One problem with these Buells is you can't be a small person and ride 'em really good, I feel like, unless you're a guy and got man strength," he said. "Not saying she's a weakling. It's just one of them things."
 
She's listed at 5-feet-4 and 120 pounds in the NHRA media guide.
 
"You have to muscle these back," Matt Smith said. "We have about 80-foot pounds more torque than what a Suzuki does. They're just real torque-y at the bottom of the gears, so that's where you really have to stay on your toes with these bikes."
 
Angie Smith's next chance to see some Sunday action in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class will be next month at the Dollar General Four-Wide Nationals at Charlotte, near the Smiths' King, N.C., home.
 
Hall, who rode last year for Sovereign-Star Racing and joined the Smiths in the off-season, qualified sixth in the order Saturday with a 6.840-second pass at 195.51 mph that reset his personal-best numbers. And his new boss said he expects great things from the Connecticut racer this year.
 
"He's getting better and better," Matt Smith said. He said Hall is getting used to the gear ratios with his Buells that surely are different from what he is used to with George Bryce's organization. "And he's having to adapt to my style of riding that I like to see. The more he traces with us, he's going to be a big contender. I think the 84 with a zero was pretty stout out there for him." 
 
Both Hall and Angie Smith are especially eager to make this year's Countdown to the Championship 10-bike field. Hall finished 11th last season, and Angie Smith was 11th in 2011.

HE MADE IT - Eddie Krawiec, who won this race in each of the past three years, faced a do-or-die situation Saturday afternoon. He was 17th in the lineup, out of the field, after the third qualifying session. But he managed to leap to No. 10 with a last-ditch run at 6.882 second, 194.04 mph on the Vance & Hines Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson. Krawiec struggled all weekend. He was 15th after the first session Friday and had no time for the second session because his bike was pushed back from the starting line. He slid Chip Ellis down to the bump spot. Krawiec, the reigning class champion, will square off against No. 7 starter Mike Berry in the opening round of eliminations.
 BACK-UP A BLESSING - Racing is full of the unexpected. And that's what happened Friday to 2010 series champion LE Tonglet. His primary motor on the Nitro Fish/Tonglet Racing Suzuki suddenly broke during Friday qualifying, forcing him to rely on a back-up. But the stand-in did its job, and Tonglet will run out of the No. 13 slot Sunday. The back-up engine carried him the Metairie, La., racer to quarter-mile runs of 6.903 seconds at 194.55 mph and an almost identical 6.905, 194.69."It ran consistently and we were pleased with the results," Tonglet said. "We have a motor we can tune up. We want to make it quicker in the first 60 feet and make it go faster." The Tonglets -- team-owner dad Gary and older brother GT -- were stunned Friday when the engine that had produced a 6.958 seconds at 187 mph, good enough for 14th, in the opening session just quit. "It just let go," LE Tonglet said. "That was not the way we intended to start. No one expected that to happen." He said Friday night that they would "change motors and do all we can to run better." He improved from 15th to 12th in Saturday's opening chance.

 TEXT 'NEWTOWN' TO 80888 - John Hall's fundraising effort for the United Way's Newtown-Sandy Hook Community Foundation received an even higher profile when the second-year racer from Hamden, Conn., secured the No. 6 position in the Gatornationals field Saturday. Hall rides the 'Text Newtown to 80888' Buell for Matt Smith's operation.

"My kids are older than the children at Sandy Hook," Hall said, "but I just couldn't imagine how awful that whole thing was for the children, teachers, and families who had kids in school there that day. That's 34 miles from my house if you take the long way. When I saw Michael Waltrip supporting the Newtown-Sandy Hook Community Foundation in the Daytona 500, I knew right then there was something I could do to help. As someone just wanting to help, it's tough to know where to place your effort, but the Newtown-Sandy Hook Community Foundation is legit."

Patrick Kinney, spokesman for the United Way of Western Connecticut said Hall phoned him and said he was interested in doing a similar thing to what his group did with Waltrip at Daytona. "John struck me as a very sincere and conscientious guy who wanted to do the right thing. He did a lot of research on the fund before he called me, so I knew he was serious," Kinney said. "This is not a victims compensation fund. In the days after the tragedy, the United Way and the city were getting calls from—well, places like Columbine that had seen similar things. What we were told over and over was that the most important thing to do was set up a general fund for the long term needs such as mental health care that will last for decades. So this fund will service those needs of the community." To make a $10 donation, text "Newtown" to 80888.
HECTORS BATTLE EACH OTHER FOR NOS. 2 & 3 - While rookie Adam Arana received kudos from top qualifier Matt Smith, Arana's older brother Hector and dad Hector showed they still had the power in the family. All three Aranas made the show Saturday, but "The Hectors" jousted for the better starting positions. "Little Hector" and his dad posted identical 6.805-second passes on their Lucas Oil Buells as their best E.T.s of the event. But the younger Hector took the No. 2 slot because his 197.36-mph top speed aced out Dad's 196.62. "I'm really pleased with the performance we've had out of all three bikes," Hector Jr., who'll start eliminations against Michael Phillips, said. "They're running like bracket bikes, really consistent, and it's just a little bit faster every time. Hopefully tomorrow we keep doing the same thing and we're the fastest at the end of the day." Hector Sr., who drew Jim Underdahl as his first-round opponent, said, "Overall, I'm pleased with the outcome so far. Nothing's broken and we're all in the show. Now I can relax a little and focus on my riding. I want a win really bad. It's been a while [Dallas 2009], and I'm so ready for it. I want to give Charlotte and Forrest [Lucas] and everyone at the Corydon [Ind. Lucas Oil] plant something to be proud of."
 
ADAM ON EVE OF FIRST PRO RACE - Adam Arana has given his father some relief and his older brother some extra motivation. The rookie rider qualified the ProtectTheHarvest.com Buell in the No. 12 position with a 6.900, 194.16 showing -- just for the privilege of being the third Arana to battle the Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson team and Andrew Hines.

