It’s been over a year since Jack Beckman won an NHRA event, but he did so on Sunday, Sept. 15, beating John Force in the final and taking over the Mello Yello Series points lead. Beckman has been the runner-up four times in 2019 but it was his 3.958-second pass at 330.07 that gave him the holeshot win over Force’s quicker 3.952. Force moved to second in the points.

Richie Crampton was a surprise winner in Top Fuel, getting the better of teammate Doug Kalitta who was looking for his second win in a row. Kalitta has the points lead, however as Steve Torrence was defeated by Clay Millican in the first round, and Crampton moved up to the No. 5 spot.

Jason Line notched career win No. 50, defeating Fernando Cuadra, who was in his first Pro Stock final round. Line took over the points lead from Bo Butner, whom he defeated in the second round. Jerry Savoie got his second consecutive win, this time against Steve Johnson, who was having a breakout day. Johnson’s most satisfying win of the day was in the semifinal when he knocked Matt Smith out of competition. Savoie takes the Pro Stock Motorcycle points lead into the second event of the Countdown.  (Ron Lewis photo)  [09/16/19]

Friday at the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series event in Reading, PA, Brittany Force set a new NHRA world record for elapsed time in the Top Fuel Dragster class of 3.623 seconds.

On Sunday, in the second round, Force dropped a cylinder before the finish line and had an engine explosion but held on for the win at 3.784 seconds and 306.79 mph while Clay Millican had to shut off early for a 3.927 pass at 266.42. Force’s race day came to an unfortunate end when she had to shut the Advance Auto Parts dragster off at the finish line after crew chiefs David Grubnic and Mac Savage noticed a fuel leak.

“It was leaking up at the manifold. It was through a jumper line we have on our fuel rail and the leak was bad enough that it would have ended up pulling in front of the rear tire. It wasn’t safe to run the car so we shut the car off,” Grubnic explained.

Ron Capps set new track records for ET (3.837 seconds) and top speed (339.28 mph) in the Funny Car class. On Sunday Capps got past Mike McIntire and DSR teammate Matt Hagan only to fall to John Force in the semifinal. (Ron Lewis photo)  [09/16/19]

The Agent was reading the promo for the new “NHRA Prime Time” the sanctioning body has recently started to add some excitement to Friday night qualifying during the Countdown. Looking at the schedule for the upcoming race at St. Louis, unless the fans take off from work early, they will not have a lot of time to watch racing.

The second round of Pro Mod qualifying starts at 5:15 p.m. followed by Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle at 6 p.m. The NHRA Prime Time starts at 6:45 p.m. with Top Fuel and Funny Car qualifying – and the track closes at 7:45! A quick check of prices shows the cheapest Friday GA ticket is $15.00. Hmm....   [09/16/19]

Muncie Dragway edged home track and defending champions US 131 Motorsports Park to win the IHRA Division 5 (Thunder) Summit Team Finals. Muncie, which had finished runner-up to US 131 the previous two years, took an 80-76 win over the Division 5 hosts. Other tracks who participated were: Bunker Hill Dragstrip, Grand Bend Motorplex, Great Lakes Dragaway, Marion County International Raceway, Mid-Michigan Motorplex, Osecola Dragway, St. Thomas Raceway Park, Ubly Dragstrip, US 41 Motorplex and Wisconsin International Raceway.

Top: Wes May (Muncie) def. Steve Riggins (Muncie) redlight

Mod: Jim Sebring (US 131) .020 RT, 5.80 dial, 5.801, 113.78 def. Mark Howard (US 131), .037 RT, 6.16 dial, 6.148, 114.30

Street: Ken Hansen (Mid-Michigan), .040 RT, 8.70 dial, 8.716, 73.25 def. Brad Talbot (Grand Bend) .026 RT, 7.72 dial, 7.77, 85 mph

Jr. Dragster: Connor Jensen (US 131) .093 RT, 7.93 dial, 7.963, 80.34 def. Arnold Fox (Grand Bend), .110 RT, 8.04 dial, 8.085, 78.25

Team Captains Race: Steve Keys (US 131) .191 RT, 9.03 dial, 9.04 def. Ashley Finney (Osceloa) .129 RT, 10.59 dial, 10.648   [09/16/19]

Great Lakes Dragaway has been named the IHRA Division 5 (Thunder) Track of the Year. First opened in 1955, the historic Union Grove, Wisconsin, track has long been a destination track, promoted for many years by the legendary “Broadway Bob” Metzler.

The 2018 track champions are Chris Burden (Top), Alex Olessenski (Mod) and Kyla Feit, who went on to become the IHRA Summit SuperSeries Jr. Dragster World Champion.

Member track South Carolina Motorplex has been named IHRA Division 9 (Raiders) Track of the Year. The Neeces, SC, track is owned by Jeff Biegun. South Carolina Motorplex 2019 IHRA Summit SuperSeries are Shelby Miles (Top), Kadi Brant (Mod), Dustin Carroll (Street) and Madalin Simmons (Junior).   [09/16/19]

The limited field of 385 spots sold out in less than three minutes when pre-entries for this week’s Sparco Fall Fling 500K at Tennessee’s Bristol Dragway opened last May.

“Because 2019 will be the tenth anniversary of our brand in Bristol,” said co-promoter Peter Biondo, “we wanted to do something really special. Kyle (Seipel) and I had been brainstorming back and forth since late 2017. We could have done so many things, but the racers have supported us behind belief and we just wanted to do something very special for our customers. And there was no better time or place to do this than where it all started, Bristol Dragway. This will certainly be huge in our sport, taking it to a whole new level. Five hundred thousand dollars to win and a guaranteed payout!”

Racing begins on Tuesday, Sept. 17 and continues through the weekend.   [09/16/19]

Holley has expanded their plug-and-play Terminator X and Terminator X Max EFI systems - which feature self-learning fuel strategies and offer complete control of your LS engine at a budget-friendly price. Now available are Terminator X systems for LS1 engines with EV6 injectors, LS2/LS3s systems for late-model trucks, and Terminator X Max systems for numerous drive-by-wire/multi-point-fuel-injection applications with electronic transmission control.  [09/16/19]