Throughout the course of the day, Anderson’s Pontiac was among the very best of the “factory hot rods”, with times and speeds among the best in each round.  After being the recipient of Stanfield’s red-light in the opening stanza, the three-time champion used a combination of lightning quick reaction times and strong runs to trailer Brogdon and Edwards, accomplishing the latter on a hole shot.  This propelled him into the 91st final round of his career, third of the season and third at the Kent quarter-mile, where he would square off against the veteran Gray, a performance he attributes to his team’s rediscovered chemistry, thanks to the addition of one element.

“It’s amazing what one change can do to a team,” said Anderson. “We brought in Tommy Utt, who helped us to get our heads back in the game.  We had all the ingredients, all the resources, all the right people, and just weren’t using them properly.  He came in and calmed us down, helping us make better decisions. As soon as we did that, our Summit Racing Pontiacs started working better, and we kept chipping away at it, getting closer to running the way we are capable of.  Both he and Rob Downing are absolutely in sync right now, making great decisions and giving me a car that is a pleasure to drive.  It’s just a blast to have him on board.” 

In the midst of his celebration, however, Anderson also wanted to take time and acknowledge the loss of a fellow racer, Top Alcohol Dragster driver Mark Niver, who perished in an on-track incident on Sunday. 

“Even with our success, it really has not been a great day,” said Anderson.  “I didn’t even realize what had happened until about a half hour later, and then I found out it was Mark Niver, who I have known forever.   He was a great engineer and a great fabricator who did everything himself, and stayed at it until he won this event two years ago.  I was so proud of him at the time, because I knew the struggle he had gone through doing it on his own.  He’s the type of person our sport was founded upon, and his loss just left a big hole in my heart.”

Having won consecutive races for the first time since 2008, the resurgent Anderson is now eager for a return to competition.  With this event marking the start of the NHRA’s traditional Western Swing, he will not have to wait long, as the straight-line set will convene five days from now for their next race in Sonoma, CA.

“It just feels great feeling to have a chance to go out and win a race,” said Anderson. “I really haven’t felt this way in three or four years. It’s pretty cool to be the only Pro Stock driver with a chance to sweep this year’s Western Swing. I was fortunate enough to do it back in 2004. It is a tremendous accomplishment with as different as these three tracks are."
(Jon Knapp)

Johnny Gray and his NTB, National Tire and Battery Pro Stock. Gray earned his career best qualifying spot and powered his way to his first final-round appearance of the season and third of his Pro Stock career. And through this great performance, he moved into the Top 10 in points.

In an unfortunate turn of events, fellow racer, Top Alcohol Dragster driver Mark Niver suffered fatal injuries in a top end accident. The tragedy cast a sad shadow over the day and tempered everyone’s excitement but the show went on just as Niver would have expected.

Gray’s NTB Pontiac GXP was a tough hot rod. In the first-round he took out Larry Morgan with a 6.628 at 208.91 mph over Morgan’s 6.660. His second round opponent was Ron Krisher. Gray put him away with a 6.655 at 209.10 mph. In the semifinal round he took on Kurt Johnson. Gray sent Johnson to the trailer with a 6.627 at 209.43 mph over Johnson’s 6.650. Then as the sun began to glare down the race track into the driver’s eyes, Gray faced Greg Anderson in his first final of the year. Gray had his slowest reaction time of the day and Anderson left on him and never looked back. Gray made another good run of 6.626 at 209.43 mph but didn’t have enough in his NTB car to hold off Anderson’s charge of 6.599.

“We made good runs today,” said Gray. “We looked like we had things kind of going our way and then with the tragedy that happened with Mark Niver the time for the final-round got pushed way back. To make a long story short, by the end of the day when I started to stage the car, I was looking straight into the sun and I really couldn’t tell where I was. So then I was dead late leaving, the front of the car came up and now my shift light is pointed right in the sun. So, then I pulled it into second gear and it sounded like it was burning the clutch out of it. So, I went and put it into third gear and that just made it worse. So, that last run was sort of a cluster for us and Greg made a good run.

“All in all we had a great day. We went some rounds and got some points and moved up into the Top 10. That was our intention, to just try to be consistent, make good runs and be sure to get the NTB car in the Top 10.”
(Joanne Dawson)

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