"The butterflies have settled down a little bit," Adam Arana said of his pro debut. "I'm having fun, but it's a lot to take in all at once. I really wanted to get that first pass in and just be done with it. After that it got a little easier. I'm sure I'll be nervous again tomorrow morning with it being my first race day and all that. Plus, I got Andrew, so I'll need to have a great light and ride a perfect lap to have a chance. We'll do the best we can."

Already brother Hector is impressed. "Considering everything that's happened as far as the process of getting here and all the hours and all the stress we went through this off-season, everything really came together as planned for all three of us," he said. "We're all very happy. It's cool my brother made the show. And he already reminded me that he's one step ahead of me because I didn't qualify for my first race." Dad Hector had his concerns. "My main concern has been Adam," he said. "He's doing great, and he's only going to get better and better. I've been there coaching him and making sure he does everything right over and over. He probably is tired of me being in his ear, but we can't let any bad habits develop at this early stage."
 
PRO MODIFIED

NEWS FLASH - After a night of creativity, the Janis crew, with assistance from Adam Flamholc, somewhat successfully mated an early-model front-end to the new Camaro.Pro Modified racer Mike Janis believes if he can ever make his way past the NHRA Gatornationals with his race car intact, then his season will be off to a great start.

For the second time in as many seasons, the past IHRA champion who competes on the NHRA tour, will travel back to Lancaster, NY, with a severely wounded race car.

Last season, Janis crashed his new Mustang. This year he nearly burned his brand new Camaro to the ground in a freak accident during the first round of eliminations in Gainesville, Fla. Janis was checked by on-site medical personnel and released.

“I’m okay, just inhaled a few of the carbon fumes,” said Janis. “It was scary and the first real fire I ever had. It sure gets your attention.”

Janis admitted he took a little while in exiting the car.

“It’s easy to panic inside of there,” said Janis. “I just tried to keep calm and get the car slowed down enough to get out. Just about the time I realized I needed to get the car slowed to a stop, the fire started to come into the cockpit.”

Janis, just like in his accident last year, shouldered the blame for the fire.

“It was totally my fault,” Janis said. “I lifted and looked back. I couldn’t see anyone – I got back into it. You are taught to not lift on race day. The car was on a good pass for the first time during the weekend. Then it popped the burst panel. I’m thinking it leaned the engine out. Don’t know yet.”

Janis believes the relived burst panel fractured a fuel line igniting the fire.

One of the positives in this deal was in blazing the car, Janis still beat opponent Mike Castellana to the finish line. As of late Saturday evening, Janis and his team were trying to make a donated 1968 Camaro front end work on his 2013 ZL-1.

“Not sure if it will be accepted by tech, but we are still gonna try it,” Janis said of the front end donated by European racer Adam Flamholc.

Just as Janis thought about the notion of mounting a class Camaro front end of a late model, he couldn’t help but laugh at the slogan on his quarter-panel.

“We burn water …” he chuckled as he read and drew a conclusion. 

“This place [Gainesville] has no love for me,” Janis said.

BIG MATCH - A former NHRA Pro Mod world champion will face the event’s No. 2 qualifier when eliminations resume Sunday for the NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series portion of the Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals.

Von Smith will face Danny Rowe in the second round match up when the wild 250 mph doorslammer category opens the quarterfinal round of racing. Rowe outran Mike Knowles in Saturday’s first round, while Smith defeated defending world champion Troy Coughlin in the first round.

In other second round racing, Mike Janis will meet James Eric Dillard, Chip King will race Raymond Matos and Pete Farber will take on Rickie Smith.

No. 1 qualifier Mike Castellana, who took the top spot with a performance of 5.844 seconds at 246.89 mph in his 1970 Al-Anabi Racing Camaro, was upset in the opening round by No. 16 qualifier Janis. Castellana’s machine lost traction early in the run and Janis pulled away for the win.

THE RESULTS - First round results from the 44th annual Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Auto-Plus Raceway at Gainesville, the first of 10 events in the NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series :

ROUND ONE -- Eric Dillard, Ford Mustang, 5.988, 250.60 def. Jimmy Keen, Chevy Corvette, 5.983, 238.76; Von Smith, Chevy Camaro, 5.967, 244.69 def. Troy Coughlin, Corvette, 6.036, 232.55; Rickie Smith, Camaro, 5.988, 240.77 def. Adam Flamholc, Camaro, foul; Raymond Matos, Pylmouth Barracuda, 7.343, 224.58 def. Doug Winters, Chevy Bel Air, 7.700, 127.50; Chip King, Dodge Daytona, 6.111,

250.97 def. Kenny Lang, Corvette, broke; Pete Farber, Corvette, 5.946, 246.08 def. Clint Satterfield, Camaro, 6.174, 239.14; Danny Rowe, Camaro, 5.890, 248.80 def. Mike Knowles, Camaro, 6.309, 216.34; Mike Janis, Camaro, 6.799, 150.15 def. Mike Castellana, Camaro, 10.199, 82.51;

FRIDAY NOTEBOOK - A DAY OF HIT OR MISS RUNS

TOP FUEL

OFF TO A GOOD START - It has been 10 years since Doug Kalitta has put the Mac Tools Dragster at the front of the Top Fuel pack for the Gatornationals.
 
But with a Number 1 qualifying position in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series three weeks ago  at Phoenix, the veteran from Ann Arbor, Michigan, is on a roll.

"I am real proud of my guys, the car left real straight and ran great down through there," Kalitta said. "My whole Mac Tools team has the car running good so I am happy to have a good ride here at the Gatornationals which is always a great event. It's always a race you look at in the series and hope you can do well. I am real proud of what is going on and real hopeful that we can hold up tomorrow."

MULTI-TASKING -- AND EXCELLING -- FOR AL-ANABI -   It hasn't been highly publicized, but Top Fuel driver Shawn Langdon has been serving as interim General Manager for the Al-Anabi Racing team.
 
