NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster pilot Marty Thacker scored his first national event win of the season this weekend at Texas Motorplex’s O’Reilly Super Start Batteries NHRA Fall Nationals.  The Robinson, Ill., racer joined John Lombardo Jr., Brea, Calif., in the winner’s circle after Lombardo earned his first ever NHRA national event win in Top Alcohol Funny Car.

Thacker started eliminations from the No. 9 qualifying spot and made his best runs of the weekend in the semifinal and final rounds – identical 5.372-second laps.  In the final he squared off against Delta, B.C., resident Shawn Cowie who ran 5.418 seconds at 265.74 mph.  This was Cowie’s first final-round appearance at a national event this year but he has notched wins at each of the six divisional races he has attended.

Doug Winters and the Winters Racing Team made another final round appearance this past weekend at the Super Chevy Show.  This time it was at the Bristol Motor Speedway.  The streak started on June 28^th at the Super Chevy Show held at the zMax Dragway in Charlotte, NC.  At zMax, Winters took the win in the final round.  From there they went on to the finals and win at Maple Grove in July and Bowling Green in August.  Out of the four finals he has won two.  This time he lost in the final against Ken Walsh and his ’63 Corvette.

“Getting the runner up was a let down here at Bristol, but when we started thinking about it, four finals in a row is something really special, stated Doug.  “It just shows how consistent our ’57 Nitro Coupe has become over the season.  Working with Mickey Thompson Tires and some chassis changes, our car has really responded.  Now every time I drop the clutch I expect it to make a full pass.  At the beginning of the season that was not the case.”

Three Ohio racers scored big wins at the Fifth Annual JEGS NHRA Northern SPORTSnationals  and the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series at National Trail Raceway.   Leading the way was local runner Mike Coughlin of Delaware, Ohio, in his ’06 Cobalt posting a lap of 7.360 seconds at 136.65 mph for the Dart Top Sportsman win.  Coughlin, who won this event back in 2007, faced off against Mitch Smith who broke in the final round.

On any given Sunday stuff can happen. Just ask defending NHRA Pro Stock champion Jeg Coughlin.

The one rider every Pro Stock Motorcycle rider is gunning for as the 2009 NHRA season rolls to a finish isn't worried about being the hunted.

“It is better that I have the target than they have the target,” said Arana after scoring his fourth win in five races, the last three in a row on his Lucas Oil Buell. Arana continues to be perfect once he reaches the final round, winning five of five. He also leads the point standings by 27 over Eddie Krawiec and 111 over Andrew Hines who is third.

Greg Anderson never - not once during the day Sunday - assumed anything.
Oh, well, maybe one thing. He might have assumed he was going to lose long before the final round. The winners circle? That was beyond daydreaming.

"I've been dragging my lip," the Pro Stock dominator-turned-struggler said. "I wouldn't have been surprised if I had exited early today. But we found a way each round to win."

Tony Schumacher continued Sunday to thumb his nose at National Hot Rod Ass'n. observers who said he couldn't survive without Alan Johnson.

The defiant U.S. Army dragster driver put new crew chief Mike Green's tune-up against that of Johnson in Sunday's Top Fuel final round at the O'Reilly Super Star Batteries Fall Nationals and won.

On what he called "just a massive day," Schumacher beat No. 1 qualifier Larry Dixon, Johnson's current driver, in the Texas Motorplex lane in which few drivers could win all day long. And he seized the points lead with just four more races remaining in the Full Throttle Drag Racing Series' Countdown to the Championship.

Four weeks ago, Robert Hight was staring down a near impossible task. Now, he's staring down from atop the Funny Car point standings.

“It's unbelievable,” said Hight, of his second consecutive win, and leap from tenth to first in the point standings in just two races. “It hasn't hit me yet. Going to the three final rounds in a row is tough.

Matt Hagan left the Texas Motorplex immediately after his first-round loss on Sunday at the NHRA Fall Nationals. He arrived home at 7 p.m. Rachel went into labor at 9 p.m., and Penny Louise Hagan was born at 4 a.m. today.

Rockingham Dragway has hosted two IHRA national events since 1999 but in 2010 that tradition will change. According to a report published in the Fayetteville [N.C.] Observer, the track will downsize to just one IHRA nationals event.

The season-ending World Finals, held each October, will disappear from the national event schedule and will be replaced with an all-sportsman event.

The Spring Nationals is tentatively scheduled for the end of April and downsizes from three days to two.