The track gets cleaned up after Hight’s explosion and then hitting the wall. Notice that the car’s flying body parts took out the right side of the Jumbotron frame.  (Jeff Burk photos)

Robert Hight and the AAA Missouri Chevrolet Camaro Funny Car team led the championship chase after winning the AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals Sunday at Gateway Motorsports Park. Hight is now 30 points ahead of the rest of the Funny Car pack with his third win of the season and 44th of his career. It is Hight’s 10th Countdown race win and 90th Countdown round win, both are tops in the Funny Car category.

While racing Tim Wilkerson in the final round, Hight crossed the finish line first but soon after his Chevy Camaro suffered an engine explosion, blasting the body off the car, and made contact with the retaining wall. Hight got the win in 4.036 seconds at 276.29 mph to Wilkerson’s 4.413 at 201.91 and walked away from the wreckage to be transported to a local hospital for further evaluation.

“First, we are happy Robert is okay. He went to a local hospital to be checked out and after being x-rayed and evaluated he was scheduled to be released tonight,” said team owner John Force on Sunday. “I’m glad Robert has the points lead and now we are going to rest and get ready for Dallas.”   [09/24/18]

Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag Pak driver Leah Pritchett continued to own the Factory Stock Showdown class, celebrating her second consecutive event win one day after becoming first in the class to run in the seven-second range during the AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals at Gateway Motorsports Park near St. Louis.

The double-duty driver made history during Factory Stock Showdown qualifying on Saturday, shrugging off a recent decision by the NHRA to effectively slap a 50-lb. weight handicap on all Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag Pak vehicles to post a 7.936-second E.T. and become the first NHRA driver in the class to make a hit in the seven-second range.

Despite owning a new entry in the NHRA record books, Pritchett would wrap up qualifying No. 2 after her teammate Mark Pawuk ran even lower with a 7.929 E.T. to earn the pole. It marked the third consecutive event at which the Mopar brand’s modern-day package car, the supercharged, 354-cubic-inch HEMI®-engine-powered Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag Pak, earned the top two spots on the qualifying charts.

Pritchett, winner and No. 1 qualifier at the most recent NHRA Factory Stock Showdown event at the NHRA U.S. Nationals earlier this month, kept the seven-second train rolling with a 7.948 pass at 172.70-mph to defeat former NHRA Pro Stock racer Allen Johnson in the opening round. She used an 8.031-second pass to send home Pete Gasko Jr. in the quarterfinals and then knocked out Arthur Kohn in the semifinals with an 8.011 E.T.

In the final, Pritchett (far lane) nudged up near the seven-second range in an easy defeat of Stephen Bell, who knocked out her teammate Pawuk in round two, unleashing her Kevin Helms-tuned Drag Pak with a blistering 8.001 ET to claim victory after Bell experienced problems early. (Jeff Burk photo)

"Incredible weekend by the ‘el Bandito’ team with Mopar," said Pritchett who moved up to the No. 2 spot in the FSXX standings. "We carried that momentum from the U.S. Nationals without a hiccup. That extra 25-pounds didn't seem to faze this Mopar power. I'm not saying it was easy by any means. We put it to it every single round and that's extremely impressive and a testament to the durability of the race cars, the powerplant and the people that Schumacher has put in place to run this program.

"We are in a fantastic spot, second place in the points. It's like Christmas Eve going into these last races. I really wouldn't want a different perspective. We have a little bit of freshening up to do but overall this has been an incredible weekend of just straight teamwork all the way around, and the Mopar power just continues to show through and we continue to want to show up."

The win was the fourth consecutive in Factory Stock Showdown by a Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag Pak driver, dating back to the NHRA Bristol event in June.   [09/24/18]

(Jeff Burk photo)

At the AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals and the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, David Rampy claimed victory and took home is his 99th NHRA national event win this weekend at Gateway Motorsports Park.