Chad Head left that role to race a Funny Car with his dad, Jim, and work with the family's Columbus, Ohio-based business. So since December, Langdon has stepped in until team manager Alan Johnson and team owner Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Thani, of Qatar, settle on Head's replacement. His focus on weekends is solely on driving the team's silver edition of the Al-Anabi Dragster.
 
And he has handled both jobs well. Most visibly, he won the season-opening Winternationals at Pomona, Calif., left Phoenix No. 2 in the standings, and in Friday's first day of qualifying for the Amalie Oil Gatornationals, he was second-quickest, just a thousandth of a second slower than provisional leader Doug Kalitta.
 
He'll use Saturday's two chances to top Kalitta and all other challengers in pursuit of his seventh career No. 1 qualifying position.
 
Langdon, who finished fourth overall in the Top Fuel standings, trails first-place Tony Schumacher by 79 points and leads third-place Antron Brown by one point. So already he's in the thick of the battle -- a far cry from where he was this time last season. With his victory in February, he's qualified for the Traxxas Shootout bonus race, one he missed last year.
 
This time a year ago, he was in fifth place heading to Auto-Plus Raceway at Gainesville, Fla., and teammate Khalid al Balooshi was 11th. This time, al Balooshi is fourth in points with three round-wins to his credit.
 
"I feel really good with what the Al-Anabi team has accomplished so far this year, and I am feeling very confident in the car," Langdon said.
 
"We had a really good race day setup in Pomona, but when we went to Phoenix, the track was a little bit tricky. We were trying to be aggressive early, and the Phoenix track didn't like it  We figured some things out after that weekend and have tweaked our tune-up," he said. "We still have a little bit of homework to do, but with the way the Al-Anabi car ran on race day in Pomona, we know we have a really good race car. We just have to manage it and make it consistent."
 
He said he likes the energy of this first East Coast appearance for the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.
 
"The races at Gainesville always draw huge crowds, and it's usually a very fast racetrack. We had a really good pre-season test in South Florida in January, and [with] some similar conditions this weekend in Gainesville we should be able to use some of the information we got in testing. I like Gainesville, because as intense as the competition level in Top Fuel is these days, especially this year with two really fast fields at our first two races, as long as it doesn’t get too hot and muggy, Gainesville can be a very fast race track.
 
Kalitta wasn't close to Morgan Lucas' year-old records for elapsed time and speed at the fabled facility.
 
"With all these fast cars in Top Fuel," Langdon said, "it could come down to who can leave the starting line quickest on Sunday."
 
He hopes so. That's one department where he led the class last year with an average reaction time of .057 of a second. He left on his opponents 72 percent of the time, a statistic that also topped the charts. If anyone is counting speed, look no farther than Langdon. He recorded the fastest speed to 1,000 feet in NHRA history last fall at Reading, Pa. -- 334.15 mph.

STILL GOING STRONG - Morgan Lucas won this race and set both ends of the track record at 3.749 seconds and 326.87 mph last March. But he wasn't trading on those achievements this time around.

"You can't let things like being the reigning Gatornationals champ cloud your judgment. You don't want to try too hard and do anything stupid," the GEICO/Lucas Oil Dragster driver said. Lucas has momentum from his runner-up finish at Phoenix in the previous stop on the Mello Yello Drag racing Series tour. He parlayed that Friday into a No. 2 spot in the first-session order with a 3.832, 320.28 run. With Doug Kalitta, Shawn Langdon, and Antron Brown moving up the ladder, Lucas slid back to fifth. But he's in excellent shape heading into Saturday's final two qualifying opportunities.

"I know the GEICO Dragster is close to winning after what happened in Phoenix," Lucas said. "We need to get better with our consistency, but we've got a car that's capable of doing a lot of damage at this race. We tested Monday after Phoenix and learned a lot. When we got home (to Brownsburg, Ind.), we went through our inventory and got our parts and personnel freshened up for the road trip ahead. After this race the season is going to get more hectic, with the three- and four-in-a-row stretches of races ahead it’s easy to get behind on certain aspects of maintenance if you don't plan ahead. We took this opportunity to get ahead to keep that stuff from happening."

ZIZZO IN ZONE - T.J. Zizzo was hoping to thaw out, not only from the Chicago deep-freeze this winter but also from his cold spell on the racetrack after failing to qualify at the season opener at Pomona, Calif. His resolve paid off Friday, for he secured a spot in the top 12 with a 3.909-second pass at 309.27 mph in the Peak Motor Oil Dragster.
  TWO-CAR TEAMS DO FARE BETTER - Clay Millican and boss-teammate Bob Vandergriff are sixth and seventh, respectively, overnight.
 
FRIGO ESTA EN FUEGO - Class rookie Sidnei Frigo continues to have his act together. The Brazilian business tycoon -- who operates out of Deerfield Beach, Fla., and has championship tuner Donnie Bender calling the shots -- is 10th after the first day of qualifying. His best effort Friday was a 3.877-second E.T. at 314.75 mph.

LATER, GATOR, HOPEFULLY - No. 20 on the grid but especially eager to make this field for his primary sponsor and the event sponsor, Amalie Oil, is owner-driver and "Insti-Gator" Terry McMillen. But he has some famous company. Still trying to break into the lineup of 16 are Denmark's Stig Neergaard, Khalid al Balooshi, Brittany Force, Brandon Bernstein, Pat Dakin, and Ike Maier.

EARLY LEADER - Spencer Massey was the leader in the opening qualifying session at 3.821, 322.65. He took out Phoenix No. 1 qualifier Doug Kalitta in the first round of the previous race, so it was a bit of payback for Kalitta to replace him at the top of the qualifying list Friday.
 

FUNNY CAR

NO HIGH PAID CREW CHIEF HERE - Cruz Pedregon believes better parts, not high salary crew chiefs, make a race car run better.

Friday at the Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals, the two-time Funny Car champion went a long way towards proving his point by running 4.04 seconds at 296.05 miles per hour to claim the provisional top qualifying spot.

Cruz ran nearly three hundredths of a second quicker than second quickest qualifier Johnny Gray and over six hundredths quicker than the third quickest Del Worsham.

