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.