NHRA points leaders Robert Hight and Steve Torrence enhance margins with big wins in America’s Heartland…
Hight locked in his 49th career victory and his 4th of the season at the race that started it all for him 25 years ago – the Menards NHRA Heartland Nationals, held at Heartland Motorsports Park in Kansas.
He defeated Jack Beckman with a final round run of 3.895 at 330.88 in his Auto Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro SS for his fourth victory of the season.
“I think that was the second time this year we’ve qualified in the bottom half of the field,” Hight said. “We just had bad luck. We didn’t miss it or do anything wrong, we just simply had bad luck every run. Finally, we get it together for Q4 and have low E.T. of the session and then low E.T. every session on race day. Once you get going with this team, you just start rolling.”
Hight raced Shawn Langdon, defending world champion J.R. Todd and Tommy Johnson Jr. before entering his 77th career final round. Beckman defeated teammate Matt Hagan, Tim Wilkerson and John Force en route to his second final round of the season.
Top Fuel “white hot” racer Steve Torrence raced to his fifth consecutive race victory when he faced his father, Billy Torrence, in the final round.
The defending world champion’s Capco Contractors dragster clocked a final round run of 3.750-seconds at 326.16 mph to defeat Billy Torrence’s 3.768 at 326.00 mph.
Steve Torrence was the No. 1 qualifier, secured his first event victory at Heartland Motorsports Park and the 32nd of his career.
“There are no losers or winners today,” S. Torrence stated. “My dad has given me the opportunity to do anything and everything I’ve wanted to do in life and to be able to come out here and race with him as a family and to do this its pretty unbelievable. My mom, my dad and all of those Capco boys are great guys but we’re going to go home to Capco and brag a little bit, but I don’t know what the race was. I saw him right beside me when we shut it off. So, it was an unbelievable day. This is probably one of the most special ones ever.”
S. Torrence faced Terry Totten and Antron Brown before entering the finals. B. Torrence defeated Lex Joon, Richie Crampton and Austin Prock.
The Mello Yello Drag Racing series continues to NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals June 14-16 at Bristol Dragway in Bristol, Tenn.
Pro Mod Cars – Mix it Up!
NHRA’s 6th E3 Spark Plugs Pro Modified Series race of the season was a head knocking affair that included a number of incidents.
North Carolina’s Steve “Fast” Jackson claimed his second victory of the season racing his potent Bahrain 1 Racing Chevy Camaro when a final round pass of 5.747-seconds at 251.72 mph defeated Clint Satterfield’s pass of 5.933 at 251.58 in his turbocharged car.
It marked the sixth career E3 Spark Plugs NHRA Pro Mod victory and second at the facility for Jackson, who qualified No. 1 and also earned round wins over Michael Biehele II, Erica Enders and Sidnei Frigo.
For additional details on Pro Mod class car racing from Topeka visit our VP Racing Fuels Pro Mod Portal subsection : HERE (Coming soon)
The Lucas Oil Lowdown
Canadian “left coast” powerhouse racer Shawn Cowie was very dominating while winning in the Top Alcohol Dragster class division at Topeka.
The driver of the Norm Grimes-tuned Mundies Towing-sponsored car (from Surrey BC) was pretty much unstoppable this weekend while winning.
Shawn racked up his 3rd consecutive event win at Topeka, and the 15th national event score of his career, when he easily topped a tire-spinning Troy Coughlin Jr in the final round – recording a 5.213 secs at 279.15 mph — which was low ET and top speed of the meet.
California’s Sean Bellemeur, NHRA’s defending World Champion for Lucas Oil TAFC racing, was equally dominate in that category — winning for the 2nd time this season in the Bartone Brothers Chevy Camaro. Bellemeur also unloaded low ET of the event in the championship final as his 5.446 secs at 269.29 mph easily covered opponent Jay Payne.
The Topeka race also featured for the 4th time this season competition in the Sam Tech Automotive School of Machinists Factory Stock Showdown class.
Louisana’s Stephen Bell – who finished 2nd in championship points last year — earned his first score of 2019 when he defeated Arthur Kohn in an all Chevy COPO final round.
Bell streaked to a sensational 7.908 secs in the trophy round which was low ET of the event — Kohn ran a losing 7.951 secs.
Bell, who qualified #12 for the 16-car field ambushed Drew Skillman, Joseph Welch and Bo Butner in earlier rounds of competition,
Race 4/8 for FS/XX cars this season featured 23 entries and a bump spot of 8.162 secs.
Lucas Oil Drag Racing series racing also features wins by Bruno Massel in Competition eliminator and Gene Mosbek’s Mopar in Super Stock. Others winners included Chris Chaney (Stock), Kyle Fickler (Super Comp), Shawn Carter (Super Gas) and Trevor Larson (Super Street).
Defending series champion Tii Tharpe rolled to victory in the Top Fuel Harley category defeating 7 other opponents,
Tharpe (from North Carolina) earned his 8th career win in that class when his final round 6.313 secs at 227.38 mph beat Bob Malloy who had an engine explosion. Tharpe beat Jay Turner and Beau Layne in earlier competition.
Posted with files by NHRA Communications and Bruce Biegler
Photos courtesy of NHRA – Auto Imagery & by Bruce Biegler