Cruz and his Snap-on Tools team are racing this year on a crew chief by committee basis, which he firmly he believes works the best.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE FOLKS, MOVE ON - Robert Hight understands how rumors spread and the speculation grows. The past NHRA Funny Car champion would rather nip the situation in the bud before the banter becomes widespread.

Mike Neff spent time in the Auto Club Funny Car pits working alongside the team’s tuner Jimmy Prock during first day qualifying at the NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla.

Prock isn’t being replaced nor is Neff leaving his role as tuner for John Force.

“We are going to take a step backward  and go back to basics,” Hight explained. “Going back to basics is essentially what took us to four wins last season. I think we got too ahead of our ourselves. We just needed to take a step back.”

On a team ripe with talented tuners, Hight says it’s not uncommon for various tuners on the three-car Funny Car team to pool their knowledge resources and return to common ground. The three JFR cars run vastly different tune-ups.

“We’re always pooling our resources,” Hight explained. “There are times when Jimmy is over there or somewhere, and Mike is somewhere else. It’s just part of the deal.”

This weekend, Hight adds, they are backing up to get on the same pathway.

“You can look in on the John Force Racing teams and tell we are not doing as well as the other two,” said Hight. “The best way is to go back, to what got us here last year.”

As Hight understands, perception isn’t always the truth.

“There’s nothing going on here major,” Hight said. “If one of our teams wins on Sunday, we will all be in the winner’s circle.”

STILL STRONG - A resurgent Matt Hagan recorded runs of 4.122 (302.55) and 4.144 (286.62). Hagan, who is qualified fourth, and crew chief Dickie Venables are coming off a runner-up finish three weeks ago near Phoenix.

GRAY STRONG ON FRIDAY - Johnny Gray put his Pitch Energy Dodge Charger R/T in the provisional No. 2 qualifying spot with a best run of 4.071 seconds. The team also posted the top speed in Funny Car at 313.22 mph. *** The veteran driver, who turns 60 on Wednesday, saved his best effort for the second qualifying session under clear, blue skies and temperatures in the mid-70s. *** "That was a good run, and we're starting to feel more confident in a lot of ways," Wendland said. "We came here with a new front half (of the chassis), and to be able to make a run like that shows what a great (fabrication) shop we have at DSR. Thanks to Joe (Fitzpatrick), Tom (Patsis) and Daniel (Heman). This run is a credit to their hard work just as much as it is to ours." 

SURPRISING - Courtney Force, currently No. 2 in the Mello Yello points, did not have a strong showing on Friday behind the wheel of her Traxxas Ford Mustang. The Winternationals winner smoked the tires in each session today which is the first time this season the Traxxas Mustang has not gone down the track in two consecutive runs. The 2012 Auto Club Road to the Future Award winner as the NHRA rookie of the year posted the 15th quickest time of the day, 4.826 seconds and will go into Saturday trying to get in the show for Sunday.

 ON TIME DELIVERY - Del Worsham blasted his way to the No. 3 spot in Friday's provisional field courtesy of a strong 4.110, 309.98 mile per hour run.

PRO STOCK

WHEN OPPORTUNITY MEET PREPARATION -
Mike Edwards went to Disneyland Friday.

Not really … but he felt like it after his first run at the Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla.

In atmospheric conditions, he likened to Disneyland, Edwards drove his Interstate Batteries/IAmSecond.com Camaro to the quickest official run in Pro Stock history at Auto-Plus Raceway.

Edwards established a provisional national record with a 6.473 elapsed time to lead the sixteen-car field into Saturday. His 214.31 speed was also a Gainesville Raceway Pro Stock track record.

“The air is so good that you just have to ease off of that starting line,” explained Edwards. “These engines are aspirated and they breathe this good air in. They love this kind of weather. They make a lot of power and you just have to watch what you give them.”

The first session was so quick five cars dipped into the 6.40s. The bump spot was a 6.537 for the 12-car provisional program.

“It’s fun to come out and set records, but you have to take this one run at a time,” said Edwards. “Tomorrow is another day and you just hope you can come out and adapt to the conditions.”

And, while Saturday might be a tad bit warmer, Edwards believes there are gains waiting to happen, primarily during the morning session.

“I think tomorrow will be the session,” Edwards proclaimed, suggesting the session could yield a record.

Edwards stands strong on the belief his success is predicated by preparation meeting opportunity.

“It all goes back to working hard on our winter program,” said Edwards. “We have worked extremely hard, especially the guys back in the shop. I felt like we were really good towards the end of last season. We were making quality runs and now we have the new Camaro. The Interstate Batteries, IAmSecond.com Camaro is doing really good.”

OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW -Sometimes kicking a longtime love to the curb can be a painful experience. Recent Phoenix Pro Stock winner Erica Enders-Stevens showed a moment of joy with a love from the last few years and promptly pushed all of the passion aside. Business is business.

After two seasons of delivering solid results, the reliable Chevrolet Cobalt Enders-Stevens drove was finally traded in for a newer and hopefully better Chevrolet Camaro built in-house at Cagnazzi Racing.

A successful test session earlier this week in Bradenton made the decision to move forward easier to digest.

“The testing in Bradenton went really well,” said Enders-Stevens. “I love my Cobalt but this car is proving to be pretty good. It goes straight and handles well.”

The Camaro proved its worth in the Bradenton outing with a 6.47-second pass at 214.23 miles per hour on her last run.

“I’d say that is pretty stout,” Enders-Stevens pointed out.

Enders-Stevens’ Camaro is mounted on a new chassis developed by Cagnazzi Racing’s in-house fabricator Todd Bevis.

“Todd and the guys worked really hard at putting this cat together,” Enders-Stevens explained. “Todd builds all of his cars the same so it is similar to the Cobalt. The only major difference from a driver standpoint is the view. The hood comes into the windshield higher and the cowl sets before the hood scoop. That certainly takes away from your line of vision.

“It’s takes some getting used to and getting fitted in the cockpit where you are comfortable. You have to sit higher in the car but have to be careful to not get so higher where hour head is squished against the roll cage.”

