Pete Bothe won his fifth Southern California Pro Gas Association series championship while Kevin Houmard earned his first SoCal Super Street Association title at the season-ending event at Auto Club Dragway. The doubleheader weekend (Sept. 14 and 15) saw Mike Wiblishouser and Bothe win in Pro Gas, while Dave Gotts and Mike Blodgett Sr. won in Super Street.

Pete Bothe (far lane) and Greg Martin squared off in the final round of the last Southern California Pro Gas Assoc., event of 2019 with not only the event title at stake, but the series championship. Bothe -- possibly the most successful Pro Gas racer in the associations 41-year history -- took the win and his unprecedented fifth championship. Martin lost in the final with a .002 redlight and finished the season in second place. Dan Broguire sponsored the event.

Saturday’s race was won by Mike Wiblishouser, defeating Mike Lang in the final round.

The annual Pro Gas Shootout was won by Steve Parsons (near lane), as he defeated ’18 Shootout champion Randy Kersey.

Kevin Houmard had a comfortable point lead going into the final weekend of the Super Street season, but after dominating a Summit ET Series the previous week with Pro ET wins both days and the Summit track championship with his ’70 Camaro, he had valvetrain problems on his first qualifying pass at the Super Street race forcing him to use another car and winning only one round over the final two races. Houmard won the series title with Mike Boner second and Kenny Snow third.

Dave Gotts had a great weekend with his ’67 Camaro, winning the Able Wire EDM-sponsored ninth race of the year by defeating Dennis Blehm in the final on Saturday, and then winning the Super Street Shootout on Sunday with a final round win over Fred Murphy.

The series final, sponsored by RPM Racing, was won by Mike Blodgett Sr. (near lane), defeating Craig Whelen.  (Bob Johnson photos)   [09/19/19]

The first big prize of the Sparco Fall Fling 500K weekend began with a single time trial, the only one for all competitors. For the rest of the weekend all competitors go directly to eliminations each day to help move along the racing program. This year Fling co-promoters Peter Biondo and Kyle Seipel chose to limit the event to single entries only, with no double-entering of drivers/cars.

On Wednesday at Bristol, Tim Thomas met Shawn Langdon in the ninth and final round of competition. Langdon was first off the line, but Thomas (shown) laid down a .016 package to take the trophy and $30K.  [09/19/19]

The JEGS NHRA SPORTSnationals kicks off Friday at National Trail Raceway outside of Columbus, Ohio. The event returns to the home track for the JEGS Mail Order team for the first time since 2015, for three days of racing action on Sept. 20-22.

Super Stock, Stock, Super Gas, Super Street, and Super Comp along with Top Dragster, Top Sportsman, Comp Eliminator, and Sportsman Motorcycle will compete throughout the weekend.

National Trail Raceway has been in operation since 1964, and with new ownership and management, the facility has undergone multiple improvements over the past two years.  [09/19/19]