Saturday's qualifying for the AAA Auto Club Finals produced a couple of
fireballs captured by Brian Losness.

		Event Notebook Event Results Final round-by-round results Final Round Results			Event Photos Sportsman

KALITTA, BECKMAN, LINE
AND HINES EARN NO. 1 QUALIFYING HONORS AT AUTO CLUB NHRA
FINALS

Top Fuel points leader Doug Kalitta outran championship rival Tony
Schumacher with a dramatic 4.452-second pass in the final qualifying
session of the Auto Club NHRA Finals to earn the No. 1 qualifying
position heading Sunday's 11 a.m. eliminations.

Jack Beckman (Funny Car), Jason Line (Pro Stock), and Andrew Hines (Pro
Stock Motorcycle) also qualified on top of their respective categories
at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona in the final of 23 races in the $50
million POWERade Drag Racing Series.

Seven-time NHRA North Central Division Champion Danny Townsend will take a “bye”
on driving in 2007. The announcement came from Townsend’s Muncie, Ind., home,
where he is recovering from a final round accident at the September NHRA Lucas
Oil Drag Racing Series event in Columbus, Ohio.

“I’m just about 100
percent recovered from the crash,” he said. “I feel great, but, based on
discussions with my medical team, I believe it best that I pass on 2007 and look
at 2008 for a come back.”

The IHRA announced their Torco's CompetitionPlus.com Pro Modified rules for 2007 on Friday afternoon. The following represents the new regulations.

Photographer Brian Losness captured this blazer from Joe Hartley during Friday's qualifying.

 SCHUMACHER, WORSHAM, LINE AND HINES LEAD QUALIFYING AT AUTO CLUB NHRA FINALS; Spectacular Worsham crash closes second day qualifying at Auto Club Raceway
at Pomona

 
Tony Schumacher led Top Fuel qualifying Friday at the Auto Club NHRA Finals.
Schumacher followed Thursday's 4.490-second pass
with a 4.506 to maintain the
No. 1 position in the provisional field at
Auto Club Raceway at
Pomona.

Del Worsham, Jason Line and Andrew Hines also were qualifying
leaders in their categories at the final of 23 races in the $50 million
NHRA
POWERade Drag Racing Series.

		Event Notebook Event Results Final round-by-round results Final Round Results			Event Photos Sportsman

Del Worsham was released from Pomona Valley Hospital shortly after 7:00 pm
on Friday.   Though his car was a total wreck after his spectacular and
horrifying wreck on Friday, his body came out of the experience in slightly
better shape.    Worsham suffered a few small lacerations to both shins,
caused by the violence of the end-over-end wreck at high speed, but had
those either stitched up or bandaged with no ill effects.  Slightly more
serious were x-rays which revealed a cracked tail bone.  Doctors at Pomona
Valley informed Worsham he would be able to race with no danger of further
injury.

"They basically told me it was up to me, and how I can manage the
pain," Worsham said.  "It's an injury they really can't treat, you just
need to let it heal and you know it's going to hurt for a while.  The
ER doctor who cared for me was really fantastic, and everyone from the
ambulance guys to the people in the emergency room took great care of
me
and my wife Connie, who was with me.   The doctor was explaining what they
saw on the x-rays, and he was also pretty interested in what we do and how
it all happened.  I had the worst view of it of everyone, of course, and I
still haven't seen the video, but I think we gave him a pretty good idea of
everything that happened.  He actually wants to come out to the race on
Sunday, so that would be cool.

NHRA POWERade Funny Car driver Mike Ashley will return to the familiar role of
team owner/driver and field his own nitro Funny Car team in 2007 with primary
sponsorship from Torco Racing Fuels, Inc. and Evan Knoll and his conglomeration
of successful companies. The two-time Pro Modified world champion from Long
Island, New York, will conclude his program with Don Schumacher Racing at the
end of the Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals in Pomona, Ca.

Ashley plans to race under his established Gotham City
Racing banner and base his operations out of Indianapolis. Crew chief Brian
Corradi and the entire crew will join the new team.

"This is an incredible opportunity and I owe a lot to Evan
Knoll for making this happen," Ashley said. "I am most comfortable with the role
of owner/driver, and history shows we have been very successful fielding winning
teams.

Summit Racing Equipment has renewed its series sponsorship of the NHRA Summit Racing Series through the year 2009. 

The NHRA Summit Racing Series features competition in a bracket racing (elapsed time) format, allowing drivers in many types of cars, including dragsters, roadsters, sedans and coupes, to compete on an equal basis against each other. In addition to three competition categories for cars, there also is a motorcycle category featured in the NHRA Summit Racing Series.
           
The commitment by Summit Racing Equipment has been a huge boost to the sportsman series – the backbone of NHRA – which has provided for safe and exciting competition for the local racer since the mid-1970s.

Jesse Greening, of Culman, Alabama’s “Greening Auto Company” was presented with
the Goodguys 2006 Trendsetter award, Wednesday, November 1st. Greening accepted
the award during the Hot Rod Industry Alliance reception here at the SEMA
show.

The Goodguys Trendsetter Award is
annually presented at SEMA to rising young talents in the realm of rod &
custom car building.