Enders-Stevens said initially, she was a bit apprehensive about the new car.

“I was just in love with the Cobalt because of how good it was to me,” Enders-Stevens admitted, adding “This new car and I will get along just fine.”

This weekend, in addition to launching the new Chevrolet, Enders-Stevens is racing for a cause.

“We’ve teamed up with the American Heart Association and their Go Red for Women campaign, to bring awareness to heart disease being the number one killer of women,” said Enders-Stevens. “We just want to get the word out so people will go out and get checked today. I’m proud to be associated with them.”

NEW WHEELS - Extensive testing prior to Gainesville enabled Greg Anderson to hit the ground running with his new Jerry Haas Camaro. In the first qualifying session, Anderson ran a 6.493 at 212.03 mph, just two-hundredths off the national record set last year by Anderson's Summit Racing counterpart, Jason Line.

MORE POWER TO YA - Just .005 off of Mike Edwards' record-setting pace, defending series champion Allen Johnson was the No. 2 provisional qualifier with a 6.481 best.

NOT MORGAN'S DAY - Larry Morgan had a forgettable first day in Gainesville. The Pro Stock veteran lost traction and slid all over the track in two non-qualifying efforts.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE

SPRINGING FORWARD - Matt Smith has a fresh spring in his step.

And for the first time in two years or more, he said he thinks he genuinely and realistically has a shot at winning an NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle race.

If his 6.804-second elapsed time (at 197.28 mph) on the Auto-Plus Raceway quarter-mile at Gainesville, Fla., remains the quickest through two Saturday sessions at the Amalie Oil Gatornationals, he'll lead the field for the first time in 37 races. His last No. 1 start came in September 2010, at the Dallas event.

"I feel like I have an excellent chance to win," Smith, owner of a three-bike team that includes wife Angie Smith and Connecticut racer John Hall, said.

"I want this win. I wants the points lead leaving here," he said.

Smith never has been shy about expressing his confidence. But despite having confidence in his won abilities, Smith -- along with the rest of the season-debuting bike class -- have believed the Harley-Davidson team had the rules in their favor. Eddie Krawiec's and Andrew Hines' dominating performances for the Vance & Hines Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson team backed that up.

Last fall, the NHRA imposed new rules that hit the Harley-Davidsons harder than any other faction, and Krawiec and Hines have had to put their noses to the grindstone this winter to redesign their engines to comply.

And that doesn't bother Smith, who hasn't won since the June 2011 race at Englishtown, N.J., one little bit.

"They kicked everybody's butt last year. Like I stated over the winter, I wouldn't care if I wouldn't see them win a  race this year, because they won everything last year. Let some other people win," he said.

Smith said he knows full well the Harley-Davidson duo will be just as strong as always, once they get their new engine sorted out and get in the groove with the new rules. He didn't make too much Friday of Krawiec's teetering on the bubble overnight. Neither did he seem surprised that Hines was in the top five throughout both Friday qualifying sessions for the class' season opener.

"I don't think we got a leg up," Smith said, indicating he's simply tops for now.

"They got all the money in the world from Harley-Davidson and Vance & Hines. They had these Buell bikes for the last two years. They know what we have," he said. "So basically, all they had to do was design something better than what we had and they know they'd be good. So obviously they've done their homework and they're showing they're going to be strong right off the get-go."

He said thei new Vance & Hines motor, from his vantage, seems "more Buell-like" but said he'd "like to see one apart. From what I can tell, it still has side-by-side rods. It has the same bottom end as it had last year. They just changed the pistons and the heads and got pushrods in it."

Overall, Smith said, "We knew they'd be all right. I was hoping they'd struggle for awhile. All in all, they're going to be bad [as in 'really good']. They're going to be fast, but our Viper Motorsports team, Nitro Fish, and Red Line Oil, we're stacked right off the go."

This year he said, he and others will have a chance to challenge the Harley-Davidsons and their three-time series champions. He said this time the rules will allow competition.

"Absolutely. I think it's really going to be competitive," he said. "We've got a camshaft that we get to make just like the Harley-Davidsons. We haven't got that on the bike yet. That should give us another five horsepower." He said he just Friday got afirst lok at the renderings.

"It's going to be a fun year. I think the class has been very, very equal. If it is, it should be a lot like Pro Stock car, where you live and die by that starting line," Smith said.

If that's the case, he should do just fine, if Friday's runs were an indication. "I think I was triple-zero first run," Smith said of his reaction time. The second pass produced a .02-some thing.

Testing, he said, prepared him for the 197-mph speed he posted Friday.

"The Buells don't [traditionally] do that," he said, "but we did in preseason testing. And I knew we were going to be pretty fast. Three days ago we had a major headwind at Valdosta [at South Georgia Motorsports Park] and I went 194.80. So I knew it could be done, especially if we had no wind or a slight tailwind. I think we can go 198."

For reference, the track speed record, which Krawiec set in March 2011, is 199.26 mph.

(Krawiec's E.T. mark from lat year is 6.750 seconds.)

Smith said he can trace the performance improvement back to the work in the off-season.

"We worked hard all winter long, trying to get some new motors together," he said. "We made a big gain there at the end of the year with those last two races. [He was runner-up to Krawiec at the fall Las Vegas race, then reached the semifinals at Pomona in November.] We thought we were on the right direction, and we proved in testing we were in the right direction. We were the quickest and fastest bike testing."

Right now, all he needs to be is quickest by the end of Saturday qualifying.

SOVEREIGN-STAR TEAM SHINES EARLY IN BIKE CLASS - Michael Ray and Scotty Pollacheck applauded the NHRA rules changes for the Pro Stock Motorcycle class, along with Sovereign-Star Racing Team boss George Bryce.

And they showed their appreciation Friday at the Amalie Oil Gatornationals by rolling their Buells off the trailer and into the top half of the field as qualifying opened at Auto-Plus Raceway at Gainesville.

