Las Vegas Ladies Night Out!

“Girl power” reigned supreme when Alexis DeJoria (Funny Car) and Erica Enders-Stevens (Pro Stock) raced to victories last weekend during  the Summit Racing.com  NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway….

Tony Schumacher (Top Fuel) also was a winner at the fourth event on the 2014 Mello Yello Drag Racing Series schedule.

It was the second time that two female drivers have earned victories at the same NHRA event. In 2012, Courtney Force and Enders-Stevens made history as the first pair of females to win the same race at Pacific Raceways near Seattle.

Alexis DeJoria won her 2nd event of 2014 with a convincing win at Las Vegas last weekend.

Coming into her third full-time season in Funny Car, DeJoria had only appeared in one career final. The 2014 season has changed the fortunes for her Patron XO Cafe Toyota Camry team as she outpaced Robert Hight with a 4.026-second pass at 309.98 mph. It’s the second win of her career following her breakthrough victory in Phoenix earlier this season, coincidentally also over Hight.

FC winner Alexis DeJoria

“This was definitely a grudge match [with Hight] coming off our win in Phoenix,” DeJoria said. “I was just in shock when we won there. It was gratifying and intense. Today my team gave me a good car and got me down the track first. I really appreciate them so much and all they give up to help this team go racing.”

DeJoria defeated Matt Hagan, Tony Pedregon and Cruz Pedregon to reach her first final in Las Vegas, the home headquarters of her primary sponsor.

“It was a good day at the office, especially with the Patron Spirits company located right here in Las Vegas,” DeJoria said.

Hight, appearing in his third final to start the season, piloted his Auto Club ford Mustang to the final with victories over Jeff Arend, Paul Lee and Ron Capps. Hight’s second round win over Lee was especially surprising. Many had expected Hight and 16-time Funny Car world champ John Force to face off but Force was ousted by Lee.

DeJoria departs Las Vegas third in points and holds the most wins so far during the season. Despite losing in the final, Hight takes over the points lead.

Enders-Stevens had a successful weekend in Las Vegas, sweeping the K&N Horsepower Challenge and taking today’s Pro Stock title. After defeating Dave Connolly to win $50,000 on Saturday, Enders-Stevens took out Larry Morgan, Steve Kent, Chris McGaha and Jason Line to secure her seventh career victory at the controls of her Elite Motorsports Chevy Camaro.

After struggling to find sponsorship and only being able to race a partial schedule last season, Enders-Stevens is thankful for the opportunity that team owner Richard Freeman presented her for 2014.

Fan favourite racer Erica Enders-Stevens won two major Pro Stock titles during her most successful weekend of racing yet.

“I have a different mindset,” Enders-Stevens of her new attitude this year. “It goes back to the people [I’m around] – for the first time since I raced with my family as a kid, and then in the sportsman ranks, I’m having fun again. As a driver, it adds a lot of pressure when you have the fastest car, but I like that.”

With that win, she became the third winningest female driver in a pro class behind only Angelle Sampey and Shirley Muldowney. She leaves Las Vegas as the Pro Stock points leader, becoming the first female in history to lead the point standings in the factory hot rod category.

“It certainly is very important to us, it keeps us going on this 24-race schedule,” said Enders-Stevens, who earned $100,000 during the weekend which also includes a $25,000 Sweep Bonus from NHRA.  “This is storybook. We’ve gone a few years without sponsorship; there were definitely more lows than highs. It would have been easy to quit. This is definitely a highlight. Next to winning a championship, this is probably the coolest thing in the world.”

Line was going for his second victory of the 2014 season and second at Las Vegas. The driver of the Summit Racing Equipment Chevy Camaro defeated Deric Kramer, Dave Connolly and teammate Jimmy Alund en route to the final.

In Top Fuel, Schumacher snapped a 15-race winless drought by beating points leader Doug Kalitta with a performance of 3.797 at 326.16 in his U.S. Army dragster. It was Schumacher’s 73rd career victory and his eighth at Las Vegas.

“The final round was fantastic, I could hear him the whole way,” said Schumacher, who was racing in his 126th career Top Fuel final. “It was important for us to get this win. There’s a lot of pressure early in the season to get a win and get into the Shootout for a chance to race for $100,000. I love the pressure. We’re a high-pressure, adversity kind of team.”

Schumacher advanced to the final with early round wins over Troy Buff, Spencer Massey and Antron Brown.

Tony Schumacher’s win in Top Fuel was his 2nd straight Summit Racing.com Nationals event title.

