The top bracket racers in the NHRA North Central division have gathered
at O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis for the division’s Summit
Racing Series Finals.  The three-day event kicked off today with time
trials for the more than 600 racers in Super Pro, Pro, Sportsman and
Motorcycle as well as a High School category who are representing 25
tracks.  Racers are competing for team and individual honors and a
share of the roughly $70,000 purse.

Today’s action included the VP Racing Fuels Race of Champions, a race
within a race where the top points-earning drivers from each track
square off in head-to-head competition.  Art Reed of Kokomo, Ind.,
racing for Bunker Hill Dragstrip, scored the win in Super Pro, ousting
Scott McQueen, Tyner, Ky., running for London Dragway, in the final
round.  In Pro, Timmy Elliott, Portland, Ky., representing Beech Bend
Raceway Park, wheeled his ’69 Camaro to the win over Amelia, Ohio’s
Kevin Bishop who was driving his ’69 Camaro for Tri-State Dragway.  The
win in the Sportsman category went to Pacemakers Dragway Park racer
Nick Hastings of Shelby, Ohio, who ran his ’88 Mustang to victory over
Gary Blankenship of Yorktown, Ind., in his ’69 Camaro.  Blankenship was
racing for Muncie Dragway.  Chad Isley rode his ’73 Kawasaki to the win
in the Motorcycle/Snowmobile category.  The Charleston, Ill., racer
running for Coles County Dragway defeated Bob Lohr of Staunton, Ill.,
racing for Gateway Int’l Raceway.

In the first rounds of qualifying at No Problem Raceway and the Cajun
Sportsman Challenge NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, Top Alcohol
Dragster driver Michael Manners, Willis, Texas, and Top Alcohol Funny
Car pilot Tony Bartone, Long Island City, N.Y. took the No. 1
qualifying positions in their classes.

Manners outran the field with a pass of 5.356 seconds at 269.56 mph to
lead the class by more than a tenth of a second.  Manners is looking
for his first win of the year having three final round appearances in
his last three outings.  Darryl Hitchman, Greenville, Texas, and
Brandon Pierce, Moore, Okla., are 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Bartone made a 5.672-second, 252.76 mph run to take the pole in his ’09
Mustang and is followed by Gainesville, Ga., racer Steve Harker. 
Bartone is currently fifth in the national point’s standings while
Harker sits in third and is leading the South Central Division points.

Jim Whiteley and Sean O’Bannon took full advantage of opening day for
the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series at Auto Club Famoso Raceway
posting the quickest times in Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol
Funny Car respectively.

Whitely, Grand Junction, Colo., clocked in with a pass of 5.442 seconds
at 267.53 mph and is looking for his seventh win of the year as he is
in a battle for the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series National
Championship.  Chris Demke, Sunland, Calif., is right behind Whiteley
at 5.454 seconds while Cody Perkins is third out of Bluffdale, Utah.

O’Bannon made a 5.744-second, 254.30 mph run in taking the No. 1 spot
by less than three-hundredths of a second over Brian Thiel, Pleasant
Grove, Calif., and Doug Gordon, Paso Robles, Calif. who follow in
second and third.

Antron Brown, Cruz Pedregon and Mike Edwards all gained three points
for leading the second session qualifying in their respective
professional divisions at the NHRA Carolinas Nationals in Concord, N.C.
Hector Arana, who also claimed the three bonus points for the first
round, is now six
points richer in this battle for a world title.

Performance cuts through the pressure of winning a championship, according to Antron Brown. Seeded number one in the Countdown to 1, Brown has leaned on his team to take off the pressure of a championship run.

“They tell me just do what you do, Tronics,” said Brown, the
provisional Top Fuel No. 1 qualifier at the NHRA Carolinas Nationals in
Concord, NC, “It's a team sport and I have a great team. When I don't
step up to the plate, they do and when they take a step back, I take a
step forward.

“That's how a team works and that's how we did on the Western Swing. We had each other's backs.”

Hector Arana faces a dilemma. Should he continue to push for the three bonus points afforded any
professional competitor who leads their respective session, or should
he drift away from the proven combination that vaulted him to the top
of the Pro Stock Motorcycle division during first two sessions of
qualifying for the NHRA Carolinas Nationals in Concord, NC.

Arana recorded the quickest times in both qualifying sessions on
Friday, ending the day with a best 6.965 elapsed time at 189.98 miles
per hour. He picked up the full complement of bonus points at six.

Brad Personett jumped to the provisional top of the Get Screened
America Pro Mod Challenge field in the first day of qualifying at the NHRA Carolinas Nationals at zMAX Dragway outside of Charlotte, N.C.
 
Personett's stellar 5.872-second pass at 246.89 mph was the
quickest-ever for a turbo-charged car in Pro Mod Challenge history and
the second-quickest run ever.
 
"Finally things are coming together for us," Personett said with a huge
grin on his face. "We've got our tune-up really happy, and just really
went to work on the car, testing in the other leagues to get things
working out.

Even thought any points Cruz Pedregon earns during the final six races won't count towards an NHRA Full Throttle Funny Car Championship, it doesn’t mean he can’t take away a few from those in the title hunt.

Pedregon drove his Advance Auto Parts-sponsored Toyota to the
provisional pole position on Friday evening at the NHRA Carolinas
Nationals in Concord, NC. His efforts earned him three bonus points.
Three points any one of the ten drivers in the Countdown would have
wanted for themselves.

“We didn’t come out here and plan to take points from anyone,” said
Pedregon whose second round loss in Indianapolis combined with a Robert
Hight second round victory eliminated him from championship contention.

The
Countdown to 1, NHRA’s six-race playoff, officially got underway Friday
with Top Fuel points leader Antron Brown earning the provisional pole
in Top Fuel at the Second annual NHRA Carolinas Nationals.

The other provisional No. 1 qualifiers at the 19th of 24 races in the
NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series were Cruz Pedregon (Funny Car),
Mike Edwards (Pro Stock) and Hector Arana (Pro Stock Motorcycle).

The NHRA Carolinas Nationals is the first race in NHRA’s six-race
playoff and it is the first of a four-races-in-four-weeks blitz through
Dallas, Memphis and Richmond to begin the Countdown to 1.

This race also marked the debut of the 3-2-1 bonus for the Top 3 qualifiers in each qualifying session.

Mike Edwards was late to his Friday evening press conference at the
NHRA Carolinas Nationals in Concord, N.C. The Coweta, Ok.-based driver
was one of five drivers selected by the sanctioning body for a tech
inspection after second round qualifying.

Edwards was not upset that he was flagged for a tear down. He was upset
that he was not allowed to be in attendance nor was another member of
his team.

The NHRA selected five teams for the tear down and according to
Edwards, those five were himself, Ron Krisher, Jeg Coughlin Jr., Allen
Johnson and Rickie Jones.

“They made everybody leave their cars and everybody had to leave,”
Edwards explained. “I wasn’t very hip on that. I don't like leaving my
personal property, not at least without some member there. If they want
to take me apart, I'll take any anything apart on my car they want me
to. I want somebody from my team there with it. I don't like the way
they did, but I went along with it. That's not right. That's my
personal property.