Oregonian Pollacheck, the returning rider from last season, rode to a first pass of the year at 6.871 seconds, 190.35 mph to take the tentative No. 4 spot in the order. Ray, the team's Texas-based newcomer, was No. 7 with a 6.915-second elapsed time at 193.90 mph.

The day closed with Ray in eighth place with a career-best 195.08-mph speed and an E.T. that was just three-thousandths short of his personal best (6.868 seconds). Pollacheck was ninth overnight with his Q1 numbers remaining his Friday best.

Two more sessions are scheduled for Saturday. Eliminations will begin Sunday morning.

With the Vance & Hines Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson duo of Eddie Krawiec and Andrew Hines locking up nearly every victory for more than a year, the NHRA handed down some mandates for 2013 aimed at making the class more of a level playing field. And Bryce was one of the advocates for such changes.

Pollacheck said he has a renewed sense of optimism.

"Last year, there wasn't a great deal of hope for most of the teams, because they pretty much knew the Harleys would be the fastest out there," Pollacheck said. Those guys are still going to be fast and competitive, but now everyone else will feel like they have a chance that they didn't have last year."

Ray was the lone non-Harley-Davidson rider to win a race in 13 tries, since the 2011 fall Las Vegas event. He earned the Wally trophy last Sept. 23 at Dallas. And he called the NHRA's move "probably the best thing to happen to Pro Stock Motorcycle in years. Our class had gone away from what has made it exciting in the past, which was watching great drivers go out there and win races."

Said Bryce, "I think it's going to make everybody a lot closer in performance, which was a goal of mine, personally. And I know that NHRA made the right decision this time.'

In preseason interviews, Krawiec said the Vance & Hines team, which also services and preps engines for many of its competitors, was working hard to get their own bikes ready for this 44th annual East Coast classic. He predicted the Harleys will take until mid-year to start flexing their muscles after adjusting to all the forced engineering changes.

And true to his forecast, his own bike wound up 15th after the first qualifying session, with a showing of 6.986 second and 185.72 mph, barely among the top 16, 15th among 21 entrants. Hines fared considerably better with a fifth-quickest pass early (at 6.885, 190.62).

In the second session, Hines improved to fourth place with a 6.836, 194.66. Krawiec, who has won this race the past three years, dropped to 16th, as his bike was pushed from the starting line after his burnout and he didn't get to make a pass.

Bryce surely was pleased to see this year start on a more offensive note, now that the team's year-old partnership with the Hungarian Sovereign Racing Team is operating seamlessly. That blending brought Bryce back into the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle arena after a three-year hiatus.

"The first difference between this year and last year is that we will be ready for the first race," Bryce had promised. He called the 2012 season, when John Hall (who races now with Matt Smith's team) was part of the picture, "such an unorganized blur of newness for us."

Bryce took responsibility and said, "We were very unprepared. This season, our drivers are top-10, seasoned racers instead of NHRA rookies. So, being prepared this year and having experienced drivers, we will see a much different looking team at the first race."

And he was right.

"My main goal this year is to finally win a race," Pollacheck said. "But my focus going into Gainesville is to get qualified, have a good time getting back into the swing of things and get used to making fast, straight, consistent laps."

Ray described his goals as "pretty standard – to win as many events and as many rounds as we can to set us up for the Countdown and then make a championship run in the Countdown. I'm trying to stay focused on winning as many rounds as I can, and we'll worry about the points when they stack up in Pomona."

During the winter, Sovereign-Star Racing bolstered its S&S Cycle V-Twin program while beginning its own Suzuki development program. Later this year it plans to introduce to NHRA fans 20-year-old rookie Chaz Kennedy as a potential third driver for a few races this year.

In 2011, Kennedy won three AMRA championships -- in Modified, Super Pro, and Super Gas -- and finished third in the Pro Gas standings. The Florida surfer from Ormond Beach, was the All-Harley Drag Racing Association's 2010 Sportsman Rookie of the Year. Along with his 2011 accolades, he set the AMRA Modified national E.T. record at 9.088 seconds in the quarter-mile and was named 2011 AMRA Racer of the Year

The 2013 Sovereign-Star Racing Team is a partnership between Georgia-based Star Racing and the Hungarian-based Sovereign Racing Team, the 2011 UEM European Pro Stock Bike Championship Team that's owned by sugar distributor Jenõ Rujp.

SWEET DEBUT - Granted, he was in just the second pairing of the day, but Adam Arana made his Pro Stock Motorcycle debut with the class' first six-second pass of the year. His 6.917-second, 193.77-mph effort on the ProtectTheHarvest.com / MAVTV Buell landed him in the top half of the field after the first qualifying session. His brother, "Little Hector" Arana, shot to the top of the order with a 6.831, 194.55, and their dad, Hector, was tentatively No. 2 at 6.832, 192.25. He ended his first day as a pro in 10th place. After his team had to scramble and restart his bike in the second session, Arana ran a slower 6.917, 193.77 that took him out of the groove.

STRUGGLING - Eddie Krawiec, the three-time defending race winner, warned long before the event that his bike would not be the class' dominant one, thanks to new NHRA rules that require total reconfiguration of the Harley-Davidson engine. "There's a lot of great bikes out there. All these motorcycles have at least 10 years of development work on it and we're coming into it fresh with none. It will be interesting to see how we stack up and see how competitive we are off the hit," he had said. Now he knows. He's 16th with two more qualifying sessions Saturday, and teammate Andrew Hines is fourth, behind provisional No. 1 Matt Smith and Hector Arana and son Hector Arana.
 BERRY GOOD START - If veteran Colorado racer Mike Berry stays No. 7 or moves up in the order on his MB Precision / LAT Oil Buell, he'll start eliminations from his best position in 15 races. He qualified sixth at Phoenix in the fall of 2011, 14 races ago. Berry ran a 6.860-second elapsed time, as did 2005 Gatornationals winner Steve Johnson, but Johnson got the provisional No. 6 slot by virtue of a better speed. Johnson clocked a 197.08-mph speed, Berry 195.17.
ON THE OUTSIDE -- Unable yet to crack the sweet 16 Friday were Jim Underdahl, Joe DeSantis [PICTURED], James Surber, Freddie Camarena, Redell Harris, and Michael Phillips. Phillips did not make a qualifying attempt in the opening session.
 

