When Lane Weber from Dacono, Colo. pulls into the burnout box with his V/Stock Automatic 1978 Buick Skylark

Dale Carlson Photo

most people in the stands giggle. The competition in the other lane knows better.

Weber is a good drag racer, capable of winning astride a bicycle.

Weber began his drag racing career in 1985 driving a car he received as
a high school graduation present from a very close family friend, Sandi
Carr. His car uses the original 231 cubic-inch engine while he competes
in one of the slowest indexed classifications within Stock eliminator.

Making the transition to the nitro Funny Car Class hasn't been easy for Matt Hagan, made even stressful considering he is driving for the vaunted Don Schumacher Racing organization.

“Last year I had my own deal and when you go out there and have a bad
light or something … the expectations are high … but you don’t get down
on yourself as much," the 26-year-old Hagan said. "Now, you have to
perform for the team owner, crew chief, the crew, and everyone else.
You want to do that anyway. You have to take more time now and make
sure you are doing your job the correct way and be more professional
out here.”

This weekend, Hagan's task is to try and tame the mountain at Bandimere Speedway.

The NHRA Jr. Drag Racing League Eastern Conference Finals started on
Thursday at Bristol Dragway with more than 600 racers, ages 8 to 17,
and finished today with champions in eight age categories and the squad
from National Trail Raceway in Columbus, Ohio, taking the team
championship.  Competitors from NHRA member tracks across the eastern
United States were running for a share of the purse worth nearly
$100,000 in savings bonds.

Mike Edwards is making a habit of capturing pole positions.

Edwards nabbed his seventh pole of the season with a track-record time of 6.957 seconds at Bandimere Saturday.

"It's very rewarding I can tell you that," said Edwards, who is second
in the point standings behind Jeg Coughlin. "We have really turned our
program around this year and it's paying off. We struggled here
(Friday) really, really bad. We lost the handle on it a little bit and
hat's off to my guys today. We had a complete turnaround today and made
two really nice runs. I'm tickled and pleased for all of my guys."

Antron Brown came into the Mile-High Nationals leading the Top Fuel Dragster point standings.

And, he has lived up to his billing so far.

Brown won the pole in his Matco Tools entry with a track record time of
3.862 seconds during Saturday night's final qualifying session at the NHRA Mopar Mile High Nationals.

Cory McClenathan (3.882) and Tony Schumacher (3.895) were second and third in qualifying.

Ron
Capps raced to his third No. 1 qualifying position of the season
Saturday at the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals at Bandimere Speedway.

Capps took the top position with a powerful run of 4.121 seconds at
297.22 mph in his NAPA Dodge Charger, which just edged out Tony
Pedregon’s best of 4.135 in his Q-Horsepower Chevy Impala. Capps will
face veteran driver Gary Densham in the first round.

First-round pairings for professional eliminations Sunday for the
30th annual Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals at Bandimere Speedway, the
13th of 24 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. 
Pairings based on results in qualifying, which ended Saturday. DNQs
listed below pairings.

Usually at Bandimere, Top Fuel Funny Car and Dragster crew chiefs aren't as aggressive during day qualifying sessions.

That wasn't the case for Ron Capps and his crew chief Ed "Ace" McCulloch.

Ace tuned Capps NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Charger to a track record
4.121-second time to take the pole at the NHRA Mopar Mile High
Nationals in Morrison, Co.

Hector Arana has been consistent all weekend at Bandimere Speedway. Saturday evening, the Miami native was at his best.

He clocked a 7.319 second track record time in his Lucas Oil Buell
bike. This is the second pole of the season for him as he qualified
first at Englishtown last month.

"This is just an awesome feeling," said Arana, who is seventh in the
points. "I played it conservative (Friday) and today (Saturday) I got a
little bit more aggressive and on this last hit I knew I had the
opportunity. I wanted to be on the pole and that 31 was a blessing. I
wasn't expecting a 31, but I will take anything I can get."

There's no question that the NHRA's Pro Stock Class is highly-competitive.

This weekend at the Mile-High Nationals, V. Gaines of Lakewood is hoping he can use his home track to his advantage.

At this time last year we were sixth in points," Gaines said. "But this
year we're 16th. Last year after the Mile-High Nationals, we started to
go downhill. But this time, we hope to start going uphill."