Billy Torrence (far lane) beat No. 1 qualifier and track record holder Brittany Force in the semi. (Ron Lewis photo)

Billy Torrence won for the second time in the current Countdown to the Championship, for the fourth time this season and for the first time at the Texas Motorplex and, in so doing, took some of the sting out of son Steve’s loss in the opening round of the 34th annual AAA Texas FallNationals.

The 61-year-old Texan drove his Capco Contractors Top Fuel dragster past the similar machine of rookie Jordan Vandergriff in a somewhat bizarre final. Vandergriff has a huge lead off the line, but then his machine lost power and Torrence surged ahead for the win.

As a result, the founder and CEO of Capco, a Texas-based oil-and-gas pipeline and maintenance company, improved his record to a Countdown best 9-2 and moved from sixth to fourth in points after starting from the No. 10 position and helped protect his son’s points leads.

Matt Hagan’s plan to put himself solidly back into contention came together perfectly from behind the wheel of the Western Technical College/MOPAR CAP Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody when he knocked out three Countdown competitors to win the 34th running of the Ennis, TX, event. This was the first NHRA win for the 2020 SRT Hellcat Widebody Funny Car.  (Ron Lewis photo)

The route to Hagan’s fifth final of 2019 was loaded with stout competition. He started his day from the sixth position on the ladder and earned an opening-round triumph over Blake Alexander with a pass of 3.903 seconds, and matched that time precisely in the second round when he put reigning world champion J.R. Todd on the trailer. Crew Chief Dickie Venables continued his master plan by tuning Hagan's machine to its best pass of the day, 3.900 seconds at 329.83 mph, to take down current point leader Robert Hight, who went red at the starting line during the semifinals.

“I did my job today, the guys did their jobs today, and that’s what happens when you put a good group of people together,” Hagan explained.

After a tough start to the weekend, Greg Anderson qualified in the No. 10 position despite having the quickest car of everyone in the first session on Saturday. Only one car was quicker than the red Summit Racing Chevrolet Camaro through the entire second day of the event, so the team knew they had something to work with going into raceday. His Reaction Times added to the victorious day.

In the first round his .020 RT made the difference in his first-round win over teammate Jason Line.

In the second round Anderson’s .003-second Reaction Time got the better of Enders’ .030. (Ron Lewis photo)

"You just have to be perfect against her; everybody knows that," said Anderson. "She's the favorite right now, and to knock her out was absolutely huge. That saved the day for beating Jason first round. It kind of saved his bacon, and it saved the bacon of a lot of guys who are in the championship contention. I made a lot of friends with that one."

In the semifinal, Anderson was .012 at the tree to Deric Kramer’s .020, giving Anderson a holeshot win.

In the final, it was Anderson again with the starting line advantage over Jeg Coughlin Jr. – this time by .004-second – and he paired it with a 6.609, 209.75 over a 6.610, 207.56 for his third win of the season, 94th of his career, and 160th for KB Racing. Enders remains atop the Pro Stock points.

Jerry Savoie (near lane) defeated Karen Stoffer in the second round.  (Ron Lewis photo)

Pro Stock Motorcycle’s Jerry Savoie went 6.881 at 195.90 in the final round on his White Alligator Racing Suzuki to knock off Eddie Krawiec and claim his third win in 2019. It is his 12th career win. Savoie also earned his second win in the Countdown to the Championship, closing to within 94 points of leader Andrew Hines heading into the final two events. Savoie reached his fifth straight final in Dallas with wins against Jianna Salinas, Karen Stoffer and Hines, picking up a key victory against the points leader before knocking off Krawiec in a pivotal final round.

“It was a great day and we knew we had a good bike coming in,” Savoie said. “We said if we held our composure we could win this thing. For the most part, tracks favor certain riders and we’ve been blessed here. It’s a great place and today was great. Bottom line, I want a championship just as bad as anybody else, so whoever is in my way I’m going to do everything I can to try and beat them. I felt good and we’ve got a great team. To me, this win gives you more hope and means a lot. This gives you that window of opportunity where you could win a championship again.”

Krawiec reached his 47th final round thanks to wins against Ryan Oehler, No. 1 qualifier Matt Smith and Angelle Sampey. The three-time world champ remains winless in his last 10 final-round appearances dating back to last season. Hines’ points lead also grew to 81 over Stoffer.   [10/22/19]

When the NHRA tried to eliminate the Pro Stock class after the 2018 season due to many racers leaving the class because of the cost of racing (Bo Butner being the most significant example), wealthy NHRA Pro Stock hobby racer/teams like Ken Black of KB Racing and Elite Motorsports’ Richard Freeman stepped forward to save the class by making competitive cars and engines available at a price that brought a half-dozen or more 500-inch NHRA Pro Stock teams back to the sport.