 PRO MODIFIED

Danny Rowe raced to the qualifying lead Friday in the NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series portion of the Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Auto-Plus Raceway at Gainesville.

Rowe paced the field with a performance of 5.852 seconds at 248.98 mph in the Sterling Bridge ’68 Camaro.

Pete Farber was second in his classic Dodge Daytona Superbird with a run of 5.963 at 246.17 and Rickie Smith was third in his late model Chevy Camaro with a 5.945 at 243.02.

Defending NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series world champion Troy Coughlin was sixth overall in his late model Corvette with a performance of 6.006 at 238.85.

One round of qualifying remains for the Pro Mod Series on Saturday (11:30 a.m.) and will be followed by the first round of eliminations (1:45 p.m.). The second round of eliminations for the wild doorslammer category will begin Sunday at approximately 2:30 p.m.

THURSDAY NOTEBOOK - GETTING READY FOR THE GATORS

LOOKING FOR MORE - Doug Kalitta is looking to erase the disappointment he had at Phoenix, and he could think of no better place to go than the Gatornationals, where he won in 2000 and 2005 and was No. 1 qualifier in 2003.
 
"I always look forward to the Gators," the Mac Tools Dragster driver said. "My Mac Tools guys, led by Jim O [Oberhofer] and Troy [Fasching] really have my car running well. I am looking forward to another great qualifying effort and hopefully four rounds on Sunday," Kalitta was top qualifier at Phoenix and was looking poised to make a strong run for his 33rd victory, but he lost in the opening round. He's seventh in the standings, just behind Kalitta Motorsports teammate Dave Grubnic.
 
"It’s one of our greatest races on the tour. It's like our Daytona 500," Grubnic, the 2006 winner, said. "It has a diversified fan base that comes from all over the country to enjoy watching NHRA drag racing at its best."
 
Grubnic also has led the Top Fuel field twice at the Gatornationals (in 2004 and '05).
 
"I was fortunate to win in Gainesville back in 2006. It was one of the greatest moments in my racing career," the Optima batteries Dragster driver said.. "The key to winning this event is the same for all of them -- and that's beating your opponent to the finish line with quickness and consistency. You have to make it to the final to win, of course, so getting by the early rounds is obviously imperative. It's all about consistency and going rounds on Sunday. The competition this year has been fierce and tough so far. Everybody is pushing the limits so close to the edge to keep up."

 
WANTS TO MAKE HISTORY - Brittany Force will get her third shot at becoming the first driver in 43 years to win an NHRA Top Fuel elimination round in a Ford-powered dragster. The last driver to do that was the late "Sneaky Pete" Robinson. He beat Bob Murray in the second round of the 1970 U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis. Force has qualified for her first two races but despite learning to pedal the car, she has lost out to Brandon Bernstein and Dave Grubnic. The last time she competed at Gainesville was in the entry-level Super Comp class.
BETTER TIMES COMING - Top Fuel fan favorite T.J. Zizzo failed to make the field at the season-opener at Pomona, Calif., after hauling his Peak Motor Oil Dragster all the way from Chicago. Or, as he preferred to remember it, "Pomona sucked!" The jovial Zizzo said, "I feel more comfortable going to Gainesville. We have worked on many items since Pomona. Hopefully our fuel system will be happy. Our first run of the weekend will give us information that we can use moving forward." Moreover, he's ready for some warmth -- and to get hot on the track and evening the pits. "It hasn't stopped snowing here [in Chicago] since we got back from Pomona," he said before leaving home. "The entire team is looking forward to some Florida sunshine. Peak's hospitality tent will be the fun place to be throughout race weekend at the Gatornationals." 

READY TO ROLL? - Robert Hight and Jimmy Prock, with the Auto Club Ford Mustang, have won more races than any Funny Car driver-tuner tandem in the past five seasons. And Hight, who has struggled just to qualify at both the Winternationals and Arizona Nationals and has only one round-win to show for both events, said, "We have not started out with the kind of success we were expecting after the off-season we put in. Jimmy Prock and my guys busted their butts all off-season and unfortunately we haven't seen the results yet. It is only two races but we are not going to get down. We are going to be ready for the Gatornationals.
 
"We won this race last year. We had some weather show up on Sunday so we had to win it on Monday. I would love to repeat and get the win on Sunday in front of one of those huge Gatornationals crowds. The Gatornationals is one of the races like Indy that you have to have on your resume as a winner. I got my win last season, and I would love to get another win in Gainesville this weekend."
 
This John Force Racing team -- the one that won the 2009 series crown -- is 10th in the standings heading into Race No. 3.
 
Hight has won at least two races every year of his career and steamrolled the competition with four consecutive victories toward the beginning of last season (becoming just the fifth driver in NHRA history to do so). But Hight said, "I want to dominate a whole season. There are still 22 races left, and the most important are the six that are in the Countdown. We moved up into the Top 10 last race, but we want to be up in that No. 1 spot."

COULD BE HIS LUCKY PLACE - Newly un-retired Del Worsham and firmly re-retired Kenny Bernstein are the only two to win the Gatornationals in both Top Fuel and Funny Car. "Gainesville is always one of those events you circle on the calendar," Southern California native Worsham said. "It's our first big event on the East Coast every year, and it's a race every driver wants a trophy from. Gainesville is one of those great race tracks that you can feel all of its history as soon as you walk through the gates." He might feel just a wee bit of pressure to earn his first round-win of the season in the DHL Toyota Camry. Then again, the last time he drove at this track, he won from the No. 1 spot in the Top Fuel class for the first triumph of his 2011 championship season. He won in Funny Car in 200, after finishing as runner-up to Gary Densham in 2003.
 
