A month ago, the NHRA’s technical department added ten pounds to the
minimum weight for Buell Pro Stock Motorcycle teams. In successive
races, the Harley-Davidson and Suzuki teams rewrote the performance
standards. The Buell teams fell behind.

The NHRA made an adjustment earlier this week to restore parity.
Instead of removing the extra ten pounds from the Buells, the NHRA gave
back five pounds and nailed the Harley-Davidsons and Suzukis for a five
pound increase.

Wouldn’t it have been easier to remove the 10-pound adjustment to the
Buell teams to achieve the unified minimum weight? That’s the question
pondered by many in the class.

“I think they know they made a mistake,” said Matt Smith, the rider
cited for the Buell weight adjustment following his record-setting
performance in St. Louis. “They’ll probably never admit it. It hurt us
for a couple of races and luckily we have this new Countdown to the
Championship. Each race is not as critical as it used to be.”

Sunday's
final results from the Inaugural Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals
at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park. The race is the 11th of 23
in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series:

Greg Anderson was upset in the first round, and he also lost.

Erica Enders gained a first-round win light at Anderson’s expense when he was timed out on
the starting line. Immediately thereafter a serious discussion broke out
between Anderson’s
car owner Ken Black and NHRA Chief Starter Rick Stewart. Anderson’s wife Kim chimed in as well.

The cause of their ire was their driver’s disqualification after Enders
lit both the pre-stage and stage bulbs as Anderson
eased into the beams. He was rolling in to activate the second bulb when Enders
got the green and the multi-time champ went red.

A second heated discussion, this one between NHRA Senior Vice President,
Racing Operations Graham Light and Anderson, ensued, but no reprieve was
forthcoming, bringing one of the worst weekends of Anderson’s racing career to
a disappointing end. The top-runner from North Carolina
earned No. 1 qualifier honors at Norwalk,
but he only made it to the finish line under power one time all weekend.

“We all know as racers when a driver lights both bulbs that we are to
turn off the auto timer,” Anderson
said. “That eliminates the standard seven seconds so you don’t have to rush in.
There is too much that has got to happen to get in that quick.

Point standings (top 10) for NHRA professional categories following the
Inaugural Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Racing
Equipment Motorsports Park, the 11th of 23 events in the NHRA POWERade
Drag Racing Series -

Final round-by-round results from the
Inaugural Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Racing
Equipment Motorsports Park, the 11th of 23 events in the NHRA POWERade
Drag Racing Series:

HOMETOWN DRIVER CONNOLLY DRIVES TO WIN WHILE ASHLEY, SCHUMACHER, HINES EARN TITLES IN NORWALK

Funny Car racer Mike Ashley figured
out the perfect way to get over his streak of two DNQs in a row by
winning the inaugural Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals Sunday at
Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park.

Defending series Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher also erased a
downturn in his recent performances with a victory over current points
leader "Hot Rod" Fuller, while Dave Connolly and Andrew Hines won in
Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle, respectively.

TOP FRIDAY TIMES HOLD AS FIELD IS SET FOR INAUGURAL RACE IN NORWALK

Clear, sunny weather conditions in Northern Ohio kept elapsed times and
top speeds in check Saturday during the final day of professional
qualifying for the inaugural Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in
Norwalk, Ohio.
            
All four of Friday night's professional category leaders remained in
control of their respective categories, including Funny Car top gun
Robert Hight, the son-in-law of 14-time world champion John Force, who
posted a best of 4.713 at 313.73 mph.

Top Fuel's "Hot Rod" Fuller (4.533), Pro Stock's Greg Anderson (6.654),
and Pro Stock Motorcycle's Matt Smith (6.965) joined Hight on the low
qualifier's podium at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park.

The final episode of the
10-show, second season of American Dragster will air July 1st on ESPN2 11:30am
EST, 8:30am PST.
 
In this episode, drivers Tony Schumacher, Ron Capps,
Max Naylor and Erica Enders discuss why, given all the challenges and risk of
racing, they continue to pursue their sport.
 
During the O’Reilly NHRA
Summer Nationals in Topeka, they explain why they strap themselves into a
super-tuned racecar and rocket down the track and why any other job just
wouldn’t cut it.

K&N Engineering, Inc., will sponsor the K&N Horsepower
Challenge, a lucrative bonus event for Pro Stock
competitors.

The K&N Horsepower Challenge is a special race-within-a-race bonus
program for the top Pro Stock drivers in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing
Series. The $76,000 K&N Horsepower Challenge will move venues in
2008 and will be conducted at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park
in Norwalk, Ohio.  The race features a special elimination pairing with
the eight quickest Pro Stock drivers who have accumulated the most
points in qualifying during the 23-race Challenge series.

Drivers will begin earning 2008 K&N Horsepower Challenge points
beginning at this weekend’s event in Norwalk and will continue to
accumulate points through the race prior to next year’s Summit Racing
Equipment NHRA Nationals.

The winner of the K&N Horsepower Challenge will earn $50,000, and
the runner-up will earn $10,000. The two semifinalists will earn $3,000
each, while the four first-round finishers will receive $2,500 each.

Bob Daniels, one of the original seven NHRA division directors chosen
to organize national operations on a regional basis in November 1959
and a former general manager at O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis,
died June 30.

Daniels served as Division 3 director for 20 years, then spent 12 years
as general manager at the venerable Indianapolis facility, the home of
the U.S. Nationals since 1961 and then known as Indianapolis Raceway
Park. Daniels' many contributions to the sport include the
establishment of prominent dragstrips in the North Central United
States and significant advancements and renovations at ORP.

Like most of the early NHRA officials, Daniels' interest in hot rodding
began with street racing, but after several encounters with local law
enforcement, he saw the long-term advantages of organized drag racing
on off-road sites and concentrated all of his energies and resources in
promoting the growth of NHRA. He built his first serious race car, a
'32 Ford with a setback engine, center-point steering, a chopped top,
and a '55 Chevy 265-cid engine that was bored out to 292 cubic inches,
in the winter of 1956-57. He competed with that car, in C/Altered, at
the '57 Nationals in Oklahoma and was so impressed that he made a trip
to California to see what hot rodding was all about out west.