EVENT ESSENTIALS:  NHRA Summit Racing Nationals – June 23-26^th, 2011  — Norwalk Ohio   

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Runaway Rookie Shines Again!

Rookie sensation Vincent Nobile earned his 2^nd Pro Stock victory of the season during NHRA’s Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals held at Norwalk, Ohio.  Mike Neff (Funny Car) raced to his third win and Del Worsham and Eddie Krawiec also won in their respective categories during the rain marred event.  

Nobile held off a hot-charging Larry Morgan to collect the huge win in Pro Stock. Nobile drove his Mountain View Tires Dodge Avenger, which features a motor program by Allen and Roy Johnson, to a 6.615 at 208.26 mph to collect the win and move up to 3^rd place point standing.

Vincent Nobile won again in Pro Stock....Can you say Rookie of the Year?

“This is seriously a nonstop dream, and I’m waiting until I wake up from it, but it’s still going,” said Nobile. “We’re just going to take it one race at a time. Yes, we’re doing very well, but it’s still real early in the season. I believe there’s still six more races until the Countdown actually begins, so we’re just going to take it one step at a time and hopefully get a few more wins before the Countdown starts.”

Neff drove his Castrol GTX Ford Mustang to a 4.211-second run at 289.94 mph past Ron Capps in the final round to collect his third win of the season and fourth career win. It was also Neff’s fifth final-round appearance in the past six races.

“I feel fortunate to get another win,” Neff said. “I can’t thank my team enough. My car had been getting real fast in the right lane, chopping the tire pretty good at about 80 feet. It got worse in the second round. I lost lane choice to Cruz (Pedregon) in the semi’s, and I thought, ‘Good, because I would have taken the left lane anyway.’ It’s one of those things where you can look real stupid picking the left lane in the final, because everyone was winning out of the right.”

Neff kept the points lead with his win, while runner-up finisher Capps moved up from ninth to sixth in the point standings.

In Top Fuel, after collecting the No. 1 qualifier on Saturday, Worsham powered his Al-Anabi dragster to his fourth win of the season. Worsham posted an impressive time of 3.905 at 298.14 past runner-up Spencer Massey to collect his 29th career win.

Del Worsham won for the 4th time this season in Top Fuel

“It’s pretty amazing to go to five final rounds in the first 10 races and win four,” said Worsham. “It’s the kind of season that anybody would dream of, and it’s amazing to get it in my 21st season of racing. I have pretty high expectations, and I expect this team to compete for a championship, but I thought we’d get rolling and have to get things ironed out before we got in our groove. It shows what kind of team Sheik Khalid (Al-Thani), Alan Johnson, Brian Husen, and Jason McCulloch put together. I’m a lucky passenger in this car.”

The win kept Worsham in the No. 1 spot in the point standings while runner-up Massey strengthened his second spot in the standings with his third final round appearance in four races.

In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Krawiec held off Matt Smith in the final round to get the win. Krawiec drove his Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson to a 7.077 run at 187.81 to get his second win of the season and ninth of his career.

“It’s awesome to be back in the No. 1 spot,” said Krawiec, who moved into the points lead with the win. “I want it. I’m not going to exaggerate. I want to hold that No. 1 spot all year long. My goal coming into this season was to see if and hope that Wally had 15 brothers. I’ve got two of them so far, and I’m just going to continue doing what I’ve been doing and just try and improve on my riding itself, and hopefully, more wins will come.”

Anderson Collects 4th K&N Horsepower Challenge

Summit Racing driver Greg Anderson added yet another accomplishment to his impressive racing resume during Saturday’s event schedule successfully defending his title at the K&N Horsepower Challenge.

The K&N Pro Stock final went to Anderson (far lane) over Edwards

Starting from the fourth position, Anderson defeated Ron Krisher and Erica Enders in the opening rounds before squaring off against Mike Edwards in a replay of last year’s championship round. 

Although Edwards was able to gain the advantage at the start, Anderson was able to run him down, using a 6.587-second, 209.17 mph pass to eclipse his rival’s 6.632-second, 208.65 mph effort.  It was Anderson’s fourth win in Pro Stock’s annual specialty race, tying him with Kurt Johnson for the most in the event’s 27-year history, and earning him a $50,000 payday.

“Last year we came into this race struggling a little bit and didn’t have a great hot rod, but we ended up winning the K&N Horsepower Challenge which turned our season around,” said Anderson.  “It really wasn’t that different this year, because we’ve been fighting with the tune up on my race car.

Castellana Clobbers Pro Mod Program 

New York’s Mike Castellana roared to his second win of the season during the Get Screened America Pro Mod Series event that took place during the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals on Sunday.  In the finals he was pitted against No. 1 qualifier, Canadian Danny Rowe, who was in his third consecutive event final round.

Driving his nitrous injected Camaro, Castellana had a .066 reaction time to a .073 for Rowe and used that to his advantage while posting a rather lop sided win; 5.869 seconds at 243.24 miles per hour to the losing effort of Rowe’s at 5.960 seconds at 244.78 mile per hour.

"Iron Mike" Castellana scored again in Pro Mod

“Iron Mike” had defeated Chuck Cheeseman, Jay Payne and series newcomer Rickie Jones while advancing to the championship final round in the Al-Anabi-sponsored machine.

Runner-up Rowe set low ET of the event at 5.863 secs while qualifying #1 while North Carolina’s Chip King roared to a sensational 253.28 mph driving his fast-improving turbocharged Dodge Daytona for top speed of the meet.

Khalid Balooshi, who was defeated in the second round, retains the series points lead by 23 points over Rowe.  With the win Castellana now holds down the fifth place position in the points.

The Get Screened America Pro Mod Series now takes it’s mid-season break as the circuit cars do not return to action until the 57th annual Mac Tools U. S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis on Aug. 31 – Sept. 5th.

Photos by:  Dave DeAngelis & Steve Embling

View our Summit Racing Nationals event Photo Gallery:  HERE