MAKING A SPLASH - According to Tim Wilkerson's public-relations rep Bob Wilber, the Springfield, Ill., Funny Car veteran's "yacht car" will make one last curtain call. Wilber said Wilkerson "would like nothing more than to give it a splashy send-off at this weekend's Amalie Oil Gatornationals. The car is, of course, Wilkerson's Shelby Mustang adorned with a design promoting Diversified Yacht Services (DYS), based in Fort Myers, Fla. It made its debut one year ago at this same event. It remained in the Team Wilk boatyard as a back-up body for the rest of the 2012 season, and will make one final appearance before going into dry dock for an update."
 
Diversified Yacht Services is a one of the premier yacht service and maintenance centers in the country and is owned by team sponsor ,Levi, Ray & Shoup President Dick Levi. DYS appeared on Wilkerson's Ford last year.
 
"When Dick came to us last year and asked us to run a Diversified car in Gainesville, we were happy to do it, and it was really popular with the fans down there," the team owner-driver said. "It was also a brand new body, and we never painted it before we wrapped it in vinyl, so it was also our lightest body. Once we left Gainesville, we got into a time-crunch situation and finally decided to just leave the wrap on the body and keep it as our back-up. It got on the track a few more times last year, and it's still the best body we own.
 
"When we came up with our new LRS paint scheme for this year, I assumed we'd just paint two bodies at once. But Dick looked ahead and asked us to run it with the wrap on it one more time, in Gainesville, and that's fine by us," he said. "With so many DYS people coming up to Gainesville for the race, you want them all to be excited and this is the way to do that. To cap it off by sailing that car right into the Winner's Circle would be the ultimate."
 
BIRTHDAY BOY WANTS TO SHOW OFF NEW GIFT - Greg Anderson turned 52 years old Thursday and said, "I don't like to make a big deal out of my birthday – you know I've had a few of these things already." But he does want to show off his new car. He'll unveil his new Summit Racing Chevy Camaro at Auto-Plus Raceway and said, "I'd sure like to give myself a belated birthday present with a win on Sunday. New toys always excite us, and I've got one.
 
"We've been out testing with the new car, and we're excited," he said. "We definitely learned a few things, and this new Summit Racing Chevy Camaro shows promise. What's even more exciting is that we have another new car coming. It won't be done until after the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals in Las Vegas next month, but we've built two new cars to go along with the two cars that we already have, and we're hoping for big things."
 
Acknowledging he and teammate Jason Line "haven't had a great start to the season, but this KB Racing team is getting closer to where we need to be. We made up a little bit of ground from the first race of the season in Pomona to the race a couple of weeks ago in Phoenix, and we're sure going to try to turn our season around in Gainesville this weekend. Hopefully, this car will be just what the doctor ordered for me."
 
Twice Anderson he has rewritten he national elapsed-time record, and twice he has won the race (in 2004 and 2007). He said he's ready to get back in that dominating groove.
 
"Obviously, I have to figure out how to stop knocking off work early on Sunday," he said. "Our Summit Racing team has had lots of success there in the past, but I haven't been able to close the deal the last two years, and it's time to change that. We love the facility. It's a Pro Stock-style racetrack with a very, very good racing surface. It's very smooth, and you always get good air conditions when you go down there. It's exactly what we in Pro Stock love to race on, so we look forward to going to Gainesville. The more you bring, the faster you can run. Heck, you can give it everything you've got there, and that formula has been good to us in the past. Hopefully, it continues to be."
 
UNDERDAHL HAS MORE BACKERS - Second-generation Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Jim Underdahl clocked his career-best elapsed time at the final event of last season (6.876 seconds) and is heading to the class season-opener where he recorded his best speed in 2011 (196.87 mph). And he's doing it with some fresh sponsorship. Suzuki Extended Protection is back as major sponsor of his motorcycle, and joining Kymco Scooters are the E-Z-Go Golf Cart Company and its partner business, Bad Boy Buggies. The 27-year-old Minnesota native has dad Greg tuning for him.
 
SUPER SUB - While Jerry Savoie recuperates from surgery to remove bone spurs from his neck, veteran rider Chip Ellis will take over the White Alligator Racing Suzuki for the first two bike races of the season. So Ellis, who has seven victories in 10 final rounds, will ride for his buddy also at the April 19-21 Dollar General Four-Wide Nationals at Charlotte.
 
Although Savoie engaged in a verbal jousting match with Vance & Hines stars Eddie Krawiec and Andrew Hines a couple of seasons ago, he forged an engine partnership with the Vance & Hines organization during the off-season. And Savoie said Ellis was an excellent choice, partly because "he has a lot of experience with the Vance & Hines product."
 
Crew chief Tim Kulungian, formerly Steve Johnson's tuner, said, "Bringing Chip over to ride with us for the first two races is just one of a lot of great things we have happening for Team WAR. We made big, positive changes over the off-season. We moved our race shop down from Indy to Birmingham, Ala., closer to Jerry's alligator farm, and we also decided to move in a new direction by partnering with Vance & Hines for an engine program. We are just thrilled with the possibilities that this partnership can provide. The resources that Vance & Hines has, and the level of service that they are able to provide, is unparalleled. This is a whole new era for this team, and we all see great things in our future."
 
Savoie said he's "feeling fine, and I'm definitely on the road to recovery. But the doctors recommended that I don't jump right back on the motorcycle. It's tough for me to sit still for too long, but I'm going to respect their wishes so that I can be 100 percent when it's time for me to get back on the bike. In the meantime, we feel that Chip was the right choice for us as a fill-in rider, and he's a friend of ours. I think he'll do a great job. We know he'll be an asset to our team, and we appreciate him coming on board for Gainesville and Charlotte."
 
With new rules aimed at class parity taking effect this weekend, Savoie said, "We've always wanted to be the fastest Suzuki out there. We've always believed it was possible, but now we have a better shot at it than ever before."
 
And he said he's eager to get on the bike and prove that himself. "To say that I'm looking forward to the season and getting back on my White Alligator Racing Suzuki is a huge understatement. I can't wait," he said.