The unsettled Midwest spring weather claimed ultimate victory at the
Goodguys 21st Hot Rod Nationals at O’Reilly Raceway Park. As the funny
cars of finalists Paul Romine and Shawn Bowen were backing up from
their burnouts, the rains started to fall and progressively worsened
forcing a cancellation of all final rounds.

The fastest class of them all, Nostalgia Top Fuel, was simply dominated
by the Fresno, California based “Raisin Express II” team of Jim Cullen,
Denver and Darren Schutz. Using Darren’s tuneup, Schutz’ set low
elapsed time of every round, the quickest of which was a 5.837 in
Saturday’s opening eliminations. In fact, every run they made here this
weekend was in the 5.8 second zone with zero parts breakage! In the
final, Schutz was to face the 2007 event Champion Howard Haight.

As representatives of the Army and Schumacher Racing cut the cake celebrating the 334th birthday of the United States Army, Eddie Hakim stood off to the side and smiled. This moment transpired during the NHRA SuperNationals in Englishtown, N.J.

Hakim served in the Army at one time and now he serves the Army through
his work with Edison Job Corp. Hakim assists in the preparation of
young men who desire to enter the Army but may lack the skills to pass
the the recruitment tests.

“We prepare them by getting them tutoring through 'March to Success', Hakim explained.

You can call him the champ. You can call him the winner. But the way he has beat a heavily-favored opponent time and time again, you can logically call him Houdini.

Aside from 2000, when he won six of the first seven national events on
the NHRA schedule, four-time and reigning Pro Stock champion Jeg
Coughlin Jr. has never had a start like he's enjoying in 2009.

Sunday at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in New Jersey, Coughlin
collected his NHRA-leading fifth trophy of the season by stopping a
quicker Mike Edwards. The win, 46th of his career, expanded his point
lead in the Full Throttle rankings to triple digits with 11 races gone
in the season.

Craig Treble has an exceptional amount of experience racing in Englishtown, so much so that he can read the
barometer like the back of his hand. Only this time, to borrow a quote
from Joe Cocker, Treble got by with a little help from his friends.

Treble worked the weekend with a makeshift crew, comprised mainly of
members of Michael Philips’ crew and any of their friends he could pick
up. His bike didn’t have a performance advantage as it is ten years old
and the engine is one borrowed from Philips.

Once Philips was eliminated in the first round he also joined the Treble group.

Larry Dixon made a pre-emptive strike on the gathered media following his NHRA SuperNationals Top Fuel victory over Antron Brown. He wanted to count his blessings.

“I’m glad I don’t race Funny Cars,” Dixon said, commenting on Tony
Pedregon, who posted his second win of the season in four final rounds.

“He is good all the time. Is he ever off?” Dixon asked.

“Never,” Dixon said, answering his own question.

One week ago, Ashley Force lost in the final round to Tony Pedregon in the Route 66 Nationals. That race was over early. This week, Force ran Pedregon right to the line but still couldn't move her Ford past Pedregon's Chevrolet.

“I never thought I would be afraid of a girl,” Pedregon said, a smile on his face. “I think that little bit of fear, the fear of losing, the fear of failure, was in the back of my head. I knew we had a good race car. I just knew that Dickie (Venables) was making a lot of adjustments going into that final. I had that feeling that this was going to be a close race. Anytime we feel threatened we try to get any advantage that we can.”

Pedregon got an immediate advantage off the line with a strong .068 reaction time to Force Hood's relatively slow .125 to take his second win of the season, 42nd in 71 final round appearances and claimed the top spot in the point standings, pushing former point leader, Ron Capps, to third behind Force Hood.

Sunday started with the looming question of whether or not there would be any racing at all in the Get Screened America Pro Mod Challenge
because of heavy clouds and intermittent sprinkles of rain at the
United Association NHRA SuperNationals, but after a delay of nearly an
hour to dry the racing surface and start racing, the sun burned off the
fog and the track conditions at Raceway Park ripened to a day that crew
chiefs and drivers only dream of. It will long be remembered as one of
the best days ever in Pro Modified competition.
 
Records fell nearly every lap down the track, and just when you thought
it couldn't get any better or quicker, it did. In the end, R2B2 Racing
driver Raymond Commisso came out on the very top - qualifying number
one, setting the world record for quickest-ever Pro Mod ET at 5.856
seconds, and ultimately winning the event in the quickest-ever
side-by-side race.

Not even torrential rains and muggy conditions could not deter the
drivers and crews racing at this weekend’s IHRA Sooner Nationals from
putting on an absolutely spectacular day of racing.

After a lengthy delay to start the morning, the action got back
underway during the mid-afternoon hours and it was nothing but blue
skies and great racing from then on as Tim Boychuk (Top Fuel), Kenny
Lang (Pro Modified) and Pete Berner (Elite Motorsports Pro Stock)
battled through the tricky conditions to record victories at the third
annual IHRA Sooner Nationals presented by Wolverine Boots and Academy
Sports and Outdoors Sunday evening at Tulsa Raceway Park.

Tony Pedregon picked up his second consecutive win of the season in
Funny Car at the 40th annual United Association NHRA SuperNationals at
Old Bridge Township Raceway Park.

Larry Dixon picked up his fifth win in Englishtown, while Jeg Coughlin and Craig Treble also win in their respective categories.

Pedregon powered his Q Horsepower Chevy Impala SS to a 4.246-second run
at 260.56 to grab the win. It’s Pedregon’s second consecutive win of
the season, 42nd of his career and second win in Englishtown. Pedregon
also moved past points leader Ron Capps to take the top spot in the
Funny Car points standings with the win.

 “I never thought I’d be afraid of a girl,” said Pedregon, who faced
Ashley Force Hood in the final round. “Fear of losing was in the back
of my head. I knew we had a good race car. It ran good in the heat, and
it ran good with cloud cover. Before the final, I just knew that Dickie
[Venebles, crew chief] was making a lot of adjustments and I had a
feeling it would be a close race. I heard her for a while. My car was
revving up, spinning the tires. We got after it because we had to. I
could feel the G’s falling off, and I was worried. If the track was
1,320 feet, I’d be in big trouble. I didn’t get off throttle. I just
hung on. It was just enough. You don’t know how relieved I was to see
that win light.”

Unofficial point standings (top 10) for IHRA professional categories
following the IHRA Sooner Nationals at Tulsa Raceway Park, the fourth
of 10 events in the 2009 Nitro Jam Drag Racing Series -