Top Alcohol Dragster driver Kate Harker suffered a devastating crash during the first round of eliminations in Sonoma.

Harker,
of Gainesville, Ga., was alert and responding to commands as NHRA
officials extracted her from the destroyed dragster. Her dragster went
out of control just after the start, climbed into a wheelstand and
crashed. She was transported by air to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital for
evaluation.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL SEQUENCE BY BRIAN LOSNESS

ANDERSON RACES TO LANDMARK 50TH CAREER VICTORY AT FRAM-AUTOLITE NHRA NATIONALS 


Schumacher, Force and Smith also win at Infineon Raceway
 
Greg Anderson recorded his landmark 50th Pro Stock victory Sunday to
highlight a spectacular day of drag racing at the FRAM-Autolite NHRA
Nationals at Infineon Raceway.
 
Anderson became just the sixth professional and the 10th driver in
history to win 50 NHRA races. He is the second quickest to the mark,
winning No. 50 in his 189th career start. Legend Bob Glidden won 50
times in his first 139 races.

Final round-by-round results from the 20th annual FRAM-Autolite NHRA
Nationals at Infineon Raceway, the 15th of 23 events in the  NHRA
POWERade Drag Racing Series:
 
 
TOP FUEL:
 
ROUND ONE -- Larry Dixon, 4.951, 269.78 def. Mike
Strasburg, 8.303, 102.86; J.R. Todd, 5.327, 240.68 def. Brandon
Bernstein, 5.415, 174.05; Doug Kalitta, 5.242, 293.92 def. Clay
Millican, 7.400, 111.02; Tony Schumacher, 4.542, 327.82 def. Cory
McClenathan, 5.451, 196.67; Bob Vandergriff, 4.618, 320.51 def. Melanie
Troxel, 6.134, 164.43; Doug Herbert, 4.725, 308.00 def. Morgan Lucas,
7.207, 112.80; Rod Fuller, 4.553, 325.92 def. David Grubnic, 5.788,
161.29; Hillary Will, 4.656, 321.58 def. Whit Bazemore, 6.533, 140.15;

QUARTERFINALS -- Herbert, 4.821, 288.70 def. Dixon, 5.251,
243.24; Vandergriff, 4.689, 314.61 def. Todd, foul; Fuller, 4.600,
325.53 def. Kalitta, 4.654, 320.43; Schumacher, 4.537, 327.43 def.
Will, 4.688, 301.87;

SEMIFINALS -- Vandergriff, 4.626, 319.37 def. Fuller, 4.921, 317.94; Schumacher, 4.558, 321.73 def. Herbert, 6.603, 158.71;

FINAL -- Schumacher, 4.534, 329.42 def. Vandergriff, 4.597, 305.84.

Sunday's final results from the 20th annual FRAM-Autolite NHRA
Nationals at Infineon Raceway.  The  race is the 15th of 23 in the 
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series:

'SO WEAK IT WADDLED LIKE A DUCK': WILKERSON'S IMPALA BIG QUESTION MARK

Funny Car driver Tim Wilkerson is having an out-of-body experience.

His Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevy Impala body is parked this Sunday at
Infineon Raceway, for he didn't qualify for the Fram-Autolite NHRA
Nationals. And the culprit, he's pretty sure, is . . . the body.

Based on what happened between Jerry Toliver and Warren Johnson Toyota
body incident following Denver, Bob Gilbertson's crew didn't take any
chances in Sonoma.

ASHLEY, HERBERT, ANDERSON AND SAMPEY CLAIM NO. 1 QUALIFYING POSITIONS AT FRAM-AUTOLITE NHRA NATIONALS

Currently third in the POWERade points, Funny Car
racer Mike Ashley took a big step towards securing one of the seven
remaining spots in the Countdown to the Championship field with a top
qualifying performance Saturday at the 20th annual FRAM-Autolite NHRA
Nationals.