“I’m not angry that we hadn’t won in a long time,” Schumacher said. “I was disappointed, but I understand that you have to make leaps and bounds. Kalitta is running great, Antron (Brown) is running good, the Alan Johnson [Al-Anabi] cars are going to be bad to the bone pretty soon. We have to keep forcing the issue.”

Kalitta has had the best start to the season in Top Fuel and continued that by reaching his third final of the year. With the win in Gainesville and the two runner-up finishes at Pomona and Las Vegas, Kalitta increased his points lead over Brown to 73 points.

Up A Cool $50G!

Erica Enders-Stevens raced to victory during the K&N Horsepower Challenge for Pro Stock cars which closed action on Saturday.

Enders-Stevens entered the K&N Horsepower Challenge field as an alternate for the sidelined Mike Edwards but took full advantage and beat fan-vote winner Dave Connolly in the final with a performance of 6.646 seconds at 208.39 mph to pocket a $50,000 paycheck. The No. 3 seed was runner-up to Allen Johnson at last season’s bonus event, but she piloted her Elite Motorsports Chevy Camaro to her first win in the K&N Horsepower Challenge, becoming the first female winner of the special bonus race.

The Elite Motorsports Chevy owned by Rick Jones was the class of the field in Pro Stock at Las Vegas

“We’ve had a great hot rod all year and it really came together for us two weeks ago in Gainesville,” said Enders-Stevens. “We set the national record but lost in the final round on a holeshot, so it was great to give something back to my guys.”

The final with Connolly pitted Enders-Stevens against her former crew chief, a matchup that both wanted to take for bragging rights. The Houston native brushed it off, mentioning that it was her job to focus only on her lane and run.

“Part of being a professional athlete is having to put personal things aside for business, and it is a true challenge and something I work hard on,” she said. “It’s about me getting up on the wheel and the guys putting a great race car underneath me to get from Point A to Point B.  

The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series continues April 11-13 with the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway near Charlotte, N.C.

Event Essentials:   Summit Racing.com Nationals (March 28-30th, 2014)

The Lucas Oil Lowdown!

Peter Biondo took home not one trophy but two scoring the rare NHRA National event double this weekend at the Summit Racing.com NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway while Joey Severance and Nick Januik grabbed wins in Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car.

Biondo, Mespeth, N.Y., first faced off with Andrew Durham in the Super Stock final taking the starting line advantage and holding on for his 47^th national event win in 9.862 seconds at 133.96 mph to Durham’s 9.638, 135.82 in his ’11 Challenger.  He then came back to meet up with Ryan Mangus, Rialto, Calif., in Stock Eliminator taking the hole shot again with a .013 second reaction time, and was near perfect at the strip posting a 10.672 second lap on his 10.67 dial giving him the win and the double up.  This was the second time Biondo has doubled up, having done so at National Trail Raceway, Columbus, Ohio, in 2005.

Lucas Oil Sportsman racing stalwart Peter Biondo won two titles – Super Stock & Stock

Severance, out of Woodburn, Ore., qualified No. 1 with a 5.280 second lap and ran 5.30’s on his way to the final round  where he posted the quickest run of the event at 5.269 seconds, 269.78 mph to defeat Johnny Ahten.  Ahten qualified No. 5 at 5.340 but slowed in the final to a 5.588, 259.91.

In just his 5^th NHRA national event appearance, local runner Januik, ran consistent 5.60’s all weekend to capture his first ever national event win.  The Las Vegas racer, posted a 5.629 to beat Clint Thompson in the semifinals then went 5.631 at 256.65 to defeat multi-national event winner Jay Payne, Claremont, Calf., in the Top Alcohol Funny Car final.

Nick Januik, competing in just his 5th race — scored a major upset title in TAFC

Lou Ficco Jr., Wheat Ridge, Colo., held on for the win in Comp Eliminator, ending Clint Sallee’s day in 7.008 seconds at 195.17 mph.  The win was number six for Ficco.

Steve Williams, Beaumont, Calif., and Trevor Larson, Starbuck, Minn., joined in on the winner’s circle celebration taking the wins and the trophies in Super Comp and Super Gas respectively.  Williams beat out Sheldon Gecker in a double breakout for his seventh national event win while Larson went .009 on the tree on his way to his second national event win in his ’08 Corvette in defeating Steve Parsons, Ridgcrest, Calif.

Pacific Northwest powerhouse Joey Severance successfully defended his Summit Racing.com Nationals TAD crown

Posted with files from NHRA Communications, Eric Lotz & Bruce Biegler

Photos courtesy of Gary Nastase & NHRA + DRC Files