Pat Stoken was one of 28 Pro Nitrous cars on Friday
evening at the ADRL Ohio Drags, literally. The Eureka, Mt.-based driver
drove his Gene Fulton-powered, 1968 Camaro to the No. 1 position after
three sessions by running a 3.903, 191.16 at National Trail raceway in
Columbus, Ohio.

“It felt really good and smooth,” said Stoken, following his third
qualifying session on Friday. “I've really got to thank the people
that's been helping Jim Halsey and Patrick and Eric, that whole crew
over there they've been really great helping us. It was a great pass
there's no doubt about it. We shook a little bit in second gear. It's
got a little more in it.”

Tim Wilkerson punched his playoff ticket by making his first qualifying
lap in Reading, earning the 10 points that come with an official lap in
competition. That was the good news.

Unfortunately, he would've liked to have made a bigger splash in the
Funny Car pool (no pun intended, after a rainy day in Reading) but his
car bent an exhaust valve and he was forced to abort his run. His 6.886
was the 15th quickest time of the day. An iffy forecast for Saturday
may possibly create a scenario in which his lone Friday run could be
used for placement in the field.

The location has changed, from the wilds of north central Minnesota to the wilds of the southeast of

Dave DeAngelis

Pennsylvania but the guy on top is still the same.

Hector Arana picked up at Maple Grove where he left off in Brainerd – on top.

Fearful of the track conditions, but confident in the track prep, Arana
cut a 6.98 lap to lead Pro Stock Motorcycle qualifying at the NHRA Toyo
Tires Nationals.

Even when Chuck Ulsch struggles, he still flies.

The recent Mickey Thompson Tires Extreme 10.5 3-Second Club inductee
didn’t reproduce his torrid pace from two weeks ago in St. Louis, but
his 4.032 was more than enough to put Gil Mobley’s Camaro atop the
field at the ADRL Ohio Drags in Columbus, Ohio.

The performances of the provisional number-one qualifiers for the
National Guard ADRL Summit Racing Equipment Ohio Drags III in Hebron,
Ohio, put to rest any concerns that some racers expressed over track
conditions at National Trail Raceway.

Frankie Taylor of Dickinson, Texas, blistered the National Trail eighth
mile in 3.74 seconds at 202.52 miles per hour with his supercharged
2005 Corvette to lead 26 teams in the Pro Extreme class, while Eureka,
Montana’s Pat Stoken ran a career-best 3.90 at 191.16 mph with his ’68
Camaro to finish on top of 28 Pro Nitrous entries after three rounds of
qualifying on Friday.

In Flowmaster Extreme 10.5 action, Maryland racer Chuck Ulsch continued
his recent domination of the class with a very strong 4.03 at 195.53
mph in a supercharged ’68 Camaro, while points leader and Ohio native
Brian Gahm drove his ’07 Mustang to the provisional pole in Extreme Pro
Stock with a solid 4.14 blast at 173.92 mph. Up on two wheels, Macon,
Georgia’s Lance Hines leads 22 Pro Extreme Motorcycle riders with a
solid 4.22-seconds pass at 169.30 mph aboard his 2009 Suzuki.

Mike Edwards is like the old song from the south – he just keeps rolling along.

Despite less than ideal conditions for the Pro Stockers, Edwards put
his horsepower to work to claim the top spot in the lone qualifying
session at the NHRA Toyo Tires Nationals hosted by Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa.

“Well anytime you're in a day like today and you're just trying to, you
never know what the weather's going to do, so you're just trying to go
down the race track,” said Edwards. “We made another nice decision,
stick with our game plan when we came up here from the trailer and made
a nice run. It's unfortunate for other cars that didn't get down, but
hopefully tomorrow it'll be better and every body will get a couple of
chances at the race track and then it will all be good on Sunday.”

Frankie Taylor described his semi-finals eliminations exit two weekends ago in St. Louis as the one that got away. Friday evening in Columbus, he was fishing again and the big one didn't get away.

Taylor, of Dickinson, Texas, took the Pro Extreme top spot with a 3.749 at 202.52 during the ADRL Ohio Drags.

It rained most of the day at Maple Grove Speedway however the storm clouds held off just long
enough for one qualifying session and Ashley Force Hood made the best
of that session by posting the quickest lap and speed of the NHRA Toyo Tires Nationals, an
4.114 second run at a top speed of 301.47 mph.

“It's just a great feeling to get down the first session for so many
different reasons, but mainly this weekend I think because you do have
that weather hanging over your head and you want to get a strong run in
just in case you don't get another run,” said Force Hood. “We were very
happy with that run, you know I don't know what my crew chiefs were
going after but they were very pleased with it as well.”

Several pairs prior to Force Hood's run, her brother in law – Robert
Hight – driving the chassis normally driven by John Force rocketed to
the top spot with an impressive 4.137 second pass at 293.66 mph.

Dickie Venables has remained silent through the recent parting of ways
with former employer Tony Pedregon for a reason. He’s not one who
prefers to get dirty slinging mud and considers himself a no-BS person
who refuses to deal in rumors, gossip and innuendo.

Today he’s decided to tell his side of the story. He’s won’t sling mud
because, in his words, there isn’t any mud to sling. According to
Venables, there is nothing more to the story than two friends, in a
working relationship, who didn’t agree on the way a situation was
handled.

“I was called into the office the first of last week and Tony informed
me that he was releasing Kurt Elliot,” Venables said Friday morning in
a telephone interview. “Out of respect for Tony and I am not going to
get into the reasons for that, that [Elliot] was my assistant crew
chief, my right hand man, he was my second set of eyes and hands … a
very important person.

Morgan Lucas raced again to the Top Fuel qualifying lead Friday at the Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway.

Ashley Force Hood, Mike Edwards and Hector Arana also were qualifying
leaders in their classes at the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series
event, the 17th of 18 races in the NHRA regular season.

Morgan Lucas powered his GEICO Powersports/Lucas Oil dragster to a
3.867 second run at 307.37 mph to lead the field.  Lucas just came off
the second win of his career at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals.  If the
time stands through tomorrow’s qualifying, it will be Lucas’ second
consecutive No. 1 qualifying position and third of the season.