Defending Southern Nationals event champion Ashley Force Hood retained her No. 1 qualifying position
heading into tomorrow’s eliminations. She made a solid final qualifying
run and for her efforts she gets 22-time event winner Del Worsham in
the first round.

When alerted about her first round opponent the 2009 NHRA O’Reilly Spring Nationals event winner was less than thrilled.

“I was all excited we got No. 1 and as I am coming into the press room
I find out I have Del Worsham in the first round. They have a great
team and he is a great driver. That is race day and you know you have
to take the hard guys and there are no easy guys in our field. Funny
Car is super competitive,” said Force Hood. “There is not going to be
an easy round all day. It is all going to come down to getting down
that track tomorrow.”

SNAKE RACING ROOKIE SPENCER MASSEY RACES TO FIRST CAREER NO. 1 QUALIFIER IN TOP FUEL

All three other No. 1's remain same from Friday: Force Hood in FC, Anderson in PS and Hines in PSM

Rookie
driver Spencer Massey was the only driver to supplant one of the
overnight qualifying leaders at the 29th annual Summit Racing NHRA
Southern Nationals when he raced to the top spot in Top Fuel on
Saturday.

The other provisional No. 1 qualifiers at the sixth of 24 races in the
NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series were Ashley Force Hood (Funny
Car), Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) and Andrew Hines (Pro Stock Motorcycle).

First-round pairings for professional eliminations Sunday for the
29th annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta
Dragway, the sixth of 24 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing
Series.  Pairings based on results in qualifying, which ended Saturday.
DNQs for each category listed after pairings.

Nearly 400 sportsman competitors from across the country have traveled
to Auto Club Dragway at Auto Club Speedway to compete at the JEGS NHRA
Pacific SPORTSnationals presented by K&N. The SPORTSnationals
series concentrates its attention on the Sportsman ranks, while
maintaining the importance and thrills of a National event. Featured
NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series categories include Comp Eliminator,
Super Stock, Stock, Super Comp, Super Gas, and Super Street. The
division’s Top Sportsman and Top Dragster classes along with Sportsman
Motorcycle presented by Harley Davidson will also run in conjunction
with the race.

Forget the fact that Friday’s weather conditions at the NHRA Summit Southern Nationals provided the optimum opportunity for the
Pro Stock Motorcycles, the real story for the Screamin’ Eagle
Harley-Davidson sponsored Andrew Hines driven machine was that the team
is getting up to speed on the newly introduced four-valves per cylinder
engine combination.

A 6.877 elapsed time at 195.03 miles per hour was enough to put the
former champion’s bike atop the 12-bike provisional field on Friday.

“The conditions were excellent and this was really, really nice for
Atlanta,” Hines said. “Last year here was really hot and humid and
really caught us off guard.”

Last race it was the hired gun. This weekend it could be the boss.

Morgan Lucas drove his way to the Top Fuel provisional No. 1 position
of the NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals with a 3.844
elapsed time at 308.21 miles per hour. If the run holds, it will mark
his third career No. 1 qualifier since 2005. One of his two previous
pole positions came at Atlanta Dragway in 2005.

Lucas’ effort follows up a No. 1 effort by teammate Shawn Langdon, two
weeks ago at the NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals in Las Vegas.

Greg Anderson spent much of his week leading up to the NHRA Southern Nationals 160 miles north of Commerce, Ga., testing in the motorsports hamlet of Concord, N.C.

There were lots of cars testing at zMax Dragway and it was as if the test session was a mini NHRA Pro Stock national event.

The conditions were identical in North Carolina to what he would
eventually encounter in Georgia just days later. Had you told the
multi-time champion that would be the case, he would have never
believed it.

Spend time racing long enough at Atlanta Dragway and perfect weather
conditions is something that likely will never come to mind.

Babe Ruth would have been jealous.

Just like the veteran long ball hitter, Ashley Force Hood called her shot and the end result was an upper deck shot.

The second generation nitro racer and defending NHRA Summit Southern
Nationals Funny Car champion heard her dad tell his crew chief Austin
Coil that he planned to run a 4.10 during the second session and he
landed atop the field with a 4.100.

“I was two pairs behind him in qualifying,” Force Hood recalled. “He
said, ‘let’s put a .10 on the board.’ He went out and did it.

Funny
Car driver Ashley Force Hood returned to Atlanta Dragway for the first
time since her historic win here a year ago and she picked up right
where she left off, earning the provisional No. 1 qualifying position
at the 29th annual Summit Racing NHRA Southern Nationals.

The other provisional No. 1 qualifiers at the sixth of 24 races in the
NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series were Morgan Lucas (Top Fuel),
Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) and Andrew Hines (Pro Stock Motorcycle).

A year ago in Atlanta, Force Hood became the first female in the
history of the NHRA Funny Car category to win a race when she defeated
her father, John Force, in the final round. Fast forward a year and
Force Hood is again best in class, posting a performance of 4.073
seconds at 310.05 mph in her Castrol GTX Ford Mustang to assume the
overnight lead. If her time holds through Saturday's two rounds of
qualifying, it will be her first No. 1 of 2009 and fourth of her career.

The IHRA’s 1999 Pro Stock world champion has an itch to go racing again.

Chris Holbrook has procured primary sponsorship from California Custom Cleaning Products to cover the parts overhead and travel costs to return. The team will compete using the former Chuck Demory operation.

The current plan is to debut next weekend at the IHRA’s Spring Nationals in Rockingham, N.C.