But for 2020 the money issues that plagued the class in 2018 might return. I have learned that to rent a competitive 500” NHRA Pro Stocker from one of the premier teams prior to the 2019 season for 18 races was in the $700,000-$800,000 range which is around $40-45,000 per race. In order to satisfy NHRA’s demand for full 16-car fields in 2019 and keep the new teams, our sources say the engine builders dropped the rental rate to about half that, $20-25,000 per event.

The question for NHRA’s 500” Pro Stock class is: Can the major teams keep subsidizing the class at the cost-per-race they charged new racers in 2019? Will the racers who paid the big bucks for the 2019 season be willing to keep paying? – Jeff Burk  [10/22/19]

Four new Nostalgia Top Fuel dragsters will make their racing debut into what promises to be an explosive qualifying fight for eight-car Eliminations at this weekend’s 28th Annual California Hot Rod Reunion at Auto Club Famoso Raceway.

Drag racer and builder Bryan Hall has followed up his fearsome nitro-huffing 5-second AA/Fuel Altered known as "The Tramp" with the H&H "Nomad". The Rooman dragster was originally built for longtime Top Fuel favorite "Digger" Dan Horan Sr., who died in 2016. Hall bought the car from Dan Horan Jr. in late 2018, along with a new house that had a longer garage for the dragster. Hall said he built the early Hemi-powered fueler "just to challenge myself. It's definitely an exciting time for the dragster class."

Dan Horan Jr. is fielding his own all-new Pete Kaiser-tuned AA/Fuel dragster as a tribute to his father. The late-model Hemi belted out a 5.87 ET at last year's reunion in his dad's old car.

Dusty Green is out of the "Nitro-Hemi" and into the "Triple Threat." Dusty's new 417 Rodeck Hemi-powered beast is ready for action at Famoso. "It's badass! The class is growing," said the Northern California based driver.

Driver Frank McBee Jr. and the Valley Thunder Racing gang are rolling in from Fresno with the fourth new dragster to make its racing debut.

Mendy Fry has already clinched the Nostalgia Top Fuel Championship. Going into the CHRR, Adam Sorokin is second with 438 points and Jim Murphy third with 315.  [10/22/19]

Sandy Wilkins (shown) won his fourth straight Southeast Division championship Sunday, Oct. 20, applying an exclamation point by driving his 1969 Chevy Camaro past the ’66 Chevy II of Jackie Robison of Greer, SC, in the Top Sportsman final round showdown between the No. 1 and No. 2 qualifiers at Rockingham Dragway. Wilkins turned in a 6.727 on a 6.700 dial with a .017 RT while Robison ran 6.680 on a 6.660 dial with a .031 RT.

Other winners in the sixth and final Lucas Oil Series event in the six-state region that includes the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Alabama, were Rick Bell of Merrimack, NH, in Top Dragster; former Southeast Division champion Jim Kimbrough of Pace, FL, in Competition Eliminator; multiple-time national event winner Bryan Worner of Duncannon, PA, in Super Stock; and Allison Doll of Douglas, MA, who made an almost perfect run to beat Ken Friedman of Independence, KY, in Stock Eliminator.

Stokesdale, NC’s Corey Manuel won Super Comp, Raymond Miller of Spring City, TN, prevailed in Super Gas and Phillip Smida of Canfield, OH, made the most of his visit by driving his 1988 Chevy Cavalier to victory in Super Street. It was Miller’s division best sixth win of the season but only his second in Super Gas.

Despite weather issues that postponed eliminations for an entire day, the event attracted drivers and teams from 20 states and Puerto Rico.

Defending Super Stock champion Hillary Sloan of Broadway, NC, made it as far as round four on Sunday before losing to Clinton, NC’s Joel Warren but her husband, Tim, advanced all the way to the final round in his 1998 Grand Am Pontiac before losing to Worner on a breakout foul.

For Wilkins, who has finished as high as No. 2 in national championship points, it was great way to end the season. The Mt. Ulla, NC, resident opened the campaign with a win at Orlando, Fla., but had been shut out since.

In the Jr. Dragster category, it was an all-Madison final for the 13-and-up title as Madison Robertson of Ravenel, SC, was guilty of a foul start against winner Madison Wilson of Laurens, SC. Brody Callahan of Fay, NC, won the 6-9 year-old division and Alayna Corden of Monticello, GA, prevailed in the 10-12 age group.   [10/22/19]