Driving the Gumout "Solid Gold" Top Fuel dragster for Dote Racing, LEAH Pritchett was matched up against longtime rival and former NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel champion Shawn Langdon in the first race down the Summit Motorsports Park track surface Sunday morning.

The two drivers had competed against each other dating back to their Junior Dragster days in the Southern California competition in the 1990s. But Sunday, Pritchett, who qualified tenth, and Langdon, who qualified seventh, recorded the closest race of final eliminations.

Pritchett, runner-up earlier this year at the Southern Nationals, posted her best time of the weekend with 3.790 seconds at 324.05 miles per hour to Langdon's 3.794 at 318.09. But Shawn's reaction time of .055 to Leah's .060 seconds made up the difference, by inches, to advance to the quarter-finals.

"The Top Fuel category is stout to say the least, but running against Shawn and the entire AJR team first round and first pair out in the 'new' track and air conditions for the weekend, required us to bring an A-plus game," said Pritchett, who'll compete next week in the Route 66 Nationals at Joliet, Ill. "The Dote Racing team delivered, with technically a faster car than Shawn's. Drag racing is a numbers game and, with Shawn beating me off the line by .005 (.055 to .060) the margin of victory at the stripe was .001."

FUNNY CAR

Crew chief Jimmy Prock and the Infinite Hero team have transformed driver Jack Beckman and their 2015 Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car into a forceful wrecking machine Sunday when it won for the third time this year and moved up two spots to No. 3 in points by winning at Norwalk.

Beckman's third title of the season equals the most he has won in one season. But this victory was special because of Prock's dismissal from John Force Racing late last year that enabled him to join DSR.