It's been nine months since GM Racing's contingent of NHRA racers began their
quest for the 2007 POWERade championship at the CarQuest Auto Parts
Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway. After 22 events and an exciting season in
which new national performance standards were established, the season has come
full circle and will come to a close this weekend at the 43rd annual Auto Club
of Southern California NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway. Still to be determined
in the Pro Stock category is who will leave the racetrack Sunday night as the
new champion, and three GM drivers, Team Chevy's Dave Connolly and Jeg Coughlin,
and Pontiac's Greg Anderson, will be pulling out all the stops in their quest to
win the 2007 title.
Greg Anderson is looking to join Bob Glidden (10),
Warren Johnson (6) and Lee Shepherd (4) as the only Pro Stock drivers to win
four or more NHRA Pro Stock titles. The 46-year-old driver of the Summit Racing
Pontiac has had another outstanding year behind the wheel of his DRCE3-powered
GTO capturing eight wins (Pomona, Gainesville, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Topeka,
Englishtown, Sonoma and Las Vegas 2), advancing to 12 final rounds, earning 11
No. 1 qualifying awards, setting low e.t. of the meet 10 times and top speed 15
times. At Sonoma (Calif.) he became the second quickest driver in the history of
the NHRA (behind Bob Glidden) to reach 50 career national-event victories. At
Gainesville (Fla.), Anderson's 6.536 second run set a national record for the
Pro Stock category, and ran his streak to five consecutive seasons in which the
Pontiac driver has established a new national e.t. mark.
Anderson's most
recent win at Las Vegas on Oct. 28, was the 180th all time in NHRA Pro Stock for
Pontiac, and the Summit Racing GTO driver has the most victories behind the
wheel of a Pontiac with 49. Anderson has six career victories at Auto Club
Raceway including three at the NHRA Winternationals (2004, 2006-07) and three at
the NHRA Finals (2003-04, 2006). Anderson has won the last three times the
series has competed at Pomona. He'll head to California in first place in the
standings with a 34 point lead over second-place Coughlin, and a 48 point lead
over third-place Connolly.