Story by Kevin Thorne:
With Friday’s washout of qualifying a brand new racing surface, teams
scrambled to get all the information they could with just 2 runs.
Teams were shaking their heads, switching lanes, anything they could to gain an advantage.
In Top Fuel Funny Car, Fast Jack Beckman ended his 54 race winless streak by powering his Infinite Hero Dodge Charger R/T around rival finalists Del Worsham, Chad Head and Tommy Johnson Jr. Beckman pulled away from the pack with a final round performance of 3.983 seconds at 308.78 mph.
“I can’t guarantee we’ll win another race this season,” said Beckman, the 2012 Funny Car world champion. “I think we will, but I can’t say for 100 percent. But, I know for sure we’ll be better than we were today. Jimmy [Prock, crew chief] and the team will be even better the rest of the year
because they’re getting better every race. All the little things are coming together and now the car is doing what they hope it will.”
Worsham moved into the series points lead with his second runner-up finish of the season.
In Top Fuel, Antron Brown, who won a wild petalfest to make it in the finals, claimed his second consecutive victory at this event when he defeated Steve Torrence, Richie Crampton and Clay Millican.
“It’s been an incredible run at this race,” Brown said. “You have to dig
deep to win races like this. We’ve had a long road with a new combination.
“We’ve had some gremlins, but in the final we laid down the gauntlet to bring the win home. It was also huge for the bossman [Don Schumacher] to double up. I hope we can keep that streak going for him.”
Brown moved into the series points lead with the victory, ahead of reigning world champ Tony Schumacher and third-place Langdon.
Pro Stock saw an even bigger drought end when Larry Morgan drove his FireAde Chevy Camaro to victory over Greg Anderson, Vincent Nobile and Jonathan Gray in the final round. It had been 120 races since Morgan had last visited Winners Circle.
“I knew I was still good enough to let the clutch out,” said Morgan of his
11th career victory, and his first win since Las Vegas in October of 2009.
“I knew I could still drive. I just needed to get the right financial backing and hook up with Johnny Gray to get some horsepower. Jerry Haas
built me a new car in 30 days, and a lot of other great people helped me get to the winner’s circle today. I’ve surrounded myself with good people,
and that’s how you win. It wasn’t just one guy who won today, it was a team effort.”
Jason Line moved into the points lead and Morgan jumped from ninth to seventh in the standings with his win.
In Pro Stock Motorcycle, reigning world champ Hines claimed his first win
of the season and 39th of his career by outrunning Eddie Krawiec, Scotty
Pollacheck and Hector Arana Jr. Hines claimed his second Four-Wide victory
and his fourth at this track with a winning performance of 6.805 at 196.30
on his Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson.
“We got on the dyno last week and tried a few things,” Hines said. “We
followed through and my V-Rod got us to the final round. We just went out
and did what our team does best.”
Hines won his first round quad over Mike Berry, Brian Pretzel and Karen
Stoffer and also finished first in the second round quad by outrunning
Scotty Pollacheck, Berry and Matt Smith.
Krawiec moved into the series lead with his second consecutive runner-up
finish of the season and Hines is second overall in the series standings.
The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series continues April 10-12 with the
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