Ashley (4.743) and Top Fuel leader Doug Herbert (4.556) both used
their Friday night passes to wrap up their No. 1 spots at Infineon
Raceway, while Pro Stock front man Greg Anderson needed to improve to a
6.605 to stay on top. Angelle Sampey shocked the Pro Stock Motorcycle
class with her final-round run of 6.924, which came in the heat of the
day. Final eliminations begin Sunday at noon (PT) with three-hours of
television coverage provided by ESPN2 at 8 p.m. (ET).

This is Ashley's fourth No. 1 qualifying effort of the season and
fourth of his career. His Friday night run of 4.743 at 326.79 mph in
his Torco Race Fuels Dodge Charger was completely unchallenged Saturday
with the quickest run of the day John Force's 4.870 in his Castrol
High-Mileage Ford Mustang.

John Force confirmed in a statement issued on Saturday what Torco's
CompetitionPlus.com and other Internet entities has reported for days
and that is that Mike “Zippy” Neff, crew chief to 2005 NHRA
Funny Car Champion Gary Scelzi, will drive a fourth John Force Racing
Ford
Mustang next season in pursuit of the 2008 POWERade Funny Car
championship.

Don Schumacher first announced the defection in an interview with Torco's CompetitionPlus.com on Wednesday. 

 “We didn’t plan to say anything because (Neff)
and Scelzi are still racing for a title (this year), just like us,” Force said,
“But Don Schumacher (who owns the Neff-tuned Oakley Dodge) kind of announced it
to the world.

 “Our game plan was to wait until after the
season (to make an announcement) so there wouldn’t be any distractions,” Force
said, “because he has a job to do for Scelzi and Schumacher, just like I have a
job to do for my team and my sponsors. 
Bottom line, Mike Neff will drive my fourth car next year and John
Medlen will be the crew chief.”

Force
then briefly outlined the chronology of the negotiations that landed Neff a
ride in one of the most powerful race cars on the planet.

HERBERT, ASHLEY, ANDERSON AND HINES LEAD QUALIFYING AT FRAM-AUTOLITE NHRA NATIONALS

Doug Herbert raced to the qualifying lead Friday in Top Fuel at the FRAM-Autolite NHRA Nationals.

Mike Ashley, Greg Anderson, and Andrew Hines also were qualifying leaders in their respective categories at Infineon Raceway.

Herbert posted a leading performance of 4.556 seconds at 315.15 mph
in his Snap-on Tools dragster to earn the top spot, however 10 Top Fuel
racers didn't get to run in the second session after a lengthy oil
clean-up forced NHRA officials to stop racing at the mandatory 10 p.m.
track curfew. Herbert will try to hold the position through Saturday's
action to see if he can claim his first low qualifier award in almost
two years.

"We obviously got a lucky break but luck is like a bank and it seems
like we've made a lot of deposits this year so we'll take it," Herbert
said. "It was a good run and maybe it would have been good enough any
way. Probably someone would have passed us but we'll never know now."

POWERade points leader "Hot Rod" Fuller made two runs but still
hasn't been down the track under power as of yet and is outside the
field in 18th place.

KB Racing LLC, Kalitta Motorsports, and GumRunner LLC, makers of Jolt
Energy Gum, today jointly announced from Infineon Raceway a marketing
partnership with Jolt Energy Gum as an associate sponsor on the Hillary
Will Top Fuel dragster.

GumRunners LLC, headquartered in Hackensack N.J., is the innovation of
former Colgate-Palmolive executives Kevin Gass and T. Molloy, who left
their respective positions to found the company that would become “the
world’s most useful gum company.”

Jolt Energy Gum, whose fitting slogan says “Chew More. Do More.”
contains caffeine, plus Guarana and Ginseng to give you more energy. 
Jolt Energy Gum is as safe as coffee (and arguable even safer).  The
caffeine is exactly the same molecule as in coffee.