Having reached a point in his career where wins haven't come quite as often as birthdays, Cory McClenathan
lit up the candles in his Fram Top Fuel dragster Sunday afternoon
winning the NHRA Carolinas Nationals. McClenathan added icing to the
cake as the win vaulted him to the top of the point standings, a spot
he hasn't been in since 1998.

Racing to his 31st national event win in 57 final rounds, McClenathan
dispatched Morgan Lucas, Larry Dixon and Doug Foley before overpowering
Shawn Langdon in the final round.

The emotion of the win almost overpowered McClenathan.

"You feel bigger than life sometimes and that's the moments that I
think I cherish the most," said McClenathan, who was qualified ninth
coming into Sunday’s eliminations. "You're going down through there and
you want that win light to come on so bad, you're almost willing your
car to the other end, and when it did today, I was just overcome with
Oh, my God, it’s been so long.

Robert Hight felt the best way to answer the critics of his inclusion within the Countdown to 1 battle was to let
his actions speak louder than their words. Hight encountered a
firestorm of controversy over a semi-final race win over team owner
John Force to earn a berth into the NHRA’s Funny Car portion of the
Countdown to 1.

“Just like John [Force] has always said to me you have to let your race
car talk,” said Hight, who now has consecutive final round appearances
on the tour. “At Indy I drove my car,” Hight continued. “I don’t play
into any of the decision-making and I just go out there and try to win
every round. I tried to beat Ashley in the final and she got me. Those
aren’t my decisions and people can think anything they want if we win
this championship but we deserve it if we win it. It’s definitely not
going to be easy there are way too many good cars out there.”

Hight landed in the tenth and final position for the Funny Car
division. His victory at the NHRA Carolinas Nationals vaulted him seven
position from the 10th spot to the third spot in the Countdown.

Clearly there is a difference between tuners working on Funny Cars and tuners working on Top
Fuel dragsters. Take a Funny Car tuner and put him in the Top Fuel environment and the difference becomes more noticeable. 

The driver of the Fram Top Fuel dragster, Cory McClenathan, has lived
the difference this year. So has Antron Brown, driver of the Matco
Tools Top Fuel dragster. Both are working with tuners who last year
worked on Funny Car teams.

McClenathan, paired with Todd Okuhara and Phil Shuler, has quickly
learned he is working for a very aggressive pair of tuners. The
difference say McClenathan is, “just in the way they think.” 

On September 20, 2009, the NHRA staged the first modern era four-wide nitro exhibition at zMAX Dragway in Concord, NC. In Funny

Car, Mike Neff beat out his competition that included John Force,
Tim Wilkerson and Del Worsham, winning the race on a hole shot. The Top
Fuel portion of the event belonged to Spencer Massey as he defeated
Brandon Bernstein, Morgan Lucas and Antron Brown.

Force described the experience as, "I haven't had this much fun since I
played high school football and we rushed the cheerleader showers."

The NHRA chose NASCAR’s backyard as a platform to showcase their unique
style of four-wide racing. Running in the shadows of Lowe’s Motor
Speedway, the NHRA launched 32,000 horsepower down four lanes of
concrete drag strip; the rough equivalent of 43 stock cars rumbling two
wide towards the green flag on one of the most famous 1.5 mile circle
tracks.

In the final rounds of competition for the NHRA Pacific Division Lucas
Oil Drag Racing Series Jim Whitely and Sean Bellemeur took home wins
and the trophies this weekend at Auto Club Famoso Dragway.

Whiteley, Grand Junction, Colo., qualified No. 1 and recorded his
quickest pass of the weekend in his final round against Cody Perkins,
Bluffdale, Utah, with a 5.365 second run at 267.61 mph.  With the win,
Whiteley picks up valuable points in the race for the national
championship where he is in a battle with defending national champion
Bill Reichert.  Perkins qualified third and also ran his best elapsed
time of the event, 5.428, 261.17, but fell short to Whiteley.

Bellemeur out of Tustin, Calif., knocked off No. 1 qualifier Sean
O’Bannon, Ontario, Calif., in round one then went on to a final round
match up with former NHRA Pacific Division Champion Doug Gordon. 
Bellemeur, a former division champion himself posted a run of 5.790
seconds at 252.17 to hold off Gordon, Paso Robles, Calif. in an
extremely close race.  Gordon ran 5.797 at 252.03 mph.

In the final results from No Problem Raceway and the NHRA Lucas Oil
Drag Racing Series Cajun Sportsman Challenge it was Brandon Lewis and
Tony Bartone posting wins in Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny
Car.

The win gives Lewis the point’s lead in the NHRA South Central Division
over Malcolm Wahle who lost to David Brounkowski in round 2 setting up
the final between Lewis and Brounkoski.  Lewis ran strong all weekend
with a 5.358 second, 271.62 mph pass to Brounkowski’s tire smoking
7.507.

The event ran into the wee hours on Saturday night and into Sunday
morning but the NHRA North Central Division Summit Racing Series Finals
is in the books.  NHRA and track officials wanted to dodge the rain
that was forecast for all day Sunday.  Racers in four categories, Super
Pro, Pro, Sportsman and Motorcycle, representing tracks from across the
region took to the track vying for individual and team honors.

The squads from Milan Dragway in Michigan and Summit Motorsports Park
in Norwalk, Ohio, battled it out for the team championship and Team
Milan came away with the title, scoring a total of 54 points to
Summit’s 49.  The difference came in the all-Milan Dragway Super Pro
final which was round No. 9 for the class.  Summit Motorsports Park had
two final round appearances as well, in Pro and Motorcycle but Pro
eliminations were eight rounds and Motorcycle was six rounds.

Leading Milan Dragway to the team championship were Super Pro racers
David Hadyniak of Garden City, Mich., and Garry Fleenor of Port
Clinton, Ohio.  Hadyniak took the win and will have the chance to race
for a national championship at the NHRA Finals in Pomona, Calif., in
November.

Bruce Boland of Stoney Creek, Ontario, defeated Mark Nielsen of
Brantford, Ontario, in the final round to win his fourth PMRA Pro Modified
event of the season and captured his third consecutive Pro Modified
Racing Association Point Award Series Championship on Sunday.
 
The PMRA Challenge presented by Motorsport 1320 on the Cayuga Dragway
at Toronto Motorsports Park in Cayuga, Ontario was the sixth and the
final event of the 2009 season.
 
Boland ran a 6.121-second, 232.47-mph in his 1967 Chevy Nova SS in the
final to defeat Nielsen's 1968 Yenko Camaro who finished second in the
Championship Point Award Series.

Doug Herbert and the tiwi Top Fuel dragster shone at the NHRA Carolinas Nationals from their hometown track, zMAX Dragway in Concord,
N.C.  After his impressive, No. 5 qualifying effort Herbert drove
through the first round of eliminations before falling to Doug Foley in
the second.

“All in all we had a good weekend,” said Herbert, who was the only
driver in the top half of the field that isn’t in the Countdown to 1
playoffs.  “It’s disappointing to lose, but considering we haven’t run
in five months and we made it to the second round, I think we did
pretty well.”

Perth-based Chartered Accountant and Top Doorslammer drag racer, Robin
Judd, claimed his first major Australian title when he won the 44th annual Fuchs Australian Nationals at Western Sydney Dragway on Sunday, September 13 

In winning his first Australian National Drag Racing Association gold trophy, Judd broke a 10-year Nationals’ drought.

At previous Nationals, Judd was runner-up in the 2000 event, lost in
round one of eliminations three times and did not qualify three times.
The event has also been rained-out after qualifying three times.