NHRA’s 39th version of the Lucas Oil Super Nationals is marred by tragedy when veteran and popular Funny Car driver Scott Kalitta is fatally injured during the 4th and final qualifying round on Saturday. Kalitta’s DHL-sponsored Toyota burst into flames at the finish line and then continued at very high speed off the end of the drag strip making extremely hard impact. Kalitta was pronounced a short time later and the rest of Saturday’s racing schedule was cancelled.

With very heavy hearts, NHRA drag racers however bonded together on Sunday and moved forward to complete and dedicate the event to the memory of Scott Kalitta.

Illinois driver Tim Wilkerson padded his overall NHRA POWERade points lead when he recorded his 3rd win of the season in 4 final round appearances. Wilkerson, driving his Levi-Ray-Shoup Chevy Impala, denied for the 2nd time this season a final round bid from rookie JFR team driver Mike Neff. In the final Wilkerson moved first and then held off Neff’s Old Spice-sponsored Ford Mustang; 4.877 secs 319.29 mph to 4.883 secs 316.75 mph.

Wilkerson had beaten Bob Tasca, Gary Densham and Del Worsham in earlier rounds of competition.

Independent Ohio-based driver Jim Head was the event’s surprise low qualifier running his Toyota Solara to a low ET of the meet 4.803 secs during time trials. Head was upset by Densham in round one however.

Tony Schumacher also padded his overall POWERade points margin in Top Fuel winning his 5th event of the season driving the U.S. Army dragster. Schumacher’s win at E-Town was however not the dominating performance he usually wins with – instead his driving was the difference.

Schumacher used a holeshot start in the final round to beat Brandon Bernstein’s quicker 4.562 secs with a 4.589 secs effort. Tony had also used a holeshot in the semi final round while beating Cory McClenathan, 4.615 secs to Cory’s quicker 4.594 secs.

Antron Brown collected low ET of the meet with a 4.502 secs run while his David Powers Racing teammate Rod Fuller set top speed at 328.46 mph.

Top Fuel eliminations on Sunday were run with only 13 cars at the grid after the Kalitta Racing team (for obvious reasons) pulled the cars driven by Doug Kalitta, David Grubnic and Hillary Will out of competition.

NHRA Jegs Pro Mod Challenge put on a fierce fight at Englishtown with Texan Josh Hernandez emerging victorious. Hernandez and his Dr. Moon’s Rage team saved their best effort of the weekend for the final round as they sped to low ET of the meet at 5.983 secs at 240.51 mph which dominated a tire-shaking Mike Castellana.

Hernandez’s 9th career NHRA Jegs PM win included some great consistency has he carved out 3 consecutive low 6.0s during eliminations while topping Tommy Gray, Tim Tindle and points leader Tony Pontieri.

Castellana’s R/UP finish included the quickest nitrous-injected Pro Mod run in NHRA history a 6.048 secs at 239.65 mph which came in the semi finals. That run is 2nd only to Pat Stoken’s 6.022 which came on the IHRA trail late last May.

The event’s Pro Stock titles went to Greg Anderson and Chip Ellis.

Anderson, driving his Summit Racing Pontiac GXP moved into 2nd place in POWERade points when he won for the 3rd time in 2008. Both he and opponent Dave Connolly shook the tires hard in the final – however only Anderson was able to recover to complete the run.

Anderson’s win came from the pole (low ET 6.599 secs) and included round wins over Johnny Gray, Larry Morgan and Mike Edwards.

Chip Ellis earned his first win as a rider for Don Schumacher Racing, wheeling his Suzuki TL1000 to victory, defeating recent Joliet winner Chris Rivas in the final round.

Ellis recorded a winning 7.040 secs while Rivas went .014 red. Chris Rivas has qualified #1 with a 6.923 secs (low ET) while Ellis set top speed of the meet at 192.88 mph.

The event’s Professional racing program was round out by great action in the Top Alcohol class categories which featured a win by a wily veteran and also a promising newcomer.

Frank Manzo wheeled his Lucas Oil sponsored Chevy Monte Carlo to yet another dominating victory in TAFC – the 76th (and counting) of his career. Manzo ran a final round 5.600 at 259.81 mph to turn away Mickey Ferro. In typical fashion, Manzo’s event victory also included both low ET and top speed for the category – 5.532 secs and 263.87 mph.

TAD racing produced the first career win for rookie female racer Diana Harker who scored driving her injected nitro car. Harker, from Australia, denied popular local New Jersey-based racer Dave DeAngelis victory lane when she recorded a 5.578 secs at 251.95 mph. DeAngelis unfortunately had a blower belt sheer which knocked off a coil wire and ended his bid.

DeAngelis, driver of the Cantrell Brothers owned NitroMoose.ca dragster was the quickest supercharged TAD at the event with a 5.458 secs. His runner-up finish was his second in a row at the NHRA Super Nationals event.

Low ET and top speed in TAD went to the nitro-injected car driven by John Finke who sped to a 5.258 secs and a career best 280.47 mph.