NHRA’s 2nd of 2 scheduled 4-Wide racing events went down at fabulous zMax Dragway in NC last weekend….
Shawn Langdon picked up his first Funny Car win at the 10th annual NGK Spark Plugs NHRA Four-Wide Nationals to become only the second driver in history to win in both the Top Fuel and Funny Car categories at zMAX Dragway. He is the 17th driver in NHRA history to secure victories in both categories.

Steve Torrence (Top Fuel) and Andrew Hines (Pro Stock Motorcycle) were also victors in their respective NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series categories.

Langdon clinched his first Funny Car victory when he powered his Global Electronics Technology Toyota Camry Funny Car to an impressive run of 4.125-seconds at 305.08 mph. Langdon also secured his first Top Fuel victory at zMAX Dragway in 2012. He faced a final quadrant of Robert Hight, John Force and Matt Hagan. Hight finished as the runner up in the category.

Shawn Langdon – who won in Top Fuel x14 – earned his first career FC title.

“There’s so many things that I’ve gone through to get to this point,” said Langdon. “The reason I’m here is because of the people I’ve been surrounded by. They’re the ones who picked me to drive the car and I’ve been so fortunate to get to drive for a legend like Connie Kalitta. Working with a guy like that, and then working with a guy like J.R. (Todd) who’s a teammate and champion, very talented. I bounce ideas off of him all the time. And then working with Nicky Boninfante who’s worked with some of the greatest drivers out here and to bring Del Worsham in, that has been a big key factor. Working with these guys has really elevated my game.”

Reigning world champion Torrence piloted his Capco Contractors Top Fuel dragster to the winner’s circle for the first time this season with his pass of 3.778 at 323.19 taking out Leah Pritchett, Clay Millican and Terry McMillen. Millican came in second. Torrence is the sixth different winner in Top Fuel this season.

Reigning world champion Steve Torrence – scored in Top Fuel

“Richard Hogan (crew chief) and Bobby Lagana (assistant crew chief) and every one of those Capco boys, they just instill confidence in you,” said Torrence. “I hadn’t been driving with the most confidence. Maybe I was driving on the defense instead of on the offense. I changed my mindset and just went out there and did what I know how to do instead of thinking about it. In Vegas at the Four-Wide I got up there and let my mind get in front of my foot. We’ve had a lot of success here at zMAX. I really like this place.”

In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Hines won with his run of 6.831 at 198.17 on his Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson Street Rod to pick up his 50th career victory and is the first rider in NHRA history to make it to this milestone. He faced teammate Eddie Krawiec, Hector Arana Jr. and Ryan Oehler in the final round. Krawiec was the runner up in the category.

Andrew Hines stood tall in Pro Stock Motorcycle.

“The day went pretty good. It got hotter and hotter which made it tougher and tougher,” said Hines. “Our crew is pretty good at persevering in different weather conditions and we had to do that all weekend long. Not one of those days was similar to the other.”

The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series travels to Atlanta next week for the Arby’s NHRA Southern Nationals May 3-5 for the seventh race of the 2019 season.

Pro Mod winner – Mike Janis

Mike Janis, the reigning world champion in the E3 Spark Plugs NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series presented by J&A Service, nabbed his first victory of the season during the NGK Spark Plugs NHRA Four-Wide Nationals event portion which was presented by SMP Racing.

Janis landed in the winner’s circle at zMAX Dragway with his run of 5.799-seconds at 248.52 mph. He got the final win light of the day facing a fierce quadrant of Erica Enders, Rickie Smith and Steve Jackson. Smith came in second in this highly competitive category.

For more detail on the Pro Mod class event potion link to our VP Racing Fuels Pro Mod Portals subsection coverage : HERE (Coming soon)

Ominous Pro Stock Presence!

NHRA’s ongoing and fan welcomed experiment with Mountain Motor Pro Stock class cars continued at this event. It was the first time in history that this type of race car (800+ CID) have run in competition on a 4-Wide basis.

For the first time in history – Mountain Motor Pro Stockers raced “4-Wide”. The winner was Chris Powers (below)

The event was very well attended with 16 teams coming in to show their support for the budding NHRA concept.

Pennsylvania’s Chris Powers emerged victorious racing his 2014 model Chevy Camaro. In the 3rd and final event quad he prevailed with a winning 6.417 secs at 220.48 mph which defeated runner-up Todd Hoerner’s quicker 6.373 secs at 223.36 mph.

Powers had qualified with #2 with a 6.244 secs.

The event’s quickest car was another Camaro raced by Pacific Northwest based racer JR Carr which set low ET and top speed while qualifying #1 at 6.240 secs and 227.77 mph.

*The added attraction eliminator did include three Canadian based Pro Stock teams — all from Ontario — included Larry O’Brien (Windsor), with Jeff Dobbins driving, John Konigshofer (Otterville) and Tony Pontieri (Bolton).

(* DragRaceCanada will post additional details on that participation from north of the 49th — in a separate post – coming soon).

All Ford Final

NHRA’s 2nd Sam-Tech (School of Automotive Machinists) Factory Stock Showdown event of the season featured an all Ford Mustang championship round where Indiana’s Bill Skillman raced past Pro Stock driver Bo Butner for the title.

Skillman moved first and won by a 7.940 secs 174.10 mph to 7.953 secs 175.91 mph margin — to earn what was his first NHRA national event title.

Bill Skillman won the 2nd Sam-Tech (School of Automotive Machinists) Factory Stock Showdown event of 2019

Skillman’s machine had qualified #1 with a 7.822 secs (low ET) and he beat Leah Pritchett, Scott Libersher and David Barton in previous competition.

The FS/XX class completion featured stout participation again with 30 cars entered and who together produced another all 7-secs field with a bump spot being 7.973 secs.

The Lucas Oil Lowdown

NHRA’s backbone Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series produced a couple of fresh faces as well as international winners in victory lane – with Canada’s Tyler Scott and Norway’s Julie Nataas prevailing.

Tyler Scott (Exeter ON) won the TAFC crown racing for legendary “Kardiac Kids” team owner Larry Dobbs (Welland ON), when he beat Colorado’s Annie Whiteley in the final round. Tyler won that match rather handily scoring a winning 5.705 secs at 252.28 mph time slip.

Tyler Scott (from Exeter Ontario) won his first NHRA national event!

(*Editor’s Note: To view additional details on Tyler’s win clickHERE)

Nataas prevailed racing her injected nitro car (which is owned/tuned by Randy Meyer) when she defeated Duane Shields in the final round. Julie scored at 5.268 secs 277.49 mph compared to Shields’ 5.339 secs 277.20 mph.

Skilled young lady driver Julie Nataas earned her first win in TAD class racing.

Also winning within the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series eliminators were: Jim Kimbrough (Comp), Monty Bogan (Super Stock) Drew Skillman (Stock), Jonathan Anderson (Super Comp 8.90) and Joe Harper (Super Gas 9.90).

Racing his B/DA Jim Kimbrough won in Competition eliminator.

Monty Bogan Jr., won in Super Stock with his great looking Camaro

Drew Skillman roared to victory in Stock with his supercharged Mustang

In the Top Sportsman presented by RacingRVs.com category, Jerry Albert ran a 6.732 secs 205.19 mph to defeat Chuck Harris in an all Chevy Camaro final round.

Jerry Albert won in the RacingRVs.com TS category.

Posted with files by NHRA Communications and Bruce Biegler
Photos by Bruce Biegler & Steve Embling

To view DragRaceCanada’s event photos from this race – link to our LMLCMedia gallery site presentation : HERE