Rampy, Piedmont, Ala., worked his way through the field and ran 7.240 seconds at 166.13 mph in his final round victory over Allen Wilson, Kokomo, Ind., who clocked in at 8.238 seconds, 163.75 mph. Wilson took the starting line advantage off the line but could not hold off Rampy, giving Rampy win number 99 at the national level.

Drew Skillman was pulling double duty this weekend and nearly pulled off the double as he advanced to the final round in both Stock and Pro Stock. Skillman took the holeshot in Stock against Daryl Bureski and held on for the win in a double breakout for his 15th career win. He then faced off with Tanner Gray in Pro Stock with Gray taking the win and ending Skillman’s hopes a double. (Jeff Burk photo)

SUPER STOCK: Greg Stanfield, Chevy Camaro, 9.937, 130.63 def. Brad Zaskowski, Camaro, 10.075, 120.20. (Ron Lewis photo)

SUPER COMP: Rick Hughes, Dragster, 8.921, 161.40 def. Don Higgins, Dragster, 8.884, 166.05.

SUPER GAS: Tim Nicholson, Chevy Camaro, 9.904, 101.97 def. Mitch Withers, Chevy Corvette, 9.856, 149.48.

TOP DRAGSTER: Jenifer White, Dragster, 6.164, 209.36 def. Afton Swanson, Dragster, 6.104, 226.85.

TOP SPORTSMAN: Glenn Butcher, Chevy Camaro, 6.534, 203.68 def. Bill Yates Sr., Camaro, 6.717, 209.85.   [09/24/18]

On Friday, Sept. 21, for the second day in a row at Bristol’s Fall Fling, the previous day’s winner was beaten in the first round the next day, having to visit the “Divas Help Desk” in order to buyback into eliminations. Thursday’s winner, Jeff “Slushy” Burns, must have hit his slushy machine a little hard last night as in the first round Friday morning Michael Davis defeated Burns and earned himself the Bounty Award, a set of Lindsay Racing Products front wheels.

At the round of nine left were Wednesday winner Rocky Pintavalle, Seth Phillips, one of the “voices of the Fling” and a former Fling winner Jared Pennington, Sugar Shane Carr, former NHRA world champ Kevin Brannon, second generation hitter Wes Seigel, G-Dub Gary Williams, Jamie Holston and John Brown -- definitely a who’s-who of hitters.

In that round, Wednesday’s winner Pintavalle rolled on defeating Pennington with a perfect .000 reaction time which earned him the bye run the next round. The remaining survivors were Carr, Siegel, Williams and Brown. While Pintavalle rolled through by virtue of the bye, Seigel took out Williams and Carr survived a double red-light with Brown. Semifinals had Seigel on the bye and door car versus dragster in Pintavalle and Carr for the right to face Seigel for $50,000.

Semifinals and Pintavalle with his all-Mopar Duster, complete with a three-speed Torqueflite transmission (certainly an oddity in this field) had the reaction time advantage over Carr and survived a double breakout affair to move him to his second final of the week against Seigel.

In the final, once again Pintavalle had the reaction time advantage over Seigel and carried it through to what just might be the biggest win of his career. When the stunned Pintavalle exited his car in the winner’s circle, about all he could say was, “I’m exhausted,” but certainly $50K richer.

On the final day of the event, the precedent was followed as the previous day’s winner (Rocky Pintaville) was beaten in the first round.

At the ladder round, it was Randy Biddle, Leon Robertson, Tommy Plott, Jeff Serra, Jeremy York, Corey Manuel, Sherman Adcock, Gary Ingold and Cameron Manuel. Going into the quarterfinals it was Plott against Robertson with Robertson coming out on top; York and Manuel with York getting the nod while Serra took the bye run.

For the semifinals, a runner-up at the Fall Fling last year, York will be looking to take it one step further with the bye run to advance to the finals. The two remaining door cars of Robertson and Serra went at each other with Robertson taking the reaction time advantage and the double break-out win to face York in the final.

As for York, it was the year of redemption, completing what he started last year with a runner-up finish, taking it one step further with the win after Robertson turned on the red-light by -.007, which wraps up another year of Fling racing.   [09/2418]