(Chris Haverly photo)

Steve Torrence repeated as Top Fuel champion at the NHRA Virginia Nationals Sunday, May 19, and, in so doing, became just the ninth driver in history to win as many as 30 tour events in the category.

The 36-year-old Texan got past Todd Paton and Scott Palmer and then beat his dad, Billy, in the semifinals before edging close friend and arch rival Antron Brown 3.881/319.22 to 3.899/309 in the final. Brown’s dragster had the lead until about 800 feet but then dropped a cylinder and Torrence drove by for the win.

“They gave me the best race car of the day,” Torrence said of his “Capco boys” team. “We were the guys that went down the racetrack four times in a row. All I had to do was not run over anything or anybody. They gave me the best car. Richard Hogan, Bobby Lagana, they make the right calls when the pressure’s on, when the heat is on. The racetrack was 140 degrees at one time, but we found a way to get down through there.”

After a slow start to the season, Ron Capps got his second consecutive victory and jumped to third in the Funny Car points standings. It was the 62nd Funny Car win for Capps and the first at Virginia Motorsports Park.

Capps was the only Funny Car driver to dip into the three-second range turning in a 3.997 ET against first-round opponent Jim Campbell, who smoked the tires.

Capps then came out on top of a pedalfest with current point leader Robert Hight (near lane), only to meet teammate Tommy Johnson Jr., where both cars had trouble. Capps lost a cylinder while Johnson went up in smoke and never recovered. (Ron Lewis photo)

continues below...

Butner got the best of Anderson by just .005-second for his fourth Pro Stock trophy of the year. Anderson was off the starting line first in the red Summit Racing Chevrolet Camaro, .049 to his friendly opponent's .052, but at the stripe it was Butner with the win, 6.559 seconds at 209.01 mph to 6.607, 210.18. Butner's pass was low elapsed time of raceday, and Anderson's was top speed of the day.  (Chris Haverly photo)

Butner, who now has four wins in the season, maintains a considerable lead of almost 200 points (545 to 358) over second-place Alex Laughlin.

Andrew Hines (far lane), the No. 1 qualifier, earned his third straight Pro Stock Motorcycle victory, fourth overall of 2019 and 52nd in his career after going 6.845 at 195.68 on his Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson Street Rod to defeat teammate Eddie Krawiec (6.858/196.44) in the final round. (Chris Haverly photo)

The last Pro Stock Motorcycle rider to win four of the first five events to start the season was Hines’ brother, Matt Hines, in 1998.

“We have developed a very good hot weather tune up for our Street Rods and that’s saying a lot,” Hines said. “We typically tend to not look forward to the middle of the season because that’s where our performance tends to fall off and people make up ground on us. Today we were able to take what we’ve learned the last couple of weeks between Charlotte when it got hot and Atlanta when it was really hot. We don’t ever go up there (the starting line) with the same tune up, ever. It was a little bit of picking on it here and there which has led to us finding the window where we need to be.”

The category points leader defeated Jiana Salinas, Ryan Oehler and defending world champion Matt Smith to reach the final round. Krawiec took down Kelly Clontz, Karen Stoffer and Hector Arana Jr. en route to his 25th final round against Hines.   [05/20/19]

A note attached to a discarded Taco Bell Breakfast Crunchwrap receipt was left in the mayo jar of the Phlegm Building along with a couple of photos showing former nitro tuner Tim Ferrell. Ferrell was spotted this weekend at Kil-Kare Raceway in Xenia, Ohio, helping tune the blown Ford Mustang Pro Mod of Boyd Beyer.

Ferrell, along with the Beyer Trailer Sales crew, were in good company as No Prep Street Outlaw Stars “Daddy Dave” Comstock, Joe “Dominator” Woods and Dean “Stinky Pinky“ Karns were in attendance to a packed house Saturday at  The Judgment Day race at Kil-Kare.  (Martin Claridy – Live Fast Images)   [05/20/19]